Secret Souls (23 page)

Neither of them spoke for several minutes and then Larry did. He asked, ‘Chadwick, I have been on this case for nearly five
months. I want to close it and I can’t do that without an interview with you. Grant me that interview. Here, now, please?’

‘And why should I do that?’

‘So I can fill in the missing pieces, close the case, and maybe together we can find a way to get the family off your back once and for all. Unless you do, this thing may haunt you for the rest of your life. Please.’

‘Is that why Manoussos asked me to see you this morning?’

‘I don’t know, I can only suspect so.’

‘How much does he know?’

‘Everything that I know.’

‘That wasn’t worthy of you, Larry.’

‘I didn’t know you even knew each other at the time I told him about the case I was working on, about the woman I was looking for.’

‘How long has he known?’

‘Since the night of my arrival here in Livakia. He didn’t believe you were the same Chadwick Chase I was looking for. He refused to believe it because of the fantasy persona you created for yourself. Then you made an error in your story and he had to believe you were Hannibal Chase’s wife.’

‘That explains his behaviour the night we spent together before he was called away.’

‘I don’t want to get involved in your private life with Manoussos, Chadwick, but grant me this interview and maybe we can achieve something that will help you make it right for you and him.’

‘You are assuming there is something wrong. Is there something you know that I don’t?’

Chadwick’s life in Livakia and with Manoussos was crumbling, surely she was not blind to that, and yet she was as centred and calm as if nothing was changing for them. It was Larry who was feeling unnerved, off balance, frightened for her. Recognising that, he put those things aside immediately and rather than answering her, asked, ‘Whyever did you lie to him, make up a life that never existed, deny who and what you really are? Did you honestly think he would never find out, that you could keep up
this charade? Why the lies, the deceit, for a man who loves you and whom you love and want to build a life with? What were you trying to hide?’

Chadwick, ignoring his questions, told him, ‘I’ll grant you your interview, Larry, in Sfakia. But now I must go in and change for our voyage. How apt it would be if we sailed out on a boat called the
Discovery.
I think I prefer you in your cricket whites.’ Then rising from her seat she walked past him, as beautiful and regal as ever.

Once in the house Chadwick felt suddenly quite queasy. She actually leaned against the wall and closed her eyes for a few minutes. It was Hannibal she was thinking about. Hannibal, her beloved Hannibal, of what seemed now to be a life time ago. What did he and her past life have to do with the new life she wanted to live in Livakia? And what did he have to do with a new and fresh love, the passion and excitement of a sensual life with a young Greek chief of police? Nothing. Hannibal would have understood that, and why, with his death, she had left him and their life together behind her. He would have applauded her for getting on with her life on her terms and in the manner she had chosen to do it.

She felt less queasy, in fact it had passed, and she took a deep breath. Her feeling of well-being was restored. Cream, yes, she would wear cream-coloured linen. Of all colours, Manoussos liked her best in cream.

Chapter 12

Manoussos was already in Sfakia. He was sitting with a few men at a table close to the water, half a dozen or so other men and boys standing around them. The table was littered with wine bottles, some still with wine in them, glasses, newspapers. Chadwick’s heart took a momentary turn at the sight of her handsome lover, sitting in his shirt sleeves and smoking a very large Havana cigar. He looked very happy listening to Dimitrios giving the men an account of the spectacular arrest he had made. She was assuming that that was what had all the men so enthralled because Andonis Lefrakakis’s boat was still too far from the beach for them to hear anything.

Chadwick pulled the cord of the fishing boat’s horn with one hand while she removed her wide-brimmed straw hat from her head and waved it to announce their arrival. She watched Manoussos at once rise from his chair and wave back at her, a smile breaking across his face. He shook a few hands and began walking along the beach to the rickety wooden dock where he signalled for Andonis to drop anchor.

She turned to Larry. ‘Whenever I arrive somewhere on Crete it’s always as if for the first time, always an adventure, always a bit of magic for the romantic soul.’

‘I know exactly how you feel,’ Larry told her.

‘Yes, of course you must, or you wouldn’t be planning to set down roots in Livakia.’

All the way from Livakia they had spoken about his major decision to buy a house there, of the quality of life he expected to find in Livakia, of the car he would buy, the old fishing
caique
he wanted Andonis to find for him. Every time he made an attempt to
talk to Chadwick on any subject pertaining to her she would only answer him with, ‘In Sfakia, you will get your interview in Sfakia.’ Well, now they were in Sfakia.

Larry watched Manoussos take Chadwick in his arms. They kissed, a long and lingering kiss. He stroked her hair and told her how lovely she looked. He caressed her face several times with the back of his hand and his love for her shone in his eyes. Then quite suddenly that look vanished. There was a decidedly awkward moment of silence before he smiled at Larry and shook his hand. Andonis greeted him with a slap on the back and congratulated him. Larry complimented him with, ‘No wonder Colin is always trying to recruit you for Interpol. I would make a try for you for Martin & Snell if I thought there was the remotest chance that you would leave Crete.’

