Assassins of Athens ak-2

by Jeffrey Siger

  Three minutes later Alex was back. 'Mr Kostopoulos will see you now.' It was a beautiful day, and magnificent terraces surrounded the house, but a maid showed Andreas into what he assumed was an office. Every window was closed and covered by heavy drapes; the only light came from electric bulbs, and faint ones at that. Kostopoulos was sitting in an overstuffed paisley-patterned chair, but the light was too dim to make out any color. He pointed for Andreas to sit on one next to his.

  'How did you find out?' The voice was flat and cold. It had none of the charm from their last meeting.

  'Does it matter?'

  'Are you one of them?'

  Andreas was surprised at the question, but then realized it was an obvious one. He shook his head and said, 'No.'

  Zanni shrugged. 'As you said, "Does it matter?"' He put the piece of pottery from Andreas on the table between them. Andreas hadn't noticed he'd been holding it. 'Ginny, Alexandra, Georgia. Why did you write the names of my wife and daughters?'

  'Sorry, but it was the only way to get your attention. And yes, before you ask, their lives are in danger. Yours too.'

  He nodded. 'I'm sure. That's why I have very professional help.'

  'I noticed. What about your wife and children?'

  He let out a breath. 'My wife took the children out of Greece to where she says no one ever will be able to find them. Won't even tell me where she is. Keeps moving around. All I can do is see that they have the same sort of protection I have, and I've done that.'

  'Do you think she can keep hiding like that?'

  He looked down at his hands. 'It's not what I think that matters.'

  'Why haven't you left?'

  'I don't know, maybe it's ego. Certainly anger.' He pulled himself out of his chair, walked over to drapes covering a window, and drew them open. Light filled the room. 'Those cowardly bastards killed my son and I'm not going to let them get away with it. Period. End of story.'

  He was angry. 'All this bullshit about protecting Greece from the "wrong kind of people" is just that. Bullshit. It's all about one thing, money. Fuck their talk of principles. These altruistic revolutionary bastards want me to give them everything I've built for thirty cents on the dollar.'

  Finally, a motive Andreas could understand, and one that explained what held muscle like Giorgio's interest: big money.

  Zanni stared out the window. 'I received a piece of pottery with my family name written on it, together with some press clippings and a message telling me to read what happened to other families who didn't leave Greece within ten days. Then I got a call from someone offering to buy all of my assets in Greece. I told him to fuck himself. Every day he called, I wouldn't take the call and he'd leave a message asking if I'd reconsidered his offer. After the tenth day his calls stopped. Then my son…' His voice trailed off and the room was silent except for the sound of wind at the window. 'The day after… his death… the same person called. I took it this time and again he asked if I'd reconsidered. I told him I had, and we've been negotiating ever since.'

  'Negotiating?' Andreas was surprised.

  'Until I find them. Then they'll get paid. All of them.' His voice had a bitter edge that left no doubt what he had in mind.

  Andreas thought to say something like, don't take the law into your own hands, but knew it would sound stupid. Instead he said, 'Do me a favor, if you find them let me know. I don't want to waste my time chasing dead bodies.'

  Zanni smiled. 'Are you taping this?'

  'Yeah, right.' Andreas got up and walked over to him. 'Listen Mr Kostopoulos, I'd probably be doing the same thing if I were in your shoes, but don't underestimate these people. Think about your family.'

  'You sound like one of them.' His voice wasn't angry.

  'Maybe I do, but not for their reasons. They know you're here, and with their resources-'

  'How do they know I'm here? I came here in a small boat, and at night.' Now Zanni sounded surprised.

  'Mr Kostopoulos, you're on Mykonos. It's a small island. What did you expect?' No need to tell him more. 'And I'm sure they'll find your wife and kids, too, no matter where they are.'

  Zanni shook his head. 'You don't know my wife.'

  Andreas wasn't sure what that meant, but it was clear that part of the conversation was going nowhere. 'Any idea of who's involved?'

  He paused. 'Not yet, but I expect to soon. I have people working on it.'

