The Other Side of Midnight

They were lying on the beach at the villa, fluffy white towels spread out beneath them, shielding their bodies from the hot sand. The sky was a deep, blazing blue, dotted with white patches of cirrus clouds.

"You must get rid of her." She rose to her feet and strode back to the villa, her long graceful legs moving smoothly across the sand. Larry lay there, bewildered, thinking that he must have misunderstood her. Surely she had not meant that she wanted him to kill Catherine.

And then he remembered Helena.

They were having supper on the terrace. "Don't you see? She doesn't deserve to live," Noelle said. "She's holding onto you to be vengeful. She's trying to ruin your life, our lives, darling."

They lay in bed smoking, the glowing embers of the cigarette ends winking into the infinity of the mirrors covering the ceiling.

"You would be doing her a favor. She's already tried to kill herself. She wants to die."

"I could never do it, Noelle."

"Couldn't you?"

She stroked his naked leg, gently moving up toward his belly, making small circles with the tips of her fingernails.

"I'll help you."

He started to open his mouth to protest, but Noelle's two hands had found him, and they began working on him, moving in opposite directions, one softly and slowly, the other one hard and quickly. And Larry moaned and reached for her and put Catherine out of his mind.

Sometime during the night Larry awakened in a cold sweat. He had dreamed that Noelle had run away and left him. She was lying in bed next to him, and he took her in his arms and held her close. He lay awake the rest of the night, thinking what it would do to him if he lost her. He was not aware that he had made any decision, but in the morning while Noelle was preparing breakfast, Larry said suddenly, "What if we're caught?"

"If we're clever, we won't be." If she was pleased by his capitulation, she gave no sign of it.

"Noelle," he said earnestly, "every busybody in Athens knows that Catherine and I don't get along. If anything happened to her, the police would be damned suspicious."

"Of course they would be," Noelle agreed calmly. "That is why everything will be planned very carefully."

She served them both and then sat down and began to eat. Larry pushed his plate away from him, his food untasted.

"Isn't it good?" Noelle asked, concerned.

He stared at her, wondering what kind of person she was, able to enjoy a meal while she was planning the murder of another woman.

Later, sailing on the boat, they talked about it further, and the more they talked about it, the more of a rea

lity it became, so that what had begun as a casual idea had been fleshed out with words until it had become a fact.

"It must look like an accident," Noelle said, "so that there will be no police investigation. The police in Athens are very clever."

"What if they should investigate?"

"They won't. The accident will not happen here."

"Where, then?"

"Ioannina." She leaned forward and began to talk. He listened to her as she elaborated on her plan, meeting every objection that he raised, improvising brilliantly. At the end when Noelle finished, Larry had to admit that the plan was flawless. They could really get away with it.

Paul Metaxas was nervous. The Greek pilot's usually jovial face was drawn and tense and he could feel a nervous tic pulling at the corner of his mouth. He had had no appointment with Constantin Demiris, and one did not simply barge in on the great man, but Metaxas had told the butler it was urgent, and now Paul Metaxas found himself standing in the enormous hallway of Demiris' villa, staring at him and stammering clumsily, "I--I am terribly sorry to bother you, Mr. Demiris." Metaxas surreptitiously wiped the sweaty palm of his hand against the leg of his flight uniform.

"Has something happened to one of the planes?"

"Oh, no, sir. I--It's--it's a personal matter."

Demiris studied him without interest. He made it a policy never to get involved in the affairs of his underlings. He had secretaries to handle that kind of thing for him. He waited for Metaxas to go on.

Paul Metaxas was becoming more nervous by the second. He had spent a lot of sleepless nights before making the decision that had brought him here. What he was doing now was alien to his character and therefore distasteful, but he was a man of fierce loyalty, and his first allegiance was to Constantin Demiris.