He pressed his face to hers, stared into her eyes and whispered, 'Later, Annika. There's a promise to be kept.' And then he was gone.
She didn't know what to do anymore. So she started to spin around in the light… and scream… and scream… and scream. Andreas reached the ridge ten seconds after the lights went on. He was thirty yards from her. She was throwing rocks wildly in every direction. He saw someone crawling toward her, beneath the aim of her throws. Andreas yelled, 'Annika!' but she didn't seem to hear and didn't stop throwing. He pulled his gun. He wanted to shoot the crawling bastard but didn't dare, because Annika was directly beyond him, in the line of fire. He started running toward her but had to stop when within range of her rocks. He called her name again. Still no reaction.
Suddenly, the killer sprang from below her and grabbed her arm. Andreas had no choice now but to fire. He didn't dare aim for the killer's center of mass, they were too close together. He aimed just to hit him. The first shot missed. He adjusted and fired again. A hit! Better yet, the killer let go of her and was heading to where Andreas had a clear shot. Andreas refocused his sight picture and started to squeeze off a round. 'Damn it,' he said aloud, and pulled back his gun. Annika had stepped right into his sights. She was spinning and screaming.
There was no choice to be made. He ran to her and let the killer run. There would be no place for him to hide in that temple.
26
Catia was the first to see the lights shining on Mount Kynthos. 'Over there, Spiros, over there!'
The helicopter had flown west from Mykonos directly to Saint Kiriake. The pilot nodded and veered south toward the lights. Catia was holding her breath.
'Look, up there, by the Temple of Isis,' shouted the mayor, sounding as excited as she was.
Catia saw two people — a naked, bald woman and a man holding a gun. She screamed, 'There's Annika.' The helicopter came in for a closer look, and the man waved as he took off his jacket and put it around the woman.
'Land, please land.' Catia was frantic.
'There's no place to land up here, Mrs Vanden Haag. We have to land by the museum,' said the pilot.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for Catia to decide.
Her eyes were glued to her daughter. She saw another man join them. He was in uniform. He took Annika's arm and walked her away from the temple in the direction of the museum. 'Okay, land there.' She watched as the jacketless man walked — gun still in hand — toward the temple. There were no signs of life inside. Nothing. Andreas had seen him run in there and there was blood on the floor. It led to the left rear corner and disappeared. No doors, no windows — hidden or otherwise — just marble. He stomped on the squares in the corner. Solid, no give in them at all. He looked at the carved marble pieces next to the corner. That must be it, he thought. He'd climbed them to get over the wall. Strange, though, no bloodstains on them or the wall. Whatever, we'll tear this island apart after daylight. He's not getting away, certainly not now that we know who he is.
Andreas heard his name on his two-way radio. 'Yes.'
'Did you find him?' It was Tassos.
'No, he just seemed to disappear into the Temple of Isis, but don't worry, we'll find him when the sun comes up.'
Silence.
'Tassos, are you there? Tassos, Tassos.' He was yelling into the phone.
'Chief?'
'Yes, who's this?'
'It's Kouros, sir, I flew over on the deputy minister's helicopter.'
'Where's Tassos?'
'I don't know, sir, he just handed me the radio and ran off.' Andreas could hear Kouros shouting into the phone trying to be heard above the wind.
'Where are you?' asked Andreas. 'By the museum.' 'I'll be right there.' What the hell was going on now? Catia and Annika were crying in each other's arms when Andreas reached the museum. A medevac helicopter was on its way from Athens.
The first thing Andreas did was find the port policeman who'd been tracking the killer with Tassos. 'What happened? Did you find anything?'
'Yes, sir, we followed his tracks to there.' He pointed to the south end of the museum. 'That's where they turned toward the sea. We followed them until they disappeared in the water. We walked back and forth along the shore looking for more tracks but didn't find any. That's when we came back — and were walking south toward Mount Kynthos. We were almost up to you when I got the call for the lights.'
Andreas paused. 'You must have found something. Something that made Tassos take off like he did.'
The cop shrugged. 'He was interested in some caves over there that open onto the sea.' He pointed to the southeast, beyond Mount Kynthos. 'But there were no tracks, just wet rock.'
'Did you go into the caves?'
He nodded. 'There were no tracks but a lot of passageways. 'Perfect hiding places for smugglers,' he told me.'
That must be it, thought Andreas; Tassos is looking for a tunnel entrance. One that leads up to the temple. 'Officer, I want you to take me there now,' he said firmly.
'Yes, sir.'
At that moment he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, still a little edgy from it all. It was the deputy minister.
'I guess I owe you an apology, Chief.'
Andreas' mind was elsewhere — he had to help Tassos. 'Fine, no problem.'
'No, really, please come with me. My sister and niece want to thank you.'
Andreas felt trapped. He looked at the cop. 'Stay here, I'll be right back.'
When Catia saw Andreas, she ran to him, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him. 'I cannot thank you enough. I will pray for you every day.'
Andreas didn't know what to say; he just smiled and said, 'I'm glad she's safe.'
'I told my brother that if he didn't listen to what Officer Kouros told me I would never speak to him again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.' She kissed and hugged Andreas again. 'Come, I want you to meet my daughter.'
Andreas wanted to say, 'No, later,' but how could he? She led him to the helicopter where her daughter sat huddled under a blanket.
'Annika, this is Chief of Police Kaldis. He's the man who found you.'
The woman looked at him and said not a word. Andreas stared into her eyes. Neither spoke. Andreas felt as if he were in church. He bowed his head. She reached out and gently touched his hand. 'Thank you, sir, and bless you.'
He was about to say something when he heard the shot. Instinctively, he pulled his gun and swung around to stand between Annika and the direction of the sound, but it was too far away to be of any risk to her. 'Tassos!' He ran to the cop. 'Take me to those caves.'
Two more shots; five seconds apart.
'Hurry!' Andreas was praying as he ran — and thinking of his father's death. Tassos met them just outside the caves. The grim look he'd worn when Andreas last saw him was gone.
'Are you okay?' Andreas was out of breath from running.
'Yes.' His voice was easy.
'What happened?'
Tassos looked at the port cop. 'Why don't you go back and tell everyone everything's okay.' He waited until the cop left.
'Our killer's gone.' Tassos sounded as if he'd won the lottery.
'As in gone gone?' Andreas asked, still panting.
'As in gone dead!' Tassos replied, his voice as jubilant as if Greece had just won the World Cup.
