The Pleasure Seekers (18 page)

An hour and a half later Max was rounding the cliffs leaving the port of Livakia behind him. Melina was on board with her blue plastic bucket and a mop. It had taken some doing to get her there. The many questions, the money transaction, assurances that she would be back in time for lunch. Then her persistence in wanting to know why he had never hired her before. She really didn’t want to go, made excuses, but Max laid on the charm and upped the money. He actually found it fascinating to watch her grow more brazen, more crude, more rude to him the more he insisted he needed her and was depending on her to help him out. He had never truly realised what a nasty piece of work she could be, and yet he felt somehow sorry for her, for the way she was, the way she lived, possibly the way she killed. It was the only way she could find to live. He didn’t like having her on board, didn’t much like what he was doing.

She had not so much as touched the bucket or the mop from the time she brought them on board and placed them on the deck. Max found that irritating. He saw it as a kind of laziness and fraudulence once she had got what she wanted: the job, an agreement about money, even some already in her pocket. These were the same things Arnold kept going on about when she was working for him. She was a cleaner with a cocky attitude, behaving as if she had no intention of ever swabbing the deck, as if she was
just there for the ride. Well, as it happens that was exactly what she was there for, but she didn’t know that.

The girl had a serious attitude problem. Having seen it once Max would never have had her work for him again. Why had Arnold tolerated her? Mark’s nagging him to help her? No, it had to have been more than that. Once he realised that Melina had some kind of a sexual hold on Arnold, that she played on his weaknesses instead of his strengths, and Arnold had had those too, Max wanted to slap her hard across the face.

On board she was showing a side of herself she had hidden from Mark, from them all, had only dared to show Arnold whom she knew could never cope with it. Max controlled himself and led her along, allowing her to inflate her already swollen ego with thinking she had control of the present situation. Of course – control. That had been what it was all about, her controlling Arnold. He had got out of hand and so Melina had taken her revenge.

Everything went according to Manoussos’s plan. Max picked up him and Dimitrios about twenty minutes further down the coast and Melina suspected nothing. In fact, once they were on board and were having cold drinks together she remarked how envious her friends would be of her having these three particular men all to herself, and began to use her body flirtatiously. It was crude but somehow pathetic.

They were no more than five minutes from the cove and the grotto, the very beach where the crime had been committed. The men watched her for any sign that she recognised the place but saw nothing to that effect in
her expression. It was all so relaxed – the mundane conversation, the hot sun and a light breeze, the rugged and exciting coastline basking under them.

They were barely minutes from the cove and their destination when she asked, ‘How far along the coast will we be travelling? Do we have a destination?’

Such a question, at that very moment? A slight inflection in her voice? Possibly imagined, or just a policeman’s instinct. She knew exactly where she was, where they were going. For the first time, she suspected something.

‘Does it matter?’ asked Manoussos.

Brazenly, defiantly, she turned away from the rail to face Manoussos, Max and Dimitrios, and gazing directly into Manoussos’s eyes she told him, ‘I don’t want to be too late returning to Livakia, I have things to shop for for Kirios Mark before lunch.’

Max spun the wheel and the caique swung round the cliffs and entered the cove. The beach and the grotto were clearly in view and Max headed his boat towards the makeshift and now collapsing weather-beaten wooden jetty that Arnold had had built there many years before. Quite suddenly there was an unpleasant tension in the air. It settled on the seafarers.

Manoussos answered Melina. ‘You won’t be going back to Livakia, Melina. Not before lunch, not ever.’

Her eyes turned mean and hard, filled with anger. She looked at each of the men in turn then leaned on the rail, her eyes fixed on the beach. She was silent for several minutes watching Max drop anchor, Dimitrios throw the line on to the jetty. Then, when all their attention was
back on her, she asked, ‘And why, you fine gentlemen, tell me why I won’t be going back to Livakia?’

‘Because you killed Kirios Topper, Melina.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I don’t know that, but you’re going to tell me what happened here, and then I will know for certain that you killed him.’

