Greek Island Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-2-3): Gripping, psychological mystery/thrillers destined to shock you!

by Luke Christodoulou

  ‘The girl that keeps fainting?’

  ‘Could be an act?’

  ‘Oscar-worthy for sure. Cosma was up here, too.’

  ‘And killed his wife?’

  ‘Oldest story in the book.’

  Ioli raised her eyebrows and continued. ‘We should check that all personnel were in the kitchen at the time. Now, for the ones that easily had the time and we’ll have to check them for alibis.’

  ‘Shoot.’

  ‘Homer was a no show, yet do you blame him?’

  ‘If he knew about the vendetta he could have wished for revenge…’

  ‘With all of us around? Hours after losing his wife? Anyway, his parents weren’t down for dinner either, so there is a good chance they were all together.’

  She spoke faster than usual. The idea of a family member being a murderer did not sit well with her code of honor. She would arrest her own mother if she was guilty. ‘Who else?’ I asked, pulling her away from those thoughts.

  ‘Two of her bridesmaids left the room together, went up the stairs and never came back down. Alexandra and the other redheaded one. Cosma’s sister never came down either. She could have been with her mother. I haven’t seen the old lady since breakfast. Jason and Mark came down late…’

  ‘Dreamy Mark could be a suspect for you?’

  ‘Grow up, boss,’ she said with a strict tone of her voice, though the corners of her lips gave her away.

  ‘That’s quite a list of suspects.’

  ‘Well, let’s do what we do best. Let’s get investigating.’

  ‘And how are we going to go about it? Don’t forget they…’ I raised my palm and showed towards the direction of the door ‘… think that the old lady killed Cassandra and Irene committed suicide. She already tried to throw herself off the cliff.’

  Ioli took her usual ten seconds to come up with a plan. ‘We will announce that we will need everybody’s statements about their whereabouts. Typical police procedure for needed paperwork, we will call it. Just to have everything ready for when the weather clears up. That way everyone will get to leave immediately and go home. They will love that part. They are dying to get off this island… sorry, poor choice of words. This way we will also get everybody’s whereabouts during the first murder and try through conversation to find out any gossip or information about others.’

  ‘OK, go tell…’

  ‘No, it’s got to be you. I’m family. Besides, you’re the man-captain in charge and these are Cretans. They’re not used to listening to a woman.’ She could not help but smile. She unloosened her hair and straightened her knee-high, black dress.

  ‘You look lovely by the way.’

  ‘Thanks boss. I was saving this for a special occasion. I feel a bit of a fool, investigating murders with a dress and make-up.’

  ‘Who knew, right? Anyway, grandma always said it wasn’t the vestment that made the priest.’

  Ioli chuckled and I asked what was on her mind. ‘Don’t you ever feel like murders seem to find us? We came for a festive vacation to get away from it all and here we are in the middle of fucking nowhere and bodies piling up around us.’

  ‘You have to admit our lives are never dull. Anyway, I’m old. I’ll soon retire and live out my golden years being as dull as paint.’

  ‘You’re fifty. You’re not old.’

  ‘Then why do I need help getting up from the floor?’ I asked with my hand extended, reaching out to her. My legs had gone numb, kneeling for so long on the hard, cold tiled surface. My back ached again, sending those annoying mini vibrations through me.

  Oh, yes. I’m not old at all!

  People comforting each other filled the long corridor. Their whispering voices and gentle sobbing was covered by the sound of the still-plummeting rain. The constant loud bangs of thunder were starting to annoy me. The lack of sleep and dinner combined with the weather created a super migraine in my frontal lobe. I remembered how aggravated Ioli got when hungry.

  ‘Maybe we should let them eat first? Dinner is served downstairs.’

  ‘You think they would?’

  I shrugged my shoulders. Every person standing in the hallway turned to stare at us. I coughed to clear my throat and announced Ioli’s plan.

  ‘What? Now?’ Anneta objected to the plan first. ‘My brother is in no state to…’

  I held out my palm and with a calm smile signalled her to stop. ‘I understand your brother’s state better than anyone. We will speak to him when he is ready. We are all going to go down and eat and then, one by one you will come and give a statement to us in the library.’

