It’s hard to imagine how many cars Greeks can park along a road barely wide enough to be called two lanes. And when it’s a crumbling mountain lane, with a hill on one side and a cliff on the other, the feat can seem downright miraculous But there they were, squeezed off to the very edges of the road, Hummers, BMW X-5s, Porsche Cayennes , Mercedes G-550s, Jeep Rubicons, and a host of more practical island vehicles such as Suzuki Jimnys, Fiat Pandas, and Smarts, leaving barely enough room in the center of the road for Tassos’ car to squeeze by.
“What the hell’s going to happen if someone’s coming the other way?” said Tassos.
“It’s why God invented reverse,” said Andreas.
“But it’s too late for you to back out,” Lila squeezed his hand.
Andreas laughed and kissed her. “Isn’t it a bit early for us to show up at the reception? I thought we weren’t supposed to be there until dinner was ready to be served?”
“That’s to give the bride time to stop at her new home and change clothes. But the reception is at our home and I’m not changing.”
They were nearing the house and Lila looked out the side window. “Then again, perhaps you’d like to spend that time explaining precisely why those trigger-happy military types from the monastery are up there, too.” She pointed to soldiers deployed along the hillside overlooking the house. “And police everywhere else.” She made an arc with her finger spanning the car. “Let me guess, it’s ‘all precautionary.’”
Andreas cleared his throat. “You’re absolutely right, we should go straight to the party.”
Lila nodded. “I thought you liked what I’m wearing.”
***
No one was allowed onto the grounds of the house without an invitation checked against the wedding list and confirmed by an ID. The only exceptions were uninvited guests brought along and vouched for by invited family members and close friends, but that was expected at a Greek wedding because there always was more than enough food, drink, and room for one more. Presents brought by guests were discreetly moved to an armored bank truck capable of withstanding an explosion.
From the time Andreas and Lila stepped inside the house, it took thirty minutes of posing for photographs, snuggling Tassaki, and accepting apologetic good wishes from guests unable to attend the church ceremony before the couple made it to the rear of the house. They stood in the doorway holding hands. Long tables set up family style sat on three of the four broad terraces stepping down toward the sea. A temporary dance floor was erected on the fourth terrace and music was playing, but no one was dancing. As soon as the band realized the newlyweds were at the doorway, the music changed to a tune that let everyone know the couple had arrived. A roar of applause and shouts erupted drowning out the music as the couple made their way from terrace to terrace, hugging and kissing their guests until reaching the dance floor.
With a nod from Lila the band started playing the ballos, the traditional six-step dance of the Cycladic islands, one of the most beautiful to watch, and the first done at any true Mykonian wedding. The party was officially underway once the bride and her husband began to dance, and they were joined in sequence by their parents, koumbaroi, immediate family, and guests until a full line of partiers were dancing in the syrto style that symbolized the essence of Greek life to much of the world. Later came the kalamatiano, arguably Greece’s most popular dance and one played at every Greek wedding.
Tonight was a time to let loose and worry about nothing more than passing out before the last guest departed. True to tradition, when it came time for the cake cutting and fireworks display, neither Andreas nor any of his buddies was sober. Even Maggie had a hard time walking a straight line as she dragged Tassos away a little after dawn. No one had any idea where Kouros ended up. In other words, the party was a tremendous success.
Andreas and Lila made it to their bedroom just before nine in the morning. Assuming Andreas could even remember his promise to tell Lila everything “tomorrow,” he was in no condition to talk and she was in no condition to listen. They barely had the strength to throw off their clothes, push the presents Marietta had piled on their bed to the floor, and crawl into bed. Besides, to Greeks “tomorrow” was a relative term.
Chapter Seventeen
“Are you awake?” The voice was delicate and sweet. “Darling, are you up?”
“You sound like an angel come to take me to heaven, but if this is how it feels to be there, I think I’ll wait for the next bus,” said Andreas.
Lila laughed. “It’s almost three in the afternoon.”
“Wake me tomorrow.” He was on his stomach with a pillow pulled over his head.
“It is tomorrow,” said Lila.
Whoops, bad choice of words, thought Andreas. “Okay, when the dark haze clears I’ll tell you what I promised.”
“Good, I’ll get us some coffee.”
Andreas tried drifting off toward sleep but couldn’t quite make it. He heard Lila tell the maid to bring coffee; then she started humming to herself. It made him smile. He liked it when Lila was happy. It made him happy. He felt her move off the bed and plop back on. She’s trying to keep me awake. He heard the crinkling of paper.
“These are beautiful, darling. A pair of sterling silver candle sticks in the shape of the charioteer of Delphi. Ilias does such fascinating things.” She read the card aloud.
I’m not going to move. I’m not going to give in. Andreas smiled into the mattress.
Lila opened two more packages, giving a running commentary as she did. She picked up a fourth gift. “I know you’re enjoying this as much as I am, even if you’re not saying a word.”
Andreas turned his head away from her and laughed into his pillow.
“Okay, my husband, now I’m undoing the ribbons on the last of the gifts from Ilias’ shop. The box is huge. I’m taking off the lid,” she dropped the lid on Andreas’ butt. “And now I’m pushing aside the tissue paper and—”
Total silence.
