"Why didn't you go to my house instead of standing outside and getting wet?"
"I wanted to see you alone."
He took a deep breath. Somebody else who was taking deep breaths. Everyone I'd come into contact with that day was either crying or sighing. I couldn't stay put on the corner. I drove away and once more began going around and around the block.
"I was with her last night. That's why I wanted to see you alone. I didn't want to tell you in front of others."
I froze. I stepped on the brake without thinking. The Mirafiori shook and came to a halt, while the driver behind me started sounding his horn, enraged. But I could hear nothing. My eyes were fixed on Thanassis. He avoided them and looked out through the windshield.
"Why did you send me?" he said. "I didn't want to go. You were the one who forced me to go."
I knew where he was leading. If the next day it got around that he was with Karayoryi just before she was murdered, he'd say that I'd sent him, that he was carrying out my orders. Of course, I'd made it clear to him from the very first that I'd take full responsibility, but he was reminding me just in case, so that he wouldn't have to worry his head. He might tell me every morning at nine that he was a moron, but as soon as things got rough, he used that to duck all responsibility. I didn't hold it against him. In his position I would have done the same. If Thanassis were found to be mixed up in Karayoryi's murder, there'd be such a scandal that Ghikas would undoubtedly have me suspended. The thought made me shudder. "Where did you go with her?" I asked, to get some idea of who might have seen them together.
"To a small bar-restaurant in Psyrri, near Agion Anargyron Square."
So that's why she'd phoned her sister to say that she wouldn't be able to make it. Not because of any revelation, but because she'd arranged to go out with Thanassis.
"Did anyone see you?"
"Just a couple, friends of hers, but she didn't introduce me. Nobody I knew saw us, I'm sure, because it was one of those places for those poseurs who pretend to be lowlife and hang about between Psyrri, Gazi, and Metaxourgeio."
"Where did you meet?"
"In Agion Anargyron Square. We went in separate cars." He thought a moment and said: "The only place we might have been seen together was when I waited for her in front of the church while she went to the kiosk for cigarettes. Then again, I doubt it."
"What time was that?"
"Just after nine… We were going to meet at nine, but she was about fifteen minutes late." He quickly added, "Don't worry, I didn't get out. I waited for her in the car. In any case, I was careful."
"And did you leave separately?"
"Yes. Ya-" He was going to say her name, but it stuck in his throat and he stopped. "She left at around eleven. I paid and left a couple of minutes later."
He took the receipt out of his pocket and handed it to me. The bill was for 11,800 drachmas. Six thousand apiece to eat in a dive in Psyrri. Everywhere else, the smart ones sharpen their minds in the schools and universities. In Greece, they sharpen them on the suckers. The more suckers there are around, the more smart ones there are.
"I'll hang on to the receipt. And as for Karayoryi, you won't say a word to anyone. You haven't seen her or spoken to her. Otherwise, we'll both be up the creek."
"Okay."
I put the receipt in my pocket, took out my wallet, and counted out 12,000 drachmas. As I was handing him the money, I felt as if I were staking my all in an illegal gambling joint. At least there were two things in that hideous mess that gave me relief. One was that Thanassis had in all probability not been seen with Karayoryi. The other was that I now knew for certain what Karayoryi had been doing from about nine that evening till the time she was killed.
Thanassis was about to get out, but I stopped him. "Did Karayoryi make any phone calls while you were together?"
"Yes, just before she left. To be exact, she called and left." He looked at me puzzled. "Why?" he asked.
"She called Kostarakou, a colleague of hers. She told her to make sure she watched the late-night news because she was going to drop a bombshell. She also told her that if anything happened to her, she wanted Kostarakou to carry on the investigation."
"What was the bombshell?"
"Kostarakou says she doesn't know. But she might be hiding it to get it on the air herself and feather her own nest. Did she say anything to you about being in danger or being afraid?"
"No," he answered straightaway. "If she'd said anything like that to me, I'd have told you immediately. Just the opposite. She was in high spirits and kept teasing me about the force."
Then I remembered why I'd sent him to get in with Karayoryi. "What about that business with the Albanians and the kids, did you find out anything?" Not that I was particularly interested any longer, but at least I'd have something to show for my twelve thousand.
He smiled. "Over dinner, I kept bringing the conversation around to that, but she was as slippery as an eel. In the end she told me that she wanted to sleep with me first and that if I was good in bed, she might tell me something more."
A little earlier, the niece had told me that her aunt made compromises and then took it out on herself. A nymphomaniac and a seductress, but one who felt remorse. So Robespierre was right. Revolutionaries are like that. They make a mess of the revolution, but they are on the right wavelength with the girls at the barricades.
CHAPTER 15
I closed the door and expected to hear the soap cop yelling or the prosecutor whining, but I heard nothing. The living room was dark and the TV was off. In the kitchen I found a saucepan full of spinach and rice. Adriani had disappeared. I wondered where on earth she might have gone, because she hardly ever went out in the evenings. Then I realized that I had the house to myself and that put me in a good mood.
I took down Dimitrakos and jumped onto the bed in my clothes. I did remove my shoes. I didn't want to give Adriani any excuse, because, given the state I was in, I was simply waiting for someone to let fly at and she would be the one to bear the brunt of it. I opened the dictionary and fell randomly on the letter D. Deface = to spoil or mar the surface, legibility or appearance of, disfigure. Defaceable (adj.); defacement (n.); defacer (n.). Karayoryi had defaced him, all right. She'd got him out of her face in double-quick time. But what was the game she had been playing with Petratos? She had got what she wanted from him. But what about him? What did he want from her that made him threaten her? And what did it mean in that first letter when he said he'd been surprised to see her? He saw her at the studio every day. Had he seen her somewhere else? Sure, his asking to see her to talk to her was easily explained. He couldn't talk to her at the studio, fair enough, and he wanted them to meet away from the office.
"Are you here?" Over the top of the dictionary I saw Adriani standing in the doorway and smiling at me. "Good boy, you took your shoes off," she said.
"Where have you been?"
"You'll see. I've a surprise for you."
She dashed out. Outside I could hear the sound of plastic bags, boxes being opened, paper being torn. In a few minutes she came back into the room, but her hands were empty.
"What do you think? Do they suit me?"
She stretched out a leg, like a veteran ballerina, and only then did I notice the boots. They reached almost to her knee and were dark brown and shiny.
"Well?" Adriani said, impatiently.
She was expecting me to express my admiration, and, I have to say, the boots were impressive. But I was overcome by an unexpected vexation, born no doubt of stinginess. I'd paid thirty-five thousand for them, and, as if that weren't enough, I'd forked out another twelve thousand for Thanassis's restaurant bill, so that in two days I'd spent fifty thousand, money down the drain. I was annoyed with myself: If I'd adopted my usual tactics, I'd only have been twelve thousand poorer and she would still be sweet-talking me.