Thirteen Days By Sunset Beach (11 page)

"I don't know what more we can be expected to contribute," Julian said.

"You are here for examination." Once his eyes had made this plain Apostolides turned them on Ray. "Tell me why you were there," he said.

"On that beach? My wife liked the look."

"The look," Apostolides said and intensified his own.

"Yes, of the place. She thought it would be quieter than the other beaches. Well," Ray said with a sally at a laugh, "it was."

"How did she know it was there?"

The question seemed more searching than Ray understood, unless he was confusing it with the glare through the shutter. "The cruise around the island took us," he said.

"You say the boat went to the beach."

"Just past it," Ray said and had an odd sense of defending the boatman. "We didn't stop."

"Did nobody tell you about it?"

"What would there have been to tell?" When Apostolides let the question loiter Ray said "The guide didn't have anything to say about it, no."

"If I may interrupt," Julian said, "may we know what use this is? It's keeping us away from our families when we're supposed to be here on holiday."

"We are building up your picture." Apostolides didn't bother glancing at him. "How did you find the way?" he said.

Ray too had begun to feel the questions were excessively trivial. "My son figured it out," he said.

"This is not your son."

"I'm not," Julian said, "but may I ask why you think it's so obvious?"

Apostolides gave him a glance so terse it barely qualified as one. "Your name."

"That's what betrayed me, is it? Regrettably I've no control over that."

He sounded so bitter that Ray might have responded if Apostolides hadn't said "How did you go to the beach?"

"We took the bus," Ray said, "and then we went along the path with the carvings on the trees."

Apostolides raised his face an inch while holding Ray's gaze with his own, so that Ray wondered what he'd provoked until the policeman said "Well, so you are at the beach. Why did you go into the cave?"

"I was seeing whether it was safe for our grandson, that's Julian's son."

"The boy again. You thought it may be safe in there for him."

Ray felt unfairly criticised. "I should think Greek boys like exploring caves, don't they, even at his age?"

"Some they do."

"If you don't like people going down there," Julian objected, "perhaps you ought to put a warning on the path. And those things on the trees can't be much help. They're more liable to tempt people to see what's along there than keep them away."

"They were meant to guard the way." Apostolides was still watching Ray. "What did you see?" he said.

"In the cave? That poor man."

"That is all. A poor man."

"I'd say he was, yes." Having grasped that he was being prompted to say more, Ray said "He'd drowned and ended up lodged in the rocks, had he? Or did he have a heart attack because he'd trapped himself somehow? Have you established how he died?"

"You did not touch him."

Ray would have much preferred an answer instead of this suggestion. "I couldn't have," he said, shivering despite the rays that had found him through the shutter.

"You saw no more to tell me." When Ray shook his head, which failed to dislodge the memory of the perished whitish corpse, Apostolides said "Mr Banks, it is your turn to speak."

"Have you identified the gentleman?"

"We have done that."

"Are you going to say who he was?"

"He was like you." As Ray hoped Julian wouldn't take any exception to this the policeman said "A tourist from your country staying in Teleftaiafos."

"Was he the fellow who was supposed to have vanished after he went to the mainland?"

"That will be the person. Now, Mr Banks—"

"In that case I don't understand."

Apostolides took a breath that stirred the badges on his chest. "What is not clear?"

"If the gentleman died last week I don't see how the body could have ended up in that state so soon."

"No, he was reported last month."

"The guide on the cruise said he went missing last week. You'll confirm that, Raymond."

"I'm sure the police know better than he did if he didn't mean to say last month."

Ray was afraid that Julian would argue, and not just with him, until Apostolides intervened. "What state are you speaking of?"

"The fellow looked diseased to me. I didn't go as close as Raymond did, but I could see that much."

As the light probed Ray's eyes Apostolides said "Is that all?"

"I think it's quite enough to need investigating."

