Dead Souls Volume One (Parts 1 to 13) Read online

  “It's their house,” Ephram replied. “Just because it stood empty all these years, they don't lose the right to come back and claim it.”

  “They should lose that right!” the other man shouted. “It's like the bad old times again, with the lord of the island coming back. If he expects to be anything more than just another resident on Thaxos, he's going to get a shock, that's all I'm saying. No-one's going to bow down and kiss his feet as he walks past!”

  “Ah, but -” Suddenly spotting Kate, Ephram broke into a smile. “I'm so sorry, Madam. Did we wake you?”

  “No,” Kate lied, making her way over to the counter. “I was just thinking that I should get out and take a look around the place before evening. I don't want to waste my holiday by sleeping through it, do I?” She forced a smile, even though secretly she actually liked the idea of sleeping her way through the entire holiday. In fact, as a chicken hurried past her feet, she was still idly wondering whether it was too late to turn around, head back to London and admit that a relaxing holiday was simply beyond her. The thought of sinking back into work was perversely tempting.

  “You English?” asked the other man.

  “Kate Langley,” she replied, holding out a hand for him to shake.

  “What do you think?” the man asked, ignoring the hand. “Is it right that a family should treat this whole island as their plaything? A rich family that could have anything they wanted.”

  “I really don't know enough about the situation to comment,” Kate replied tactfully, turning to Ephram. “I just -”

  “It's the law of the land,” Ephram told the other man. “Some things, they don't change over time. No-one can have seriously believed that the Le Comptes were finished here. They were always going to come back, it was only ever a matter of time. Their blood is tied to this land.”

  “You're just looking forward to their business,” the man sniffed with derision. “Typical shopkeeper. You expect to supply goods to the rich man, but I'm warning you, he'll just end up importing everything he wants from the mainland. Edgar Le Compte is not going to come trekking down to your little store to buy things. He can afford the finest food known to man. Caviar! Veal! Anything his heart desires! Why would he come and buy tinned beans and old fruit from you, eh?”

  “You understand nothing,” Ephram replied, turning to Kate. “How can I help you, Madam? Please, ignore the rambling old fool standing next to you. That's what the rest of us usually do. Otherwise, you will end up with a terrible headache if you try to wrap your head around the nonsense he comes out with.”

  “I was just wondering if you had a map of the island,” Kate replied, feeling intensely embarrassed by being drawn into the argument. “I thought I'd packed one, but I can't find it in my bags. I was hoping to go out to the north and look at the old stones I've been reading about.”

  Reaching under the counter, Ephram quickly produced a crudely photocopied drawing of the island, complete with handwritten place-names and annotations.

  “You don't need his stinking map,” the other man grumbled. “It's an island. How can you get lost on an island? If in doubt, just head downhill until you reach the shore and then pick a direction. Sooner or later, even an idiot can get back to the main town. No offense intended, obviously.”

  “Quiet, you!” Ephram snapped, before grinning at Kate. “I'm sorry, you'll have to ignore some of the older, more stuck-in-the-past people around this place. They think that just because some of the Le Compte family were a little difficult in the old days, that history has to repeat itself. I say, we should judge this new Le Compte on his own terms, rather than assuming that he'll be just like his grandfather.”

  “What was wrong with his grandfather?” Kate asked.

  “He was a -” the other man started to say.

  “Quiet!” Ephram hissed, as creaking floorboards on the other side of the room signaled the arrival of an elderly woman, breathing heavily as she made her way over to the counter and then eased herself into a chair. Her presence in the room seemed to have had an immediate effect, changing the tone entirely.

  The man next to Kate said something in Greek, and the elderly woman replied, sounding distinctly unimpressed.

  “My grandmother,” Ephram said to Kate, his voice notably softer and calmer now, as if the old woman's presence had brought about some kind of deep change in his character. “She is very pleased to have you staying in our home, and she wishes you an enjoyable visit to the island.”

  The old woman said something else in Greek, and the other man glanced briefly at Kate as he let out a short laugh.

  “She is not quite herself today,” Ephram continued, clearly straining to maintain his smile, “otherwise she would converse with you in English. My grandmother is an educated woman, but as she approaches her one hundred and first year, her moods can be a little like the weather.”

  “One hundred and...” Shocked, Kate turned to the old lady, who seemed content to merely stare down at the floor and watch as a chicken pecked at the floorboards. “I'm sorry,” she added, turning back to Ephram. “I've just never...”

  “The Mediterranean lifestyle,” Ephram replied with a smile. “It has its good points and its bad, but longevity is certainly common. When my grandmother was born, Europe was only just entering the Great War, computers had not been invented, and the Le Compte mansion was still occupied by the grandfather of the man who now returns to Thaxos. When she's in the right mood, my grandmother can tell stories that will make you think you've been transported back to an earlier time. Sadly, with her arthritis and her bad hip, she's not so much in a good mood these days.”

  “I'm going to go and look around,” Kate told him, “but I was wondering if I could grab a few supplies first. Do you take credit cards?”

