Mykonos After Midnight (5 page)

Chapter Seven

Andreas’ office sat on the fourth floor of Athens General Police Headquarters, next to a major hospital, across the street from the stadium of one of Greece’s two most popular soccer teams, and down the block from Greece’s Supreme Court. Better known as GADA, police headquarters lay at the heart of much of what affected the more than five million souls living in Athens. But Andreas’ office looked away from all of that and its two long windows didn’t offer much of a view. Andreas liked it that way. Fewer distractions. Besides, most of the time the blinds were closed. Too many prying eyes from up on high.

At the moment, his office looked like a clandestine peep show parlor. Andreas, Kouros, and Maggie sat huddled behind his desk staring at images flashing across a computer screen. It was compilation of film clips shot at different times and different locations.

“Jesus, Maggie, I’m embarrassed to be watching this stuff with you. It’s like watching porn with my mother.”

“Your mother would have better taste. Never saw so many naked, pot-bellied men in my life. In one place that is.” She smiled.

“Pot-bellied is generous,” said Kouros.

“We’re not all in our twenties,” said Maggie.

“Yeah, and neither are the girls. The oldest looks about eighteen,” said Andreas.

“I wonder if they knew Christos was filming them?”

“I’d say not,” said Maggie. “None of the men is trying to hold in his belly.

Andreas glanced at Maggie. “Women notice that sort of thing?”

She patted Andreas’ belly. “Don’t worry, Lila will tell you if it gets out of control.”

Andreas looked down and squeezed his belly. “It’s less than an inch.”

“Two, but like I said, ‘Lila will tell you.’”

“Uhh, folks, is that who I think it is making a grand appearance?” said Kouros.

A man in his fifties and a boy in his teens, alone in one of the bedrooms in Christos’ house. The scene progressed to its inevitable, predictable conclusion.

“Jesus. I can’t believe what I just saw,” said Kouros.

“And we still have more than half the videos to watch,” said Andreas.

“The photographs were bad enough, but these videos are…” Maggie shook her head. “I’m not a prude, guys. You know that. And I know men screw around, especially politicians, but what I’m seeing here is…”

Kouros finished her thought. “Disgusting.”

“And it’s not just politicians. We’ve got business leaders, academics, clerics––” Andreas tossed his hands up in front of his face and waved circles in the air.

“It’s just what Tassos thought from the ledger entries. What’s in here explains why Christos had them all…” Kouros paused…“literally ‘by the balls.’”

“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” Maggie smacked Kouros on the back of his head.

“Now you
are
acting like my mother.”

The phone rang and Maggie picked it up. “Chief Inspector Kaldis’ office.”

She paused. “Hi, my love. I’m with the Chief and Yianni now. We’re watching porn films. I’ll put you on speakerphone.”

Tassos’ voice came bellowing through the speaker. “Glad to hear you guys are having such a fine time corrupting my girlfriend.”

“We need her. She’s the only one of us who keeps up on who’s prominent in the news,” said Andreas.

“With or without their clothes on,” said Kouros.

Maggie smacked him again.

“Well, I’m back on Syros and just received pictures of another naked body. But you won’t want to see this one.”

“Of Christos?” said Andreas.

“No, his girlfriend. Polish police fished her body out of a pond yesterday in Bialystok. It wasn’t really a pond, more like the cesspool for a toxic waste dump. They identified her from prints taken on a prostitution bust a few years back. The Poles notified Europol they’d found the girl Europol was looking for, and Europol called me.”

“How’d she die?”

“Drowned and strangled. But not in the cesspool. Best guess from what they found in her lungs is a bathtub. Probably raped, too. And there was no effort to hide the body. It was thrown naked into the cesspool, not even weighted down.”

“It has to tie into Christos’ murder,” said Kouros.

“The question is, ‘How?’” said Andreas.

“Local police said she left Poland a few years back after her boyfriend was arrested for drug dealing. He spent two years in prison. Just got out six weeks ago.”

“About the same time as the girlfriend’s first trip back to Poland,” said Kouros.

“Sounds like we have a suspect in two murders,” said Andreas.

