Marjorie Thelen - The Forty Column Castle

She held out her hand. “My pleasure. Zach didn’t mention a helper.” She looked back at him, shook her head, and said, “Does she know?”

If Zach shook his head, I didn’t catch it. He was preoccupied with unzipping the bags and searching them. He pulled out what he sought. A very large gun. Back we were in that world I only read about and saw in the movies. I was living it. We watched him, waiting to see what he would do, waiting for orders from the commander, because it was clear that Zach was the one who called the shots.

“Helena, you have a gun?”

She nodded and patted the black bulge on her hip.

“All right, help me haul the raft up, and we’ll be under way.”

They sprang into action and stowed the raft. Zach powered up the yacht and turned out to sea.

Helena stood by him at the wheel. They talked in low voices, and I couldn’t hear a word of what they said. But I knew the next step. We were going to Pafos to find Berengaria’s jewels.

Darkness still reigned over Pafos Harbor when we motored in. Some pre-dawn fishermen were on their way out to sea, caught up in their own world and not interested in the domain of the wealthy and the criminal. Zach dropped anchor at a long dock filled with fishing boats. Helena had changed into shorts and tank top. She was all business and had spoken only a few words to me for the remainder of the short trip to Pafos Harbor like she was afraid she would give away secrets.

Zach had changed into black shorts, T-shirt and running shoes. In my black dress and cute little sandals, I felt over dressed. They each shouldered a duffle bag, and I followed them down the dock and over to the harbor parking lot. Helena opened a Honda SUV, a blue one this time. It brought back memories.

Zach stowed the bags in back and turned to me. “Claudie, when we get to our destination, promise me you’ll find a taxi and go back to your aunt. You won’t be implicated in this unless you tell the authorities.”

He pulled me close and searched my eyes. “I wish things had turned out differently. I tried to figure how we could disappear to that island you wanted, but this planet is small, and they’d eventually find me.”

“Of all the lives in this world, why did you have to walk into mine?” I said.

He tried to smile but ended up embracing me. “Things will move fast from here on. Here’s money.” He placed a wad of bills in my hand. “I’m asking you not to make any calls until I’m gone. Deal?”

I nodded, not trusting to speak. I wouldn’t jeopardize his getting away.

“Okay, here we go.”

We sped up the street from the dock and out onto the main drag of Pafos, Helena driving. I was in the back staring into nothing, overcome with weariness. A few late night revelers were on the streets, but the night was winding down, and they were on their way home or back to their hotels.

I thought of that long ago phone call from my aunt. I didn’t feel like the same person who had answered the call. My cares and worries from that world seemed light years away. I counted the days since the phone call. Less than a week.

We passed the same stores and hotels in Pafos that I had known and visited for the last ten years. My favorite restaurant, the street where we rented a house, the highway stretching up ahead to all the beautiful beaches on the west coast of Cyprus. All in the dim past.

Helena parked a few doors from our destination — the house the American couple had rented. They put on vests, the kind that camera buffs wore with tons of pockets. There wouldn’t be cameras, film, and lenses in those pockets.

As he walked away, Zach blew me a kiss. I couldn’t smile. I watched them disappear into the dead end alley. They’d be circling around to enter the back of the house. I got out of the car.

The air possessed the stillness of dawn. A lone mongrel dog trotted down the street intent on his next meal and didn’t give me a glance. The exit scheme involved the car so I put some distance between me and it and found a low stucco wall to sit on and figure out the rest of my life.

Gunfire might be part of this caper, and I prayed that no one would get hurt. Not the neighbors who snuggled in their beds, not Zach who had the most to lose, not even Helena. I couldn’t move my butt from that wall or get my feet to move down the street and away from trouble and out onto the street and to a phone. I waited.

The sky lightened and a breeze blew off the sea. The restaurant across the street cranked up the metal screen, and the smell of coffee stirred the air. Still they didn’t return. Half an hour passed, forty five minutes. I imagined them dead inside, killed with silencers. I imagined them tied up, gagged, unable to breath. Indecision settled in a cloud over my mind. Should I go around and see what I could find? They should have been back by now. Even if they searched the house, it wouldn’t have taken this long.

My feet on their own volition walked to the two story adobe house with red geraniums. I slowed as I neared, searched the second story balcony with hanging ferns. Dark green plastic trash cans stood in a row by the rounded door which was not closed. It stood wide open. At first I didn’t see the figures standing in the shadows, looking out. I froze. Then I recognized the familiar outline. Zach and Helena were watching me approach. He motioned me in.

“What happened?” I whispered, I’m not sure why. Didn’t want to wake up the neighbors, I guess.

“They cleared out. Their gear is gone,” said Zach. “It took us a while to search what was left.”

He studied me. “I thought you were leaving.”

“So did I.”

Zach and Helena looked like a tourist couple ready to meet the day, ready for a walk around town, having breakfast, taking photos to send back home to the family. She was petite against his height and dark to his sun-streaked beauty.

“Now what?” I said.

“We’re going to have breakfast. Care to join us?”

I smiled and nodded. When was I not ready to eat?

Over eggs and beans and chips with big, red slices of juicy tomatoes we talked. Helena excused herself to go to the ladies room.

“You’re only implicating yourself more,” Zach said.

“When you didn’t return, I got worried so I came to see what had happened. I imagined the worse.”

He laughed. “Of course.”

“What will you do now?”

“I can’t tell you, not anymore. I can’t open you up to any more danger. I have been foolish and selfish.” He took my hand in his warm, strong one. “I want you to call Bellomo and have him come get you and forget about me and all this.”

He saw the objection in my eyes before the words formed in my mouth.

“Claudie, someday, I promise you, when this is over, I’ll try to contact you. I know where you are in Boston. For now you must trust me and leave. Sal will get you both off the hook, your aunt will marry, and who knows she might even invite you to live in one of Sal’s palatial homes. Wouldn’t you like that?”

I wasn’t going to be put off with those crazy dreams. “Zach, Helena doesn’t look like a thief, nor do you. You don’t act like some sleazy criminal. If you are, you’re in a class with Cary Grant.”

He squirmed in his seat and would not meet my eyes. Was I getting too close to the truth? Who was Zach Lamont working for?

I stood up. I felt ancient. Every cell in my body ached for sleep.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

I laughed. “To the ladies room. I’ll check and see what’s keeping Helena.”

He grabbed my hand. “She’s gone. She’s my back up, my link. You don’t need to find her. She won’t be there.”

I sank into the chair. It was hard not to scream, to shake him, to make him share what it was that he was doing. I looked at him and when he wouldn’t turn toward me, I caught his chin in my hand and made him meet my eyes.