Chapter Forty-Eight
Claudia
Seeing Nelly with her manicure and bright eyes, excited about being reunited with an old flame, coupled with Katy Marksbury’s words about life being short, is enough to make Claudia feel that the universe is conspiring to galvanise her into action herself. Okay! Message received! Enough prevaricating, she decides. She’s going to seize the moment, this moment, and ask Dimitris out for a drink tonight, before she loses her nerve. Just watch her.
After returning her bike to the rack– you can’t have a big moment when you’re holding on to a pushbike, she tells herself– she sets out to find him. She’s finally doing this! No more holding back. Life’s too short, Katy Marksbury repeats encouragingly in her head. Amen to that, sister! Time to tick off the most difficult task on her list once and for all. The only question is, where is he? He’s not in his office, nor the staffroom.
‘Have you seen Dimitris?’ she asks Duska as she walks back through reception.
‘Not for ages,’ Duska replies. ‘He was around first thing, wanting to know if we had an empty suite that Jasmine and Lucia could move their treatments into, but not since then, sorry.’
Ahh yes, the storm damage to the sanctuary shed, Claudia remembers. Hopefully Danilo or Antoni have sorted that out by now. She goes out to the bar but Dimitris is not there either. ‘Isaw him with a toolbox a while ago,’ Konstantinos says with a shrug, ‘although that was around lunchtime. After that– no.’
‘Yes, Isaw him then too,’ Claudia replies. ‘Iwonder why he was carrying a toolbox,’ she adds, frowning. ‘You don’t happen to know, do you?’
Konstantinos is wiping down the bar, the damp cloth turning circles along the wooden surface. ‘Some of the guys are off sick,’ he says. ‘Maybe some emergency he needed to deal with?’ The cloth squeaks a little under his vigorous rubbing. ‘Or maybe he’s gone home? It’s pretty quiet today.’
‘Maybe,’ Claudia says, doubtfully, because Dimitris isn’t usually one to slope off early without letting anyone know. Perhaps he’s got caught up in whatever job he embarked on, she thinks. She thanks Konstantinos and walks towards the accommodation blocks, listening out for sounds of hammering or drilling. There’s nothing, though; Konstantinos is right, it’s very quiet. The hotel is running at half-capacity now, with dozens of guests having left yesterday and fewer arriving to fill their places. Staff are looking forward to holidays of their own as the season winds down. It’s Zoe’s last weekend here, before she returns to Patras to continue at university. A couple of the seasonal cleaners have already left as the work dries up. Kefalonia is beautiful year-round but Claudia particularly loves the shift into autumn, the cooler mornings and evenings, the slower pace.
Where is Dimitris? She texts him a quick Are you around? but receives no immediate reply. Might he be working on the damaged sanctuary shed? she wonders. She picks up her pace, setting off down the short winding path through the trees towards the building, smiling to herself as she hears the faint strains of music playing. Ahh– he is there. He’ll be listening to the radio, unable to hear the sound of her message over the music, she figures. ‘Dimitri?’ she calls, as she rounds the corner and sees a ladder propped against the side of the building. Then she freezes as she realises there’s a body on the ground at the foot of the ladder. A body that looks remarkably like—
‘Dimitri!’ she shouts, running towards him. A scream rises in her lungs as she sees the unnatural angle at which one of his legs is bent. Oh God, no. No! ‘Dimitri, can you hear me?’ she cries, dropping to her knees beside his body. His eyes are closed and her heart hammers as she puts her fingers on his wrist, searching for a pulse. There– very faint. He’s alive at least. She fumbles her phone out of her pocket and calls an ambulance. ‘Please hurry,’ she says. ‘Please, please hurry.’