Reaching the front door, Eve knocked. Within seconds Joanna came to the door.
“Oh, it’s you,” Joanna said. “What do you want?”
She wasn’t nearly as courteous to Eve as she had been to the police officers.
“I just wanted a word with you. Can I come in?”
“Fine. You know where the sitting room is from your last visit,” she said sarcastically. “So do go and make yourself at home. I’m going to get a glass of wine from the kitchen. Do you want one?”
Eve hesitated.
“Hah,” Joanna laughed. “You think I’m going to poison you. Well come into the kitchen and watch me pour the wine into the glasses. They’ll be from the same bottle.”
Eve almost declined as it looked too obvious that she didn’t trust Joanna, but she didn’t want to take the risk. She also desperately needed a drink to get through the visit, so she followed Joanna and watched while she poured their drinks.
Sitting down, Eve made sure Joanna drunk first before taking a sip herself. It was a very nice wine, a Chablis; so much better than the local stuff, not that she ever refused it. You got used to it after a while and it was dead cheap.
“So, what do you want to talk to me about?” Joanna asked. “The police have already been here today.”
“I don’t want to ask you anything about David. I just want to know about your relationship with James Anderson.”
Joanna looked stunned for a brief moment and it didn’t escape Eve. However, she regained her composure very quickly, but Eve could tell that this wasn’t the question Joanna was expecting.
“How did you find out that I know James? Not that it proves anything.”
Eve decided to be liberal with the truth.
“Paul Fowler left some boxes with Jane, his ex-girlfriend, to look after. She asked me to keep them safe as she’s going back to England. I was putting them away and a few photos fell out of one box. There were a couple of you, James and Jennifer Anderson.”
“Really?” Joanna remarked. “I reckon you looked through them and found these photos.”
“That is not something I do,” Eve protested.
“Well, it doesn’t matter either way really, although I reckon that you are a nosey and interfering busybody.”
“I’m just making sure that David doesn’t get hurt again. You are my number one suspect.... oh, and by the way, I rang the police before I came, so they’ll know it’s you if I’m found injured or dead.”
“Hmm, I don’t know whether to believe you or not, but either way, I think we should leave.”
All of a sudden, Joanna pulled out a gun and Eve jumped.
She’s been too quick for me. Perhaps this was a big mistake.
“Get up,” Joanna shouted.
Eve took a long gulp of wine and stood up. Just as she did, the door opened and Kevin came in. Joanna turned and pointed her gun at him.
“Whoa, what’s going on here?”
Eve thought Kevin sounded as if he didn’t know what Joanna was doing with a gun. Perhaps he had nothing to do with the kidnapping after all.
“How did you get in?” Joanna asked.
“You gave me a key so I could clear out all the furniture once you’ve gone back to England.”
“I didn’t mean you to use it now. We’re hardly having an affair.”
“I thought things were going well between us.”
“They were, but you just had to go and spoil things, didn’t you?” she hissed.
Eve listened to their conversation, finally realizing that Kevin didn’t know anything at all about David’s kidnapping.
“Well now Kevin, we’re leaving. You’re going to drive your car with Eve in the seat next to you. I will sit in the back. If you don’t do what I tell you, I will shoot you. Do you understand? You must follow my instructions to the letter.”
Both Eve and Kevin nodded, Eve hoping that Robert might suddenly turn up, but as they walked to the car, she realized that her plan hadn’t worked. Even if Robert or the police turned up at Joanna’s house, they wouldn’t find her there.
* * * *
A few moments later, they were all in the car and Kevin turned the engine on.
“Now drive, Kevin. I’ll tell you where to turn.”
“We’re not going to the other house then?” he asked.
“Do you think I’m stupid? If by any chance, Eve really did ring the police to say where she was going, they’re bound to look in the other house as well. Or perhaps you left a message for someone else?”
“No,” Eve replied. “I thought we could talk sensibly.”
