It was indeed a nice day for a walk, perhaps in the mountains, near the fortress. Well, I couldn’t hang about all day waiting to see if Delphine told me anything about Leo, and I’d quite like to have a look myself at the Kokorakis base of operations to see if it was as extensive as Irini said.
I rang Maria and asked if she knew exactly where the fortress was located. Or rather if Spiros did. She sent me a grid reference within minutes, and a warning to take care as it was guarded.
I then rang Alex. ‘Hi, did you have a good time at the celebrations?’
‘I did have a little too much raki,’ he said, ‘I have a thick head.’
‘Well, I have the perfect antidote for that. How about a drive up into the mountains and a nice walk to clear your head?’
‘Sounds perfect.’
I filled him in on the problem with Leo and how angry and hopeless it had made me feel, and came clean on wanting to see Kokorakis’ business base for myself. Just to get an idea of the size of the operation.
‘You can’t go up and just ask to be let in, Anna. They might have men with guns guarding the place.’
‘Guns? He’s a builder, Alex, not a gangster. We don’t have to go in, I just want to see the place.’
‘Maybe not, but this is not such a good idea. Why do you want to see the place anyway? Let’s go for a beach walk instead.’
I don’t think I could honestly say why I wanted to go. I was still trying to square the warnings from Maria and Irini with the charming couple I had begun to know. I guess I needed to see for myself.
It took a good ten minutes to talk him round. My last argument, that it was Easter Sunday and there would be families all over the mountains walking and picking flowers, seemed to win him over. ‘So, I’ll make a picnic. Do you have binoculars?’ He had. ‘And we’ll be looking from far away.’
I packed lunch and wore my walking boots and jeans. It would be cooler in the mountains, so I packed a light waterproof jacket and a fleece into my backpack and was ready when Alex knocked on the door.
He kissed me lightly on the cheek, then gave me a tight hug that almost winded me. ‘I’m glad you are okay,’ he muttered into my hair. ‘You worried me with that phone call this morning. I’m glad you have finished it with Leo. He isn’t a good man, I know that now.’
He let me go and loaded his backpack into my car. I stood for a moment, having a little bask. Alex cared about me. He would come with me even though he didn’t want to. Sneaking up as close as we could get, and having a look at the set-up were my only aims for the afternoon, and then dinner when we got back. It was a good, if basic plan, I thought.
Once I’d loaded the directions into his phone we set off, following the Falasarna road up into the mountains. The sun was strong on the windscreen and it felt good to roll the windows down and feel the air on our faces. It would help to clear our heads after our overindulgences the night before.
Alex brought up Maps on his phone. ‘It is a region full of olive trees and grapevines, as one would expect. But here’ – he pointed to a spot on the map that I couldn’t see because I was concentrating so hard on the road – ‘is an isolated farm with many barns and outbuildings. It’s a big place. The property business must bring in more than the farming altogether,’ he said.
‘Yes, I suppose it must.’ We drove in silence for a few kilometres as I negotiated switchback bends and dizzying drops to the plains below. I was feeling a bit sick from the bends and wondering if driving had been such a good idea when Alex spoke up.
‘I will show you where to park,’ he said as we neared the grid reference. ‘We should walk from there. There is a little chapel on a hill that will give us a good view down onto the fortress, as it is called.’
The phone announced that we should take the right fork off the main road which meant we were getting close to where we would need to get out and walk. The chapel was about two kilometres from where we could park, and the fortress was downhill from there, another kilometre or so. It felt like a long way away, but it would have to do.
I parked as far under a large cypress tree as I could get, aiming to disguise our presence somewhat, in case we were trespassing. We ate lunch before we set off, sitting under a stand of Holm oak trees bearing luminous new green leaves and marvelling at a clump of pink orchids growing nearby. I took a photo, having no idea what kind of orchid they were.
