'I thought that too, that's why I was so surprised when he called and told me he wasn't.'

'He?' Catia's free hand instinctively went to her throat.

'Yes, that's why I'm calling. I couldn't believe my son would be so stupid as to allow your daughter to travel on holiday alone, no matter what the reason.'

Catia didn't know what to say, so she said the obvious: 'Why aren't they together?'

'I'm embarrassed to say, he won't tell me. All he said was they aren't traveling together and she's all right.'

Her control was back and her voice abrupt. 'Where's my daughter, Richard?'

There was surprise in his voice. 'Haven't you spoken with her?'

'Not since she left for London.'

He paused. 'Peter doesn't know.'

'Then how can he possibly know she's all right?' Her tone was angry and dismissive, but she didn't care.

'Catia, I'm sorry, I don't know what to say.' His voice was sincere, but that wouldn't help find Annika.

Catia was silent for a moment, then asked, 'Do you have your son's telephone number?' Her anger kept her from saying the boy's name.

'Yes,' Richard said, and gave it to her. 'Catia, I… I-'

She cut him off again. 'I have to get off now, but thank you for calling to tell us.'

'I really am sorry.'

'Goodbye.' It took Andreas only an instant to recover from the surprise of finding a body where only bones should be. He pulled his gun and ordered the wide-eyed Alex outside; then pushed a green-faced Kouros out behind him, yelling at him not to dare puke in the middle of a crime scene.

Andreas was pretty sure the laborer wasn't the killer – the corpse wasn't fresh – but he wasn't one for taking chances with murder suspects, and anyone who finds a body is a suspect until proven otherwise. He told Kouros to use the car radio to notify Syros of the body and to hold Alex at the station for further questioning but not to treat him as a murder suspect quite yet. In other words, no blowtorch and days of pain in a closet style interrogation. Andreas said he'd stay at the church until the Syros investigators arrived – but to leave Alex's motorcycle just in case he needed it.