‘‘A dead girl that went missing Tuesday night, here in the bay. You fit the description of the guy last seen with her. Did you buy a girl an ice-cream on Tuesday night from the mini-market across the road?’’
‘‘No, I surely didn’t sir. I went down to the gay beach as the locals call it before dark to hook up. After my encounter with Chrisidolo I went for a drive into Limassol for a drink. Salut was the name of the bar. I saw no girl. Please, I sw… I did no harm.’’
‘‘Ok, we will have the police look for this Christodoulo guy. Give his description to the officers here with you and we will pick him up. Prostitution is illegal. Also, you will agree to have your picture taken so we can show it down at Salut. If both your stories turn up clean you will find yourself off the airport’s blacklist, get it?’’
“And they will check your rental car with your permission and full cooperation,” Ioli added.
As he nodded and repeated, “yes, of course, anything you want,” a few times, we both stood up. Ioli walked off without saying anything while I just said a cliché ‘‘Have a nice day’’ before explaining to the officers how I wanted them to proceed.
After an evening of interviewing a bunch of clueless models who thought Alicia was in her room and walking around Pissouri village showing pictures of our victim, and of my sketch to the locals and tourist alike, we headed back to our hotel disappointed with our fruitless labour.
The next day found us once again with no suspect and with huge, bold titles in the morning papers.
Killer on the loose!
Maniac kills in Cyprus!
Serial Killer Strikes in Pissouri!
Third victim DEAD!
One stood out from the rest.
How the hell did they find out? Oh, the chief is going to love this. Especially when the Greek papers pick it up.
THE OLYMPUS KILLER was the title and the article went on to explain how a serial killer was positioning and hurting his victims according to Greek mythology!
*****
Chapter 14
‘‘The Olympus Killer,’’ he read to himself with vast satisfaction and put down the newspaper on the small, round coffee table.
‘‘I like the ring of that.”
‘‘The Olympus Killer!’’ he repeated.
‘‘I AM THE OLYMPUS KILLER,’’ he shouted and laughed out loud. He picked up his backpack and his camera, and opened the door of his hotel room. He whistled all the way down the aging stairs and even blew a kiss to the young, pretty receptionist who slightly blushed at his gesture.
It had been four days since he had the pleasure of stabbing that beautiful girl down at the beach in Cyprus and killing yet another god. He remembered with joy how easy it was to chop off her arms. He was a bit doubtful in the beginning, but his good old knife did not fail him.
‘‘The bone gave a good fight, but all the weight lifting at Big Tom’s gym finally paid off,’’ he laughed to himself and exited his hotel. Soon he was a part of the flow of tourists that filled the narrow stone streets between the little blue and white houses that mostly housed souvenir shops, ice-cream parlors and jewelry shops nowadays. There were thousands of tourists window shopping down the many winding paths. It was summer time and the island was at its peak. Mykonos, the island of the winds, is considered by many as the most beautiful out of the Greek islands with its picturesque white and blue painted villages; with its turquoise clean and clear waters, and the endless, exotic sandy beaches. The island had countless shops and restaurants for every taste and even more bars and clubs. In the daytime tourists from all over the world sunbathe, dance at one of the many beach bars, enjoy the Greek cuisine, window shop and go sightseeing in Little Venice or the majestic windmills. However, it was at night when the island truly came alive, boasting one of the best club scenes this side of the Mediterranean.
Not that he was that interested in all of that. He looked interested, but he was not. These were going to be his most difficult victims to find, after Zeus and Hera. The gods, Apollo and Artemis. The twins.
Opposite Mykonos was the tiny island of Delos. The twin gods’ birthplace. The island where their mother finally found sanctuary from the wrath of Hera, who had pursued her during her pregnancy.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was low on the horizon just ready to dive into the blue waters while the moon had already appeared, ready to rise and shine through the dark. He thought it was the perfect time to kill the god of the sun and his sister the goddess of the moon.
As he was standing in queue for a delicious double chocolate chip and banana ice-cream, he turned around and faced the group of young, German speaking adults laughing behind him.