  Great, thought Andreas, more people running around asking questions. It's turning into a regular three-ring circus of an investigation. Can't wait for the clowns to join in. Probably already have. 'Any chance of telling me what you have so far?'

  Zanni just smiled.

  'What about the one you're negotiating with?'

  'Uses a voice scrambler, and we can't track him. We've tried.'

  Andreas nodded. 'Just be careful. Like I said, they know you're here, and I'm certain they'll go after your family.'

  Zanni nodded but Andreas doubted he'd said anything to change the man's mind. A few minutes later Andreas was on his way back to town, but he made a point of exchanging goodbye nods with the major. Andreas wanted to stay on that guy's good side.

  16

  The underground Omonia metro station came into being as part of Greece's show of pride at the 2004 Olympic Games. Omonia's orange-wall underground station for the old electrikos train still operated, but the new metro connected Omonia to the rest of Athens in a way that it hadn't for years, except in the memories of old-timers. Omonia once was Athens' central square and remained the home of thriving, vibrant, daytime markets and well-known hotels, but now it was referred to as Immigrant Square, and most Greeks shied away from the area. Still, the metro made commuting much easier for the mix of peoples who now lived there or had business there.

  Demon walked to the station. It was only a few blocks from the university, and he wanted time to think. He had a plan; it just required a bit of ingenuity and he'd supply that. He'd leave the muscle to the guy he was meeting. He bought a ticket at the kiosk in the square by the entrance and followed the rush hour crowd into the station and down onto the platform. It was five minutes to five. His contact should be here any minute. Demon walked to the far end, leaned against a pillar, and waited.

  'What's so important?' It was a voice behind him. Demon didn't turn around, just turned his head so that he was looking at the pillar as he spoke.

  'He's still in the country.'

  'So?'

  Demon didn't like the tone, but kept his own in check. 'He was supposed to leave. That was the point of the message.'

  'The point of the message was to get him to pay.'

  Demon felt his anger rising, but kept it out of his voice. 'Yes, but also to get him to leave.'

  'That's not our concern.'

  'Of course it is. My people, the ones who select the ones whose assets you get to purchase, don't want him here. You profit when they're happy. And they're not happy.'

  The man's tone didn't change. 'We do all the dirty work. That's why we get to buy the assets. If they don't like the arrangements, tell them to find someone else to do their persuading.'

  'Is that the message you want me to pass on? Do you really want to start a war with these people?' The man didn't know who they were, just that they were among the most powerful in Greece.

  The man hesitated before answering. 'Tell them we're not going to do anything to him now. He's negotiating with us.' The man sounded like he was talking through clenched teeth.

  Demon's face tightened but his voice didn't show it. 'He must be taught a lesson. Now.'

  'We're talking about a lot of money here and a lot of complicated asset transfers. Do I have to remind you why we never killed the one who had to sign the papers? Once he's dead it's in the hands of Greek probate courts, and we get nothing. We're not going to blow a once-in-a-lifetime payday because your…' he paused, obviously grasping for a noncurse word, 'people are pissed that this guy's showing some balls. Tell your people we'll take care of him in goo
d time. But not now.'

  Demon knew this was going nowhere. But he couldn't let the Old Man down. There was too much at stake for him. He must give the Old Man what he wanted; Kostopoulos out of Greece. He needed to find other muscle. That was a very dangerous risk to take. He'd been working with this mob for years; since its early drug-dealing days in Exarchia. If they ever found out he'd gone behind their back… He walked away from the pillar without saying another word. It wouldn't have mattered if he had; the other man already had left. Andreas' drive back to the old harbor covered five miles and five thousand years. The granite-strewn mountainside above the Kostopoulos house probably looked much the same to whatever gods once played there; nothing but nature on that slope. Aside from the Hummer, of course. On the other side, back down along the way he came, were signs of the presence of humanity: stone walls and huts of an agrarian past out of antiquity; a magnificent, seventh-century fortified conical hill, the Palaiokastro, built by invaders trying to protect themselves from a similar fate; the graceful, eighteenth-century Palaiokastro convent nestled on a hillside above Panormos Bay; and the outskirts of the once quaint farming village of Ano Mera, where a two-lane paved road connected to modern Mykonos and all its cruise ships, hotels, mega-million-euro private villas, and legendary nightlife.

