The Atlantis Keystone (10 page)

“This was wonderful, Erik”, she said as they started to walk back to the house after they had put their clothes back on. He put his arm around her as they strolled over a field which occasionally held cows but was presently empty. She continued: “This is such a wonderfully peaceful part of the world. I hope it always stays that way.” He steered her away from some cow dung.

“Remember you can stay for as long as you like. I’m working on Monday but you’re welcome to stay for a while to work on your dissertation here.” Erik said, hoping she would take him up on the offer. They walked through some foliage and could glimpse Torpa in the distance.

“Thank you, I would love to but unfortunately I need to get back to Oxford. With the wall opened there’s no reason for me to stay on. I’ll try to book flights for Monday”, she said and he could see that she genuinely meant that she would have liked to stay, although he understood that it would feel strange for her to do so with the police officers around and his parents ‘grieving’ over the death of his grandmother. The funeral would probably take place soon and it would not be a pleasant time to be there.

Entering the estate they were abruptly brought back to reality and the regrettable events during the night. Erik anticipated that it would take a long time before things got back to normal at Torpa…

T
he sky was cloudy as the plane touched down at Heraklion airport and the captain announced that it was a pleasant eighteen degrees in the shade; still much nicer than the unpredictable Swedish winter weather. It had been agreed that Erik would join Emma and Paul on Crete for a week. Paul had asked him to come and stay in their rented villa in Heraklion, suggesting that this would give Erik an opportunity to see the Torpa tablet in real life, though Erik suspected that Paul’s reason for inviting him was to have easy access to any potential news about the chest and the burglary and to keep badgering him for information. Erik couldn’t care less about seeing the tablet in the museum in Heraklion. He had agreed to come for two reasons: He was scared of losing contact with Emma; his only living reminder of his deceased wife. For some strange reason which only his broken psyche could explain, he missed looking into Emma’s eyes, seeing Anna in them and to pretend that she was still alive. Thinking about his brief moment with Emma by the lake in August filled him with something which he had trouble comprehending. Never to see her again would be like indirectly losing Anna once more. He knew that he was vulnerable and unable to survive another loss. Also, he was in desperate need of a break from work. Having managed to convince his boss that he needed a week off at short notice he had promised to take his Blackberry with him, not intending to use it. He had also hesitantly promised to meet up with a prospective client in Athens. Partner promotion required some sacrifices, he reasoned.

Five months had passed since the unfortunate events in August. It had been a gruesome five months, there was no doubt about it. Although Erik was glad that the police were doing their job, the questioning had been almost unbearable. For some reason they were taking the view that everyone was guilty until proven innocent and they wouldn’t rest until they had firmly excluded everyone on their list. They had even gone to Oxford to question Paul, even though he had not been in the country when the burglary took place.

Paul had not taken the news of the burglary well. Erik had phoned him on the afternoon of the day it happened. The silence at the other end of the line was telling. There was nothing he could say. His reaction had been in line with what Erik had expected. He expressed serious disappointment and thanked Erik for letting him know. He also asked for Erik to keep him up to date with any developments in the police investigation. If they had any success, he would like to be the first to know. This proved to be difficult as the investigation seemed to be conducted under wraps. Erik and his parents rarely got any updates and in spite of several requests they had only had limited progress reports. His father had suggested that the reason for this was probably that they didn’t get anywhere in their search and so there was nothing to report but Paul kept pressing for more information. It was all very frustrating and disappointing that after nearly five months they had still not been able to find the perpetrator or the chest.

His grandmother’s funeral had been a painful experience. Although the church had been full of people, not many seemed to cry or show any feelings. Erik was no exception. He could not feel any grief. She had had a long privileged life, selfishly using other people to serve her own interests and living by old-fashioned rules, ruining his childhood and his parent’s happiness. There had been a small gathering of family members after the church ceremony and this had been followed by the reading of the will. Most of the estate’s assets were to pass to his mother but Erik had been given the old Torpa stone house. This was a peculiar request since Erik would in any event be entitled to the entire estate at some point in the future. What was more bizarre was the next statement, read out by the lawyer executing the will:

“To Anna Ahlquist, fiancée of my grandson Erik Stenbock, I leave my annotated copy of the Holy Bible.”

Seeing the horrified look on everyone’s faces, the lawyer had quickly understood that Anna was no longer part of the family. He had explained that the will had been written and witnessed nearly two years ago and because her death had been sudden no amended will had been drawn up.

Erik wondered why his grandmother had decided to give Anna her bible copy. He could only see two possibilities. Either this was an attempt by her to send a message of moral standards from her grave. This had been a common occurrence when she was alive. He had lost count long ago of the number of times she had preached about the importance of virtues and taking a moral high ground. Therefore, he saw this possibility as the more likely, although he had never got the impression that his grandmother took offence to Anna. In fact, she had been one of only a handful of people the old woman had actually accepted, or at least not bullied. The second possibility was that his grandmother would have expected that her particular copy of the holy bible actually meant something to Anna and that they had discussed it at some point. It was possible that Anna had had conversations with the old woman while he was not there. Erik was intrigued as this would have revealed a side to his grandmother that he had never seen. Anna, like himself, had not been in the least bit religious but a common interest here could not be seen as a complete impossibility given her interest in ancient history, of which the bible was one ‘source’, and his grandmother’s fascination or perhaps obsession with preaching the ‘word’ of god. She had been a regular churchgoer before the ‘demise’ which confined her to her bed. Unfortunately, he thought, he would probably never know the reasons behind the gift. Both were dead, never to return…

