by Amy Cross
***
“I'm so sorry,” Cavaleri said a short while later, standing in Ephram's shop. “I can't even begin to imagine how you must be feeling.”
“She was an old woman,” he replied, with tears in his eyes. “This is what old women do. They die.”
“I'll try to get hold of Father Henderson again,” she continued. “He hasn't been answering his phone for the past couple of days, and the church has been left unlocked. I'm starting to worry about him.”
“A man disappears in mysterious circumstances? Sounds like the new norm around these parts.”
“Not for much longer,” she told him. “The reign of Edgar Le Compte isn't going to last much longer.”
“My grandmother's body will rest in the house until her funeral,” Ephram replied. “She wanted a traditional service, and we already have a plot in the local cemetery, so there's not too much that needs to be arranged. There won't even be a coffin. She'll just be wrapped in a sheet before her body is interred, the same as everyone in our family, although...” He paused for a moment. “I wish Alistair Burns had come back in time to handle things. I don't like dealing with the new doctor. He's not right for this island.”
“I know the feeling,” Cavaleri muttered.
“Have you heard anything at all from Doctor Burns?”
“It's as if he vanished completely,” she replied. “First him, then Fernando Mediaci and now Father Henderson. I'm getting a bad feeling about the situation. Burns wasn't the kind of man to just abandon his post like that. At the very least, he should have sent word by now. I contacted the port-masters at Parios and Nevou, and there's no record of him reaching the mainland. I'm starting to think that maybe...”
Ephram waited for her to finish.
“All because of Le Compte,” he said finally. “He was here this evening, you know. He came to see my grandmother, and like a fool I allowed him to go up. Then when I went to check on her later, she was gone. Just like that. She had been fighting, and then I took her some soup”
“You're not suggesting that he might have -”
“Of course not,” he replied, “but perhaps the stress was...” He paused, before letting out a tired sigh. “Something about that man affected my grandmother. I think it was his face, he looked so much like his grandfather, and the memories...” Sighing, he looked over at the window for a moment, as if all the fight was leaving his soul. “It doesn't matter anymore, I'm too old to fight. If she hadn't died today, it would have been tomorrow. Edgar Le Compte has brought a lot of darkness and evil to Thaxos, but there's a limit to the misery he can cause. Still, there's nothing we can do. We had a blessed period of relief, but now it's over. Thaxos will never be free of him.”
“You can't say that -”
“It's the truth. This island is his personal plaything. We can't fight that basic fact. There have been people over the years who have tried to go up against Le Compte's family, railing against the unfairness of it all, and they always end up falling away. The Le Comptes have an iron grip on Thaxos and there's nothing anyone can do.”
“Don't worry,” Cavaleri replied. “He won't be here for much longer.”
“He's leaving?”
“I can't say right now,” she continued, “just... Have faith.”
“What are you planning?”
“Nothing. I shouldn't have mentioned it.” She turned to leave.
“Murder is wrong,” he said firmly, with concern in his eyes. “Please, tell me you're not thinking about killing him!”
She stopped and glanced back at him.
“I was there, remember?” he continued. “That night in the cantina, with Alistair Burns and Fernando Mediaci, when you first laid out your plan? I told you it was wrong then, and it's still wrong now. No matter how bad Le Compte might be, there is nothing that justifies the deliberate killing of another person. If you do that, you're descending to his level or worse. Don't allow him to destroy your soul, Isobel. You'll burn in hell if you do this.”
“And what about the soul of Thaxos?”
“Murder isn't the answer. Thaxos is doomed anyway. We should just accept our fate.”
“I saw my sister,” she replied. “I saw Karya, out by the beach where she and Elizabeth drowned.”
“Isobel -”
“I saw her, with my own two eyes! I even spoke to her! She's been down there all this time, beneath the surface, suffering in the cold while that bastard decides what to do with her. I don't know how he does it, but Edgar Le Compte has got this whole island in the palm of his hand, and it ends tonight! People have suffered enough.” She paused for a moment. “All these years when I thought she was at peace, she was in his grip like some kind of plaything.
“So you're going to go and murder him? It's that easy for you, is it?”
“I didn't say it was going to be easy,” she replied, with the first hint of tears in her eyes. “I just said it's what I'm going to do. Someone has to deal with this man.”
“You can try,” Ephram replied, “but you'll fail. Thaxos has been under the control of Le Compte's family for as long as history records, and that's not something that'll ever change. It's best to just accept our fate. The more we fight back, the more pain we'll have to endure.”
