True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1) by A.J. Carella Page A

him. It was about the size of an envelope and about 4 inches deep. The lid was intricately carved into a design depicting a crown. The box wasn’t locked and he gently lifted the lid. It was filled with letters, and lifting out the first one, he started to read.
    At first the doorbell didn’t register as he sat staring into space the letter still clutched in his hand. It rang again and this time the shrill tone pierced the fog in his brain. Folding the letter quickly he put it back in the box and the box in the drawer, pushing it closed and checking that it was once again invisible to the naked eye.
    Sarah was the last person he was expecting as he opened the front door and she didn’t give him chance to speak as she pushed past him and into the house.
    “So this is where you’re hiding,” she said angrily as she turned to face him. “Care to explain why you’re ignoring my calls?”
    He ignored her question. “How did you know I was here?”
    She waved him off. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re clearly avoiding me. How could you? Now of all times?”
    Michael sighed. “I just needed a bit of time, to be on my own.” He turned and went into the kitchen knowing that she would follow. “Coffee?”
    “Coffee? Really?”
    He was getting cross now. She wasn’t his wife, he didn’t owe her any explanations. “Look, I told you I needed a bit of time. I was going to let you know where I was. What’s so urgent that you had to follow me up here?”
    Sarah had put her laptop on the kitchen table. “I asked a friend for help and we found something.” She lifted the lid of the computer and started hitting keys. “You didn’t believe me when I said something weird was going on but I was right and now I can prove it to you.”
    Michael knew he had no choice. All he could hope was that if he humoured her, she wouldn’t stay too long. His mind was on the box in the desk and his fingers were itching to get back to it.
    “Okay, show me.” He placed two steaming cups of coffee on the kitchen table and pulled a chair up next to her.
    His coffee went cold as Sarah showed him the website they’d found during the night. “And these are definitely the same women that were supposedly killed in these accidents?”
    “See for yourself.” She brought up images of the supposedly dead women on the screen and Michael could see that there was no doubt.
    “What’s that thing flashing in the top right corner?” He pointed to an area of the screen where a little orange box was flashing.
    “No idea, let’s see.” Pointing the mouse at the flashing box Sarah clicked. Time seemed to stand still then as they both tried to understand what their eyes were showing them. Sarah was the first to react, sending her chair crashing to the floor as she stood, barely making it the kitchen sink before she threw up.
    “It can’t be…” He wanted to look away but he couldn’t seem to drag his eyes from the screen. “This has got to be some kind of sick joke.”
    Sarah came back to her seat, wiping her mouth with a paper towel. “This wasn’t here yesterday Michael, it must have been uploaded in the past few hours.”
    Michael stared at the image of his wife on the screen. She looked different; her hair was a new colour and not washed she was thinner, but he would recognise her anywhere. She was sat on a bed in a dark room with what looked like dirt walls. “You know what this means don’t you? Oh my God, you were right, she’s still alive!” He stood up and grabbed his phone switching it on the press of a button.
    “What you doing?”
    “Would you think I’m doing? I’m calling the police.”
    “Michael, no.” Sarah snatched the phone out of his hands. “You can’t.”
    “What? Of course I can. In case you didn’t see, that’s my wife on that screen−your sister− we need to tell the police.” He tried to reach for his phone but Sarah stepped out of reach.
    “Michael, just listen for a minute. If we