Spellbound in His Arms (9 page)

“I don’t understand,” Jackie whispered and her hands
holding the coffee cup started to shake violently.

“She was found murdered this morning.”

“
Murdered?
” Jackie screamed and jumped up,
spilling coffee all over the place.

Not another murder
! she
heard a voice in the back of her mind.

Suddenly, she saw the coffin again and Maria’s face
white and motionless.

***

Michael watched her going pale and grabbed her right
before she hit the floor. This time he was sure her reaction was genuine. She
had no idea about the murder.

He was even shocked himself and furious that he hadn’t
foreseen it. His partner had filled him in on the details. The attorney had
been found dead in her office by the cleaning lady this morning. Someone had
cut her throat and turned her entire office upside down. Whoever had done it
was obviously looking for something.

Michael was still very puzzled. He had gone to the
woods, looking for some clues that could lead him to the intruder but had found
nothing.
The man had vanished from the face of the earth.

He had probably parked his car before the bridge and,
after the storm, crossed the creek on foot and managed to get away.
Unless
he knew of the back way to the property.
But, that wasn’t common knowledge.
Only the owners of the house and some people very close to them knew of the
little dirt road which ran all the way down to the beach and up the other side
of the hill. The road twisted and turned in the woods and someone could get
lost very easily. No car had driven on it for decades and weeds had grown and
covered it from plain sight.

Michael walked around for a while trying to find some
tracks and then called his partner, Tony, to get an update. When he told Jackie
that his cell phone had no signal, he wasn’t actually lying. His personal cell
phone didn’t have a signal out here. But what he had failed to explain was that
he always carried a cell phone that the police department provided him which had
a wider range of coverage.

Tony informed him that Jackie was a distant relative of
Stephanos Demiris’ wife. She grew up in Atlanta living with Stephanos, his wife
and their two daughters after her parents were killed in a plane crash.

So she wasn’t actually a relative but close enough,
since she was raised by Stephanos Demiris. But what was she doing here and how much
did she and Stephanos know about everything that was going on? And what about
Maria? Tony had checked into her death. Her car had run off the road and caught
fire. Talking to the detective who had investigated the
accident
, Tony
had gotten the idea that he didn’t believe it was an accident at all. The car
had run off the road for no apparent reason. The wreck had happened in bright
day light, no rain or snow, and very light traffic. There were no witnesses and
the police had to finally close the case when they hadn’t been able to find any
evidence to prove anything different.

Too weird of an accident!
Michael thought.
Just like Alexandra’s.

***

Jackie started coming around. She opened her eyes to
find herself lying on her bed and Michael sitting next to her. She must have
fainted which was very unlike her.

“What happened?” she asked. She shook her head to clear
her grogginess, when the memory of their conversation in the kitchen jolted her
upright. Her eyes flew wide open and she grabbed his hand, looking him straight
in the eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked scared and confused.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But I intend to find out.
And let’s start with you!”

“What do you mean?” she asked and pulled her hand away.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “And what where you
looking for in the secret room?”

“So it was
you
hiding in the secret passage,
spying on me!”

He looked at her for a moment and then nodded his head
in acceptance. “Yes,” he said simply.

She moved away, trying to put some distance between
them.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Jackie,” he said
softly and reached for her hand. “I would
never
do anything to harm
you.”

“How do I know that?” she yelled at him and slid off the
bed. “Ever since I met you, all you’ve done is lie to me and keep me in the
dark, while people are getting killed!”

“I haven’t lied to you.”

“Oh, yes you have! You told me you’re the owner of this
house, not to mention the fact that you never explained what you were doing out
here the other night and how you found me this time.” She was on the offensive,
not wanting him to know she had read the will and that she now knew he was
telling the truth about being the owner of the mansion. In any case, the fact
he was telling the truth about the property didn’t change her gut feeling he
was hiding other important things from her.

Michael remained silent. Jackie could tell there was a
battle going on inside him. He probably contemplated what he would say to her.
Oh, how she wished he would be honest with her. She wanted the truth—the entire
truth.

***

It was almost five o’clock in the afternoon and Tony Mavrikis,
Michael’s partner, was getting very impatient sitting at a corner table in a
small restaurant in Plaka—the historic district of Athens—right below the
sacred hill of Acropolis. He had been sitting at that table for the last
forty-five minutes, trying to blend in with the tourists coming in and out of
the place and watching everybody very carefully.

A few minutes later, a heavy, middle-aged woman with
short blond hair came through the front door. Tony observed her for a couple of
minutes, trying to make sure no one had followed her. He watched her as she
searched the place impatiently, and then turned to look behind her at the
couple who had just entered the restaurant. She seemed rather scared and ready
to flee, so Tony stood up in order for her to see him.

She looked over in his direction and stood undecided for
a couple of seconds. Then she walked over to his table and sat on the edge of
her chair, squeezing her purse nervously.

“I thought you weren’t going to come” he whispered in
Greek and turned cautiously to look at the couple who’d walked in right after her
and sat at a table nearby. They were young and obviously in love, but Tony had
learned long ago things weren’t always exactly what they appeared to be.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” the woman
whispered.

