Off The Cretan Track Chapter 37

Nick entered the holding cell block to the cheers of detainees when they heard the door being unlocked. Sal was in a cell to herself, but Nick was also vaguely aware of the voices of others coming from further down the corridor. As soon he saw Sal, he didn’t know whether to feel relieved or horrified, as the bedraggled sight of her still only in her bikini, sitting alone and weeping, tore at his heart.

“Sal, are you alright?” he shouted out, struggling to hasten the process of being uncuffed before the officer could let him into the cell. Sal’s head shot up and she ran towards the door, but seeing him there only made her weep more uncontrollably, her words coming out of her mouth in an emotional unintelligible jumble as she tried to explain everything all at once. Nick struggled to understand any of it; all he wanted to know was if she was alright. “Are you okay?” he asked, tugging at the cuffs in his urgency to be free of them. His struggles only made the officer’s job of uncuffing him more difficult however, and he was subjected to a stream of verbal abuse in Greek. He ignored the officer’s curses though; his only concern was Sal. “Are you hurt?”

Finally, with a sharp nudge forward from the officer, he was jolted through the door. Sal was in his arms in seconds, and suddenly it didn’t matter to either of them where they were, or what predicament they had got themselves into, because now they were together. But for Nick, there was a chilling uncertainty in the air; they may be together now, now he could make sure she was okay, but what had happened to her in the meantime? The thought of someone hurting her, touching her, was something almost too sickening to conceive of. He’d never had to deal with vulnerability before; he’d always been able to look after himself. Besides, if he got hurt, he’d deal with it. But suddenly he felt so strongly how vulnerable Sal had been, and there was nothing he could have done to get to her faster either.

“I don’t like that man!” Sal sobbed. “He said he’s going to come back…he’s going to question me again… I don’t like him…” Nick just held Sal to him as she sobbed and rambled into his t shirt, “… he scares me. I didn’t understand. He wanted me to sign something…”

That caught his attention and he held her back suddenly, looking into her red, tear stained face. “You didn’t sign anything did you?”

She shook her head. “But he said he’d make me sign it. What am I going to do?”

“You’re not signing anything,” he replied adamantly. “And he’s not going to hurt you or intimidate you either.”

“But…but…” she stuttered and wept.

“Calm down now Sal,” he said, taking her back into an embrace. “Come on, slow down. No one’s going to hurt you now I’m here.”

Nick heard himself say those words but could hardly believe they came from him. He’d never considered himself the overly protective type, or the kind of person who could naturally come out with words of comfort for someone. Then again, he’d never been in any situation like that before, and all he knew was, he’d do anything to stop Sal from getting hurt.

“But he’s going to come back. He’ll split us up,” she fretted.

“No he won’t,” Nick said, instinctively, tightening his hold on her and running through every possible scenario that could happen in his head, whilst searching for ways out of all of them.

“You can’t stop them; no one can,” she replied fearfully.

Then it came to him; the solution to everything and anything they could throw at them. That would be their protection.

“Come on, let’s sit over here for a bit,” he said, moving her over to the concrete bench seat that she’d been huddled up on when he’d entered.

He sat first, leaning back against the wall and motioning for her to sit back against him so that he could put his arms around her again. She did as he wanted; she didn’t want to be any more than a few inches from him. He was the only person she could trust.

“What happened Sal? How did you fall?” he asked, needing her to fill in the gaps.

She turned sideways slightly so that she could look up at him. Just seeing his face was reassuring to her. Thank God he was there. But why? Why had they arrested him too? She was so confused.

“I don’t know how it happened really. One minute I was waiting for you, and the next, I stood up, the rocks were slipping from under my feet, and I was falling. But then I thought I’d be okay when I got on the boat. But as soon as I got on, they took off really quickly and that’s when I got a bit worried. I asked Bob what was going on, and why he was there, but he was acting really weird. Then the police boats came and,” she sighed, exhausted just by recounting it, “it was just chaos. Why have they arrested you?” she asked.

“It’s all to do with drugs,” he replied. “No doubt that’s why Bob was there. I’ll kill him!” Nick growled.

“He’s been arrested too,” she said.

“Good.”

“To be fair Nick, it wasn’t his fault. I think he was just buying some stuff.”

“Did he try anything on with you again?” he asked, ignoring her comment. “If he did, I’ll hunt him down.”

Sal frowned. “No. He was fine; he was just stoned.”

“Well, we’re all implicated now,” he replied, irrationally determined that Bob should be the one to blame.

“Yeah, but it was my fault for slipping off the cliff,” she said, glancing to the floor.

“I wouldn’t have put it past Bob to have arranged for that boat to be there. If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here now.”

Sal put her head in her hands, close to tears again. “Well we are here. What are we going to do?” she said, dropping her hands and turning to Nick again.

Nick caught her by her shoulders and turned her around further so that they could speak more privately, should anyone have been in earshot.

“Listen Sal, I don’t know how far this whole thing will go, or how much integrity these police have, but if we should get separated, and things get out of control, there is something you can do.”

Sal’s eyes scrutinised Nick’s face, wondering what he was trying to say.

“But this is only for emergencies, only if you have no other option,” he stressed.

