“A storm came up and they drowned in the cave. That’s when I decided to seal off anything suggesting there might be something more than the front of the cave. I also mounted a camera so we could see whoever came inside. It looks like part of the stone roof. And I put in a sensor that sets off an alarm if something heavier than a goat stands in the alcove inside the cave.”
“Guess that’s how the shooter made us,” said Kouros.
“But that means the shooter had to be inside the mound when we were in the cave.” Andreas looked at Trelos. “Who else knows how to get inside?”
“No one but my brother and sister.”
“And anyone interested enough in your activities to have followed you,” said Andreas. “Sort of the same way you found the Foundation’s secret hiding places. By trailing Foundation employees.”
Trelos shrugged. “It’s all over now.”
“What I can’t figure out is how you managed to find your way inside all those places once you located them?” said Andreas.
“It wasn’t very difficult. Much of what I needed was in old records, mainly in the Archeological Museum just down Megalochari Avenue from Panagia Evangelistria. Those records were my roadmaps into most of the places. Getting into the others was like solving elaborate puzzles, and I like puzzles.”
“Weren’t you worried about getting caught?”
Trelos gestured no. “I was careful. I never went to the same location more than twice a month, and I always took only what I could carry in the pack around my waist. Did you notice that I always carry my iPod in my hand, even though I have a waist pack?” He shook his head. “No one ever noticed that.”
“How did you handle electronic security?” said Tassos.
“It was a challenge at times, but they never installed anything sophisticated and I had all the equipment I needed to get around whatever they tried.”
“Where’s your equipment?” said Tassos.
Trelos pointed at the ground. “Here.”
“Speaking of ‘here,’ I think it’s time we get away from here.” Andreas pointed up the hill to the boulders where Tassos last saw the shooter. “My guess is there’s a way inside the mound from there.” Andreas looked at Trelos. “Am I right?”
Trelos nodded. “But I don’t think you’ll find anything. Anyone who knows how to get inside the Vriokastro could be anywhere by now.”
“Wounded and with a gun,” said Tassos.
Andreas nodded. “More of a reason to get moving. I’d rather be the hunter than the hunted.”
For those who believed in ghosts the evening was theirs. The figure that emerged from the very top of the ancient site was shrouded in black and moved like a cat. It held a broomstick in one hand, or at least something long, and found a perch on the east side of the peak. It watched four others making their way up the hill. The figure didn’t budge, just sat quietly holding the broomstick.
“Up there, to the right,” said Tassos.
The spot was a group of boulders about sixty feet from the peak. “They look like a coven of witches,” said Kouros.
“Just worry if one starts to move,” said Andreas. “Trelos, where’s the entrance?”
Trelos pointed to a dark oval about the size of a front door and ringed by the boulders.
“That’s where the shooter was, inside that hole,” said Tassos.
The four men made their way to the opening.
“Yianni, stay out here with Trelos. Tassos come with me.”
“You’ll never find the entrance without me,” said Trelos.
“He’s right,” said Tassos. “I couldn’t find it when I was looking around inside and it’s a rather obvious spot for tourists to explore.”
Andreas took Trelos by the arm and pushed him through the opening. “Fine. But don’t even think of pulling something.”
“I have no reason to. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“How about killing five people?”
“I know nothing about any of that.”
“What about robbing a church. Does that count as ‘wrong’ to you?”
“I didn’t do it for the money, my family is very rich. I was recovering what my parents had given away to strangers, so that I could do God’s work in a better way and, in the process, redeem my parents’ souls for all the grievous harm they’d done to me. And to my sister.”
“Yeah, I heard all about her broken engagement,” said Andreas.
“That is only part of what they did to her. She suffered much more difficult and tragic pain than that.”
“Frankly, I’m more worried about the pain the shooter’s causing us.” Andreas turned on his flashlight. “Just get me inside your mound.”
Five paces in Trelos stopped at two abutting boulders. To the left was an alcove filled with goat crap, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles.
“The leavings of visitors, I see.” Andreas shone his light on the ground in front of the two boulders. “Blood stains. And they end here.”
Trelos reached up, pressed his hand into an opening between the boulders, and fidgeted with something for a moment. He shook his head. “The release won’t work. It’s locked down from the inside. We can’t get in from here.”
“Where’s the next nearest entrance?”
“It won’t matter. If one’s locked down they’re likely all locked down.”
“How do we get in?”
Trelos shook his head. “We don’t. Unless whoever’s inside wants to let us in.”
“Terrific, a siege.”
“We could get in if we found the entrance used by the last one to get out.”
“Then there’d be no one left in there to catch?” Andreas pointed toward the outside with his flashlight. “You first. I wouldn’t want you getting lost on the way out.”
Outside, it was Yianni and Tassos who’d disappeared.
Andreas whispered, “Yianni? Tassos?”
“Above you, behind the boulders,” said Tassos.
Andreas pushed Trelos ahead of him toward Tassos’ voice.
“What are you doing up here?” said Andreas.
“The boulders give us cover on the east from a shooter below. And those,” Tassos pointed at stonewalls to the left and right, “give us at least some to the north and south.”
Andreas looked up the hill. “What if the shooter’s up there?”
“Then we’ve got a problem,” said Tassos.
“Add it to the list,” said Andreas. “We can’t get into the mound, everything is sealed from the inside, and whoever’s still in there could pop up anywhere. I better check out the peak, just to be safe.”
Andreas pointed at a boulder and said to Trelos, “Sit over there.”
“Be careful, Andreas,” said Tassos. “But don’t worry, if anybody shoots you, I shoot Trelos. ” Tassos said the last words loudly and pointed his gun at Trelos. “ Just in case anyone up there is listening.”
Andreas shook his head and started up the hill. It wasn’t as easy a climb as it looked. The path was off to the left but Andreas headed straight up toward the peak and the last twenty-five feet was on solid slippery rock. Twice he stumbled, once almost losing his gun.
Just before reaching the top he thought he heard a sound. Like fabric brushing against stone. He froze as his eyes darted about for the source of the sound. A pebble tumbled down the hill on the other side of the peak. It could be a goat or a lizard or a bird. Or the shooter. Andreas took a deep breath, winced at the pain in his rib, and charged the last few feet to the top.
There was nothing waiting for him. Thank God.
He did a three-hundred-sixty-degree scan down the mound. There wasn’t a living creature to be seen. Damnit.
The way back was easier. He took the path down the hill.
“Nothing up there that I could see,” said Andreas.
“Maybe the shooter is holed up inside the Vriokastro, bleeding to death from my bullet.”
“Aside from praying that you’re right, what do we do until then?” said Kouros.
Andreas sat down on a footstool-size rock at Trelos’ feet. “I think it’s time you give us some answers. Let’s start with why you killed the Carausii brothers?”
“I already told you. I don’t know anything about that.”