meant the killer had one waiting for him. Did that mean an accomplice? Maybe they'd walked to another car or bike nearby?
He told his men to search along the shore for footprints coming out of the water. Sure enough, they found a pair of man-sized sandal tracks on the end of the beach farthest from the road. Andreas told one man to stay by the mine entrance — just in case — while he and the other cop followed the tracks. They led along the shore, out of the cove and around to another small beach.
There they found matching arriving and departing tire tracks, signs of a boat dragged into — but not out of — the water and the same man's sandals in the middle of it all. They took some quick pictures just in case the wind got there before forensics.
They made their way back to the cove just in time to see the two cops who trailed the bike emerge from the tunnel. They'd found nothing but tire tracks. Good, thought Andreas. She's still alive.
'You must have seen something besides tracks,' he said.
'Sure, a lot of rocks and things you'd expect in a mine,' said one cop.
'And tools by some of the places they're digging,' said the other.
'What do you mean digging?' said Andreas sounding annoyed. 'That tunnel's been closed for twenty-five years.'
The first cop looked eager to impress the chief with his thoughts on the second cop's observation. 'It's more like an archeological dig.'
The second cop didn't seem about to cede credit to the first for his own find. 'Except these digs are all over the place, some in the walls, some in the ground, some old, some new. It looks like professionals, not weekend amateurs looking for potshards.'
Andreas thought of the broken urn by the cell. Looked like their killer was into robbing antiquities as well as lives. It was a high-paying racket that had Greece and a lot of other plundered nations suing Western museums for the return of their treasures. Billions of euros were involved; and that was only the publicly known plunder. There was no telling how much was in private hands. But that was someone else's problem. His job was finding Annika Vanden Haag. They started up the road toward Tassos.
This time it was Andreas panting when Tassos started talking. 'You found something over there?' He pointed to the far end of the beach.
Andreas nodded and told him what they'd found on the beach.
'Any idea how old the tracks are?' asked Tassos.
Andreas nodded no. 'Since we don't have tides in this part of the Mediterranean they could be old.'
'But we do have wind,' said Tassos.
Andreas nodded. 'Yes.' He pointed to the motorbike tracks on the beach below. 'They're older than those.' His breathing was regular again. 'Looks to me like our killer brought a boat out here early today or late yesterday, probably tied it up to the pier, walked through the water to cover his tracks, got to his vehicle, and drove away.'
'That means he planned on using a boat all along.' Tassos sounded surprised.
'Sure seems that way.' Andreas kicked a stone. 'I guess we're following in his footsteps more than chasing him.' He sounded frustrated. 'We need to check out the boats and beaches and coves and-'
Tassos stopped him. 'We don't have enough men to do that. We can't pull them off the churches. You know they're still our best bet.'
Andreas nodded. 'I know. I'll ask the port police to help out. The shoreline is their jurisdiction anyway — and they've got a helicopter.'
'Where do we tell them to start looking?' asked Tassos.
'I'd say our killer could be an hour away from here by now,' Andreas said.
'That means they could be anywhere on Mykonos,' said Tassos.
'Which is exactly where I'm going to tell them to start looking — any place they can think of where someone in a boat might try to hide from police.'
Tassos rolled his eyes. 'Sounds simple enough.'
'Yeah, like everything else in this case.'
Andreas' cell phone rang. It was Kouros. 'Chief, you told me to call you on your mobile if I couldn't reach you on-'
Andreas interrupted him. 'It's okay. What's up?'
'I have news on the jeweler.'
'Did you find him?'
'No, but he's not where he's supposed to be.'
Great, thought Andreas, just what we need, another missing hot suspect.
Kouros continued. 'One of his salesmen has outstanding DUI warrants, so I pushed him to tell me where his boss was.'
Good work, thought Andreas.
'He gave me a number in Athens for the jeweler's girlfriend. When I called and asked for him she started screaming before I even identified myself. Said he wasn't there and if I wanted to know where he was I should call his wife — because that's where he told her he'd be staying this trip to Athens. So, I called his wife.'
'Let me guess,' said Andreas. 'She had no idea where he was.'
'Yes, she thought he was still on Mykonos, but when I said he wasn't and identified myself, she suggested I call the girlfriend.'
'She what?'
'Didn't even seem angry, just told me to call her. I told her I already had.'
Andreas couldn't help but laugh at the image.
'That's just what she did, sir.'
'What?'
'Laugh. She said, 'Good, now the bastard's cheating on both of us.''
Andreas laughed again. 'Okay, but does he have any other family you can check with?'
'No, sir. The salesman told me he has no other family. They've all passed away.'
Andreas hung up and shook his head as he told the story to Tassos.
'I wonder where he is?'
Andreas shrugged and turned to the other cops. 'Okay, let's get back to the car.'
They concentrated on breathing rather than talking as they walked up the hill to the SUV. When they got there Andreas used the radio to call the chief of the port police. Tassos leaned against the driver's side fender and looked off to the west. The sun had fallen below some of the nearby hilltops, sending their shadows out into the valleys.
Andreas finished his call, walked over, and leaned on the fender next to Tassos. 'He'll have the chopper in the air in thirty minutes, and his boats will be looking for Vanden Haag — with a shaved or covered head — in the company of a man fitting the description of any of our suspects. Probably in an inflatable boat but not necessarily — he could have pulled a switch on us.'
Tassos seemed in a trance. 'Sunset is my favorite time of day,' he said, and let out a sigh. 'But I'm afraid it's coming on a mite too quickly for me today.' He turned his head toward Andreas. 'You know, in a couple of hours it's going to be too dark to hunt by helicopter, and if they try chasing him down in the dark by boat, it's way too easy to toss her overboard.'
Andreas nodded his agreement and reached for his cigarettes. 'The boys found something else inside the mines.'
Tassos didn't say anything; he was back to staring at the sunset.
'Relic digs. I think our killer's involved in the stolen-antiquities market.'
Tassos seemed unfazed. 'Not surprised. These hills are full of them — many stolen centuries ago from Delos and hidden, misplaced, or simply reused as building materials here. Not sure how valuable any of them are.' He paused but didn't move his eyes.
Andreas joined him staring west. 'I wish I knew what's behind all these… these human sacrifices. I'm sure his serial-killer traits are off the charts, but why the ritual-sacrifice angle? And how do those paintings on the ceiling of saints and underworld gods tie in to all this? Do you think there's a connection to the relics?'
