Black Easter by Dario Ciriello

Author:Dario Ciriello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: resurrection, black magic, dark magic, waffen ss, ritual sacrifice
Publisher: Panverse Publishing LLC

Chapter Twenty-three

Alex’s plane arrived almost three hours late, and by the time she got through customs and they fought their way through the evening commute in a taxi whose driver just wanted to talk nonstop about politics and grew surly when Paul made it clear that they didn’t, they boarded the ferry with less than twenty minutes to spare.

In the year since he’d last seen her, Alex had changed from a skinny teen into a young woman. Her natural jet-black hair and light complexion worked well with her goth lite style of near-black lipstick, dense eyeliner, and heavily-distressed jeans tucked into lace-up boots. Smartly hip, but none of it over the top.

When they’d settled their belongings—Paul had got them separate cabins—they made their way to the lounge. He ordered them both a glass of wine. Charly had brought her daughter up in the enlightened European tradition rather than the Puritanical American one, and from an early age sometimes let her have a drop of wine just to colour her water, rather than make drinking a taboo; at eighteen, Alex regularly drank a little wine with meals at home. If you don’t forbid it, they won’t abuse it, as Charly said.

Dinner in the ferry’s cafeteria was an indifferent affair of meatballs and chunky French fries. But there was baklava, which Alex loved. By ten-thirty they’d retired to their cabins. Paul set his alarm for five and climbed into the narrow but cozy bunk.

He’d barely fallen asleep when his cellphone rang. He snatched it up thinking it might be Elléni, but the number was unknown.

“Kyrie Hátzis?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“I’m Captain Katsélis of the Vóunos police. You are on the ferry returning from Thessaloniki?” Paul sat bolt upright. The question, delivered without preamble or explanation, seemed abrupt to say the least.

“Yes. Yes, I am. What makes you ask?”

“And you’ll be docking at six-something, I think?”

“Yes! Look, Captain, is there something—”

“Please, Mr. Hátzis. Now: did you authorize Miss Marinóudis to be at your house?”

Paul frowned. Had the police chanced by and thought Elléni was breaking in? Given the house’s distance from the road, that seemed unlikely. Besides which, that kind of thing just didn’t happen on Vóunos. He had a sudden impulse to shout at the man and tell him to stop playing games. But since it rarely did any good to aggravate people, especially cops, he replied in measured, polite tones.

“Yes. I had to travel to Thessaloniki and she offered to be there when the teknítis arrived to install my dishwasher. Could you tell me what this is about?”

“Please, be patient a moment longer, Mr. Hátzis. What’s your relationship with Miss Marinóudis?”

Paul hesitated a moment. He didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to broadcast the fact that they were lovers. “We’re friends. Good friends.”

The captain didn’t comment. Perhaps he was smart enough to appreciate the phrasing. “And did you have any other visitors in the last two or three days before you left?”

“No. Oh, actually, yes—o Pápas Tákis stopped by on Tuesday.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.