“That sounds good.”
“I think so, too. It’ll be fun. How long has it been since we hung out in some cozy little hotel like this?”
“I don’t remember.”
“We’ll watch the news on TV when it comes back on, and we’ll get some food. Then we can talk all night if we want. I’ve got an idea about how to thwart Karmela without your husband realizing what’s happening.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
Fran smiled. “You haven’t heard my plan yet.” She got up from the table. “I’ll talk to the proprietor and arrange a room for us. When the rain stops, we’ll go out to the car for our luggage.”
By now Fran figured Kellie’s bodyguard would have contacted Leandros wherever he was and told him his wife was safe and sound. She hoped Leandros would call her soon. The problems in their marriage were tearing her best friend apart. No one knew what that felt like better than Fran.
* * *
Nik Angelis had just entered his Athens penthouse when one of his brothers phoned him. He clicked on. “Sandro? What’s up?” They’d already spent part of the day in a board meeting at the Angelis Corporation. Nik had recently taken over for his father who’d retired.
“Turn on your television. The news about the tornado is on every station.”
“I was in it, remember?” It was the only talk at Angelis headquarters. After he’d seen his sister and her family off to Thessalonika early that morning on the company jet, Nik had headed over to the international air cargo station to check on some shipments. While he was talking business with one of the staff, a funnel had dropped down from clouds descending on Athens. It had swept through in a northwest direction and headed straight for the air cargo station.
After a few minutes it dissipated, but in that amount of time, it had caused damage to the constructions in its path and left a trail of destruction. Fortunately everyone involved had escaped injury, including Nik. Before he instructed his limo driver to take him to his office, he’d made contact with his pilot.
Relief had filled him to learn they’d been at cruising speed and out of range of the severe turbulence of the weather pattern before the tornado had formed. Knowing his sister’s family were safely on their way north for a vacation, he’d been able to relax.
“No, no,” Sandro cried anxiously. “Not that one. I’m talking about another one that touched down near Thessalonika a few minutes ago.”
Another one?
“Let’s pray Melina and Stavros are safe.”
Nik’s heart had already received one workout this morning, but now it almost failed him. “Hold on.” He raced into his den and clicked on the TV with the remote. Every station was covering the news using split screens to show the funnel clouds of both tornadoes.
...and then another tornado struck a part of the Greek Riviera at 5:13 p.m. this evening. It was reported as a T-4, and has since dissipated, but we won’t know the true extent of the damage for a while. Word has already reached the station that a dozen villas and some private suites at the world-famous Persephone Resort owned by the Petralia Corporation, have been destroyed.
Nik felt as if a grenade had blown up his insides. The Persephone was where Melina, Stavros and their infant daughter were going to stay for the first two nights of their vacation. Nik’s good friend, in business and socially, Leandros Petralia, was the owner of the resort.
“I called Melina on her cell, but there’s no phone service.” Sandro sounded frantic.
The knowledge sent ice through Nik’s veins.
So far twenty people are unaccounted for. We repeat, it doesn’t mean those are fatalities. Relief is pouring in from all over. We ask people to stay away from the area and let the police and search-and-rescue workers do their job. Cell phones are not working. We’ve posted a series of hotline numbers on the screen in case you have or need information about a loved one.
Pure terror seized his heart. “Do you think Cosimo is home from the office yet?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll try to reach him.”
“Tell him to meet us at the airport, Sandro.” He wanted both his brothers with him. “We’ll fly to Thessalonika.”
“I’m on my way!”
Nik clicked off, then phoned his driver and told him to bring the car around. On his way out the door he called his pilot and told him to ready the jet for another flight to Thessolonika. In a little over an hour Nik and his brothers could be there. They would need a car.
En route to the airport he phoned his parents at the family villa on Mykonos. They’d just heard the news and were in total anguish. “Our precious Melina, our Demitra,” his mother half sobbed the words.
“Their suite may not have been among the ones affected, Mana. In any case, Stavros will have protected them. We have to have faith. Sandro and Cosimo are going to fly there with me now. You get on one of those hotlines and see what you can find out! Call me when you know anything. Let’s pray phone service is restored there soon. I’ll call you when I know anything.”
* * *
A rap on the hotel-room door the next morning brought both girls awake. With the TV knocked out last night, they’d talked for hours about Karmela. Before falling asleep, Fran had made sure her friend was armed with a firm plan in mind for once their vacation was over.
Kellie lifted her head and checked her watch. “It’s ten after ten!”
“Maybe it’s one of the maids waiting to make up our room. I’m closest.” Fran jumped out of bed in her plaid cotton pajamas. “Who is it?” she called through the door.
