Read Through Dead Eyes for Free Online

father had moved on. A distant tram sounded its horn.
    ‘What did you mean about the mask earlier?’ said Alex. ‘What did you want to tell me?’
    Angelien cast a quick glance towards her mother and put her fingers to her lips.
    ‘Tomorrow,’ she said. ‘It’s too weird to talk about now. Too crazy . . .’
    She nodded her head towards their parents and headed after them with Alex in tow, wondering what she meant by ‘Too crazy’.
    ‘Here we are!’ announced Saskia. Alex’s father turned and raised his eyebrow slightly when he saw Angelien and Alex arm in arm.
    They were outside a brightly lit restaurant with a sign that had tropical leaves painted on it in gold. A blast of warm air full of strange aromas hit Alex’s face as he walked in. A waitress, small and dark skinned, dressed in black, smiled and came across to show them to a table.
    The contrast between the dark buildings outside and the restaurant interior was startling. It was warm and lit by fairy lights and small candles on the tables. There were potted plants everywhere. It felt as though they had been transported to the tropics.
    The conversation was a little strained at first, as everyone tried to avoid all mention of what had happened that afternoon.
    Saskia ordered a host of small dishes from the menu and when the food arrived Alex liked most of what he tried, though he found it hard to predict what flavour anything was going to have. Many of the flavours were ones he had never experienced before.
    Alex hadn’t realised how tired he had become after the flight and the meal helped to revive him. He wondered if tiredness was the source of his earlier jitters. It seemed a comforting explanation.
    ‘You seem to like the food, Alex,’ said Saskia with a wide smile.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Alex. ‘It’s delicious. Weird though.’
    Saskia laughed. Alex smiled back. She had a nice laugh.
    ‘So your teachers don’t mind you not being at school?’ asked Saskia, as the waitress poured her another glass of wine. ‘They don’t mind you missing lessons while you’re here?’
    Alex and his father exchanged a quick glance and Alex could see from the panic in his face that he thought Alex was going to tell them about the business with Molly Ryman, but why would he do that?
    ‘The head teacher gave him a special leave of absence,’ said his father, ‘provided that he writes an essay about his visit.’
    Saskia nodded and smiled.
    ‘What are you going to write about?’ asked Saskia.
    Alex shifted in his chair. He had given this no thought whatsoever.
    ‘Mother!’ said Angelien. ‘How can he know what he’s going to write about? He’s only been here a day.’
    ‘I just thought –’ began Saskia.
    ‘So, you’ve been studying the townhouses on our hotel’s stretch of the canal,’ said Alex’s father, turning to Angelien. ‘Have you learned anything about our hotel?’
    Alex noticed the look on Saskia’s face as she was interrupted. He’d seen that look on his mother’s face many times. His father just didn’t seem to listen sometimes.
    ‘A little, yes,’ said Angelien. ‘A lot actually. I may be using it as the centre of my study.’
    ‘Really?’ said Saskia. ‘You never told me that.’
    ‘You never asked,’ said Angelien with a shrug.
    ‘It was a merchant’s house in the 1650s,’ continued Angelien. ‘All the houses along there were merchant’s houses. They are very typical actually.’
    ‘Do you know who owned that particular one?’ asked Alex’s father. ‘The hotel?’
    ‘It was a man called Johannes Van Kampen. He was rich, staunchly Protestant. He made his money trading with the Dutch East India Company – with Japan mainly.’
    Alex’s father nodded and looked at Alex.
    ‘It’s amazing to think that old Van Kampen and his family were wandering around in our bedrooms three hundred and fifty years ago, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Alex.
    And it was amazing, he thought. The house had stood there for centuries