“But,” he continued, as his arms skated back and forth across the water, “when I got here, Ford was nowhere to be found. And when I got to the site where the expedition was supposedly taking place, no one knew what I was talking about. I emailed Ford using the address he’d sent the original request from, but I realized it was a fake. I eventually got ahold of Ford in Connecticut, but he said he’d never contacted me. It should have been a sign to go home.”
“So why didn’t you?” she asked, leaning over the side of the pool and resting her chin on her forearms.
“I wanted answers. I wanted to know who took the effort to trick me into coming to Greece and why. I couldn’t let that go. I mean, wouldyouhave let it go?”
Dani tipped her head to the side. She didn’t need to answer. He already knew what she’d say. She never let anything go.
“Then what happened?” she asked.
“Well, I tracked down the IP address from the email that had been posing as Ford to an island in the Cyclades, so I chartered aboat to take me there. It was only me and the captain—Maurice. And thirty minutes into our journey, we were joined by a man in a smaller boat—Louis. I immediately knew something wasn’t right, and I tried to get them to take me back to the harbor, but, well, honestly, I don’t even know what happened next. One second, I was arguing with Maurice to turn the boat around and the next I was lying in a bed on some remote farm on Crete with a goose egg on the back of my head. I don’t know when or how I got there. I don’t remember much of what happened over those next few days. Or, the hell if I know, maybe it was weeks. Then once I was back on my feet, Maurice and Louis filled me in on their plan—I was to help them find the Minotaur. Or else.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you try to get away?” Dani asked, lifting her arm and propping her head in her hand.
“You think I haven’t tried?” he asked. “I did. Numerous times. The first time I tried running away in the middle of the night. But somehow, they found me. The next, I managed to steal Louis’s car, but it literally ran out of gas. I thought it was a cruel joke the universe was playing on me. Though now that I’ve been around these goons for the last few months, I’ve learned this is a relatively common occurrence when it’s Louis’s turn to pay because he’s too cheap for a fill-up. The last time, however, was when we were stopped at a gas station about thirty miles outside of Knossos. I saw a cop across the street; Louis was in the bathroom and Maurice was pumping gas this time, so I figured I had time. I ran up to the officer and told him I’d been kidnapped. He took me to a station, interrogated me for five hours, and then he released me—to Maurice. Apparently the local police were paid off. So I resigned myself to being stuck in this situation. Until I saw you at Knossos.”
“So you’re going along with it?” She wrinkled her nose.
Theo shrugged. “I thought they would have given up by now.”
“What about that area where you were digging under Knossos?”
“It’s nothing. A dead end. Like every other dead end I’ve taken them to,” he said, leaning in toward her in case Maurice or Louis was nearby. “But they think the Minotaur is in the center of a labyrinth, and despite me telling them a thousand times that thereisno labyrinth under the palace, they don’t seem to believe me.”
“Maybe that’s because you keep tricking them, so they know not to trust you anymore,” she whispered, giving him a look.
“Then why won’t they let me go?”
She shrugged. “Maybe they think you know something you’re not telling them…Do you?”
“Do I what? Know where the eye of the Minotaur is?” he asked.
She nodded.
“You heard me,” he continued. “It was a story for kids.”
He’d never told her—or anyone—about getting one of his stories published in a magazine, especially one geared toward children. She spent her days surrounded by books and journals written by prolific authors writing serious research for adults. And there Theo wasstillwriting children’s stories at thirty-seven.
Maybe on the outside he presented himself as an established professional with a grown-up job, a grown-up apartment, and grown-up aspirations. And also thankfully (according to his parents, at least), no longer “playing in sandboxes” on archaeological digs now that he had a respectable job as the director ofresearch at the National Hellenic Museum. But deep down, he was still that giant dork who geeked out over fictional stories about Greek gods fighting mythical beings and human heroes saving beautiful young maidens from the wrath of angry deities. It didn’t exactly fit his parents’ vision for his future as a serious adult.
“But it must have been based on something,” she said.
“My papou said there is a secret journal from some ancient old dude—Demetrios Papantonis—that talks about the eye, but I’ve never been able to confirm either he or the journal existed, which is why I didn’t cite to any actual authority. Besides, my story was clearly marketed as a fictional tale in a children’s magazine. I didn’t think anadultwould read it and assume it was true.”
“Too bad for us then that someonedidread it and now that person is holding you—holdingus—hostage.”
“It’s not my problem he’s a gullible fool.”
“Well, it is now. It’sbothof our problems.”
Theo hung his head. “I’m sorry I got you involved in this. I swear, had I known this was going to happen, I never would have tried slipping you that note.”
“How did you even find me?”
“Maurice and Louis were set on finding you after what happened at Knossos. Said we couldn’t let you get away. They looked up the name of the tour company on the bus and found where you were staying. So this morning, we were staking out the hotel, but we didn’t see you when the rest of the group got on the bus, so we waited until you finally left the building and followed you to the museum. Once there, I pretended I had to go to the bathroom so I could sneak away and, well, you know the rest.”
“They just let you walk away out of their sight?”
Theo shrugged. “I told you. Once I realized the cops were in on it, I stopped trying to escape. That garnered me a little trust, I suppose, though I don’t know whether we can count on it any longer.”
