Lander: It was awkward.
Emma: It wasn’t that awkward. I ended up pointing out towards the Grand Paradise and saying something about how they’d never finished the hotel.
Lander: We used to sneak away on the really hot days. They had almost finished building part of the lower floor for the new hotel, so there was a roof and shade.
…
She was trying to avoid the issue, so I said it outright.
Emma: ‘You never came back.’
Lander: I said: ‘You never came back.’ She kind of looked away and I don’t think she wanted to be there.
Emma: I tried to explain that, after everything with Alan’s fall, my family didn’t want to return. He didn’t reply, but I understand what he was probably thinking. I never emailed or wrote. I didn’t call or text…
I’m not a perfect person. I’ve never even claimed to be a nice person. I should have done things differently – but there wasn’t much I could do nine years on.
Lander: She told me they were back for her parents’ anniversary and her mum’s birthday. She said her mum was ill and that this might be her last holiday. Then she said that her dad had fallen two nights before.
It was one thing after another, no time to take anything in and then—
Emma: Then I met Rhea.
Lander: I love my wife very much.
Emma: You know when you’re walking along the street and you feel that awful squelch? You probably smell it before you see it and then you look back and realise you’ve just stepped in a dog poo?
That’s more or less how Rhea looked at me.
Lander: Rhea is a very passionate woman.
Emma: On an island like Galanikos, the local lads and the white girls only tend to know each other for one reason.
As soon as Lander saw Rhea, he shot up as if he’d been electrocuted. He said: ‘This is Emma. We used to be friends.’ He might as well have said nothing because Rhea knew right away who I was.
Lander: I had forgotten that I had work to do.
Emma: I don’t think she actually said anything. She might have coughed, or perhaps she just stood there. He mumbled something like ‘goodbye’ – and then the two of them hurried off along the road.
They were almost out of sight when Rhea turned back to look at me. You know that saying about how looks can kill? She could have committed genocide that day.
Chapter Fifteen
THE GLUTTONOUS TURNIP OF A MAN
Emma: I got back to the hotel at the same time as Victor was strolling in. He was in flip-flops and long pants, almost as if he’d been out for a morning stroll. I had to remind myself that the last time I’d seen him, he had been dragged away from a fight. It was only as I got closer that I noticed his shirt was ripped, there was a scratch across his face and he had a black eye. The oddest thing was that his shirt was still buttoned all the way up, even though it was flapping open.
He clocked me a little after I spotted him.
Victor Dorsey (son of Daniel and Liz Dorsey, husband of Claire Dorsey): I’m a nice guy. I asked her how she was doing. When she said she was fine, I asked about her dad.
Emma: I said there was no change with Dad’s condition, then asked what had happened to him. Vic didn’t know that I’d seen everything from the balcony and he said that he’d had ‘a disagreement’.
Victor: There was a disagreement. The other guy thought I was a massive arsehole, which was admittedly because I was trying to kick him up his massive arsehole.
Emma: He asked if I’d seen Claire, but I hadn’t since reception that morning. We ended up walking together through the lobby, out towards the pool. I didn’t have much choice because that was the only way back to the cottages. I think he was still a little drunk. He kept giggling to himself.
Claire: I was hoping for a peaceful day by the pool. I had a book about a missing wife to read and, to be honest, being a wife who went missing felt incredibly appealing that morning.
His parents were hanging around, doing their own thing, then I saw Vic walking towards me and I knew it was going to go off.
Emma: It was like one of those Westerns where the two gunslingers walk towards each other. You get a moment where they eye up one another – and then the shooting begins.
Claire: Vic marched over and started pointing in my face, asking why I’d not come to the station to bail him out. I told him the toilet was backed up in our room, so I’d already dealt with enough massive shits for one day.
Emma: I laughed.
Claire: He went through the old hits. I’m a leech. I’m after his money. I’m a whore. He never loved me.
His mum and dad are sitting on one side, with Emma standing on the other. He didn’t care. I told him I was flying home.
Emma: Claire points at Vic and goes: ‘I am so sick of you.’ Then she turned and pointed to Daniel and Liz and adds: ‘And I’m so sick of your family.’
Daniel started to speak, but she talked over him. She said: ‘You are a gluttonous turnip of a man and the biggest mistake I ever made was marrying into your money-obsessed, piss-stained crotch of a family.’
She then twisted back to Vic and goes: ‘You are the worst human being I’ve ever known.’
After that, she turned and walked off.
Claire: It’s fair to say that had been building.
Emma: I thought she had a well-argued point.
Victor: I told her we were finished and that she should pack her bags and go.
Emma: Vic didn’t get a word in. He had no idea how to reply.
Daniel: Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Emma: There was a moment of silence where I don’t think anyone could believe what had just happened. I thought Claire was off to pack her bags, but when I looked up, she was storming back. She stopped in front of us and then tipped her bag upside down and dumped everything on the sun lounger.
She goes: ‘You left the safe unlocked. I thought you might need this the next time you get caught in a gay brothel.’
There was about three or four hundred euros in that pile, plus a gold chain and a couple of other things.
Victor: I’ve never visited a gay brothel…
…
I’ve never visited any brothel.
Emma: Vic looked to his dad and then back to Claire and then down to the pile. I followed his eyes – which is when it felt as if the table was rushing towards me. The sun was glinting from the stone and the gold was bright and shiny. I was in no doubt: Dad’s emerald ring was sitting neatly on top of Vic’s things.
Chapter Sixteen
THE MAD WITCH
Victor: I know how it looked, OK? I’ll tell you now what I told Emma then: I didn’t steal her dad’s ring.