She placed her hands on her hips and threw back her head, laughing uproariously. ‘You are a pathetic policeman, you know nothing! All guesses. If you know so much, why don’t you arrest me? I’ll tell you why – because I am more clever than you. You are a very pompous man, and devious too to get me out here away from Livakia and Kirios Mark to make such a claim against me. You didn’t dare to do it and make a fool of yourself in Livakia. No matter now, you make a fool of yourself here. Why me? Why do you pick on me for that stupid man’s death?’

‘Because you’re the only one who had a motive.’

‘Explain!’

‘Motive is what induces a person to act. And you had it. A public humiliation that went too far at a dinner at the Kavouria two nights before Arnold was found dead.’

‘He had been insulting about me before and I never killed him.’

‘Not in front of Mark, or let me say, not in front of Mark when he had to stand up and defend you, openly declare an interest in you that sounded more than just a campaign to save a delinquent child.’

‘You leave Kirios Mark out of this, you’re not fit to utter his name!’ she ground out. Then spinning round she
shot looks more like daggers at Dimitrios and Max and spat on the deck. ‘None of you is!’

Max was about to go for her but was held back by a look from Manoussos that said, ‘Cool it’. So here was the key to a confession: Mark. Manoussos had it in his hand and he would use it.

‘I’m afraid that I can’t leave Mark out of this, for the moment anyway. You see, he’s the only other person with a motive. Arnold had been a thorn in his side for a very long time. He might have decided to kill him off in return for the public humiliation Arnold inflicted on you that last night we all saw him alive.’

She laughed again but this time there was obvious hysteria in the sound. ‘You’re trying to frighten me because you know nothing for sure. Anyone, a stranger, could have slipped into Livakia in the night and killed Kirios Topper.’

‘And why would a stranger do that?’

‘For money, for sex, for fun . . . how do I know? I know one thing for sure, you leave Kirios Mark out of it.’

‘Only you can leave Mark out of this killing, Melina, because I swear to you by all that is holy that unless you tell me exactly what I want to know, I will arrest him on suspicion, leak it to the press, and ruin his life whether he is guilty of the crime or not.’

‘You pig, you whore! And everyone thinks you’re such a good man, you deserve to be dead like Arnold. Worse, not like Arnold. You, I would have cut off your . . .’

It took Max and Dimitrios and all their strength to pull her off Manoussos, and they were both very strong men. Her rage gave her unimaginable strength. Manoussos
received a small gash on his face, near his chin. She was so fast no one realised that she had a switchblade in her hand until the blood was flowing from the wound. She was screaming obscenities and completely out of control, her eyes glazed with hysteria. The two men could not wrestle her still until Manoussos slapped her hard across the face several times. That seemed to bring her back to her senses. They sat her down.

‘You have to believe I didn’t want to do that, Melina. I’m sorry but it was the only way to calm you down. Now you tell me the truth, the whole truth, and I promise to keep Mark out of it. You think about that while I tend to my face.’

That took some time because Manoussos could not stop the bleeding. Max produced disinfectant and finally the bleeding eased. A bandage and plaster were placed over the small but deep wound. Manoussos returned to sit next to Melina. Her face showed nothing now. He closed the switchblade and threw it overboard.

‘Chief, that was the assault weapon, evidence.’

‘What assault? I’m not charging her with assault, I’m charging her with murder. We’ll all just forget about this little incident. It’s going to go hard enough for her without a charge of assaulting an officer. I mean it, this incident stays right here between the four of us.’ He was emphatic and the other two men knew that it was pointless to disagree with him, so they said nothing.

They could not read Melina’s face. A strange silence settled over everyone. The longer they sat there the more uncomfortable they became. Yet no one moved, no one said anything, until Manoussos broke the spell by going
to the cool box and returning with a tall drink for Melina. Her hand was trembling when she took it from him. She drank the entire cold lemon drink in one long swallow and then drew her arm across her mouth to dry her lips.

Max had to look away. He hated her, despised her, but for a moment she looked like a wounded animal he would have put a clean shot through to end its life, granting it mercy. Dimitrios removed his cap and wiped the perspiration from his forehead. He stood up and turned his back on her to look to the beach. For the rest of his life he would never forget the fear in Arnold’s dead eyes. He wanted to see that same fear in Melina’s eyes. He wanted her to suffer as Arnold had suffered but he knew that would never happen. She was a hard case, and she would weather this just as she had weathered everything else that had happened to her in her life. He knew his people and he knew his criminals. Only Manoussos remained emotionally untouched by her and the events that had taken place so far; he reserved judgement and would until he had heard the entire truth from Melina.

