“Do you know about me and your uncle?”
Kouros opened his eyes and stared at the side of her head. “I don’t even want to think about what possessed you to ask me that question at this moment.”
“But you do know?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why ‘good’?”
“Because now I have nothing left to hide from you.” She brushed her lips against his shoulder and reached one hand under his body to hold him.
But Kouros’ mind was elsewhere. “Did you hide it from Babis?”
“I didn’t have to. He knew.”
“How did he know?”
She pressed her head back against the pillow and sighed. “Why are you asking that?”
“Because I’m a cop and you started it.”
She pulled her hand away. “Someone gave him a picture of us coming out of a hotel room.”
“Who gave it to him?”
“I don’t know, but it was taken at Panos’ hotel.”
“How do you know about the photo?”
“He showed it to me.”
“When?”
“About a week ago.”
“That would be a couple of days before my uncle died.”
“Yes.”
“Why did he show it to you?”
“He said he wanted me to know that he knew. And that the moment your uncle ‘was out of the picture’ he’d start turning some ‘real money’ by peddling my ass as his whore.” She spit at the words.
“Nice guy.”
“He was angry.” Again she sighed and turned her head away. “But in his own way he loved me.”
Why do the abused always say that? “I’m sure.” Kouros sat up and almost fell onto the floor. He’d forgotten they were on a cot in a storeroom. The smell of onions and disinfectant hit him. He preferred the scent of Stella’s hair, the taste of her body, but this conversation was headed in the wrong direction and he did have a job to do.
“If he loved you why did he kill himself?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he ever threaten to kill himself?”
“Himself, no.” She raised her arms in the air. “Me, yes.” She slammed her arms down onto the cot.
“Anyone else?”
“All the time. It was his way of expressing anger.”
“Did he ever kill anyone?”
“Why don’t you stop with the questions and come back down here next to me?”
Kouros turned and placed his hand on her belly. “I need these answers.”
She shut her eyes and put her hands on top of his hand. “Not while I knew him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had before. From what he told me he ran with a rough crowd.”
“Like the crew that paid you a visit yesterday?”
She nodded. “Sometimes he’d threaten me with how easy it would be for a body to disappear in the sea. As if he knew how to do it.”
“Such as by tying a rock around your neck?”
“I heard the ancient Greeks used that as a method for committing suicide, but for Babis to do that…” She opened her eyes again. “That’s not how I would have expected him to kill himself. He’d almost drowned as a child and once told me he’d rather shoot himself in the head-several times, if necessary-than drown in the water.”
“So why did he do it that way?”
“No idea. But I guess when you decide to kill yourself, how you do it is the least of your concerns.”
Just the opposite, thought Kouros. If someone starts talking in detail about how he plans on killing himself, that’s when you know it’s serious. Suicides tended to be planned final acts, not done on a whim.
She reached out and touched his side. “So, are you done with the questions?”
He smiled. “For now, yes.”
“Good,” she spread wide her arms. “Come. Make me forget all my other lovers.”
Kouros rolled his eyes. “Sounds like quite a challenge.”
She laughed and grabbed his cock. “I think you’re up to it.”
***
Andreas felt the vibration in his pants pocket. He adjusted his position in the chair and reached in without taking his eyes off the television. The riots in Syntagma threatened to turn more violent and tear gas-saturated than usual. Another peaceful demonstration in Parliament Square successfully hijacked by masked anarchists and mobsters. The former sought any excuse to battle police with Molotov cocktails and rocks; the latter were happy to vandalize and rob neighborhood shops under cover of whatever government action triggered the current massing of angry protestors.
He put the phone to his ear. “Yes.”
“It’s Yianni.”
“What’s up?” said Andreas
“You sound busy.”
“Just watching the latest episode of Greek democracy in action.”
“Is it bad?”
“Not yet, but heading there. Not sure how much longer our guys on the front lines are going to take this shit without someone losing it and seriously busting a few heads.”
“Too bad it’s always the wrong heads.”
“On both sides.”
“Isn’t that just the way it is? Big bastards making decisions that have little bastards taking all the risks.”
Andreas shifted his look from the television to his office windows. “Why do I sense there’s something you want to tell me?”
“I spoke to the girl Stella. Yesterday she had a visit from three very nasty characters out of Pirgos.”
“Her late boyfriend’s hometown.”
“Precisely. They were particularly interested in whether my cousins thought anyone other than Babis might have been involved in the murder.”
“How thoughtful of them.”
“And whether Babis ever spoke to her about a Ukrainian.”
Andreas leaned forward in his chair. “Sounds like some folks are nervous.”
“With reason. Stella said one of them paid a visit to Babis about a week before my uncle’s murder, putting him in a bad mood.”
Andreas thought for a moment. “That would have been around the time of your uncle’s first death threat.”
“Orestes might actually have been telling you the truth about Peloponnese gunrunners wanting my uncle dead. And it fits with what the Gytheio harbormaster told me of rumors about ‘people up north’ worried about a ‘war’ breaking out on the Mani over a ‘project’ involving my uncle.”
“Well, if the girl is telling the truth, for sure they had something to do with her boyfriend.”
“And his suicide.”
“They’d need a hell of a lot of leverage to get him to kill himself. Maybe they threatened to kill the girlfriend if he didn’t do himself?”
“I don’t think that would have done it.”
Andreas heard Kouros draw in and let out a breath.
“He’d seen a photograph of my uncle and Stella coming out of a hotel together.”
“How do you know that?”
“Stella told me he’d shown it to her a couple of days before my uncle’s murder, and threatened to pimp her out like a whore once my uncle was out of the picture.”
“He actually said, ‘out of the picture’?”
“According to her.”
“Who took the photograph?”
“No idea. But I guess the Pirgos boys gave it to him.”
“I wonder if Babis planned on killing your uncle when he showed Stella the photo?”
“From my run-in with him, I’d say his temper controlled his tongue. And he definitely lacked a sense of humor on the subject of messing with his girlfriend. I’ve no doubt that photo would have fired him up big-time.”
“Fine, but if what drove him was love triangle rage, that’s usually a murder-murder-suicide scenario, not something like this where the angry one kills the third party and himself but lets the girl live.”
“There’s more. She said Babis was afraid of drowning and she couldn’t believe he’d kill himself that way.”
“Sort of makes you wonder.”
“Especially since he still had the vial of poison he’d used to kill my uncle hidden away in the taverna. But what’s really bothering me is, after all those years of my uncle’s protection, what made the Pirgos boys think they could get Babis to turn on my uncle now?”
“From what you’re telling me, the likely answer has to do with your uncle screwing Babis’ girlfriend.”
“But how would the Pirgos guys know about that? Who would have told them?”