Anna handed Katerina a small package and then ran back to the kitchen. Katerina unwrapped the package. It was a small box. She opened it. Inside was a key with a number on it.
Knowing her brother and his love for his clandestine ways and tricks because of his natural suspicion, she checked the wrapping and the ribbon for any clue or message, but there was none.
Her eye then caught a tiny flash of white on the inside of the round handle of the key. She tried to feel it carefully. It felt like leather. She managed to remove it and unfurl it. On it was one word: ‘Gym’.
Katerina raised her voice so that her mum would hear her. ‘Mum, which gym does Giorgos go to?’
There was silence, only broken by the distant noise of the extractor in the kitchen and the crickets outside whose din seemed to be rising in intensity and volume with every passing minute. Katerina waited. She knew her mother was trying to remember.
‘It’s the Antillos Gym on Karageorgis street. He took me there once when I expressed an interest in losing weight. It was my first and last visit, sadly.’
‘Thanks, mum. We have to go. See you later.’
Anna knew her daughter would not be late for dinner that night, so she did not say it.
Katerina turned to Vasilis and whispered. ‘He seems to have done a bit of legwork in the last two days since you saw him.’ Vasilis nodded and smiled.
They offered rushed final goodbyes and they were off. First stop was the gym. Katerina spoke with the owner who briefly flirted with her and was extremely forthcoming and helpful once she introduced herself.
She said that her brother had asked her to get something from his locker and she showed the key to the owner. He nodded and led her to the locker area. The owner left them alone and went back to the main area of the gym. He had been giving a personal training session to a guy who obviously did not need it.
Katerina put the key in the lock and it fitted perfectly. She turned it and yanked open the door. She was amazed. She would never have thought her brother so tidy.
The locker was immaculate. It was not in a suitable condition to hide something in, but maybe she was wrong and the surprise at the order reigning inside would deter a potential thief. She chuckled to herself at that preposterous thought.
She checked the contents of the locker carefully without putting anything out of place. And, lo and behold, it was staring her in the face. She had almost missed it.
There, next to a tube of toothpaste was what looked like a small pipe, but which on closer inspection, when she picked it up, proved to be a parchment-like material. It was a scroll. She unrolled it carefully and was dazzled by the characters and diagrams on it.
Vasilis was speechless too. They both thought back to the plans and geological scans and Giorgos’ notes and realised the scroll’s significance. Vasilis was astonished.
‘So this must be what he so eagerly tried to tell me about. Damn. I wish I had known that night.’
‘Why? What would you have done?’
‘I would have stayed with him and I would have provided protection. I wouldn’t have let him out of my sight. I know. Don’t say it. I should have done it anyway. But I was in such a hurry to get back to my meeting that, as the immediate danger had passed, I stupidly and rashly assumed that there was nothing left to do there. Damn.’
‘Don’t blame yourself. You did a lot and you are doing more now with me. We are going to figure this out together, for Giorgos. And then we’ll try and find him. Although, now that I think of it, if we are successful and the Ruinands will surely find out if we are, my brother will have outlived his usefulness and you know what that would mean. We need to get in touch with Elli. She could help us locate him. Let’s get out of here.’
‘OK, let’s.’
In the car on their way to the castle with only half an hour to spare to closing time Katerina’s mobile started ringing.
‘Hello?’
‘Katerina?’ It was her mother and she had been crying. Her voice was hoarse and she was blowing her nose.
‘Mum, what is it?’
‘On the news…’ sniff, blowing of nose, tears… ‘… your brother…’
‘Mum, you are not making any sense.’ As she spoke she knew what her mother was going to tell her. ‘What about Giorgos?’
‘It’s just been on the news. They said they have information he’s disappeared.’
‘What? But how? How could they know that?’ She looked at Vasilis who was driving. They were almost at the castle. He glanced quickly in her direction and met her eyes and then brought his attention back to the road.
‘Darling, do you know anything about this?’
‘No, I don’t. Mum, is dad with you?’
‘Yes, he’s here. Do you want to speak to him?’
‘Yes, please.’ She waited while Anna put Andros on the phone.
‘Hi, love. I gathered you hadn’t heard.’
‘No. Dad, stay with mum. I can’t come right now. I am at this moment in the car with Vasilis at the other end of the city. We have to do something. I’ll call Elli Symitzis. She may be able to do something about tracking down Giorgos.’
‘That’s a good idea. You do that.’
And dad… I’ll try and get there earlier than planned tonight. OK?’
‘OK, love. Take care. See you later.’ He almost hung up when he remembered something and he, quickly, called into the mouthpiece, hoping that Katerina was still on the line. ‘Katerina?’
‘Yes?’
‘You don’t know what he’s been working on, do you?’
‘I do. But I can’t tell you about it now.’
‘So you are involved too… in this thing?’
‘Yes, and where we are going now has to do with that, but I can’t tell you more.’ She wanted to say that they were completing Giorgos’ work and that what they were doing could either save or most likely condemn Giorgos to his fate, but things were bad enough already and she didn’t want to pile more misery onto her parents.
‘I understand.’ He wanted to say to his daughter to be careful, but he saw there was no point. It was something important she had to do. He would not show that he was worried either. ‘Let me know if I can help.’
‘I will. And dad… be careful who you allow into the house, just in case. Are you alone with mum there?’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t open the door unless you know who it is.’
Andros wanted to ask “is it that bad?” but again refrained from doing so.
‘Katerina, just do what you have to do. I can see you are in a hurry, so I’ll let you go. See you later.’
‘Thanks, dad. See you later.’
As soon as she hung up she turned on the radio. The news update was coming up.
“We have unconfirmed reports that Giorgos Markantaskis, the well known archaeologist, and son of the businessman Andros Markantaskis, recently the head of an archaeological expedition in Cappadocia in Turkey, is missing. It is believed that he was taken from his home sometime during the night.
“We have no information as to the reasons of his disappearance. Sources in the local police tell us that an inspection of his house and forensic evidence taken from the scene could indicate that he may have been forcibly taken after having put up a fight. We will bring you more on this story as it develops during our bulletins every fifteen minutes.”
Katerina could not believe what she just heard. ‘That’s quite a lot of accurate information. How could they have known all that? I wonder who’s feeding them the information. We’ve just found out. How could the police have been involved already?’
‘It’s a set up. A trap.’
‘But with so much attention on this now, won’t it make it more difficult for them and easier for Giorgos to be found?’ She answered her own question. ‘No, of course not. It’s deliberate. It must be. They are counting on stirring as much fuss about this as they can. You are absolutely right. The publicity is for our benefit.
