The Green Lady (20 page)

‘Jesus. No, but something narrow and sharp was used on the burned man.'

‘These are not men to be messed with.'

Xanthakos refilled their glasses. ‘Why would Brigadier K give the green light to a violent enforcer or enforcers during the Olympic Games? It doesn't make sense.'

Mavros took a long pull of the excellent local wine. ‘Maybe not to a bureaucrat like you.'

‘Here we go,' Telemachos said, with a wide smile. ‘Conspiracy central.'

‘Look, you must know that senior cops in the cities have to do favours for the big beasts who approve their positions. Not just politicians, but the establishment groupings behind them.'

‘So you're saying the brigadier's helping a faceless one, no doubt some extremely wealthy individual.'

‘Or family, yes.'

‘And how would he or they be tied to the man who was set on fire?'

Mavros gave a crooked smile. ‘You tell me.'

The policeman pushed back his chair and stretched out his long legs. ‘Tell you what, exactly? We've nothing on the killer except that he drove a blue pickup.'

‘The victim's still unidentified?'

‘Correct – and likely to remain that way.' The deputy commissioner narrowed his eyes. ‘I'm going out on a limb here. I expect you to respect that, as well as respond in kind.'

Mavros nodded.

‘There was one weird thing. The dead man had seven shrivelled pomegranate seeds in his stomach.'

Persephone, Mavros thought immediately.

‘What?' Telemachos said. ‘That means something to you?'

Mavros remembered what Lambis Bitsos had told him about Kriaras's visit to Delphi and the beheaded body there. ‘It does, but let me ask you something first. Have you heard anything on the grapevine about a murder in the stadium at Delphi?'

The policeman stared at him. ‘How the—'

‘Were there any pomegranate seeds in that body? You know, don't you?'

Xanthakos nodded slowly. ‘If this gets out . . .'

‘It won't.'

‘I'm a good friend of the Fokidha medical examiner. He told me there were five seeds in the severed head's mouth.'

‘Five?'

‘Yes, why?'

‘Think about it. Seven in your burned man and five in the Delphi victim. Where's the—'

‘Body with six seeds.' Telemachos's eyes were wide.

‘Exactly.'

‘But what's the significance of the pomegranate seeds?'

Mavros breathed a sigh of relief. A detour into mythology would mean he could keep Lia Poulou's disappearance and Rovertos Bekakos's child abuse to himself, at least for the time being.

‘Do you remember the story of Hades and how he abducted – and raped, according to some versions – Persephone, daughter of Demeter?'

Telemachos Xanthakos, former classicist, was on familiar ground. As Mavros started to talk, he raised a hand for yet more wine.

L
ambis Bitsos got a call from a stringer on a Trikkala newspaper not long after midnight. The guy, a boozer with skin yellower than mimosa blossom, had heard about the dead woman from a tame cop before the Ministry of Public Order imposed a media blackout. Bitsos had jumped straight into his car and driven north. The traffic was light overnight and he reached the Thessalian city before 4 a.m. He met the local journalist in a bar near the statue of Asklepios, god of medicine, whose earliest temple had reputedly been in the vicinity.

The stringer, Yiannis Manos, short and pot-bellied, inclined his head towards the statue. ‘Didn't do the victim much good, did he?'

‘Apparently not,' Bitsos said, signalling for drinks. ‘What's that?'

‘Whisky and lemon.'

‘Christ and the Holy Mother, no wonder you're that colour. Ouzo for me,' he said to the waiter. ‘Lethe, if you've got it.' He gave Manos a warning look. ‘Not that I want you forgetting anything.'

‘Small chance of that. Do you know what they found?'

‘I've just driven over two hundred and fifty kilometres to hear that, fool.'

Manos gulped at his drink. ‘Yes, of course. It's all embargoed, of course, so you can't use anything.'

‘I'll handle that. Speak.'

‘I'll need a thousand for this one.'

Bitsos rolled his eyes, but he knew he was over a barrel – the piss-head was quite capable of going to the competition. ‘A thousand if it's as juicy as you said.'