Andreas sensed something was wrong. “What is it?”
Lila dropped the box and ran out of the room, screaming, “Tassaki! Where’s Tassaki?”
Andreas was right behind her. “What’s wrong?”
“Tassaki!”
Andreas caught up to her in the living room. Tassaki was calmly playing with his cousins. Lila started to reach for him, but stopped. She put her hand to her mouth and spun around to face Andreas. “The box.” She drew a deep breath and pointed toward the bedroom. “It’s in the box.”
Andreas wasn’t sure what to do, so he went back to the bedroom. The box was on its side lying on the bed. He carefully peered in without touching it. The tissue paper was hiding most of what he could see, but he could make out one thing: baby toes. Attached to a foot.
Andreas cleared his throat. It wasn’t a real baby’s foot. It was a doll. He turned over the box and gingerly pushed back the paper. Inside was a large silver bowl, and inside that a naked baby doll—with a real bullet hole through its heart and a photograph of their son from a magazine article covering its face. Attached to the baby’s belly just below the bullet hole was Andreas’ card with two words written across it in red: FINAL WARNING.
Andreas calmly picked up the box and carried it outside to the armored truck. He realized for the first time that he was wearing only underpants when he walked by his brother-in-law who laughed and asked if that meant Lila had already kicked him out.
As soon as the box was safely inside the armored truck Andreas borrowed a cell phone from one of the cops watching the house and called Kouros. There was no answer. He tried Tassos.
The phone rang six times. “Hello.” The voice sounded as drowsy as Andreas’ had until five minutes before.
“Tassos, it’s Andreas, we have a big problem.”
“What’s wrong?” The tone now was crisp and professional.
“Get over here ASAP. Inside one of the gift boxes from Ilias’ shop was a threat to kill Tassaki if we don’t walk away from the Tinos investig
ation.”
Tassos didn’t respond for a few seconds. “It’s my fault. I never should have made an exception for the old man’s packages.”
“I’m sure he’s not part of any of this. Besides, I don’t think what’s inside is lethal. If it were it would have gone off the moment Lila opened the box.” Andreas crossed himself. “But I want an explosives expert over here now, and anybody else you can think of who might know about booby-trapped packages. There could be anthrax or God knows what other sort of biological or chemical agent inside.”
“I’ll have someone there within an hour. But I want to find out how something like that ended up in a gift box intended for you.”
“Good. Just get over here as soon as you can. Any idea where Yianni is? He’s not answering his phone.”
“On our couch. Out cold. As of three hours ago.”
“Wake him up and bring him with you. Bye.”
Andreas drew in and let out a deep breath. He handed the phone back to the cop. “Thanks. Now, I want you to go inside the house and not move from my son’s side until I tell you it’s okay. No matter what anyone else tells you, don’t move unless I say it’s okay. Understand?”
The cop nodded and both men started back toward the house. Andreas saw Lila standing in the doorway, arms crossed in front of her robe.
Lila’s face was stone. “Tomorrow is now.”
***
Andreas’ explanation continued for a good hour after an interruption by the arrival of two military demolition experts from the Greek air force’s mountaintop radar installation on the far northeast end of Mykonos. There was another, brief interruption when Tassos and Kouros showed up, but they chose to stay with the bomb squad where, according to Kouros, “things might be safer.”
Andreas and Lila were sitting in the library by a window that allowed Andreas to keep an eye on what was going on outside. He could tell from the way the experts were looking at their watches and leaning against the armored truck that they must be waiting for him. No problem, Tassos and Yianni would keep them there until he came out.
“So, that’s all of it, right up until this very moment. Any questions?”
When Andreas had begun his explanation Lila had a lot of questions, but they’d tailed off and for the last fifteen minutes she’d said not a word.
Lila shook her head. “I can’t believe this. It sounds like one of those terrible conspiracy films I can’t bear to watch.”
Andreas nodded. “I know what you mean. I wish it were made up, but it’s not.”
“If someone put this in a book no one would believe it.”
Andreas stood up. “I’ve got to go outside and see what the bomb boys have to say.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Andreas gestured no. “Not until I know it’s safe.”
“But—”
“No buts. As soon as I know it’s safe, I’ll include you. Until then, wait here.”
“Okay, but I’ll be watching through the window.”
Andreas kissed her on the forehead. “I would expect nothing less.”
As soon as Andreas stepped out the front door, Tassos waved for him to come to the back of the truck.
“So, what do we have?” said Andreas.
“The experts say, ‘A non-explosive, non-corrosive, not a threat package,’” said Tassos.
“Are they sure?”
Tassos pointed to a thin man leaning against the front of the truck chatting with a chubby guy smoking a cigarette. “Ask him, he’s in charge.”
The thin man spoke without being asked. “It was simple, almost as if whoever put this thing together made it easy for us to run our tests. It’s just a common, everyday baby doll with no potential chemical or biological risks.”
“Find any prints or DNA possibilities?” said Andreas.
The thin man gestured no. “Rarely do on professional jobs. Even amateurs are learning how to be careful from all those TV crime scene shows.”
