Vengeance Is Personal (A Colton James Novel, Book 2)

by Thomas DePrima

  "A person cannot live beyond their income, and neither can a government. If our company tried to do that, we'd be out of business in no time. Yet the politicians strove to do exactly that as they recklessly exhausted the country's treasury in order to get reelected rather than working to manage the country's finances prudently, following a sound financial plan. I understand the difficulty of their situation. There are so many people on social programs that it's impossible to get elected if you try to convince people a little belt-tightening is necessary.

  "The most recent Prime Minister was elected because he promised to end the austerity cuts his predecessor tried to implement to get Greece back on a solid financial footing. Alexis Tsipras has been forced to do what he promised the voters he would never do. It was a foolish promise, but it got him elected."

  "Yes, Uncle. We have the same problem in the U.S. There's a term we have for what our politicians do. We call it 'kicking the can down the road.' When they don't want to do something that might be unpopular with the voters, such as cutting a social program that will reduce benefits to one group or another, they delay taking any immediate action and allow a bad situation to worsen with each passing day. Then they raise the debt ceiling so they can borrow more money and plunge the country further and further into debt. I fear we're headed down the same road as Greece."

  "You men can talk about boring politics later," Mia said after rolling her eyes. "Right now I want to talk with Colton, so I'm taking him for a walk around the grounds. Come along, darling," Mia said as she took my hand and pulled.

  "The boss has spoken," I said with a smile to Yannis. "We can talk later."

  He smiled knowingly.

  Once we were outside, Mia said, "I knew I had to get you away or Uncle would have bent your ear for an hour."

  "I like him."

  "I knew you would. And I know he likes you. They all like you."

  "How can you tell?"

  "They're my family. You know, when Marcus would come here, they never smiled once. They all disliked him. I couldn't understand it. I guess I was blind to his faults. I thought I was in love and he was also. They recognized that I was in love, but that he wasn't. They tried to tell me but I didn't listen. I guess I thought they were jealous of my happiness."

  "When someone is in love, they're often blind to a lot of things. Uh, you've never told me. Do they all speak English as well as Uncle?"

  "No, not quite, but they'll understand almost everything you're likely to say, unless it's a saying that you have in America that isn't common here, like 'kicking the can down the road' or something similar. But you explained that very well."

  "I'll try to limit my use of expressions like that."

  "You don't have to, if you explain them. It's good for them to hear such things. That's how we learn, right?"

  "When you talk to them, tell them I'll be happy to explain anything they don't understand, as long as they don't need me to explain it in Greek."

  "I'm going to have to start teaching you some Greek."

  "Great. How do you say 'make love' in Greek?"

  She grinned and said, "Some things are better shown than talked about, but let's discuss that one later."

  * * *

  Chapter Nineteen

  One never knows what to expect from the relatives of a lover, and I anticipated that when I arrived at the Kosarros estate I might be put into a separate bedroom. But I soon discovered that it had already been accepted that Mia and I would share a bedroom as if we were a married couple. It appeared that everyone knew we were living together in New York, so it made things a lot easier on everyone to simply pretend we were married.

  Mia and I hadn't even talked about marriage yet, although I hoped it might be a topic we'd seriously discuss at some point. I still feared she would one day tire of living in New York on a semi-permanent basis. To keep her, I would move anywhere in the world she wanted to live, unless that included her return to the days of jet-setting with the 'beautiful people' and following the sun around the globe most of the year.

  But the more we had talked about life, the more comfortable she seemed to become with the idea of settling down. Jet-setting with Marcus had been a horrible experience for her because he was always trying to make new conquests while ignoring his wife. I learned how miserable Mia had been when Marcus would disappear from a party and not return to their hotel suite until after the sun was up, then give some phony excuse about talking sports all night with a few of the men after Mia had seen him sneak out with a woman.

  I couldn't understand the man. He had this most incredibly beautiful, sexy, and intelligent woman as a wife, and he wanted to fool around with the bed-hopping bimbos at a party and risk everything. Well, he'd paid the price for his stupidity, as fools usually did. But I shouldn't complain. If not for his inexplicable behavior, I might never have met Mia.

  The Kosarros family was wonderful. I hadn't had any kind of a family life since my folks were killed in a car accident while I was in college. My parents had both been only children, so there were no aunts or uncles, and both sets of grandparents, who had waited until late in life to begin their families, had passed on while I was still small. Even though I couldn't understand most of the discussion around the table at meal time, I could see that everyone else enjoyed the talk immensely.

  And I was slowly picking up a few Greek words here and there as Mia explained what they were saying. If I stayed for any significant amount of time, I might be able to put enough of the basics together to at least understand the topic under discussion. It's said that the best way to learn a language is to become completely immersed in a culture and live where it's the only language spoken.

  During the days, Mia took me on tours of the island, taking me to all of her favorite spots. Rather than having the principal population centered in one location, as it is on many islands, most of the population on Thasos Island was spread all along the shore wherever there were sandy beaches for tourism. The largest concentration of residents was located on the northern part of the island in a town also named Thasos.

