Page 22 of Footprints in the Sand (Coleman #13)

Chapter Nineteen

T hirty seconds after Dimitra opened the door for Finn, he burst into tears.

He looked like a sobbing green bean. Dimitra and Harry ushered him inside and set him up at the kitchen table—the same kitchen table where he’d probably eaten a thousand breakfasts with his ex-girlfriend Eva.

Dimitra leaned against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest. Harry stood beside her, his hand on her shoulder.

Eventually, Dimitra found a beer in the fridge and put it on the table in front of Finn, hoping that would calm him down.

He cracked it open, sipped it, and sobbed again.

“Son, you’re going to have to tell us what’s going on,” Harry said finally, sitting across from Finn and crossing his hands on the table.

Dimitra thought, It’s clear that Harry is a good man, a good father .

She felt a spike of sorrow, knowing that he was tied to so many things back in South Carolina. But she’d never wanted more from him than what he’d given. Not really.

Or did she?

Finn hiccuped and took another sip of beer. “I told you. Eva is in trouble, and I don’t know what to do. None of her family members will talk to me, and Eva won’t answer the phone or respond to my texts. It’s looking dire. I need to know she’s all right.”

Dimitra spoke quietly. “I talked to her very recently. She seemed okay to me.”

In fact, she’d seemed really happy, but Dimitra didn’t want to add insult to injury for this poor idiot, this poor man who’d done something so horrendous to his ex-girlfriend that she’d wanted to leave the country.

“Why do you think she’s in trouble?” Harry asked.

Finn rubbed his cheeks nervously. “It’s complicated to say.”

“Can you give it a try, man?” Harry urged. “It’s just that we can’t help you unless we know what’s going on. And we want to help you. Dimitra and I will try.”

Finn took a breath. Again, Dimitra couldn’t believe how simple it seemed to Harry to calm this young man down. It made her think of Kostos, who so often had made frightening situations so much worse because he’d made Dimitra feel foolish for her fears.

“I guess you know why she left me?” Finn began.

Harry squinted. “I’m sort of new to this story, Finn. Can you help me out?”

Finn winced. “I had heard about these investments. They seemed really safe, you know? I figured I could surprise her and grow our nest egg by, like, twenty times the size. I imagined us retiring by forty-five and traveling or whatever. We wanted to have kids, and you know, I thought it would make everything easier. But I got bad information about the investments. I lost close to everything.”

Dimitra filled her lungs. She wasn’t even sure Meghan knew the extent of what he’d done. Maybe Eva had been too embarrassed to share everything.

“That’s rough, man,” Harry said. “But your heart was in a good place.”

Dimitra didn’t believe that was true. Finn’s heart had been in a controlling place, not a caring one. But she sensed Harry was buttering him up to get to the truth.

“Yeah. Exactly. Why doesn’t she get that?

” Finn asked, rubbing his thighs. “After we broke up, she opened a different bank account, got a different debit card, and so on. But she still has a debit card for the account we shared. We still need to discuss how to divide up the money, and it’s all really complicated, especially because I’m planning on making all the money back and more. ”

Wow, he’s delusional , Dimitra thought. Eva dodged a bullet here.

“But I noticed there were some weird expenses on the account,” Finn said. “On July 5th, someone in Greece bought more than four hundred euros of stuff online. On July 6th, someone in Greece bought a motorbike. I mean, it’s more than four thousand five hundred worth of stuff.”

“Why are you saying ‘someone’?” Harry asked. “Don’t you think it was her? She’s in Greece, after all.”

“She wouldn’t have used that card,” Finn said adamantly. “There’s no way.”

“What are you suggesting?” Dimitra asked.

“I think her card was stolen,” Finn said firmly.

“It’s possible,” Dimitra said. “Did you cancel the card?”

“I did,” Finn confirmed. “I canceled it after the motorbike purchase.”

“You should have asked her first,” Harry said.

“Like I said, I think she blocked me. But I also can’t shake the feeling that someone’s targeted her. These are massive purchases. I’m worried some guy is tailing her, trying to take her for all she’s worth.”

You already took her for all she’s worth , Dimitra did not say.

Dimitra puffed her cheeks and looked at Harry, trying to read his expression. Harry looked neutral and stoic and entirely like a man she could trust.

“I’m just asking you to give her a call and see what’s going on,” Finn stammered.

“All right. I will.” Dimitra put her hands on her hips.