  “Are you kidding?” Ephram continued with a grin. “It's the twenty-first century, Madam. We take everything. You can even pay in bitcoin if you prefer.” He grabbed a hand-held credit card reader and placed it on the counter. “I like to keep up with the modern world. It's like I keep saying. There's no need to either be stuck in the past, or embrace everything about the future. A smart man, he picks the best of both and makes his own world out of them. After all, the present is molded out of memories and expectations.”

  Kate smiled, but she was becoming increasingly aware that the other man was getting into a conversation with Ephram's mother, and although everything they said was in Greek, they seemed to glance at her more often than she'd like.

  “What are they saying about me?” she asked Ephram eventually.

  “Them?” He paused, with a hint of discomfort in his expression. “They're saying that it's rare for such a beautiful English woman to visit Thaxos, and that they think you'll have a wonderful time.”

  As he spoke, his grandmother scowled at Kate with an expression that suggested Ephram wasn't being entirely honest with his translation.

  ***

  A couple of hours later, having trekked out to the west and then beyond the limits of the port town, Kate found herself in an unspoiled landscape, with a rough path hugging the land close to the cliffs. Although she hadn't intended to go on such a long journey on her first day, she kept walking, and she felt that she was actually starting to appreciate the chance to explore a place that seemed so wild and free from the constraints of the modern world.

  “This might actually turn out to be a real holiday,” she muttered, stopping for a moment and turning to look out across the vastness of the Mediterranean. Perfect blue water rippled lazily under a dazzling sun, and Kate couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of this part of the world. She knew that most people would have run straight to the small sandy beach near the port town, and would even now be splashing through the water or roasting slowly on a sunbed, but those activities really didn't appeal to Kate.

  Turning to look the other way, she saw a dark smudge at the top of the hill, and she realized she was a little closer to the mansion that overlooked the port town.

  After walking a little further along the path, she eventually spotted activity up ahead. A couple of men were erecting a fence, running down the side of the hill, and as Kate got closer she couldn't help but notice that the fence seemed to be going straight across the path, cutting it off. Finally, she had no option but to stop and look down at Ephram's crude map, which clearly showed a public footpath snaking much further.

  One of the men glanced at Kate and muttered something in Greek. He had a dark, haunted look on his face, as if his eyes were sinking back into his skull.

  “I'm sorry,” Kate replied, “I don't speak the -”

  “Path closed,” he said, before grabbing a hammer, ready to strike another post into the ground.

  Kate looked down at the map again, checking to see if she'd made a mistake.

  “Le Compte land,” the man continued. “You know? Private. New fences are going up to help make sure that people know where they can walk and where they can't. Good job, too. If you'd come past an hour earlier, we might have accidentally fenced you in rather than out.”

  “Okay,” Kate replied. “Sorry, the map must be wrong.”

  “Baron Le Compte is reclaiming the land,” the man explained. “This path has been used like a public way, but no more. Is closed, you understand? Tell others. Closed, no more coming this way.”

  Kate watched as the two men began to uncoil a length of barbed wire.

  “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “Sure. I guess I'll just turn back.” Noticing a small van nearby, she paused. “I thought cars weren't allowed on Thaxos?” she added, turning back to the men.

  “Baron Le Compte brought one from the mainland,” the nearest man replied. “He's only going to use it on his estate, so what's the problem?”

  “I guess,” Ka
te replied, realizing that there was no point arguing.

  Making her way back the way she'd come, Kate couldn't help glancing over her shoulder a couple of times and watching as the men continued to work. It seemed that the return of the Le Compte family was already having an impact on the island, and even though she understood that private land had to be respected, she felt as if barbed wire fences were a rather blunt way of carving up the island and telling everyone else to keep back. Turning to look out at the sea again, she noticed the large black boat sailing away, and then she looked down at the map again.

  The stones were on the north side of the island. She'd have to go and see them another day. Provided this Baron Le Compte guy hadn't carved the place up completely, anyway.

  III

  “No-one round here likes change,” Fernando replied, raising his voice so he could be heard above the general hum of the cantina. “They just want everything to stay the same forever and ever and ever.”

  It was getting late, and somehow Kate had managed to get herself cornered by the deckhand she'd met earlier on the boat. She wanted to tell herself that it had been an accident, that she'd just happened to accidentally wander into the one bar on the island where he was sitting alone with a quiet drink, but deep down she knew she wasn't being strictly honest with herself: in truth, she'd spent the best part of an hour walking the darkening evening streets, passing the cantina several times and wondering if maybe she could just drop in for one drink. She always felt herself to be a loner, but tonight she'd been hoping to bump into this guy for a little company.

  No, not for company. To grill him for information about Edgar Le Compte and the history of the island. Another half-truth, perhaps, but one she could live with.

  “So the Le Compte family,” she said, pausing for a moment to take a sip from her drink. “I'm getting the impression that they used to pretty much rule the island.”

