Chapter 7
7
PORTO NUOVO RESTAURANT, KASSIOPI HARBOUR
Christos was sweating, despite the ice-cold water he was sipping as he, his mother, his sister and the lawyer, Katerina, sat at a table on the edge of the restaurant’s outside eating area. There was a breeze, making the cream canopy above them flutter gently, but the August heat was unrelenting and it was set to get hotter. Why did this will reading have to happen here anyway? Wouldn’t it have been better in Corfu Town, in an air-conditioned solicitors’ office? It was informal to be doing this here, sitting amongst tourists ordering wood-fire pizzas and seafood platters. But, he guessed, it said everything about how his godfather had lived his life. Unbothered by conventions, making off-beat decisions just for fun. And the location for this meeting was absolutely down to Vaggelis apparently.
‘What are we waiting for?’ Magdalena asked again. It was around the fourth time in thirty minutes.
‘I tell you. Another interested party.’
‘I do not know what that means.’
‘It means,’ Christos began, ‘that Vaggelis has likely left everything he owns, except the rubbish, to someone else. Maybe… to the donkey sanctuary or a charity for Corfiot cats. I can see him now, sat on a cloud up there, cigarette in his mouth, that stupid captain’s hat on his head, laughing that we are sitting here thinking we were worth something to him.’
‘Christo!’ his mother exclaimed in horror.
Perhaps he had gone too far. He had loved his godfather. Maybe admired the way he had never let tradition dictate his moves – unmarried, no children, content to revel in the Greek life of a single man. But he had always been a devoted best friend to Christos’s father, Andreas, and, in turn, a stalwart for the Baros family. Yet, because of this, there was also a part of Christos that loathed the fact he felt his godfather was the better man, that he would have made a good husband and father, and that Vaggelis’s best friend had been his mother’s choice. Christos and Magdalena’s father had taken the traditional path – married with children – but had been quick to throw it away when the reality of that bit.
‘We still do not know if he is in Heaven,’ Magdalena reminded them.
‘He is Greek,’ Angeliki and Katerina said all at once.
Christos tutted, shaking his head. It was like an episode of Maestro in Blue .
And then something, or rather, someone caught his eye. Coming along the road, walking by the Melina Bay hotel, up to the Katoi coffee place, was Molly and her mother. Why he had noticed Molly first and not her pink-haired companion he didn’t know. Well, he did know. He knew because last night he had woken up in the middle of a rather intense dream where she was wrapped around him not unlike the scenario yesterday when she had jumped across the balconies. What was wrong with him? He saw beautiful, fit women every day at his gyms, had more than enough in his Insta DMs but… there was something just different about her. Soft yet also feisty, the perfect combination in his opinion. Wait, were they getting closer? Heading this way? To this very restaurant? Well, the food was exceptional…
‘Ah, they are here, I think.’ Katerina stood up and moved to the entrance.
‘Who is here?’ Angeliki asked, turning away from her freddo cappuccino.
‘Miss Adams? I am Katerina Athansopoulos. The lawyer in charge of Mr Vlachos’s estate. Please, join us.’
What? What was this?
Christos got to his feet, shock making it impossible to stay still. ‘Excuse me, Katerina, what is going on? Who are these people?’
‘You!’ Molly exclaimed as they stepped up onto the restaurant’s terrace.
‘And you are in the wrong place,’ Christos said.
‘So are you,’ Molly answered. ‘You work at the other bar, over there.’
She had pointed directly at Virginia’s, around the harbour, a short walk away.
‘Who works where?’ Magdalena wanted to know, sitting forward and looking intrigued.
‘Please, take a seat, we can order you some drinks and—’ Katerina started.
‘What are you doing here?’ Christos asked Molly again as Janette began pulling up a seat at their table, sitting down next to his mother.
‘I’m here for a meeting,’ Molly replied. ‘About a man that died.’
Christos shook his head. ‘No, that cannot be correct.’
‘Why not? If this lady is the solicitor, Mrs… Katerina Athans… I can’t say the rest.’
‘Athansopoulos,’ Katerina added.
‘Thank you. Sorry.’ Molly smiled and turned her attention back to him. ‘So, this lady is the lawyer that wrote me a letter about someone called Vaggelis Vlachos. And I’m presuming you knew him too. Well, I say “too”, I didn’t actually know him at all.’
‘Knew him?’ Christos remarked as Molly sat down in the only free chair next to him. ‘He was my godfather.’
‘Oh, was he, love?’ Janette remarked. ‘I am so sorry for your loss.’ She turned to Angeliki and Magdalena. ‘And your losses too.’
His mother pointed at Janette. ‘I recognise you! You have been here before. A long time ago.’
‘Yes,’ Janette replied. ‘I thought you looked familiar as well. Were you one of Vaggelis’s friends?’
‘I am… I was… whatever the right words are now… I was married to his best friend. They were like brothers.’
Janette gasped. ‘Is it Angeliki?’
‘Yes!’ she exclaimed. ‘And you are… a very strange name, something to do with ice cream.’
Janette laughed then, hands over her mouth for a moment. ‘Vaggelis used to called me Janetto like Cornetto.’
‘Janetto! Oh! I do not believe it! How long has it been?’
Christos couldn’t believe this either. His mother chattering away and embracing Molly’s mother like they were long-lost relatives who had suffered badly from the separation. But worse than that was the thought that Molly had received a letter from Katerina. Did she have an interest in his godfather’s estate? He might have said there was nothing but rubbish, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want his mother and sister to have whatever they wanted from it. He picked up the bottle of water and refilled his glass.
‘I’d quite like some of that,’ Molly remarked. ‘Before I find out if I’ve inherited some green snake dish.’
‘You know about the snake dish? I thought you said you did not know my godfather,’ Christos said, getting a fresh glass and filling it up for her.
‘I don’t. But my mum kind of does. From a long time ago. They were… friends.’
Christos stopped pouring. ‘Friends?’
‘Ohhhh, friends .’ It was Magdalena now, shifting her chair a little. ‘Did she know about his naked watering on his balcony?’
‘I don’t?—’
‘Ignore my sister,’ Christos said.
‘I am Magdalena. The best-looking one.’ She smiled.
‘Molly,’ she introduced. ‘Nice to meet you.’
‘And you met my brother while he was working at Virginia’s?’ Magdalena sent him a look made with the widest eyes, a look she used often. Deadly and disparaging.
‘We don’t need to discuss my work right now,’ Christos said quickly.
‘Maybe we should discuss the bruises I have on my legs after you grounded me yesterday,’ Molly suggested.
‘Oh my God!’ Magdalena exclaimed. ‘What have I been missing?!’
‘Nothing,’ Molly and Christos said at once.
‘OK,’ Katerina said with all her solicitor authority. ‘It is time. We will read the last will and testament of Vaggelis Vlachos.’
Christos dropped down into his chair and felt unease sweep over him.