The Silver Stain

TEN

‘You need to decide which hospital we’re taking her to,’ Mikis said, as they entered the heavily cultivated area south of the coast. ‘There are several private clinics, as well as the general hospital at Mournies.’

‘It isn’t up to me,’ Mavros replied. He should have called Cara Parks earlier, but his heart had only recently returned to normal pace. She answered immediately and he told her about Maria.

‘That’s fantastic, Alex. You’re a genius.’

‘I get that a lot. Listen, she needs medical care. Her feet are lacerated and I can’t tell what else might have been done to her.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She’s in shock and she isn’t speaking.’

‘Oh.’ There was a pause. ‘OK. Rosie’s got a local fixer. I’ll get her to call you asap. I’ll come over myself.’ She rang off.

Mavros looked in the wing mirror. Mikis’s friends were close behind and there were no suspicious pickups further back.

‘So, this vendetta thing,’ he said. ‘Does it still go on?’

‘Oh yes,’ the driver said solemnly. ‘Especially in the mountain villages.’

‘Which means what, exactly?’

‘Well, I embarrassed one Kornariate and knocked another out, while you rearranged the third guy’s brains.’

‘Yeah, what about the injured men? Shouldn’t we send out an ambulance?’

Mikis looked at him as if he were slow. ‘You want to make things worse? Don’t worry about it. Those lunatics look after their own.’ He smiled weakly. ‘And they don’t take kindly either to being bested or to having their weapons confiscated.’

Mavros wasn’t feeling proud. ‘I’ve landed you in a very deep cesspit, haven’t I? I’m sorry, my friend.’

‘Forget it. That village is a bad place and the shit-heads up there obviously did something nasty to the woman. Besides, we know how to look after ourselves.’

‘I noticed.’

The Cretan smiled. ‘These things usually get sorted out eventually, but there’s no chance we’ll bribe them to lay off us. My old man doesn’t give money to wankers like them.’

Mavros’s phone rang. Rosie Yellenberg told him that a private room had been booked at the West Crete Clinic. He relayed that to Mikis, who nodded.

‘You’ve done well, Mr Mavros,’ the producer continued. ‘Would you like to go back to Athens on the Learjet tonight?’

He dismissed that without much thought. ‘No, thanks. Tomorrow will be OK. I take it I can stay at the Heavenly Blue tonight?’

Rosie Yellenberg gave a throaty laugh. ‘If Cara Parks goes back to work, you can stay as long as you like.’

As far as Mavros was concerned, the case wasn’t over. He wanted to know how Maria Kondos had got to the village — it seemed clear that someone had taken her there against her will — and he wanted to know why she had seemingly been kept in captivity.

Mikis pulled up in front of a new building on the outskirts of Chania. A lot of money had been spent on the facade, combining multicoloured concrete sections with traditional wooden balconies. No doubt the film company’s insurance would cover everything.

Maria Kondos, who stirred when the engine was switched off, was put in a wheelchair by a pair of keen orderlies and taken quickly inside.

‘What now?’ Mikis called.

Mavros had got out and was watching the patient disappear down a corridor. ‘I’m staying,’ he said. ‘You can split if you want.’

‘Let me sort out my friends. Don’t tell the film people, but it would be a good idea to have a guard outside here.’ He glanced across the road, which was wide. ‘They can take up position over there and do shifts.’

‘What about payment?’

‘The woman’s been harmed by Cretans. That goes against our code of hospitality.’ Mikis grinned. ‘Plus, my mother will find a way of putting it through the books. These Americans have far too much money.’

Mavros laughed. Not only was the driver smart and useful in a fight, he had the kind of contradictory character that Cretans were famous for.

A large Mercedes pulled up. Mavros saw the chauffeur open the door for the actress and went over. She was wearing a rose-pattern dress and dark glasses.

‘No paparazzi here,’ he said.

‘Just as well,’ Cara replied. ‘I didn’t even bring my security guys. Where is she?’

They went inside and Mavros asked at reception. They were told Maria was undergoing tests and that they couldn’t see her yet. The secretary directed them to a private lounge on the third floor and said they’d be advised when the patient could have visitors.

The empty room was comfortable and Cara sat down in a leather armchair.

Mavros went to the fridge and poured them glasses of water. He had suddenly realized that his throat was parched.

The actress eyed him as he sat down opposite. ‘What have you been doing, Alex? There’s dirt all over your pants.’

He looked down. ‘Ah. We ran into a bit of trouble.’

‘Details,’ Cara said imperiously.

He gave her them, without censoring.

‘Jeez,’ she said, when he’d finished, ‘this place is worse than Tombstone in its glory days.’

Mavros shrugged. ‘Not exactly. It’s just that there are some out-of-the-way villages — Kornaria being one — that have never submitted to other people’s laws.’