  While Mia and I were sitting on a beach one day staring out at the Aegean Sea, I asked her, "How could you ever stand to leave here? It's so beautiful."

  "I wanted to see the world and experience life. Yes, it's beautiful here, and I did miss it, but the circumstances under which I left made it difficult for me to return. I'm glad I was finally forced to come back. I had to face up to the things I had said in anger before I left and make peace with Uncle. I know he loves me and that he was only thinking about my welfare, but you don't see things the same way when you're a teenager. You see your guardians as stifling you and holding you back. You think you are far worldlier than you actually are. I guess you just have to get away and make your own mistakes to learn that your relatives knew best all along."

  "Well, perhaps they don't always know best, but they are more experienced, usually because they rebelled and got away from their parents and guardians and then made their mistakes. It's occurred to me many times that people don't really learn from the mistakes made by others. They have to make their own. Hopefully, the mistakes are not so damaging that you can't easily recover from them. As we mature, most of us become wiser."

  "Some, like Marcus, never learn," she said as she put her hand on my shoulder in a sad caress. "My mistake with Marcus was almost one of those that you can't easily recover from. Thankfully, Uncle Yannis forced him to sign that pre-nuptial agreement. Without it, Marcus would probably have gone through most of my inheritance and then gotten half of everything that was left when I finally saw him for what he was."

  "Let's talk about something more pleasant, Mia. Do you still want to go to Fiji?"

  "Yes, I think I do. I love it here, and I love my family, but I want us to have some time together alone, away from family, the FBI, and recovery investigations."

  "Okay. When do you want to go?"

  "Are we in a hurry?"

  "Uh, no, not at all. But I have
to call and make reservations if you want to stay at the resort you requested. I cancelled the others because you had to return here to settle matters with the divorce."

  "Then let's stay here for a while."

  "How long a while? I don't mind, but I need a date for the reservations."

  "Can we stay here for about a month and then go to Fiji?"

  "Anything you want, sweetheart."

  "Colton, you're so good to me. I love you more than life itself."

  "And I love you, baby."

  ~ ~ ~

  I used my cell phone to make the reservations at the resort in Fiji. It was the first time I'd had it out of the protective case that blocks anyone from getting the GPS data but also blocks all calls. I saw that I'd had several calls from Saul Fodor while I'd been out of communication for several days. I really wanted to ignore his calls, but I owed him too much for helping me get the co-op by having his insurance company hold the mortgage. I was afraid he wanted me to come immediately, but a promise was a promise with me.

  It was too late, or too early— depending on your point of view— to call Saul when I listened to the messages, but I would call as soon as the business day began in New York.

  ~ ~

  I didn't mention the messages to Mia. I wanted to wait until I was sure of the reason for the calls before I said anything to her.

  Fodor's secretary put me right through when I called his New York office. Although it was four p.m. on Thasos when I placed the call, I calculated it was nine a.m. in the Eastern Time Zone.

  "Colt, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you for two days."

  "I'm in Europe, Saul. I'm on Thasos Island in the Aegean Sea. I hadn't used my phone in several days so I just heard the messages last night. I told you I was headed this way when I wrapped up the Memphis matter."

  "Ah, yes, you did." Changing his voice to sound a little less angry but more desperate, he said, "I need you here. We have a major problem. There's been a robbery. Some of the world's finest works of art are missing."

  "I'll be back long before you have to pay off the insured, Saul, and we'll recover the art then, okay?"

  "I need you now, Colt. I'm sorry to intrude on your vacation, but I need you working on this. The police don't have any leads or suspects and don't know where to turn next. Our own investigation teams are bewildered as well. We need the best art recovery expert in the world working on this one."

  "When did the robbery occur?"

  "The same day you left for Memphis."

  "So you knew about this long before I headed for Europe?"

  "Yes, but I didn't think we'd need you on this one at the time because the police were saying they knew who committed the theft and were looking for the suspect."

  "And?"

  "They found him— or at least his grave. He died two months ago of pneumonia after having minor surgery on his right foot in a local hospital. His death has been confirmed."

  "Why did they suspect him?"

  "Because the theft was consistent with his M.O. Everything pointed to him."

  "So he must have had an apprentice who learned his techniques. Find the apprentice and you've probably got your thief."

  "The cops say he never had an apprentice. He never trusted anyone except himself to run an operation."

  "Then perhaps a cellmate picked it up from him while they talked."

  "He was released two years ago. His cellmate during that incarceration is still in prison and will be for at least six more years. Colt, we're afraid the art will wind up in Russia or China. Once there, it will be almost impossible to recover."

  "What are we talking about for value?"

  "The twelve pieces were appraised for two hundred seventy million."

  "Was that the policy amount?"

  "We've put out the word that we'll pay a two-million-dollar recovery fee for the artwork, no questions asked, but no one's responded."

  "What was the policy amount?"

  "It's crucial we recover the artwork as soon as possible, Colt."

  "Saul, what's the policy amount?"

  "Uh— three hundred one million, one hundred ninety-three thousand, two hundred seven dollars and seventy-two cents."

