A Deadly Twist

by Jeffrey Siger

  “Is there a way to get back up onto the road other than going through the culvert?”

  “Yeah, head up the hillside below the monument and over the wire fencing. That will get you back on the road.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Just one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Be careful of the snakes in the brush if you go that way.”

  * * *

  Yianni grudgingly admitted to Popi that a few seconds’ scoot through the culvert beat three minutes of not knowing what lay ahead of you in the underbrush.

  Safely back in the pickup, he checked his phone for messages and saw one from Andreas telling him they only had until Monday noon before the whole world knew Nikoletta was missing. He called back, and when put into voicemail, left a brief message describing his interview with the Siphones boys.

  “Everything okay?” Popi asked.

  “Just routine stuff.” He put his phone back in his pocket. “Before I forget, thanks for steering the son away from his father so I could speak to him alone. You did well, Officer.”

  “Thank you. I know the son. In fact, I know the whole family. The father sometimes hunts with my husband.”

  “That explains how he knew so much about your background.”

  “Hunting gives hunters a lot of time to talk among themselves. Sometimes too much time.”

  “He only told me good things, such as how your growing up among four brothers taught you to deal with Greek men.”

  “I wouldn’t say that I’m fully up to speed on the intricacies of what makes them tick, but being the only sister had its advantages, even if I didn’t appreciate them at the time.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I was the baby of the family, so my brothers called me Runt, as in runt of the litter.”

  “Ouch. That must have hurt.”

  “But woe be unto anyone else who dared call me that or messed with me. My brothers were very protective. Too protective at times. They still tease me. Now, though, their favorite line is that I married Mamas because he’s the only guy I ever dated big and strong enough to handle them.”

  “The father mentioned something about your husband being able to lift a bull.”

  “More like a calf, a big calf.” Popi paused. “Do you mind if I ask the context in which that subject came up?”

  Yianni wondered how much he should tell her, but if she hadn’t drawn the son away he’d likely never have learned a thing from the father. “No, I don’t mind. Just keep it among ourselves. This isn’t gossip to share with anyone, including our cop colleagues over coffee.”

  “Understood.”

  “He claimed that everything he told the reporter was made up to impress her. That none of it was true.”

  “Did he say why he made it all up?”

  “To use his words, he wanted to get into Nikoletta’s pants by convincing her he was a Molotov cocktail–tossing activist.”

  She nodded. “That makes sense. It’s priority number one for men in their dealings with women. At least most men, and not just Greek men.”

  “I’m not sure I’d go that far, but then again, I’m not in your shoes.” He smiled. “Either heels or flats.”

  Popi laughed. “A deft change of subject.”

  “In this case, though, I believe the father,” said Yianni.

  Popi nodded. “From what I know of him and his family, I’d agree they’re not the Molotov cocktail–tossing sort.” She started the engine. “So, where do you want to go now?”

  “I’m famished. Haven’t eaten since breakfast, aside from a couple of cookies at Marco’s hotel.”

  “There’s a terrific taverna up the road in Koronos, and the drive there offers some of the most spectacular views on the island. Every time I’m up this way I eat there. It’s a winding mountain road with plunging views into emerald valleys running out to the sea. Are you up for that?”

  “How could I not be?”

  She edged back onto the road around an old pickup that had parked off to the side of the road just beyond them.

  “I’ve got a whole list of people to chase down, but not an address or telephone number for one of them. All I have are their names and their villages. Nikoletta apparently found them by going to the villages, striking up conversations with locals, and getting them to tell her where she could find their village’s main activist.” Yianni turned to look out the side window. “She must have a real gift for getting people to talk. I find most villagers to be closemouthed when it comes to speaking to strangers.”

  “That’s because you’re a cop, and activists are wary of cops. In my experience, once you get them talking, the hard part is getting them to stop.”

  “But how do I find them?”

  “I should be able to help you with that. This is a fiercely independent island, with tough people, but it’s still a small community and if you’re known and trusted, you can get that sort of information.”

  “Here are the names.” Yianni pulled out his notepad and read off a half dozen names and villages.

  “Oh, boy.”

  “Dare I ask what that means?”

  “Remember what I said before about getting activists to stop talking? Well, you’ve got the equivalent there of a Eurovision competition among the biggest talkers on the island. I suggest you plan on spending the better part of a day with each one on your list. That is if you want a shot at getting any of your questions answered. They’ll spend most of the time preaching to you about why they’re right, the rest of the world is wrong, and you should join them in their cause.”

  Yianni thought of the new deadline Andreas had delivered. “I don’t have that kind of time.”

  “I wish I could tell you something different, but they’ll bend your ear for sure.”

  Yianni leaned his head back, shut his eyes, breathed in deeply, exhaled, and opened his eyes. “What’s the chance of our getting all of them together in one place to meet with me as a group?”

  “You mean turn it into an activist convention? They’ll be competing like cats for attention to show who’s the most important.”

