Island Casualty (Andy Veracruz Mystery Book 2)

by D. R. Ransdell

  With a single motion he dialed Soumba’s number, barking at the man with emphatic nais and oxis, yeses and noes.

  “I guess cars don’t usually blow up when they’re sitting still,” I said.

  Prokles stared at the ruined machine. “No.”

  Eleni came outside with a pitcher of water and some glasses.

  “How are the boys?” Nikos asked.

  “They are upset, but Rachel is in the kitchen feeding them cookies. I told them you placed your cigarette too close to the gas tank.” She returned inside.

  “It was an old car,” said Nikos.

  Prokles shook his head, giving Nikos a blue streak of information that I couldn’t follow.

  “He says they set a trap,” Nikos said. “They probably ran a line of gas around the perimeter and into the car.”

  “On the off-chance I’d throw down a butt?” I asked.

  “On the assumption you would put a cigarette in the ashtray,” Nikos said.

  “And then I’d be dead.”

  Prokles sucked in his breath. “Nai.”

  For a couple of minutes we watched the rest of the crew recoil the fire hose. It was heavy and unwieldy, but the men made the loops with calm precision.

  “Is this a common sabotage style?” I finally asked.

  Prokles shrugged. “It is effective.”

  “When do you think they set it up?”

  “At this time of year, with this heat, I’m not sure how fast the gas goes to air. We can experiment to find out. Or perhaps they have a propellant.”

  “Has this happened on Amiros before?” Nikos asked.

  Prokles called to one of his crew, an older man with white hair, who disentangled himself from the growing crowd of worried neighbors.

  “This ever happened before?” Prokles asked.

  The old man stroked his wet beard. Something similar had happened on Karpathos several decades earlier. Someone had dribbled gas around an entire house, locking a family inside.

  They hadn’t made it out.

  The crowd thickened. Well-wishers gravitated towards us to ask if we were all right. Women pushed into the house to check on Rachel and Eleni and the boys while the men stayed on the porch with me and Nikos and the firefighters.

  Soumba pulled up with Petros and Lascar. “God helps us!” he sprang from his car and ran to what was left of ours. “What the hell happened here?”

  He was immediately surrounded by onlookers who asked what I imagined were useless questions about their own personal safety in a world full of dangerous people. Soumba spoke to them patiently, waving his head from side to side in slow motions until he eventually worked his way over to us. He shook our hands grimly as Prokles recounted the story.

  Soumba surveyed the ruins with a white face. “This is a catastrophe. I can’t believe.”

  Prokles stood and gestured at parts of the car, explaining more details.

  Nikos and I were left on the porch. I’d downed several glasses of water, but my mouth was dry. “I don’t know what to say,” I told Nikos.

  “Thank God?” His eyes were moist.

  “You almost got killed, but I’m sure I was the intended victim.”

  “We both almost got killed.” His shoulders drooped. “We were fortunate. And we don’t know for sure that you were the target.”

  “I must have been. I drove the car all day yesterday. To Petronaki and back. To the taverna last night. A lot of people would have seen me behind the wheel.” I watched my hands. “I don’t have a way to apologize for endangering your life.”

  He patted my shoulder with a clammy hand. “You didn’t mean to.”

  “You would be safer in Athens than around me.”

  “Life is full of ironies.”

  Soumba sat beside us. “How you are feeling?”

  “We were damned lucky,” said Nikos. “Nothing else matters.”

  Prokles interrupted by clearing his throat. “Do you need us more? We should get back to the station.”

  Soumba frowned. “Thanks, Prokles. That’s all I need for now. Make the regular report. And call the garbage company, will you? We take away this junk before the neighbors worry even more.”

  Nikos and I followed Soumba inside the house while Petros and Lascar continued to deal with the street crowd.

  As he entered the kitchen, Soumba gave Eleni a parental hug. “I’m sorry, my dear. Are you and the boys all right?”

  “They are scared. I am sure this is normal given what happened.”