‘And you think Maria was kidnapped?’

‘She was obviously held there. It’s possible she went under her own volition, but I doubt it.’

The actress, who had taken off her shades, opened her eyes wide. Mavros noticed that she hadn’t put on any make-up and there were dark rings around her eyes. Blonde hair aside, she could have been a Mediterranean.

‘I don’t understand. Why would they have imprisoned her? Are you sure that’s what happened?’

‘No. She hasn’t said a word. But she was very frightened when we found her and the lack of footwear suggests they weren’t keen on her leaving.’

Cara Parks sighed and dabbed her eyes with a tissue from her Hermes bag.

‘It’s terrible, I can’t take it in.’

‘She was running too, like a hunted beast.’ He grimaced. ‘Which is what it turned out she was.’ He watched the actress carefully. ‘Have you ever heard the name Kondoyannis?’

She caught his gaze and held it. ‘No, I don’t think so. Should I have?’

‘No,’ he replied, summoning up the nerve to ask her about the death of the young gang member in LA and who had really been driving her car.

Then a tall man in a white coat and slicked back hair walked in.

‘Good afternoon,’ he said in English, his accent excellent. ‘My name is Stavrakakis. I’m the neurologist here.’

The actress got up and offered her hand. ‘Cara Parks. Maria — Ms Kondos — is my assistant and friend.’

If Stavrakakis knew who Cara was, he didn’t show it as he outlined Maria’s injuries. The wounds on her feet had been dressed by the surgical team — they were fairly severe and she wouldn’t be able to walk for several days. A full set of tests was also being carried out.

‘I would like to ask how your assistant, friend, got into this state.’

‘Mr Mavros here found her.’ Cara stopped speaking abruptly, passing the baton to him.

He described Maria’s disappearance and her downhill flight, but said nothing about the location or the clash with the villagers.

‘You see,’ the neurologist said, ‘I’ve examined the patient closely and can see no sign of a head wound — though obviously an MRI scan will confirm that. Do you know of any reason for her silence? She has not said a word to anyone and we have tried both English and Greek. I take it from her name that she has Greek heritage.’

Cara nodded. ‘But, as far as I know, she doesn’t know the language and this is her first time in Greece.’

‘I’ll ensure that English is the sole language used. I understand you are filming out at Maleme.’

So he had recognized the actress, Mavros thought.

‘Maleme and neighbouring areas, yes.’

‘And it’s a war film. I wonder if anything could have shocked her into this condition. Has she been near explosions or suchlike?’

Cara shook her head. ‘Nothing like that. We’ve been doing pre-invasion scenes so far. It’s only today that the aircraft are flying for the first time.’

‘Did she seem normal before she disappeared?’ the doctor asked. ‘And why did she disappear?’

‘She was completely all right,’ the actress said. ‘Busy, as we always are on a shoot, but not unduly pressured.’ She didn’t offer any more information.

Stavrakakis turned to Mavros. ‘So we don’t know why she disappeared?’

‘She was seen walking out of the Heavenly Blue resort on Sunday evening. We don’t know where she was until I picked her up today.’

‘And you are. .?’

‘Alex Mavros, a member of the production team,’ Cara put in.

The doctor nodded. ‘Very well. I will let you know when I have news.’ He left the room.

Mavros looked at the actress. ‘A member of the production team?’ he asked, with a smile. ‘Rosie Yellenberg wanted me on the plane back to Athens tonight.’

‘Rosie’s a coin-counter,’ Cara scoffed. ‘Do you think this case is over?’

Mavros shook his head.

‘Good,’ she agreed. ‘I need to know what happened to Maria. Until she comes back to herself, I want you to keep on it.’

‘OK,’ he said, not sounding over-enthusiastic. ‘Ms Yellenberg did say that I could stay as long as I like since I found Maria.’

‘I’ll bet she did,’ Cara said sharply. ‘She wants me back at work.’

‘Are you going to oblige?’

‘Can’t really say no now, can I? But I’ll stay here for the rest of today. I want to see Maria and assure her that everything’s all right.’

Mavros looked out of the window. Mikis and his friends were crowded round the Range Rover across the road.

‘I don’t think you should stay here alone,’ he said.

Then the door opened and Rosie Yellenberg walked in.

‘Go get ’em, tiger,’ Cara Parks said, with a surprisingly warm smile.

He left the women to it.

‘Shit!’

Mavros ducked as a Messerschmitt 109 with Luftwaffe markings screamed overhead, only a few metres above the electricity poles. He watched as it streaked towards the airfield, where a Junkers 52 troop carrier was manoeuvring in a cloud of dust.

Mikis had left him at the entrance to Maleme aerodrome and gone back to the resort to talk to his father. The security guys on the gate let him through when he showed the plastic-covered card he’d been given by Alice Quincy.

