Assassins of Athens

Andreas nodded. 'Theo, anything to add?'

As if consciously trying to distance himself from whatever impression George may have been trying to create about his own preferences, Theo said, 'George's parents are in the fashion business; he knows that sort of stuff. Personally, I thought she was the greatest piece of ass ever to walk alone into that place.'

'We all agreed on that, Theo,' said George. 'But Sotiris said she had to be a hooker. "Nothing that beautiful could be in here for free," he said. We thought she was waiting for someone. But she sat alone at the next table just listening to the music. Didn't even try starting a conversation with us.'

'Was that unusual?'

'Well, a lot of people tried breaking into our crowd. They'd do whatever they could to get noticed by us,' said Theo.

He wondered if these kids had any idea how the other half — make that 99.5 % — lived. Andreas actually felt a little sorry for them. In a few years they'd be breaking into a new crowd, one the Greek media liked to call 'the 700ers,' kids raised among the clothes, cars, money, boats, and vacations of their (often debt-strapped) parents, thinking life always would be easy for them, until running head-on into the typical Greek university graduate's starting salary of seven hundred euros per month. Hardly enough to pay one night's bar bill at the Angel Club.

'So, how did they hook up?'

'Sotiris leaned over and asked if she wanted to join us. She said, "No." He asked if he could buy her a drink. She said, "No." He asked if he could marry her, and she laughed.'

'That's when he made his move,' said George. 'He slid out of his chair and onto the one next to her.'

'He was the best at picking up girls. A super-kamaki,' said Theo.

They were talking more naturally than they had in front of their parents, and it made them sound like bravado-driven sixteen-year-olds; but he couldn't fault them for being so naive. Most men, make that virtually all, would be the same in pursuit of a woman that hot. And once there's booze involved, every guy thinks he has a shot. It's the Greek man's mentality. They take great pride in what they imagine to be their skills at pursuing women, even describing their 'whatever-it-takes' behavior by the name for the little trident their ancestors once used to hunt octopus: kamaki.

'Did anyone else talk to her?'

'Not that I noticed,' said Theo.

Andreas looked at the other boy. George gave a quick upward jerk of his head in the Greek style for 'no.'

'How long was she sitting there before Sotiris said something to her?'

'Maybe ten minutes,' said George.

Andreas shook his head. 'Come on guys, the "greatest piece of ass" ever to walk into one of the biggest kamaki joints in all of Athens is sitting alone at the table next to you, and no one but Sotiris talked to her? For ten seconds, maybe. For ten minutes, never. Someone must have. Think harder.' He raised his voice a bit.

Theo shook his head. 'No, I never saw anyone talk to her.'

George shut his eyes. 'I'm trying to remember, but neither of us ever spoke to her, either. And, once Sotiris joined her, the table was off-limits.'

'What do you mean, "off-limits"?'

George opened his eyes. 'We knew he was doing his thing and we didn't want to interfere. So we started talking to other friends and left them alone.'

'And the bouncers kept everyone else away from her table.' It was Theo.

'What bouncers?'

'Two guys in club tee shirts.'

'Was that before or after Sotiris was with her?'

'After.'

George added, 'But I saw them stop a few different guys heading toward her table before Sotiris spoke to her. I remember, because I was trying to guess who she might be waiting for.'

'Why did the bouncers stop them?'

George shook his head. 'Don't know, but our table and hers were in a section of the club set off from the rest of the room by a velvet rope. The club decided who got past the rope and where they could sit. Maybe she told them she wanted to be alone.'

Andreas looked at Kouros, rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes, then dropped his hands to smack his thighs as he focused back on the boys. 'So, can you describe the two bouncers?'

George answered. 'Probably late twenties, both about six-four, two hundred-forty pounds, shaved heads, close-cropped beards, dark. They looked like every other gorilla-bouncer you expect to see in a club.'

Andreas had the boys run through the rest of what they remembered. Sotiris had left with the girl about forty minutes after they started talking, telling his friends he wouldn't be back that night and if his parents called the next day to ask where he was, they should say he was 'asleep at Theo's house.' It would not be the first time they'd told that story to Sotiris' parents. Andreas made them repeat everything three more times, with Kouros getting in some practice in the bad cop role. He shook them up a bit, but what they said remained essentially unchanged: nothing seemed out of the ordinary to either of them, although George recalled one of the bouncers disappeared shortly before Sotiris and the girl left the club. They never saw their friend again.

4

They took the back streets of Psychiko into Athens. It was evening rush hour and, though at times it seemed they were following roads laid out by pavers chasing wandering goats, this was the fastest way back to headquarters.

'I think we should stop by the Angel Club before it gets busy.' Andreas hadn't said much since getting in the car.

'That won't be until after midnight.'

'I meant before it opens. I doubt the two gorillas with the girl worked there or, if they did, they're still around, but the ever-charming Angel Club staff is our only lead to them.'

Kouros glanced in the direction of their office as he drove across Alexandras Avenue onto a road leading to one that wound around Lykavittos, Athens' majestic sister hill to the Acropolis. This was a long way to get to the club, but potentially quicker in traffic. On the east side of Lykavittos lay Kolonaki, where wealthy Athenians preferring a more citified lifestyle lived among post-World War II apartment buildings and the rare traditional home not yet sacrificed to developers.

Kouros dodged his way through Kolonaki and the bustling back streets of old Athenian neighborhoods aiming for Pireos Street.

'I think we better be ready for trouble,' said Andreas.

'Should we call for backup?'

Andreas shook his head. 'No, then we'd have to behave.' He grinned and shot a light jab at Kouros' arm. 'We're better off if they think we're as nasty as they are. That way they might try to make a deal. If we come in with backup, they'll just call for a lawyer.'

'Someone at that club had to be in on-' Kouros slammed on his brakes as a motorcyclist shot in front of them out of a garage. 'Malaka! The bastard never looked!'

'Nice language.' Andreas nibbled at his lower lip. 'Yeah, it was a setup from the start. An irresistible girl at the next table, gorillas keeping everyone else away.' Andreas shook his head. 'I just find it hard to believe that someone from a family as prominent as the Linardos family would be behind such a premeditated, cold-blooded killing of an innocent sixteen-year-old boy.'

'To get back at the father for what he did to the Linardos girl?'

'I understand the motive, Yianni. It's just that killing a child as revenge for the sins of the father…' he let the words trail off. 'How could anyone be so naive or arrogant not to realize a Linardos would be our number-one suspect?'

'Maybe the boy wasn't supposed to die; something went wrong?'

'Maybe. But as bizarre as it sounds, the parents' reaction wasn't complete shock at what happened to their boy. It was almost as if they knew something like that could happen, and an idea of who did it.'