  "That's a strange policy amount. Don't you usually just round the numbers with artwork because the value is so subjective?"

  "That's the current currency conversion from two hundred seventy million Euros."

  "Euros?"

  "The artwork is on loan from a museum in Milan."

  "Where was it on display?"

  "It wasn't on display— yet. The exhibit is set to open in San Francisco three weeks from tomorrow. We have to get it back before then so the exhibit can open on time."

  "I take it the theft hasn't been announced to the press yet?"

  "No, it hasn't. And the museum is insisting that it not be announced until we're absolutely certain the artwork cannot be recovered before the exhibition date. A theft like this could damage their good name and they might have trouble getting such loans from other museums in the future."

  "Okay, Saul. I'll take the next available flight back to the states. Have your secretary book me into a hotel in San Francisco, and overnight everything you have on the robbery to me, care of the hotel. Then have your secretary alert the museum that I'm on my way and that you expect them to give me their complete cooperation."

  "Okay, Colt. And Colt— thanks."

  "Sure thing, Saul."

  As soon as we ended the call, I began making plans to leave. I contacted the air-taxi service and arranged to be picked up and brought to Athens, then contacted the airline I'd arrived on and booked a flight back to the U.S. The first-class round-trip ticket I'd purchased allowed me to change the return date for up to ninety days from the date of arrival, so for just a small charge I was able to use it after all.

  ~

  I knew Mia was going to be upset, but what could I do? I'd always heard people weren't supposed to go to bed when angry with a lover or spouse, so I told her about it before dinner. That way she'd time to get over it before bedtime.

  "What? You're leaving?"

  "Just for a short time. I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll be here in time to go to Fiji with you."

  "But this is supposed to be our vacation."

  "I know, and I'm sorry, but I signed an agreement with Saul Fodor that I would drop everything else to investigate any case he needed me for. It was one of the conditions for his company extending the mortgage on the co-op. The museum hasn't announced the theft yet because Saul told them they'd have the artwork back before the opening of the exhibition."

  "You don't need his mortgage. I'll give you the money to pay off the mortgage."

  "I can't take your money. That would make me no better than Marcus."

  "Oh, darling, don't be silly. This is not the same thing at all. I'm living in the co-op also. It would be for both of us. Especially if it frees you from the instant demands of the insurance company while you're on vacation. Besides— I've been thinking about us a lot. Perhaps we should be talking about— merging our assets."

  I could have been wrong, but the inference sure seemed to be marriage. "I love you, but this isn't the right time to be talking about such things. You're a little worked up right now because I have to leave on business, and a subject like this should be discussed when we're both unaffected by outside demands."

  "But this isn't the first time I've thought about it, my darling. I've thought about it a lot. I had to stop thinking about it when I learned I was still married to Marcus, but I've begun thinking about it again since the court approved the divorce. And Uncle actually brought it up yesterday while you were swimming and I came inside to get some cool drinks."

  "He did?"

  "Yes. He said that if I was serious about you and you were serious about me, he approved. He said he had no reservations about you and he wouldn't require anything like the pre-nuptial agreement contract he required of Marcus. He likes you and approves o
f you."

  "And I like him. I like your entire family. They've made me feel so welcome here. But, sweetheart, I have to go do this job. We can talk about— merging assets— at a different time. Even if I agreed to take the money you're offering, I would still have to go because this is part of a previous agreement that requires a ninety day notice for cancellation. Besides, I wouldn't feel right about dropping out without some advance warning to Saul."

  "Uncle says you're a person of integrity, and I can't fault you for being honorable about your agreement with the insurance company. I'm just disappointed. I thought we were going to have all this time together."

  "Believe me, I'm just as disappointed. But we'll have a lot of time together when I get back. And if you want to return here for another month after the vacation in Fiji, we can come back before going on to New York."

  "Really?"

  "Really. I know you love it here. It's so beautiful here, how could anyone not love it?"

  "I love my family, and I was away from them for such a long time because of our disagreements over Marcus. I love you, darling."

  "And I love you and your family. So— are you okay with me leaving to take care of this important business?"

  "Yes, darling, I'm okay with it, but don't be upset with me if I act a little disappointed."

  "I don't like to disappoint you, but I'd be a lot more upset if you weren't disappointed I was leaving."

  Mia smiled at that.

  ~

  During dinner, Mia broke the news, in Greek, that I was leaving on business. I couldn't follow the discussion because my usual interpreter was in the center of the heated exchanges, but I got the impression that everyone was upset. I think they might have blamed Mia for having a spat with me or something and driving me away, which she seemed to strongly deny. By the end of the discussion, everyone had calmed down and smiles started returning.

  "They thought I was chasing you away," Mia whispered to me as the meal continued. "I told them that you had to go solve an international art theft and that you would return. They said they hadn't heard about any big art theft and it was just an excuse I was making up. They wanted to know what I said that's driving you away. I told them that sometimes the police and insurance companies don't announce big thefts right away, or at all, because they hope that keeping it quiet will allow them to recover the artwork faster and that the museums hate publicity like that anyway."