“What?” she asked impatiently, “Quick tell me before they come back.”

“Remember last year when that group tried to ruin Adam’s business?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I stopped them from blowing up the boat full of tourists, right?”

“Yes,” she repeated, still unsure of what was in his mind.

“There was another group of Cretans who wanted to stop them; they were like two opposing Cretan Mafia families. So, this other group were pretty grateful to me. Sal, don’t you see, these men are above the police. Just mention their names and your connection to them, and I’ll be willing to bet the police will let you off anything,” he explained.

Sal thought for a moment. It kind of made sense. “But, I don’t know them,” she pointed out.

“Ah, but you do,” he said, his face alight with excitement. “First of all, don’t forget that you work for Adam, and he knows them, and secondly, you met one of the main men.”

“I did?”

“Yes. Do you remember the name of the guy who invited you, Fay, Adam and that Tom guy onto his yacht last year?” he asked.

She thought back. “I think his name was Michaelis.”

“Michaelis Georgiou,” he confirmed. “That’s him. And Pedros from Mardi Gras, he’s involved with them too.”

“Oh God, of course. They sent us up on deck to sunbathe while they talked about it all. It was all top secret stuff.”

“Yes. So you do know him. But, like I said, only use their connection as a last resort. They are all powerful men Sal. We don’t really want to get involved with any of them if we can help it,” he emphasised.

“Yes, okay.” She leant back against him again, relaxing a little for the first time in hours. He was right. It would work if it came to that.

It was only when she finally began to relax that she realised how cold she was, and she shivered suddenly, wrapping Nick’s arms more closely around herself in an effort to keep warm.

Nick frowned and glanced down at her with concern. “You’re freezing. What the bloody hell were they thinking, not giving you some clothes to put on? Bloody idiots!” he shouted out angrily. “Can we have some clothes here for the lady please?”

No officers appeared with any clothes, but the detainees in the cell next to them began to stir again, shouting out and cheering. Through the mayhem, Nick’s ears picked out a familiar voice.

“Hey dude, is that you?” came the slightly slurry sound.

Nick jumped up suddenly and strode angrily to the door, straining to see anything of the cell next to them. All he could see however, were arms waving through the bars.

“Bob! You’re a dead man. Soon as we get out of here, I’m coming for you!” Nick shouted out.

“Hey man, chill!” came the reply.

“You’ll be chilled when I knock you out cold!” Nick shouted back.

“Forget him,” Sal said, urging Nick back to the bench.

Nick went reluctantly, pulling off his t shirt and offering it to Sal. Moments later however, he listened in disbelief to the sound of a ukulele playing as Bob began to sing, with the encouragement and applause of the other men.

He must seriously have a death wish or something!

The warden threw a party in the county jail
The prison band was there and they began to wail
The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing
You should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing

Let's rock
Everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock

“I’ll Kill him! I swear to God, I’m gonna kill him!” Nick grated out.

Bob went on to sing another verse and a half of ‘Jailhouse Rock’ before he was interrupted by a group of officers who entered the block. They had come to the decision that they’d arrested three insignificant people along with the rest of the smugglers. They had bigger fish to fry, and since Sal, Nick and Bob were foreigners, they were more trouble than they were worth. Sal tensed in Nick’s arms when one of the officers began to open their door, and Nick whispered into her hair, “Don’t forget what we talked about.”

“Come,” he said, gesturing for Nick and Sal to follow him back into the entrance room.
Once behind the desk, he pulled out some papers and a pen, asking them to add their signatures.

“I said I’m not signing,” Sal replied adamantly.

But Nick had already noted that they hadn’t been recuffed. “What are these?” he asked.

“You sign, you go,” the officer said.

Nick was satisfied and signed. Sal watched him, before hesitantly signing hers afterwards.

Minutes later, they found themselves back out on the street.

“What now?” Sal asked, feeling strangely disorientated. One minute they were preparing for the worst, the next they were free. Despite this however, Nick had the strange feeling that that wasn’t the end of it. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

“We head back,” he replied. “It’s a bit late,” he said, looking at his watch. Four thirty, and it began to get dark at about seven o clock. Still, they would be quite close to home when the light began to fade.

As Nick and Sal turned to head back to the harbour, Nick noticed a figure hovering in the doorway of the police station. He turned towards it and realized who he was looking at: Bob, grinning like a Cheshire cat and plucking the strings of his ukulele. Nick saw red and strode suddenly towards him, grabbing him by his t shirt and yanking him out of the doorway, onto the street. He was seriously tempted to knock him out, but decided against it, partly because of the fact that they were too close to the station, and partly because Sal was watching. He grabbed hold of the ukulele instead and proceeded to beat it against a stone wall. The whole thing disintegrated, with pieces flying from it in all directions.

“Don’t” he yelled, smashing the ukulele, “ever,” smash, “come near me,” smash, “or Sal,” smash, “again!” smash. He finished by handing Bob back the only remaining piece of the handle left intact in his palm, before strolling away.

Bob looked startled and held his hands out to the few passers-by who had paused to watch the commotion.

“He’s nuts,” Bob said to them, looking down at the bits of broken wood and string all over the floor. “My uke!” he said forlornly. “Anyone know where I can buy a new one?”