I slathered bread in hummus, cheese and wedges of tomato and passed one to Alex, who devoured it even faster than I did. There is something about being outside in the crisp air that stimulates the appetite, although from the looks Alex was sending my way, it wasn’t just his stomach he was interested in. At least the ‘complication’ of Leo was well out of the way. I grinned at him. ‘Not such a bad way to spend a Sunday?’
‘Not so bad at all,’ he said, and took a drink from his water bottle.
The walk was uphill, through wild, forested areas along a trail that had been used in the past. And still would be used now, I realised, by whoever it was who tended to the little chapel and the goats which could be spotted roaming all over the hills. When we reached it there were wild flowers in a small vase at the door, and inside, a gold-painted icon of Mary and a lacy cloth covered the altar. It was tiny, and much loved by somebody.
In the open space around the chapel, beehives buzzed in the afternoon warmth and poppies poked up from the earth. There were goats clanging the bells around their necks as they leapt from rock to rock and clambered into gnarled trees in search of the best new leaves. It was idyllic. I let out a breath and gave a silent thanks to the mountains for what they gave us, especially in spring. We were among them now, their limestone crags glittering in the sharp sun and snow caps slowly melting into rivers that would be bone dry in a month or so.
Alex called me over to a large, flat rock on which he had perched. He was scanning the area with his binoculars. The views were huge from up there; olive groves and orange groves and forests crowded the nearby slopes. Rows of vines, cut and already sprouting in new growth, marched away over the hillsides and the whole valley meandered down towards the sea at Falasarna. ‘Look,’ Alex said, ‘there is the place.’
I followed the line of his arm down the valley to a spread of buildings. There was one enormous central building that looked like it had been extended many times from the original farmhouse, and as Alex had noticed on the map, six outbuildings, a wine-production facility and huge amounts of machinery and materials for building houses. There were lorries and white vans parked all over the place, probably because it was a holiday.
I scrambled up next to him, took the binoculars and refocused them for my long sight. At first I could see little, but then my eyes focused and I could see quite well. ‘Wow, do you think they make the bricks as well as put the buildings together?’ I asked, pointing him towards an enormous cement mixer.
‘It’s possible. He can massively cut costs by keeping it in-house. It is a big operation for one man to control.’
‘And that can go wrong, can’t it? Especially if you send someone like Spiros to do your dirty work. Why on earth didn’t he get a solicitor to send a letter, like normal people do when someone defaults on the rent?’
He laughed at me. ‘That is not the Cretan way, Anna, you know that.’
I laughed too. ‘Good point. Still, it went horribly wrong, didn’t it?’
I moved the binoculars down into the yard between the farm and the outbuildings and spotted a man standing in the middle of the yard, hands on hips. I ducked down automatically. He had been looking straight at me.
‘There’s someone looking up at us,’ I murmured, ‘and he must have good eyesight. As long as he’s not overprotective we should be okay. Surely the path to the chapel is a public right of way?’
Alex turned over and lay on his stomach, shading his eyes to see better. ‘It’s a big business,’ he said, ‘security will be tight.’
I kept looking. ‘The farmhouse has been extended. Many Cretans built big
family houses with multiple doors and links to each other in case of invasion. Mum said they would head for these houses in the hills at the first sign of invaders. That’s why they were such trouble for the Nazis in the war, it was almost impossible to track them down and they were always ready to go.’
‘And it would be fertile up here during the summer, so they could survive well.’
‘They’re a tough lot,’ I said, and took a closer look at the layout of the farmhouse. There was a front door set into what looked like one large room, then a series of rooms ran off in either direction. ‘I’d guess there are at least four doors leading out, one from each of those sections. It’s interesting.’
‘No secret tunnel?’ asked Alex, lying back on his elbows and smiling lazily at me.
‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was.’
We basked on the warm rock for an hour or so, chatting, sunbathing, and finding out a little about each other. Our second date. ‘See, it’s fine,’ I said. ‘We’re not trespassing, and now I understand a bit more about the size of his business.’ I spread my arms as wide as they would go. ‘Huge.’
‘Enormous,’ Alex said.
