Murder in Mykonos

'Did you go into the caves?'

He nodded. 'There were no tracks but a lot of passageways. "Perfect hiding places for smugglers," he told me.'

That must be it, thought Andreas; Tassos is looking for a tunnel entrance. One that leads up to the temple. 'Officer, I want you to take me there now,' he said firmly.

'Yes, sir.'

At that moment he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, still a little edgy from it all. It was the deputy minister.

'I guess I owe you an apology, Chief.'

Andreas' mind was elsewhere — he had to help Tassos. 'Fine, no problem.'

'No, really, please come with me. My sister and niece want to thank you.'

Andreas felt trapped. He looked at the cop. 'Stay here, I'll be right back.'

When Catia saw Andreas, she ran to him, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him. 'I cannot thank you enough. I will pray for you every day.'

Andreas didn't know what to say; he just smiled and said, 'I'm glad she's safe.'

'I told my brother that if he didn't listen to what Officer Kouros told me I would never speak to him again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.' She kissed and hugged Andreas again. 'Come, I want you to meet my daughter.'

Andreas wanted to say, 'No, later,' but how could he? She led him to the helicopter where her daughter sat huddled under a blanket.

'Annika, this is Chief of Police Kaldis. He's the man who found you.'

The woman looked at him and said not a word. Andreas stared into her eyes. Neither spoke. Andreas felt as if he were in church. He bowed his head. She reached out and gently touched his hand. 'Thank you, sir, and bless you.'

He was about to say something when he heard the shot. Instinctively, he pulled his gun and swung around to stand between Annika and the direction of the sound, but it was too far away to be of any risk to her. 'Tassos!' He ran to the cop. 'Take me to those caves.'

Two more shots; five seconds apart.

'Hurry!' Andreas was praying as he ran — and thinking of his father's death. Tassos met them just outside the caves. The grim look he'd worn when Andreas last saw him was gone.

'Are you okay?' Andreas was out of breath from running.

'Yes.' His voice was easy.

'What happened?'

Tassos looked at the port cop. 'Why don't you go back and tell everyone everything's okay.' He waited until the cop left.

'Our killer's gone.' Tassos sounded as if he'd won the lottery.

'As in gone gone?' Andreas asked, still panting.

'As in gone dead!' Tassos replied, his voice as jubilant as if Greece had just won the World Cup.

'What happened?' Andreas asked, confused.

'I waited by the caves. I knew he had to come out of one of them. That's where the old-timers always said the secret tunnels must be.'

'You guessed right?' Andreas sounded surprised.

There was unabashed enthusiasm in Tassos' answer. 'Yes.' He nodded. 'He came out right in front of me.'

'Did he have a gun?' Andreas asked.

'No,' Tassos replied, sounding unconcerned.

'But the shots?' Andreas said, his concern mounting.

Tassos shrugged. 'Mine. The first took out his kneecap. I didn't feel like chasing him.'

'And the other two?' Andreas asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

'I decided to move the process along,' Tassos said.

'"Move the process along,''' Andreas repeated, shaking his head and staring at the ground between them. Now Tassos was pissing him off.

Tassos smiled. 'You know he did it, I know he did it, the court would know he did it, and every inmate in prison would know he did it. Even though there's no death penalty in Greece, sooner or later someone on the inside would kill him. So, I just moved the process along.'

Andreas kept staring at the ground. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'And the body?'

'It's back in one of those deep holes inside the cave. He'll never be found — at least not by mortals.' Tassos smiled again and punched Andreas on the arm. 'How do you like that, he gets to be buried with the gods.'

Andreas looked up at Tassos' face and wondered if he'd flipped.

A deadly serious look suddenly replaced Tassos' smile, and he spoke now through clenched teeth. 'May they enjoy torturing that bastard's black soul for all eternity.'

Maybe he has lost it, thought Andreas. 'What are we going to tell the deputy minister, the mayor?' Andreas paused, 'And everyone else?' After all, an unarmed prisoner in custody had just been murdered by a chief inspector.

Tassos' voice resumed its nonchalance. 'I don't know. I'm sure we'll figure something out on the way back.' He patted Andreas on the back, linked his arm through his and started them walking toward the museum.

Too many moral questions for such a short walk, thought Andreas. By the time they reached the museum the medevac helicopter had landed and taken off with Annika and Catia. Spiros and the mayor had stayed behind.

Spiros spoke first. 'Again, gentlemen, thank you for finding my niece.'

Tassos and Andreas simply nodded.

'So, how do we catch the man who did all this?' Spiros asked.

Andreas looked at Tassos to answer. 'Well, sir, I don't think that's going to be necessary,' said Tassos in a calm professional voice.

'What do you mean?' Spiros' voice seemed about to head toward its high-pitched anger range.

'Like I said,' Tassos said in a tone that let him know who held the cards, 'it won't be necessary.'

Spiros was glaring at him, but before he could say another word the mayor jumped in. 'Tassos, are you saying the problem has been — uhhhh — resolved.'

'Precisely, Mr Mayor,' said Tassos as if patting a precocious child on the head.

The mayor smiled. 'Uh, Mr Minister, I think this means we don't have to worry about a trial.'

Spiros' eyes darted between Tassos and the mayor, and outrage spread across his face. 'But there has to be a trial — we can't let the man get away.' Suddenly, his expression changed and he focused a look of understanding on the mayor. 'Oh, I see,' he said, nodding.

Andreas knew it was his time to speak. 'You two will have to decide how you want to handle this. There are at least eighteen families who don't know their daughters are dead, and Mykonos still thinks a killer is running around loose.' Silence. 'I have no choice but to tell the truth about the Vandrew woman's killer. He was pursued and killed. His body will never be recovered.' His voice was coldly professional.

Tassos quickly added, 'He was an itinerant worker.' He glanced nervously at Andreas, as if unsure how he'd react to the lie.

Andreas said nothing, just looked at the ground.

'An Albanian,' the mayor said. 'He'd only been on the island a short time.'

Spiros added his own embellishment. 'And he was in the country illegally.'

Unbelievable, these politicians, thought Andreas. Now that the killer's dead, they don't care who he was. They don't want the truth; they just want someone to blame who fits their personal political agendas. No wonder Tassos wasn't worried that he killed him. He knew all along that's what they wanted.

'And what about the other victims? What do you tell their families?' Andreas asked, unable to keep the belligerence from his voice.

Spiros shrugged. 'It's been so long, why add to the suffering of those innocent families by opening everything up and subjecting them to an uncaring media only interested in sensationalizing the death of their children?'

The mayor nodded in agreement.

Fucking, disgusting politicians, thought Andreas. He looked at Tassos.

Tassos didn't return the look. He simply asked, 'So, how are you going to explain the sudden disappearance of such a well-known man from Mykonos?'

The mayor and Spiros gave each other a puzzled stare.

Tassos continued. 'Let's not jerk ourselves off here. I'm talking about the man who really kidnapped your niece — and killed at least eighteen tourists on Mykonos.' He paused and, as if to remind them of the tremendous favor he'd just done them all, said, 'I'm talking about the killer, who won't be getting the chance to enjoy all the publicity of his trial. What are you going to say about him?'