Page 22 of Deep Blue Lies

TWENTY-ONE

I’m still in shock as Kostas noses the boat back onto the beach and waits while I jump off.

We don’t speak, except I tell him my shift is about to start, and then I hurry along to the bar.

And then it’s the first really busy shift I’ve done.

The season is just getting going, Hans tells me, and a hotel nearby has just opened up for the summer, with mostly German guests.

It seems half of them have come down to the Sunset Bar to kick off their holidays, and they mean to start it drunk.

So I spend the next six hours pulling pints and clearing glasses, and delivering plates of fries and burgers.

And I almost forget about the diary I now have tucked away in my bag, and what it might tell me about my mother.

Almost.

Hans finally lets me go just before midnight, and I decide I’ll read it when I get home. On the way I grab another take-away souvlaki , because I didn’t get time to eat at work. I’m dead on my feet when I get back to my apartment block. But right away something feels off.

I don’t know what it is. I suppose it might just be that it’s dark, and the lighting around the entrance isn’t very bright.

Half the places around here are rentals, and whoever is going to live here for the summer hasn’t arrived yet, so it has a creepy feel anyway.

But it’s more than that, I have a real sense I’m being watched.

I resist the urge to run, but slip my key between my fingers, so it’s a kind of weapon.

But it won’t be much good, the way my hand is shaking.

There’s nothing else I can do but walk fast, and at the entrance to my building I concentrate hard to slip the key into the lock first time and not fumble.

I do it, and push open the door, pulling it locked behind me.

Then I finally breathe again. It’s nothing, I’m just freaked out, by what Kostas said, by what I’m doing here.

The lobby is pretty dark and dingy, illuminated only by a single dim bulb.

And I’ll feel properly better when I get into my apartment.

As I fit the key into the lock there, a thought suddenly comes into focus.

I’m using the same key I just used. I don’t know how that works, but Klaus only gave me one, which operates both my door and the main door to the building.

Does that mean anyone who lives in this block could get into my apartment too?

Had someone already? I don’t really know, I’m not an expert on locks, but it seems odd.

I try to forget it though as I put the key in again.

I think about something nicer, the warmth I can feel from the food, which smells amazing.

But I don’t have long to think about that either.

The moment I open the door, I know what’s happened.

All my clothes were in the chest of drawers.

Now they’re strewn all over the floor. The kitchen cupboards are open, two of my three plates smashed on the kitchen floor.

And on the table, where I left my trusty MacBook Air, there’s nothing but an empty charging cable.