Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel (5 page)

Thursday June 6th

Theo Aristou read the mail once more. He wiped away the drops of sweat on top of his lip with nervous fingers and felt how his heart was beating faster. His breathing was heavy when he raised the receiver to speed dial his secretary.

”Please bring me a bottle of mineral water. And please make sure not to forget the lemon.” His voice was unsteady and he was furious. Angrily he pushed the office chair and it hit the whitewashed stone-wall with a loud bang.

Elena, Theo’s secretary carefully knocked on the door before entering to put down the tray with the refreshing drink on the newly acquired conference table. When she saw Theo pacing to and fro, deep in thought, she quietly closed the door behind her.

In a cold sweat he eased his tie, went across the room to the book-shelf and removed all the folders from the middle shelf. Behind the neatly stacked files there was a secret compartment where Theo had installed a safe. Not even his wife knew about the hiding place where for the past two years he had kept the threatening letters, the USB-memory and the hard-disk. The bunch of keys rattled when he grabbed the long key to the safe and opened it. He gave the coloured glass jar a nod before taking out a USB-memory marked ”Mafia”. Without hesitating he put it in the computer and scrolled down among the different folders. The word ”Threat” flashed on the screen and with a click he opened the folder. His heart pounded with anguish when he browsed through the documents and the knot in his stomach grew harder. Finally he found what he was looking for. He nervously moistened his lips, read the letter through and emptied the glass in front of him. Then he buried his head in the hands and started crying uncontrollably.
Damn it
. Last year’s memories came back like a whiplash. Mafia. Threat. Crushed nose. Fear. Dread.

”Damn it!” He threw the pen holder at the wall. Pens as well as rulers and compasses flew all over the neatly arranged room. ”You bastards!” He was about to lose control. His body was shaking and he felt how the anguish was spreading to every little cell. Powerless he shouted, wondering how the family would be able to pay the enormous amount of money the Mafia was demanding. The big knot in his stomach got larger and he worried about how his wife Pauline would react. With hesitation he raised his eyes to the framed painting on the wall and felt something break within him. With determined steps he went straight to the wall and looked at his life’s accomplishment, the Golden Coast. The painting had been given to him by the most prominent painter in Cyprus in connection with the inauguration. Bang! The deafening sound when the glass was crushed against the stone floor somehow came as a relief. Thousands of glass splinters were spread all over the floor and he felt something warm pouring down his wrist. Blood.

”What’s happening?” Elena came into the room and was terrified to see the destruction. Her face went all white as she saw Theo stamping on the painting and she was just going to open her mouth when he shouted:

”Out!”

Theo Aristou was 46 years old, happily married to Pauline and together they had two children, eight and ten years respectively. He was slim and youthfully built, normally wore a suit and gave the impression he was relaxed and in control. He was one of many developers in Cyprus, running his own company with 30 employees and had been severely affected by the financial crisis in Cyprus. He had barely survived last year and was grateful that the gorillas had left him alone for the past six months. The Russian Mafia, headed by Oleg, was not a joke.

Theo lifted his gaze from the screen, took his hands away from his face and shouted: ”What do you want from me, you bastards?” He was breathing heavily and tried re-gaining control of himself. Three deep breaths later he copied the latest threat mail and nervously took out the iPhone from the inside pocket of his jacket. When he heard Pauline’s soft voice he calmed down a bit.

”Hi, it’s me.” Theo tried sounding normal but he felt how stressed and out of breath he sounded. Quickly he drank what was in the glass and nervously paced around the office with long strides.

”Honey, is there something wrong?” Pauline asked while she looked at the children playing Nintendo Wii.

”I don’t know…I mean…I think so.” Theo almost whispered the words. ”I’ve got another mail…from Vladimir.” He nervously pushed his sweaty hand through his grey, thick hair, waiting for Pauline’s reaction which came as a shot.

”Vladimir! You promised me that all that shit would be over.” All worked up she went into the kitchen so the children wouldn’t hear her but most of all for them not to see how shaken she was. ”What does he want now? How much? How much money does he want?” Pauline started crying softly, banging her head against the shiny fridge door. She soon had black streaks running down her pale face as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

”One million”, Theo whispered and felt how the shirt was sticking to his back. ”One million euros the pigs want.” He had big sweaty spots under his arms and the whole room was tense with anguish. If there was an alternative to rewind the tape or flee, he wouldn’t have hesitated even a second. At the same time he knew there was no point. The Russian Mafia had a strict control and their network was all over the world.

