“I’m not a gossip.” Her tone was sharp.
“Enough already with that dismissive tone of voice of yours. I don’t like it and it’s not working. I want to know who you told and I want to know now.” Tassos was shouting.
“Stop, uncle, you’re making a scene.”
“Not nearly as big a one as I’ll make if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”
“Okay, okay. After we met at the taverna, Dad called to ask why the private meeting. I think he was hurt that you hadn’t included him. I told him it was ‘police business.’ That made him worry I was in some sort of trouble, so I told him it wasn’t about me, but the possibility of someone planning to rob a church on Tinos. But I swore him to secrecy before telling him.”
Tassos smacked his hands on his thighs. “Swearing your father to secrecy is about as good as telling a hungry kid not to touch the cookies. God knows how many he told.”
“And considering the source of the information, it wouldn’t take much guesswork to figure out the church was the Foundation’s,” said Kouros.
“Well, at least we have our answer to that part of the puzzle. Now on to the grand prize question,” said Andreas. “When was the last time the Foundation was robbed?”
“And we’re not interested in one-hundred-seventy-year-old stories,” said Tassos.
“We’ve never been robbed.”
“Is that your final answer?” said Andreas.
“Yes.”
“Good, where’s your boss’ office?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Of course not. It’s just obvious you’re not included in the Foundation’s ‘we’ve-been-robbed’ loop. There’s no doubt in my mind that over the last one-hundred-seventy-years the Foundation’s been robbed. The only question is when and how much was taken.”
“My boss will not see you.”
“Yes he will. I’m Chief Inspector of Special Crimes for GADA, and I’ve reason to believe a robbery has occurred at the Foundation, an institution under the direct supervision of two government ministries. If your boss refuses to see me I’ll be duty bound to present a full report to the appropriate ministers. And by the way, if that’s not enough to convince your boss to see me, suggest that he begin preparing to accommodate all the media that will be joining the pilgrims and tsigani camped out around the Foundation. In my experience, government ministers have a harder time keeping juicy secrets from the press than daughters do from fathers.”
Eleni swallowed hard. “I’ll be right back.”
As soon as she left the room Tassos said, “I thought I was supposed to be the bad cop.”
“Sorry, force of habit.”
“What do we do now?” said Kouros.
“Wait,” said Tassos.
Andreas looked at a photograph on a bookshelf behind Eleni’s desk. It was of Eleni with her father and probably her mother. “Yianni, did that cop you talked to about the accident that killed Trelos’ parents remember anything squirrelly about it?”
“No, he said it was straightforward. The father fell asleep at the wheel.”
“Did they check the brakes?”
“Yes, and all the other systems. Everything was in working order.”
“What about toxicology?”
“Only tested for blood-alcohol levels. Nothing out of line there either.”
“Why are you asking?” said Tassos. “Do you think the kiddies did away with mommy and daddy for the family fortune?”
“It’s happened before. And their deaths probably gave Trelos what he needed for his save the world project,” said Andreas.
“And if he’d been able to catch his sister in the car with them it would have increased his share of the estate,” said Kouros.
“What’s happened to your ‘gentle soul’ take on Trelos?”
“I’ve learned to be flexible in my thinking. It comes with maturity.”
Andreas flashed an open palm at Kouros just as the door to the office swung open.
A pudgy man with a neatly trimmed salt and pepper toothbrush mustache stepped inside and shut the door. He was about Kouros’ height and Tassos’ age. He went directly to Eleni’s desk and sat down in her chair.
“I asked Eleni for permission to use her office. She’s using mine for now. I understand you want to speak to her boss about a robbery at our Foundation. As I am responsible for overseeing the protection of the Foundation and its treasures, the vice-president asked that you kindly direct your inquiries to me. Please, call me Dimitri. Now, how can I help you?”
“Thank you for being so concise and to the point. I shall be the same. My name is Andreas, and I’m GADA’s Chief Inspector of Special Crimes.”
“I know your boss.”
Andreas smiled. “Everyone seems to. Then I’m sure you appreciate the delicate nature of the situation as I have not yet brought the details I intend to share with you to his attention.”
“Why did you come to Eleni with your questions and not to her superior directly?”
“She is my colleague’s niece,” he nodded toward Tassos, “And we came to her only for a recommendation of the appropriate person to approach at the Foundation.”
“Did you tell her what you’re about to share with me?”
“Only that it concerned a possible robbery at the Foundation.”
Dimitri nodded. “Good. This is the sort of thing that can spread harmful unnecessary gossip. We can’t have things getting out of hand, can we?”
Andreas nodded. “No, but nor can we afford to have more bodies turning up. Five dead and counting is a pretty good indicator that things are already out of hand.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see how any of those deaths could possibly have anything to do with the Foundation.”
“All I’m saying is that bad guys tied into the murder victims seem to know that the Foundation has been robbed. It’s only the good guys who are in the dark.”
“Five dead souls.” Dimitri crossed himself. “How can you be sure their deaths are related to the robbing of our church?”
“Shall I take that as a ‘yes’ as to whether you’ve been robbed? Because believe me, there are three murders on Tinos and two in Athens tied into it.” Andreas let his words sink in.
Dimitri seemed lost in thought. “We noticed the first one about ten years ago.”
“The first one?” said Andreas. “How many have there been?”
“That’s hard to say?”
“What do you mean, ‘hard to say’?”
“They’re not wholesale thefts of treasures, just one here, one there, hardly noticeable except when we take inventory.”
“How often do you take inventory?”
“Depends. For some items it’s done once a year, for others not so often.”
“Are you saying you’re still being robbed?” said Tassos.
Dimitri nodded. “With each inventory we’re missing more things.”
“And you never tried to catch the thieves or at least stop them?” said Andreas.
“Of course we tried. We suspected everyone, still do, even ourselves. We installed security cameras wherever we could, but the thieves found ways to get around them and things kept disappearing.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” said Andreas.
“As you said, Chief Inspector, it is a situation of an extremely ‘delicate nature’ and new donations more than replenish what is lost. We’ve come to accept it as God’s way of tithing us for the many contributions we receive in the Holy Virgin’s name.”
“Wow, that’s some way to look at being robbed, tithing!” said Kouros.
“Tithing means ten percent. Are you saying you’ve been loosing ten percent of donations every year for the past ten years?” said Tassos.
“I see no reason to put a number on it. You get the idea.”
“Now that’s what I call a very serious motive for murder,” said Andreas. “I want a list describing every stolen item. If we can find one missing item we might have a shot at tracing it back to the thieves.”
Dimitri shook his head. “I’m sorry, but although we log in every item before it’s sent off to storage, the description is no more than the weight of a ‘gold ring’ or the size of ‘diamond earrings’ and that sort of thing, except for the most precious of items and those have never been stolen.”