She thought for a moment, clearly sceptical. Her eyes were round and severe. ‘But it is very early in the morning there. Why she is working now?’
‘She had extra duties to do.’
‘With the chickens?’
‘Erm, yes. With the chickens.’
She nodded, thoughtfully.
‘She told me to tell you that she loves you so much, more than anything in the whole world, and to be really good at school.’
‘OK, Mr Yiannis. You be good at work too.’
Once again, she smiled and she was gone.
19
Petra
T
HE NEXT DAY, AS I drove home from work, I decided to speak to Yiannis again. As I parked, I noticed the flyer of Nisha just outside the house was no longer on the lamp-post where I had put it. But her smiling face stared at me still further along the street.
Going through the garden and up the stairs, I knocked for Yiannis. It was the first time I had been in the flat since I had rented it to him. He kept it neat and tidy and so sparsely furnished that it looked as though he was only staying for a couple of days. He kept the patio doors in the living room wide open so that the winter light and wind flooded in. He pulled the doors closed when he saw me shudder, and offered me a hot drink, which I accepted.
In the kitchen he brewed coffee in a stainless-steel pot on the stove. On the windowsill were two plants: a small cactus and a jasmine flower, whose summer scent reminded me of the old man on the bus to Troodos.
‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with N.’
‘Hm, that’s a hard one.’
I could almost hear them now: Aliki’s laugh, Nisha’s mock concentration, as she searched out of the window.
‘I went to the police,’ Yiannis said.
‘Oh?’
‘I couldn’t sit around and do nothing.’
‘What did they say?’
‘Basically nothing.’
He watched the coffee brew on a low flame, making sure that it didn’t boil and spoil the kaimaki – the marbley film of creamy froth on its surface.
‘Look,’ I said, ‘I know about your affair with Nisha.’
‘Affair? Why, who am I cheating on?’
‘What would you call it then?’
‘I love her. We have a relationship.’
He said this matter-of-factly, as he poured the coffee into cups and placed them on a heavy oak table, which looked more like a desk than something one might find in a kitchen. One chair was made of the same wood by the same hand, and opposite was a black plastic chair that had nothing to do with the table. I sat down on that one.
Yiannis took a sip of coffee, glancing at me momentarily over the rim of the cup.
At this point I heard a chirp and saw a tiny bird beneath the table by his feet, one of those songbirds that sweep in from the west in the winter. I used to hear them over the sea, when I went out with my father in his fishing boat.
Yiannis reached down so the bird could hop onto his hand. He brought the bird up onto the table and it settled beside the coffee cup.
‘That’s an odd choice of pet,’ I said.
‘It’s not a pet. Its wing was damaged. I’m taking care of it until it’s ready to fly again.’ He was silent for a moment, looking at the bird. Then he said, ‘Do you have any news about Nisha – is that why you’re here?’
I took the note that Tony had given me, and Nisha’s bracelet, out of my pocket and placed them on the table.
‘What are these?’ he said, going very still.
‘Two other women are missing.’ I said, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘These are their names and the dates when they disappeared.’
Yiannis stared at me without looking down at the paper.
‘And this is Nisha’s bracelet, as I’m sure you recognise. It was a gift from Aliki, and Nisha never took it off. Another maid found it on the street near Maria’s.’
I could see the fear in his eyes. His hard silence reminded me of Muyia’s wooden sculptures, frozen in time.
I told Yiannis about going to the Blue Tiger, how I had met Tony and what he had told me about the other two maids. While I was talking, he sat with both hands on the table, a deep frown between his brows. It was only when I finished talking that he moved, bringing his hand up to his face, pressing his temples with his thumb and finger, creasing his face in the way that he had when he’d downed the zivania at my apartment.
I expected that he would speak but he said nothing at all. We sat there in silence for a long time, Yiannis with his fingers pressed against his temples, me with my hands in my lap. The kitchen window was open a crack and a cold breeze drifted through the jasmine flowers, riffling their smell.