The Forty Column Castle (23 page)

Reluctantly, I started down the remains of a stairway into a hole in the ground. Nausea
started in my gut and rose into my chest like black bile, bitter and unrelenting.
Panic I could no longer keep at bay. From behind me the beam of light from her flashlight
illuminated the stairs that the darkness enclosed. I yelped as a fluttery creature
exited the black hole.

“Get going,” she said and shoved me. “You aren’t afraid of a little bat are you?”

“As a matter of fact, they give me the creeps,” I muttered to myself.

I picked my way down the steps the flashlight illuminated. So much for any hope of
rescue. No one seemed to have seen or cared that we came in late, that two women had
disappeared into the tombs.

Zachariah Lamont where were you now?

The further we descended into the tomb, the more I wheezed and fought for breath.
Claustrophobia made me want to push the walls apart. I had had nightmares about places
where there were thirty feet of dirt above me and no way out, trying to scream but
I could make no sound. I shrank from stories of people buried alive in earthquake
rubble.

“Stop,” the hateful woman said.

Like a mindless little ant, I obeyed.

“Sit down.”

I looked down at the dirty, dusty rock floor and thought of scorpions and rats. “No,
I’m not sitting down. Who are you and what do you want with me?”

She flashed the light into my face, and I jerked away from the blinding beam. “I told
you I ask the questions. Where’s your boyfriend?”

“My boy…” The rest of the words died on my lips. They hadn’t gotten to Zach.

“Don’t play stupid, answer the question.”

“He left while I was asleep. I don’t know where he went. Get that light out of my
eyes.” My near hysteria made me bold. “I don’t know what you are involved in, but
I am an innocent bystander and don’t have any information.”

“You might not have information, but you’ll make a good hostage.” She fumbled in her
bag and came up with a length of leather cord.

My eyes widened. If she thought she was going to tie me up and leave me in a tomb,
she was mistaken.

“Sit down,” she said.

I swung.

Between the flashlight and the leather cord, I found my opening. I had never socked
anyone with my fist before, but terror put so much adrenaline and determination in
my swing, I connected with her jaw before she knew what was happening. The woman careened
back. The flash light ricocheted crazily around the chamber. She crashed to the floor,
hitting her head against the rough wall of the tomb.

Hopefully, she was dead. The hateful woman.

I snatched up the light and her purse and ran.

Life giving air greeted me at the entrance where I gulped in great lungfuls. No sounds
of pursuit followed. The island night had descended. I switched on the light and searched
her purse like it would have snakes or some other hideous creature inside. A gun,
some money, no identification. No make up. It would have to do since I no longer had
my purse. I dowsed the light.

I crept up more stairs, my whole body shaking with the near encounter of being left
tied up in a tomb. That had scared me worse than being held hostage. I peeked over
the ledge at the top of the tomb. The Maruti sat in the parking lot. Using tumbled
rocks as cover, I crouched and crawled as close to the Maruti as I could then ran
like a banshee toward the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Hands up,” I screamed, pointing the gun in the general direction of the driver’s
seat. I was determined to get control of the Maruti and get away from these creeps.

“Don’t shoot,” said an accented, quavering voice.

“Get out and leave the keys in the ignition.”

The door opened cautiously, and the little man climbed out.

“Keep your hands in sight. I’m shaking and very nervous, and I might pull this trigger
at the slightest suggestion of a wrong move.”

“Please, I have wife and children.”

“You should have thought of that before you hooked up with that ugly broad. Now walk
to the front of the car.”

As soon as he cleared the front of the car, I whacked him on the back of head with
the butt of the gun. It worked famously. Now I had to figure out how to drive that
stupid vehicle and get the hell out. I jumped in, slammed it through its gears and
didn’t turn on the lights till I was well away from where I had dropped the guy.

I was shaking so bad I could barely grip the wheel. My entire arm hurt from socking
the woman and whacking the guy. But I was alive, and I wasn’t going to be tied up
in a tomb for the rest of the night.