“Wish it were that easy. I’ve seen photographs of the boyfriend. He’s about six-four, with blue eyes, light hair, and movie star good looks. He’s definitely not one of the two guys we caught on security cameras with the girlfriend on Mykonos.”

“What about those two? Any leads?” said Andreas.

“I sent photos taken off the security videos to the Polish police for an ID. Haven’t heard back yet.”

“We need a break,” said Kouros.

“At least the Polish police know who they’re looking for,” said Maggie.

“But where?” said Andreas. “From the sloppy way they disposed of the girl’s body I don’t think they intended on hanging around Bialystok. Or Poland for that matter.”

Tassos said, “If they headed east they could be in any of those ex-soviet peripheral satellites. It’s the Wild West out there. No way Europol will find them if that’s where they are.”

Andreas rubbed at his eyes. “Somehow I don’t think heading east is what they had in mind. Why kill the girl in a place where she could be identified if they were heading to a no-man’s land? No one would have cared what they did to her there.”

“And they could have sold her off to sex traders for fast cash,” said Kouros.

“Maybe she didn’t want to go and they were afraid she’d talk?” said Maggie.

“I don’t think so, my love. From what Christos’ maid overheard of the dead girl’s conversation with her boyfriend, she’d have followed him anywhere.”

“And she did,” said Kouros.

“So, why did they kill her?” said Maggie.

“Don’t know,” said Tassos. “But my guess would be that she no longer figured in their plans.”

“What plans?” said Kouros.

“Don’t know that either,” said Tassos.

Andreas shrugged. “Which means our best chance at finding a clue is likely in this briefcase.”

“Sounds like you have an exciting evening ahead of you,” said Tassos.

“Just a long one. The characters on these videos aren’t exactly movie star quality,” said Andreas.

“They even make you look good, Tassos,” said Kouros.

“Says the kitten to the tiger,” said Maggie.

“That’s my girl. You tell him.”

“Have the Polish police talked to the boyfriend?” said Andreas.

“Not yet. They can’t find him. They went to the address in Bialystok he gave when released from prison but the person living there said he never showed up. They think by now he’s out of the country.”

“Then they have him on a parole violation,” said Kouros.

“Nope. He served his full sentence. His debt to society is paid in full. And there’s an application underway to expunge his record of the conviction based on newly discovered exculpatory evidence showing he was framed for the drug bust by a competitor.”

“Why does that not make me feel comfortable?” said Andreas.

Maggie answered. “Because you’re a cop. You know better.”

“If the Polish police identify the dead girl’s two companions, maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll turn up somewhere they can be arrested,” said Kouros.

“If you’re into wishing, don’t forget to have the boyfriend with them. He’s the one I’d like to get my hands on,” said Andreas.

“Careful what you wish for,” said Maggie. “Sounds like a cold-blooded bastard to me.”

“I’m not looking to make him my next-door neighbor, Maggie. I want to find out what the hell is going on.”

“I’ll just be happy to nail the two bastards who murdered Christos,” said Tassos. “The rest of this is far too stressful for a man of my advanced years.”

“In other words, you think it’s a political hot potato,” said Andreas.

“More like radioactive.”

“Are you suggesting we end it with catching the two and forget about the boyfriend?”

“Would you listen if I did?” said Tassos.

“No.”

“Good, we need cops like you to keep cops like me from corrupting Yianni with ideas like self-preservation.”

“I love you.”

“I assume that was Maggie.”

“Yes, dear, and now if you’ll excuse us we have a lot of hard work left to do tonight.”

Kouros smiled. “Not so hard from what I’ve seen so far on the videos.”

Maggie smacked him twice more.

***

It was after three in the morning when Andreas crept into the bedroom. He’d showered in a guest bathroom at the other end of the apartment, and left his clothes outside the bedroom door. The room was pitch black but he dared not turn on a light. Gently, he pulled back the covers on his side of the bed and carefully slid in on his back next to his wife.

“You’re getting better at this, but still need some work on the cover pulling part.”

“Sorry, I tried not to wake you.”

“I’m just a light sleeper. I guess I’ve become a cop-wife. Always worried until her man is safely home.”

Images of that afternoon’s gunfight flashed though Andreas’ mind. He rolled onto his side and kissed Lila on the cheek.

