by S. C. Abbey
Katie looked blankly at the officer and placed her hand inside the bag, then came up with a smaller handgun, putting it beside the first on the table. It was one of her favorites—handy and easily concealable.
The immigration officer frowned. “Any sharp objects, large knives maybe?”
Katie dipped a hand into her bag once more, pulling out a leather sheath. She revealed a serrated army knife and laid it beside her guns. Very useful when it came to escaping tricky circumstances—she never left home without it.
“You don’t happen to have a grenade somewhere in there?” The man chuckled nervously. Katie gave the man a firm stare. The officer’s smile dropped from his face. “Do you?”
Katie kept her intense gaze at the man, savoring the moment. She liked that occasional buzz of fear. She then blinked and shook her head. “Pepper spray?” she said in an innocent manner.
The man breathed a sigh of relief and cast a feeble smile. “Nah that’s fine.” Katie could have sworn he muttered something about crazy Americans under his breath. He scribbled some words on the clipboard and passed it to Katie. “Sign.”
Katie handed the clipboard back to the man after she did.
“And we are done.” The officer handed Katie her passport and her badge. “You may exit through the other door. Enjoy your stay here, Miss Moulin. And try not to use any of those while you are in the country—you are authorized to carry but not to use them.”
Katie was already putting on a holster. “Yeah, that just totally makes sense.”
Chapter 20
ALASTAIR SPECTOR HEAD-BUTTED the already-shaky man in his face—the last straw caused him to land on the ground with a loud thud. From the look of the awkward angle his leg was in, it was probably fractured. The man was tough, he had held his stand when the sound of the bone cracking was heard. But like everyone who came between Spector and whatever he wanted, he didn’t stand a chance. The man covered his nose with his right palm as blood splattered from it, groaning in pain on the floor. He always wondered what it was like to be in that position. The man’s voice was muffled, but Spector could make out the string of Greek curses sprouting from his mouth—those he understood, at least.
He kneeled down on one knee and grabbed the man from his collar, lifting him up with ease. The man wasn’t little in size, nor was Spector particularly huge—he was merely fueled by anger. “I’m going to ask you one last time,” he said, slowly and menacingly, “why were you following him?”
The man broke out into a surprising chuckle that sounded between laughing and crying. This must be what a dying hyena sounded like, thought Alastair, though he had never actually seen one.
“You have no idea, do you?” the man said, spitting blood onto the ground. He flashed his blood-covered teeth at him. “You are so dead.”
“Oh really, I’ve heard that too many times from too many people who end up with too many broken bones after.” He took a breath from the long sentence. Spector head-butted the man in the face one more time. And this time, Agent Pachis made no more sound. He dropped Pachis on the floor carelessly. Spector then wiped his hands on the man’s shirt and stood up. He headed toward the entrance of the dead alley and stopped. He fished out his cell phone and dialed a number. The call connected.
“What is it?” a voice answered without a hint of emotion.
“You lying bitch—”
“Careful. Last time I checked, I’m still your commanding officer—” said Zee, her voice still emotionless to most, but he could sense the edge to it.
“Screw you—don’t you dare pull rank on me, I was responsible for putting you up there!” Spector said. His blood practically boiled in rage. “Why didn’t you tell me he was going to be here?!”
“Would you have gone if I did?” asked Zee.
“That wasn’t your call to make,” said Spector, clenching his teeth.
“That was a hypothetical question,” added Zee. “For the record, I only found out as soon as you did.”
“Bullshit!”
“Call it whatever you want. He’s not part of this anyway.”
“And what am I supposed to do? Tiptoe around him again? Like New York?”
“Rules are rules. You agreed to keep to them, no one forced you.”
“It’s been more than two decades, how dare you dangle it in front of me.”
“Just stick to the mission specifications, Spector. It is of paramount—”
He ended the call. He knew Zee hated it whenever he did that. And that was the whole point. She should have known better than to pull something like that on him, after all he had done for her. It really didn’t pay to be loyal anymore these days. He stood unmovingly and contemplated his next move before he headed back to the man who was still lying unconscious on the floor. He reached down to frisk the man’s pockets and found what he was looking for. Spector stood and threw Pachis’s cell phone on the floor before lifting his boot and driving it down to the cell phone. The device didn’t stand a chance.
As he spun around, planning to exit the dead alley, Spector unintendedly glanced across the road. It was there he spotted a man in a beige jacket and sunglasses staring in his direction. As soon as the man caught his gaze, he started to dash out of sight. Spector sprang into action.
“Bollocks!”
Chapter 21
HARVEY FLICKED THE handle of the faucet with his index finger. The showerhead hanging above him released a powerful spray of warm water. He scrambled to adjust the temperature. It was way too warm in this part of the world to be showering in hot water. The water temperature took a sudden drop. He almost regretted it instantaneously as he shivered slightly, but quickly got used to it. He sighed in pleasure.
He returned to the hotel following his visit to the museum, after being abruptly thrown out of Director Panayiotis’s opulent office. He still couldn’t think of a reason for the sudden change in the director’s demeanor when he saw Louis’s photograph. It was as if he had seen a ghost. Not only was Harvey asked to leave the office, he was escorted all the way out of the museum. Talk about overreacting. One thing was for sure—Panayiotis had definitely seen Louis before. Harvey could tell that much from the look on his face.
