Authors: Ekaterine Nikas
She
nodded.
"I pray that it is
so!" she said, crossing herself.
"And you, you are still in danger?"
I
shrugged.
"I shouldn't
be.
I've got two guards out there
keeping an eye me."
"Don't
worry.
Today I will go to St.
Spiridon and light a candle for you.
St. Spiridon, he will watch.
He will keep you safe."
And with that reassurance she reached up and patted my cheek and turned
and walked out the door.
An
hour later, fortified by her cooking and wearing a dress which showed off my
bandaged arm and made me look (I hoped) quite pathetic, I set out to see
Lieutenant Mavros.
As
I stepped out of the hotel, someone called my name, and I turned to see Robert
Humphreys striding toward me.
Before he could get too close, however, my two bodyguards stepped
forward to block his way.
"What
the devil --"
"It's
all right," I called to the two men.
"He's a friend."
The burlier of the two policemen, Officer Pappas, cast a dubious look at
the tall Englishman and reluctantly moved aside.
His companion, whose name was Koulos, slowly followed suit.
"Christine,
what is all this?"
"Don't
worry, they're policemen.
They've
been assigned to protect me and make sure I don't stray too far."
He
nodded.
"I see.
Well, I’m glad to see Mavros has some
sense.
I’ve been worried sick
about you since I heard about the shooting the other night and Helen’s murder.
I hurried to
Ithaki
when I
learned the news, but you had disappeared and Skouras wouldn’t tell me anything
about where you were.”
There was
an edge to his voice, and his imperturbable face was showing some strain.
“It’s a relief to see you safe and
sound, though I wish I could say the same about Michael.”
I
reached out and squeezed his arm, frustrated I was not free to relieve his mind
about Michael’s safety.
“Did you
have any luck with the orderly?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
He
shook his head.
“No, I learned
nothing new.
How about you and
your policeman?”
Feeling
a wave of guilt, I lied, “He wasn’t any help either.”
Robert
cast a look back at my two police guards.
"Are you sure you ought to be going out?
My confidence in the Lieutenant's ability to deal with this
situation diminishes by the hour, and if you’re in danger, I don’t think those
two are going to offer much protection."
He cast a disparaging look at the men, dismissing their
wrinkled clothes and unkempt hair with a frown.
"Actually,
I don’t really have a choice.
I'm
on my way to see the Lieutenant now -- at his request"
"Then
I think I’ll accompany you, if you don’t mind."
"No,
that would be great," I said, relieved.
"I need all the moral support I can get."
Lieutenant
Mavros was not pleased to see Robert at my side as we entered his office.
For a moment I thought he was going to
insist on grilling me alone, but apparently he wasn't anxious to alienate the
well-to-do lawyer.
He merely said
coldly, "I am relieved, Miss Stewart, to find that you are not lying dead
in a ditch somewhere, as I had begun to believe after you gave my man the slip
yesterday and disappeared."
"Lieutenant,"
I said, all injured innocence.
"I'm sorry if I worried you, but surely you don't think I
intentionally
eluded one of your officers?"
The
blue eyes flashed.
"Did you
or did you not slip out of the Museum of Oriental Art to avoid the man I'd
assigned to keep watch on you?"
"I
did slip out of the museum, but not to avoid your man.
I didn't know your man was there.
How could I?
You never told me I was going to be followed."
"Why,
then, did you leave?"
"I
wasn't feeling well.
The shock of
Helen's death affected me more than I realized.
I started feeling a little dizzy, so I went outside to get
some air."
"And
afterwards?" he demanded angrily.
"Afterwards?"
I repeated vaguely.
"I don't
know.
I guess I wandered around a
bit."
"Until
midnight?"
"I
had a lot on my mind.
A lot to
think about."
"And
during these long hours of aimless wanderings, you carried your luggage with
you?"
I
hesitated.
"Actually, I-uh
stashed it."
"Where?"
"In
the garden in back of the museum.
Behind some bushes."
"You
really expect me to believe this preposterous story?"
Robert
suddenly interrupted.
"How
much time do you intend to waste on this, Lieutenant?
I think Miss Stewart has given you a perfectly credible
account of yesterday's events.
Let's move on.
In case
you've forgotten, there's still the boy's disappearance to be resolved."
"I
have not forgotten, Mr. Humphreys.
It is merely that I have other matters which also must be dealt
with.
A murder, for instance, and
possibly another disappearance."
He turned back to me.
"You don't look surprised, Miss Stewart.
Perhaps you were already aware that Geoffrey Redfield is
missing?"
I
didn't answer.
