Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 35

"Breaking and entry."

The flight to Naples took a little over two hours giving me plenty of time to think of that kiss. What possessed me to do it I had no idea but when I tried to talk to Max, she simply shrugged a shoulder.

'It was just a kiss. It's not as if we've done anything wrong. If you had taken me to bed then I might have said something but you didn't so there's nothing to talk about is there?'

I sighed. Maybe she was right. It was just a kiss. A heat of the moment thing. It wasn't as if I would ever think of doing it again.

I shook my head in despair knowing that the more I was away from my family the more confused I was becoming.

We found the house on the outskirts of the city. It was on top of a very steep hill. It was a nice little corner plot overlooking two narrow streets and no one seemed to be about.

It was dusk by the time the taxi left us by the front door and the only sound after he had left came from a handful of crickets grinding their wings together in the undergrowth.

The air was humid adding to my unease. I watched Max walk up to the front door. My heart was pounding. Her repeated knocks echoed around a small front garden full of trees and bushes but there was no answer.

Max turned to me and raised an eyebrow. The path was lightly covered with a fine sprinkling of sand. It only had two sets of footprints both of which were our own. It seemed no one had been here in a while. A gate to our right was bolted and too tall to climb over but, for some unknown reason, down the adjoining road we found that the garage door had been left unlocked.

Max checked for prying eyes as I opened the door.

'You do know that this will be breaking and entering,' I hissed nervously.

'Well if it's my brother's house,' hissed back Max. 'It will be gainful repossession.'

Sweat trickled down the sides of my neck. The room was bathed in darkness. I waited until we were both inside before reaching out to find the light switch. It illuminated a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. It cast an eerie glow highlighting a single workbench against a wall and a floor covered in oil. A door at the far end presented us with a narrow stone staircase. Another bulb lit the way.

Never did I ever think I would be doing anything like this. In fact until now the most clandestine thing I had ever done  was to steal a bar of chocolate from our local candy store when I was nine years old and now here I was about to gain entry into someone else's house.

We held our breath listening for any sounds. There were none.  We began to climb the stairs slowly holding onto the cold limestone walls until we eventually came out into a small kitchen that had a window overlooking a ceramic sink.

Dust laid on every surface. I instinctively eased open the nearest drawer trying hard not to make a sound. It was full of cutlery. I chose a long carving knife just in case.

Max moved off into the hallway.

Not even my own house looked as tidy as this, the scene of such cleanliness cried out at odds with my impression of her hapless and disorganised sibling.

I found the living room. It had two single old fashioned arm chairs opposite each other over a deep brown wooden floor. A sheepskin rug laid by an electric fireplace. It was lifted in one corner. To my right there was a standard lamp. When in use it would no doubt shroud the room in a tranquil haze but it was to the mantelpiece that my focus turned to because there in the centre was a picture of Adam. It was taken when he was alongside another man, on holiday maybe and there was a mountain range in the background. Both seemed very happy together and both seemed very much at ease.