By the time Takis reached them, he was hardly able to talk because he was so out of breath. ‘It’s not there!’ he burst out. ‘The hand of the goddess has been taken from the drawer it was locked in!’

‘Did anything else go?’ asked Karl.

‘Nothing at all. They knew exactly what they were looking for!’

‘And we all know who took it. He’s obviously going to sell the statue, or he wouldn’t need the hand.’

‘You can’t be sure it’s him,’ Nell pointed out.

‘Him or someone who works for him. Adonis, maybe, since he was up to stealing my bag,’ Moira said angrily. ‘Fortunately I didn’t have much in it.’

‘I don’t think it would be wise to approach him directly,’ interrupted Karl.

‘Why?’ Dora asked. ‘What do you suggest?’

‘Approach the middleman. Say we are interested in buying the statue.’

‘But he’d recognize us. Even you, probably.’

Karl grinned, his blue eyes, still bright and almost boyish, alight with delicious mischief. ‘We need someone else. Someone he won’t suspect. Like my mate Stelios.’

‘A sting,’ said Dora delightedly. ‘Just like in Butch Cassidy! Or was it that other film with Paul Newman?’

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ interrupted Takis anxiously, ‘this is not a joke. This man could be dangerous.’

‘We know, Takis,’ Nell reassured him. Takis just looked bewildered. These ladies had been wonderful, and he didn’t want them taking risks just for a statue.

‘So anyway,’ Dora asked suspiciously, ‘why do we need this Stelios? I thought he was the man who started easyJet.’

‘Not that Stelios, obviously. Stelios Stavropoulos. He owns a small gallery in Thessaloniki. Antiquities are his speciality. You will love him. He reeks of the old Levant.’

‘Is that an aftershave?’ Nell couldn’t resist enquiring.

‘Don’t be naughty, Nell,’ said Moira pompously. ‘The Levant was the name for the eastern Mediterranean. It used to be the biggest trading centre in the world.’

Their food arrived. ‘So what will this Stelios do?’ asked Dora.

‘The way it works is this,’ Karl expanded. ‘Even if you dig up a Greek statue – our Venus, for example – you can’t go to some collector and say, “Look old chum, I found this lady in my olive grove. How would you like to give me ten million euros for her?” Apart from anything else you might get ten years in prison.’

‘So what do you do?’ Penny asked.