She handed the empty glass back to him. ‘Have any of you ever been in Kirios Arnold’s grotto? Ah, you have, of course you have, you were his friends, he would have taken you there. I’ve been there, many times. The water’s so deep and clear and the colour, like a jewel, and the light off the water, the way it reflects off the walls and the roof of the grotto. I used to swim there with Arnold. He didn’t like taking me there but I made him. I could make him do anything when he was drunk and wanted sex with me. But then when he was sober he would make believe that I was no more to him than a cleaner, a handyman to do
odd jobs for him. Those were the times that he would not take me there. I would like to go into the grotto to see it one more time before you take me away to wherever they take killers. Not to swim, I know you won’t let me do that, but in his rowing boat. You can tie my hands and my feet if you think I’ll run away. We can all go. I won’t ask you for anything else except that you keep your promise not to involve Kirios Mark in any of this. He doesn’t even now know what I did.’

There was no pleading in her voice, no sense of shame or fear in her eyes. If anything there was a kind of stubborn simple pride. Max and Dimitrios would have whisked her away right then and there but they were not Manoussos and they were aware that he would not leave that place until he heard every last word about what had happened. They never even looked at him but made ready to secure the boat and tie up to the jetty.

‘I gave you my word before, Melina, I give it to you again. Mark will not be involved.’

All Max kept thinking as he rowed them round the grotto was that his friend Manoussos was a giant among men and one with an enormous amount of humanity in him. How many men in his position would have granted Melina her wish? He certainly would not have. Max was prepared for the girl to take advantage of the situation, jump overboard, topple the boat, something. She did nothing. She behaved impeccably and surprised him further when, after having a good look round and imprinting the place forever on her mind, she told them, ‘This place, it’s magic. It wipes out the world. If I could have been born here, and lived here in this grotto, like
a princess of the sea, maybe I would not have had to kill Kirios Arnold. I would have been a different person. Whatever happens to me, I will always have this to remember and dream about. I’m ready to go now.’

Back on the beach Manoussos asked, ‘And now will you tell me what happened, how it happened, why it happened, Melina?’

‘Yes, but I want to tell it to you alone, without them.’ Hatred had slipped back into her voice.

‘I’m afraid that’s not possible. I want them here as witnesses. That’s the way it has to be.’

She walked very nearly to the exact spot where Max had found Arnold’s body and looked defiantly at Manoussos. ‘I’m not sorry I killed him. Honour demanded it and I would do it all over again. You two Cretan men, would you have done less had you been humiliated as I had been that night? I don’t think so. You would have demanded satisfaction as I did.

‘Who was he? Nothing! A drunk who had everything, and was taking up space in this world, nothing more. And he called me a thief! He was mean and I was hungry. I worked for everything he gave me, promised and didn’t give me, and the things I took from him he should have given me. He was the kind of man that should have been weeded out and destroyed because he was a cripple. A cripple pitied me! I think that’s a joke on him, because look who’s dead. I never would have killed him had he not publicly branded me a thief and a whore and refused to take it back, tell everyone it was a mistake, that he was sorry.

‘I never liked him, never respected him. He was a
burden on Kirios Mark, he took up his time. Everyone’s time. Yet you all liked him and respected him, I could never understand that. I despised his kindness, the secure little world he made for himself, and he was always trying to destroy the one I was making for myself. That last night, he stole my life away for the last time.

‘I planned to kill him while he was still insulting me and telling Kirios Mark how he spoilt me, that I was not as intelligent as Kirios Mark pretended I was, that he should not give me the authority he does to take care of his house and make me important in his life. When Kirios Arnold made Kirios Mark accuse me of being stupid and send me home in front of everyone, Kirios Arnold was already a dead man. All the way home I was planning how to kill him, wipe him off the face of the earth. I knew Kirios Mark would approve, he always said the cripples, the deformed, the weak and the greedy should be weeded out and thrown away. That wealthy men like Kirios Arnold and his money ran the world against people like me. Well, no more would I have to carry that cripple home.