  He turned to Rachel. “And you, my dear? How are you?”

  She’d paled through her tan. “Okay.”

  “Please sit down,” Eleni said. We crowded around the small breakfast table as if huddling provided protection. “What do you think is going on?”

  “We can’t make a quick conclusion,” Soumba said.

  “This has to do with me,” I said. “I don’t know how, because I never talked to Hari until I hit Amiros, and even then we didn’t talk about anything important, but there’s no other explanation.”

  Soumba raised his head. “Tzt.”

  I indicated Eleni and Nikos. “These people had simple, quiet lives before I got here.”

  “With the scooter incident, yes, I think you were the target. We can’t be so sure on the car.”

  “Rachel and I drove it all day yesterday.”

  Soumba addressed Nikos. “Often that car spends afternoons behind the café, right?”

  Eleni shrugged. “Sometimes. I drive it more than my mom does.”

  “So we don’t make the conclusions.”

  I paced the small floor. “I was scheduled to fly to the States on Tuesday. I’ll leave today instead and go as far as Athens.”

  “No!” Soumba’s single negation hung in the air. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean you must stay if you like to go, but I must understand this incident. I must find a way to explain.”

  “First a scooter attack and now a car fire. It’s been a rough week,” Nikos said.

  Soumba rubbed the bridge of his nose as if to erase it. “It’s a nightmare. First, we have dangerous criminals loose. Second, we have no idea who they are or how to find them.”

  “What about Hari?” Eleni asked.

  “Tzt, tzt. He’s been dead for several days. The islanders have forgotten about him. But arson? Panic is not far behind. Do you know what happens then? I get calls at three in the morning when little old ladies hear cats knocking over the garbage bins and think they’re being robbed. No. I must find out what is happening. Andy, it is easier for me to do so if you remain on the island.”

  “Surely you don’t expect us to stay here at the house,” said Eleni. “I’d be too scared.”

  Nikos nodded. “Maybe we should go to Kremaki for a couple of days.”

  “Or to my mother’s.” Eleni turned to Soumba. “What do you think?”

  Rachel shook her head. “They could find us at Olga’s as easily as here.”

  Soumba regarded each of us. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Do you think—” Eleni began.

  “I don’t know!” Immediately Soumba put his hand over his brow. “And now I am going crazy, yelling on the victims. Eleni, do you mind to make me an iced coffee?”

  She busied herself at the sink.

  Soumba took black worry beads from his pocket and started twirling them. “I’m confused. I don’t know what’s the best thing to do.” He paused. “For a police chief, this is a terrible admission.”

  Eleni handed Soumba the frappé. “Give us your opinion.”

  “Bah! An opinion isn’t good enough.”

  “It’s better than nothing.”

  “I don’t like for you to leave your own house. Also, you are paying taxes in order to be protected. But right now, I wouldn’t feel safe here myself. I would say that your mother’s home is best.”

  “Where should I go?” I asked. “I sure as hell don’t want to endanger someone I haven’t even met.”

  Soumba
sucked on his drink. “We must be practical.” He turned to Eleni. “Go to your mother’s. Your sons will feel safer there even if you don’t. In the meantime, we’ll offer protection. Tonight I’ll send Petros to guard your mother’s house. She still lives on Delfinos Street, right? The house with the wide porch?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll send Lascar to the café. I’ll have him sit across the street and keep an eye for everyone who comes around. Your house I will watch myself even though it will be empty. You,” he said, pointing at me, “you and Rachel we will send to a hotel.”

  “They can stay with us,” Eleni said quickly. “My mother will not agree to another situation. Also, at this time of year, what accommodations can you possibly find?”

  Soumba took a quick swallow. “If there’s a single hotel room empty, the management will give it to me. Eleni, explain to your mother that I have a purpose on mind. I want you and Rachel in different places to give us better information.”

  We nodded.

  “Should we leave the house right now?” asked Nikos.

