‘Welcome back.’
‘It’s good to be back. They couldn’t keep me away long.’
‘They…?’
‘The Cretan men of course.’
‘Have you managed to smuggle in any, and maybe one for me?’
‘Oh, Dora. You don’t need my help to find someone and you don’t need to use subversive means by abducting them either. But no, I didn’t manage to smuggle in any and not because I didn’t try. But unfortunately the package was confiscated at Customs. Which is the same with the sun I see. Crete was in the throes of a heat wave. It’s nice to have a bit of cloud for a change. Even if it’s only a day’s respite, I wouldn’t say no to it.’
‘I couldn’t agree more. Pity about the good weather, though. But more’s the pity about the men.’
Dora launched into her usual efficient updates and was picking up stuff from her desk ready to follow Katerina into her office. While Dora was talking Katerina studied her personal assistant.
She was a rare individual and, dare I say, indispensable assistant, the model of efficiency. Katerina loved Dora’s trademark no-nonsense approach. She was warm, but she did not suffer fools gladly. A woman after my own heart, she thought. Unless she was a very good actress, which after all this time working for her, Katerina knew couldn’t be true.
She knew Dora truly adored her and worshipped the ground she treaded on. After ten years of working for her, Dora was like a member of the family. Dora couldn’t help being very protective of her boss and very often acting more like another mother to her than a personal assistant.
Katerina knew that Dora would only leave her job there if she could no longer do it to her usual exceedingly high standards.
Dora was talking when she suddenly stopped, her mouth going dry, the rest of what she was about to say staying on her lips and flying from her mind. Vasilis had at that moment come through the door.
Now, Vasilis, though younger than Aristo by three years, had an uncanny resemblance to him. They were not identical, but their colouring, body shape and height were the same.
But it was their similar mannerisms and gestures and voice that sometimes made people do a double-take, as if seeing a ghost, wondering how a person could be at two places at the same time. That was of course the initial brief reaction, which did not last. They did have their own distinctive individuality after all.
Dora was aware that Aristo was missing in Crete. It was as if she had seen a ghost and she went as white as chalk to match a ghost’s bright colouring and shiny complexion. Katerina realised what had happened.
‘How…?’ Dora started to say, but even though her mouth was willing to form the words, her brain was not, as the rest of the sentence flew from her mind.
Katerina saw that Dora was about to faint and was immediately at her side grabbing her arm and pushing her gently down to her chair.
‘Dora, this is Vasilis, Aristo’s brother. Please, sit down. It’s alright. Take your time.’
Dora obeyed. Katerina brought her a glass of water and waited. Dora gulped the water down and then sat there staring at Katerina and Vasilis as if frozen. It took her a good few minutes to recover.
When Katerina and Vasilis saw the colour returning to her face and were confident that the shock had passed, Katerina walked into her office with Vasilis in tow.
As if on cue, Dora came in behind them with coffee and Katerina’s mail. It was as if nothing had happened.
Her face still a bit clouded, she looked at Katerina. ‘Katerina, sorry about that, but…’
Katerina smiled amused. ‘Sorry for what? It’s alright. I hadn’t realised before now how much alike they were. I must have got used to them and don’t notice it anymore.’
Dora nodded, still not trusting herself to speak. But she quickly recovered, becoming her usual consummate professional self. ‘Now, let me start all over again. Welcome back. It’s good to see you Mr Vasilis.’
‘Thanks, Dora.’ Katerina and Vasilis answered almost in unison, which caused all three of them to laugh.
When they all recovered from their bout of laughter, Dora turned to Katerina. ‘How was your holiday?’
‘It was short but good, thanks. And the weather was glorious, if a little on the hot side. I had a good much- needed rest.’ Katerina put on a bright and untroubled face. However, inside her worry for Aristo was causing mayhem.
‘You work too hard, boss. This is the first break you’ve had in a year.’
‘Anything happened while I were away?’
‘No, nothing. It’s been quite uneventful around here. Unless you count a fire next door a report-worthy event. Oh, but don’t worry, it was snuffed out in no time and very little damage was caused. But honestly, you haven’t missed any excitement. Anyway I’ll leave you to catch up with your emails.’
‘Thanks, Dora. I’ll see you later.’
Within seconds Dora was gone, closing the door softly behind her.
Katerina was going through her post when she noticed a postcard. She turned it over and her face told Vasilis that it was important. She could not speak. It was from her brother, Giorgos. Vasilis got up and went to stand behind Katerina.
They both stared at the postcard and its short message. Katerina spoke first.
‘It looks like a normal postcard you would send while on holiday.’
‘And yet something about it is not quite right, but I’m struggling to put my finger on it.’ Vasilis said.
‘He must be trying to tell us something. Judging by what we saw at his home he must be in some sort of danger and he must be sending us a message.’
Vasilis was trying to drag a memory of something that seemed long ago now. Katerina turned the postcard over again to look at the front photograph. And then it struck her. It was the oddity of that photograph. She realised what was bothering her.
‘Don’t you find it odd that someone on holiday outside Cyprus would send a postcard with the photograph of Limassol Castle?’
‘You are right. Yes. Of course. Unless he had taken the postcard with him and posted it from there.’
Katerina shook her head. ‘But that would not make any sense.’
‘Alternatively, he may have sent it from Cyprus before he left, in case he forgot when he got there. That’s assuming he has left Cyprus. But then you are right. It seems unlikely that his house was ransacked after he had left. If as we suspect the blood there is his, though not certain without analysis, then he must have been taken away, after putting up some resistance, judging by the signs of a furious fight there.’
Katerina said nothing, but was shaking her head as if she was trying to work something out that didn’t fit. She looked at the postcard again. She focused on the postmark.
She then had an idea and tapped on the postcard with her forefinger.
‘Look at the postmark, though. It’s a Turkish one. And the date on the postcard is yesterday’s. My mother said that he had left at around noon yesterday. He would have had to take a flight via Athens, as because of the political situation here there are no direct flights between Cyprus and Turkey. He would have landed at one of the big cities such as Istanbul or Izmir, old Smyrna, and he would then have had to take an internal flight. Would he have had time to post the postcard for it to arrive today?’
‘Could someone else have posted it for him on his instructions?’
‘I suppose it is possible but unlikely.’ Katerina paused and then became excited. ‘He must have discovered something. Elli had him working on the location of the tomb. He was researching it furiously. He had asked Katia, a member of the expedition in Cappadocia to come to Cyprus to help him.’ She paused. ‘By the way, what about her? I wonder whether she was involved in whatever happened at that house.
‘Do you think she may have been taken too, or could she be in hiding? Vasilis, I think we should try and see if we can find her. If she’s still around she may be able to give us a clue as to what they had found or what happened. Then again she may have gone into hiding, especially if she had seen something or what happened at the house or, just maybe, if she had not been able to contact Giorgos.’
‘You know it may be a long shot, but let’s put someone onto checking the hospitals just in case they come up with something.’ As he said that Vasilis was thinking the worse for both Giorgos and Katia. It was not just his practical mind talking.
There was something else troubling him, something related to Katia and hospitals that he could not remember, but had no doubt prompted him to mention checking hospitals. He was struggling to dredge the thought