  ‘What’s really going on, Captain?’ Jason’s booming voice came from the back of the group.

  ‘Nothing, just procedure.’ My voice trained to lie effectively.

  ‘Bullshit, I think…’

  ‘Jason!’ his brother’s voice cut him off. ‘We have had enough drama. For once in your life, just do as you’re told,’ a teary-eyed Homer said, appearing with his parents by his side. Homer fell to the ground next to his would-have-been fatherin-law, his large right arm embracing him.

  ‘My dear, dear boy. We have both lost our loved ones.’ Cosma’s words came out with difficulty, choked by tears and heavy breathing.

  Thunder reminded us of the world outside and our isolation in the vast mansion. All of a sudden, one of the hallway’s light bulbs send out its final light and said goodbye to the world with a sharp popping sound. A few gasps were heard and Amanda even let out a faint scream. The stunned group moved as one down the narrow corridor.

  ‘And darkness fell upon the earth,’ Uncle Thomas murmured, taking his wife Georgia into his embrace.

  Katerina and Christina rushed down first. They ran into the kitchen and informed the cook that the guests were on their way down.

  Mrs Voula, a large woman in her late fifties wiped away the single tear hanging from her eye and rolled up her white sleeves.

  ‘Everything is in the ovens. Nice and warm. Get serving girls,’ she said, trying hard to detach her mind from losing her employer. Mrs Zampetaki might have been stiff to most of her employees, but never towards her. Thirty-one years she had cooked for the family and she enjoyed every minute of it. Until today came into existence and death after death brought shock to the household.

  The candles in the dining room had remained lit and in the entire room an aroma of wild roses and vanilla flowed through the air. The brightly-colored table with the shiny porcelain plates and a plethora of salads were in full contrast to the gloomy, dark shadowed faces that sat around it. With breakfast interrupted and no lunch served, hunger easily beat out sorrow and guilt. Reluctantly at first, people started to place salad and olive oil coated pita bread on their plates. By the time, the golden grilled chickens came out, surrounded by juicy stuffed vine leaves and oven cooked potatoes and carrots, everyone was eating. Conversations, though quiet ones, had even began.

  The tragic figure of Cosma sat at the end of the table; his sister first on his right and Homer first to his left. None of them spoke all evening.

  ‘My God, will the rain ever stop?’ Kallisto asked, not being able to bear the silence a minute longer.

  ‘It’s really bad out there…’ George began to say.

  ‘It’s not great in here, either,’ Melissa interrupted him. George smiled at her, lifting his hand and gently stroking her hair. ‘I’m sorry, baby.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For inviting you to the wedding and bringing you in on all this.’

  ‘It’s not like you knew what would happen.’

  ‘We could have checked the weather forecast better,’ Leonida found the courage to joke.

  Beside the two couples, Jenny whispered to the rest of the girls, how her aunt had committed suicide by pills, too.

  Further down Ioli’s parents sat next to her uncle Thomas and his wife Georgia. ‘I never understood people who took their own life,’ Gianni said, to receive Anna’s notorious disapproving look with the dipping
eyebrows and the wide eyes.

  ‘Gianni, not now,’ was all she had to say to keep her husband quiet.

  Opposite them, Jason was whispering into Mark’s ear.

  ‘I’m never going to get laid now.’

  ‘Dude, seriously. Come on.’

  ‘What? That group of ladies was eating out of my palm. I was gonna make a move on the red head tonight and…’

  ‘And a suicide ruined it for you. Boo hoo, malaka.’

  ‘You’re one to speak. I’ve seen how you look at my cousin.’

  ‘Who? Ioli? No, it was just nice to see her after all this time and…’

  ‘Shut up, you’re wasting oxygen and persuading no one. If you want my opinion, go for it. She’s been single too long. My parents are always going on about her rough life and how she needs a good man to help her move on.’

  ‘Aw, man. That’s sweet. You think I am a good man,’ Mark said, fighting back a smile and leaning towards Jason.

  ‘Don’t get fucking soft with me,’ Jason said and pushed Mark off his shoulder.

