Emma: Daniel and Liz always reserved sun loungers in the spot where there’s the most sun during the morning. The day before, I’d noticed that they left a second set of towels on the other side and then shifted to those as the sun moved around. It’s almost like they were human sundials. You could tell the time of day based upon their position around the pool.
There is no way to leave the hotel from the cottages without going past the pool – so I went the long way around in an attempt to not be noticed. I didn’t see Julius or the girls that morning, but then I was walking as quickly as I could.
I don’t think anyone spotted me, but, even if they had, I was only carrying a beach bag. I went through the lobby and out the front, before heading down the path towards the village. I was trying to look for somewhere safe to leave that dry-cleaning bag. There’s not a bus station as such – but there is a rank where the airport buses stop, and I remembered a row of lockers there. I’d never paid much attention to them but figured I could find out if there was someone in charge and how I could get a key.
I didn’t get that far.
I’d only reached the market when I came round a corner to see Scott standing there, haggling with a stallholder over the price for a fake set of Adidas trainers.
Scott: How does she know they were fake?!
Emma: There was this moment that’s hard to describe now. I know I’ve been saying that a lot about various things, but the island does something to you. Everything you might be feeling is dialled up. You don’t only get angry, you get really angry. You’re not simply sad, you’re desolate.
The best way I can put it is that Scott looked at me, and I looked at him, and it was as if we were friends again.
Scott: She gave this sort of half-smile and it was like we had never stopped being friends. We were in my back garden playing What’s The Time, Mr Wolf? and everything in between didn’t matter any longer.
I think…
…
I think you had to see her that day to know what I mean.
Emma: I told the stallholder I’d seen the same trainers for thirty euros less on the other side of the market. He looked to me and then back to Scott, before dropping the price. Scott paid up, tipped the guy ten euros anyway, and then we started walking through the village.
Scott: She said she didn’t want to argue and that we used to be friends a long time ago.
I told her that I didn’t realise she’d stopped working for her dad. I heard that off one of the documentary crew. When I last knew her, she was as much a part of the business as either of our fathers. I suppose I couldn’t separate her from her dad.
Emma: It’s not true that I was ever as big a part of the business as Dad. I worked for him, doing what was largely admin work for an inflated salary.
After Alan died, I kept doing it, but things were changing. Daniel replaced Alan and he was much less bothered about what he thought to be trivial things, such as making sure people had heat or that repairs were done. It was a gradual slide to me leaving, but Daniel and I never got on with one another.
That’s why I left the business when I got pregnant. I never intended to go back and I never did.
It wasn’t only that…
Scott: I’d found out about what happened to her son by then. After I’d seen her on the street, I’d been really angry and gone back to my villa to do this sort of… hate-Google.
I know that’s not a good look.
I searched for her name, hoping to find out that she was some prissy Daddy’s girl. Something I could really despise her for… and then I saw all the stuff about her son, and the car, and… the rest. Of everyone I’ve ever met in my life, Emma would have been last in the list of people I thought might have gone to prison.
Paul: I found out about Emma and her son while we were at the airport, getting ready to fly back to the UK. I was looking for information we might be able to use when we got home – and it was impossible to miss her story.
I know people might think we should have known before – but we’d done no preparation for Emma. We were ready to shoot with Scott on the island. We didn’t know what people were going to tell us there, so moving on to her father wasn’t in our minds at that time.
After reading those stories, I thought about emailing her – but what would there be to say? She’d chosen not to tell me and that was fair enough.
Emma: When people find out about me, they tend to have two ways of reacting. Some people see the drink-driver headlines and want nothing to do with me. Other people read on and realise it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
…
I’m not trying to absolve myself of anything there.
Scott: She’d said I was obsessed with her family. Perhaps that was true for a while, but I didn’t know about what had happened to her, which has to say something. If I was constantly checking up on her family, I’d have seen it before.
…
I don’t think Emma realises that an enormous majority of people have never heard of her. If you type her name into the internet, then of course those stories appear – but that would be true of anyone. Type your name into the internet and you’ll see things that nobody in their day-to-day life would ever stumble across. I bet the people watching this had never heard of Emma until now.
I was living in London at the time she was sent to prison – and knew nothing about her sentencing. The story was more of a local thing. She’s not as notorious as I think she believes she is.
Emma: Scott said: ‘I read about your son’ – and I thought I had misread the situation. I thought he might say something awful… nothing I hadn’t heard before but enough to make me stop.
He didn’t, though. He said: ‘I’m sorry to hear what happened’ – and that was it. I don’t think I replied. I knew from his tone that I had nothing to fear.
We carried on walking through the market until we were almost at the edge of the village. We were out by the sign where I’d been doing the interview that morning. I don’t think he knew about it at that point, but, out of nothing, he said: ‘Mum doesn’t want me to do the doc.’
Scott: She said going back to the island would bring everything up again. Hard to disagree with that, I suppose. It has, hasn’t it?
Emma: He said it felt strange being back on the island, that it was like going back in time. I felt the same. There were so many small things I’d forgotten.
There is this spot in the village where there’s a drain cover that’s half in the road but half in the pavement. They built around it and it’s something you’d never think about – except for when it’s right in front of you. When I walked past it, I remembered cycling around that drain cover when I was a girl. Then, from nowhere, you’re right back as that little girl.
Scott: Galanikos does odd things to you. If you’ve never been, then I’m not sure I can describe it. It feels so claustrophobic, as if that village and the hotels are all that matters. Then you leave and life continues. You forget all those feelings until you go back – and then you’re suffocated again.