”One million.” Pauline slid down the fridge door and sat sobbing on the floor. Her white blouse was spotted black with tears & makeup. She wiped away the snot from her nose with the back of her hand and removed some hair that was stuck on her lip. ”How the hell are we going to get hold of that amount? I thought the Mafia had left us alone, Theo. How come Vladimir is contacting you again?” Pauline felt - she was getting angry. ”Have you done something I don’t know about?”

Theo stopped his brooding stride, shrugged his shoulders and sighed heavily. ”Sweet-heart, I’ve done nothing at all. I haven’t heard from Vladimir since December last year.”

The phone went quiet. Pauline slowly got up and looked in the kitchen mirror. Her eyes were red but she didn’t’ think the children would notice. They were too small and too busy with playing the TV-game. She took out a wet wipe from her bag hanging on the kitchen chair and wiped her face. Then she crept back to the living room where Julia and Thomas were busy playing, happily unaware of what was going on around them.

”When does Vladimir want to have the money?” Pauline despondently wondered while feeling how their plans for the future were going down the drain.

”Within three days.” Theo could hardly speak. His tongue was stuck to his palate. He held the glass bottle with his unsteady hand and finished what was left. His throat cleared a bit, but he felt far from fine.

They finished the conversation and Theo made a security copy to the external hard-disk. He locked the safe carefully and put back the folders. His brain was working hard. Where would he get a million euros from? The market was still and sales were unusually slow. Theo couldn’t even remember how many times he had regretted letting the Russian Mafia finance his latest build, the Golden Coast. But had he had a choice? A fantastic opportunity had come up and the rest was history. Now the Golden Coast was built on the perfect beach property that he had longed for since he was a teenager. But his dream had now become a nightmare.

Two years had now passed since Theo, proud and happy,in his newly bought plain suit had dug the first hole . Pauline had carefully chosen a red and white striped tie to match his dark blue jacket and he had felt like a winner. The contract had been signed in front of all of Cyprus’ journalists and the Mayor from the city of Pafos had also been present. Everybody had eagerly wished him good luck. The party lasted the whole night long with food and champagne flowing. It was an important deal and it had been noticed by everybody in the Mediterranean who were part of the construction business. Thirty luxury villas and several apartment complexes with a total of 75 condos had been ready last Christmas. The complex had been named the most luxuriant in the whole of Pafos and the prices were consequently high. Aphrodite Hill had even had to leave the throne as number one in favour of the Golden Coast. Unfortunately, sales hadn’t gone according to plans as Cyprus right then had been hit by a tough financial crisis, with devastating consequences. Today a villa with three bedrooms would cost four million euros. The price included a berth for a luxury yacht close to the property as well as free membership of the fitness facility in the area, with both a gym and a tennis-court. Seven villas had been sold to rich Russians who had laundered their money by buying a house. Vladimir had helped with the contracts since they were his friends in Moscow who quickly needed to get money out of their home-land. Sales had been a bit better with the apartments but it was still empty at the Golden Coast.

Three days. Theo had three days to gather up a million euros.

Thursday June 6th

In the evening Patrik had booked a table at the hotel’s Asian restaurant situated on the top floor. With his persuasiveness he’d managed to get a really good table with a view over the sea on the large, luxurious outdoor terrace. The restaurant was divided into two parts. Inside the actual restaurant the décor was Japanese and the chefs put on a show while cooking the food at the guests’ tables. Out on the terrace it was more austere and elegant. The restaurant was decorated with an Asian flair where the bamboo trees stood next to white orchids and a faint fragrance of incense was mixed with the fresh air. Small round rice-lamps lit up the terrace with their dim light together with a number of oil lamps standing on the black, square, glass tables. The restaurant was more or less full. A muffled buzz of different languages was being heard from the hotel’s guests of which Russian was the dominant language.

The waiter dressed in white, showed the way to Nikki and Patrik’s table. He politely pulled out their chairs, placed white linen napkins over their knees and left them both with a menu, written on a beautifully hand-crafted white sheet, with the restaurant’s black and red heading printed in the middle.

