“I said stop the bus,” she said again, rushing down the walkway.
“No, I believe you said ‘Go, go, go,’ ” Cosmo said.
Dani found it difficult to keep from rolling her eyes. Now wasn’t the time to be literal and hold her to her words.
“I know. But that man back there,” she said, tossing herthumb behind her. “I didn’t realize who that was earlier. He’s dead. We need to stop.”
Cosmo raised a brow. “I’m sorry, did you say ‘dead’?”
Dani waved her hands, dipping her head as she tried to catch her breath. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, peoplethinkhe’s dead. But he’s clearly not.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because he’s right there!” Dani said, pointing back toward Knossos. “We have to go back.”
“Can’t,” Cosmo said, flipping a page on his clipboard without looking at her. “We have a tight schedule.”
Dani braced herself with her hands on the back of one of the bench seats and took a deep breath.Relax. Relax and explain what you saw.
“Cosmo?” she said, using her most pleasant voice. The voice she used whenever she approached a group of rowdy teens in the YA sectionnotstudying or reading quietly despite the abundance of signs demanding silence throughout the library.
“Yes?”
“We have to go back,” she said, calmly.
Cosmo sighed and brought his clipboard in front of his waist, folding his arms atop it. “And I told you. Not. Possible.”
“Why not?!” She dropped the calmness.
“Tell me, Miss…?”
“It’s Dani.”
“Miss Dani—”
“No, it’s Dani Guiterrez, but—”
“Okay, Miss Guiterrez, then—”
“I mean, you can call me Dani.”
“Fine. Dani, tell me what exactly the reason is we need to turn around.”
How to explain this in a way that would make sense?
“Have you heard of the missing American archaeologist, Dr. Theo Galanis?” she asked.
“No,” he responded, pointed and direct. He then lifted the clipboard and returned to his notes, but Dani put her hand over the page to stop him.
“Dr. Theo Galanis went missing over a year ago, and he was just there. At Knossos,” she said.
“So then heisn’tmissing, is he?”
Dani brought her hands into an upside-down V in front of her face, placing the apex of her index fingers at the bridge of her nose. “You’re not listening to me.”
“No, I’m listening. But you’re not hearing me. We can’t make any changes to the schedule.”
“Oh really? What about lunch at your uncle Vasilios’s tomorrow?”