What was he keeping from me?
Harvey sighed in frustration. Things hadn’t been working out as smoothly as he wanted them to—ever since he got to Athens, to say the least. He had this sense of irritation before. It was almost déjà vu from when he was all lost and confused about the whereabouts of one Christina Jenson. Until he wasn’t. He hated not knowing what the truth was. And he had a bad feeling he was still very far away from it. But it was only a matter of time, he consoled himself. This veil of madness would be lifted sooner or later.
Should I—
He contemplated following Panayiotis. Perhaps something could come of it—anything. But seriously, what was the point? It wasn’t as if he could threaten the director or break into his house. Besides, he was pretty sure the Greek authorities were on him anyway. It would be too reckless to tread the line now—the law that is. A certain plump lawyer suddenly entered his thoughts without warning. Let’s hope that Obermaier is safely back and doing something useful—
The doorbell rang. Or Harvey thought it did. He couldn’t be sure. He turned off the shower—he was done anyway. With the shower turned off, the second ring came much clearer.
Harvey pulled a clean, white, fluffy towel from the rack and carelessly dried himself off.
“Coming—”
He wrapped the towel around his hips and exited the washroom.
The bell rang the third time.
“I’m coming—” he said as he approached the door. He twisted the knob and pulled on it.
Katie stood, unspeaking, on the other side of the door. Her mouth was slightly ajar, as if she was planning to say something but the words got stuck in her throat. Her line of sight started from Harvey’s face as it slowly trailed down to his hips. Harvey didn�
�t say what he was thinking. But she did.
“Can’t you at least get dressed before answering the door?”
Harvey didn’t reply.
“Did you miss me so much you had to greet me like that?” she added with a mischievous sparkle in her eye. “Or am I here at the wrong time?” She tried to peek into the room.
Harvey didn’t expect that. His face blushed a healthy shade of pink. It took him a minute before he finally found his voice. “No—nothing of that sort,” he said as he opened the door a little wider to prove his point. He quickly closed the gap again when he suddenly started to feel a little conscious about being half-naked. His stomach chose the exact moment to make its protests known with a rather loud growl.
Katie chortled. “Good, I’m quite famished myself. I’ll wait for you downstairs, at the hotel restaurant. You—” she pointed at his chest, “—should put some clothes on.” Katie flashed a smirk before she turned back in the direction she came from.
Harvey shut the door and bolted it.
Damn it, Harvey, get a hold of yourself. Stop acting like a fool.
HARVEY STEPPED INTO the restaurant Amalia and spotted Katie right away. It was a fine-looking establishment which probably served overpriced Greek fare that didn’t taste very good—as one would expect from a restaurant in a hotel. Not that Harvey cared, he wasn’t here to enjoy the food anyway.
“Hey,” he said, approaching Katie.
Katie looked up from the Greek menu she was trying to decipher. “Now you look decent.”
It was Harvey’s turn to laugh. He always laughed when he was embarrassed. “C’mon, I didn’t know it was you.”
“Hmm—” Katie looked back at the menu before she whispered, “I’m not complaining.”
Did she just—
Katie placed the menu in front of her. “I’ve already ordered for us both, you don’t mind, do you?”
Harvey shook his head, still caught in a land of his own.
“Good, let’s get to business then. I didn’t take a four hundred-mile detour just to have lunch with you—no offense, no matter how beautiful this place is,” she said. “So, what did you need me for?”
“I’m at a dead end,” Harvey said.
Katie studied her companion’s face. “I’ll be needing more information than that. How did you end up coming all the way here just to collect a dead body anyway? I mean—you aren’t even related.”
Harvey sighed, this was going to take a while. “Trust me Kat—it’s not half as exciting as it sounds, but twice as troublesome, and certainly not anywhere fun enough for me to be here.”
Katie looked at him as if he had grown rabbit ears. “You’ve been hanging out too much with Bertram,” she said. “Again? This time in English.”
“Never mind,” Harvey replied. “Do you have any contacts in Greece? Someone in the police force? Do you think you can get ahold of the first officer’s report of the crime scene?”
Katie leaned back into her seat. “I could try. But first, you have to start telling me what’s going on. From the beginning.” She folded her arms.
“It all started…four days ago,” Harvey paused and fidgeted the table cloth. He then continued, “Actually no, I think it would be more accurate to say it all started about a decade ago—”
Chapter 22
MAKSIM TRZEBUCHOWSKA STARED at the flashing screen of his cell phone. A number he was expecting. His dirty-blond hair fell on his forehead with a gust of wind. He ran his palm up and back, pushing them in a comb-back.
Looks like you’ve decided to deliver yourself to me—
Maksim sniffed loudly to clear his nose and spat on the ground. He was done being civil, in his opinion—truthfully, he never was. He decided he could at least try to speak nicely, one last time. He tapped on the answer button and brought the phone to his ear.
“Is that you?” the caller said. His nervousness showed through the tone of his voice. The little tremors, always a dead giveaway. “Luther Blake told me he sent you. Are you already in Athens?”
