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

in the tower since the woman arrived?”

“No.”

“Have you noticed any strangers hanging around the tower?”

“No.”

“Are you certain.”

“Ye-es.” She strung out the word oddly, or so it seemed to Andreas.

He glanced at Yianni, who nodded.

“When do you usually deliver dinner to the woman?”

“Before we get busy, which would be around now.”

“Do you have a key or does she let you in?”

“I press a button at the terrace door, she asks who it is, I tell her, and usually she comes down to open the door for me. Sometimes she just buzzes me in.”

“I need you to go with us to the tower. When she asks who it is, don’t tell her we’re with you. As soon as she opens the door, get out of the way. We’ll take it from there.”

She looked around the table. “Really? You’re making me worry.”

“There’s no need, Sofia. We’re being cautious for the sake of the woman, just in case there’s someone with her you don’t know about.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be with you,” said Toni, patting Sofia’s hand.

“The hell you will,” said Yianni.

“Don’t mind him. That’s my overprotective boyfriend, worried that I’ll somehow mess up this very simple food delivery. Isn’t that right, Chief Inspector?”

Andreas spoke through a clenched jaw. “Does that work for you, Sofia?”

She nodded yes and squeezed Toni’s hand.

Andreas sighed and looked to Yianni. “Then I guess that’s how we’ll do it.”

“What about video surveillance?” said Tassos. “Security’s a big concern among homeowners these days.”

“It wasn’t so different four hundred years ago,” said Maggie. “Why do you think they built this tower like a fortress?”

“And pirates still found their way in,” said Sofia.

Andreas nodded. “I’m sure we will too.”

Chapter Eighteen

A group of three couples armed with maps and snapping photos with their phones wound their way up beside a tower along a twisting path of marble steps. The steps led to a pair of bronze-clad doors framed in marble and crowned by the emblem of Venice carved in stone. The women stopped a few paces before the doors to snap photographs of the valley below, while the men argued over where to visit next. The group seemed oblivious to the young woman carrying a tray of food up the steps behind them.

As the arguing intensified, the three women turned away and started back down the steps, yelling back at the men that they’d be waiting at the car for them to make up their minds. The men kept up with their argument but slowly followed the women, stopping every step or so to accentuate a point.

The young woman with the tray pressed a button next to the doors and stood watching the men argue.

One of the doors swung open wide and a smiling, dark-haired woman appeared. “Good evening, Sofia.”

“Evening, keria.” As Sofia stepped inside, the three arguing men sprinted for the doorway.

Panic spread across the woman’s face, and she tried to slam the door shut, but Sofia and her tray blocked the woman just long enough for the men to grab the door and force their way inside.

The woman screamed for help.

“Relax, Nikoletta, we’re the police,” said Andreas, pulling his ID out from beneath his shirt.

Yianni and Tassos did the same.

“You scared the bloody hell out of me,” said Nikoletta.

“Are you alone in here?”

“Yes.”

He turned to Yianni and Tassos. “Make sure that she is.”

Yianni and Tassos headed into the tower, guns drawn.

“Is everything okay in here?” said Toni, stepping through the doorway.

“Seems to be,” said Andreas.

“Who is she?” asked Nikoletta.

“More like who are they?” said Lila coming up behind Toni with Maggie.

“Don’t I know you?” asked Nikoletta.

“I’m Lila Vardi.”

“The socialite,” she turned to face Andreas, as Lila frowned at the description, “married to Andreas Kaldis, chief of Special Crimes.”

Andreas bowed. “At your service.”

“I’m flattered by all this attention.”

“Your newspaper is very worried about you.”

“I bet. I’m sure they can’t wait to hear my story.”

“Personally, I can’t wait to hear it myself. Why don’t we start with a basic question: Where is your kidnapper?”

“Kidnapper? I’ve not been kidnapped. I’ve been protected.”

“By whom and from whom?”

“I truly wish I knew. Why don’t we go inside where we can sit down? I can try to answer your questions, and perhaps you can answer some of mine?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Nikoletta turned to Sofia. “Please bring the tray inside.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I had no choice. They are the police.”

“Don’t worry. I know you were only trying to help me.” Nikoletta paused and looked at Andreas. “Are you expecting any others to join us?”

Yianni came out of the tower, followed by Tassos, caught Andreas’s eye, and flashed him a thumbs-up.

He turned back to Nikoletta. “None of the invited sort.”

* * *

Nikoletta led them to a second-floor library that could have passed for a museum dedicated to seventeenth-century baroque furniture. A large rectangular table fitted with marble inserts and adorned in elaborately carved cupids and shells dominated the center of the room. Bold scrolls embellished the table’s legs and the legs and arms of twelve matching chairs. A comparably carved gilded writing desk sat to the side between two windows. An open laptop computer atop the desk served as the room’s only visible sign of the modern age.

Nikoletta sat in a chair on the side of the table closest to the desk. She pointed at the computer. “I assume you know I’m working on a book about this experience.”

Andreas smiled as he sat directly across from her. “We’d prefer not having to wait until it’s published to learn what happened.”

Yianni and Tassos sat next to Andreas, while Lila, Toni, and Maggie sat at the end of the table farthest away from the others.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me, but before we get to them, I have one that’s been gnawing at me since the night I disappeared from the hotel.”

“What is it?” asked Andreas.

“Why hasn’t a single word appeared anywhere in the media about my disappearance? Not even in my own newspaper.”

“If you’re able to answer my questions as easily as I can answer yours,