The captain turned off the seatbelt sign and Erik made his way out. It felt like an eternity before he had collected his suitcase and rushed through passport control. He then went straight outside to the taxi rank where he got into the first taxi he laid eyes on. After only a short journey through town and on a country road by the sea, the taxi slowed down and turned onto a small lane. The villa was conveniently located, only a stone’s throw from the sea and about twenty minutes from Heraklion. The house looked contemporary from the outside, clad in white render which complemented its boxy shape. After he had paid and got out of the car he knocked on the front door. No one came to open so he stepped inside. The house had an open plan layout and a large kitchen with modern appliances. He could not have chosen better himself. He heard excited voices outside on the patio area. He went through some sliding doors by the sofa and as he came outside he saw four people sitting at a plastic patio table unnecessarily shielded from the cloud-weakened sun by a large parasol. There was even a small swimming pool. The patio was enclosed by a low fence which didn’t block out the view of the surrounding open fields, a couple of bungalows further down and the sea in the distance. They all stood up to greet him. Emma walked up to him, giving him a friendly hug. He noticed that her complexion had deteriorated and that she was as pale as when they had first met in London but that she looked well nevertheless, albeit very unlike Anna.

“Lovely to see you Erik!” she beemed.

“And you,” he responded with mixture of sincerity and doubt about his decision to join them.

Paul gave him a light clap on the back, almost as if they were best friends. “Good to see you man,” he said before he sat down again.

Emma introduced Ball, the Japanese PhD student and Laura, a post graduate student of history at Oxford. What Ball was wearing was somewhat at odds with his general appearance: a T-shirt displaying the 1980’s rock band Guns ‘n Roses but other than that he was very much like Erik had pictured him from Emma’s previous description; extremely polite and with typically Japanese features, although remarkably tall for a Japanese man and somewhat older than he had envisaged, perhaps in his early thirties. Erik guessed that Laura was a couple of years older than Emma. He noticed that she had a very pretty well-groomed face and fair skin but her thick ill-suited glasses seemed to hide most of her potential beauty and her long dark brown hair was messily arranged in a knot which threatened to untie itself. She was very slim and a few centimetres taller than Emma. His first impression of her was that she was a fairly reserved sort of person, who preferred reading to socialising. Paul looked thinner than the last time they had met and he appeared perhaps a little more absent minded as well, as if he had a lot on his mind but otherwise he was the same energetic person Erik remembered.

“Laura is writing her dissertation on the Crete/Santorini-Atlantis theory, or, I believe, critically analysing it,” Paul said looking encouragingly at Laura when speaking. “Am I right in saying that you are here to disprove the theory that Crete could have been Plato’s Atlantis?” Paul added with a smile.

“I suppose you could say that”, Laura agreed with an extremely posh English accent, at odds with her presently untidy appearance. “Although I would prefer to reserve judgment until I have considered all the facts. Being here may well prove me wrong. As you say, I have yet to view the ruins at Knossos and the Heraklion museum collection.” Erik thought he could sense that this was the back-end of a previous discussion between the two of them on the subject. In any event, Paul seemed extremely pleased with her choice of topic. Laura joining them on Crete must have been a rather late arrangement as Emma had said nothing about her previously; just indicating that she did not know for sure who was going to join them other than Ball.

“I understand you’re here to study the effects of the Thera volcanic eruption on Santorini”, Erik enquired in Ball’s direction. A chilly wind blew from the sea causing the parasol to move violently just as Erik sat down on the one remaining white plastic chair.

“Yes, this is my intention,” Ball said in response with a slight accent. “But I will first study the effects on Crete of the tsunami which hit this island as a result of the eruption. This was one of the most powerful and largest volcanic eruptions on record and in my view the eruption
must
have caused a severe tsunami, just like it did in Krakatoa. The Thera eruption dwarfs Krakatoa, that’s for sure. After Krakatoa there were tidal waves up to 36 meters high destroying several hundred towns and villages. Thera was five or six times greater still!”

Erik could immediately sense that this was a person wholly dedicated to his topic. His face lit up at the chance of talking about it. “Sounds like the Thera eruption must have had a devastating impact on the Mediterranean.” Feeling obliged to say something further Erik continued: “I have firsthand experience of a tsunami. I was in Thailand on Boxing Day 2004. Although I suppose that tsunami would have been nothing compared to that caused by the Thera volcanic eruption.”

He regretted bringing that up. This could only lead to comments about Anna, something he really wanted to avoid. Ball seemed delighted to continue the conversation in an area where he had the upper hand. He started to ask questions about Erik’s exact location when the Indian Ocean Tsunami had struck, how he had escaped, what he had seen and the effects but without giving him a reason to mention the death of his wife. He was moved to see from Emma’s tense face that she too was hoping that Anna would not be mentioned, out of sympathy for him, he assumed.

“We should really have some lunch now, I’m starving”, she said interrupting the conversation. “I suggest we make it easy for ourselves and have readymade pizza.” As none of them felt like cooking, they all agreed.

“I understand you met Paul and Emma through an ancient Egyptian tablet”, Ball said and Erik laughed at how absurd that sounded. It was true, he supposed, that they had met because of the link the tablet had to his childhood home. Ball continued: “Paul mentioned to me that this tablet could possibly contain an ancient description of the effects in Egypt of the Thera eruption.”

“Yes, it certainly sounds like some sort of natural disaster to me”, Erik said looking at Paul.

Paul responded: “Certainly, but we should remember that this is not the only ancient Egyptian text from this time which seems to describe the Thera eruption.” Paul paused and looked at them in turn as if he was checking to see if they were interested. “The Tempest Stele of Ahmose seems to convey a similar message. There is no consensus on this point but in my opinion given the timing and the lack of alternative descriptions of this cataclysmic event, I would say that its account of the Thera eruption is very feasible, almost beyond doubt in fact.” Paul stood up and went to his bedroom to get a photocopy of the half tablet and a translation.