“Has it worked?”
He tipped his head to the side and laughed. “Would we be here if it did?”
Well, at least it didn’t get their attention in abadway.
“Oh, this is interesting,” Theo said.
He picked up one of the letters encased in plastic and placed it in the center of the table so everyone could read it. Again, not that Dani could read anything.
They leaned in, staring at the document before Dani shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s all Greek to me.”
Andreas laughed. “I’ll read it to you then. This one says, ‘We’ve reached the gateway to the sea with the eye of the Minotaur, it no longer being safe in its original burial place. Its power grows restless and must be released from confinement. Now its true potential will be realized, and it will be free.
“ ‘From here, we will travel back to my home. There, below where Helios rises in the east, I will put the eye to rest, accessible only to those who recognize its power. Despite his quarrels, Poseidon himself could not have picked a better place for this beast to spend eternity. It is here that the eye will sleep and blend into the dirt itself, watching over the land of my ancestors and bringing strength and fertility to my people.’ ”
They stood in silence, waiting for Theo to explain.
“Don’t you see?” Theo asked. “This might be a clue.”
Andreas and Dani both raised skeptical eyebrows.
“Papantonis talks about travelingbackto his home,” Theo said as if that explained anything.
“I can see that. But we already know where Demetrios is from. You’ve been there already,” Andreas said. “My yayá’s mill?”
He said it as if saying,Remember?
“Right, and she told us that the eye was moved. Maybe it was somewhere else on Crete at first andthenhe took it to youryayá’s property. Have you already searched the grounds at the mill?” Theo asked.
“Of course, we’ve looked all over there.”
Theo and Andreas stared at each other, racking their brains as to where else on Crete the eye could be.
“Near Knossos?”
“What about Rethymno?”
“Or Sitia?”
They continued calling out the names of various locations in Crete with no rhyme or reason, while Dani sifted through the pages of Papantonis’s journal. There had to be something there. Some clue as to where he was from.
She thought of all the people who’d come to the local library in Grand Rapids, searching for information on their own families. So often people came to realize that their family histories were not what they’d been led to believe.
Perhaps the same could be said of Papantonis.
“What if it’s not in Crete?” Dani blurted out, interrupting Theo and Andreas’s friendly debate.
“What do you mean?” Theo asked, tilting his head to the side.
“The eye. What if it’s not in Crete because Papantonis was from somewhere else?” she said.
“And you’re basing that on what?” Andreas asked, folding his arms.
A swarm of nerves buzzed through her body. She brought her hands to a steeple at the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.Think. Think.
She allowed her brain to wander, pulling out pieces of Papantonis’s letter and letting them ruminate in her mind.
Blend into the dirt.
