On her return from England, Ravenna stopped for a day in Athens, staying in the Grand Bretagne Hotel with a view of the towering ruins of the Acropolis. She had easy access to international phone service right readily available in her hotel room. She took a deep breath; it had been months since she had seen or heard from Jack. He said he would be working at his office in Sydney.
He had called her every day after he left Petros, then every other day. As time went on, she had not heard from him. Weeks went by with no word. Concerned, she called his office in Chicago. They gave her an excuse that he was working in the Australian Outback—way out in the boonies—and could not be reached. She dismissed the troubling thought but was hurt that she had not heard from him. She kept in touch with his office, but soon they stopped taking her calls. Was she just a summer romance?
Ravenna would try again. She missed him, his strong hands and gentle touch. She cried out loud in her room just as the phone was being answered. Her heart leaped.
“Good morning, Sydney Park Royale Hotel. How may I direct your call?”
“Yes, I would like to speak with one of your guests, a Mr. Jack Branigan.”
“Please hold and I will transfer your call to the front desk.”
“Thank you.”
“You are very welcome, ma’am.”
The people were so nice, it was the perfect place for Jack to stay. Maybe we could go there together when…
“Front desk. How may I help you?”
“I am looking for a guest, a Mr. Jack Branigan.”
“Hold for a minute, please, while I pull up his name on our computer. Branigan… Branigan… Oh, yes, Mr. Branigan. He was a guest here, but he has checked out, ma’am.”
She took a deep breath. He checked out! He must be on his way back to Petros! Oh, my God, I must get back to meet him. “Thank you, thank you. How long ago did he check out?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I can’t give out that information on our guests. You can understand, can’t you?”
“Yes, of course, but I haven’t heard from him in months. Can’t you give me any information at all, please? Put yourself in my place, please.”
“Hold on. Let me check. … Ah, yes, he checked out three months ago, ma’am.”
Her stomach plummeted. “Three months. That can’t be. He would have let me know. It can’t be.”
“I am sorry, ma’am, but that is what our records show. Yes, ma’am, three months ago.” The woman on the other end of the line lowered her voice and asked Ravenna, “Ma’am, this Mr. Branigan, was he an American?”
“Yes, he was, yes… Why do you ask?”
She lowered her voice even more and whispered, “There was a Mr. Branigan staying here at our hotel, but he was detained by the police in a murder investigation. I recall, because I was working here at the hotel on the day it happened. A body was found on the street right outside of the hotel and Mr. Branigan was found in the car with the dead man. I don’t know what happened after that, but it shows he checked out the following day. I hope this helps, ma’am. I’m sorry.”
Ravenna called the Sydney police department, the homicide department, the internal affairs department, and anyone else she could think of, but with no success. She found no Jack Branigan. The local police records showed he had been detained for a murder investigation, but he had been released and had no further information. She ordered lunch through room service at the hotel and spent the next two days trying to find Jack.
She called the American Embassy in Sydney and got the same information, Jack Branigan had been detained and questioned by the police in a murder investigation months earlier, but they offered no further information. Ravenna was now worried beyond belief when she called Jack’s office in Chicago.
When she finally reached his office, she talked with his partner, Mike Stannis.
“Mr. Stannis, hi, this is Ravenna Morgan. I have known Jack since we were kids in St. Louis. Months ago we reconnected when he came to visit Greece. He left over three months ago and he said he would be back in two months. I am desperate to get in touch with him, to make sure he is okay. I really need to talk with him. Can you help me? Please…”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
“Hello, Mr. Stannis? Are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here. The only thing I can say is to suggest you return to Petros and wait for Jack. He will be there. I’m sorry I can’t say anything more, Ms. Morgan. Please, just go back to Petros and wait for Jack. I am bound by a confidentiality agreement we signed. I must go now, I’m sorry.”
She could hear the stress in his voice, as if he wanted to tell her more. She went back to the island, having lost the two men in her life she cared for most.
She sent a letter to Jack’s office in Chicago saying she wanted to get in touch with him. The letter was returned two weeks later, marked Unable to forward, address unknown.
Now she was truly all alone.