‘All very flattering,’ Manoussos said. Then turning to Chadwick, he asked, ‘Did you bring my things?’

She had brought him a pair of blue jeans, a white linen shirt, his old Panama hat as he had requested. He went to the stern of the boat and changed into them.

When he returned he suggested that they walk along the coastal path which they did until they came to a cafe, nothing more than a thatched lean-to with three tables and several chairs before a spectacular view. They were the only people there and after ordering coffee Manoussos raised Chadwick’s hand and kissed it before he asked, ‘Have you and Larry sorted things out? Does he have the answers he’s looking for, Chadwick?’

‘You know, Manoussos, that is one of the very few personal questions you have ever asked me. I take it that you have a vested interest in this much sought-after interview?’

‘Well, of course I have, Chadwick.’

‘I thought as much, and though I take umbrage at that, that’s why I have put off the interview until now.’

There was no anger in Chadwick’s tone of voice, nor did Larry think that she had said what she did to embarrass Manoussos. There was none when she declared, ‘I want you both to understand that I am not on trial here. The way I see it Larry has a
job to do, and you, Manoussos, may be the one being tested here. That said, let’s get on with it.’

‘Chadwick, all I want is for us to get on with our lives. Deceit, lies, a detective with leading questions, accusations of murder or at the very least strange circumstances surrounding the death of a husband – and not even the fantasy husband I thought you had – and
I
am the one being tested here! What for? Loyalty, love? You have those things from me or I wouldn’t be sitting here now. You want to keep them? Answers to Larry’s leading questions might help.’

‘ “Might help” implies something is already lost. How sad for us both that the policeman and the man turn out to be not two separate men but just a policeman who can’t follow his heart.’

There was genuine sadness in her voice that could not be missed. This was one of Chadwick’s truths that delivered a blow to Manoussos so hard he had to turn his eyes away from her to gaze out to sea. Larry spoke up, began his interview to break the sad silence that can come with dying love.

‘Chadwick, what happened the night that Hannibal died?’

‘You’ve read the police report. That is exactly what happened.’

‘You both went for a moonlight swim, you found it too cold and so returned to the house. You never saw Hannibal again and his body was washed up on shore two days later. It was more than nine hours before you reported him missing. You claim that you bathed after you came in from the sea and went to your room where you read for a short time before you fell asleep. When you wakened it was morning and Hannibal was nowhere to be found in the house. There were no signs that he had ever returned from his swim. All that I read and know to be true because I checked out every detail of the story. But I don’t believe it is the entire story.’

‘But you have no proof that it isn’t, and I would therefore ask you what you think happened that night?’ asked Chadwick.

‘Cards on the table? OK. The fact is, Chadwick, that I am a very thorough investigator and it’s best that you know what
I
think is based on evidence that I have unearthed. I know more about your life and Hannibal’s than any other human being.
Certainly more than Warren and Diana know, or Bill Ogden suspects. Though Warren knows a great deal more than he admits even to himself. The poor bastard has spent a lifetime forgetting the lustful and sometimes dark side of a father he adored, admired as a human being, loved as a son, because he is and has always been in love with you.

‘What happened that night began a long time ago, when you and Hannibal fell in love and he groomed you to be his life’s companion. I have a file full of testimonies to how happy your life was together, what a good wife you were to him, how you took your place in society next to him and won the hearts of everyone who had said your marriage would never last. Your devotion to his children and grandchildren, what a hostess you were. It was far more difficult to find men who would talk about their participation in or knowledge of the sexual and guilty side of Hannibal Chase and how well you learned to live with it, not out of necessity but from love and passion for him. I can thank Lilana de Chernier for putting me in touch with the right people who gave me that very private but important insight into your lives. It wasn’t easy to get her to help me, but she wanted your name cleared. You see, it was she who convinced me that in your love for him you could never do anything to harm Hannibal Chase. She also claimed that he loved you too much ever to live with you except at the top of his life. You were each other’s prime of life. Only he was sixty-six years old and you were thirty-three.’

Manoussos actually closed his eyes and placed his hands over his face for several seconds. But he was not fast enough for Chadwick not to catch the revulsion in his eyes. It had been the age difference. He was imagining her life with an old man because that was of course how Manoussos would consider Hannibal. She realised only now how weak she had been, how disloyal not to Manoussos but to Hannibal for not telling him her husband had been an old man, though she had not created a new persona for herself for that reason.

‘Hannibal Chase was not a man to settle for less than the best of himself, isn’t that true, Chadwick?’

‘Yes, I think you could say that.’

‘He had spent his entire life, ever since the day he took you away from Tennessee, giving you nothing less than the best of himself that he could. That too is true, isn’t it, Chadwick?’

‘What’s your point, Larry?’ asked Manoussos, who then snapped his fingers for the proprietor’s attention and asked for a bottle of wine.