Silence filled the little kitchen. “Just to be clear, what you did to Eva was wrong, so very wrong that I don’t know what to make of it or you.

I want to make sure Eva is protected and safe, but I also want to make sure she’s protected and safe from you. ”

Finn slumped in his chair and crossed his arms. “I know. I know that. Trust me, I’m paying for everything I’ve done.”

“She’s paying for it, too,” Dimitra said.

For a moment, she had a startling thought. Eva’s paying for what Finn did, and I’m paying for what Kostos did. But what did Kostos “do” exactly? He went fishing and disappeared. It wasn’t his fault.

Plenty of things had been Kostos’s fault before his death, but because he’d passed away so violently, so terrifyingly, Dimitra had let thoughts of them drift away. She’d wanted to forgive him, so she had.

Instead, she’d been mourning him ever since.

Eventually, Finn got the hint and went to the door. Harry and Dimitra followed him. Harry wanted to make sure Finn was all right and that he wasn’t going to do anything rash.

“Do you have a place to stay?” Harry asked.

Finn nodded gravely. “I’m going back to Boston this afternoon.”

He took a final moment to blink around the foyer. Dimitra felt the nostalgia behind his eyes, a thousand-plus memories of his lifetime in that very house.

“Take care of yourself, Finn,” Harry said, opening the door for him. “We’ll see you around.”

After Finn left, Dimitra and Harry sat on the porch with glasses of wine. Harry’s admission of having a daughter and a life he eventually had to get back to had now been dwarfed by Finn’s admission of guilt and his fear about what was going on with Eva in Greece.

“He could be a raving, sad lunatic,” Harry said. “Or he could be on to something.”

“I guess we shouldn’t take that chance,” Dimitra said.

Still on the porch, Dimitra dialed Eva’s number and pressed her phone to her ear, listening as it rang out across the Atlantic.

It was difficult to imagine what Eva was up to.

Maybe she was with Nico, kissing on his sailboat or swimming in the middle of the sea.

Or perhaps she was with Aphrodite, painting her fingernails and complaining about Finn.

Or maybe she was with Athena, Dimitra’s sister, eating food as Athena complained about Dimitra’s recklessness, saying she needed to come home.

How Dimitra missed her sister. How she didn’t miss her sister’s nagging.

But regardless of where she was, Eva didn’t answer the phone. Dimitra’s heart sank.

“I’m sure she’s just enjoying her life,” Harry said. “She’s a young woman who just lost a one hundred and seventy-pound sack of uselessness.”

“Are you referring to Finn?” Dimitra said, cackling.

“I was a one hundred and ninety-pound sack of uselessness when my wife and I divorced,” Harry admitted.

Dimitra waved her hand, remembering their true topic of conversation. “I’m sorry we got sidetracked.”

“No, it’s okay. It takes me back to all the mistakes I made in my life. It makes me grateful that I found my way through them,” Harry said, taking a sip of wine.

Dimitra was amazed at his honesty, his openheartedness.

She decided to be a little more open about her own situation.

It was a memory she hadn’t thought about in years.

“At one time in my marriage to Kostos, we were really struggling with money,” Dimitra began.

“I was working every odd job I could find at the grocery store, at the harbor, at the gift shop. I was miserable, but I was trying to make it work. But Kostos was impatient. Without asking me first, he requested to borrow a substantial amount of money from my father. It was significantly more money than you should ever ask from anyone, including, or maybe especially, family. I found out because my sister told me, not because my parents did. I think everyone was too embarrassed to say. In any case, it nearly destroyed my marriage. Kostos and I fought about it almost nonstop. I moved in with Athena for a while, and I looked into divorce proceedings. But then, all at once, my father called me to tell me that Kostos had paid him back in full. Just like that.” Dimitra snapped her fingers.

Harry looked mystified. “How did he do it?”

“I have no idea,” Dimitra admitted. “But that night, he picked me up from my sister’s place and took me to a fancy dinner and told me everything would be okay after that. I wanted to believe him so badly, so I made myself believe.”

“Was everything okay?” Harry asked.

Dimitra’s heart pounded. “I think so. Mostly. Until three years later, when he went fishing and never came home.”

Harry reached across the table and touched her hand.

Dimitra couldn’t believe she’d just revealed so much of herself to this stranger.

She felt closer to him than she had to another human since Kostos’s death.

She felt closer to him than she’d felt to herself, as of late, if only because she found it so challenging to be honest with herself.