Melina spoke into the dead phone. “You can threaten me all you like. I’m not going to change my mind…Never…I don’t care what you say…You don’t frighten me, Costa…No…What would be the point?…All right. I’ll meet you at the beach house, but it won’t do you any good. Yes, I’ll come alone. In an hour? Very well.”
Slowly, Melina replaced the receiver, a worried look on her face. She turned to Andrea. “I’m going to the beach house to meet my husband. If I haven’t returned by six o’clock, I want you to call the police.”
Andrea swallowed nervously. “Would you like the chauffeur to drive you?”
“No. Mr. Demiris asked me to come alone.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
There was one more thing to do. Catherine Alexander’s life was in danger. She had to be warned. It was someone from the delegation that had had dinner at the house. You won’t see her again. I’ve sent someone to get rid of her. Melina placed a call to her husband’s offices in London.
“Is there a Catherine Alexander working there?”
“She’s not in at the moment. Can anyone else help you?”
Melina hesitated. Her message was too urgent to trust to just anyone, but she would have no time to call back. She remembered Costa mentioning a Wim Vandeen, a genius in the office.
“Could I speak with Mr. Vandeen, please.”
“Just a moment.”
A man’s voice came on the line. “Hello.”
She could barely understand him.
“I have a message for Catherine Alexander. It’s very important. Would you see that she gets it, please?”
“Catherine Alexander.”
“Yes. Tell her—tell her that her life is in danger. Someone is going to try to kill her. I think it could be one of the men who came from Athens.”
“Athens…”
“Yes.”
“Athens has a population of eight hundred six thousand…”
Melina could not seem to make the man understand. She hung up the phone. She had tried her best.
Wim sat at his desk, digesting the telephone conversation. Someone is going to try to kill Catherine. A hundred and fourteen murders were committed in England this year, Catherine will make it a hundred and fifteen. One of the men who came from Athens. Jerry Haley. Yves Renard. Dino Mattusi. One of them is going to kill Catherine. Wim’s computer mind instantly fed him all the data on the three men. I think I know which one it is.
When Catherine returned later, Wim said nothing to her about the phone call.
He was curious to see if he was right.
Catherine was out with a different member of the delegation every evening, and when she came to work each morning, Wim was there, waiting. He seemed disappointed to see her.
When is she going to let him do it? Wim wondered. Maybe he should tell her about the telephone message. But that would be cheating. It wouldn’t be fair to change the odds.
Chapter Twenty-five
The drive to the beach house took an hour of actual time and twenty years of memories. There was so much for Melina to think about, so much to recall. Costa, young and handsome, saying, Surely you’ve been sent from the heavens to teach us mortals what beauty is. You’re beyond flattery. Nothing I could say would do you justice…The wonderful cruises on their yacht and idyllic vacations on Psara…The days of lovely surprise gifts and the nights of wild lovemaking. And then the miscarriage, and the string of mistresses, and the affair with Noelle Page. And the beatings and public humiliations. Monnareemou! You have nothing to live for, he had said. Why don’t you kill yourself? And, finally, the threat to destroy Spyros.
That was what, in the end, Melina was unable to bear.
When Melina arrived at the beach house, it was deserted. The sky was cloudy, and there was a chill wind blowing from the sea. An omen, she thought.
She walked into the comforting, friendly house and looked around for the last time.
Then she began to overturn furniture and smash lamps. She ripped off her dress and let it fall to the floor. She took out the card from the detective agency and placed it on a table. She lifted the rug and put the gold button under it. Next she took off the gold wristwatch that Costa had given her and smashed it against the table.