The break caused by a small boy arriving at the table to clear cups and saucers and run back and forth with glasses and the bottle of wine gave Chadwick a chance to rise from her chair and walk away from the table for a moment of space which she sorely needed. Manoussos joined her and took her hand, stroked her hair, but could find no words. He was angry with her for the life she had lived and lied about, for not being the woman she had portrayed herself as. Yet he was disarmed by her beauty, his own yearning for her hungry, sensual soul. Could she make it right for them?

They returned to the table where Larry had already poured the wine. Manoussos and Larry drank from their glasses, Chadwick left hers untouched.

‘Chadwick, I’ve sieved through the many clues I’ve collected to reach a conclusion about what happened that night. For a man like Hannibal, when it came to a love such as you had together, if he could not sustain the quality of the life he was living with you, and that love, that lust, he would not want to exist any longer. You told each other everything, so I believe he told you that, and more. That if he, a happy and healthy man in his prime, had the courage to leave you then you must have the courage to be happy for him, kiss him farewell, and get on with a new and fresh life.’

Larry paused but never took his gaze from Chadwick’s eyes. He expected some reaction. There was none. If anything she looked more serene than ever. ‘You’re not going to help me out here, are you?’ he asked.

‘No,’ she answered.

‘Hannibal was a clever and cautious man who plotted everything. That was how he was able to live the life he wanted and create another life and image for the world to admire. You were his partner in everything, it stands to reason that he made
you his partner in his final adventure. Months, possibly weeks, but I think it was months before the event, he told you he intended to die in his prime. He never left anything to chance, he was subtly preparing you both for the time when
he
chose the day and
he
the manner in which he planned to part from you. It would be at the perfect psychological moment, when he was ready to go and you were used to the idea of beginning another life without him.

‘That night in Palm Beach you went to a glittering dinner party but left early to go down to the dock at the bottom of your garden where Hannibal’s yacht was moored. The steward served you a bottle of champagne and then left at Hannibal’s request. I can only suppose that you spent several hours together. You then changed into swimsuits and swam together for a good distance. My guess is until he asked you for, “A kiss to die by.” ’

Chadwick jumped up from her chair, upsetting her wineglass. The red stain spread across the white paper cloth covering the table. No one moved or said a word. She sat down and they watched the boy who had rushed over with a fresh cloth and a wet rag to mop up the table.

‘You gave him that kiss and he swam away from you until he vanished in the darkness of night and between the swell of the waves. You swam back to shore and went not to the boat but to the house, bathed, and went to bed. And there is not one shred of real evidence that would hold up in a court of law to prove that I am right or even near right. It’s all clues, a case built up out of investigation into your lives and based on your deep and profound love for Hannibal, that was sustained by your joy in obeying every demand he made on you.’

‘Do you expect me to comment on your suppositions, Larry?’

‘If you did I would be surprised and sorely disappointed in you. You see, before my arrival in Livakia I didn’t have a complete picture of you and your character, only bits and pieces that still kept me guessing as to whether you were or were not capable of the things the family accused you of.

‘No, of course you will not comment on my interpretation of that night or reveal to anyone what really happened. You can’t. To do so would be a betrayal of Hannibal’s trust and you could
never do that. To tell the truth about that night would indicate that he committed suicide and you did nothing to stop him because you felt, as he did, that as a free man of sound mind he had the right to live and die how and when he chose to. That would have tarnished his image and yours, which Hannibal wanted you to protect at all costs. To live as a grieving widow, which would have satisfied Diana and Warren’s grief, would have betrayed his trust that you would leave the past firmly in the past and begin a new life so you did nothing to defend yourself against their accusations. Whatever the price you must pay to keep your secrets, you will pay it.

‘Hannibal had planned it that way and as always it was easy for you to follow his plans because your thinking was and still is very much the same as his. Ever since you were a child you held your secrets close to you, all for yourself, they were your private world where you lived how you wanted to live. Hannibal understood that and respected it because he too enjoyed his secrets. Warren and Diana can’t even begin to understand that side of your and Hannibal’s life – not many people would. They saw your silence and your behaviour as something dark and sinister and so went on the attack.

‘After the funeral, an entire life was over for you. You were dumped into the world at the age of thirty-three with a past that vanished overnight, an innocent with eighty million dollars in a world without Hannibal, having to learn how to live, love, and protect yourself all over again. Only you were not
just
all innocent. You were a woman who knew herself and her worth, and one who lived in truth. And there was one thing more: you were joyful, had always been a joyful soul. Life had always been an adventure for you, Chadwick, so you set out for new horizons, leaving Diana and Warren, Hannibal’s grandchildren, all your extended family, whom you had loved and been devoted to, behind you. Not abandoned, just left behind. Let Diana and Warren sort themselves out, come to their senses about you, that would be the time to bring them into your new life. Was that what you thought, maybe even still think?’