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‘I’m sorry, mate, no offence, but I have no idea who you are, or what—’
‘But we know whoyouare!’ Heidi blurted, her voice shrill.
‘And who’s that, then?’
‘You’reHolsHacker!’
The smile vanished from Eddie’s face and his jaw slackened. That was clearly not what he had expected Heidi to say.
‘Who the heck isHolsHacker?’
‘Very funny,’ said Christos, staring at Eddie as though he’d crawled out from under a stone. ‘We know it was you who took that video in the bookshop… after you’d trashed the place and scrawled that distasteful graffiti on the mirror.’
‘What’s he talking about, Eddie?’
‘I have no idea, Josh. Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but okay, now that I’ve had chance to see you properly, I admit I might have seen you the last time we were here, so when I said I didn’t know who you were, I concede that I was mistaken. However, I have no idea why you’ve decided to come over to our table and rudely interrupt our meal, so, if you’ll excuse us, we’d like to…’
Suzie saw that Christos’ resolve had started to falter and he looked confused. It was obvious from the man’s expression that he didn’t have any idea who Christos really was, or what he was upset about, nor did he know whoHolsHackerwas. However, one thing she was certain about was that Eddie was the man she had seen on the terrace opposite the studio the following morning.
‘But itwasyou I saw taking photographs of me the next morning.’
The man was no actor, and she knew straight away that she had scored a direct hit when he averted his eyes and his freckled cheeks flooded with heat.
‘Why were you taking photographs of Suzie?’ asked Christos.
‘I really don’t think that’s any of your business.’
Christos took a step towards Eddie, which caused all five men at the table to rise from their seats, and Stefanos to come out of the kitchen with a watermelon in one hand and a rather large carving knife in the other.
‘Everything okay, Giorgos?’
‘Okay, okay.’ Eddie held up his palms in semi-mock surrender. ‘I thought I recognised her, but I wasn’t sure, so I sent a couple of snaps I’d taken at the party night to one of my colleagues back at the agency. Fergus agreed with me, but he wanted more proof, so yes, I took a few photographs of her lolling around on the balcony of her luxury apartment, sipping cocktails as though she didn’t have a care in the world.’
All eyes swung towards Suzie.
She tried to respond, to tell him that Amber’s studio wasnotluxurious, and that she had been drinking peppermint tea, not cocktails, but she discovered that every bone in her body had frozen, her brain had stalled, and she was unable to process even the simplest of thoughts.
‘Oh, and I’m happy to inform you that I got a great price for the photos.’ Eddie smirked. ‘Almost covered the cost of our entire vacation.’
Suddenly, all hell broke loose.
Christos launched himself towards Eddie but was held back by the swift action of Stefanos who grabbed him before he could land a blow and guided him firmly away to the safety of the kitchen, talking to him in scattergun Greek. Heidi slid her hand into Suzie’s and led her back to the table they’d been sitting at earlier where they watched in silence as Giorgos and two of histavlifriends escorted the yacht guys from the premises, before apologising to the remaining patrons for the disturbance and offering them glasses of vintage Santorini wine on the house.
‘Suzie? I don’t understand,’ said Heidi, completely bewildered by the incident. ‘Why did Eddie want to sell photographs of you? Are you famous or something?’
‘No, I—’
Suzie’s phone buzzed again and this time when it stopped ringing, it started again immediately. She sighed. Holly was clearly desperate to get in touch with her, and her call gave her the excuse she needed to escape Heidi’s questions. She loved her friend, but she really didn’t have the mental bandwidth to explain what was going on until she had worked it out herself first.
‘Sorry, Heidi, I really have to take this.’
Suzie all but sprinted from the taverna, only stopping when she was halfway down the pathway towards Oia, where she leaned against a collapsed wall that had been colonised by a profusion of weeds to return Holly’s call.
‘Hi, Holly, is everything okay?’
‘Oh, Suzie, thank God. I’ve been trying to ring you to warn you.’
‘Warn me? Warn me about what?’