Robert exclaimed
sharply, "What do you mean missing?
Has something happened to him?
Mavros
shrugged.
"Who can say?
He did not return to his hotel last
night, no one has heard from him, and he was last seen in the company of Miss
Stewart before she herself disappeared for eleven hours."
He turned to me, "Perhaps he
confided to you where he was going, or what he planned to do after he left
you?"
I
shook my head.
"No, but he
was worried about Michael.
Perhaps
he's out searching the island for him."
"Or
perhaps," replied the policeman, "he knows exactly where the boy
is."
Robert's
voice was coldly precise, "Am I to understand, Lieutenant, that you are
accusing Geoffrey Redfield of abducting his own nephew?"
The
Lieutenant's gaze never moved from my face.
"At the moment, Mr. Humphreys, I am merely discussing
possibilities."
"What
about Helen?" I asked, anxious to change the subject.
"Is there any progress in your
investigation of her murder?"
His
eyebrows rose, mocking my transparent maneuver.
"Some."
Our eyes locked, and we gazed at each other in silence.
Robert
exclaimed impatiently, "Well, man?
What have you found out?"
The
Lieutenant shrugged and shifted his attention to the lawyer.
"After she left
Ithaki
Wednesday morning, Helen went to stay with a sister who lives here in
town.
The sister says that when
Helen arrived she was upset and talked of leaving the island.
Later, Helen went for a walk, and when
she returned she seemed in better spirits.
That evening she told her sister she would be leaving the
island, but she would be leaving it a rich woman.
The sister tried to ask questions, but Helen wouldn’t answer
them.
Both women went to bed, and
by the time the sister woke in the morning Helen was gone."
"What
do you make of all that?" I asked.
"It’s
suggestive of several things," the Lieutenant said.
Robert
commented, "It sounds to me as if she was planning to blackmail someone.”
“Perhaps,”
Mavros replied.
“Maybe
while she was on that walk she saw or heard something incriminating,” I said.
Mavros
nodded.
“It is possible.
However, we are still left with the
question: why did she leave
Ithaki
in the first place?"
"From
what her sister's told you," I said, "it sounds as if she was afraid
of something."
"Perhaps
the news that Michael had disappeared unnerved her," Robert suggested.
"Or
perhaps," I said, "the news that someone else had
reappeared
did."
Suddenly
I had both men’s attention.
Mavros
went very still.
"Would you
care to be more specific, Miss Stewart?"
I
met his gaze squarely.
"Have
you forgotten, Lieutenant?
Helen
ran away from
Ithaki
the very same morning Spiro Skouras came back to
it."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"There's
something I've forgotten to tell you," I told Robert as we were leaving
the police station some twenty minutes later.
"I'd
say there were several things," he replied in a low voice, "but I
think we ought to postpone discussing them until we're out of earshot of your
two watchdogs."
"It's
nothing like that --" I began.
"Wait
until we're in the car," he said, taking my arm and steering me toward his
rented grey sedan.
As
he helped me into the passenger seat, the two policemen made as if to climb
into the back, but Robert put out a hand to stop them.
"I think you fellows can find your
own ride."
Shrugging,
the two policemen retreated to an old
beat-up Citroen.
Robert climbed in next to me and
started up the car.
We
pulled out and the Citroen followed.
We hadn’t gone far when Robert said, a hint of reproof in his voice,
"Why didn’t you tell me that Michael is with Geoffrey -- and safe?”
I
hesitated for a moment, hating to deceive him, but it wasn’t my secret to share.
“I’m sorry, Robert, you’ve got it
wrong.
I don’t know where Michael
is.”
He
turned his head to look at me.
“I'm sure Geoffrey took Michael because he wanted to protect him, but it
was a foolish thing to do.”
He
paused to hit the brakes as a small car darted in front of us.
“But
Robert, Geoffrey was there with the rest of us in the Lieutenant’s office the
morning after Michael disappeared,” I reminded him.
“If he really took Michael to keep him safe, would he have
left him alone somewhere unprotected?”
This
time Robert kept his eyes on the road, “A good argument as far as it goes,
Christine, but you’ve omitted one key point.
Geoffrey has disappeared.
He could well be with Michael now.”
His
expression grew grave.
“Christine,
even Mavros, inept as he is, can put two and two together to get four.
Geoffrey has to bring the boy back, and
he has to do it quickly.
If you
tell me where they are, I can bring Michael back to town and provide Geoffrey
some time to invent a plausible story for his absence.
If the boy can be persuaded to hold his
tongue, it's possible Mavros will accept the story that he simply ran
away."