The Magus - John Fowles [207]
Greek. "But why?" "I know I've been followed everywhere in Athens. And I've seen Joe." "Where?" "On Monday. He was in a car outside the Grande Bretagne. As soon as he saw me he drove away." I didn't believe it; she was simply telling stories. I hesitated, nearly called her bluff, changed my mind. Crossing the avenue I peered cautiously round a cypress on that side. The three were calmly strolling on, their backs to us; the greyish strip of road, the low black scrub. In a few moments they went round the bend and out of sight. June came beside me. I turned to her. "I've put the whole business in the hands of the police." "The police?" I could tell I had caught her off-balance; then remembered that my own lies had to be convincing. "Only today. I expect they've been looking for you in Athens." She gave a dubious sort of nod. "Well your sister's been abducted. Hasn't she?" She wouldn't meet my eyes. I was smiling. I began to feel certain that Julie was safe; and perhaps not very far away. "I was thinking of the telegram." There was a silence. I could smell the rain; then thunder, closer. "Would you come back with me? I'm in the hotel. I'm so frightened. On my own." I gave her averted face a long salt look again; then grinned. I knew now that she had been sent to fetch me. "Let's go round the rear of the school. Come on. While the going's good." I took her hand and led her silently and quickly up the cypress alley to the chapel. Beyond it a path climbed up into the trees, and a minute or two later we came on a transverse path that led round hack to the village. Now we were higher we could see the lightning, great skittering sheets of it, ominously pink, over the sea to the east. Islands ten or fifteen miles away stood palely out, then vanished. There were green wafts of wet air. We walked rapidly, in silence, though I took her arm once or twice to help her over the steeper slopes. Below us, over the massive trunk of the school, I could see the pale light outside Barba Vassili's lodge. There were one or two lighted windows in the masters' wing. Mine was out. Lightning sheeted closer, making the landscape, sleeping school, olive groves, cottages, chapels, sea, stems, branches, flash luridly into presence. I looked at my watch. It was just midnight, and I felt full of a sort of joy, an amused excitement, the intoxication of danger, deceit, the unknown, the girl beside me. We came to a path that led down between cottages, and made our way through the back alleys of the village. A few isolated drops of rain began to fall. Somewhere a shutter slammed; a man standing in a lit doorway wished us good night. At last we came to the narrow high-walled lane that led behind the hotel, and through a gateway into the back yard. A light came from the rear door, which was half-glazed. I made June wait beside it while I looked in across the stone tiles to the front part of the lobby. A few scattered chairs and a sofa; the double glass doors of the main entrance. In one of the armchairs by the reception desk sat a man in a white shirt. The clerk. He was slumped, evidently asleep. I tried the half-glazed door. It was open. I turned to her against the wall, and whispered. "You'll be all right now. I'll see you in the morning." "You must come in." Her face looked startled. "I don't think I'd better." "Nicholas. Please. You must." For the first time her voice sounded genuinely alarmed. "I don't want to compromise you." She didn't say anything, but she began to smile like a girl who recognises that she is being teased, and deserves it; and makes churlishness very difficult. "I've got the key." She produced it from her skirt pocket; it had a brass tag with 13 stamped out. "Appropriate number." "Please." She bent, slipped off her shoes, then took the initiative and my hand. We tiptoed into the hotel lobby, halfway down which the stairs led off to the left. The man in the white shirt was snoring slightly. A clock was ticking. Rapid rain began to drum on the tatty blue and white marquise outside. Like ghosts we padded up the stone staircase, around a half-landing,