“Yannis.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Kellie murmured. In an instant she slid out of her bed and rushed over to the door. The dark-haired bodyguard stood in the hall while they spoke in Greek. The conversation went on for a minute until Kellie groaned and closed the door again. Her face had turned ashen.
Fran thought her friend was going to faint and caught her around the shoulders. “What’s wrong? Come sit down on the chair and tell me.”
But Kellie just stood with tears gushing down her pale cheeks. “A tornado touched down twelve miles to the north of here last evening, killing nine people. Among them were five guests staying at the P-Persephone.”
They stared at each other in disbelief. “I can’t credit it,” Fran whispered in shock. “If we hadn’t pulled over when we did...” They could have been among the fatalities. She started to tremble.
“Yannis said Leandros heard about it on the television, but he was almost a thousand miles away in Rhodes. He flew here immediately, but even with his own jet and a police escort, he had trouble getting into the site until the middle of the night. Three of the twelve individual suites were demolished. There’s nothing left of them.”
Fran gasped. “On top of the human tragedy, your poor husband is having to deal with that, too.”
“Leandros told Yannis it’s a nightmare, and there’s still no phone, internet or television service to that area. He got hold of him through the help of the police to let me know what has happened. I’ve been asked to stay put here until he joins us. Yannis said it shouldn’t be long now.” Kellie’s teeth were chattering.
“Come on. We need to get ready and go downstairs. Knowing your husband, he must be absolutely devastated and is going to need you more than he’s ever needed anyone in his life.” Now would be the time for Kellie to draw close to Leandros and put the plan they’d talked about last night into action.
Both of t
hem showered and dressed in a daze. Fran put on white linen pants with a spring-green-and-white-printed top. She tied her dark honey-blonde hair back at the nape with a white chiffon scarf. After slipping on white sandals, she announced she was ready. Nothing seemed real as they packed up and carried their bags downstairs to wait for Leandros.
To Fran’s surprise, the main doors of the hotel were open for patrons to walk out and enjoy coffee at the tables set up in front of the building. Warm air filtered inside and a golden sun shone out of a blue sky. Up and down the street, life appeared to be going on as usual. You would never have known there’d been a natural disaster twelve miles away from here last evening.
A waiter approached them. “The tables in front are full. If you’ll walk around to the patio in back, we’ll serve you out there.”
“Thank you,” Fran said before taking Kellie aside. “Yannis is sitting outside in his car by yours. Let’s stow our luggage and then tell him we’ll be in back of the hotel. We need breakfast with our coffee. He can show Leandros where to come. I feel like soaking up some sun until he arrives. Don’t you?”
“I guess so,” Kellie answered in a wooden voice.
They walked over to their car and put their cases in the back. “This hotel seems to be a popular place. Go ahead and talk to Yannis while I get us a table before they’re all taken.”
“Okay.”
Fran followed the stone pathway to the rear of the hotel where blue chairs and tables were set with bright blue-and-white-check cloths. There was an overhang of bougainvillea above the back door, and further on, a small garden. Too bad the wind had denuded most of the flowering plants. There were only a few red petals left.
She took a seat in the sun while she waited, thinking she was alone. But all of a sudden she heard a strange sound, like a whimper. Surprised, Fran looked around, then up. Maybe it was coming from one of the rooms on the next floor where a window was open.
Again she heard the faint cry. It didn’t sound frantic and it seemed to be coming from the garden area. Maybe it was a kitten that had been injured in the storm. Poor thing. She jumped up and walked over to investigate.
When she looked in the corner, a gasp escaped her lips. There, on its back in the bushes, lay a dirty black-haired baby with cuts from head to toe—
Fran couldn’t fathom it. The child was dressed in nothing more than a torn pink undershirt. The little olive-skinned girl couldn’t be more than seven months old. Where in heaven’s name had she come from? A groan came out of Fran. She wondered how long the child had been out here in this condition.
Trying to be as gentle as possible, Fran lifted the limp body in her arms, petrified because the baby had to be dying of hypothermia. Her pallor was pronounced and her little lids were closed.
“Fran?” Kellie called out and ran up to her. “What on earth?”
She turned to her friend with tear-filled eyes. “Look— I found this baby in the garden.”
A gasp flew from Kellie’s lips. “I can see that, but I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
“I know. Quick—get me a blanket and drive us to the hospital. I’m afraid she’s going to die.”
Kellie’s eyes rounded before she dashed through the back door, calling in Greek for help. Within seconds, the staff came running out. One of them brought a blanket. Fran wrapped the baby as carefully as she could and headed around the front of the hotel. Kellie ran ahead of her to talk to Yannis.
“He’ll drive us to the hospital.”