I drove that sorry excuse for a car, pedal to the floor the whole way back to Pafos,
passing with reckless abandon any car that slowed me down, not caring what side of
the road I was on. I headed for Yannis’s house. Nothing was going to stop me. I would
turn myself into the police and tell them about the American couple and Zach. I couldn’t
help them with where he was, but I could tell them everything.

Everything.

And I did.

After I got to Yannis’s and he had hugged me to oblivion, we called the police, and
they came to his house. Inspector Polydeuces, the same cousin I had met on Sunday,
listened attentively to everything I said. His assistant, a neat looking woman in
uniform, made notes as I spoke.

The Inspector nodded gravely at the part about Zach being wanted for smuggling, Mr.
Bellomo harboring my aunt, the American woman kidnapping me, and Berengaria’s jewels.
After asking me every possible question relating to the antiquities theft, he remained
in silence, looking troubled and pulling at the corner of his bushy moustache, as
if that would help him think.

Finally, he said, “Miss Lowell, there are one or two facts of which you may not be
aware. I need to share these with you, as you are now in our custody and under our
protection.”

That gave me pause since I expected him to haul me off to jail. My heart sank into
my cute little sandals which had stayed faithfully on my feet through the whole ordeal.
I waited on the edge of my seat.

“You see, Miss Lowell, Zachary Lamont is a double agent. He works for the New York
Police Department anti-terrorism unit but is on assignment with a consortium team
through INTERPOL. They are trying to help us destroy this terrorist cell we know is
forming on the island of Cyprus.”

“He’s wanted by the FBI for smuggling,” I said. “Yannis said you are looking for him.”
I stared at Yannis while I was saying this. He gave me a don’t-ask-me shrug.

“Yes, I know. That is his cover. We gave Yannis that information so that no one would
suspect Mr. Lamont’s true identify. It was crucial that his cover not be blown, I
think you say. The American couple is the front for the cell that is trying to build
an operation here. They had to believe Mr. Lamont was a criminal. You see, they were
monitoring Yannis’s phones.”

“Oh,” I said, a rather lame response to the information bomb the Inspector had dropped.
I wanted to get the whole picture, so I pressed on with my questions.

“Who is Helena then?” I asked.

“She is a Cypriot police woman. She is his contact here, his go-between.”

“I see.” She had been his partner, but as one of the good guys. This was comforting.
Some things that didn’t make sense before made sense now.

The Inspector had more to say. “We know that your aunt did not steal those statues.
The American couple planted them on her to throw us off the scent. We had to detain
your aunt, as we at first suspected she might be involved. We apologize for the inconvenience
to you and your aunt. As fate would have it, when the American couple heard we had
retained your aunt, they got bolder. They took more chances. They believed the story
that Mr. Lamont had Berengaria’s jewels.”

“You mean there are no jewels?”

“They are part of the deception.”

“Then in our own blundering way, my aunt and I helped the cause.”

The Inspector nodded.

“But Zach didn’t let me go when he could have,” I said almost to myself.

The Inspector cleared his throat, as if he had just swallowed something unpleasant
like a scorpion. “That was Mr. Lamont’s doing. Perhaps he wanted to keep you with
him. Perhaps there was something else going on between you that he wanted to work
out. Keeping you was not part of his orders. He was to monitor your activities.”

I narrowed my eyes. The Inspector loosened the top button of his shirt and didn’t
meet my gaze. Wait till I got my hands on Zachariah Lamont. “Where is Zach now, and
why did he leave me at the mercy of that horrid American woman?”

The Inspector pressed his lips together. “I cannot say where he is or why he left
you. I would speculate he didn’t realize the American woman was close at hand, and,
of course,” he cleared his throat behind his hand, “he had work to do.”

Red heat crept up my neck into my face until I was a tomato, I’m sure. I didn’t want
to know how much the Inspector knew about our relationship. What a spider web this
was. I felt its sticky tendrils clinging all over me.

The Inspector stood and shook hands all around. “I fear it is late and that you might
want to get some rest. You have had a difficult experience. In the morning we would
appreciate your coming to the office to sign a statement, if you would be so kind.
There will be a twenty four hour watch placed upon you so that nothing untoward happens
again. Good night.”