‘Where’s Mr Jennet?’ he shouted, as the fighter came back to make a second pass.

The guard pointed to a group of people at the far end of the runway from the modern buildings. ‘You can wait for a lift or take a papaki.’ He indicated a row of ‘little ducks’ — Honda 50s.

Mavros hated all forms of mechanized two-wheel transport, but in this case he was prepared to make an exception. It was hot and he didn’t want to wait in the sunlight. Mounting the contraption, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he remembered how to start it and even change gear — like every Greek boy, he had messed around with them before becoming heartily sick of the racket from shot exhausts.

He made it to the crowd in a few minutes. There was a large amount of equipment spread around — not only cameras, but generators, screens and numerous other things he didn’t know the name or purpose of. Then he saw a line of chairs under sunshades, as if an impromptu cafe had been set up. Rudolf and Hildegard Kersten were at one end, while David Waggoner was at the other. Between them were members of the film crew, some working on laptops and others arranging equipment. Alice Quincy saw him and came over.

‘Hello, Mr Mavros,’ she said, struggling to make herself heard above the sound of the taxiing Ju52.

‘Alex,’ he shouted back. The noise reduced as the plane headed away.

‘Can I help you?’ The young woman was in jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt that must have made her uncomfortably hot.

‘I want to talk to Mr Jennet. Is he available?’

‘If it’s about Maria Kondos, he knows you found her.’ She shaded her eyes as dust gathered around them. ‘The runway’s concrete, but we’re throwing up dust to make it look like it was back in the war.’

‘Art’s all about the little things,’ he said.

Alice Quincy wasn’t sure how to take that, which was his intention.

‘If you don’t mind, I need to sign off with Mr Jannet. He was the one who hired me, after all.’

Irritation flashed across her face, then she nodded. ‘You’ll have to wait. He’s arranging the next shots.’

Mavros shrugged and went over to the Kerstens.

‘May I join you?’ He signalled to the old man to remain seated. Hildegard gave him a soft smile.

‘Of course,’ Rudolf said. ‘I hear you found Maria Kondos, Alex. I’m so glad.’

There were bottles of water on the table and Mavros helped himself after offering the others. He was still plagued by thirst. He wondered what it must have been like for the soldiers.

‘Did you have enough water during the battle?’ he asked.

Kersten was watching the Ju52. ‘Tante Jus, we called them,’ he said. ‘Auntie Jus. I don’t know why they had that affectionate nickname. They were slow, cramped and highly vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. To answer your question, no, we never had enough to drink. Most of us drained our bottles within minutes of landing.’ He looked over his shoulder to the trees in the distance. ‘It may look well irrigated now, but I can assure you that back then there was very little water on the ground. We survived by taking dead men’s bottles.’

Hildegard had turned away, as if mention of the fighting was abhorrent to her.

‘Look at that,’ Rudolf said, pointing to the group of men in wartime jumpsuits and parachutes outside the now stationary Ju52. ‘I’ve told them several times that they should hold the end of their cords between their teeth as they climb the ladder. Only one of them paid attention.’

‘Did they use Maleme for jumps after it was captured?’ Mavros asked, puzzled.

‘No, they’re pretending this is an airfield outside Athens. I boarded during the night, but it’s true there were later waves. The producers didn’t see any need to film on the mainland as well.’

Mavros watched as the men finished clambering on board and the plane taxied to the other end of the runway. He noticed that there were cameras mounted on pickup trucks all around, presumably to give many different angles to the flight.

‘This morning they filmed inside the Tante Ju,’ the old man said. ‘They could only fit six men in with the cameras and other equipment. Now they’re going to record the drop, both from inside the plane and from the ground.’

There was an increasing roar as the plane’s three engines were gunned and it started down the runway, dust rising in its wake. Pickups kept up with it, the cameras pointing at the dun-green fuselage. The black crosses on the side and swastika on the tail gave Mavros a bad feeling, but he told himself to get a grip. It was only a movie.

The Ju52 moved sluggishly down the runway, eventually pulling into the air not far in front of the hangars. It headed out to sea, followed by a pair of smaller and more modern planes that filmed it from above, below and alongside. Eventually the troop carrier turned and came back towards them, the engines pulsing more powerfully now. Mavros felt hairs raise all over his body. From what he remembered, there had been dozens of planes in each wave. It must have been the most incredible sight for the defenders — awe-inspiring and terrifying. He leaned forward and looked over at David Waggoner. He was watching through binoculars, his jaw set firm. What memories was this bringing back to him?

The Messerschmitt made another pass, diving over the airfield. Lights flashed from its machine-gun slits — Mavros assumed that the sound of firing would be added at the editing stage. Then the Tante Ju came over the land, only a few hundred feet above them. Cameras all around were trained on it, as the door was pulled back and a man appeared.