“Is that all I get for such a moment of life-realizing clarity?” said Lila.

“Put it on my account.”

“You still owe me for the last time you said that.”

He laughed.

Lila ran her hand along his belly, stopping to feather her fingers just below his navel before sliding down to grip his testicles gently with her fingers and wrap her thumb around the base of his penis. She drew her fingers up and around to join her thumb and began firmly pulling up and down.

Ten seconds later she stopped, dropping her hand as she did. “Am I doing something wrong? Do you want me to go down on you?”

Andreas stretched toward his nightstand and turned on the lamp.

“Sorry. It has nothing to do with you. I just spent the afternoon and most of the night looking at some of the kinkiest pornographic videos you could imagine.”

“Are you telling me you spent all day surrounded by sex so you’d prefer not to get into it at home? When we agreed you should ‘leave your work at the office,’ that’s not the part I meant.”

“Trust me, if you saw what I saw you’d be off sex for a week. I’m just screwed up in the head tonight. But…”

Andreas rolled onto his side and slid his hand down under the sheet to between Lila’s thighs. She squirmed for an instant, but relaxed as his fingers began moving in rhythm to her breathing. He knew where she liked to be touched. Andreas kissed first one, then the other breast, taking care to flick at her nipples with his tongue, all in time with the stroking of his fingers and Lila’s moans. He slid his mouth down along her belly, and when he sensed she could stand no more his lips replaced his fingers between her thighs. She jerked at the sudden shift in pressure, but moaned again and again as he brought her to orgasm.

A minute passed. Andreas had not moved from between Lila’s legs or stopped his caressing.

“How do you always know just what to do to me?”

Andreas slid up onto Lila’s body and kissed her on the lips. “I can ask you the same question.” He spread her legs with his knee and searched between them with his erection until he found where his mouth had just been. He moved his hips to enter her and she pushed hers up to take him. He moved slowly at first, but Lila put her hands upon the cheeks of his ass and pulled at him to move faster. He wrapped an arm around her back, and with his other hand squeezed her ass and pulled her up toward him.

Andreas thrust in pace with Lila’s hands upon at his ass, and when she slid her hands down onto her own thighs, pulling them wider apart while urging him to drive harder and faster, he did until burying his face in her hair and moaning her name in his own release of rushing heat.

Neither moved for several minutes.

“Your account is now current.”

Andreas’ head lay buried in her hair. “Trust me, I’m laughing on the inside. There’s just no energy left to show emotion on the outside.”

Andreas pressed his hand on the mattress and rolled over onto his back. “Thank you for making me forget my day at the office.”

“Any time.” Lila patted his belly. “So what’s with all the porn?”

Andreas had long ago given up keeping secrets from his wife. Initially he’d refused to talk about his cases, arguing that a decision to involve her in one almost cost Lila her life. But with the birth of their son it was clear Lila had no interest in putting both of Tassaki’s parents at risk to bad guys.

And so he told her of his night watching decades of Athens’ most prestigious and influential folks dangle their peccadilloes and other things in every which way and place imaginable.

“Sounds like stuff for an
avant garde
film festival,” said Lila.

“More like outtakes from that American horror picture,
Night of the Living Dead
.”

Lila laughed. “Did you find anything that might help you solve Christos’ murder?”

“Anyone who knew what Christos had on them would qualify as a suspect. But there was nothing in the videos or on anything else in the safe that made one any more suspect than any other.

“We’ve got an open and shut case of murder against the now dead girlfriend and her two companions. What we don’t know is whether anyone else was involved and, if so, why? I don’t see how we’ll ever get answers to those questions if we can’t find her companions. And even if we do, I’d be surprised if they could finger anyone other than the dead girl’s Russian boyfriend.”

Andreas flicked his finger at one of Lila’s nipples. She gave a light smack to his hand and pulled the sheet up over her breast.

Andreas kissed her cheek. “If it is someone on the videos, why now? There’s nothing to indicate that Christos was using the videos to blackmail anyone for anything more than the same sort of protection he’d been getting for his business for years. Besides, having Christos killed before guaranteeing you’d get your hands on the incriminating evidence would be taking a hell of a risk.”