They opened the page with the rudimentary line drawing. It was of a beautiful young woman with bare breasts, draped in exquisitely carved folds of linen, reclining on a couch and holding an apple. Even from the rough drawing, it was possible to tell that this was no ordinary statue.

Nell stared at the hand with the apple. ‘It’s hard to tell, but the hand did seem to look the same as that. The fingers were slightly splayed in the same way, don’t you think?’

‘I can’t honestly remember,’ Dora shrugged. ‘I was so surprised by Ariadne’s outburst. She’s a shy little thing except when she’s talking about plants.’

‘I wish Professor Brinkley were here,’ Moira sighed. ‘He’s head of classical antiquity at one of the museums in Cambridge. He lives and breathes this stuff.’

‘Get him out here, then!’ Dora giggled. ‘The more the merrier! Takis will be thrilled to fill up his hotel rooms with distinguished professors.’

‘Do you know what,’ Moira beamed, ‘I think I’ll try.’ She photographed the sketch on her phone. ‘I just need a shot of the hand with the apple too. If nothing else, he can give us some advice on whether it could be authentic or not.’

They made their way back to the hotel, where Penny had stayed to talk to Takis about furniture for the boathouses.

‘What kind of furniture do you want?’ he asked.

‘Anything I can paint, from old doors to washstands. Chests of drawers, screens, bookcases; really anything people don’t want to use any more.’

Takis nodded and tapped the side of his nose as if they were striking some illicit deal. ‘I will see what I can do.’

‘Takis, great! There’s just one more thing.’ Moira descended on him so enthusiastically that he instantly looked worried. What was this forceful English lady going to ask of him now?

‘I just wanted to photograph the marble hand and apple Ariadne discovered.’

‘Ah,’ Takis began to look relieved. ‘But be careful. I have heard a rumour that Mr Rich Athenian has been to the police to say that it belongs to him, as it was found on his land.’

‘And does it?’

‘Nikos insisted the Department of Cultural Antiquities be informed, so he has not been allowed to pursue his claim. In fact –’ he smiled impishly – ‘Nikos also said that if a statue was likely to be buried on his land, he might not be able to build on it until the matter was investigated further.’

‘Do you know,’ Moira beamed, ‘I like this Nikos more and more. Did you say that you two met when we were here before?’ she asked Penny.

Penny tossed her hair in a gesture of involuntary shyness that gave away far more than she intended. ‘Yes. Nell and I went out with him and his friend when we were all in Zanthos. He’d kept a photo of us.’