‘‘Having fun? Mykonos is great, is it not?’’
He earned himself a few hesitated stares, but a young dark haired girl finally answered, ‘‘Ya, it is amazing.”
He did not even look at her as his attention was focused on the two honey blond, blue eyed, same height, same features pair next to her.
‘‘You make a lovely couple,’’ he noted.
The group of six giggled and the blond guy said in a heavy German accent ‘‘Nein, we are not together! She is my sister.”
His eyes instantaneously opened wide. ‘‘Twins?’’ he asked, hoping for a yes.
‘‘No, I am much younger!’’ the girl objected.
He replied with an unemotional flat line smile and turned back around.
After ordering and receiving his ice-cream, he walked out of the Italian ice-cream parlour and headed down to the town’s main square. He looked around the area and chose a perfectly situated for spying, blue wooden bench to sit down upon. He sat there enjoying his ice-cream not bothered at all from all the commotion from the group of youths beside him. He had his reasons for sitting so close to the loud group of youths. A very handsome, tall Italian wearing white shorts, an elegant blue shirt that was unbuttoned down to his worked out chest and funky green sun glasses turned and joyfully said ‘‘That ice-cream looks delicious’’ while his eyes looked deep into his.
He smiled back at the Italian and replied, ‘‘yes, it is.”
‘‘Wanna try some?’’ he then asked.
‘‘Sure,’’ the Italian answered without hesitation and leaned over and licked the chocolate and banana ice-cream. He took his time; letting his tongue travel all along the ice-cream before retrieving it back to his dry mouth and enjoying the iced dessert that lay on the tip of his tongue. Mykonos is after all a very gay-friendly place. His friends all looked upon them, smiling and trying with no success to be discrete.
‘‘I’m Antonio from Italia,’’ he said.
‘‘Tom Newton,’’ he answered, smiling at the thought of combining two fake names he had used in the past.
‘‘Here with your friends, I see.”
‘‘Ah, yes, all these mad people are my friends,’’ he said and they all turned around to face them. ‘‘This is Gabriella, that is Maria and her brother Luigi… and this is Sergio.” They all exchanged smiles and then he asked ‘‘Maria and Luigi, you look so alike. You twins?’’
‘‘No, but people tell us this all the time. We only have a year between us,’’ said Luigi.
‘‘Fuck, fuck, fuck! Give me a break,’’ he thought and acted that his phone was vibrating.
‘‘I have to answer this. Scusa Antonio. See you guys later,’’ he said as he stood up and started to walk off, throwing the remaining ice-cream in the trash.
‘‘Come to Glam Club tonight. I’ll be there,’’ Antonio shouted with slight disappointment in his voice.
‘‘Dream on,’’ he thought. He had plans to go out clubbing but a gay bar was not the perfect place to find twins; twins that are male and female that is. After today’s setbacks and his failure to find Apollo and Artemis, he had decided to spend the night hunting at SpaceDance club. The biggest club on the island as its colourful leaflet had written all over it with bold fuxia letters.
He had a good feeling about the night as
he stood in the queue with the massive crowd of people that had gathered to enter the club. He paid the girl at the door and smiled at the muscular giant that was the club’s bouncer. He pushed open the club’s heavy entrance door and in a blink of an eye, he found himself in a very different world. People were everywhere, dancing, drinking, singing, flirting, kissing. In the middle of the club was a huge, long bar and all around the club were massive screens and flashy lights. It had a very unique and colourful interior that pleased him; if he did not have an important task in mind he would even consider having a bit of fun. The DJ was handing out the latest hits from techno and house music and the club’s professional dancers were the sexiest he had ever seen. He might have even had a good time; he enjoyed dancing after all. Though, there was work to be done and he got straight to it. He walked around looking like just another single guy enjoying all Mykonos had to offer, but he was a predator and all of his senses were enhanced and fixed on a very specific goal. To find the twin Gods. His eyes looked around for similarities whiles his ears listened in to every conversation going on around him.
