Part 6 (1/2)
”That boat's heading our way. Think we can hitch a ride?” she asked, grabbing Mick's arm.
He shrugged. ”It's worth a try.”
Nancy took off her bright orange cap and tried to flag down the boat. She was waving frantically when she recognized the boat's yellow hull and distinctive star. It was the Sea Star Sea Star. ”Theo!” she shouted.
”Well, fancy that,” Mick said. He stood up as the boat swerved toward them and slowed down.
Theo seemed surprised to see Nancy and Mick stranded on the low cliff. Within minutes he had taxied ash.o.r.e on an inflated dinghy and brought them aboard the Sea Star Sea Star. When Nancy and Mick warned Theo that they were in danger, he sped away immediately, without asking questions.
Nancy waited until the boat was a safe distance from Dragonisi before she filled him in on their close brush in the cave.
”That is amazing!” Theo exclaimed, the wind rippling his hair. ”Those caves you were exploring have drop-offs and hidden pa.s.sages. Did you notice a pond in one of the caves?”
Nancy nodded. ”Yes, in the cave that the people were camped in.”
”That's called Kea Lake. It has a channel that leads out of the cave-a tunnel of water. It connects to a small pond on the other side of the point, where you flagged me down.”
”Do you mean we could have swum out of the cave?” Mick asked, somewhat surprised.
”It is possible,” Theo said. ”But it is very tricky if you do not know the cave.”
”You seem to know Dragonisi well,” Nancy told Theo.
He shrugged. ”I have maps, but the caves are dangerous. I'm glad you weren't hurt.”
”Lucky for us you were in the area,” said Mick. ”We saw your boat on the other side of the island before lunch. How was the fis.h.i.+ng?”
Theo glanced away. ”Not so good. No fish today.”
Nancy looked over at the empty fis.h.i.+ng net and wondered what Theo had been doing all day. ”Maybe you saw the people we had the run-in with,” she said. ”I think they were out swimming before they returned to the cave.” She went on to describe the man and woman.
Theo frowned and suddenly became preoccupied with navigating his boat. He definitely seemed uncomfortable with her questions. In fact, she was sure he was hiding something. ”I didn't see them,” he said, concentrating on the open sea.
Changing the subject, he said, ”It will be almost an hour until we reach Chora. In the meantime, I will try to radio Nikos so he does not search for you. Why don't you relax?” he said, nodding toward the seats on the aft deck.
With a sigh, Mick sank onto an orange cus.h.i.+on. ”I'm glad that's over.”
”We'll have to report it to the police on Mykonos,” Nancy reminded him as she sat down next to him. In the frenzy of their confrontation in the cave, she hadn't had time to tell him about the pa.s.sport photos she found there.
”Wow!” Mick exclaimed once she told him. His green eyes flickered with interest. ”Along with the explosives, it all adds up to something illegal-and deadly.”
”Do you think those people in the cave are connected to the three pa.s.sports?”
Mick shrugged. ”How do you figure that?”
”I don't know,” Nancy said, hugging a cus.h.i.+on to her chest. ”But I thought of it when I saw those photos in the cave.”
As she spoke, Nancy looked down at the cus.h.i.+on in her arms. Something about it struck a familiar chord in her mind. The square cus.h.i.+on was covered with smooth orange canvas cloth. She turned it over and found that a star and a few Greek letters had been marked on the cus.h.i.+on with a black felt-tip pen. The Greek word ended with the letters aooa aooa.
Nancy's eyes widened in surprise. The same cus.h.i.+ons had been sitting near the sleeping bags in the cave with the explosives!
Chapter Nine.
”WHAT'S WRONG?” Mick asked.
Nancy glanced ahead to make sure that Theo couldn't hear them. Then she showed Mick the marking on the cus.h.i.+on. ”I saw the same cus.h.i.+ons in that cave.”
”Are you sure?” Mick questioned. ”We don't know the Greek alphabet. Maybe some of the letters just look the same.”
”I'm positive,” she said emphatically. ”It was a star, followed, by these symbols.” A quick search of the other cus.h.i.+ons on the aft deck revealed that they were all marked the same way.
Mick's eyes darkened, and he said, ”Now that I think of it, what was Theo doing on that deserted part of Dragonisi-after he refused to take us there? He could have been on his way to see the people in the cave!”
Nancy tensed. ”And remember that woman we saw him talking to, next to the snorkelers? She had red hair...”
”Just like the woman in the cave,” Mick finished. ”I think it's time Theo gave us some solid answers,” he added, suddenly on his feet.
Nancy grabbed his arm and pulled him back. ”If he is is involved with those people, we can't afford to confront him while we're out on the open sea.” involved with those people, we can't afford to confront him while we're out on the open sea.”
”Good point.” Mick took her hand and settled in for the ride.
Nearly an hour later, as they arrived in Mykonos's harbor, Nancy held up one of the cus.h.i.+ons and said to Theo, ”These are nice. But what do those letters say?”
”Those are the markings of the Sea Star Sea Star,” Theo replied. He threw a line around a wooden stanchion in the marina, then turned to Nancy and traced the handwritten symbols on the cus.h.i.+on. ”The name is also marked on the hull of my boat.”
”Do any of the other boats have the same cus.h.i.+ons?” Nancy asked him.
”Oh, sure. But not with these markings-at least, they shouldn't,” Theo said sternly. ”I noticed that some of my cus.h.i.+ons disappeared a few days ago.” He lowered his voice. ”But I think some of the older fishermen here at the marina are playing a joke on me.”
Mick and Nancy exchanged a look that said they both doubted the story. Mick started to say something, but Nancy shook her head, stopping him.
It wouldn't be wise to press Theo. There were too many questions-about the cus.h.i.+ons, about the redheaded woman, about Theo's presence at Dragonisi, and about the deadly explosives. She needed to investigate on her own before she let Theo know how much she suspected.
The hot sun and excitement had taken its toll on Nancy's energy, but she wanted to report the incident on Dragonisi right away. Fortunately, there was a police station located on Mykonos's harbor between a cafe and a souvenir shop. Inside, Nancy and Mick waited on a bench in a dusty gray room while the desk officer located someone who spoke English.
Finally Officer Rossolatos appeared, with a younger police officer who had short black hair. Nancy and Mick reported the incident on Dragonisi without too much trouble. The only problem was, every time they said something, Officer Rossolatos translated it, and a barrage of conversation-all in Greek-followed. Nancy was dying to know what the men were saying.
She kept hearing one word crop up. It sounded like ”diafevgo.” But when she asked what they were discussing, Officer Rossolatos brushed her questions aside.
”We will send a boat to Dragonisi to look for these people, but please, stay away from that place,” he warned Nancy and Mick. ”These people... they may be very dangerous.”
”I'm a world traveler once again!” Bess said, waving her new pa.s.sport in the air as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.
George and Kevin sat down next to her. ”Now at least you don't have to worry if anyone asks for ID when we go to Naxos tomorrow.”