‘It's juicy, all right.' The stringer drank again. ‘How's this for starters? Tongue removed and nailed to the wall above the bed? The victim, Amanda Velouchioti, professor of modern history at Athens University, aged sixty-two, divorced, no children, was lying on the said bed. She was naked, wrists and ankles tied to the bedstead.' He drank again. ‘Get this. Her hair – silver-grey, apparently – had been cut off and spread around her head. Like the glow around the saint's face on an icon, according to my cop. Oh, and then there were her eyes.'

Bitsos looked up from his notebook. Though he had seen it all in his career, there was something sickening about the way Manos was recounting the tale. ‘What about her eyes?' he asked, his voice even.

‘They were on the pillow, one beside each ear.'

‘Fuck.'

‘There's more.'

‘What a surprise.'

‘In her eye sockets, the bastard had put pomegranate seeds, three in each.'

Bitsos gulped ouzo. Six seeds, he thought. Five in the head at Delphi. What was the betting that there were seven somewhere in the burned man on Kithairon?

‘Hang on,' he said, looking at his notes. ‘You haven't told me the cause of death.'

‘Do I look like a medical examiner?'

‘You look like shit. How did she die? And when?'

‘At least three days ago, was the estimate. The cops went round because an old neighbour complained about the stink.'

‘So she'd have been all swollen up.'

‘Yes, but it was clear enough what did for her?'

‘Oh yes?'

Manos emptied his glass. ‘There was an ancient dagger – possibly a replica – in her heart.'

Lambis Bitsos sat back. The drive had been worth it, media blackout or not. Now, before he squeezed Manos completely dry, he needed something greasy and substantial to eat.

‘You can stay at my place,' Telemachos Xanthakos said.

Mavros looked at him as they walked down a quiet street. ‘Aren't there any hotels here?'

‘Of course, but why waste your money? Then again, your client will pay.'

Mavros was interested by the policeman – he was more like a normal human being than any cop he'd ever met, but he'd admitted to being on Mavros's case, which made him, if not the enemy, at least not exactly a friend. Then there was the issue of his sexuality. Mavros had gay friends and had no problem with them. On the other hand, they knew he was hetero.

Xanthakos smiled. ‘Don't worry, I won't come on to you. I know you have a long-term female partner.'

‘Is that right?' Mavros demanded, irritated by the extent of the research that the deputy commissioner had carried out. ‘Unfortunately your information's out of date. Niki and I are no longer together.'

‘I'm sorry about that.' Xanthakos smiled. ‘Maybe you'd like to try a walk on the wild side?'

Before Mavros could answer, his phone rang. It was Lykos.

‘Where are you, Alex?' the young man said anxiously. ‘Something bad's gone down.'

‘What is it?'

‘Akis saw a guy aiming a gun at us. He ran at him and got himself knocked out. I've called an ambulance. His attacker drove off before I could get to him.'

‘What did the man look like?'

‘Tall and well built. There was a cap on his head and I didn't see his face. He was wearing a black handkerchief over his face like a cowboy.'

‘And the gun?'

‘It was weird looking thing, like an air rifle, but with a bigger barrel. He took it with him. He drove off in a blue pickup. I didn't get the registration number.'

‘But you and Angeliki are OK?'

‘Yes. A bit shaken, but . . .'

‘Right. Lock up the office and go home.'

‘We don't have a home, just the VW van.'

‘All right, stay inside the office. Close all the shutters. I'll be back in under an hour.'

‘Alex, should we call the police?'

‘I'll handle that.' He cut the connection and turned to Xanthakos. ‘Come on, we've got to get back to Kypseli. I think the Son just tried to shoot the ecologists.'

‘What?'

As they jogged to the policeman's car, Mavros filled him in.

‘A blue pickup?' Xanthakos said. ‘The killer of the burned man drove one of those.'

‘What a surprise.' Mavros was thrust back in his seat before he'd got the belt on. ‘Steady, Telemache. Let's get there in one piece.'

They drove out of Livadheia, siren wailing. The deputy commissioner cut it as he got on the radio to his officers in Paradheisos, telling them to set up blocks on the roads out of the town and to be careful – the suspect was armed.

‘The Son, if that's who it is, might have got out of the immediate vicinity already. You should block the road in and out of Dhistomo too.'

Xanthakos nodded and gave the order.