Son of a bitch…
“Yeah, I am,” said Maksim, almost as gently as he could. Well at least to himself, that’s what it sounded like.
“The timber box—” said the caller.
“I know. It’s gone missing. That’s why I’m here,” interrupted Maksim.
The caller paused. Maksim could hear his short hasty breaths. “I swear I thought—”
“You had one job,” Maksim said, raising his voice a little. He was having a hard time containing his rage. “One very well-remunerated job.”
The caller didn’t answer.
“And you delivered it to the wrong guy. Blake’s not pleased.”
“I—I’ll make it to Blake,” said the man in an exasperated tone. “He knows I’ve always been loyal to the organization—”
“Where are you?” asked Maksim. He didn’t really care what the man had to say.
“I’m still at the office.”
The museum. Not exactly ideal…
“The Avissinia Café in sixty minutes,” said Maksim. “I trust you’ll be there?”
“Y-Yeah. It’s walking distance from where I am. I promise I’ll do whatever it takes—”
“And the diamonds?” interrupted Maksim once again. He really was done talking with the man. He just needed to know one last thing.
“I’ll take them to you! I’ll give them back, every single one of them,” answered the man.
“No, keep them with you. Are they safe?”
“They are. I kept them at home, in a locked safe in my wardrobe. Nobody knows they’re there—”
“Good, keep them there,” said Maksim firmly.
“I’ll ask my secretary to cancel all my appointments for the day.”
“Yeah. I’ll see you later then…” Maksim said, feeling an up twitch of his lips, “Director…”
He then ended the call. He quickly scrolled through his contact list and tapped on a familiar name, initiating a call.
“Blake, sir. It’s worse than we expected. Panayiotis—” said Maksim, pausing as Blake interrupted him. “I understand. I’ll see to it.”
Chapter 23
KATIE AND HARVEY stopped by the road and glanced to the opposite side where the signboard of the Motel Athina stared back at them. It was a far cry from where Harvey was staying—that was the first thing that came to Katie’s mind. The second was, how could anybody live here? The shabby-looking motel occupied the entire four-story building. But it didn’t look grand or inspiring at all. It looked like it was about to collapse on itself. The dust on the outside of the building lay so thick that it could have been white once instead of the gray it now was.
“Are you sure this is the place?” asked Harvey as he frowned. He seemed to share Katie’s sentiments.
“According to my contact, it is. This was the place they found Louis Tanner. This was the motel he was staying at for weeks before he killed himself.”
Harvey turned to Katie. “Did your contact say anything about why he was here in the first place? In Athens?”
Katie shook her head at Harvey. “Nope, this is all I have now. I doubt the authorities know that anyway.”
They both turned to look at the front of the hotel once more.
“It looks rather empty, doesn’t it?” asked Harvey.
“I must say, it does,” Katie said. The flickering light from a quiet pub on the same street caught both their eyes. It was the only sign of life in the secluded area. “I think we should start there.” She pointed at the bar, not ready to undertake the creepy-looking hotel just yet.
Harvey swallowed his saliva and nodded with vigor. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“You are such a puss.” Katie chuckled.
Harvey looked at her with widened eyes. “Hey, it was your idea!”
Katie continued to laugh as she tugged on Harvey’s arm and dragged him across the road toward the bar. She pushe
d the door open. A bell hanging above them signaled their entry.
The whole establishment stopped and looked at them. Not that there were a lot of eyes on them. It was still early and quite empty—only a handful of people could be seen sitting quietly in their seats. Katie and Harvey ignored the glances and headed toward the bar.
“Two drafts, from the tap please,” ordered Katie.
The bartender was a grey-haired man with a ponytail tied behind his back. He wore a dirty, black vest over an equally filthy white shirt, with a brown apron tied around his midsection. He was polishing a glass when they approached. Katie wasn’t sure he spoke English. His mustache twitched while he spoke.
“American?”
What is it with people asking that all the time?
Katie mentally rolled her eyes. “Yep.”
“We had one, for a few weeks. But he killed himself. I heard it was a mess,” said the bartender.
“Actually, that’s the reason we’re here,” added Harvey.
The bartender eyed the both of them suspiciously. He then shrugged. “I don’t know. I have bad memory.” He went back to polishing the glass in his hands with great attention.
Harvey put a hundred-euro bill on the bar and slid it across the counter for the drink. “Keep the change.”
The bartender took the bill from the bar and pocketed it. He then put a clean glass under the beer tap and started dispensing it.
“He came here almost every evening.” The bartender tilted his head toward a corner booth. “Sat at that corner. Couldn’t stop talking.”
“Sounds like Louis,” said Harvey.
“I think he spoke to almost every regular in this bar. Multiple times. You will have to talk to everybody if you want to know what you want to know.” He put the first filled glass aside and started dispensing the second beer.
Katie frowned. That was going to take a while.
“But looks like you all are in luck today.” The bartender said as he placed the two beers on the bar counter. “See that girl over there, at the pool table?” Harvey and Katie both turned rather conspicuously. “He left the pub with her one night. Perhaps she would know more.”