Chapter Twenty-Two

The first storm of the winter was predicted to blow in tonight; Ali had said it could be quite fierce. It was early on a November afternoon, but already the sky had darkened to an ominous grey-green color. The wind had got up, too, and was howling like a banshee around the Villa Lemoni.

Frankie surveyed the newly fitted kitchen units and appliances. She felt the glow of satisfaction; everything was looking really good. The tilers would be here in a couple of days to do the floors and walls. But more than that, she’d accomplished most of it by herself, almost without Nik’s help, roping in Alison or Pav to translate if she needed them. Since the Elsa incident, she’d told Nik she would work on the villa alone until it was ready to be put up for sale. She was still determined to pay him back, and it wouldn’t be too long before she could do that—a Decree Nisi had recently been granted, a legal notice that her marriage to Andrew was to be dissolved, and a date just before Christmas had been set for the Decree Absolute that would end it. A court order had also been issued for their financial settlement. She couldn’t wait to finally be free of Andrew, and would feel happier, she hoped, once she ended her obligation to Nik as well.

Nik—a heavy weight threatened to lie on her chest whenever he entered her mind. She was thankful she had the Villa Lemoni to absorb her and drag her focus away from those taunting thoughts. Deep down, she still loved him. But after all that had happened, it was too painful to give that knowledge freedom and let him back into her life, beyond dealings about the villa. She accepted he hadn’t intended an affair with Elsa, that the girl had tried to manipulate the situation. But all the same, it hurt too much that he’d allowed it to happen. It felt like he hadn’t cared enough to put her first and let Elsa know that he wasn’t available. And maybe she’d been shown an unwelcome truth; he thought he’d bought her, and though he might still want her the way one wanted a prize possession, he didn’t love her the way she needed him to. So, instead, she was existing in a state of numbness, without him.

She turned off the kitchen lights and walked across the hall into the living room, just as it was lit up by a bright flash of lightning. A long, low rumble of thunder followed soon after, and through the patio doors, she saw fat raindrops start to fall. The storm had arrived earlier than forecast. She had better get going and back to Agia Kalamaros. She went to retrieve her phone. As she reached down to pick it up, the screen lit up: Ali was calling.

“Love, the weather’s getting worse—” The rest of Ali’s sentence was scrambled. Lightning flashed again like a sputtering fluorescent light, and there was a loud clashing of thunder overhead.

“Ali, can you hear me?”

There was nothing but crackling. Frankie pressed the off button on the phone. She could see the storm cracking and illuminating the dark sky out over the angry sea with neon forks. Another flash and a deafening clap had her moving quickly to retrieve her bag so that she could leave. The road between here and Agia Kalamaros was rough in parts and could quickly become impassable.

The rain was coming down in stair rods, and water poured off the hillsides and down the road in brown muddy torrents as she drove at low speed to the village. When the entrance to KATS came into sight, she gave a sigh of relief. But as she turned onto the forecourt, she was surprised to see the bedraggled figures of a small boy and a brown dog. She realized they were Theo and Até. As she got out of the car, the child ran towards her, crying his eyes out, and the dog barked frantically.

“Theo, what are you doing out in this storm? What’s the matter, sweetheart?” she exclaimed, forgetting in her concern that the boy wouldn’t be able to understand her.

He flung himself at her and sobbed, while Até stopped her barking and came to sit beside them.

Frankie bent down and put her arms around the child to comfort him. She didn’t have enough Greek to discover what was wrong and why he was here. As the rain sheeted down, soaking her and him to the skin, she wondered what to do. Where was Ali? She must be inside the shelter.

She gave Theo a hug, and then stood up and offered him her hand. “Ela,” she said to Até. The dog got up immediately and followed Frankie, just as she’d commanded.

Inside the shelter, she called out, “Ali! Ali! Are you here?”

Ali came rushing through from the dogs’ quarters. She stopped when she saw the sodden threesome. “What’s this?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I found both of them outside. Theo’s very distressed. Maybe he’s frightened by the storm.”

“Oh, God. I had no idea. I couldn’t hear anything back there, what with the dogs barking and the thunder.” Ali knelt down and gently asked Theo something in Greek.

Theo clung to Frankie and started crying again. “Giagia,” he said between gulps. “Giagia.”