  But all Andreas wanted was coffee in the old port. When he reached the entrance to the town harbor, a rookie cop sitting next to a guardhouse put up his hand to stop the Jimny. During tourist season, only taxis and authorized vehicles were allowed into town. Unless, of course, you were local or had a good story. Andreas showed his ID and the rookie jumped up and waved him on with a salute. Andreas had planned on making a big entrance, but that was a little much.

  He drove along a stone-slab road beside a tiny beach at the northern edge of the crescent-shaped harbor into the taxi square and parked next to a port police SUV. He didn't walk ten steps before locals started yelling, 'Andreas, Andreas.'

  For over an hour he bounced from taverna to taverna hearing stories and complaints covering everything from the plight of fishing, undeserved parking tickets, and age-old property disputes to the predicted end of the world as we knew it, caused, of course, by the political party in power. Andreas just kept nodding agreement, expressing concern, and offering regrets that he no longer was in a position to help.

  Almost everyone asked why he was there. He said he missed the island and decided to come over for the day. He wasn't sure they believed him, but everyone said they understood how getting out of Athens to Mykonos, even for a day, made perfect sense.

  He kept refusing offers of ouzo, beer, and all sorts of other booze, claiming he needed a clear head if his office called, but his resistance was fading. There was a certain rhythm to this place that did that to you. He was contemplating an ouzo when a hand touched his shoulder and he heard a familiar voice. 'Hi honey, I'm home.'

  It was Lila.

  The look on Andreas' face fell somewhere between shock and horror.

  'Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?' Lila smiled and, with her hand still on Andreas' shoulder, nodded to the six other men at the table.

  He said nothing but several of the men asked her to join them. One got up and took a chair from the next table while the others scrambled to make room for her to sit.

  'No thanks, we've got to go.' It was Andreas speaking.

  Two men asked, 'What's the hurry?' The others didn't say a word, just exchanged grins and tried sneaking knowing nods and smiles to Andreas. He quickly stood and offered to pay, but didn't insist when they refused. After a fast thank-you, he pushed her out from under the taverna's awning onto the harbor front road in what anyone watching would think a cutesy gesture. Lila probably knew better.

  They walked south along the harbor, the sea to their right. He smiled and waved to a mix of people calling out his name, but his voice was angry. 'What the hell are you doing here?'

  'Put your arm around me so they get the right idea.' She seemed to be having fun with this.

  'Sure, honey.' He reached behind her and gave a long, visible squeeze to her ass. She jumped. 'What do you think you're doing?' Now the anger was hers.

  'Just making sure they get the right idea.' He smiled, leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek. Then put his arm around her waist, gripped like a vise, and dragged more than directed her forward. 'Like I said, what are you doing here?'

  She practically had to skip to keep up. 'We had a deal, remember?' There was a different anger in her voice.

  He mumbled something Lila couldn't hear.

  'What?'

  'I don't want to talk about this here.' He turned their bodies toward an opening between two jewelry shops. It was one of many twisting paths that opened onto the harbor from the maze known as the old town of Mykonos. Most lanes weren't much wider than six feet, many narrower. Each was paved with island-quarried flagstones outlined in white and ran between two-story, all-white buildings accented by bright blue, green, or red doors, banisters, and window frames.

  At a sandwich shop about thirty yards from the harbor, Andreas made an abrupt right onto a smaller path. He still didn't let go. A few turns later the path opened up into a tree-filled square lined on the east by four small churches snuggled together in a row. He stopped, dropped his arm from her waist and pointed to a low wall flanking three steps leading up to the first church. 'Sit there.'

  She was wearing a scoop-neck white peasant-style blouse over straight-leg designer jeans, and dark brown Tod's — the shoes with little bumps for soles and heels. Her hair was in a tight bun, and large Chanel sunglasses covered her eyes. She wore only a hint of makeup, and a dark-blue Longchamp tote bag probably held whatever she thought she might need for the day. Andreas wondered if she considered this her I-can-blend-in look.