  Yianni smiled. “That’s the point. They’ll each have heard the other’s pitch so many times they’ll be shouting one another down to stop with the canned speeches. We might actually be lucky enough to get them competing with each other over who’s giving better answers to my questions.”

  “Optimism is an admirable trait, Detective.” Popi bit her lower lip. “I must admit, it’s an interesting idea, and if we promise them food, wine, and liquor, it just might work. We can bill it as Athens reaching out to Naxos’s leading thinkers in an effort to learn what’s truly on the people’s minds.”

  “That’s laying it on a bit thick, wouldn’t you say?”

  “We’re talking about self-styled politicians, and regardless of where they fit on the political spectrum, they all share one common trait: they love an audience.”

  Yianni smiled. “Are we back to your view on men?”

  “In this case it’s a gender-neutral phenomenon.”

  Yianni sat quietly for a moment. “Do you really think you can pull it off?”

  “I can try. Once they learn who else is being invited, they’ll all likely want to be in on it, if only not to lose out to a rival if something good comes out of the meeting. I suggest we hold our little get-together in a place activists consider friendly territory.”

  “Okay, go for it. Try to set it up for tomorrow afternoon. He’ll be here by then, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want to miss it.”

  “Is he a masochist?”

  “No, more of a cat wrangler.”

  * * *

  Andreas was doing his best to clear his desk of a mess of burning bureaucratic emergencies, but his usual approach—handing them off to Maggie—wasn’t available.
She had her own fires to put out, so he decided to take a different tack: Ignore everything, leave the office early, and spend the rest of the day with his children.

  Andreas made it as far as his car before his mobile rang. It was a Naxos caller, but he didn’t recognize the number.

  “Hello, Kaldis here.”

  “Chief Inspector?”

  “Yes, who’s calling.”

  “It’s Dimitri from Naxos.”

  “Oh, sorry, Chief. I didn’t recognize your voice. You sound so serious.”

  “There’s been an accident.”

  Andreas’s heart skipped two beats. “Involving Yianni?”

  “Yes.”

  Andreas swallowed. “How is he?”

  “Banged up but hanging tough.”

  “How banged up?”

  “As far as his doctors can determine, it’s two broken ribs, but otherwise only sprains, bruises, and cuts. He was knocked around quite badly but doesn’t appear to have sustained a concussion or internal organ damage. Still, they’re keeping him heavily medicated and want him to rest undisturbed for now. Which means no questions from us.”

  “Thank God he’s okay. Where is he?”

  “In our Naxos General Hospital. That’s where the ambulance brought them.”

  “Them?”

  “My officer was driving. She wasn’t as lucky as Yianni.”

  Andreas’s heart dropped. “How is she?”

  “Don’t know yet. She was in a coma when they airlifted her to Athens. I’m waiting for word.”

  “What happened?”

  “Their pickup went off the road just outside of Koronos, a mountain village up north. No idea yet if it was mechanical failure, or she swerved to avoid hitting an animal on the road, or something else.”

  “Something else like what?”

  “At this point we’re ruling out nothing.”

  Andreas drew in and let out a deep breath. “I’ll be there tomorrow morning. When do you think you’ll have a better fix on what happened?”

  “We sent a mechanic and accident investigation team to the site. As soon as I hear anything from them, I’ll let you know.”

  “What do you know so far?”

  “The pickup went off a narrow two-lane mountain road at a sharp curve to the driver’s left, over a cliff edge to the right, rolling before getting hung up on a massive boulder. It was a miracle they hit the boulder, because if they hadn’t, the pickup would have rolled all the way down into the valley and they’d have had no chance of surviving.”

  Andreas crossed himself.

  “Who found them?”

  “A tour guide driving tourists back from Koronos saw the pickup on its back up against the boulder and called it in.”

  “Did the guide see what happened?”

  “No.”

  “Bad luck.”

  “As a matter of fact, very good luck. It turned out that one of the tour guide’s clients was a doctor, and she was able to stabilize them until the ambulance arrived.”

  Andreas crossed himself again.

  “What are your instincts on the cause?”

  “Let’s just say Popi was familiar with the road and used to goats darting out from nowhere. She knew you don’t swerve if you can’t brake in time, especially in the mountains. Better a dead animal than you.”

  “So, we’re left with something mechanical or your something else.”

  “That’s how I see it.”

  Andreas fluttered his lips. “Please keep me in the loop on how they’re doing, and let me know when I can speak with Yianni.”

  “Will do.”

  “Thanks.”

  They said goodbye, and Andreas put down the phone. He shut his eyes and said a brief prayer. He opened his eyes and wondered whether this was just a tragic coincidence or something else.

  He knew what he had to do next. He just wasn’t sure how best to go about it. He hoped the words would come. He looked at his phone, found the number he wanted, and called Toni.

  Chapter Eight

  Toni had heard so many good things about Naxos that she couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come to join Yianni there. But that was before she spoke to Andreas. By the time they’d hung up, everything he’d told her was a blur, and she could only recall him saying there’d been an accident, Yianni was fine, but the doctors wouldn’t allow him any visitors or callers.

