Sons of Sparta: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery Read online

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I want you to find out who’s threatening me.”

  “Then what?”

  Uncle locked eyes with Kouros. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Uncle, I can’t set someone up for execution.”

  He put a hand on Kouros’ shoulder. “That’s not what I have in mind. That would only fuel the vendetta. If I know who is behind this, perhaps I can reach out and make peace.”

  “And if not?”

  Uncle shrugged. “All I ask is that you think about it on your drive back to Athens. See if there’s some way you can bring yourself to help that won’t compromise your principles. If you can, I’d be grateful. In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you’d take Calliope’s chest with you.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. As I said, I promised my grandmother to give it to someone who would treasure her daughter’s memory and not judge her for her mistake. I don’t see that in either of my daughters, as much as I love them. So, just in case I never get around to keeping that promise, I’d like you to be the one to do it for me.”

  Kouros swallowed. “I’m honored.”

  He picked up the chest and handed it to Kouros. “And if you do decide to help me find who’s behind this threat, I promise you no one will die because of it.”

  Kouros smiled. “Promise?”

  “My word of honor.”

  Chapter Three

  “Maggie!”

  The door to Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis’ office on the fourth floor of Athens’ General Police Headquarters swung open and a sturdy, five-foot three-inch redhead stuck her head in the doorway. “You rang, Chief?”

  They’d long ago settled on his yelling as far more efficient than the intercom.

  “Where’s Yianni?”

  “On the way back from the Mani.” She looked at her watch. “Should be here in about an hour.”

  “What’s he doing on the Peloponnese?”

  “How should I know?”

  “Because you know everything about everyone in GADA.” GADA was the nickname for central police headquarters and Maggie served as its unofficial mother superior. She’d ended up as Andreas’ secretary when the retirement of her longtime boss coincided with Andreas’ promotion back to GADA from a brief stint as chief of police for the Aegean island of Mykonos.

  “He said it was a family matter.”

  Andreas nodded. “Okay, but tell him I want to see him as soon as he gets in.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  Andreas waved his hand in the air. “Please, Maggie, not this early in the morning. I’ve a meeting this afternoon with the minister and need practice at being respectful to my boss. You’re not setting a good example.”

  “As if you’ll be able to carry off that act for long.”

  He smiled. “I wonder what’s on Spiros’ mind.”

  Maggie stepped inside the office and closed the door.

  “According to his secretary, our distinguished minister of public order is scared to death about something having to do with Crete.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Spiros Renatis is your boss, and so that makes him my boss, and I like to keep up with what’s going on in my bosses’ lives. It makes mine easier.”

  Andreas sighed. “Why do I even bother to ask? So what do you know?”

  “He’s insecure, worried about every little thing. Ever since his wife’s name showed up on that list the French gave our finance minister of two thousand Greeks with undisclosed bank accounts in Switzerland, he’s been afraid of being booted out of his ministry position.”

  “Doesn’t seem like much to worry about to me,” said Andreas. “For two years, all the finance ministry did with that list was hide it. It took a journalist to make it public and the only one prosecuted was the journalist. Twice, and both times unsuccessfully.”

  Maggie grinned. “Well, at least it got the prosecutors finally doing something.”

  Andreas threw an open hand curse gesture at the windows of his office. “I’m still waiting for the first crooked bastard on the list to go to jail.”

  “Aren’t we all? Spiros’ story is that the account held earnings on his wife’s investments outside of Greece on which all taxes were paid. But he’s worried some hot-shot prosecutor out to earn a reputation might not buy that and decide to make his wife the first to stand trial, dragging Spiros into the middle of it.”

  Andreas shrugged. “But what’s any of that got to do with whatever has him worked up over Crete?”

  Maggie shrugged. “That’s all I know. Would you like me to guess?”

  Andreas patted his forehead with the fingers of his right hand. “Maggie…”

  “Someone’s squeezing his privates big-time.”

  “Who?”

  “No idea, but whoever it is has a vise grip on them. So, be careful of your own.”

  “Thanks for the motherly advice.”

  “You’re welcome.” She smiled and left.

  Andreas leaned back in his chair. He knew he ought to head down to the gym for a workout. Too much time behind the desk these days. He was coming up on forty and needed to keep a handle on the old waistline. Better yet, keep a handle off of it. He stood up, stretched his arms, and bent his six-foot, two-inch frame in half, fingers aimed at the toes. Can still touch them.

  He straightened up and stretched again. He stared at the windows, walked over, and pulled back a curtain. There wasn’t much to see. The interesting sites—Greece’s Supreme Court and the stadium of one of the country’s two most popular soccer teams—lay in other directions. Andreas let the curtain fall back in place.

  I wonder what flaming bag of shit Spiros plans on dumping in my lap this time.

  ***

  Andreas looked at his watch. He’d been waiting half an hour. His mobile phone rang. “Kaldis here.”

  “It’s Yianni, Chief. Am I interrupting something?”

