‘Greetings, my fair sister!’ he said in a silly, over-the-top English accent. He grinned at Hannah, inviting her to share in his joke, and, still silent, she smiled back.
Marina, though, wasn’t amused. ‘Have you heard about Jessica?’ she asked with a frown.
The Frenchman took a step back and raised his dark eyebrows. ‘Jessica? No. What’s happened?’
Glancing round the table, he noticed Edie’s and Ralph’s serious expressions for the first time and his face fell. As soon as Marina had finished filling him in, he pulled out an empty chair and plonked down, as if his legs were in danger of buckling.
Marina needed to get back to her studio, but he wanted to stay behind to recover. Unsurprisingly, he also had a lot of questions. Hannah was the one who seemed keenest to answer them, so he moved to the chair next to her. They were soon hunched over, their heads almost touching, deep in conversation.
The waiter returned to ask if there were any more orders and Jean-Luc wanted an espresso. Ralph decided he was hungry, having eaten very little all day, and persuaded Edie and Hannah to have something more, too.
‘We may as well wait till the police have spoken to Mac,’ he said.
Hannah explained she’d sent a text to warn him of their visit and all he’d said in reply was,‘OK’.
Jean-Luc looked amused and sat back, smoothing his hair. ‘He is a man of few words, your husband? He is not, as we say in France, araconteur.’
‘Not remotely.’
Hannah, who was in a shortish skirt, uncrossed her long bare legs and crossed them again. ‘All he really likes talking about is sport.’
‘Ah.’ The Frenchman leaned in again. ‘Some men are obsessed with sport. I have friends who talk about it all the time. Personally, I’m more interested in art, films, books, culture and—’ there was a pregnant pause ‘—and women.’
Hannah’s eyes widened and she gave a simpering little smile.
Edie, who was watching, felt her muscles tighten and the blood rush to her head. She turned away quickly and tried to focus on the plates of food the waiter had just put on the table instead.
Ralph had ordered a selection ofmezzeto share, includingdakos– twice-baked barley bread brushed with olive oil – topped with chopped tomatoes and localmizithracheese and sprinkled with oregano. There were alsodolmades– vine leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts and minced meat – plustahini– a dip made from sesame seeds, olive oil and lemon juice.
Some other small bowls contained pale pinkishtaramasalata, made from fish roe,tzatziki, andfava, made from split yellow peas and onion.
Everything looked delicious, including the basket of warm pitta bread, but Edie still had little appetite.
She couldn’t quite believe Hannah was flirting with Marina’s brother again, while the police were searching for Jessica. As every hour passed, the need to find her became more urgent, yet to look at Hannah now, you’d think she hadn’t a care in the world.
It was Jean-Luc who polished off most of themezze. Ralph and Hannah had just a small amount, while Edie could only nibble on some pitta. She’d been keeping an eye on the police officers, going in and out of the stores, and realised she hadn’t seen them in a while. Perhaps they’d gone to speak to Mac now.
The bad news was, they couldn’t have obtained any vital information yet that would lead to Jessica’s discovery, or they’d have surely told Edie, Ralph and Hannah. Edie could only hope their colleagues in Knossos were having better luck and there’d be a breakthrough soon.
Bored with sitting round twiddling her thumbs while Jean-Luc and Hannah chatted each other up, she rose and wiped the crumbs off her lap.
‘I’m going back to the villa. Anyone coming?’
‘Me,’ Ralph replied, tossing his napkin on the table and rising, too.
Edie glanced at Hannah, who looked up, all wide-eyed and innocent.
‘Oh! I wouldn’t mind some coffee first. I’ll catch you up. I won’t be long.’
‘See you,’ Jean-Luc added, clocking Ralph’s and Edie’s anxious faces again and remembering not to smile.
Deep worry lines appeared between his eyebrows, but as soon as Edie’s back was turned, he and Hannah resumed their heart-to-heart.
Edie saw them huddled together in the corner like two lovesick teenagers, laughing animatedly at some private joke or other and blind to what was going on around them.
Once she and Ralph were out of earshot, her frustration seeped out, like air escaping from a punctured bicycle tyre.
‘I think it’s weird the way Hannah’s behaving, don’t you?’ she said, sticking her hands in the pockets of her shorts.