“Then you’re a fool, Eve Masters, but I think you may be lying. Now, get a move on, Kevin.”
Kevin was trembling, wondering how he had allowed himself to be drawn into Joanna’s web. She had just been using him, though what for he didn’t know. How could he have been fooled by her? How could he think that she really liked him? She was beautiful and not much older than thirty. He didn’t think he was that bad looking, but he was old enough to be her father.
Kevin stalled the car twice, neither time on purpose, not that Joanna believed him.
“Do you want me to shoot you here, Kevin? Just get driving or I damn well will kill you.”
Luckily he managed to get the car going the third time and he started driving, Joanna giving him instructions to turn left or right every now and then. Eve stayed quiet throughout the whole journey, realizing that she had underestimated Joanna. The woman was clever, there was no doubt about it and she had got herself into another mess. This time David couldn’t help her. He was sick and in hospital. Was this going to be the end?
“You’re very quiet, Eve Masters,” Joanna spoke a little later.
“Not a lot to say, is there?” Eve responded.
“To think I got one over the great private detective,” Joanna laughed.
Eve refused to comment. She was probably right and this could be the end. She would be murdered in cold blood and she couldn’t think of a way out of the mess she had got herself into this time.
* * * *
After about twenty minutes, they arrived at a house. Eve and Kevin weren’t quite sure where they were. Joanna had taken them on a strange journey, sometimes going down roads twice and then driving on roads which neither knew. Eve realized Joanna was trying to confuse them.
The house was in complete darkness and both Kevin and Eve had no idea who it belonged to or exactly where they were.
“Which village is this?” Eve asked, not really expecting to be told.
“Oh, I don’t think you need to know that, Eve” Joanna replied. “This is just the empty house where David was kept before he escaped. I was stupid leaving my partner to deal with the day to day running of the plan, but that’s over and done with now, so let’s get back to the present. Kevin, give me the car keys and slowly get out at the same time as me. I don’t want to have to shoot you. Whatever you may think, I did enjoy my time with you. Oh, and by the way, both of you give me your mobile phones. I can’t have you ringing for help when I’m gone.”
Once they did this, Kevin got out of the car with Joanna. She had the gun pointed at him the whole time. Eve vaguely thought of doing a runner, but discarded that idea quickly. She had no doubt at all that Joanna would attempt to shoot her.
After Eve had also got out of the car, Joanna told them both to walk towards the house. Once there, she instructed Kevin to open the door with the key she had given him. Eve felt sick. Was Joanna going to murder them inside the house and leave their bodies to rot?
Once the door was open, Joanna instructed Eve and Kevin to walk down into the basement. Eve had an awful feeling that she was right. Joanna was going to kill them.
“You still haven’t told me what your relationship to James was?” Eve asked the other woman, hoping to stall her.
“You’re wasting time, I know that, but I’ll tell you anyway.”
Kevin looked flabbergasted.
“I didn’t know
that you knew James.”
“I haven’t told you everything.”
“Yes, but… I don’t feel as if I know you at all, Joanna,” Kevin muttered.
“Of course you don’t. I’ve only told you what you needed to know.... and some of it, I made up.”
She laughed while Kevin looked horrified.
“So, tell us about you and James,” Eve demanded.
“He was my husband. We were supposed to be Jennifer’s sole heirs, half of her estate going to each of us, but then Paul turned up. That got us worried. After all, there was now a distinct possibility that she might change her will. She had two houses and a bit of cash and it would have seen us alright for a couple of years. Then before Christmas, she told James that she was going to leave a third of her estate to Paul and she’d be making the new will in the New Year. We were naturally upset and that’s when I came up with the plan to kill her. Well, you know the rest. It didn’t work out quite the way we intended.”
“And you killed your own husband?’ Eve asked, although she already knew the answer.
“James gambled a lot. He was more of a hindrance than a help in our marriage.”
“You could have divorced him instead of killing him.”