“Wait, what about my aunt?”

The Inspector smiled for the first time, a slight turn of his lips. “Mr. Bellomo takes
good care of her. Such good care, I believe he is talking of marrying her. Good night.”

Yannis and I sat looking at each other while his mother brought plates of sliced lamb
and a salad of tomato and cucumber. She poured tiny cups of coffee and placed them
before us.

“Yannis,” she said, placing her hand on his shoulder, “A little wine perhaps or some
brandy.”

“Brandy, mother, please,” he said and looked at me. “Make it two.”

“He’s a double agent,” I said. “The dirty rat. Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He could not is the obvious reason.”

“Then why did he keep me with him?”

Yannis rolled his eyes. “Claudie, have you looked in the mirror lately? You’re gorgeous.
You possess a body that any man has trouble keeping his eyes and hands from, you’re
intelligent and fun to have around. I can understand why he didn’t want to let you
go.”

That was a powerful statement coming from Yannis. However, at the moment I felt ninety-two
and like a wrinkled old hag. It was hard to believe what he was saying.

“Do you know where Zach is?” I asked.

Yannis shook his head. “I’m just a government worker in the Department of Antiquities.
Zach operates in rare circles. At this moment, I wouldn’t even hazard a guess as to
where he was.”

I shivered.

“You cold?” he asked.

“No, just a passing thought of that tomb. Yannis, what if the terrorists got Zach,
and he’s laying in one of those tombs?”

“Zach is a big boy. He’s trained. He’ll get himself out, if he is in a dangerous situation.”

Yannis’s mother sat brandy snifters before us and a plate of home made baklava, my
favorite dessert in the entire world.

“Thank you, Mrs. Vasilis, you are very kind,” I said in my dilapidated Greek.

Even though it was late, she had that endless energy that all Cypriot mothers seemed
to have, especially when it came to feeding her brood and friends. She beamed a wide,
warm smile in my direction. She said something in Greek that translated into her wish
that I rest well because I looked tired.

Yannis agreed. “Would you like to call your aunt?”

“What time is it?”

“Around one A.M.”

“I’ll wait and call her in the morning even though it already is morning.”

I sipped the brandy, thinking over the evening’s events. The police had been dispatched
to search the tombs for the hateful woman that had kidnapped me. They were sure to
find Zach if he had ended up there which I hoped he hadn’t. But even if they found
the woman, they could only charge her with kidnapping not antiquities theft. Her husband
partner was still free. I hoped I hadn’t killed either one of the two that I had whacked.
I wondered what kind of murder that would constitute.

Yannis gave me a warm hug. “I’m glad you are safe, Princess. Now, if you will excuse
me, I need to get some rest so I can go to work in the morning.”

“Thank you dear friend for all you have done for me.”

He brushed my cheek with a kiss and smiled into my eyes then wandered out of the room,
yawning and scratching his belly.

I remained at the table and helped myself to another baklava. Mrs. Vasilis brought
more coffee, gave me a kiss on the cheek, wished me good rest, and left the room.
The windows in the dining room were open to the night. No screens. Cypriots didn’t
believe in them even though they shared the island with the ubiquitous mosquito. I
turned out the over head light and sat in the moonlight.

I was wide awake but lost in thought when the stone hit the table. My automatic reflex
was to look in the direction the stone had come. There, leaning through the open window,
was Zachariah Lamont.

“Busy?” he asked, nonchalantly, and climbed through the window. “I thought Yannis
and his mum would never go to bed.” He studied the food on the table and pulled the
platter of lamb to him. “I could eat a whale.”

“Where have you been?” I asked, like a kidnapping had not occurred since last we were
together.

“Trying to get back to you.”

I moved the salad toward him and the plate of baklava. He topped Yannis’s glass of
brandy from the decanter and drank deeply.

“How are you, Princess?” Our eyes met. I knew he could see the smoke coming out my
ears. He held up one hand, nails neatly trimmed. “Don’t give me the details. I heard
your recitation to Inspector Polydeuces.”