“What’s he saying, Ali?” Frankie asked, her eyes wide at the little boy’s distress.

“He’s repeating ‘Grandma’. I think something must have happened to Crysanthe. We need to get help over to Skalos. If my phone is working, that is. You cut out on me when I called you at the villa.” She went to pick up her mobile from a side counter. “Damn! Definitely no signal!”

Frankie dived into her bag and fished out her own phone. “I’ve got nothing too.”

“That can happen here during severe weather. I wonder if the landlines are working.” She moved quickly along to where the shelter’s main phone sat, picked up the handset, and held it to her ear. “Nope, that’s out as well. I doubt if the phone in the house is on either. Right. Pavlos is somewhere out there with Panagiotakis and Ianos trying to stop a stream flooding the olive groves. There’s no way of calling the emergency services, unless we go up to the fire or police stations.”

Frankie felt Theo’s grip tighten on her. “Giagia,” he wailed.

“Look, why don’t you do that, Ali? Go to the firehouse to see if Kostas is there. Take Theo and Até with you. I’ll drive up to Skalos. If something has happened to Crysanthe, I can help her or wait with her until help arrives.”

Alison’s expression was skeptical. “Is that a good idea? The road between here and Skalos is very steep, and it’ll be treacherous in this weather—”

“But if Crysanthe is ill or hurt…” Frankie’s eyes went to the distressed child at her hip and the mournful-looking dog next to him. “I’m going,” she said decisively.

“All right,” Ali agreed reluctantly, “I guess it’s the only alternative. Hopefully, there is a crew at the fire station and they can follow you up there or inform the police.”

“What about Nik?” Frankie suggested slowly. “He might be in Agia Kalamaros today, and he’ll know what to do.”

Alison’s features relaxed a little. “Okay, I’ll call in at his place on my way up to the fire station. Hopefully, he’ll be there. But let me lock up the animals so they’ll be safe, and then get some towels and blankets from the house first. All of you are wet through.”

Ten minutes later, Theo was installed on the backseat of the Land Rover, wrapped in a towel and a blanket, while Até sat on a towel next to him. Frankie peered in at the sorry pair. Hopefully, Kostas would be at the firehouse and they would be reunited with him soon. She got into her car and set off, with Alison steering the Land Rover behind her. Alison forked off up towards Nik’s, while Frankie started the climb up along the winding route to the mountain and Skalos.

Alison hadn’t been joking when she said that the road would be treacherous. It was a mire of mud, and Frankie had to weave around potholes filled with rainwater and landfalls in places, not to mention she could hardly see more than a couple of feet ahead because of the ferocity of the rain and a swirling mist, which made her very nervous because there was a sheer drop to one side of her down into the valley.

Suddenly, there was an almost blinding flash of lightning, a bang like a bomb going off, and then some boulders rolled out in front of her from the mountainside. She slammed her foot on the brake and skidded to a halt. There were a few seconds’ silence, broken only by the pounding of the rain on the car, and then another massive thud as a huge rock hit the passenger side. The vehicle immediately tilted to the left, then toppled over, and her head made brutal contact with a hard surface. The car slid a little further, but came to a halt right on the edge of the road where it fell away into the gorge below.

Frankie lay very still. She could feel the seat belt cutting into her neck and her side and something wet running down her face. She put her hand up and wiped at it. There was another flash of lightning, and she could see blood trickling down her fingertips. Notions of trying to reach for her phone flitted by, but she continued to lie frozen and suspended, not daring to move in case any motion sent the car over the precipice. Even if she had been able to get to it, there would be no signal up here. How long would it take for someone to find her? Misery quickly followed. Her eyes filling with tears, she thought of Nik. How she longed for him at this minute, to feel his strong arms around her, to have his deep voice soothing her and telling her everything would be all right. She tried pulling herself together, told herself to stop being so childish. They weren’t even together! But that just made her predicament worse, and she started to sob in earnest.

She was utterly alone up here on this deserted mountainside, with the rain beating mercilessly down. Her head throbbed with pain, and she was starting to feel lightheaded and sick, then so very tired. Consciousness began to come and go, along with agony in her heart, because she realized now how stupid she’d been when she’d refused to listen to Nik about Elsa and sent him away…