”Posh place”, Nikki said looking out over the bay. The lanterns on the yachts were reflected in the sea and the evening was starlit. The palm trees were slowly swaying in the wind and Nikki felt relaxed. She and Patrik had had a long talk and had agreed that their relationship was over. She had also had a long conversation with her sister. Charlie felt a bit better but could still not remember that she had been sexually abused . Which was both good and bad. On the other hand she’d been told that Goran had some positive news. The police had been able to get finger-prints off a water glass and a toothbrush in her apartment, but unfortunately there had been no hit in the police’s registry.

”If I’m going out with a beautiful woman it has to be to a posh place”, Patrik returned with a flirty smile. ”What would the lady wish to drink? White, red, champagne or maybe you’d like to have a drink before the food arrives instead?”

”Maybe I’ll spice it all up with a passion fruit mojito.” Nikki smiled and her brown eyes shone . She felt attractive and played on all of her sexuality. She only had Patrik at her side for a few more days and then she would be back to square one again. A life as an insecure single, thirsting for love.

After an orgy of lavish dishes with sushi and sashimi, which was some of the best she’d ever eaten, they were sitting sipping the last drops of a local bottle of white wine. As did most of the guests they remained sitting there enjoying the band playing an Asian touch of Buddha Bar music.

”What will happen when you go back to work on Monday?” Patrik knew he was in deep waters when asking but he wanted to know.

Nikki was fiddling with the glass’ stem with her index finger and then put the wineglass down. ”Well, I don’t quite know. Probably I still won’t be involved with the investigation and will get something else to sink my teeth in or I might get moved to directing traffic.” Nikki laughed a bit and tried joking about it. ”Why do you have to talk about my work? I really don’t want to think about it.”

”But you love your work. It means everything to you, except for Gustav and Axel. You’ll see it will work out.” He touched her diamond ring and was tempted to hold her soft hand.

”Yes, now I know what I’ll do…make sure I find the man who raped Charlie.”

”I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes when you find him”, Patrik said and watched Nikki’s pensive face. He saw that she was suffering by what had happened and knew that she looked forward to going home again.

”By the way, how was the meeting with your accountant?” Nikki changed topic and heard somebody laughing out loud in the bar.

Insecure, Patrik moved his eyes here and there, feeling the anger well up within him. He swallowed hard and tried putting on a smile before answering:

”Ah, not quite as I had planned .”

”Really, what happened?” Nikki noticed how uncomfortable he became when she asked but she couldn’t understand why.

”Let’s say he didn’t show me his best side. I kind of didn’t recognize him.” Patrik consciously chose not to tell her about the argument which was still gnawing somewhere in the back of his head. And he also chose to keep quiet about Anna and his illness.

”Maybe he just had a bad day?”

Patrik didn’t hear Nikki since his thoughts were with Anna. Damn it, he thought. I need to know the truth before I leave the island. What if it’s all a fake? I don’t even remember having been with a girl with the surname Fransson and did I really have a daughter when I was 20 years old? He continued thinking of it all, and was frightened.

”Which world are you in right now?”

”Sorry. Are you finished or would you like something else?”

”I wouldn’t mind having dessert in the hotel room”, Nikki said in a seductive way. She wasn’t going to apologise to him for her feelings and there was only a few hours left before she would be left on her own. Patrik paid and at the same time as they were pushing the chairs toward the table Nikki saw a well-known face in the mirror of the bar. She froze, almost screamed and felt as though her entire body was wrapped in a blanket of ice.

”What’s wrong?” Patrik looked around and then looked at Nikki again, who now had a face of stone.

”Hush, you don’t want to know”, Nikki whispered in shock.

Without hesitating she caught Patrik’s arm and literally pushed him out of the restaurant. With an iron grip she got him quickly to the lifts and jumped into the first one where the doors were already wide open. She masked her claustrophobia for a moment but still felt panic rising in her stomach as the lift doors closed. Nikki didn’t know if it was because of the cramped space or the well-known face she’d seen in the bar. The knot in her stomach grew stronger, at the speed of lightning, and she was breathing heavily. All the colour drained from her face and she just wanted to scream.