‘Are there any other routes he could have used?'

‘He could have gone the other way from Kypseli, heading towards Itea. And then there's the HMC works. There's a road heading east on the other side of it, but he'd have to pass through the plant's security people to get to it.' He made more calls. ‘I presume this Son is capable of looking after himself.'

Mavros nodded. ‘You saw what he did with the burned man and it sounds like he was in complete control in Delphi.'

‘Shit!' The deputy commissioner slowed as they approached Dhistomo, but not much. ‘That was something else the Fokidha medical examiner told me. The victim had a puncture mark in his back. The body was taken away by Kriaras's people before he could do toxicology, but he thinks the
phylax
was felled by a dart or the like.'

‘Maybe that's what the strange gun fires,' Mavros said, watching as a white pickup passed through the road block ahead. As Xanthakos spoke to the officers, he considered what that meant. Why would the Son be knocking people out with a tranquilliser gun? Answer – to get them into a state in which he could question them. If they didn't answer, they were either burned or decapitated. But what was he asking them? Where Lia Poulou was? Why would the unidentified man on the mountain and an ancient site guard be suspected of knowing the missing girl's whereabouts? Were they members of a group that had kidnapped her? If so, Lia would be in danger following those savage deaths.

They passed through the narrow defile towards the coast, the bulk of the hills on either side lowering in the moonlight. No blue pickup passed and the officers at the checkpoint at Paradheisos confirmed they hadn't seen one. Xanthakos called the other road blocks and the HMC people. None of them had seen the vehicle either. He gave orders that the blockades stay in place till dawn.

‘I can't justify impeding the traffic to and from the HMC plant for a second day on what is nothing more than mild suspicion,' he said, avoiding Mavros's eyes.

‘Mild suspicion?' Mavros said, in disgust. ‘Lykos and Angeliki nearly got shot. Who knows what he would have done to them subsequently?'

The policeman nodded. ‘I know, but I haven't got enough to go on. Let's hear what the ecologists have to say.'

‘I'll do that on my own. You seem like a levelheaded guy to me, but they won't necessarily see it that way.'

Xanthakos's gaze hardened. ‘You're telling me how to do my job.'

‘No, Telemache. I'll pass on anything important, though I think Lykos already gave me all that counts. You need to find the Son. That fucker's capable of anything.'

‘If it's him.'

Mavros chewed his lip. ‘Trust me, it's him.'

Xanthakos dropped him off at the Citroen and went to check on his officers. Mavros looked around and sniffed the hot night air. The bastard was close, he was sure of it. Had he found somewhere to hide out on his own, or was he being looked after?

Lykos and Angeliki were huddled in the back room of the office, arms round each other.

‘Are you sure Akis is all right?' the young woman asked.

‘I'm not a doctor. You heard the paramedic. He should have gone for a scan, but he swore he was all right. They couldn't force him.'

‘He did wake up quite quickly.'

Lykos hugged her closer. ‘He's a tough one, there's no doubting that. He would have stayed on the trailer if the bulldozer had driven into it.'

‘A martyr for the cause. A month ago, we didn't even know him.'

‘He has his reasons, my love, you know that.'

Angeliki nodded. ‘I'm just worried that he'll harm one of the enemy and we'll get shut down.'

‘It's up to us to make sure that doesn't happen.'

‘Easier said than done. He's on the roof with his shotgun and harpoons. What if that man comes back?'

Lykos turned towards the statue of Demeter. ‘The Green Lady will protect us. You know that.'

‘Yes, she will.' Angeliki paused. ‘Are you sure we can trust Alex Mavros?'

Lykos kissed her on the cheek. ‘Not more than we have to, no. From what we saw on the Internet, his heart is in the right place. He's certainly more reliable than the cops.'

‘Except he's got an agenda and we don't know what it is.'

‘Who cares, if it's to our benefit? Putting him on that bastard Bekakos's tail was one of my better thoughts, even if he was heading there under his own steam.'

Angeliki lowered her head. ‘I hope he didn't disturb poor Ourania with his questions.'

‘It'll be even worse if Bekakos's thugs saw him come out of the house. Akis said he thought they arrived afterwards, but he wasn't sure.'