A Deadly Twist by Jeffrey Siger (free novel reading sites .txt) 📕

see as a repudiation of divine guidance, switched his faith to GPS.

By the time he spotted the first sign for the hotel, he was already there. It sat atop a slight rise overlooking the beach. The resort complex, equipped with two huge swimming pools, a spa, shops, bar and dining facilities, tennis courts, and a private beach, had virtually everything required to keep the clientele happily on property, free to spend their time and money there and nowhere else.

He parked the bike by a freshly painted white building trimmed in cerulean blue and dominated by a soaring all-glass entranceway framed in white marble. Yianni followed a sign marked RECEPTION pointing toward the building. A short, fit man a few years older than Yianni waited for him inside the door.

“Detective Kouros, I presume. I’m Marco Sanudos.”

“How did you know it was me?”

They shook hands and the man smiled. “Very few of our guests arrive on motorbikes, and even fewer without luggage. Frankly, I was a bit concerned when you didn’t show up at our appointed time, especially after the mayor called to tell me you’d been to see him and left.”

“How nice of him to call.”

“I think he was more interested in warning me to be careful of what I say to you.”

“Does he have a habit of doing that, or is it a special honor reserved just for me?”

“He means well,” Marco smiled, “as long as you’re not interfering with his priorities.”

“What’s that mean?”

“May I suggest we continue this conversation in my office?”

He told a young woman sitting behind the concierge desk to send water, coffee, and pastries and led Yianni into a room behind reception. The room’s only masonry wall was a long one shared with reception, the rest glass, arranged in a perfect semicircle looking on to the pool area.

“Wow, how do you get any work done in here? I’d either be mesmerized by the view or worried who might be watching me.”

“The view you get used to, and the glass is one-way.” He pointed to a stylish chrome and leather chair in front of a teak and chrome desk. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

Yianni sat down as a waiter arrived with a coffee tray. After the waiter left, Marco said, “What I didn’t want to get into out there in front of my staff was that I’m much closer to your friend Dimitri than I am to the mayor. Dimitri told me you’d scuttled the mayor’s plans for sticking it to him, and that really pissed him off.”

“How do you know about my friendship with Dimitri?”

“He called me not long after the mayor did. He said you were a friend who could be trusted and that you’d likely get lost on the way here.” Marco looked at his watch. “He asked that I let him know if you hadn’t made it by now.”

“I’m flattered everyone’s so worried about me.”

Marco smiled. “We’ve lost a tourist and may have lost a reporter. I guess no one wants us to lose a cop, too.”

“So you know about Nikoletta?”

“The mayor told me. He also said not to share her potential disappearance with anyone.”

Yianni nodded. “I can understand your concern about losing more folks. From my limited experience in getting from town to here, I’d say Ariadne and her Labyrinth crowd must have played a big role in laying out Naxos’s street plan.”

Marco laughed. “You’re not the first to suggest that. But better roads come at a price, and I don’t mean just their construction costs. They change the nature and character of a place. Easier accessibility means greater numbers of visitors to an area, and that brings other changes.”

Yianni stared at Marco. “Whose side are you on? I’d expect you to be all in for tourism?”

“I am all in for tourism, just not to the point that I want to see our island trampled to death. I was born and raised here. My grandfather started this hotel, my father expanded it, and now it’s my turn to shepherd it forward. I’m committed to sensible planning, sensible preservation, sensible progress.”

“Nicely put. Does the mayor know you’re after his job?”

“Not interested. This is my passion, not politics.”

“Did you have this kind of conversation with the reporter?”

“Yes. I sensed she didn’t believe I was sincere.”

So far he’s consistent with what’s in Nikoletta’s notebook. “What made her think that?”

“She asked whether I had plans to expand the hotel, and I said yes. Why not? This is a hotel area. We wouldn’t expand onto the beach but onto property adjacent to the beach. There are plenty of other virtually undeveloped beaches that can and should be preserved as they are.”

“My guess is your fellow islanders who own property on those undeveloped beaches wouldn’t agree with you.”

“They don’t, but that’s not unique to Naxos; it’s a national problem. We only want others to bear the burdens of preserving our country’s natural resources.”

“Perhaps I was wrong in suggesting you’re running for mayor. Sounds more like prime minister to me.”

He shrugged. “Right now I’m confining myself to simpler issues, such as limiting the number of cruise boats allowed to dock on any given day.”

“How big a problem is that?”

“It chokes the old town for the few hours they’re in port, but otherwise they have a limited effect on the island. The bigger issue is expanding the airport.”

“Is there a plan to do that?”

“There’s a lot of wishful thinking in some quarters, and anxiety in others, because extending the runway to accommodate big jets would significantly impact the island.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“Frankly, I don’t think Naxos will have much say in it, one way or the other.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because the airlines, cruise lines, and airport authorities don’t want Naxos to have an international airport.”

“Why not?”

“The most expensive per-mile air route in Europe is between Athens and Mykonos. Mykonos has expanded its airport and operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a transportation hub for this part of the Cyclades. Big jets land there, and tourists head to