He helped Fran and the baby inside the backseat of his car. She thought he looked as white-faced as Kellie, who climbed in front. She looked back at Fran. “What do you think happened?”
“Who knows? Maybe the mother was on the street around the corner when a microburst toppled the stroller or something and this dear little thing landed in the garden.”
“But she’s only wearing a torn shirt.”
Both of them were aghast. “I agree, nothing makes sense.”
“Do you think she could have been out there all night?”
“I don’t know,” Fran’s voice trembled. “But what other explanation could there possibly be, Kellie? The baby has superficial cuts all over.”
“I’m still in shock. You don’t suppose the mother is lying around the hotel grounds somewhere, too? Maybe concussed?”
“It’s a possibility,” Fran murmured. “We know what tornadoes can do. The one in Dallas tossed truck rigs in the air like matchsticks. Sometimes I feel that’s all we see on the news back home. I just have never heard about a tornado in Greece.”
“They get them from time to time. Leandros told me they usually happen near coastal waters.”
The baby had gone so still, it was like holding a doll. “Tell Yannis to please hurry, Kellie. She’s not making any more sounds. The police need to be notified and start looking for this baby’s parents.”
Once they reached the emergency entrance, everything became a blur as the baby was rushed away. Fran wanted to go with her, but the emergency-room staff told her they needed information and showed her to the registration desk.
The man in charge told them them to be seated while he asked a lot of questions. He indicated that no one had contacted the hospital looking for a lost baby. Furthermore, no mother or father injured in the storm had been brought in. So far, only a young man whose car had skidded in the downpour and hit a building had come in for some stitches on his arm.
When the questioning was over he said, “One of our staff has already contacted the police. They’ve assured us they’ll do a thorough investigation to unite the baby with her parents. An officer should be here within the hour to take your statements. Just go into the E.R. lounge to wait, or go to the cafeteria at the end of the hall.”
When they walked out, Kellie touched Fran’s arm. “I think we’d better eat something now.”
“Agreed.”
After a quick breakfast, they returned to the E.R. lounge. “If the baby lives, it will be thanks to you and your quick thinking. Had you been even a couple of minutes later arriving at the patio the baby might not have had the strength to cry and no one would have discovered her in time.”
Hot tears trickled down Fran’s cheeks. “She has to live, Kellie, otherwise life really doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing.” They both had. Kellie had been praying to get pregnant and it had been Fran’s fate not to be able to conceive. What a pair they made! She found two seats and they sat down.
“I wish Leandros would get here. After seeing this baby, I’m worried sick for what he’s had to deal with. Lives were lost in that tornado. He’ll take their deaths seriously.”
“It’s too awful to think about. I’m still having trouble believing this has happened. When I saw her lying in those bushes, I thought I was hallucinating.”
Before long, two police officers came into the lounge to talk to them. There was still no word about the parents. After they went out again, Fran jumped up. “I can’t sit still. Let’s go into the E.R. Maybe someone at the desk can tell us if there’s been any news on the baby yet.”
Kellie got to her feet. “While you do that, I’m going outside to talk to Yannis. Maybe he’s heard from Leandros.”
Quickly, Fran hurried through the doors to the E.R. and approached one of the staff at the counter. “Could you tell me anything about the baby we brought in a little while ago?”
“You can ask Dr. Xanthis, the atte
nding physician. He’s coming through those doors now.”
Fran needed no urging to rush toward the middle-aged doctor. “Excuse me—I’m Mrs. Myers. I understand you might be able to tell me something about the baby my friend and I brought to the hospital.” Her heart hammered in fear. “Is she going to live?”
“We won’t know for several hours,” he answered in a strong Greek accent.
“Can I see her?”
He shook his head. “Only family is allowed in the infant ICU.”
“But no one has located her family yet. She’s all alone. I found her in the bushes in the garden behind the hotel.”
“So I understand. It’s most extraordinary.”
“Couldn’t I just be in the same room with her until her parents are found?”
The man’s sharp eyes studied her for a moment. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Please?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“She’s a stranger to you.”
Fran bit her lip. “She’s a baby. I—I feel she needs someone,” her voice faltered.
All of a sudden a small smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Come. I’ll take you to her.”
“Just a moment.” She turned to the staff person. “If my friend Mrs. Petralia comes in asking for me, please tell her I’m with the baby, but I’ll be back here in a little while.”
“Very good.”
The doctor led her through the far doors to an elevator that took them to the second floor. They walked through some other doors to the nursery area where he introduced her to a nurse. “I’ve given Kyria Myers permission to be with the baby until the police locate the mother and father. See that she is outfitted.”
“This way,” the other woman gestured as she spoke.
Baby out of the Blue Page 2