‘Don’t worry, Tony,’ I said. Yiannis was so quiet, I almost forgot that he was there but when I turned to him, he was alert and present and trembling inside. I could see it. He reminded me of the way wheat stalks shake in the breeze in the open fields.
‘The police went through her phone, which they recovered in the nearby field.’ Tony continued. ‘They discovered that she had communicated via text with a man whom she had met on a dating site. She had gone out that particular night, the night she went missing, to meet him for the first time. He was the last person she texted. The police discovered that his dating profile had a fake name but they managed to trace the details back to a thirty-five-year-old Greek Cypriot soldier serving at the national guard. They have taken him in for questioning. The autopsy showed that she had injuries on her body and marks around her neck.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll tell you, this doesn’t look good.’
‘No,’ Yiannis said, and his voice came out hoarse and unfamiliar, as if he hadn’t spoken to a soul in many years. ‘But I know for a fact that Nisha wouldn’t have gone on a date with anyone. I know that for sure. She loved me.’
Tony nodded sympathetically. ‘It will become clearer in time,’ he said, ‘but for now we must wait.’
*
After the men left, I felt frightened and cold. A strong wind rattled the windows and bent the olive tree out front. I went into Aliki’s room. She was fast asleep. I crawled into bed with her and curled up around her, smelling her hair, giving her soft kisses while she slept.
26
Yiannis
T
HE MURDER OF ROSAMIE COTABU had been announced on the news. People were restless. The Vietnamese maids with their rice hats kept their eyes fixed on passers-by. Downstairs, at Mrs Hadjikyriacou’s, Ruba stood out front holding a broom, looking frightened.
This time I called Kumari. Once again, she was alone.
‘Good morning, Mr Yiannis, do you have any more information? My grandmother is making me breakfast and she is crying all the time. She is wiping all her tears on her sleeve and cardigan.’
‘Have you been crying, Kumari?’
‘No. I don’t cry until I know all the facts. Are there new facts now?’
‘They know who the woman in the lake is and it is not your mother.’
Kumari let out a huge sigh as if she had been holding her breath and her words came out shaken and broken: ‘Thank you. Oh, my! Mr Yiannis. It is not my amma.’
She left her tablet on the table with me staring up at the ceiling, and I could hear her saying things to her grandmother, who once again seemed to be asking many questions through her tears.
Kumari picked up the tablet again.
‘What is the lady’s name that they found inside the lake?’
‘Her name is Rosamie Cotabu.’
‘Was she one of the missing ladies that you told me about?’
‘Yes, she was.’
‘One of the five missing ladies.’
‘Yes.’
‘Was she a maid like my amma is?’
‘Yes.’
Kumari was silent now. I could hear the old lady in the other room, still talking.
‘You think they will find Amma like they did this other lady, don’t you Mr Yiannis?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t think that.’
‘But she was also a missing lady, like Amma. Isn’t that right, Mr. Yiannis?’
*
It turned out that Rosamie Cotabu was Christian and church bells rang for her departure to the next world. Meanwhile, anger was brewing. The maids were not just scared, they were livid. Rosamie Cotabu had, after all, been reported missing and the police had ignored her employer’s pleas and concerns. Then she had been found in a mineshaft, wrapped up in white cloth.
The women walked by on the street below, always in pairs now, keeping their heads close together in muffled conversation, but their eyes were always roving, on the lookout for the next threat. It felt like the hours and days after a massive earthquake, where people walk around expecting it to happen again at any moment, where the walls and the ground beneath one’s feet no longer seem solid and there is no certainty of safety anywhere.
A man was in custody but his name had not been released to the public and Tony had no idea of it either.
*
During that week, at some point one evening, Seraphim knocked on my door. This was the first time he’d ever come to my place and the first time he had arrived unannounced.
I opened the door for him and without saying anything I stepped aside to let him in.