‘Gigantic.’
‘Massive.’
‘Extensive.’
‘I can’t think of any more adjectives in English,’ he said. ‘Quit, you have an unfair advantage.’
I laughed and he leaned over and kissed me, quite gently, on the lips. Before I could go back for more, there was a cough from behind us.
I’d heard nothing, but then we had been a little distracted. I swung round and found two rough-looking men standing at the foot of the rock. One of them had a hunting rifle over his shoulder. I squeaked, ‘Alex!’ but that’s as far as I got.
‘You come down, now,’ the bigger of the two men growled. He was young, but built like a rugby player, with meaty arms and leg muscles bulging through his jeans. The other one moved away, signalling us down with his rifle.
Alex saw the panic in my eyes and pulled me to my feet, holding me steady. He gestured at the man. ‘We will. No need for weapons,’ he said. ‘We’re just enjoying a walk and looking at the view. If we have trespassed, then I am sorry, and we will go.’
He jumped from the rock and helped me to the ground, where I collapsed into a heap against him. I was so scared, and so angry with myself. I’d put me, and worse, someone I cared about in danger. Why did I have to find out about everything? What was the matter with me? Why couldn’t I let things be? I got up shakily and held onto Alex’s hand, and put on my best wavery English lady voice. ‘Please, we are just tourists.’ I couldn’t take my eyes off the weapon that hung so casually over the guy’s shoulder.
The older man looked us over. ‘Then why,’ he asked in broken English, ‘you look at farmhouse with those?’ He indicated the binoculars.
‘No,’ said Alex, ‘we have no interest in houses. We are birdwatching. Vultures.’
‘Vultures? I see the sun on the glass. Looking at the house.’
Alex grasped my hand tighter as the men spoke rapidly in Greek, deciding whether or not to believe us, or whether they should call the police or the boss after what had happened last night. Did they mean Leo? Was he spying after all? I could feel the thump of my heart in my head. I’d be mortified if they told Nikos I’d been up here spying on him, too. I had to think of something.
So I did what women have had to do for eternity when confronted with superior male strength: I started to cry, loudly. It wasn’t a dramatic stretch to be honest, I was scared. ‘What have we done wrong? Oh, please let us go. We’re on holiday, please!’ I sobbed. ‘We’re looking at the birds, not your house. I’m so sorry.’ I sobbed more.
Alex played along, shushing me and patting me on the back. ‘My wife,’ he said, ‘she is pregnant, and this has been a terrible shock. I must get her to a doctor to make sure the baby is safe. Please may we go? We will go straight back to the hotel.’
I gave them my best, rather snotty, pleading look.
More debate followed, about the pros and cons of having to alert the boss, who was in a foul mood. And what if we really were tourists? Then they would be in trouble. Apparently I didn’t look like a spy. No names that I recognised were mentioned, which was frustrating although I was sure I knew who they were looking out for.
Finally, our acting must have been good enough; they sent us on our way, but followed us until we reached my car and I drove off down the hill, shaking so much I could hardly change gear. They had parked their large SUV right up behind my little Fiat. Even the car looked intimidated.
Once onto the main road to Falasarna, the men turned back to head up towards the farmhouse and when I figured we were far enough away, I pulled over into the nearest lay-by, where I stopped the car and had to prise my hands off the steering wheel. I couldn’t look at Alex. ‘I’m so, so sorry, Alex, getting you involved in this. I was just being nosy, but it’s all gone wrong. I feel awful.’ I couldn’t stop the tears that followed, they just fell out of my eyes and onto my shirt. Real tears, not ones just for effect.
There was a snort from next to me, then Alex said in a high-pitched squeal, ‘We are looking at the vultures!’ and he began to laugh and pound the dashboard. Big belly laughs that left me astonished. It was infectious. Once I started I couldn’t stop laughing until the tears were running freely down my face and we had exhausted all the tissues in the pack.
‘My wife is pregnant!’ Alex snorted, and started us off all over again.