  “You’re safe until nightfall. Try to forget what happened. Andy and Rachel, drop by my office late this afternoon. I should have found a room for you. Above all, we will not panic, but we will take every precaution.”

  After Soumba left, Eleni offered to make breakfast, but nobody had the stomach for it. Instead we trooped to the beach where the boys could go about enjoying their day even if the rest of us couldn’t. I took a long swim, trying to get the smell of fire out of my hair and the moment of the explosion out of my mind, but the scene kept coming back.

  “I disagree with Soumba,” I said when the boys were out of earshot and the adults were drying on the rocks. “I think it would be better if I returned to Athens immediately. I can blend in with all the other tourists.”

  “Soumba asked you to stay,” said Nikos. “You can hardly do otherwise.”

  “He would understand.”

  Eleni applied sun cream to her husband’s shoulders. “It is not so easy. Soumba is right. You are caught up in something. If you walk out, we will still be in the middle.”

  “Eleni and I have got to see this thing through, and we need you to do it,” Nikos said. “In fact you might need to stay on Amiros a few days longer than planned. You can manage?”

  “I suppose I can change the airline ticket.”

  “What about your work at the restaurant?” Eleni asked. “Can you talk to your boss?”

  Nikos kissed the top of his wife’s head. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to tell his boss anything about it. Who would possibly believe him?”

  “I quit.”

  Rachel turned and stared. “I thought you loved playing at Noche Azul.”

  “My sister told me such good things about the restaurant,” added Eleni. “Why would you leave?”

  I took a deep breath. I wasn’t ready to talk about what really happened, so I made excuses instead. “I need a change. The boss keeps increasing the hours but not the pay. We’re all being taken for granted.”

  The scenario was common enough that they didn’t question it.

  “I understand why you’ve been on edge,” Nikos said. “It's always unnerving to search for a new job.”

  “That’s the worst," agreed Rachel.

  “You have had too much bad luck and all at one time,” said Eleni. “It seems your stars are out of alignment.”

  It seemed that everything in my life was. Not even my sweet hosts could help get it back on track. I needed some kind of higher force.

  The boys ran towards us, laughing, shook their wet heads on top of us, and ran off again.

  Nikos threw a rock towards the water. “So much for a peaceful vacation.”

  “Maybe your boss will decide to give you a raise after all,” Eleni said.

  I shrugged. “At any rate, I don’t want to inconvenience you any longer. I’m sure I can afford a hotel.”

  “Don’t worry,” Rachel said. “We’ll be staying courtesy of the island of Amiros.”

  “Except that every room in town has been booked for weeks!” Nikos laughed. “The winter was so terrible up north that every charter flight comes full of sun-starved vacationers.”

  “We still must think about what happened this morning,” Eleni said. “There has to be an explanation for it.” She patted her husband’s arm. “Can’t you think of some enemy from Athens?”

  Nikos shook his head. “I left my job on good terms. My friends are too boring to be dangerous.”

  “Sometimes I get angry parents,” Eleni said, “but all of last year’s children passed.”

  “Even if I had enemies,” said Rachel, “they’d be too lazy to come all this way. Or too cheap.”

  Eleni straightened her towel. “We have been assuming that we are dealing with someone rational. We probably need to think beyond that.”

  “What about the competition?” Rachel asked. “Your café is always the busiest on the strip. Himena complains that you steal all her customers.”

  “I don’t trust the woman’s father,” said Nikos. “He always says ‘hello,’ but I imagine he’s thinking ‘you bastard’ under his breath.”

  “Since we opened, two other cafés went out of business,” Eleni added.

  My friends became enmeshed in the details of local cafés and other small businesses down by the port, but they were wasting their efforts. Small business owners didn’t commit crimes. They didn’t have the resources. I’d learned that well enough back in Squid Bay.

  The longer I sat, the worse I felt. Nikos didn’t seem fazed by the morning’s close call, but I didn’t know how much of his demeanor was an act. I was completely on edge, and I was sure everyone knew it.