"That has been done." The policeman's gaze veered between Julian and Ray while he said "You may tell your families that he had a seizure and drowned. He was underwater for some weeks and then the tide took him into the cave, where as Mr Thornton says he was trapped in the rocks."

"They don't need to hear all that." Just as unenthusiastically Julian said "And how was he identified?"

"His passport was at his apartment."

"I was thinking of his family. Did he have any children? They'd be something like my age, of course, or older."

"Family, yes. They were not required."

"You wouldn't want them to see him like that. Will you be warning them?"

Apostolides gazed at him before saying "Warning them of what, Mr Banks?"

"What they'll find if they should want to see him. I take it he'll be sent home for a proper funeral."

"His ashes will go back."

Ray sensed Julian's dissatisfaction and tried to head it off. "I expect under the circumstances—"

"You know that was his wish, do you?" Julian was still interrogating the policeman. "Or has the family asked for it?"

"It is our decision, Mr Banks."

"Perhaps you should wait and see what they say." Since staring hard at Apostolides failed to provoke an answer, Julian said "Have you even consulted them?"

"It is already done."

"You're telling us you've had their authorisation."

"He has been cremated. They would not have liked to see the head."

"The face, you mean." When Apostolides answered only with a frown that clenched his eyes Julian persisted "Why are you saying the head?"

Apostolides plainly regretted having let himself be goaded, but he said close to carelessly "He was not together. It was apart."

"Good God, man, what are you telling us now?" Julian seemed about to lurch to his feet until Ray seized his arm. "All right, Raymond, I haven't lost control," Julian said but confronted the policeman. "When did that happen," he demanded, "and how? Even in his condition I don't see how it could."

"It is a police matter."

"You need to know he wasn't mutilated like that when we found him. Who could have done such a thing?" When the policeman failed to display outrage Julian said "It wouldn't be one of your traditions, would it? Is that why you're taking it for granted?"

"The police have to get used to such things, Julian," Ray tried to intervene. "They must have to deal with worse."

"There isn't much that's worse than desecrating the dead." Julian hadn't looked away from the policeman. "I'd like to know when it was done," he insisted. "We reported what we'd found and we saw your people arrive as we were leaving. How did somebody get to the beach in the meantime?"

Apostolides held up his hands on either side of his face and parted all the fingers. As the sunlight streamed between them he put Ray in mind of a saint delivering a benediction—some religious gesture, at any rate. Ray wasn't sure whether it was the light or the policeman's gaze that felt as though it was reaching deep into his skull, but one or both of them illuminated his thoughts. "I think we'd better leave it, Julian," he said. "Captain, we've told you everything we know."

"I have learned what I need." Just the same, Apostolides watched them for some seconds before rising not entirely to his feet. "I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay on our island," he said. "It will help to forget what you have seen and heard."

"Let's hurry back to everyone, Julian," Ray said, not least to quash whatever response his companion had been about to make.

The police driver met them at the end of the corridor. As she drove them through Sunset Beach, Ray saw Julian prepare to speak. Ray was afraid he meant to discuss Apostolides while the driver could hear, but Julian said "I know what you can do for me, Raymond, if you will."

"I'll do my best if it'll help."

"Then forget my outburst earlier. I can only apologise for my lack of control. I shouldn't like Natalie to hear of it."

"It wasn't much of an outburst," Ray said but shook the awkward hand that Julian thrust at him. So even his agreement not to speak had to be left unrevealed. He felt shut in by unmentioned issues, trapped inside himself by them. Until the car left Sunset Beach behind, the deceptively empty streets reminded him of his brain, so that he could have imagined they were hiding away just as much.

***

"Come on, Jules, just split the bill. You aren't trying to cut down someone's claim."

"Doug," Ray felt compelled to protest, "I don't think that's quite fair."

"I'd simply like to be sure we're only being charged for what we've had," Julian said.

"If there's anything else you want us to translate," Doug said, "just ask."

"Let me see," Julian said but glanced at the rest of the party. "Why don't you all take William to find the lights while we settle this."

