Obviously Pappas didn't know about the other three bodies. If he had, he wouldn't be asking why. That meant word hadn't leaked out yet, because if it had, Pappas would be among the first to know.
'It's routine.' Andreas was getting weary of playing up to Pappas' ego. 'Look, if you want to help, fine; if not, I'll find someone else. I figured I could trust you not to start gossiping that your friend Father Paul might be a suspect just because I'm asking about his churches.' Yeah, sure.
Pappas stared at him for several seconds. 'You know, I'm getting a lot of grief about my trucks hauling concrete at seven in the morning through that neighborhood up there.' He pointed north. 'On the road to Aghios Sostis Beach, but it gives me the edge I need to finish my projects on time.' The price had been set.
Andreas shrugged. 'I don't see a problem with that, as long as your drivers aren't any drunker than the rest at that hour.'
Pappas smiled. 'Do you have a map?'
Andreas handed him one and watched Pappas make eight marks and write eight names before handing it back.
'Thank you.'
'No problem, Chief. By the way…' Andreas couldn't believe he had the balls to ask for more. 'Ilias is a pervert, everyone knows that, but he's no murderer.'
How the hell does word get out so fast? Of course, Ilias' cousin's the mayor and Pappas is the former mayor. 'What do you mean, everyone knows he's a pervert?'
Pappas gave his best 'you should know this already' look. 'Ilias is kinky, he films the women in his hotel, then watches the videos with his girlfriends. He gets off on having them imitate what he's filmed.'
'How do you know all this?' Andreas' voice was official.
He snickered. 'We have the same girlfriends. We all do. It's a small island.'
Andreas took the we to mean the Mykonos powers that be.
'I'm not telling you how to do your job, Chief, but Ilias isn't your killer. Besides, he's probably out by now. The mayor's already spoken to Syros.'
Andreas was certain his anger was showing now. 'Anything else?'
Pappas obviously was enjoying this chance to lecture the new boy in town on how to get along. 'No, but good luck in finding your killer. I'm sure it's some Albanian. Find one, and the whole town will support you.'
In other words, if Andreas knew what was good for him, he'd stay away from the Mykonians. Andreas wanted to wipe the smirk off the asshole's face with a lecture of his own, on the perils of allowing a serial killer to run around his island paradise murdering tourist women, but instead he thanked him and left. He had churches to visit. Andreas' first call once he was back on the road was to Tassos. He wanted to keep Ilias in custody.
'Don't worry about it,' Tassos said, his voice calm, reassuring.
'What do you mean don't worry, he's our number one suspect.' Andreas was yelling in the Greek style.
'Andreas, relax. Where's he going to go? His whole life is on Mykonos, and we'll have him watched day and night. It'll be like house arrest — in a very big house.'
Andreas knew Tassos was trying to put the best face on a politically impossible situation. It didn't make him any happier, but there was no way Ilias was staying in jail without solid evidence tying him to a murder. Showing he was a pervert wasn't enough of a reason for Syros politicians keeping the Mykonos mayor's cousin in jail. 'Damn it.'
Tassos must have sensed Andreas' tension through the phone. 'I know.' He paused until Andreas was breathing normally. 'So, what about our former number one suspect?'
'I'm on my way to check out his churches,' he grumbled.
'Do you really think he'd be crazy enough to name places where he buried bodies?'
'Who knows, he's damn smart, and if he didn't tell me, he knew we'd find out anyway. It was the savvy move.' The anger had drained from Andreas' voice.
'Guess you're right. If you find anything, let me know and I'll send the forensic guys from the hotel over to meet you.'
'Thanks. Any luck yet?'
'A lot of tapes of what must be five hundred women, indexed and cross-indexed by name, address, age, country of origin — the stuff off passports.' He paused.
'And?' Andreas was not in the mood to enjoy Tassos' penchant for the dramatic.
'By body parts. Hair color — top and bottom — breast size, nipple color… need I go on? I think you get the idea.'
'Fuck.' Andreas shook his head. 'Trouble is, unless we get a match to another dead woman, it's all consistent with what we already know — he's a pervert.' He slowed down to turn onto the road leading to the old mines.
Tassos said, 'I have someone trying to come up with a match, but I'm not sure we'll find one even if he's our guy.'
'Why?'
'He could have destroyed tapes of girls he killed.'
'But we saw Helen Vandrew on tape.'
'Yeah.' Tassos' voice was tentative, as if searching for an answer. 'But maybe he hadn't gotten around to destroying that one yet.'
Andreas was impatient — he knew there was something else. 'What's bothering you?'
'My Scandinavian wasn't in the index, and it goes back years before we found her.'
After a short silence, Andreas, clearly exasperated, muttered, 'Nothing's easy. Well, maybe she's not in it, but they'll find her on the tapes.'
'Maybe.' Tassos didn't sound encouraged. 'Good luck with your churches.'
'I'll take that to mean 'May all the bones be old bones.' Call you later. I'm almost at the first one.' Andreas hung up.
He pulled off the road at a place Pappas had marked on the map. He shut off the engine but didn't move, just looked up the hill at a ramble of dry brush and neglected stone walls and stared at the whitewashed church near the top. He still remembered standing in a museum as a child with his father, staring at the side of a famous sculpture and wondering what all the fuss was about. It looked so very simple and unremarkable — until he moved to face it and saw head-on all the terrifying power and complexity of snake-haired Medusa. Please, not again, he prayed. When Annika awoke there was a light, azure pareo draped over her body. It was not hers, and she had no idea who had put it there, but whoever did had spared her a horrific sunburn. She must have been sleeping for hours. She sat up, carefully folded it, and looked around. No one seemed to be paying attention to her except for a few young Greek men waving for her to join them.
An attractive, middle-aged woman on the towel next to her was reading a magazine entitled California Living. Annika asked if she knew who her Good Samaritan was. The woman pointed to a very fit, silver-haired man lying naked on his stomach two towels away. He was facing them but seemed asleep. Annika was sure she'd seen him before but couldn't place him.
'Just give it to me, darling, and I'll see that Paul gets it when he wakes up.'
'Thanks,' Annika said, and handed her the pareo. She was hungry and decided to get something to eat at the taverna on the beach. The Greek guys started calling to her, first in Greek and then in English. She ignored them as she dressed, gathered up her things, and walked to the taverna.
She chose the table closest to the sea and ordered water, a Greek salad, and grilled octopus. She felt at peace. She also felt someone watching her — but that wasn't unusual; the reason she picked that table was so she could look at the sea without someone in her line of vision trying to catch her attention. Not that anyone could have, for she was mesmerized by the endless stream of swimmers climbing onto a nearby reef running parallel to the beach.
Once on the reef, most preened a bit, as if they were walking on water. But their godlike experiences were not without risk, for the reef was covered in sea urchins — with porcupine-like spines. She watched one strutting, barefoot waterwalker after another suddenly jump in the air and grab a pierced foot. As for the occasional naked swimmer unwary enough to sit on the reef, all Annika could think of was 'ouch!' She was feeling slightly guilty at her schadenfreude fascination but not enough to look away. After all, she thought, it's sort of their fault for not having the common sense to know better, and besides, it was very funny.
At around five, people started drifting in from the beach to begin their early-afternoon partying. That was
