the lawyer said.
‘What are you afraid of?’ the restaurant owner continued defiantly. ‘No one can touch you or the mayor. You have the support of Athens, as long as you don’t get too greedy.You already own a quarter of the island and you will own the rest before long.’
‘And you have done okay by it, I might add,’ the lawyer snapped, getting heated. ‘I wonder who really owned your restaurant and your vineyard before you claimed them.’
The restaurant owner felt the sting of that attack; however, he was not to be silenced yet. ‘Everyone at this table has done okay, and they might not all say it in the open but behind your back they all agree you have been too greedy.’
‘We’ve all done okay,’ the mayor said, trying to calm things. ‘Don’t ruin it for yourself.’
‘Is that some kind of threat?’ the restaurant owner asked.
‘You’re getting paranoid,’ the lawyer said.
‘Me? Paranoid! You are joking, of course. Everyone who sets foot on the island he quizzes in case they are here to claim a house,’ the restaurant owner said to Gabriel. ‘I can guarantee he is suspicious of you.You think he believes you are a university lecturer? And then they complain about the lack of tourists. What precious few we have are investigated by this man. And heaven forbid if they should hint they once had family on the island. Suddenly their water runs out or their electricity, or something happens to their baggage, like that Australian family who lost their wallets, passports and other valuables which strangely turned up on Rhodes, and you and the mayor ever so kindly bought them ferry tickets - one way tickets - to go to Rhodes to get their stuff.’
‘That’s absurd,’ the lawyer said, suddenly starting to laugh. The mayor also fought a snigger as he remembered the incident.
‘You laugh at us as if we are stupid. But not all of them are so frightened of you,’ the restaurant owner said, grinning as he nudged the customs officer and then whispered to him. They both sniggered and the restaurant owner translated what he had said for Stratton and Gabriel’s entertainment. ‘What about that crazy Russian you tried to interrogate because he was being so secretive?’ he directed at the lawyer.
The customs officer chuckled as the lawyer looked suddenly embarrassed.
‘You kept on asking him what he was doing here and he didn’t want to say,’ the restaurant owner continued, then began to mimic strangling someone. ‘Finally you asked him again what his name was and he grabbed you by the neck and threatened to break it if you didn’t leave him alone.’The restaurant owner and customs officer burst out laughing, the mayor joining them.
‘He would have crushed you like a snail if the army had not come to save you,’ the restaurant owner added, guffawing loudly.
‘And so he call army,’ the customs officer said in broken English, almost in tears.
‘Rubbish,’ the lawyer said in a red-faced huff that only caused more laughter.
‘Isn’t that right, Captain?’ the restaurant owner asked the army officer. ‘He would have stamped our great lawyer into the ground and hit him with his big piece of wood.’The laughter got even louder and the mayor’s wife joined in. It was so infectious Gabriel began to grin.
‘You should have seen this Russian,’ the mayor said to Stratton. ‘He was huge. Hands like plates. And he carried a large piece of wood everywhere.You would have to shoot him several times to stop him if he attacked you.’
‘The lawyer was right to call me,’ the captain said, quite seriously. ‘The man was a soldier and very dangerous.’
‘How do you know he was a soldier?’ the mayor said. ‘He told no one anything about himself. That’s why our lawyer thought he wanted to claim a house.’
‘Soldiers know these things,’ the captain said in a superior fashion.‘You wouldn’t understand,’ he added, glancing at Stratton in a way that suggested it was a mystery to everyone at the table but himself. ‘This man had seen war. That was why I got him to calm down. I talked to him as only a soldier can to another.’
‘Yes, and our brave lawyer ran away from the island yet again,’ the restaurant owner added.
‘But this time only for a week,’ the mayor said, raising his glass. ‘Good to see you back.’
‘But remember, don’t stay too long, the Russian is back in a few days,’ the restaurant owner added, setting everyone off laughing again.
Thoughts began to stir in Stratton’s head.The words