The Silver Stain Read Online Free PDF Page A

confidentiality.
    ‘So?’
    ‘What do you mean “so”?’ Niki demanded. ‘Every man on the planet wants to get inside her knickers. And her bra. She’s known as Twin Peaks.’
    ‘Really, my love? I doubt she’ll have the slightest interest in me.’ He wasn’t going to tell her that he’d been hired to find the actress’s beloved assistant.
    ‘What about if I come over at the weekend? We could have fun in your time off.’
    ‘Today’s Tuesday. You know how good I am. I’ll probably have things wrapped by tomorrow.’
    ‘All right,’ Niki said reluctantly. ‘But no playing around, promise?’
    ‘Promise. Got to go.’
    ‘I love you,’ she said, the stark declaration taking his breath away.
    ‘Ditto.’
    ‘That better be because you can’t speak openly.’
    ‘Of course it is. Bye.’ He cut the connection and looked out over the green slopes of Imittos and the spring flowers nearer the highway. He did love Niki, he had no doubts about that, but she wasn’t the kind of woman who made her man’s life easy. Then again, considering the shit storms he got into with his work, he was hardly one to complain.
    The airport’s control tower rose up ahead and Mavros suddenly realized what he was about to get into – a small aircraft. The last time he had boarded one of those, he had nearly fainted.
    Fear of flying wasn’t something he put on his curriculum vitae.
    As it turned out, the Learjet was a lot less terrifying than the propeller plane he had taken to a small island on a case a few years back. Being ushered through the VIP gate and across the tarmac was neat too. A bronzed pilot in an immaculate uniform saluted Jannet, who was then led to his seat by an impossibly attractive stewardess. Mavros didn’t get a salute, but the middle-aged fly-boy did give him an avuncular nod.
    Alice Quincy sat opposite him at the front of the plane, while Jannet had the rear to himself. As soon as the door was closed and they had belted up, she handed him a red plastic folder.
    ‘That contains everything you should need to acquaint yourself with the movie and the people you’ll need to talk to.’
    Mavros concentrated on extracting his blue worry beads from the back pocket of his jeans. He had given up smoking several years ago and found the kombolöi a helpful distraction at times of stress. A couple of red beads among the blue ones were supposed to guarantee good health, while a silver hand pointed to good fortune. Not that they had always been a huge help.
    He looked up as the plane began to taxi towards the runway, surprised by how little noise the engines made. The seat was plush leather and there was no shortage of legroom. Glancing at Alice Quincy, he saw that she was looking at his left eye. Most women did.
    ‘David Bowie,’ he said.
    She smiled. ‘Almost – except it’s the size of his irises that’s different, not the colour.’
    ‘Uh-huh. It’s some sort of genetic defect. My father’s eyes were dark-blue, but some of my mother’s brown got into one of them.’
    Alice smiled. ‘Weird.’
    ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’
    She pursed her lips. ‘No, I mean your father, the Greek, having blue eyes and your Scottish mother having brown.’
    ‘Scots are more Mediterranean than the natives.’
    That seemed to be beyond her. ‘You’d better start reading,’ she said. ‘The flight’s only half an hour.’
    So he read. Fortunately he was quick at taking in facts and, even more fortunately, the Learjet flew like a dream. In fifteen minutes, after drinking a cup of coffee that could have come from the Ritz, he had mastered the file, at least with regards to what would be of significance in tracing the missing woman.
    Maria Kondos was a third generation Greek-American, but the photo showed she could have passed for a Greek of the dark-haired and rings-beneath-the-eyes variety – presumably the family had made sure her father married a woman of Greek heritage. She was thirty-five, born in Queens,