‘Please let us go, we are tourists,’ I added through my hysteria.
I finally sobered, and found that I felt better, and calmer. ‘Thank you for that,’ I said, sniffling, ‘it really helped.’ I knew I looked an absolute mess, but it didn’t seem to matter. He’d sorted me out. After a final shuddering breath, I was okay. I pulled down the little mirror on the sun visor and observed the blotched skin and swollen lips and pink nose. Nice.
Alex took my hand. ‘When something happens that is a shock, the only thing to do is laugh, I find. Laughing takes away its power, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, but I might have put you in danger because of my nosiness.’
He shrugged. ‘Nobody has been killed, Anna. They are just guards for the business. The rifle was broken across his shoulder. He had no intention of firing on us. It is all fine, isn’t it?’
I squeezed his hand. ‘I guess I was more upset by Leo’s behaviour last night than I thought. Did you catch the comment about the boss being in a foul mood? I really need to know what Leo said to upset him so much.’ I caught myself out. ‘I’m being nosy again, aren’t I? You know, all I really want is to live quietly, to work, to get to know my family and to enjoy life. And my friends,’ I added, squeezing his hand again.
Alex passed me the bottle of water from my backpack. ‘Now that is the most sensible thing you have said today, Miss Marple. Drink this and we’ll go back to your place. You promised me dinner.’
The afternoon sun warmed us as we made our way down to the coast and through the town to my little house. The atmosphere between us had changed since that interrupted kiss, and I was both excited and nervous about what the night might bring. Alex kept sneaking little glances at me, as if he too had seen something different. We were treading lightly, chatting about growing plants and getting the boat ready to go back in the water. All inconsequential things, like the ads before the film, when they make you sit through them before you get to the good stuff. At the risk of sounding trite, I’d never felt like this before. As if the next few hours would seal my future, and I had to get it right.
I need not have worried. We had barely closed the door when Alex took me in his arms, kissed my eyes, the tip of my nose and then found my mouth, and I knew it would be all right, now. I was home.
22
Alex curled up beside me in my bed for the first time that night. We had eaten lightly, and given the alcohol a break after our respective heavy nights, and we slept well. I was comforted by his prese
nce. I still didn’t feel safe with Leo prowling around being angry.
In the morning, while he lay quietly asleep, I took his callused hand and traced the marks made by ropes; the small scars and cuts and grazes. A man who could be serious, but also silly. A man who liked me and didn’t want to mould me into somebody else. A father to two sons. I felt a huge tug around my heart and pressed a hand against my belly. Maybe, one day.
My phone, charging on the bedside table, buzzed. It was Delphine, could I come up to the house after breakfast as she and Nikos had something to discuss with me? I replied asking if it was okay to bring Alex, and she said she would prefer it if I didn’t, as they didn’t know him. I understood. How could they know what he had become to me?
When I’d finished the text, I noticed that his blue, blue eyes were open and looking my way.
‘That is an extremely attractive shoulder that you are brandishing at me in a very provocative manner, Miss Georgiou. Please bring it closer so I may inspect it for freckles.’
I lent him the shoulder, but after a few minutes, I had to call a halt before he wanted more than the shoulder. ‘We have to get up. I must go to Delphine’s, she has something to discuss with me. They promised to explain what has been going on with Leo. Can I see you later?’
He sighed. ‘I only just got you, and now I have to share you?’
‘Only temporarily. This is really important to me, Alex. I’m finally going to find out what’s been going on, and, if I’m feeling really brave, I may ask Nikos if he did know my father all those years ago. I can’t see why Irini would have made a mistake.’
‘I understand. I have work to do as well. I plan to get my boat back into the water this week, and I have a lot of work to do on it. Although I would prefer to stay here with you.’ He gave me one last kiss, rolled out of bed and stretched his long body so that his hands touched the ceiling. ‘Don’t worry about breakfast. I’ll have a quick shower and go.’
Those You Trust: compelling women's psychological fiction Page 16