Hours past by and lady luck kept on ignoring him. He was starting to feel tired. He sat down on the red, sparkling couch just below the VIP lounge and glared at all the people living in euphoria thanks to the alcohol and the music. It was at the moment when his eyes felt heavy that a young, giggling couple sat next to him and started kissing.
‘‘I can’t believe I did not talk to you sooner,’’ said the tall guy with a distinct Greek accent.
‘‘I was looking at you all night, waiting for you to make a move,’’ the petite, red haired, Irish girl answered.
‘‘It’s not my fault!’’ he laughed and kissed her again. ‘‘I thought you were here with that guy,’’ he added with complaint as he pointed to her brother who was having his fifth beer at the bar.
‘‘Him? He’s my brother! Can’t you tell? Don’t we look alike?’’ she asked.
The Greek man looked across to the bar, gazed upon her brother for a few seconds and honestly answered ‘‘Not really.”
‘‘Well, he is my twin brother and most say we look alike!”
They both giggled and continued kissing not noticing the glow upon his face. His green eyes were now once again wide open. He got up slowly and cool as ice, he walked over to the brother.
‘‘Hey, wanna a drink?’’ he asked, smiling, only to receive a very cold look.
‘‘Nah, I’m ok,’’ the Irish man replied and looked away.
‘‘Another cold beer maybe?’’ he insisted.
‘‘Listen mate, I don’t swing that way… I’m ere for da ladies,’’ he replied, clearly annoyed.
‘‘Oh well, worth a try. It’s just that I thought I had seen you before at my hotel, at Damianos.”
‘‘Nah, couldn’t have been me. I’m staying at Myconos Beach Hotel.”
‘‘Sorry for the misunderstanding,’’ he said and walked away with a smile of satisfaction drawn upon his face.
*****
Chapter 15
New York, 1972
Katie could not take her eyes off the clock. She had another longer than usual thirty-five minutes until her shift was over. The diner Mathew had taken her was a great place. Katie fell in love with the diner the moment her right foot made contact with the floor inside. From the outside it did not look like much, but as her grandma use to say ‘‘Never judge a book by its cover.”
Katie thought most diners looked like dining cars, but this place looked so ordinary. You could easily have classified it as just another coffee shop when passing by. However, the inside had a whole different story to be told. Maybe that was the point. To give you that Alice in Wonderland feeling. Inside, everything was so colourful and vibrant and encompassed various styles from the 50’s and 60’s. It had the usual, long diner counter and the many booths, but with an added twist as each counter stool was a cartoon character and each booth was painted in a different colour than the next.
‘‘A slice of carrot cake for the gentleman on Bugs Bunny’’ and ‘‘two chocolate sundaes for the blue table’’ were not unusual sentences to be heard in Reeve’s Diner.
Mr and Mrs Reeve, the proud owners of Reeve’s Diner, were two kind, hard-working, middle-age people who immediately fell for Katie’s sweet, little, innocent 18 year old poor-student act. She was given the job and the pink uniform on the spot, and she started work the very next day. It had been three weeks since she first started. It was hard work and her feet were aching all over, but Katie was determined to stay in New York. It was worth it, both money-wise as the tips were a great bonus and people-wise. Katie was over the moon to be in such a multi-cultural city and enjoyed the fact that her customers were of every different race and face. No more looking at the same old boring faces of the folk back in Dayton.
As she wiped table 12 or the green booth if you prefer, she gazed up at the clock. Still twenty-five minutes to go. Time was surely taking it slow tonight. She prepared table 12 and walked over to the young couple that had just sat down at table 8.
‘‘I love purple!’’ the excited brunette said to her date while admiring the setting, unaware that he always brought his lady friends here and was used to each girl choosing were to sit based on their favourite colour.
‘‘Really? Mine too!’’ he lied, as Katie approached them.
‘‘Good evening,’’ Katie said with a wide smile. ‘‘Here are your menus. Just holler and I’ll be right with you,’’ she said and handed them the black and pink menus.
