Aegean Intrigue (6 page)

 

Francie walked toward Professor Theo's office, her step lighter than it had been in years. Last night had been magical. Her heart still raced whenever she thought of the moments she had spent in Alex's arms. There had been only one long, amazing kiss. And then he had caressed her cheek before helping her up and walking her back to the campsite.

There had been no words last night, no declarations of love, no promises made. But this was different from her relationship with Leandros. It had to be. Alex wasn't a social climber. He wouldn't use her for professional or financial gain. She could stop fighting her attraction to Alex, because he would not hurt her.

Still smiling, she opened the office door. She was surprised to see her mentor already up and working. He had sealed the crates containing the artifacts and was applying the shipping labels to them. The bowl Francie had found was perched on his desk next to an empty box.

“Good morning, Professor.”

The elderly gentleman jerked upright, dropping the shipping label as he spun around.

“Francie!” he exclaimed. “M-my, you're up early.” He placed a hand on his chest, and Francie stared at his pale complexion with concern.

“Are you feeling all right, Professor? You don't need to do that, especially with your injured hand. Here, let me help you.”

“No! I mean—you don't need to worry about me. Since I can't do much of the digging, the least I can do is pack.”

She shrugged at that. “I think you have plenty to do with the data collection, but if you insist, go ahead. Just be careful not to tear those stitches out.” She reached down, picking up a stray label that had fallen to the floor. “Here, you dropped this one—” She stopped when she read the address on the label. “Professor, this is the wrong address.”

The elderly gentleman moved with more speed than Francie had ever seen. The bowl was back in the box, and the professor was standing in front of it, as if covering the box would hide his actions. The flush of color on his cheeks gave away his feelings of guilt and shame more than any words could convey.

“F-Francie, why did you come here?”

“Why?” Her raspy voice belied the effort it took to force the question from her lips. “You've always taught us about the value of preserving the artifacts of past generations so present and future generations can learn from them! How could you steal them? You're so well known and respected. How could you risk losing that? Is it the money?”

Her anger turned to sadness as she watched the man's shoulders slump in defeat. Shame transformed the once-proud gentleman into a shell of a man.

“I'm–I'm so—so sorry.” Professor Theo's words were barely discernible between his sobs. “I never wanted to do this. It goes against everything I believe in, everything I try to impart to you students. The history of Greece is meant to be shared with the public, not hidden away in private collections. But—I had no choice.” He nearly collapsed with the weight of his emotional burden. “I kept getting these messages. Someone knew about some…unwise choices I made when I was young.” He looked up at Francie. “I wasn't the best undergraduate student, and your father saved me by taking my entrance examination into graduate school. This person threatened to notify the university if I didn't cooperate. I would have been dismissed, and my family would have suffered from embarrassment. I didn't want to do these things, but I did. And now I'm ruined.”

Francie wrapped her arms around her mentor. How could she not? He had been her surrogate father for years. She held on tight as he wept, bemoaning the loss of his reputation and his career. She shed a tear herself.

She felt Alex come into the tent behind her, though he hadn't made a sound. Still holding the professor, she turned and saw his grim expression as he took in the scene.

“Professor, perhaps you'd better tell me what's going on here.”

Professor Theo stiffened when he heard Alex. He cast an anxious glance around and Francie panicked. Surely he wouldn't try to escape? Alex would easily catch him. But the gentleman closed his eyes and dropped into his seat. He put his head in his hands and groaned. After a moment he took a deep breath and looked up. “In a way, I am relieved this is over. The stress of this ordeal has been worse than the punishment I will receive. I've been a fool, thinking the secrecy was worth throwing away my principles.”

****

Francie sat on a hard wooden chair in the crowded hallway off the lobby in the police station, the tissue in her hand crushed into a soggy mess. The professor had just been escorted into a room for questioning. She still couldn't believe the man who had become her surrogate father could be a criminal. The rest of the crew apparently felt the same way, because they had all come to support him. Josh and Willem huddled in a corner of the lobby while Jane and Yannis stood across from them, next to the window. Yannis had his arm around Jane, who leaned into him for support.

A shot rang out. For a moment, everyone froze in stunned disbelief. And then mayhem ruled. A woman screamed and officers scrambled for their guns as they ducked and crawled toward the open window.

