'She was to stay four days but left before.' It was a struggle for him to speak.
'What do you mean 'left before'?' Andreas' voice was merciless.
'She disappeared. We never saw her after the second day.'
'What did you do with her things?'
'I threw them out.'
All of that matched with what his night man had told them. Now to see if what else they'd been told was true.
'I want to see the tapes.'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' Ilias said, his voice cracking.
Andreas stepped forward so that his eyes were twelve inches from Ilias' and spoke in a precise, determined whisper. 'Let me put it this way, you fucking pervert, we know you have a video camera hidden in your 'special room,' and frankly, I don't give a shit how often you beat off to those fantasies of yours, but if you force us to tear this hotel apart brick by brick until we find that camera and those tapes — and we will find them — you better pray hers is with them. Otherwise, we'll know you tossed it because you didn't want us to know what was on it.'
Ilias was in full panic. 'No, no! I had nothing to do with her. The tape is downstairs. You'll see what I say is true.'
So, the night man was right about the tapes, too.
'I want to see the girl's room.' Andreas gestured for Kouros to let him off the wall.
'There's someone in it.'
'So what?'
'Please, this will ruin the reputation of my hotel.'
Andreas couldn't believe the guy. He's a murder suspect and he's worried about disturbing a guest.
'We're going to take the handcuffs off, but if you even breathe funny, we'll drag you out of here by your balls. Understand?'
'Yes.'
'Now show us.' Andreas nodded to Kouros to take off the cuffs.
He took them first to a locked room on the bottom floor where he kept the tapes. Her time at the hotel was recorded on one of hundreds. They must go back years. Possibly decades. Andreas' heart was pounding. Could he be the one? 'Where's her room?'
'Next door.'
They knocked on the door but there was no answer. Ilias opened it with his passkey. It was tiny. Women's clothes were scattered as if the occupant had left in a hurry. Andreas looked at Ilias. 'You have tapes of her too?'
No answer.
Andreas slapped him again. 'I'm talking to you.'
'Yes.'
'Where is she?'
'I don't know. She must have gone out.'
'How do you know?'
'I was taping her while she slept.'
Andreas wanted to punch him. 'Where's the camera?'
He showed them two — one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom.
'Yianni, get him out of here. Take him back to the station and let him call whoever the hell he wants. He'll need them all. Also, get someone over here to watch both rooms until forensics gets here from Syros. I'll wait for him.'
Ilias started to object but Andreas gave him a warning look and he went quietly.
Andreas sat on the edge of the bed and called Tassos from his cell phone. Tassos sounded as excited at hearing what Andreas had found as Andreas was at telling him. Forensics would be on the way within an hour. Andreas hung up and stared down at the floor, thinking.
Why did speaking to Tassos make him think of his father? And why was that bothering him? He thought he'd gotten over the anger. Eight is a bad age to lose a dad. You're just getting to know him, appreciate him, learn from him, and poof; suddenly he's gone. It can make you a very angry young man, finding yourself instantly a fatherless, only son. Maybe that's why I've never married, he thought — to spare some other eight-year-old the pain. Nah, that's not it. Just haven't found the right girl yet. Thank God for my sister's kids, or I'd never hear the end of it from Mother.
He looked up. A pair of French doors opened onto a small balcony. The scene beyond was magnificent: a serene silver-blue sea and shades-of-brown distant hills dotted with tiny white houses under an Aegean-blue sky. He wondered how many other young women had seen that view as one of their last on earth.
Andreas couldn't believe his luck at finding the killer so quickly. It seemed too good to be true.
8
The early-morning bus to Paradise was filled with two types: the totally wasted who had not slept and were returning to the campgrounds by the beach, and the totally alert who had not partied. Annika felt closer to the former but tried acting like the latter. When the bus arrived, Annika followed the sober ones to the beach. She decided it was better to stay with that crowd because the others — and stragglers out of Paradise's notorious all- night dance clubs — were busy making up for one last shot at whatever they hadn't quite been able to achieve by midmorning.
Her crowd headed to the end farthest away from the clubs, past the rented umbrellas and loungers to an open section of beach. She followed them. They put down their towels. She did the same. They took off all their clothes. She didn't know what to do.
Nudity was common on Mykonos, but these people were her parents' age. She looked back up the beach to see where else she could go, but something told her she was least likely to be bothered here. They all seemed to know one another, and the group kept growing. Before long she was surrounded by naked Karlas, Georges, Sharons, and Edwards from all over the world. As hesitant as she was to take off her suit, she felt she'd attract more attention in it rather than out of it; so with a 'when in paradise' attitude she stripped naked as the rest. No one seemed to notice. They all seemed so nice. She fell asleep on her belly with a towel over her head to the sounds of old friends having a good time. Andreas told the officer watching the rooms not to leave the hotel until the woman staying in the Vandrew room returned. He wanted to know how she ended up in there. Then he left to see Pappas. There still was the matter of those other churches to follow up on.
Contractors, as a rule, aren't in their offices much, and Pappas was no exception. It took about an hour before Andreas found him, he was over by Elia Beach, where he was supervising the 'renovation' addition of two dozen mountainside villas to an already huge hotel. There were mixed feelings over the effect those hotels had on the beauty of the island but not on how they affected the families who owned them. They made them very rich — and powerful enough to go on 'renovating' away to their hearts' content.
Andreas met him in the hotel restaurant.
'So, Chief, how can I help you this time?' asked Pappas, from behind his sunglasses.
Andreas knew this was going to cost him. 'I'm trying to locate some old churches.'
'Which ones?'
Andreas handed him the list. Pappas looked at it. 'These are Father Paul's,' he said, his voice hard.
'I know. He gave me the names.'
Pappas' voice grew loud. 'You can't possibly think he had anything to do with the murder.'
Andreas kept his cool. 'I think it's best for your friend that you keep your voice down.'
'Don't tell me what to do,' he said in a quieter voice.
'I didn't say he's a suspect,' Andreas said. 'We found a dead body in an abandoned church. Now we're checking out other abandoned churches for clues.'
'Why?'
