She fell against him, her arms sliding around his neck. “I thought I was never going to stop.”
“At least we’ve come a long way down in a hell of a short time,” he said. “We’d better take advantage of it.”
As he finished speaking, shale and loose earth showered down on them and the dog snarled somewhere above. It erupted from the darkness and landed with a splash about six feet away.
Lomax pushed Katina to one side and picked up a large stone in his two hands and brought it down with all his force as the animal surged forward. There was a terrible cracking sound and the hound gave a strange, whimpering cry and fell to one side, thrashing the water.
Lomax turned away, sobbing for breath. He took Katina by one arm and together they scrambled over the slippery boulders and up out of the pool. A moment later they were moving down the side of the mountain through the heavy rain.
Confessional
When they reached the villa Katina was limping heavily and Lomax supported her as they climbed out of the ditch and crossed the road.
The gates stood open and the lamp suspended from the archway above swayed in the wind, a pool of light constantly reaching into the darkness and retreating again.
They moved along the narrow flagged path between the olive trees and the rain seemed to drown all sound. Lomax was soaked to the skin, dark hair plastered across his forehead. Every muscle in his body ached and he found it an effort to place one foot in front of the other.
Katina was almost at breaking point, nerve and sinew stretched to the limit. She stumbled as they came to the edge of the trees and he caught her hi his arms.
He held her very close and said softly, “Not long now. It’s almost over.”
And then he heard the sound of the piano as he had heard it once before hi this place, nostalgic and wistful. He was trapped again at the crossing point between the present and the past and he stood there hi the rain holding the girl, the music filling him with a strange, aching sadness.
The french window was ajar, one end of a red velvet curtain billowing into the rain as a gust of wind lifted it. Katina pulled it back and they moved inside.
A log fire burned on the wide stone hearth and the room was illuminated by the lamp that stood on the piano. In its light, Van Horn’s hair gleamed like silver.
He was wearing a smoking jacket in corded green silk and he jumped up and came forward, a frown on his face.
“I thought you were never coming. What happened?”
At that moment Katina sighed and started to slide to the floor. Lomax caught her in his arms and carried her across to the divan.
Van Horn sat beside her, rolled back an eyelid with his thumb and took her pulse. After a moment he looked up. “She’s completely exhausted. Get the brandy. It’s in the cupboard under the bookshelves.”
Lomax found the bottle and two glasses and returned. He filled one and gave it to Van Horn and used the other himself.
The liquid burned its way down into his stomach and he filled his glass again and watched Van Horn raise Katina’s head and force open her mouth. She choked and started to cough and then her eyes opened.
She tried to sit up and Van Horn said, “It’s all right, my dear. You’re at the villa.”
She stared blankly at him and then something clicked in her eyes. “Is the boat ready?”
He nodded and she swung her legs to the floor. “Then what are we sitting here for?”
She tried to stand up and Lomax pushed her down. “There’s no hurry, Katina,” he said. “Not any more. I’m not going anywhere.”
She stared up at him, a slight, puzzled frown on her face, and Van Horn said, “Don’t be a fool, Lomax. I heard you’d accused Alexias of murdering Dimitri Paros, but you haven’t a hope in hell of proving it.”
Lomax helped himself to a cigarette from the silver box on top of the piano. He lit it slowly and blew out a long column of smoke. He felt very tired and there was a slight, persistent ache just behind his right eye.