“Yannis! You're bleeding! Someone help, please.” Jane's voice rose above the confusion. Yannis lay at her feet, a pool of red forming around him.

Francie rose to go to him, but a firm hand on her shoulder made her stop.

“Stay where you are, Francie. It looks like someone is shooting into the building and you need to stay away from the windows.”

At his touch, Francie's breath quickened. Would he always have this effect on her? She shook off the thought and pulled away from his hand. “Yannis is hurt. He needs help.”

“He's getting help now.”

Even as he spoke, a pair of young officers bent over him. Jane hovered nearby, sobbing. Francie moved toward her, but Alex got there first. He put an arm around the girl and spoke softly as he pulled her down to a crouch and led her away from the scene. Bringing her to the hallway where Francie sat, he settled Jane in the seat next to her. He raised a brow in a silent request, and Francie nodded in understanding. She placed her arm around the younger girl.

“Sit here with me, Jane,” she said. “Let the medics do their work.”

“I can't believe this,” Jane sobbed. “Who would want to hurt Yannis? He's never done anything to hurt anyone else.”

“I don't know,” Francie admitted. “But at least we're close to the medical center, and there are people here who can find out who did this.”

Huddled against the wall with Jane, she observed the action. Though Alex wasn't part of the police force, he was in the thick of things. Just like at the dig. Instead of sitting back and watching everyone else work, he was personally involved. No wonder she couldn't stop her feelings for him.

Once the police sergeant determined it was safe, the men tending Yannis put him on a stretcher and moved toward the door. He moaned, and Francie sighed in relief that he was still alive. Would the tiny medical center on the island be able to save him? It was nothing like the large hospitals in Athens.

Jane stood. “I want to go with him.”

Francie glanced at Alex, who nodded. “Go ahead,” he told her. “It appears they have the shooter in custody.” He gestured toward the front entrance, where a rough looking man was brought inside, protesting loudly. “Francie, you might want to go with Jane.”

Francie agreed, and they piled into the ambulance. Arriving at the medical center, she and Jane followed the stretcher in. It was going to be a long day.

 

Alex watched the ambulance drive away. He needed to speak to Francie, but now was not the time. He had to deal with the professor, and he wanted to question Yannis's assailant, too. This was no random shooting. Someone had wanted to silence Yannis, but why? He sighed. This was not the way he had envisioned the day. He turned and re-entered the interrogation room, where the professor sat in handcuffs.

Half an hour later, he stalked out. He had no more information than he did when he had entered. The professor freely admitted switching the address labels on the packages, but other than that, he knew nothing about the person or the organization doing the crimes. He was simply following typed orders left on his desk. He did it to keep someone from leaking information about his past. The story didn't change, no matter how the questions were phrased or how many times he was asked.

So the professor was working for someone. That was no surprise. But how was Yannis's shooting connected to all this? Hopefully Yannis would be able to answer a few questions.

Alex went back out to the lobby area to question the rest of the dig crew. Willem, Josh, and Dimitri were the only three there.

“Where is Christina?”

The three young men looked at each other.

“I don't remember seeing her after we left the camp,” offered Josh.

“Neither do I,” admitted Willem. “She rode from the campsite with us, because she sat next to me in the van. But I don't know what happened to her after that.”

Dimitri nodded in agreement.

“So she's here in town. After I question the man they brought in, I'll walk over to the medical center and see if she went there with Francie, Jane, and Yannis.” Alex turned to leave, but Josh caught his shoulder.

“Alex? Is the dig over? What's going to happen to us?”

Alex understood the young man's anxiety. “I'm not sure, Josh. I think the police will want to question you. After they release you, get some dinner in town and then you might as well go back to the camp. I'll come and fill you in as soon as I get some answers.”

Twenty minutes later, Alex walked to the island's medical center, a frown creasing his brow. The man the police had brought in didn't appear to be the shooter. He had been found loitering outside the station, but no weapon had been found, and his hands showed no traces of gunpowder residue from a discharged gun. Alex had found footprints just outside the window where Yannis had been standing, and this man's shoes did not fit the prints. The authorities would probably have to let the man go. It could have been a random crime, but something in Alex's gut told him it had everything to do with his case. Right now he needed to see about Yannis.

Arriving at the medical center, he found the missing crew member looking in the window. Christina stood on her tiptoes, holding on to the white stone window sill and peering in.

