The Dark Side of the Island - Jack Higgins [55]
She nodded. "Everybody knows."
"Then why didn't he tell me I was wasting my time when I said I intended visiting your uncle?"
She turned slowly and looked at Van Horn and Lomax went on, "When I got to the farm, Dimitri and the Samos brothers were waiting for me in the dark. There was only one possible explanation. Dimitri was expecting me because someone had warned him I was coming. But only one person knew."
Van Horn smiled lightly. "It doesn't even hang together. How on earth could I have got in touch with him in time? Katina took the jeep."
It was Katina who answered him. "You were on the telephone to someone when I came up from the kitchen and Dimitri worked most nights at The Little Ship. Everyone knew that."
Van Horn lit a cigarette, his hand as steady as a rock. "You still haven't placed me at the farm at the time of the murder. No jury in the world would accept for one moment that a man of my age and condition could cross the mountain twice on the same night within a matter of hours."
"That worried me for a while," Lomax said. "Until I remembered Katina once telling me there was a jetty at the bottom of the cliffs near the farm." He glanced down at her. "How long would you say it would take from here to there by sea?"
"Twenty minutes," she said. "I've done it often. So has Oliver."
Lomax looked enquiringly at Van Horn. "Would you care to guarantee the launch hasn't been to sea tonight? We could always check."
"You're not making sense," Van Horn said. "What possible motive could I have had for killing Dimitri Paros?"
"It's only a guess, but I'd say he'd discovered you were the man responsible for the death of his father," Lomax said.
Katina's breath hissed sharply between her teeth. For a moment Van Horn's composure almost broke, but he rallied strongly. "It won't do, Lomax. Everyone knows what I went through at Fonchi."
"When we were discussing things earlier today, I told you I thought Alexias Pavlo was the traitor," Lomax said. "You pointed out that I still had to explain how the Germans got on to him in the first place. I can do better than that. I can show how they got on to you."
"I'm afraid you're not making sense," Van Horn said, but all colour had left his face and deep lines were scoured across his forehead.
"When I first visited this house seventeen years ago. Joe Boyd borrowed a volume of your war poems called The Survivor," Lomax told him. "It was bound in green leather and autographed in gold, one of a complete edition of your works."
He went to the bookshelves and returned with a slim green volume which he dropped on the coffee table. "The book in question. I noticed it earlier when Katina brought me up from the hotel to meet you again. It wasn't until tonight that I realised it had no business being there."
"I don't understand," Katina said.
"I think Van Horn does. You see Joe Boyd forgot to return the book. He was carrying it in one of his tunic pockets when he went into action. I only remembered that tonight after all these years. The Germans must have found it when they searched his body. No wonder I thought Steiner was laughing at me when I told him we hadn't been in contact with anyone on the island."
Van Horn picked up the book and examined it. After a while, he sighed. "It would have been a pity to spoil the set. It was presented to me by my American publishers just before the war."
He crossed to the bookshelves, replaced the volume then took a decanter from the cupboard and poured himself a drink. When he spoke, his voice sounded curiously remote. It was almost as if he were discussing something that had happened to someone else.
"You're right, of course. They found the book and Steiner came straight to me. I tried to beat about the bush, but it didn't do any good."
Katina moved forward, dragging her right foot slightly. "Why did you tell them?"
He tried to turn away, but she caught his arm and pulled him round to face her. "Why, Oliver?"
He shrugged. "Because I was afraid. He threatened to send