  “It was their little personal playground,” Fernando replied, swigging back some more beer. “My grandmother, God rest her soul, used to tell me that Thaxos was considered off-limits by many of the people living on nearby islands. The Le Comptes had a certain reputation for being...” He paused, as if he wasn't sure how much to tell her, and then an awkward smile spread across his face. “Well, you know. They had a reputation for being unlike other people. They were weird, and people talked about them, about the things they got up to in their mansion up there on the hill.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Some people said they had wild, lavish parties. Really decadent, you know? Naked handmaidens with large palm leaves, lots of wine, music. Pleasures of the flesh, as my grandmother described it. She and a friend were offered a one night job there, just serving drinks, things like that. I mean, that's what they were told about the job, anyway. My grandmother turned it down, because she was a very Christian woman, but her friend took the money and went.”

  “And what happened to her?” Kate asked.

  “Never came back,” he replied. “That's what my grandmother said. No-one ever saw her again.”

  “So then there must have been a police investigation,” Kate pointed out.

  “This was almost a hundred years ago. I don't know the details, but with the money the Le Comptes have, I'm sure they could pay off every judge from here to Athens. There's a saying that the only law that really matters is the one you're prepared to enforce yourself. That just about sums the Le Comptes up. There's one law for the rich, and another for the rest of us.” He took another swig of beer. “And anyway, if you think that's crazy, you haven't heard anything. That's one of the more normal stories about them.”

  “Go on,” Kate replied, keen to learn more.

  Fernando paused for a moment, as if he was studying her face, trying to work out how far to take his stories.

  “I'm a historian,” Kate continued, forcing a smile. “This kind of thing fascinates me.”

  “There were some people,” Fernando replied, leaning closer as if he didn't want to be overheard, “back then, in the old days, who said the Le Comptes were into other things. Darker things.” He paused again. “Okay, don't laugh, because I'm just repeating the stupid old stories from the past, but a lot of people thought that Edgar Le Compte's grandfather was, you know...”

  Kate waited for him to finish.

  “You know...” Fernando continued, raising his eyebrows.

  “Gay?”

  “Jesus, no!” Fernando said with a sigh, before suddenly baring his front teeth. “Get it now?”

  “A dentist?” Kate asked, genuinely confused.

  “A vampire,” Fernando replied. “I know it's crazy, but that's what was said back then. People were dumber and more superstitious, but Edgar Le Compte's grandfather was accused more than once of being a vampire. Eventually he stayed in the house and was rarely seen, which only added to the rumors, and then one day...” He paused again, his eyes alight with the excitement of the story. “One night, some of the locals down here said they heard this loud, agonized howl from the top of the hill, and the next day the baron was gone. No-one knew where to, or how, or exactly when, but the mansion was abandoned. It took six months for anyone to go up there and check for certain, but the place was just left to rot. And that was the last anyone around here heard or saw of the Le Compte family for more than eighty years.”

  “Until today,” Kate replied.

  “Well, until last week, when word came that the grandson of the old Le Compte vampire was on his way to reclaim the family home.”

  “But no-one can seriously believe that vampires exist,” Kate pointed out. “I mean, not in the twenty-first century. Vampire myths were the product of superstitions that have since been explained. Sure, some people like joking about them and reading books, but I seriously doubt that any sane person genuinely believes they're real.”

  “You'd be surprised how old-fashioned people are around here,” Fernando told her, finishing his beer. “Time moves more slowly on Thaxos. Maybe the heat slows it down, or maybe people just drag their heels a bit, but the old superstitions.” He glanced over his shoulder, as if to once again check that none of the other dozen patrons in the cantina was listening in, before turning back to Kate. “People are nervous. They don't like the Le Compte family being back. The worst part is, Edgar Le Compte has the same name as his grandfather. To people here, it's as if everything's picking up where it was left all those years ago. I'll get us another drink and then I'll tell you about the -”

  “No,” Kate said, grabbing her empty glass before Fernando could take it, “I should really be getting to bed.”

  “One more drink!”

  She shook her head, mindful of the fact that the first drink had already loosened her up a little, which she simultaneously liked and disliked. She wasn't a heavy drinker, and she didn't fancy becoming one tonight, not even on holiday and especially not in this heat. Besides, Fernando's stories had been interesting, but they were of limited interest to her now that they were veering off into silly supernatural tales and superstition. She was a historian, and while she saw the value of such tales in terms of illuminating aspects of a culture, she was more interested right now in the less lurid aspects of the island's past.

  “Come on, English lady,” Fernando said with a grin. “One drink. It'll be fun. Anyway, my boat leaves in the morning and I won't be back for a week. This might be our last chance to, you know, get to know each other better.”

  “Well that's going to have to be one of life's regrets,” Kate told him. “It's been great talking to you, but I need to get back to the hotel. I want to be up bright and early tomorrow so I can go and check out the stones on the north side of the island.”

  “Early to bed and then up to see some rocks?” Fernando replied. “You call that a holiday?”

  “I call that a holiday,” she said with a smile.

  A few minutes later, as they left the cantina together, Kate was already starting to worry that Fernando might insist on walking her all the way to the door of Ephram's house. The streets were dark now, but she felt completely safe, particularly since there were no cars on Thaxos. Kate was starting to understand why Thaxos was billed as one of the most relaxing places in the Mediterranean, and as she and Fernando started walking along the narrow, cobbled street, she actually felt as if she might be able to unwind during her holiday. Not too much, obviously, but at least a little.