“Christina, why are you out here? Francie and Jane are inside. I'm sure they wouldn't mind your company.”

At the sound of Alex's voice, the girl jumped and whirled around, bringing her hand to her chest.

“Oh! Kyrie Leonidis! I did not hear you coming. I heard Yannis was brought here and—and I wanted to make sure he was all right.” She fidgeted with her shoulder bag as she spoke and didn't make eye contact with him. Her nervousness set off an alarm in Alex's mind and his other senses went on alert.

And then he smelled it. The odor of burnt gunpowder.

Wrapping his arm around her, he guided the girl to an outdoor bench. His hand grabbed the top of her shoulder bag so that if she reached for it she wouldn't be able to pull anything out.

“I'm sure Yannis is getting the finest care,” he began. “He was hit in the arm, so the wound shouldn't be too serious.”

“But he wasn't supposed to be hit!” Christina cried. “He stepped in front of her at the last moment.”

Alex stilled. His hand gripped Christina's bag tighter. Any moment she was going to realize—

“Oh!” Christina jumped up from the bench, but with her arm looped through the handles of her bag and Alex holding it tightly, she couldn't run off. Alex stood and reached out with his other hand and gripped her arm.

“Christina, calm down. We need to walk back to the station so you can answer some questions.”

The young girl turned a defiant glare at him. “You can't arrest me. You're not a police officer. Uncle Constantine will see that I am treated fairly.”

“Uncle Constantine?” Alex's mind whirled. Surely Christina wasn't referring to Zotis.

“He always keeps his promises,” she continued. Alex noted her eyes had become glazed with the wild look of a child scrambling to extract herself from a bad situation. Maybe he could keep her talking and get more information. He spoke to her gently as he guided her back down the road to the police station.

“What kind of things did your uncle promise you?”

“He promised I would get into the archaeology program at the university, even though my grades weren't the best. And he promised I would be able to join a dig. Twice the committee rejected me in favor of Francie, but Uncle Constantine kept promising me, and he came through. He's a powerful man, and the best godfather a girl could have.”

Ah, he's Christina's godfather
. No wonder there was no record of a family tie between her and Zotis. “So you were angry with Francie because she kept you from joining the digs before. Was your godfather planning to hurt her?”

“I don't know. But he'll make sure she doesn't stop me again.”

Alex felt sick, knowing the extent of this girls' jealousy. Had her hatred extended to Yannis? “You said you didn't plan to hurt Yannis. Who were you trying to shoot?”

Christina's dark eyes filled with tears and her face crumbled. “Jane,” she sobbed. “Yannis would have paid more attention to me if it hadn't been for that English girl.”

****

It wasn't her.

Alex's heart felt light, despite the serious nature of the report he wrote. He'd known all along she wasn't the thief, but now he had proof. Anxious to find Francie and openly share his feelings for her, he struggled to keep himself on task as he sat in front of his laptop typing his report.

The crew, what was left of it, had returned to the campsite to wrap things up. Since he wasn't a member of the police force, he wasn't needed at the station once Christina had been taken into custody. After taking her statements, officers went to Zotis's estate to question the tycoon. He now faced a number of charges, including theft of Greek's national treasures and extortion of Professor Theodoris. If Francie wanted to press charges for defamation of character, he would also be charged with that.

Now, instead of reporting to Zotis, Alex addressed his report to the police, as well as the Greek Minister of Culture. He couldn't help smiling. The case was solved, and Francie wasn't guilty. He was free to pursue a real relationship with her. She had taught him to trust again.

He loved her. The realization amazed him. How long had it been since he'd thought himself capable of that emotion? He'd been attracted to her since the first time he had seen her in Athens, working and studying. His feelings had grown as they spent time together. Now, he could tell her, and hope she shared his love.

But she hadn't known the real Alex. His elation faded. She knew him only as the Project Director, not as an investigator. Would she forgive him for his deception?

He finished his report and hit send. Then he sat back and allowed himself to dream. Something he hadn't done in a long time.

He'd thought he'd been happy, content to live alone, thinking only of himself and his own needs. Now, he knew better. He needed someone to share his life, someone to watch over, someone who would care for him.

He needed Francie.

Shutting down his laptop, he closed it. His stomach grumbled, and he checked his watch. Dinner had been served over an hour ago, but perhaps Dimitri had some leftovers stored somewhere.