  To Toni, that did not sound like fine.

  Her immediate reaction was to call the hospital and ask to speak to Yianni, but all that would do is kick her anxiety level into even higher gear once the hospital inevitably told her what Andreas had said. No callers.

  She knew what she had to do next. She called her boss and told him she couldn’t work tonight because her boyfriend had been in a serious accident on Naxos, and she had to get over there right away. Her boss said that if she didn’t come to work tonight, she was fired.

  She said that since the bar would be closed for the weekend anyway, what was the big deal?

  He said it was nonnegotiable.

  She said, fine, if he wanted to play a hard-ass, she’d tell his wife about his girlfriend. He said he didn’t care.

  Then she told him she’d tell his girlfriend about his boyfriend.

  He paused for a moment before wishing her safe travels and asking that she please make it back to the bar as soon as Yianni was better.

  Now she sat in the new port of Mykonos, waiting for the next boat to Naxos. The trip would take less than an hour, but she had absolutely no idea what she’d do once she got there. All she knew for certain was that she had to get to Naxos. Somehow she’d figure out what to do next.

  After all, improvisation is how I make my living.

  * * *

  Lila hadn’t been off the phone since Andreas called to tell her of the accident. She insisted on coming with him to Naxos, if only to comfort her friend Toni.

  Her first call was to her mother, who agreed to watch the children and suggested Lila immediately call a close family friend to see if she could stay at her summerhouse on Naxos. The friend told her she was away, but Lila should use the home as if it were her own for as long as she needed.

  That led Lila to call Maggie. Lila knew Maggie and her boyfriend, Tassos, would be headed to Naxos to be at Yianni’s bedside. Tassos was Andreas’s and Yianni’s longtime police mentor and chief homicide investigator for the Cyclades. Lila invited Maggie and Tassos to stay with her and Andreas at her friend’s house and said she’d pick Maggie up tomorrow in time to catch the first plane to Naxos. Maggie confirmed that Tassos would join them there by boat from Syros, and Lila said to tell him they’d meet him at the port.

  With arrangements made, her next call was to Toni.

  No answer.

  She kept trying.

  * * *

  By the time the ferry docked in Naxos, Toni had a plan. The worst it could do was get her arrested, but since her boyfriend was a cop, she figured he’d be able to make things right…once he was right.

  Stop thinking like that, she thought, and whispered to herself, “He’s fine, just like the doctors said.”

  She knew she had to calm down if she wanted to pull this off, so she decided to walk to the hospital rather than take a taxi. The hike would bring her around. She pulled on her small backpack, disembarked, and headed for town. Her immediate problem was that she had no idea where to find the hospital. She stopped at a car rental agency by the entrance to the pier and picked up a map.

  The hospital was about a kilometer away, depending on the route she took. She picked one crossing the harbor front that turned left at the main road into the port. The road ran by storefronts filled with goods aimed at enticing passersby, but Toni noticed none of it in her haste to reach the hospital.

  The neat, one-story, white stucco and blue-trimm
ed medical center sat on the left, just beyond a rotary. She headed straight for the door marked ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCY and joined three others sitting along a wall in the reception area, while a half dozen more waited in line for the receptionist.

  The receptionist paid her no mind, and Toni sat as if patiently waiting for someone to arrive. The opportunity Toni’d been hoping for came in the form of an animated and rapidly accelerating conversation between the receptionist and an elderly local woman complaining loudly over how long she’d been waiting to see a doctor.

  Toni stood and matter-of-factly strolled past the two combatants as if looking for a toilet. In the midst of her battle with the woman, the receptionist barely glanced at Toni. With a quick peek back to be certain the receptionist’s eyes were not on her, Toni went left and darted through a door reading PATIENTS AND HOSPITAL PERSONNEL ONLY. It led into the emergency treatment room, which, as with most public hospitals these days, was staffed by overworked, underpaid professionals possessing neither the time nor inclination to care about who passed through their unit.

  She aimed for a door at the far end, walking as if she knew precisely where she was headed. Once through the door, she circled back toward the reception area but entered the corridor beyond where she could be seen by the receptionist. Toni had no idea where Yianni could be in the building, and though Greek hospitals might not be finicky about who walked through their halls, if she started opening doors to patient rooms, she’d likely be escorted out in short order.

  She heard a door open around a corner ahead of her. A serious-looking man in a white coat turned the corner headed straight for her. She gave him her most innocent smile. He said nothing until he’d passed her.

  “If you’re looking for a patient, Miss, their rooms are down this corridor in the halls to the left and right.”

  She turned to thank him but he’d already disappeared into the treatment room.

  Thanking Lady Luck instead, Toni hurried down the corridor toward the rooms. At the intersection of the corridor with the hallways, she paused to listen for voices.

  She peeked around the corner to her left. A nurse sat on a chair with her back to Toni, facing a monitor and chatting on her mobile. The nurses’ hallway and the hallway to Toni’s right each had four doors, a pair on each wall.