“I could have done, but he’d botched things up, not to mention the fact that he was wasting the little money we had on gambling. By the time a divorce would have come through, there’d have been no money left at all. Plus I imagine that he would have been pestering me forever if he had lived; in fact I’m sure of it.”
“So you were the woman in the hotel room in Athens?”
“I was, but I used a different name and a fake passport. I disappeared straight after killing James and then went home and pretended I hadn’t been anywhere. I intended to claim my husband’s share of Jennifer’s will, but the evil bitch had already changed it and had left everything to Paul.”
“Well, he was her son,” Eve stated.
“Trust you to take his side. Now he has another two houses and quite a bit of cash. But he’s in prison so what good is it to him? I could definitely have used that money.”
“I would imagine it will come in handy for Paul – he has to have a defense lawyer and they don’t come cheap,”
“What’s the point? He’s already admitted that he killed Lucy and Yiannis so they might as well skip over the trial.”
Eve was starting to get annoyed. Even though Paul had killed two people, they had become friends and she didn’t want to see him treated badly by the Greek justice system. Goodness knows it was difficult enough being tried for murder; he needed a good lawyer to make sure the trial was above board. Eve didn’t trust the Greek legal system, especially as in Greece you were considered guilty until you proved your innocence.
“So, Joanna,” Eve said, deciding to change the subject. “You haven’t finished your story. How did you meet Yiannis?”
“Yiannis! Well, we’d actually met a few years ago when I came here for a holiday and we’d stayed in touch.”
“So you’d had an affair with him?” Kevin asked, finally able to speak. He had been shocked at seeing this side of Joanna and he was beginning to feel quite depressed. Kevin had thought that Joanna liked him, but it had all been a pretence.
“Well, I’d hardly call it an affair. Yiannis and I were adult enough not to ask anything from each other. In fact, he was a man after my own heart. He would have lots of relationships; well they were really just short lived romances with girls on holiday. I certainly had no desire to settle down with him or with anyone else. I enjoyed my own little flings. However, when my scheme with James came to a sorry end, I had to think of other ways to keep myself afloat financially.”
“Didn’t you consider getting a job?” Eve asked. “That’s what most people do. And anyway, I heard that you ran your own business.”
“I have a business, a boutique, but it hardly keeps me in the style I deserve. Yiannis had been to England a couple of times and we’d met, but when he told me he was coming earlier in the year, I formed a plan, a plan to make him want me more than any other woman. I pulled out all the stops and it worked. He fell for me in a way you can’t imagine. Yiannis, the womanizer, was under my spell and when he asked me to marry him, I jumped at the chance. I had no idea that my plan would work as well as it did, but I wasn’t going to wait. We got married and I intended to sell my business to come out and live with him.”
“So you fell for him too?” Eve asked.
“Not really,” Joanna said. “I’d always enjoyed his company and we were good in bed together....”
Kevin cringed. He had been trying to get Joanna to sleep with him since they’d met, but with no success. However, she had been to bed with Yiannis many times even though she knew he bedded many other women. She obviously wasn’t fussy, so why did she keep rejecting him.
“Am I so unattractive to you, Joanna?” Kevin asked suddenly.
It was now Eve’s turn to cringe. Poor Kevin, he must have a wish to be humiliated lurking somewhere in that brain of his.
I mean his own wife had a thing going with Yiannis as well, Eve thought. What on earth had women seen in him? He had been completely obnoxious.
“Oh, I do like you Kevin,” Joanna gushed, “and I probably would have slept with you eventually and possibly even have married you if a better idea hadn’t entered my mind.”
“What are you, some sort of black widow?’ Eve asked. “Did you just want these men for their money?”