“Stay!” Tony raised his voice just a touch and grabbed
her hand with his.

The woman twisted uncomfortably and drew her hand back,
but remained in her seat.

“I know, you’re scared,” he continued, lowering his
voice again and totally aware that the couple next to them glanced at them from
time to time.

“Listen,” she said. “I know I agreed to do this, but I
have to be sure…I need your reassurance.”

“I’ll do the best I can,” he said, and when he saw that
she wasn’t satisfied, he continued, “That’s all I can promise you.”

“You don’t know him,” the woman said. “If he ever found
out I talked to you, he would kill me.”

Suddenly, Tony stood up. “Let’s go!” he said and threw
some money on the table.

The woman was taken off guard and looked around her
petrified. A couple seconds later, she followed him outside without saying
another word.

“Are we being followed?”

“No,” he lied. “Just being cautious.”

They walked down the street and around the corner, where
Tony had parked his car.

A few minutes later, as they drove by the restaurant, he
saw the couple standing outside and the man talking on his cell phone.

I was right, after all,
Tony thought, but decided to keep his thoughts to himself. The woman next to
him was already scared enough. If she suspected she’d been followed, she would
probably not cooperate after all.

***

Manos slammed the phone down on his desk.

“That bitch!” he yelled, making his son jump in his
seat.

“What now?” Eric asked cautiously.

“Elizabeth talked to the police!” he barked, not able to
control his anger any longer.

“I told you!” his son replied and immediately drew back,
seeing the murderous look on his father’s face.

“You stay out of this! I had my reasons for not
informing the police earlier. The fact that she’d stolen the money from the
safe made her vulnerable and that was very
convenient
for us.”

“Was that the real reason you didn’t turn her in?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that the reason you didn’t turn her in was that
the money was for your
bastard
!” Eric burst out, not being able to hold
back any longer.

“
Shut up
!” his father warned him in a low,
threatening voice. “I told you, this is none of your damn business.”

“It is my business!” Eric retorted. “My mother went
through years of hell, knowing that you were having an affair with your
secretary. And as if that wasn’t enough, you had to get her pregnant too!” he
said accusingly. “I believe that’s why you didn’t report the theft and not that
you wanted to be able to blackmail her.”

“Enough!” Manos barked, slamming his hand on the desk.
“I’ll deal with you later.” The threat was evident in his voice. “But for now,
I have other more important things to attend to,” he concluded, showing his son
that the conversation was over.

***

“Michael, talk to me,” Jackie whispered and walked over
to sit next to him on the bed. “Like it or not, we’re stranded here with a
lunatic out there on the loose. We have to be honest with each other,” she
continued, knowing she had no other choice but to trust him, at least for now.

Michael took a deep breath, hesitating for a moment.
Then he took her hands in his. “Listen,” he said, “I didn’t lie to you about
the house being mine. Constantinos Demiris was my godfather, and in his will he
left me sole heir of this property.”

He hesitated for a moment, obviously waiting to see
Jackie’s reaction.

She stood still, searching his face. She had already
seen the will and knew that this much was true. Constantinos Demiris had left
his entire fortune to Michael Apostolou. But Michael hadn’t claimed the
inheritance for some reason.
Why? Why would someone inheriting that much
money not come forward and claim it?
She looked at him suspiciously.
Something was wrong—something didn’t fit.

She realized that Michael was waiting for her reaction
and shifted uncomfortably. This information had changed everything, and now she
wasn’t sure how to proceed. Too many questions whirled around in her mind and
no answer whatsoever. The fact that Michael hadn’t claimed his inheritance
puzzled her since the very first moment she read the will. But there was more
to it—more things she couldn’t understand.
Why Michael? Why would
Constantinos Demiris cut out of his will all his blood relatives and leave
everything to Michael?
It didn’t make any sense.

Jackie remained silent, trying to decide whether she
should trust him. Was he telling the truth? What if the will was a fake one?
After all, he did have access to the house and the secret room, and he could
have forged a will.

Michael kept silent, watching her cautiously.

“Why didn’t you come out and claim your inheritance?”
she asked, searching his face.

“I had to be careful,” he admitted. “There was so much
going on.”

“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously.
How much
did he know?
she wondered.

“I’m sorry about your cousin,” he said suddenly,
catching her off guard.

“What?” she asked surprised.

“I know about Maria,” he said in a soft tone of voice.

Jackie got up and walked over to the window. She knew he
would check her story, but she’d thought she would have more time to get what
she’d come for and leave before he could put things together.
But now
….

“She was murdered,” she whispered.

“I suspected as much,” he said and approached her from
behind.

She felt his hands on her shoulders and felt the need to
lean back against his strong chest and close her eyes. She needed his strength,
but instead, she pulled away.

“She was murdered for no reason,” she said turning to
look at him. “Whoever killed her thought she was the heiress of this property.”

“You’re probably right,” he admitted and shifted
uncomfortably.

“A girl was murdered!” she shouted at him, not being
able to control her temper any longer. “And all because of you!”

“Jackie!” he said and reached for her, but she ran out
of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door.

Tears streamed down her face so Jackie could hardly see
where she was going. She ran blindly towards the woods, wanting to get as far
away from him as she could.