Kouros put the towel filled with ice on the table and straightened up. “Get up, asshole.”
“I can’t.”
Kouros stomped the heel of his shoe down on one of Babis’ hands. “I said get up.”
Babis struggled to his feet.
Kouros punched him hard in the stomach, sending him back onto the floor.
“Get up.”
“I can’t.”
Again Kouros stepped on Babis’ hand. “I said get up.”
Babis pulled himself up, but stayed bent over trying to protect himself from another punch. Kouros feigned a jab at Babis’ head, getting him to raise his hands, then faked another to Babis’ midsection getting him to bend again and drop his hands, giving Kouros the perfect opportunity for landing two quick slaps across each side of Babis’ face.
“Just messing with you, asshole.” Kouros grabbed Babis and pulled him down into a chair.
“Let me tell you the new rules, asshole. From now on you’ll always be known to me as ‘asshole,’ so unless you want your customers to hear me calling you that to your face, you better keep your ugly face away from me whenever I’m around. Do you understand rule number one?”
Babis stared at the floor.
Kouros reached down, grabbed Babis’ chin, lifted it up, and stared him in the eyes. “I said, ‘Do you understand rule number one?’”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Kouros waved for Stella to come over. She hesitated. He gestured again and she came.
“Asshole, if I ever hear of you laying a hand on her, you better get used to walking without kneecaps.” Kouros reached down and squeezed Babis’ cheeks between his thumb and index finger. “Understand?”
Babis said nothing.
Kouros shook his head hard from side to side. “I said, ‘Understand?’”
Babis mumbled, “Yes, I understand.”
“And if you don’t see me around here for while, don’t think I’ve forgotten about our little deal. My cousins will be keeping an eye on her for me.”
Kouros did a quick thrust of his fist toward Babis’ nose, but stopped just before making contact. It didn’t matter, the thought of what was coming had Babis falling backwards off the chair and striking his head on the stone wall. Kouros picked up the ice-filled towel and threw it at him. “Here, you’ll need this.”
Kouros headed toward the door, but Stella called for him to stop.
“Thank you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “You’re as kind as your uncle.”
Kouros nodded. “My suggestion is that you get yourself another boss. And quick. I don’t see much of a future for you here.”
Outside, Kouros leaned against the hood of his car. He should have known better than to get in the literal middle of a domestic dispute. The girl’s asshole boyfriend had a hell of a bad temper, one likely simmering near the boiling point for a very long time over Uncle telling him how to treat his woman. Just my luck to remind him I was his nemesis’ nephew.
Kouros shook his head and let out a sigh. If Babis’ kick to the nuts had been more effective, the crazed man might have beaten him to death. Kouros’ balls hurt, but nowhere nearly as much as they would have if he’d not listened to Andreas’ advice and been wearing that American designed holster that fit around his hips, under his pants and held his backup gun flat against his testicles. Kouros reached down and touched what lay sore but protected beneath the holster.
“Thanks, Chief. You saved them again.”
Chapter Nine
Kouros drove from the taverna up toward Vathia. He doubted the minimarket owner would know anything about the message written in Uncle’s newspaper, but he still had to talk to him. Besides, in a small town gossip was currency, and where better to exchange it than at the place where you came for news about the rest of the world?
He’d just passed the path leading to the cemetery when his mobile rang.
“Hi, Maggie. Did you get the autopsy materials I sent you?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m calling. I sent it all off to our techies, but they just called to say they needed more information. They need the raw info. Photos, recorded media, blood and tissue samples, etcetera.”
“If we start asking for that, the whole of the Mani will be saying GADA thinks it wasn’t an accident.”
“Don’t worry, I told the techies to call the coroner and tell him new procedures required that a copy of all material relating to any official autopsy be stored centrally in Athens.”
“You’re a genius, Maggie.”
“I know. But thank you, anyway.”
“Is the chief around?”
“I’ll get him for you.”
Kouros pulled off the road just above a renovated, centuries-old, four-story tower. A large, modern wooden deck at the rear of the stone tower overlooked the sea. Traditionalists must have gone wild, but whoever built the place had obviously turned a wreck into a home, and brought new blood-and money-to the Mani. That’s what things were all about these days. He turned off the motor and waited.
“Yianni, how are you?”
“Alive, but barely.”
“What’s up?”
Yianni told Andreas about his cousin’s request for a second look at the autopsy, the cast of characters he’d met yesterday, and his run-in with Babis.
“Aren’t you the lucky bastard to be in the wrong place at the right time?” said Andreas. “I sure hope your little flirtation was worth it.”
“I’ll let you know when I can feel my balls again.”
Andreas laughed. “Do you still think your uncle was murdered?”
“Don’t know yet. If the autopsy doesn’t find something, I’ll be heading home. No reason to stir up my cousins on a hunch.”
“What about the death threats in his newspaper and that phone text?”
Kouros shook his head. “I know it’s hard to believe it was all coincidence, but without any proof of foul play, what else could it be?”
“Mani voodoo? What about the guy you just tangled with? Sounds like he had a motive.”
“I have the feeling I’m not the first guy in the taverna to hold hands with his girlfriend. He could be angry with a whole lot of people. I’ll have Maggie run him through the computer and see what she comes up with.”
“Well, do what you have to do. No need to hurry back on my account. That Crete thing with Orestes is now on wait-and-see status.”
“What happened?”
Andreas told him.
“He’s going to be pissed when he finds out about the subpoenas.”
“I certainly hope so. All that thought and effort deserves some reward.”
Kouros laughed. “Could you patch me back to Maggie? I want to give her that guy’s name.”
“Just tell me, and I’ll get her to cut through all the red tape for you.”
“Thanks, Chief.”
“No problem. Your balls have been busted enough for one day.”
***
Andreas personally passed along Kouros’ request for a STAT criminal background check on the taverna owner. He also called GADA’s techies and pressed them to expedite their review of Uncle’s autopsy, though he knew Maggie’s calls likely carried more weight. Certainly more fear. If you crossed Maggie, her network of strategically placed support staff would make your life miserable. Pathologically disorganized desk jockeys found their haystacks of paper scrupulously organized into neat piles impossible for them to fathom, and the neat found clutter mysteriously accumulating in every corner. And that was just for starters.
“Chief?”
Andreas pressed the intercom button. “Yes, Maggie?”
“Your friend, Petro, stopped by. He said to tell you that Orestes never showed up at the club last night.”
He paused. “The next time Petro stops by, send him in to see me.”
“Do you want me to find him?”
“No. Not necessary.” At least not yet, he thought. But if Orestes starts making himself scarce, it would call for new tactics. Andreas needed to know what the bastard was up to.
Especially after it started raining subpoenas on Crete.
***
Kouros’ conversation with the minimarket owner was akin to having one with a radio. All Kouros got to say was, “Hello,” and the owner was off and running. He said he recognized Kouros from the funeral and spent the next fifteen minutes raving about how much he’d admired his uncle and considered it his honor to drop off Uncle’s newspaper each morning at the taverna “fresh out of the stack of papers” he picked up each morning from the distributor. At least that nailed down one point for Kouros: The death threat must have been put into the paper at the taverna. No one up to that point knew which paper in the stack would end up in front of Uncle. Yes, it was possible the minimarket guy did it, but that seemed even more unlikely than someone putting the same message into every newspaper in the stack.