  Jason’s mother, Cleopatra turned around and clearly aggravated with him, said ‘Boy, just eat and keep quiet.’ Cleopatra, a tall, beautiful sixty year old, could not accept the fact that Cassandra had died. Just yesterday, her dreams for her son had come true. He had grown up to be a sensitive, smart, handsome gentleman; he had finished university and had met a terrific girl to spend the rest of his life with. And to top everything, both wanted children. Mother-figure Cleopatra longed to have little ones running around once again. Her husband, Aristo held his wife’s trembling hand, while with his other he stroked Homer’s back.

  ‘Eat something, you need your strength.’

  ‘For what, dad? To cry on a full stomach?’ Homer snapped.

  Cleopatra’s hands were not the only hands shaking in the room. Little rattles of silverware echoed every now and then behind us. Both girls, Katerina and Christina, served dinned with ashen, distraught faces. Ioli’s eyes never left them. She seemed preoccupied with devouring her juicy, well-cooked steak, but I knew better. She loved food, but she loved investigating more.

  My attention raced around the table, my ears dropping in and my eyes monitoring movements. Who could have killed Irene Zampetaki?

  ‘I know what you’re doing, Costa, but you are going to talk to everyone soon. Can I please have some of your attention? I know, this isn’t the time for our romantic getaway, yet it would be nice to, at least, feel you close at dinner time,’ Tracy quietly said, leaning nearer to my ear. She was right. For her, Irene committed suicide. She saw no reason in me, spying on the guests.

  Tracy covered her mouth, choking down the laughter being born inside her, as I turned and smiled at her. A wide smile with gravy-covered lips and teeth decorated with mint and roast beef.

  ‘You’re one messy eater, Captain Papacosta! Maybe you should try eating and looking at your plate at the same time.’

  ‘Admit it. You’re resisting the urge to kiss me.’

  ‘Costa, stop it, please. If I laugh out, it will be distasteful.’

  It would have been a fun, romantic dinner date, but life never goes as planned. Tracy and I sat with a murderer. My eyes once again travelled around the table.

  Who could have killed Irene Zampetaki?

  Chapter 10

  Athens, years ago

  Achilles wore his best pair of blue jeans, a black, leather jacket zipped to the top and his trademark goofy smile as he zigzagged amongst the morning bus’s passengers. He smiled as he thought that the last time he felt so crowded and confined was when his uncle’s sheep were gathered to be sheared. He politely pushed himself through the wall of sleepy students and angry-at-Monday folk who unwillingly said goodbye to the weekend and welcomed another abrupt wake up and journey to work. Achilles normally walked to university. His school stood only a ten minute walk away from his underground home, yet today he rode the bus. A pretty blonde had caught his eye. He knew he had to meet her and he watched as she boarded the ‘begging for a wash’ bus.

  Agatha stood by the window; she always did. The scenery outside was ever changing. New shops opened, different clothes were worn by the same people, flowers bloomed and died, unexpected events took place, and Agatha’s eyes devoured it all. Soon after her arrival, she realized this was the place for her. She had fallen in love with noisy, smoky, multi-cultural Athens with its many options of living; the sights, the theatre, and the night clubs. Even the manic, fast-living and often rude people of Athens had started to grow on her.

  ‘Excuse me, I’m so sorry, I am such a mindless fool on Monday morning,’ the handsome boy with the short, spiky hair rushed to say.

  ‘It’s okay, I’m fine,’ Agatha said, though slightly annoyed by her new Louboutin shoes being stepped on. The commercial-white smile she received helped forget the annoyance.

  ‘I was dazzled by your beauty and…’

  Agatha could not help but laugh out loud. Her boisterous, cheery laughter embarrassed the young boy, making his green eyes ping-pong side to side to check that the entire bus was not focused on them.

  ‘Cheesy pick up line?’

  ‘The cheesiest,’ Agatha said, pushing her long blond hair back.

  ‘Yet true,’ Achilles replied, looking straight into her eyes, causing Agatha’s high cheekbones to turn a rosy shade of red.

  ‘First year here?’ Agatha asked, lowering her eyes.

  ‘How do you know I am not from here?’

  ‘Your dark-colored skin, your genuine smile, your awkward flirting on the morning bus. You’re not Athenian for sure, and at your age, I can only guess student.’