  Lila sat on the wall as if waiting for him to join her. Instead, Andreas stood a few feet in front of her, staring up at the church. Then he looked at her and told her what he was thinking. 'You're the only person in the world I can trust.' He kissed her.

  Anna didn't respond.

  'I'd do anything for you and the baby, you know that.'

  She didn't answer. Demon didn't care. He'd come to her place for a reason and didn't have time to fuck her. She'd just have to stay moody.

  'I need a telephone number for that old friend of yours, the one from Sardinia.'

  She flinched. 'Efisio?'

  'Do you have it?'

  'Why?'

  Demon touched her cheek and gently stroked two fingers back and forth along her jaw line. 'Don't worry, my love, it's not about you.'

  Efisio was her ex-boyfriend and the first to pimp her out. They'd met in her home country. He fled there to escape the Italian police. A year later she fled to Greece to escape his beatings. In an intimate, misguided moment of after-sex trust Anna confided her story to Demon, and he became the second. He didn't beat her. He had more insidious ways of controlling her.

  She shook her head. 'I can't. If he ever finds out where I am…' her eyes moved toward the baby's crib, 'where we are…'

  Demon's fingers kept moving along her face. 'He'll never find out. But I must find him. It is very important. Please, help me.'

  She shook her head and said, 'No.'

  'Please, I don't want to have to go to Sardinia.'

  This time he felt her flinch. 'He's not there, he can't go back.'

  'Yes, yes, I know but he has family there, and they must know how to reach him.'

  He felt a twitching begin in her cheek.

  'What is the name of his village?'

  'I don't remember.'

  He kept stroking. 'That place in the mountains. In north central Sardinia.'

  She said nothing and turned her eyes away from him.

  'Ah, yes, Mamoiada.'

  She jerked away from his hand.

  'My love, please, I don't want to have to go to that village. You know how dangerous those people are. You're the one who told me. They'll start asking why I want to find
him, how I know him-'

  She locked her eyes on his. 'You miserable bastard.'

  'I'm not trying to harm you. But you're leaving me no choice than to bring up your name. Otherwise, they might kill me. But, if you find him for me he'll never hear your name. There will be no reason to tell him.'

  She stared at the floor.

  'If I wanted to harm you, do you really think I'd need to call your old boyfriend?' He touched her cheek. 'Besides, you know I'd never harm you. You are my love.'

  When she looked at him there were tears in her eyes. 'Please, don't make me do this.'

  Demon said nothing, just kept stroking her cheek. The tears now touched his fingers.

  'I don't have a number for him.' Her lip was quivering. 'I'll have to find someone who does.'

  'That's my girl. But please, try to find it before tomorrow morning. My plane for Italy leaves at noon. I don't want to go if you can get me the number.' He kissed her on the forehead and left.

  Demon never heard the tearful string of curses, in several languages, that followed his departure. But Kouros did. 'I can't trust you.' Andreas didn't move.

  Lila didn't say a word.

  He waited for her to speak but all she did was stare. Or at least he thought she was staring. He took a step forward and lifted her sunglasses onto her forehead. He wished he hadn't, her eyes were filled with tears.

  'What's wrong?'

  She shook her head, and reached into her bag. 'Nothing.' Out came a handkerchief. She patted at her eyes. 'Absolutely nothing.'

  Andreas knew he was losing ground fast. This was not the sort of response he expected. His immediate instinct was to console her, be her rescuing knight. Perhaps she knew that too. He better be careful. There was too much at stake, and too many intrigues.

  He wanted to sit next to her but didn't move. 'Let me know when you want to talk.'

  'When I want to talk? Perhaps I'm missing something here, Chief Kaldis, but you're the one who should be doing the talking. Or are you expecting me to try to convince you to trust me?' She jumped up, grabbed her bag, caught her sunglasses as they fell off her forehead and pointed them at Andreas. 'Fuck you!' And stormed-off down the narrowest of the four paths out of the square.