“We'll see what you have to say tomorrow,” she told him. “By the time the sun comes up in the morning, Thaxos is going to be ready for a new dawn. Trust me. I know exactly how to kill Edgar Le Compte.”
VII
“I know this might seem unusual,” Edgar said as he set a large pan down on the counter, “but I felt it might be better if we ate here, rather than in that huge dining room. I've always preferred eating in the kitchen when I have a chance. It feels good to consume a meal in the same room in which it was prepared.” He turned to Kate. “Does that make me seem strange?”
“Not at all,” she replied, surprised that a man like Edgar Le Compte would ask such a question. In fact, the entire scene seemed surreally domestic, as if for the first time she was seeing a very different side of a man who usually kept his true nature guarded. “The dining room is definitely pretty large for just two people.”
“To be honest,” he continued, “I think I would have just left it shuttered if Didi hadn't insisted on using it when I came back to Thaxos. She was very keen to use all the trappings of the place. The chandeliers, the candles, the huge dining table... She enjoyed luxury, whereas I find that it rather gets in the way. To my mind, there's nothing more ridiculous than two people sitting at either end of a fifteen-meter table, shouting at one another as they try to enjoy a conversation.”
Kate couldn't help but smile as she watched Edgar putting food on the plates. There was something unusual about seeing him so hard at work, and as he finally slid a plate toward her it was clear that he was proud of his creation.
“I hope you like it,” he told her. “It's my specialty.”
“It smells great,” she replied as he filled her wine glass. She had already decided not to drink tonight, but she figured she could get away with just taking a sip or two. With Didi gone, Edgar seemed like a changed person. “I had no idea you were so interested in cooking.”
“I was fortunate to train for several months with one of the top chefs in Prague,” he told her, glancing over at the window for a moment. He opened his mouth to continue the story, but something seemed to have attracted his attention. “I'm sorry,” he said finally, turning back to Kate. “What... What was I saying just now?”
“Prague,” she reminded him.
“Of course. I trained with a wonderful woman there who taught me everything I know. I merely copy her instructions, albeit with a few added twists of my own. When I was younger, I wanted to be a painter but I had no real aptitude. However, I believe that the culinary arts are just as important as any other.”
“It tastes amazing,” she told him after taking a bite. “Just a hint of garlic.”
“I love garlic,” he replied, raising his wine glass for a toast, “but
it's important to ensure that it doesn't overwhelm the dish. The -” Again he turned to the window, and a look of concern crossed his features before he turned back to Kate. “A toast,” he continued. “To good food and, more importantly, to good company.”
“You seem a little distracted,” she told him after taking a sip. “Is something on your mind?”
“No, I just thought I heard...” He paused. “Sometimes one becomes very aware that this house is up here alone on the hill, surrounded by darkness. I'm sorry, I don't want you to think that I'm not giving you my full attention. It's just that there has been so much happening lately.”
“So I did some more work in the archive room before dinner,” she told him. “The story of that boat, the Mortania, is kind of spooky. It sank in relatively shallow waters and there were plenty of witnesses who saw it going down, but no trace of it was ever found. There have been a few attempts over the years to solve the mystery, but no-one has ever found so much as a stray bolt. It's almost as if the Mortania vanished.”
“I remember hearing about it,” Edgar replied with a faint smile.
“I found one image,” she continued, “it looked a lot like the boat that you use at the moment.”
“I suppose one boat looks very much like another.”
“What's the name of your boat?” she asked. “I remember seeing that the name on the hull was mostly scratched away.”
“You know, I'm not sure I remember,” he told her. “When I'm dealing with official documents, I merely use its registration number, so the name never comes up. I shall have to look in my files, I'm sure the information is there somewhere.”
“It's almost as if the Mortania was secretly raised and put back into service,” she continued, watching Edgar's face for any hint of a reaction. “Then again, I'm sure that wouldn't be possible.”
“I have prepared a very special dessert,” he replied, clearly keen to change the subject. “It's so rare for me to get the chance to cook for someone in such an intimate encounter. I fear that perhaps I might have gone a little overboard.”
As they continued to eat and talk, Kate couldn't help but feel that something significant had changed. Gone was the old Edgar, the man who kept his cards so close to his chest; in his place there was this new man, who seemed genuinely relaxed. For the first time since she'd met him, she was starting to think that she had made it past his defenses, and that she was seeing a side of him that was usually kept hidden. Still, she noticed that he occasionally glanced toward the window, as if he was worried about something heading toward the house.
