couple of nights ago when she came down to the airport to have dinner with me. I introduced her to Larry Douglas and— well, she told me he was the man Miss Page is living with.”
Demiris’ olive black eyes stared at him, completely devoid of expression.“ I— I just thought you would want to know,” Metaxas finished lamely.
When Demiris spoke, his voice was toneless.“ What Miss Page does with her private life is her own affair. I am sure she would not appreciate anyone’ s spying on her.”
Metaxas’ forehead was beaded with sweat. Jesus Christ, he had gotten the whole situation wrong. And he had only wanted to be loyal.“ Believe me, Mr. Demiris, I was only trying to …”
“ I am sure you thought you were serving my best interests. You were mistaken. Is there anything else?”
“ No— no, sir.” Metaxas turned and fled.
Constantin Demiris leaned back in his chair, his black eyes fixed on the ceiling, staring at nothing.
At nine o’ clock the following morning Paul Metaxas received a call to report to Demiris’ mining company in the Congo, where Metaxas was to spend ten days ferrying equipment from Brazzaville to the mine. On a Wednesday morning on the third flight his plane crashed into the dense, green jungle. No traces of Metaxas’ body or the wreckage were ever found.
Two weeks after Catherine was released from the hospital, Larry came to visit her. It was a Saturday evening, and Catherine was in the kitchen preparing an omelet. The sounds of cooking had prevented her from hearing the front door open, and she was not aware of Larry’ s presence until she turned and saw him standing in the doorway. She jumped involuntarily, and he said,“ Sorry if I scared you. I just dropped in to see how you were getting along.”
Catherine felt her heart beating faster and despised herself because he could still affect her that way.
“ I’ m just fine,” she said. She turned and took the omelet out of the pan.
“ Smells good,” Larry said.“ I haven’ t had time for dinner. If it isn’ t too much trouble, would you mind fixing me one of those?”
She looked at him a long moment, then shrugged.
She made him dinner but she was so unnerved by his presence that Catherine could not eat a bite. He talked to her, telling her about a flight he had just made and an amusing anecdote about one of Demiris’ friends. He was the old Larry, warm and charming and irresistible as though nothing had gone wrong between them, as though he had not