  Finally Rachel took my hand and dragged me back to the water. We stood waist-deep, letting cool waves splash around us.

  “I’m sorry about this morning,” she said. “It must have been terrible.”

  “By now I’m pissed off that someone’s trying so hard to ruin my life.”

  “You were lucky today and so was Nikos. That’s what you should concentrate on.”

  “I keep wondering what I did wrong.”

  “Quit blaming yourself. Concentrate on getting past it. “

  She reached to kiss my cheek, but I didn’t have the energy to enjoy it. “Rachel, I think I need to be alone for a while.”

  “I understand exactly.”

  I headed back towards shore, feeling even worse that I couldn’t be responsive.

  “Nikos,” I called out as I emerged from the water. “Mind if I borrow your scooter for a couple of hours?”

  Nikos dug the keys out of his bag. “Go ahead.”

  “Can you find a ride to the café?”

  He spread his arms. “Our neighbors are dying to hear more details. They’ll be glad to give us a lift.”

  I went back to Eleni’s property where the beat-up scooter was resting in the shade. Moments later I was heading north. I knew as well as Soumba that I could only protect my friends by understanding what I was involved in. “Look for the money,” my brother always told me when he had a problem with a business contract. “Most things are about money even if they don’t seem to be.”

  I drove past the edge of town towards the only clue I could think of. I drove straight towards the hideout of Stelios Panos.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I travelled up the twisted road and past strips of houses into the forested area that marked the interior geography of Amiros. When Dina had driven us to Panos’ house, he’d effortlessly chosen the correct forks. When I reached the first side road, I slowed to a halt. I searched for markers, but nothing was familiar. After several long seconds, I turned onto the small dirt road.

  A mile later, the road got steeper and the curves more intense. I kept driving until I reached a set of buildings huddled around a factory. I’d never seen the factory, so I knew I’d missed a turn. I backtracked towards the main road. I was nearing the intersection when a car roared s
outh in the direction of Amiros Town.

  I wasn’t fast enough to identify all the passengers, but Panos was unmistakable. Even as he drove, the man held his left arm outside the window so that he could make wild gestures. One man sat beside him, another in back. They passed so quickly they didn’t notice me.

  I continued up the highway that Panos and his friends had been coming down. The shape of the first side road didn’t match my memory. The third one did. Even though the route looked much different in the daylight, I recognized the contours of small sections of the road, a clump of trees that protected the curve, and the long driveway leading up to Panos’ house.

  No other vehicles or signs of life were visible, but I pulled the scooter into the trees out of sight. Slowly I approached the house. It was shabbier in the daytime. No one bothered to take care of it.

  The heavy front door was fort-like and had a secure lock. To get in without a key would have required either a bulldozer or explosives. I needed an easier solution. Two windows adorned the front wall and three adorned the side. I circled the house hoping to find an open window. Two smaller windows were cracked open, but they peeled upwards in an inverted V. To get into the house, I would have to break one of the windows, rig my scooter against the house as a makeshift ladder, and pray I was thin enough to slip through.

  I went around to the back porch, which was decorated with several stone animals and a line of plants that needed watering. Carefully, so I wouldn’t disturb the dust rings, I checked under each pot, hoping for a key. Nothing. Then I dug around in the topsoil of each plant. Still nothing. I sat on the top porch step, unsure. A trip to Amiros Town, the most likely destination, would take at least twenty minutes. The dilemma was whether I wanted to leave a trail by breaking in or whether it was more useful to keep Panos off guard.

  Frustrated, I picked up the stone frog. It was as ugly as it was tacky, the kind of lawn ornament they advertise in magazines as “looks real.” I turned it over, wondering which country it had been mass-produced in. No label. I tried the swan, which didn’t have a label either. When I turned the duck upside down, a piece of metal fell from its beak.

  The key fit the lock. With only a moment’s hesitation, I slipped inside the house.