‘They are Greek paratroopers,’ Kersten said. ‘I have spent many days instructing them in the jump and landing positions that we used. Now we will see if I was successful.’ He gave a rueful smile.

Mavros watched as the man launched himself into the air with his arms and legs extended in the shape of an ‘X’. A few seconds later, another man dived out, then another and another. Their parachutes sprouted into inverted white cups at what seemed far too close to the ground. Mavros felt his palms sweating as the men came down fast. They hit the ground and rolled forward, then started pulling in their chutes. The last man shook in his harness and then hung limp for as long as he could before making a different kind of landing.

‘They didn’t shoot so many of us in the air,’ Kersten said. ‘That was Allied propaganda. A man falling at that speed is not an easy target. But they certainly did kill hundreds in the trees and on the ground before they reached the weapons canisters.’ His eyes clouded and he turned away.

Hildegard was immediately on her feet and at her husband’s side. She spoke to him in German, before turning to Mavros.

‘I told him this would be too much for him. He didn’t need to be here today. His work has already been done.’

‘No,’ the old man said, his eyes damp. ‘It is good that I saw it. Now I understand what it was like for the Cretans, seeing the invader come in with all his hubris and conceit.’ His wife wiped his face with a tissue. ‘We had no right,’ he said, his voice wavering. ‘No country has the right to invade another. But the Cretans had every right to fight us with everything they had.’

Mavros looked up as a shadow fell over them.

‘Not weeping for your lost comrades, are you, Kersten?’ David Waggoner said callously. ‘The ones who were shot to pieces in the olive groves and slaughtered in the open ground?’

Mavros stood up and put his hand on Waggoner’s arm. ‘You’re wrong,’ he said bluntly. ‘Leave him alone.’

‘No, Alex,’ Rudolf said, getting to his feet slowly. ‘Mr Waggoner is right. The Fallschirmjager met their match on this island, there’s no doubt of that.’

‘And you’ve made a fortune with your fake remorse, your blood money to the victims and your rich man’s resort.’ The Englishman stared up at the taller German. ‘Just remember this. I know what you did. I know you were at Makrymari.’ The ex-SOE man executed a parade-ground turn and marched away, the sun glinting off the regimental badge on his blazer.

Rudolf Kersten sat down again. His wife spoke to him in German. Mavros wanted to ask what Waggoner had meant, but he could see it wasn’t the right time. He moved away and saw Luke Jannet and Alice Quincy coming towards him in a golf cart.

‘What’d’ya think of that?’ the director said triumphantly, as the vehicle drew up. ‘We got enough material for the whole drop in one afternoon. We can edit it so the single planes look like dozens.’

‘It was certainly spectacular,’ Mavros agreed.

‘And you found pouting Cara’s dyke too. Quite a day it’s turned out to be.’

‘She’s been badly treated,’ Mavros said, his eyes on Jannet’s. ‘And she isn’t speaking.’

The director stared back at him. ‘Some rapist pick her up?’

Mavros was angry with himself for not thinking of that. It would certainly explain Maria’s condition — but Jannet hadn’t seen her. It was quite a thing to suggest, unless he’d heard something from the clinic.

‘Has Rosie Yellenberg been on the phone?’ he asked.

‘Rosie? Nah, she knows better than to bother me when I’m shooting.’

Mavros glanced at Alice Quincy. She looked uncomfortable, but that was her default mode.

‘We’ll be having a drink tonight,’ Jannet said. ‘Alice will tell you where and when. Guess you’ll be leaving tomorrow.’

‘Maybe,’ Mavros said, turning away. He wasn’t sure about Luke Jannet — either he was nothing but a coarse Hollywood operator, or he was more concerned about Maria Kondos than he was letting on — his eyes had been hard to read when he was talking about her. Either way, he could probe again later.

Riding the papaki back to the gate, Mavros saw Mikis leaning on the Jeep outside.

‘Good timing,’ he said, as he was let through on foot.

‘That’s what you think. My old man thinks you should get off the island immediately.’

Mavros’s heart missed a beat. ‘Why?’

‘We had a call from Kornaria — that wanker Dhrakakis. He made all kinds of threats to us and to you, including one about your kidneys.’

‘Great.’

‘There’s only one thing you can do if you want to stay,’ Mikis said, a smile hovering on his lips.

‘Take up pistol shooting?’

‘Wouldn’t hurt. No, you need to take heed of what the mayor of Kornaria said.’

Mavros stared at him uncomprehendingly.

The Cretan laughed. ‘Seriously consider getting your hair cut.’

‘Screw you, Miki. I’d rather take my chances with the dope-growers.’

‘Oh, that’s on the cards,’ the driver replied, his expression darkening. ‘That is definitely on the cards.’