‘‘That’s ok,’’ the vigorous, youthful man said. ‘‘We know what we want. Two Reeve’s Burgers with fries and a couple of chocolate milkshakes.”
Katie smiled politely, took the menus and walked over to the counter.
‘‘Joe, two Reeves. Mrs Reeve, two milkshakes please.”
‘‘Coming right up,’’ smiled Mrs Reeve as she watched Katie look up at the clock for the fiftieth time since her break. ‘‘Katie, honey, you can go now. It’s only another twenty minutes till the end of your shift and it’s not that busy,’’ she said as Katie shook her head and whispered a ‘‘No, it’s ok, I’ll…”
‘‘Go on now! I insist!’’
‘‘Really? Oh, thank you, Mrs Reeve,’’ she said as she quickly removed her pink apron, hung it up on her personal hook and rushed out the door.
‘‘Ah, to be young,’’ Mrs Reeve muttered to herself and started to prepare the chocolate milkshakes.
Katie put on her hot-pink coat in a hurry and rushed down the street. She turned left and sighed with relief. The red flickering light above the sign indicated that the pharmacy was still open. Katie pushed open the glass door and walked down the brightly lit isles looking left and right. She eventually found what she wanted and paused for a minute. There were tens of different brands.
‘‘The cheapest is always bad quality and the most expensive is always a rip off, granny used to say,’’ Katie whispered as she picked up the one which she thought was at a reasonable middle price. She walked up to the counter and stood behind a dirty-looking old man complaining about the rising prices to the drug store owner.
‘‘Trying to kill us off, that’s what they are doing. We cost too much so Uncle Sam raises the prices of our medication to force us to stop taking them,’’ the old man snapped, tapping his index finger on the white counter.
‘‘I’m sure no one is trying to kill you, Mr Harman,’’ the friendly owner said as he passed him his arthritis pills. ‘‘Yes, miss?’’ he asked as he turned towards Katie.
‘‘Just this, please,’’ Katie said quietly.
‘‘One pregnancy test. That will be $3.50, please.”
‘‘Bring a kid into this world? You must be mad, child!’’ the old man grunted.
‘‘Mr Harman!’’ the owner told him off with a strict tone in his voice.
Mr Harman just turned around and walked away complaining about the weather being unusual for this time of year.
‘�
�I’m so sorry Miss, he is a funny old fellow that one,’’ he said with a smile that had I feel bad for you written all over it.
‘‘No problem,’’ Katie said very casually, being used to verbal abuse all her life. ‘‘Here you go,’’ she said and passed him a five dollar note.
‘‘Here’s your one fifty.’’
Katie took her change and her little white box and turned to leave.
‘‘Good night, Miss,’’ said the owner as he watched Katie walk out the front door just like so many young girls in trouble before her. All with the same worried look about what the future could behold for them.
It was quite a cold night outside with a chilly breeze swirling around through the streets. However, Katie was sweating. Anxiety had just kicked in.
‘‘What on earth would I do with a baby?’’ she said.
The thought of Alexandros coming round and finding her knocked up frightened her. He had visited Katie another three times since their first encounter and each time felt even more magical. Would he demand rent or worse, kick her out? The small flat had become her home. She took great pride in putting little touches around the place like the flower vase she had bought real cheap down at the Sunday market and an imitation painting of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night which she had Alex hung up above her bed.
She slammed the door behind her and ran to the bathroom. With trembling hands, she opened the box and carefully read through the instructions.
‘‘Bring the test pouch to room temperature… Immerse the strip into the urine with the arrow end pointing towards the urine…’’
Every word fed her panic.
‘‘Come on Katie, get a grip and just pee on the God damned stick for crying out loud!’’ she scolded herself as she flicked through the little booklet to find the section results.
‘‘Wait for coloured bands to appear… Positive results may be observed in as short as 40 seconds. However, to confirm negative results, the complete reaction time (5 minutes) is required…’’
Greek Island Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-2-3): Gripping, psychological mystery/thrillers destined to shock you! Page 9