“Well, seeing as you won’t be getting out of here anytime soon, I can be honest. I did intend to eventually get rid of Yiannis. After all, it would have made me a fairly rich widow; no, what am I saying. It has made me quite a rich widow. Everybody thought I was only trying to sell the smaller house, the one belonging to Yiannis’ parents, but I’ve sold the other one in a private sale. It went through a few days ago and the money is already in my bank account outside the country.”
“It won’t do you much good when you’re rotting in jail,” Eve said, glaring at Joanna.
“Who says I’m going to jail? They won’t find you here that quickly, you know.”
“What do you mean?” Kevin asked. “You’re not going to leave us here to die... are you?”
Kevin’s voice was trembling and Eve wondered if he was going to cry.
Oh, for God’s sake, Kevin, get a grip, Eve thought.
She was thinking what a useless man he was. If David had been there, he would have grabbed Joanna’s gun ages ago and wrestled her to the floor.
“Now, Eve, get those bits of rope and tie up Kevin’s hands and feet. I will check they’re tight enough before I go.
“And what if I refuse?” Eve asked.
“I’ll kill you now. I don’t really want to kill anybody else, but if I have to, I will.”
“You’re going to kill us inadvertently by leaving us in here to die slowly.”
“I didn’t say I was going to leave you in this house to die, did I? I will get in touch with someone eventually to let you out. I’ll be long gone by then.”
“It was you, wasn’t it? You dressed up as a nurse and injected my David with arsenic trioxide. It didn’t work though, did it? He’s still alive.”
“I was sure I gave him enough to kill him, but I made a mistake. Like I made a mistake in my choice of accomplice.”
Who on earth is she working with? Eve mused, but she said something completely different.
“What about the other house, Joanna. You’ll lose money there. You can’t exactly leave a forwarding address.”
“That’s life. I think my adventures on Crete are over. It's time to move on.”
“You haven’t done nearly as well as you hoped, have you, Joanna. I mean you got nothing from me in the end, did you?”
“Eve,” Kevin whispered. “Shut up.”
“Yes, keep quiet, Eve Masters, the great detective, otherwise I might just kill you now.”
Eve knew she was trying her luck and decided to do exactly as
Joanna asked. She tied up Kevin’s feet and hands and then Joanna told her to tie up her own feet.
“Now put your hands behind your back and I’ll tie them up.”
Having checked that the ropes were secure, Joanna spoke to them for one last time.
“Well, I won’t delay any longer. Don’t worry; you won’t be here for too long.”
With that, Joanna left them and they heard the key turn and a bolt being pushed across the door.
“What do we do now?” Kevin asked Eve.
“If you were anything like my David, you would have managed to get the gun off Joanna and she would be the one tied up, not us.”
“I didn’t see you trying anything,” he replied, sounding disconcerted.
“I wouldn’t have trusted you to back me up.”
“Eve,” Kevin said. “Let’s stop this bickering. We’re going to be here for some time.”
“Yes, you’re right. I still wonder why she didn’t kill us though.”
“She’s not all bad. We had fun together. I don’t think she’s really a murderer.”
“Kevin, she killed her own husband because she was annoyed with him.”
Kevin just grunted, but inside he knew that he’d had a lucky escape.
“I wonder how long it will take for her to phone someone to let us out,” Eve asked.
“Once she’s off the island and safe, I presume. She’s probably got more fake passports.”
“I left a note for Robert saying I was going to Joanna’s, but he and his girlfriend might not come home till very late.”
“We’d better settle down and try to get some sleep. It’ll make the time go faster.”
Eve nodded, but even though she sounded confident that they would be rescued, she was far from it. They weren’t in either of Joanna’s houses so how was anybody going to find them unless Joanna contacted the police.
Chapter 19
Robert and Alison were having a lovely evening. They had been to Bella Sophia for a meal, and after filling themselves with garlic bread, mozzarella balls, avocado and gorgonzola salad, not to mention sharing a large pizza, accompanied by an ice cold bottle of Frascati, and followed by tiramisu; they thought they would walk home and leave the car to be picked up in the morning.
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