Angel of Death

‘And we saw him, in that place near Athens, when we arrived back from the cruise,’ Jack chimed in. ‘He was eating lunch. Sandra stopped to talk to him. You asked him about the girl, didn’t you, Sandra?’

‘Yeah. He admitted she’d been with him, claimed he’d picked her up in Mykonos, that’s another little island, not far from Delos, but at least they have great shops and no broken statues. I bought a wild silk blouse there, Yves St Laurent – a lovely damson colour.’

‘Delos?’

‘No, I told you, Mykonos. They have great bars, too.’

‘Tavernas,’ Jack said. ‘Greek drinks are weird, though. I hated retsina, and ouzo tastes like that French stuff, aniseed, what’s it called? Pernod?’

‘Do shut up about Greek drinks,’ Sandra snapped at him. ‘Alex said the girl was having a holiday on Mykonos, he’d met her by accident.’ She shrugged and bit into her toast, crunching noisily. ‘Who knows? Maybe it was the truth.’

‘When was this?’

‘End of last week,’ Jack said.

‘God Almighty,’ Terry erupted. ‘Why didn’t you ring and let me know at once? Don’t tell me you didn’t have your mobile with you? Or that there were no phones on this ship?’

Sandra swallowed her toast, gave him an indignant stare. ‘I tried to ring here a couple of times but you weren’t in, then I tried the office, and left a message – but I couldn’t tell your new assistant I’d found that girl, could I? It might have been a dodgy thing to do. If the police were listening to your calls and heard that they’d have known you were looking for her, and it could have gone against you.’ She wiped her crumbed fingers on a paper handkerchief. ‘I was using my brains, don’t know why I bothered. As soon as we landed we came straight here to give you the news. And all I get is insults and bad temper. We might as well still be married.’

‘Sorry,’ Terry said, grimacing. ‘I’m anxious, that’s all. Look, did you get the impression Alex was telling you the truth? Do you think he did just meet up with Miranda like that?’

She stood up, her blonde hair catching the light. ‘I don’t know. Well, I’m not sure – but no, my instincts told me he was lying. Now, don’t ask why, I can’t say. I just felt it, instinctively.’ She looked at her watch. ‘We’d better get going. I want to do some shopping in the West End.’

When she and Jack had departed Terry stood on the steps staring at the sky.

‘So Bernie was right,’ Sean said. ‘She was in Greece, that’s why Maddrell went there.’

Terry nodded grimly. ‘And that’s why I’m going, too. We have to find that girl and silence her before the police can move her on somewhere new.’

‘If you go to Greece it will look suspicious!’

‘Ah, but I’ve got a great excuse. I do a lot of business with Alex Manoussi. I’m going there to liaise with him on the spot.’

Chapter Twelve

Miranda had settled into her job now and was enjoying it. There was sufficient variety to keep her interested all day, especially when she had to deal with hotel guests. A number of Americans stayed there, few of them spoke Greek, she was often called upon to translate for them.

The hours were quite long, but she had one afternoon off a week. Alex went back to Athens on Sunday evening and on Tuesday she broke off work at mid-day to eat lunch with Pandora in her room, the meal served by Milo from a trolley. They had egg and lemon soup to start with, then salad with feta and olives. Pandora ate very little and seemed listless, silent.

‘Aren’t you well?’ Miranda asked anxiously, still wondering about Charles and Elena. That kiss she had seen – what had that meant? Did Charles love his wife? Milo clearly did not like him – why not? What did Milo know, or suspect?

‘I’m so bored lying in bed all day. I wish I could go out just once in a while.’

‘But why can’t you? If you were wheeled out to a car you could be driven anywhere.’ Miranda could easily understand how she must feel. Outside the window the sun glitter

ed on the grounds; on the silver birch shimmering in shadow, on roses and lavender carefully watered every evening to keep them alive. People walked past in swimsuits, carrying towels, making for the beach, or one of the swimming pools. Children scampered, laughing. ‘It must be a drag to have to stay indoors in weather like this.’

‘Oh, it is, especially when I’m alone for hours. Charles is always so busy. I know running a hotel is a full-time job, I just wish I could go out now and then.’

‘I don’t see why not. Ask your doctor if you can.’

‘I seem to have been in this room forever. Ever since we got here, anyway. Do you really think they would agree?’

‘There’s no harm in asking, is there?’

Pandora picked up the phone beside her bed and dialled. ‘Charles? Can you come here? Miranda’s had an idea I want to put to you. OK, in five minutes.’

Putting the phone down she gave Miranda a half-pleading, half-rueful look. ‘You don’t mind if I blame you? You never know with men, how they’re going to react. Charles wants me to stay put until the baby comes, he doesn’t realise how depressed I get, and I don’t like to make too much fuss.’