  ‘Beauty and brains.’

  ‘Wow, this is turning into a cheese fest,’ Agatha replied, giggling.

  ‘It’s working, isn’t it?’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘For one, you are still talking to me. Secondly, your eyes can’t stay away from mine. Anyway, I’m Achilles.’

  ‘Agatha,’ she said, extending her hand. Achilles took it gently into his and bowed to kiss it.

  ‘Smooth, country boy. Pretty smooth,’ Agatha nodded. ‘So, where are you from?’

  ‘Crete…’

  ‘No way,’ Agatha’s voice climbed the decibel scale. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah, why so surprised?’

  ‘Me, too. From Chania,’ Agatha answered, while her whole face lit up. She hadn’t met many people yet; friends were hard to come by. Achilles was the first boy that spoke to her for more than five minutes and about something different than notes from class.

  ‘Young people flirt funny,’ an old man sitting in front of them in a brown suit commented to his wife.

  ‘At least they are still flirting,’ his white haired wife with the trembling hands replied.

  Agatha had loosened her grip from the railing while Achilles did not hold on at all. Both were lost in conversation. The bus driver slammed down the brakes at the next stop due to a skinny, homeless dog sleeping in the bus lane. Both young students fell back onto the glass window, Achilles landing in Agatha’s arms.

  ‘They do more than us on a first date, that’s for sure,’ the old man said and his wife placed a kiss on his cheek while producing screeching laughter.

  ‘I’m sorry…’

  ‘Apologizing again?’ Agatha said. ‘Oh, shit, it’s my stop,’ she continued and rushed for the closing doors. Achilles got up and ran behind her, managing to leap off the bus just in time.

  Agatha turned around, her hair lifted by the bus-lifted, smoky air. ‘You get off here, too?’

  ‘Erm, no. I’m in Med School. Next stop down. But, you’re worth missing a lesson or two.’

  ‘Do your smooth lines always work with girls?’

  ‘Yes… I mean no, I…’

  ‘Watch it there, doc. You might hurt yourself.’

  ‘So, architecture, huh?’

  ‘Yep. I want to design big, strange buildings. Watch something grow and be created before my eyes. Leave
something behind, you know?’

  ‘My grandmother always said that about trees. She would say it whenever she planted a seed. This is not for me, it is for you and generations to come,’ he mimicked her voice.

  Agatha could not resist but giggle. Humor always won her over with people. A funny guy has a colorful heart, her aunt had told her over Easter dinner. She could not remember why.

  ‘You look pretty when you laugh.’

  ‘Compared to the rest of the time when I look ugly?’

  ‘I… No… I meant…’

  ‘I’m joking. Loosen up, doc. And just because you’re set on skipping class, does not mean I wish to. So, are you coming?’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘To class, silly. Come on,’ she said and took him by his hand.

  Achilles ran with her into the dull grey building. Not much of a place for architects, he thought. But hey, at least, I succeeded at meeting her. Dad will be pleased.

  Chapter 11

  The grey sky turned black. A ‘rock of an island’ stood alone in the vast, dark, vicious sea. The menacing clouds devoured the stars and the moon, and darkness prevailed over the land. The power had once again failed the island’s inhabitants and light only existed in the Zampetaki mansion due to gas-fueled generators. Their not-so-subtle sound thankfully was not able to reach the library where Ioli and I set up for a fun evening of interrogation.

  A long, narrow room, the library boasted countless, large, encyclopaedias and various books categorized into genres. Your classic globe sphere of the earth which opened into a mini bar stood in the corner, while tall-back armchairs were scattered around the room. The ceiling was painted blue in an attempt to resemble the sky, an attempt ruined by the larger-than-life chandeliers.

  ‘Let’s prepare our room,’ Ioli said, pulling a wooden desk to the center of the room. ‘Thank God, they left one room without the entire floor being carpeted,’ she said as she pulled the desk past the only carpet of the room.

  ‘Thank God for your muscles. If I pulled that my back would be killing me right now,’ I commented, as I pushed two chairs behind the heavy desk.

  ‘You really should check that out, boss. I know I tease you about it a lot, but you’re not that old.’