They were in the Old Bridge, a taverna at the far end of the village from the Sunny View. A moon-faced road train—another treat that William was promised now—grinned at them across the village square. Beyond a low wall draped with white blossom a stream meandered under a stone bridge to the sea. Across the bridge the road led past the outlying houses into the dark, where dozens of lights flickered in the distance. "What are you saying you're going to settle?" Ray was anxious to be told.

"Not our differences, Raymond. Just the bill."

"Maybe you should settle those too."

"Come along, everyone," Sandra said. "The sooner we see what's out there, the sooner some of us can get to bed."

Presumably she meant William, though Ray was surprised to see both the teenagers nod as if they were anticipating slumber. "We'll catch you up," he said.

How much peace would he need to keep between the men? Julian continued squinting at the bill while the women and the youngsters crossed the bridge, and then he looked up. "I hope you didn't think I was being typical," he said. "We'll split it by all means. I was only making sure nobody hears who shouldn't."

Ray was disconcerted by having to glance about at the dark even though he'd grasped that Julian had William in mind. Perhaps Julian wasn't behaving as untypically as he believed, since he'd taken out his phone to use the calculator. "Hears what?" Doug said.

Julian made a barely patient gesture before fingering numbers on the screen. Once he'd shown Ray and Doug what they owed he counted his contribution onto the table. At last he said "I wanted to ask you something, Douglas. I expect Raymond can guess."

"I don't know if I can," Ray said, feeling apprehensive too.

"First let me say we appreciate your local knowledge, Douglas, and Priscilla's. I wonder if you might be able to explain what we heard at the police station."

"I knew it. I could see you two were keeping something back."

"There's a good deal we don't want the younger ones to know."

"You aren't including Tim, are you? He can cope."

Julian held up a hand, beckoning the waitress but at least not displaying the palm. "If that's your choice for him," he said, "but can we all keep quiet about it in front of William."

"Tim's pretty good at keeping stuff to himself. He's a teenager."

The idea or its implications seemed to displease Julian, who said nothing more until the waitress collected their payment. "Please don't trouble about change," he said, not that there would be much, and lowered his voice. "So, Douglas. I think the police would rather we hadn't learned this, but after we found the body it was mutilated."

"Well," Ray demurred, "mutilated. I don't believe—"

"The head had been removed. What else would you call it, for heaven's sake?"

"I think the policeman just said it was, how can we put it, unattached. Lord, what a thing to have to talk about."

"And just how else do you imagine that could have happened?"

"Do we really need to go into it?" Apparently they did, and Ray had to swallow first. "You didn't see the state the man was in," he said to Doug. "He must have been underwater for weeks. Maybe when they tried to move him he, oh lord, came to bits."

"I suppose that could have been the case," Julian said. "Thank you for bringing reason to bear."

"At least he couldn't wander," Doug said.

Ray heard ripples lapping under the bridge. They reminded him of the ripples that had seemed to follow him out of the depths of the cave, and he could have fancied they sounded as if some creature were assuaging its thirst in the dark. When Julian thrust out his lips to fend off Doug's comment, Ray felt delegated to speak. "What do you mean?"

"That's one way they're supposed to stop the dead going for a walk, cutting off the head."

"Who would do that?" With mounting outrage Julian said "Not the police."

"Whoever believes in that sort of thing, Jules. I don't know if they do round here."

"You can't be telling us that's how they treat their dead in this day and age."

"They used to in some parts of Europe. Anyone who died in a way that means they won't stay dead."

Julian ensured the others saw how absurd it was to ask "What way?"

"It depends where you are, I think. Suicide's a favourite, as I recall. And of course the obvious one—"

Julian didn't merely raise a hand, he thrust it up in front of Doug's face. For a moment Ray thought Julian was refusing to hear any more, and then he realised Julian was listening to Natalie. "Don't go scampering off," she called, somewhere out of sight across the bridge. "Jonquil, stay with him."