‘What’s this about? Some of us have got work to do.’
‘Aw, chill out, will you, Rosie?’ Jannet said, looking up from his phone.
‘Was she always like this?’ Mavros asked. ‘I mean when you were kids.’
There was silence while people exchanged surprised looks.
‘Well, lookee here,’ the director said, his eyes narrowing. ‘We’ve got ourselves a dick who knows how to dig.’
Mavros wondered if that was a reference to what he had put Oskar Mesner and Roufos’s skinhead through last night. It seemed unlikely as even Waggoner hadn’t seemed to know about it.
‘You and Rosie are brother and sister?’ Cara said, in astonishment.
The producer directed an icy glare at her. ‘Something wrong with that?’
‘Well, yes, actually,’ the actress replied. ‘Like why you’ve kept it secret.’
Jannet looked at his sister. ‘Any reason why we shouldn’t? That is, any reason we have to share personal stuff with you?’
‘It’s weird,’ Cara said.
‘Like everything else in the movie business isn’t?’ the director returned.
‘It’s more than weird,’ Mavros said. ‘What they’ve also failed to mention is that their father, Eugene Tzannetakis, came from the notorious drug-producing village of Kornaria and that he was jailed for drug trafficking in the States.’
‘Kornaria?’ the actress said. ‘That’s where Maria was held, isn’t it?’ She moved towards Jannet. ‘What have you done to her, you animal?’ she demanded, her voice rising.
‘Whoah.’ The director raised his arms. ‘I haven’t done anything to that bitch.’
Cara kicked him on the shin. Given that she was wearing pointed boots, he must have been in pain, but his face didn’t show it.
‘Sit down,’ Rosie said, with authority. ‘And calm down as well.’
Mavros took Cara back to her place at the end of the sofa. ‘Leave this to me,’ he said quietly. He went back to centre of the room. ‘Let’s be clear about this, Mr Jannet,’ he said formally. ‘When you hired me, did you or your sister know where Maria Kondos was?’
The siblings exchanged glances.
‘No,’ they said, in unison. The effect was reasonably convincing.
‘OK,’ Mavros continued. ‘Are either of you involved in the drugs business?’
Again, they looked at each other.
‘Not exactly,’ Jannet said.
‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘Cool it, man,’ the director said, with a wry smile. ‘Here’s how it is. Yes, our old man was sent down for trafficking. That’s one reason why I changed my name — as well as the fact that no fucker could pronounce the full version.’ He looked around but received only stony stares. ‘Anyway, when we came to Crete, we decided to keep away from the village in case any weasel journalist picked up a scent.’
‘If you’re not involved in anything illegal, why would that have been a problem?’ Mavros asked.
‘Now your naivety is showing like a pole dancer’s tits,’ Jannet said. ‘You any idea how hard it is to raise money for pictures these days, especially ones with foreign locations? Tell him, Rosie.’
The producer nodded. ‘Everything in Hollywood is about surface appearance, from Cara’s pretty face and beautiful. . chest, to the people with the money. As long as investors can say to their shareholders that everything looks all right, we can do business.’
‘Obviously you knew that Maria Kondos’s father was a mobster,’ Mavros said, glancing at Cara.
‘What?’ she shrieked. ‘What the fuck is going on here?’
‘Michael “the Bat” Kondoyannis,’ Jannet said. ‘He’s some piece of work. I heard he had a snitch sliced up in front of the guy’s wife and kids. They never went to the cops.’
Cara was staring at him, her eyes damp. ‘I don’t understand any of this,’ she said, with a sob. ‘Are you saying Maria’s some kind of criminal?’
‘Oh yeah,’ the director confirmed.
‘We weren’t sure what she was doing,’ Rosie Yellenberg put in, ‘but in the first week here we saw her with a man we later discovered was the mayor of Kornaria. Then she disappeared.’
Mavros held up a hand. ‘Hang on. If she was tied to the village, maybe as her father’s representative, why was she held captive there? And where is she now?’
‘Fucked if I know,’ the director said. ‘You still on the job or what?’
Mavros walked over to him and let the knife handle appear between the flaps of his shirt. ‘I told you at the beginning that I’ve never failed to find a missing person and I don’t plan on letting you screw up that record. Why didn’t you tell me all this upfront?’
Luke Jannet smiled. ‘Would you have come running, even at that fee? Anyway, you managed to get her back the first time.’
‘At the risk of her life and my friend’s here, let alone my own. Before I try again, is there anything else you’d like to tell me?’
The director looked at his sister.
‘Let me make one thing crystal clear,’ Cara Parks interjected. ‘You can forget about me working until Maria’s back.
Rosie Yellenberg rolled her eyes. ‘Mr Mavros, you see the urgency of the situation. The only other thing I know is that Maria has a cousin living in Galatsi. Naturally, we checked she wasn’t there before calling you in.’
‘And have you checked again this time?’
‘No. That’s your job.’
‘You don’t really want her back, do you?’ he said, stepping towards the producer. ‘Except Cara’s made that impossible for you now.’
‘I don’t know what Maria’s doing, but if she’s involved with the drugs trade, she could screw this project into the ground,’ Rosie said.
‘Give me the cousin’s name and address,’ Mavros said, taking the piece of paper she scribbled on. ‘All right, Miki, let’s get out of here. The stink of bullshit is really getting to me.’
Cara came with them to the door. ‘I can’t believe this,’ she said.
‘I know those unlikely siblings are holding out on us,’ Mavros told her. ‘Don’t believe anything until further notice.’
‘Except that you’ll find her, won’t you, Alex?’ Cara put her hand on his arm.
‘I’ll find her,’ he repeated.
She kissed him on the cheek, not far from his lips.
Mikis got them to Galatsi in a few minutes. The cousin, Yiota Prevelaki, lived on the main street, a short distance from the square, in which there was a marble statue of an ancient goddess cradling a dead soldier in her arms.
‘There was a hell of a battle during the war,’ Mikis said.
‘I know. My father was here.’
The Cretan almost drove into a tree. ‘What?’
‘He was in EAM. He tried to convince the locals not to take part in the charge.’ Mavros told him what else he had found out about Kanellos.
‘Good for him. Dozens of them were killed.’ Mikis glanced at Mavros before he drove on. ‘Those Hollywood assholes aren’t the only people who’ve been keeping secrets.’
‘Sorry, I’ve been struggling to come to terms with it. You see, I didn’t know anything about what he did in Crete until a few days ago, and then there were Waggoner’s lies.’
‘Yes, that must be tough.’ Mikis stopped outside a small but neatly maintained house, the garden out front full of flowers. ‘Uh-oh.’
Mavros followed his gaze. There was a wheelchair lying on its side at the bottom of the steps that led to the terrace around the house.
