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there were too many missing pieces from the jigsaw at the moment,
and how was she going to locate those pieces when nobody wanted to
answer questions?
She left her case standing in her room and went downstairs to pay
Irena. There was no one at the reception desk now. Nicole went to the
door which led to the family quarters. She was about to knock on it
when she heard Frazer's voice behind it and her hand froze in mid-air.
'It seemed the only solution.'
'Why can't you frighten her away like that other one?' That was
Irena's voice, she sounded on edge, her tone high and shaky.
'Nicole doesn't scare so easily,' Frazer drawled as though it amused
him, and Nicole wasn't sure she liked that.
'She's only a girl!' Irena spoke with harsh impatience, angry now.
'You men are all the same!'
'Irena,' Frazer said in a very different voice, and Nicole listened with a
frown. She heard a movement, a soft sound like a kiss, and her face
hardened. A kiss? Had Frazer kissed Irena and why? Irena was
married to a fisherman called Paul who was away at the moment.
What was going on between her and Frazer?
'Can't you see how dangerous this could be for us?' Irena whispered
so huskily that Nicole became certain that Frazer had kissed her; her
voice held so much emotion.
'Trust me,' Frazer said very gently. 'I'd better go before she catches
sight of me,' he added, and Nicole heard a movement, a footstep
behind the door. She turned and lightly, softly, fled back to the stairs.
Halfway down them she turned and waited until she heard Frazer
walking across the lobby, then she came down the stairs just as Irena
emerged with a handkerchief in her hands as if she had just dried her
eyes with it. She looked up, and there were shadows under her eyes.
Nicole gave her a polite smile.
'I've come to pay my bill.'Irena pushed the bill across the desk without
a word. Nicole looked at the total, which was very small. She counted
out the drachma notes, and Irena took them and pushed them into a
till on the desk.
'I've left my case in my room; I'll bring it down in a minute.'
'No need,' Irena said shortly. 'Frazer can get it when he comes later.'
Casually, Nicole said: 'I thought I saw him going out of the door just
now he could have got my case then.'
Irena didn't answer. She was pretending to be busy tidying the desk.
Nicole shot her a quick, observant look. Yes, Irena had been crying;
her lids were pink and her lashes had stuck together where her
mascara had run.
'Well, I hope I'll see you again,' she said, turning towards the door, but
Irena did not take any notice. She walked away towards her private
quarters and vanished.
CHAPTER SIX
NICOLE walked down to the waterfront and sat down at a table in front
of one of the tavernas. She chose a different one this time; the waiter
looked rather more friendly. The menu was chalked up on, a board
hanging beside the door. From the shade of a red striped umbrella,
Nicole studied it and ordered chicken soup Savoured with lemon
followed by squid served with rice; although the taverna did a few
meat dishes it was basically a fish restaurant, and its specialities
would be much better.
The waiter brought her the bottle of retsina she had ordered before he
came with the soup, and while she waited Nicole sipped the smoky
resin-flavoured wine and stared out across the blue horizon. A heat
haze hung over the sea in the direction of Delos, which was half an
hour's sailing away. She must take a trip over there one morning; she
wanted to see the beach from which Melanie had swum out for the
last time.
Her mind moved on to the murmured conversation she had overheard
between Frazer and Irena. It hadn't entered Nicole's head until that
moment that Irena and Frazer might have some more intimate
relationship than the casual friendship of people who lived in a small
town on a remote island. Was that why Frazer had insisted that she
couldn't stay at Irena's hotel? Had he been afraid she would discover
what was going on between them? Irena's husband was a fisherman,
always away from home, it wouldn't be hard to keep such a secret
from him, or wouldn't he mind? It couldn't be easy to have an affair in
a place like Mykonos people knew you too well, saw too much,
gossiped too much.
Then she remembered something else Irena had asked Frazer why
he couldn't just frighten her away, as he had the other one. Had Irena
meant Bevis? Or the detective he had sent from Athens? But that
would mean that their affair had been going on while Melanie was
alive!
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