She'd knelt at the exact instant of the killer's murderous downward swing. He'd picked up the rock after climbing in behind her through the far left corner of the temple's floor. It was meant to shatter her skull but struck the pillar instead and his momentum sent him tumbling forward over Annika and out of the temple.
Annika froze. Where had he come from? She saw him getting on his feet to her right and in panic threw the rock. It missed but made him duck, giving her just enough time to leap out of the temple to her left.
She landed stumbling to her knees, the effort to regain her footing almost too much for her. As she stood, something jerked at her throat, yanking her off her feet again and onto her back. My dress, she thought, struggling to regain command of her limbs. He'd grabbed the tail of her dress.
He slammed his fist into the side of her head, wrenched her over onto her belly, and with his knees pressed firmly into her back, twisted the fabric closed around her neck.
He said not a word to her as he rode out her struggle to throw him off her back; and in the silence she felt his stranglehold intensifying as she lost her strength. Tighter and tighter he twisted the dress about her windpipe. She felt she'd be gone to the darkness in seconds. That was when she heard the words. They came in a harsh, breathless whisper from lips pressed tightly against her ear. 'Your destiny is here. On this altar to Isis. Among my gods. Overlooking our neglected saint.'
Then he kissed her.
With the knowledge that she was about to draw her last breath came a flash of blinding white light.
Was this death? No, she still felt his weight on her upper back. And then, for an instant, he relaxed the noose.
It was only a glimmer of a chance, but she snatched it. Sheer will bowed her back, as she summoned strength to thrust off from the ground, gain her knees, and buck him flying over her head. He landed still holding one end of the dress and yanked at it, but she'd expected it this time and spun out of the dress as he pulled. Her hands found a rock. Adrenaline was back; she was ready to finish this.
The rock hit him hard. She picked up another and flung it but realized she could no longer see him. The blinding light had returned and grown brighter. She threw rock after rock in what she thought was his direction, toward the blinding light. She kept hearing her name. She couldn't see but knew he'd keep coming for her no matter how much she hurt him. She had to kill him. If only she could see, if only… suddenly she felt his grip on her injured wrist. She tried pulling away, but she had no more strength. Then she heard a gunshot. He pulled her closer to him. She tried punching him with her free hand, but he grabbed it and butted her head with his. A second shot, louder. She felt him wince. He jerked and twisted her so she was between him and the light.
He pressed his face to hers, stared into her eyes and whispered, 'Later, Annika. There's a promise to be kept.' And then he was gone.
She didn't know what to do anymore. So she started to spin around in the light… and scream… and scream… and scream. Andreas reached the ridge ten seconds after the lights went on. He was thirty yards from her. She was throwing rocks wildly in every direction. He saw someone crawling toward her, beneath the aim of her throws. Andreas yelled, 'Annika!' but she didn't seem to hear and didn't stop throwing. He pulled his gun. He wanted to shoot the crawling bastard but didn't dare, because Annika was directly beyond him, in the line of fire. He started running toward her but had to stop when within range of her rocks. He called her name again. Still no reaction.
Suddenly, the killer sprang from below her and grabbed her arm. Andreas had no choice now but to fire. He didn't dare aim for the killer's center of mass, they were too close together. He aimed just to hit him. The first shot missed. He adjusted and fired again. A hit! Better yet, the killer let go of her and was heading to where Andreas had a clear shot. Andreas refocused his sight picture and started to squeeze off a round. 'Damn it,' he said aloud, and pulled back his gun. Annika had stepped right into his sights. She was spinning and screaming.
There was no choice to be made. He ran to her and let the killer run. There would be no place for him to hide in that temple.
26
Catia was the first to see the lights shining on Mount Kynthos. 'Over there, Spiros, over there!'
The helicopter had flown west from Mykonos directly to Saint Kiriake. The pilot nodded and veered south toward the lights. Catia was holding her breath.
'Look, up there, by the Temple of Isis,' shouted the mayor, sounding as excited as she was.
Catia saw two people — a naked, bald woman and a man holding a gun. She screamed, 'There's Annika.' The helicopter came in for a closer look, and the man waved as he took off his jacket and put it around the woman.
'Land, please land.' Catia was frantic.
'There's no place to land up here, Mrs Vanden Haag. We have to land by the museum,' said the pilot.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for Catia to decide.
Her eyes were glued to her daughter. She saw another man join them. He was in uniform. He took Annika's arm and walked her away from the temple in the direction of the museum. 'Okay, land there.' She watched as the jacketless man walked — gun still in hand — toward the temple. There were no signs of life inside. Nothing. Andreas had seen him run in there and there was blood on the floor. It led to the left rear corner and disappeared. No doors, no windows — hidden or otherwise — just marble. He stomped on the squares in the corner. Solid, no give in them at all. He looked at the carved marble pieces next to the corner. That must be it, he thought. He'd climbed them to get over the wall. Strange, though, no bloodstains on them or the wall. Whatever, we'll tear this island apart after daylight. He's not getting away, certainly not now that we know who he is.
Andreas heard his name on his two-way radio. 'Yes.'
'Did you find him?' It was Tassos.
'No, he just seemed to disappear into the Temple of Isis, but don't worry, we'll find him when the sun comes up.'
Silence.
'Tassos, are you there? Tassos, Tassos.' He was yelling into the phone.
'Chief?'
'Yes, who's this?'
'It's Kouros, sir, I flew over on the deputy minister's helicopter.'
'Where's Tassos?'
'I don't know, sir, he just handed me the radio and ran off.' Andreas could hear Kouros shouting into the phone trying to be heard above the wind.
'Where are you?' asked Andreas. 'By the museum.' 'I'll be right there.' What the hell was going on now? Catia and Annika were crying in each other's arms when Andreas reached the museum. A medevac helicopter was on its way from Athens.
The first thing Andreas did was find the port policeman who'd been tracking the killer with Tassos. 'What happened? Did you find anything?'
'Yes, sir, we followed his tracks to there.' He pointed to the south end of the museum. 'That's where they turned toward the sea. We followed them until they disappeared in the water. We walked back and forth along the shore looking for more tracks but didn't find any. That's when we came back — and were walking south toward Mount Kynthos. We were almost up to you when I got the call for the lights.'
Andreas paused. 'You must have found something. Something that made Tassos take off like he did.'
The cop shrugged. 'He was interested in some caves over there that open onto the sea.' He pointed to the southeast, beyond Mount Kynthos. 'But there were no tracks, just wet rock.'