  “No, Spiros has me waiting out here with his secretary trying to make me think he’s actually busy. Even had the poor woman tell me, ‘The minister’s on a very important international conference call.’” Andreas spoke loud enough for the secretary to hear but she acted as if she weren’t listening. “She deserves a raise for all the bullshit he puts her through.”

  She smiled.

  “Sorry I missed you at the office, Chief. I got hung up in traffic. Farmers protesting tax increases blocked the highway with tractors. It was a mess for hours.”

  “So what else is new? Everything’s a mess these days. How are things with your family?”

  “Terrific.”

  “That’s what I like to hear. Good news.”

  The secretary’s phone buzzed, she picked it up, listened, and nodded at Andreas.

  “Got to go, Yianni, his majesty will see me now.”

  Andreas crossed in front of the secretary’s desk and opened the door to the minister’s office. Before stepping inside he looked at the secretary and said loudly. “I meant what I said about you deserving a raise.” He turned to Spiros. “Don’t you agree?”

  “Please,” said Spiros, “just close the door and sit down.”

  Andreas closed the door and sat in one of the chairs by Spiros’ desk.

  “You must learn to show me more respect,” said Spiros.

  Andreas smiled.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “Are you recording this?”

  A flash of anger crossed Spiros’ face. He drew in a breath, reached for a glass of water on a silver tray sitting atop his desk, and took a sip. “Okay, so we’ve had some rocky times. Can’t we put them behind us?”

  “Did you bring me here to have that conversation?”

  Spiros gestured no.

  “I didn’t think so.”

&n
bsp; “I could fire you.”

  Andreas shrugged. “Or I could resign. Either way you’d have the media to contend with. They know me, remember. And like me.” He didn’t have to add, far more than they do you.

  The anger had returned on Spiros’ face.

  “Don’t forget who I am,” said Andreas. “I’m that ‘crazy bastard who can’t be bought or fired or set up.’ I’m the only excuse you have to all those potbellied patrons of yours pressuring you to make nasty things about them on your desk go away.” Andreas pressed his forefinger on Spiros’ desktop. “Without me to blame you’d have long ago lost your ministry for not doing favors, or be facing prison time if you had.”

  Andreas pulled his finger back from the desk. Greece’s track record for prosecuting corrupt ministers hovered at just above zero, but times were changing so the risk was there and Andreas knew Spiros wasn’t a risk taker. “We both know you need me more than I need this lousy-paying job.” That part wasn’t a bluff. Andreas had married the socially prominent daughter of one of Greece’s oldest and wealthiest families.

  Spiros took another sip of water. “Like I said, I don’t think we should dwell on the past.” He put down the glass.

  “Okay, so let’s talk about the now. Why am I here?”

  Spiros bit at his lower lip. “I’m not a crook.”

  Andreas leaned back in his chair. “And precisely what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re right about the pressures exerted on this office. More so today than ever before. The people are screaming for prosecutors to cut off every politician’s head. The corrupt are looking for ways to make as much as they can while they still can, and opportunists are trying to buy up government assets on the cheap.” Spiros brought his hands up to his face and rubbed at his eyes. “Now I’m being dragged into the mess.”

  “Is this about your wife’s bank account in Switzerland?”

  Spiros gestured no as he kept rubbing at his eyes. “For now that’s just an annoyance.” He dropped his hands. “I’m talking about serious pressures involving more than a trillion euros.”

  Andreas cleared his throat.

  “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that all the talk about huge natural gas deposits off the southern coast of Crete has a lot of people wanting in on the action. And not just Greeks.”

  “I’d be surprised if that weren’t the situation,” said Andreas.

  “We’re talking pipelines, drilling rights, construction, shipping, maintenance. Everything you can imagine, all the way down to who gets the right to open a taverna. There’s enormous money in play.”

  “And claims by Libyans to the same gas deposits.”

  Spiros nodded. “If Gaddafi were still in power, our government could have worked things out with him. But who knows what the Libyans will do now, or more likely, who will tell them what to do? The Americans, Chinese, Europeans, and Russians are all jockeying for influence in the region.”

  Andreas shrugged. “Big money attracts big players.”

  “I know. Look what happened after gas and oil were discovered in the Mediterranean off Cyprus. Every country in the area laid claim to the deposits. It has Israel teamed up with the Republic of Cyprus against Turkey’s claim through Northern Cyprus. And with Cyprus’ banking economy shot to hell, the Russians are licking their chops to get a piece of it.”

  “But how does the gas find in Crete involve you?”

  “There are rumors that certain private foreign interests are attempting to influence Greek government officials improperly in the awarding of drilling and pipeline rights.”

  Andreas smiled. “I get it. Our countrymen are pissed off at having to compete with non-Greeks in a free-for-all bidding war for the favors of our accommodating government officials.”

  “This isn’t funny.”

  “I know. Real wars are fought over oil. Just ask the Americans. But you have to admit it’s ironic.” Andreas smiled again.

  “A lot of powerful people are clamoring for me to start an investigation.”

  “I assume you’ve been asked to be selective in choosing targets.”

