when he heard Katerina speaking and came back to the present.
‘Yes. That’s a good idea. Giorgos must have found something. He must have known that he was being followed and wanted to make sure whatever information he had discovered was imparted to us and did not fall into the wrong hands, in case anything happened to him. Yet when I last spoke to him he didn’t show any sign of concern and did not mention anything. Something must have happened since I last spoke to him.’ She paused. ‘Or maybe something had happened already before I spoke to him or even since, and he didn’t want to worry me.’
‘Katerina, I saw him two days ago.’
‘You did? But how? Why didn’t you tell me this before?’
‘Katerina, it was only an hour ago that we were at Giorgos’ home and what we saw there got the ball rolling for all this speculation. It’s only now that I realised the significance of that night.’
‘Vasilis, please. Tell me what happened.’
‘He and Katia, through their research, found clues leading to Limassol Castle. They were investigating there when they found something, this small bust.’ As he spoke he took the bust out of his pocket. ‘Giorgos said that Katia took it when they decided to call it a day and walked back to her car. He followed her out a while later. He heard a scream and when he went to her car she was barely alive and the bust was gone.’
Seeing Katerina’s shocked expression, he rushed to reassure her. ‘Yes, he said he had called for an ambulance to take her away. She’s probably still at the hospital. You can’t have gone through that and be out in two days.’
‘Vasilis, where did you see him?’
‘Yes, I’m coming to that. Giorgos realised he was being followed and went to his friend Maria’s house. It was there that I saw him. He had called me to ask me to go there and help him get rid of his pursuer.’
He saw her face go white and rushed to explain. ‘Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. His pursuer had caught up with him at Maria’s house. By the time I got there he was no longer a threat. He had been neutralised with Maria’s help and I just arranged for him to be taken away. Giorgos had found the bust taken from Katia in his pursuer’s pocket.’
‘What happened afterwards? Where did Giorgos go?’ Katerina wanted answers and she wanted them now.
‘I left soon after my men had taken away the pursuer. I was in a hurry, because I had left a board meeting to go and help him and I had to get back, which I did of course only when I was certain that there was no further danger, at least there anyway. I would have thought he would probably have gone home or, now that I think about it, if he thought that home might not have been safe, I don’t know where he might have gone.
‘But then whose is the blood at his house if not his? He must have gone home and they must have been still watching him, and followed him and got him and the bust as well. Otherwise we would have seen it there. That’s what they must have been looking for.’
Katerina had her priorities right.
‘We need to check up on Katia. We need to make sure that she’s alright and that she’s receiving the best medical care. I may have to arrange to have her moved to a private clinic at our expense. And we need to talk to her about what she and Giorgos have found out. Let’s hope she’s in a fit state to talk, and doctor’s orders permitting of course.’ She paused.
‘All their research was most probably at Giorgos’ house. And if it was, then I’m sure it’s all gone. They must have taken it. That’s why the laptop and my brother’s hard drive are missing. But knowing my brother, he must have had an insurance policy. He must have taken precautions.
‘He must have had backed up the files in his laptop and hard drive. And not at his house or the office. It must be some place where they would not even think to look, a safe place.’ She was thinking furiously. She turned to Vasilis. ‘Vasilis? You look as if you are miles away. Have you heard anything of what I just said?’
‘Yes, I have.’ He looked up at her, but not really seeing her, actually seeing right through her.
Katerina pressed him. ‘What is it?’
Vasilis thought back to that strange night and then it struck him. ‘There was something else. I believe that Giorgos may have found something significant. He tried to tell me. I forgot about it until now, but he started to say something when the men I had sent for to come and get their pursuer arrived and distracted us. And then it all got forgotten. Otherwise I would have reminded him and asked him about it.
‘The intruder was a Ruinand and his chums must have been the ones at Giorgos’ house looking for the small bust and his research. I would bet that Giorgos is in the Ruinands’ protective custody. And I know you are thinking it, but I believe…’
‘Don’t say it.’ Katerina cut Vasilis off. She was afraid the worst for her brother, even though she didn’t want to accept it could happen.
‘… he’s still alive. He’s much too useful to them. They should be pumping him for information as we speak.’ Vasilis saw Katerina’s expression soften, but the relief did not last long as her expression tightened again. A worrying thought crossed her mind.
‘If he’s hiding and we were searching for him we could be putting him in further danger, especially if this is part of some plan of his to throw them off the scent.’
‘It is possible.’ As Vasilis looked at Katerina he saw determination overriding emotion. When she spoke it was her common sense coming to the fore.
‘Then again, how could he be in any worse danger than he already is, that we all are, considering what happened in Crete as well?’
‘You never did tell me the whole story of what happened to you there.’
‘I told your mum. I’ll tell you some other time. There has just been too much to cope with. Anyway, the ‘hiding’ option is beginning to look more unlikely with every passing minute.’ Katerina thumbed the postcard and looked at Vasilis.
‘This postcard was his back-up plan, his plan B. We have to figure it out. It should give us all the clues we need to pick up from where Giorgos left off. I know this is what he meant for us to do and not waste precious time looking for him. We’ll worry about him later.
‘Besides we don’t know where to start and we should not be diverted from the main issue of resolving this mystery and bringing it to a successful conclusion in our side’s favour. This should be our main objective. This is bigger than any one of us even though where loved ones are involved we may want to do otherwise. By solving the mystery we help him by honouring and continuing what he has done so far too.’
Vasilis knew it was hard for Katerina to find the courage to say what she just said and he saw the sense in her words. He joined her in studying the postcard.
They looked at the back of the postcard, but again nothing jumped out at them from the text. Suddenly Katerina seemed to have thought of something and she examined the front photograph again.
‘Vasilis, take a look at this.’
With her finger she indicated some text in very small, almost illegible characters at the top right-hand corner, almost lost in the foliage in the photo. She opened a drawer and took out a magnifying glass. She could see characters that did not make any sense to her whatsoever.
Yet, there was something at the back of her mind that made her feel as if she had seen those characters before. Then she remembered.
‘Vasilis, you won’t believe me, but I know how to read this.’
‘What do you mean you can read this? How?’
‘It’s a code, an alphabet we made up with Giorgos when we were kids. We have rarely used it in years.’
‘And you remember it?’
‘I do.’ She paused. ‘To tell you the truth I don’t remember it by heart, but that’s what a key to a code is for.’ She pushed a button under her desk and part of the floor next to her desk rose, revealing a safe. She opened it and, after a brief search, found what she was looking for.
Vasilis was curious and leaned down to have a look at this code. It was one of the most complicated codes he had seen in his life. These kids should have been taken off the market and given jobs in cryptography departments of the secret services or the software industry.
Katerina had already deciphered the message. She only needed a quick look at the key to the code and her near-photographic memory did the rest. Of course it was like learning to ride a bike. You never forgot. Seeing the key to the code it triggered that part of her brain that had it stored and could do it with her eyes closed, so to
