Mrs Anderson opened the door to the cellar and called down to Richardson. ‘Tea or coffee?’

‘No thank you, Mrs. Anderson,’ came the reply, ‘I won't be long down here, I'm just finishing off my inspection; just want to ensure that everything is as it should be.’

Mrs Anderson leapt back from the open door as a fine red mist wafted up the stairs and seeped into the hallway.

‘Are you sure everything’s all right down there? I’d better get my husband because there’s some kind of red smoke coming into the hall.’

Richardson was quick to respond. ‘No need for that, it's all part of the inspection process, it's all quite harmless.’

‘Darling!’ called Mrs. Anderson, ‘I think you’d better come here and take a look.’

Doctor Anderson arrived by his wife's side. ‘Where the hell is the smoke coming from?’ he asked.

Doctor Anderson called to Richardson from the top of the stairs. ‘Mister Richardson, is everything alright down there? There’s smoke up here, some kind of red smoke seeping into the hallway.’

There was no response.

‘Hello? Did you hear me? Look, I'm coming down, as I think you may need some help.’

Mrs Anderson took hold of her husband's arm. ‘Don’t go down there on your own, Alistair. If something has happened to him it may happen to you too. He may have been overcome by the fumes.’

‘No, I have to take a look, Gwenda.’

Doctor Anderson began to descend the stairs. ‘Hello, Mister Richardson, are you okay?’

There was silence. When he reached the foot of the stairs, he looked around him but there was no sign of the engineer.

‘Is everything all right down there, darling?’ Shouted his wife. ‘I'm coming down.’

Mrs Anderson descended the stairs and joined her husband in the middle of the cellar. She stared at each of the walls in turn, while Doctor Anderson examined the area beyond the large gas boiler.

‘He must have finished up and left without either of us noticing,’ said Doctor Anderson.

‘That's not possible,’ his wife replied, ‘because I've been up there in the hallway all the time; he was talking to me from down here. Perhaps he's discovered some kind of door or another exit and gone through it, but I can’t see one, can you?’

Doctor Anderson noticed movement below the boiler; something on the ground moved. Probably a mouse he thought. The movement could not have been caused by Richardson. More movement, and then he spotted it. With its forked tongue flitting in and out of its curious triangular head, a black and yellow banded snake, the beady eyes of which were trained on his, slid gracefully from under the boiler.

‘Darling, get back!’ shouted Doctor Anderson. ‘Don't come any closer. Go upstairs, quickly, wake Archie and get out of the house; sit in the car.’

‘What is it? What’s happened?’ cried his wife.

Doctor Anderson took a few steps backwards and as he did so, the snake slithered across the cellar’s concrete floor. It was then that his wife spotted the snake and screamed.

‘Oh my God, no!’ she cried. ‘How did that get into our home?’

‘I’ve absolutely no idea, Gwenda, so please go upstairs. You’d better call the police because this snake is like nothing I've ever seen in this country. It's most likely venomous. They’ll know who to call to trap and remove it.’

After his wife left the cellar, Doctor Anderson walked backwards up the stairs and once in the carpeted hall, closed the cellar door and turned the key. A few minutes later there was a frantic knocking from behind the very door he’d just closed and locked.

‘Doctor Anderson, can you open the door please?’

‘Mr Richardson, I thought you’d gone?’

When the door was unlocked, Mister Richardson casually strolled out, still carrying his tool kit and clipboard.

Doctor Anderson took a step back and stared at him in disbelief. ‘Did you see it?’

‘See what, sir?’

‘The snake, black and yellow, about a metre in length. It wasn't an adder or grass snake. You must have seen it down there?’

Mr Richardson looked puzzled. ‘Doctor Anderson, I can assure you that if there had been a poisonous snake or any other kind of snake in the cellar I’d have been the first one out of there; I hate the creatures. Are you seriously telling me you saw a snake in the cellar?’

‘I was down there and I didn't see you. My wife came down just to ensure that I wasn't imagining it and that I hadn’t gone completely mad. Did you, at any time, venture out of the cellar? Did you find another exit perhaps because you sure as hell were not down there when we came to look?’

‘Listen, I will be making a return visit because there are one or two things I still have to check before I sign this building work off so I won't take up any more of your time this afternoon. I'm sure you're going to be very happy here, despite the snakes, of which there are plenty in the forest at the back.’

Doctor Anderson was quick to react. ‘I bet they’re nothing like the one we saw down there.’

‘Relax, Sir, I was teasing. There are very few snakes around here. May I be candid for a moment?’

‘Sure, go ahead.’

‘Perhaps the strain of moving and unpacking all these boxes has sharpened your imagination, but what I would suggest is that if there is something down there and you see it again then you really ought to report it.’