  Spiros nodded. “All of them want me to go after their competition. The trouble is, in something this big everyone in the hunt has powerful friends asking me to do the same thing to everyone else.”

  “In other words, you’re caught in the middle.”

  Spiros put his hand to his forehead. “Tied to a spit like an Easter lamb waiting to be slow-roasted the moment any of the losers starts shouting ‘government corruption.’”

  “Because their corruptors weren’t as good as the winner’s?”

  “The reason won’t matter. They’ll point to our investigation, find something we missed, and say the other side obviously bought me off. The corrupt in government who actually were part of it all will righteously agree and make me their sacrificial scapegoat.”

  “Isn’t that the way it’s always been? Set up the good to protect the bad? If you think everyone’s corrupt and an investigation won’t make a difference, why bother to open one? Just say no.”

  “Everyone may not be corrupt, and even if they all are, I still can’t say no. If I refuse, the big players demanding I act are powerful enough to drive me out of office and put someone in this chair that they can control.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re doing this out of loyalty to country.”

  “Is that so hard for you to believe?”

  Andreas studied him. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to look into this and come up with something I can use to get everyone off my back.”

  “Do you have any idea what that ‘something’ might be?”

  “No.”

  “You do realize, Spiros, that you’re sounding a bit crazy?”

  “No, ‘desperate’ is the word. I don’t want to end my public life under a cloud. If I can’t find a way out of this I’m ruined.”

  “You could resign before this goes any further.”

  “If I resigned now, the media would say it’s because of that bank account in Switzerland.”

  Andreas shook his head. “I wish I could help you, but if anywhere near a trillion euros is involved, I have about as much a chance at finding the lost city of Atlantis as that ‘something’ to get your alphabet list of world powers and who-knows-how-many connected Greeks off your back.”

  “All I can ask is that you try. You’re the only one I know who might be able to pull it off.”

  Andreas fixed on Spiros’ eyes. “Spare me the Vaseline. Just don’t forget two things. One, if I start, there’s no going back, no matter who’s involved.”

  Spiros nodded. “Understood.”

  Andreas leaned forward. “And, two, if I find out you’re trying to set me up to take a fall for you…” Andreas let his voice trail off.

  Spiros did not look away. “No need to say it. I understand that, too.”

  Andreas leaned back in the chair. “Fine. I need a copy of your files on this mess.”

  “There are no files.” Spiros picked up a pencil, wrote something on a piece of paper, and handed it to Andreas. “But here’s whom you should speak to.”

  Andreas read the name, looked up, and stared at Spiros. “You weren’t kidding about who’s involved.”

  Spiros nodded. “As you said, ‘Big money attracts big players.’”

  ***

  Kouros was in his office when the call came through. “Detective Kouros here.”

  “It’s me.” The voice sounded strained. It was Uncle’s oldest son, Mangas, successor to his father’s criminal enterprises.

  “You sound gloomy,” said Kouros. “What’s the matter, did I leave my toothbrush at your father’s house?”

  “I’ve bad news.”

  Kouros’ heart skipped a beat.

  “My father’s de
ad.”

  Kouros held the phone, frozen, and didn’t speak.

  “Did you hear me?”

  Kouros nodded at the phone. “Yes.” He drew in a deep breath. “What happened?”

  “He was driving back alone from morning coffee with his friends at the taverna in Marmari on the road to Cape Tenaro…”

  Kouros listened to his cousin struggle against tears. Cape Tenaro sits at the southernmost point of mainland Greece where the Ionian and Aegean seas meet and Greek mythology placed as the entrance to Hades, home to the god of the dead. Some moderns called it by its Italian name, Cape Matapan; the ancients had called it Tainaron.

  “His car went off the road at a cliff and…”

  Kouros waited.

  “The ambulance driver said he didn’t suffer. But they always say that. I can’t stop wondering what was going through his mind in those last seconds.”

  Kouros had an idea of what it might have been, but this was not the time to bring up the death threats. Not with his cousin’s temper. “I’m sure he was thinking about your family. When is the funeral?”

  “Tomorrow at eleven.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks. He used to say you and I were ‘two sides of a gold coin, each facing in different directions, but both made of the same stuff.’”

  Now Kouros struggled with tears. “Your father was a very special man.”

  “He drove that road every day. I don’t understand how it could have happened.”

  “Maybe he had a heart attack?”

  “There was nothing wrong with his heart. But there’s an autopsy going on right now.”

  “Anything wrong with the car?”

  “I have people checking on that as we speak.”

  Kouros heard anger growing in his cousin’s voice.

  “Have the police looked at the car?”

  “The cops in this part of the Mani wouldn’t know where to start. I called the same guy they use, a friend who has a repair garage. He’ll tell me all I need to know.”

  “All you ‘need to know’ to do what?” said Kouros.

  Silence.

  “Mangas, you’re angry and looking for someone to blame. I understand, it’s only natural. But that doesn’t mean you’ll make the right decision if you find something wrong with the car.”