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

as the caller who left the message on the editor’s phone.”

Silence.

“Dare I ask if you know whose number it is?” said Andreas.

“I have a name but no other information.”

“What’s the name?”

“Petros Zagorianos.”

“Never heard of him.” Andreas looked around the table and received a group shrug.

“It could be an alias. The phone was purchased at a shop on Naxos the day before Nikoletta disappeared.”

“Do you know anything else about this Petros character?”

“Not a thing.”

“Is that all you have on the phones?”

“Yeah. I hope it helps.”

“It’s a good start. Thanks.”

Andreas clicked off. “Any thoughts?”

“Yeah,” said Tassos. “Call Dimitri and see if he’s ever heard of this guy.”

Andreas dialed.

“Dimitri, it’s Andreas. You’re on speaker with my crew.”

“Small world, I was just about to call you.”

“I wanted to know if you ever heard of a Naxian named Petros Zagorianos?”

Pause.

“Dimitri, are you still there?”

“Did you say Petros Zagorianos?”

“Yes.”

“I was calling to tell you we have an ID on the tourist who took a header on the rocks the night the reporter disappeared. He was born on Naxos as Petros Zagorianos but emigrated to the U.S. as a child, and the name on his U.S. passport is Peter Zagori.”

Andreas leaned in toward the phone. “When did he last enter Greece?”

“According to Immigration, the day before the reporter disappeared. He arrived on Wednesday. She disappeared early Thursday morning.”

Andreas looked at Tassos. “The same day he bought the phone.”

“What phone?” asked Dimitri.

“The one used to call Nikoletta the night she disappeared and to call her editor yesterday to say she was okay.”

“But Zagori couldn’t have called her editor. He was dead for nearly two days by then.”

“I know,” said Andreas. “Which means if we find Peter Zagori’s phone, we likely find his killer.”

“And whoever has Nikoletta,” added Tassos.

“Any other info on Zagori?”

“Not yet, but based on your suggestion we ran him through Greek databases and he popped up with a Greek military record. He came back from the United States to serve his time in the army. That’s all we have on him over here, but we’ve put in a request with the United States for anything they might have. I’ll let you know as soon as we hear back.”

“Thanks. How’s Popi doing?”

“Stable is all we’re hearing. The infection seems to be under control. They may not have to remove her spleen.”

Andreas pumped his fist into the air. “Thank God. If you speak to her husband, please pass along our thoughts and prayers.”

“Will do. Bye,”

Andreas shut off his phone and looked at Tassos. “What do you think?”

“That we’ve got one hell of a mystery to solve.”

“And less than forty-eight hours in which to do it.”

“Back to the books, boys and girls,” said Maggie.

“Once we finish, let’s go to the beach,” said Lila.

“I can’t go. We really have a lot to do,” said Andreas.

“Sure you can. From what I’ve heard, until you meet with those folks tomorrow, all you have to do is think and toss around ideas. That can be done on a beach as well as in one of these chairs. Besides, a swim will clear your head and make all of us think better.”

Andreas raised his hands in a sign of surrender. “Fine. Off to the beach it is. But I get to pick which one.”

“Deal.”

Chapter Eleven

Though their deal had Andreas picking the beach, when he passed on nearby Plaka Beach for a beach at least twenty minutes south, there were grumblings among his crew. Lila argued that Plaka was a perfectly exquisite sandy beach offering organized services for those who wanted them, and since neither she nor Andreas had ever been to that other beach, why risk messing up what remained of their day by heading toward the unknown?

Andreas did not relent. He drove back to Vivlos, turned right onto the main road, and followed it to its end before turning right onto a narrower paved road running between cedar-dotted sand dunes. Parked cars sat off on both the sides of the road. He turned left at what seemed more of a sandy path than a road, and followed it to where it opened up into an impromptu parking area separated from the beach by a line of cedars.

“Here we are, folks. Welcome to Alyko Beach.”

Lila and Maggie hurried down to the beach, carrying bags filled with what they deemed essential for a day by the sea. Andreas and Tassos followed, carrying snacks, water, bamboo beach mats, and two beach umbrellas to shield them from the sun.

“Wherever you ladies pick is fine with us,” said Andreas, glancing at a nodding Tassos.

“This place is gorgeous,” said Lila looking south. “The beach must go on for half a kilometer with not a structure in sight.”

“If you look south,” said Maggie. “But up on that rise beyond the cedars to the north there’s a church and what looks to be the skeleton of some sort of abandoned concrete and stone construction.”

“But it’s a small church,” said Lila, “and the other structure looks to be only a story tall and is hardly noticeable up there off among all those cedars.”

“I wonder what it is?” said Maggie.

Tassos looked at Andreas but said nothing.

“Frankly, I don’t care. I’m just happy to be on a lovely white beach with crystal clear water that’s utterly devoid of music, chairs, tavernas, and anything else man-made.” Lila put her beach bag down ten meters from the edge of the water and, with a flourish suggestive of a conqueror claiming territory, said, “How’s this?”

“Perfect,” said Maggie.

Andreas gathered up rocks as Tassos scooped out a hole in the sand. They planted one umbrella in the hole, secured it in place from the wind with the rocks, and repeated the process for the second umbrella.

After they’d set up and spread out their things, Lila turned to Andreas. “How did you know about this place?”

“Tassos told me.”

Tassos grinned.

“When were you here?” asked Maggie.

“Long before I met you, my love. I was but a young man of twenty serving my country.” He nodded toward the structure on the hill