The Night Villa by Carol Goodman

Author:Carol Goodman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780345509383
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Elgin is the first to run to the tunnel. Lyros is leaning heavily on me, limping, so I’m unable to keep up with him. I watch helplessly as Elgin is swallowed up in a cloud of dust at the mouth of the tunnel. When I try to follow, Lyros pulls me back.

“There’s no sense risking your life, too,” he says. Lyros calls to the workmen, who have come down to the pit but are hovering far from the building as if they are afraid the whole villa is about to come down. He tells them to bring shovels and lights.

“What the hell were they doing in there?” I ask, still trying to get close enough to the tunnel to see what’s going on.

“You heard what Maria said, Simon was showing Agnes some paintings. The man’s a fool! He somehow got the idea that there were more paintings in there that could be copied for the restorations, but I’ve told him the tunnels aren’t safe….” A coughing spasm compels Lyros to stop talking. While I’m waiting for him to recover I wonder if this is what Lyros and Simon were arguing about the night before last on the sea-steps. I also wonder if the paintings were all Simon was looking for in the tunnels. Could it be that Simon is the Tetraktys member on the project? “When I got down here, I heard their voices coming from this tunnel so I followed them in. I got about three yards in when the ceiling started to collapse. I could see them, about another fifteen yards in, I would say. I saw the support beam over their heads come down and then the one just in front of me came down as well and tore out a piece of the wall. There was too much dirt for me to dig through so I came back out, but with shovels…”

Lyros turns to two workers who have arrived at the scene with shovels and shouts for them to start digging for the signorina Americana. They spring to attention to save the pretty American girl, moving far faster, I imagine, than if it were only old, fat Simon trapped in there. Simon’s lucky he’s got Agnes with him, but what about poor Agnes?

“Shouldn’t we contact the archaeological office?” I ask. “They must have more experience with this kind of situation.”

“They do,” Lyros says, “but it’s a holiday. By the time they assemble a crew Simon and Agnes could be dead. We should notify them, though, and tell them to call an ambulance. You and Maria should go…. Where is Maria anyway?”

“I don’t think she ever came downstairs,” I say. “I’ll get her.”

I leave Lyros crouched in front of the tunnel and run up the stairs to the third level of the villa. The courtyard is empty, though, save for the painted figures on the wall, still moving through their rituals as if nothing had happened. Hades ravages Persephone, Demeter in her grief scorches the earth and

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