“The salesgirl at the jewelry shop said the woman who bought the gift wore the sort of white cotton gloves people use not to tarnish silver,” said Tassos.
Andreas looked at Tassos and Kouros. “Let’s go inside. We have things to talk about.”
Andreas thanked the two experts, and the three cops walked toward the house.
“Sir,” said the chubby man.
Andreas turned. “Yes.”
“Do you want the doll?”
Andreas paused, then motioned for Yianni to take it. “Yes, thank you. It will be inspiration for what’s to come.”
***
Lila, Andreas, Tassos, and Kouros sat in the library.
“So, how did the package get here?” said Andreas.
Tassos said, “A middle-age woman purchased the bowl. Said it was a gift from her boss who wanted it delivered to the wedding. No names and she paid in cash. The salesgirl didn’t know the woman and never saw what she put in the box, thought it was just a card. I’m sure the woman’s long gone by now.”
“What was her nationality?” said Andreas.
“The salesgirl wasn’t sure. They spoke in Greek, but the woman had a strange accent.”
“What kind of accent?”
“None she recognized. She said that at times the woman sounded like a native Greek, at other times from somewhere else.”
“Maybe she was faking the accent?” said Kouros.
“Could be,” said Tassos.
“I thought that shop had surveillance cameras?” said Kouros.
“Only one. And the woman made sure to keep her back to it at all times,” said Tassos.
“So, what do we know?” said Andreas.
“Five dead. Three tsigani, two non-Greeks. Two of them after talking to us,” said Tassos.
“Two were killed instantly, two rendered unconscious first,” said Andreas.
“Make that three in the ‘unconscious’ category,” said Tassos.
“Three?”
“The Syros coroner called me this morning with results on the Pakistani’s autopsy. He was drugged and out of it when his throat was cut.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Andreas’ tone was sharp.
Tassos paused. “I know you’re tense, but at the time of his call I was not in much better condition than the corpse.”
Andreas drew in and let out a breath. “Sorry. I am tense.”
“We all are,” said Kouros.
Lila shook her head. “Not me. Tense is not the word I would use to describe my feelings at the moment.”
Andreas looked at the floor, “If you’re going to tell me to give up on the investigation—”
“Are you insane? I’m way beyond tense. I’m in the redline zone of angry mother. I want you to find the goddamned bastards behind this.”
Andreas laughed. “Sorry, that was a nervous laugh.” Andreas leaned over and kissed Lila on the cheek.
“What was the drug?” said Kouros.
“One of those date rape drugs that puts the target in no condition to resist. The tasteless, invisible kind found all over the islands this time of the year.”
“Sounds like another dead end,” said Kouros.
“What else do we have?” said Andreas.
“Two of your business cards. One on the Pakistani, one on the doll,” said Kouros.
“Make that three,” said Andreas. “You’re forgetting the one they found in the pocket of the third dead Carausii brother, Punka.”
Tassos said, “With that record, you ought to think twice about giving out your business card to anyone you want to keep breathing.”
“Can’t imagine what might happen to someone who gets a Christmas card from you,” said Kouros.
“Okay, guys, enough with the jokes. We’ve got—” Andreas slammed his hands together. “That’s it.”
“What’s ‘it’?” said Tassos.
“I gave four cards to people I talked to about this case. Anyone care to bet if one of them ended up on that doll?”
Andreas said, “One to the two women in that metanastes bar, and—”
Tassos interrupted, “One to my niece. I can vouch for Eleni.”
“I’m not suggesting she’s involved. I just want to know what she did with my card.”
“It’s probably still in her purse,” said Tassos.
“Good, then that leaves us with the two women from the bar. But ask Eleni anyway. Yianni, I want you to locate those two other women and find out what they did with my card.”
“I don’t know what they look like.”
Andreas looked at Tassos.
Tassos shrugged. “I never really got a good look at them. I was busy with the owner. You’re the only one who talked to them.”
“Sounds to me as if you’re about to take a trip to Tinos,” said Lila.
“Not until after you and Tassaki are out of here.”
“Where do you have in mind for us to go?”
“To where we planned.”
“Capri? But that was for our honeymoon.”
Andreas shrugged. “I’m open to other suggestions. But I want you out of Greece for now.”
Lila frowned. “Okay, but I’m taking Marietta with me.”
“Fine, I’ll get there as soon as I can. But first I have a shepherd to catch.”
“A what?” said Lila.
“Shepherd. That’s what they’re calling whoever’s behind bringing all the new workers I told you about to Tinos,” said Andreas.
“And don’t forget the priest,” said Tassos.
“A priest?” said Lila.
“Not a real priest. At least as far as we know. The murdered Pakistani referred to the men he worked with as ‘brothers’ and said he was recruited to Tinos by someone who called himself a ‘priest,’” said Tassos.
“The two Romanians working with the Pakistani told us the same thing. But they said it wasn’t the same priest as recruited the Pakistani,” said Kouros.
Lila started rocking back and forth on her chair.
“What’s on your mind?” said Andreas.
“Nothing,” said Lila.
Target: Tinos Page 16
