Mykonos After Midnight

by Jeffrey Siger

  “What did you mean by ‘Welcome home?’” said Sergey in Greek.

  “No need to struggle with Greek, said the mayor. “I see you speak English.”

  “Yes.”

  “My English is not so good, but I think it would be better if we try to speak in English. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “What I meant was that this building was built by a Russian count and it served as his residence. We’re sitting in a place where you and your countrymen should feel as much at home as we do. Our home is your home!”

  Sergey smiled. “Thank you. That is very kind of you to say.”

  The mayor nodded. “I’m sure you’re very busy, so why don’t you tell me how I can be of assistance to you?”

  “I assume by now you’ve heard of my interest in acquiring a hotel on the island?”

  “Yes, Lefteris is a dear friend. He said you made a very generous offer and assured him that things would continue as they always have.”

  “That was very kind of him to say, and yes, I understand there are certain interests that must be protected.”

  “We are a very small island with simple, poor people. It would not be fair if we allowed foreign wealth to come in and disrupt a way of life that has existed for generations.”

  “I can assure you I have no interest in causing harm to any business falling under your protection as mayor. My wish is to bring new people with new money to your island.”

  “New business is always appreciated. As long as it does not come at the expense of the old.”

  “There is no business on this island that will suffer because of my plans for the hotel. In fact, everyone will benefit because what I have in mind will draw guests to the island all year round, not just during the brief summer season.”

  “That would be an extraordinary achievement. But how do you expect to do that? Other hotels have tried to do the same thing with ideas like conference centers and spas, but all failed. People come to Mykonos for the beaches and fun of summer. There is no other significant draw.”

  “With all due respect, Mayor, I think there are other ways.”

  “What sorts of ways?”

  Sergey smiled. “Walls have ears. I wouldn’t want a competitor learning what I have in mind before I have the chance to try them out myself.”

  The mayor shrugged. “Suit yourself, but if your plans require town approval, and it’s hard to imagine they would not, sooner or later you’ll have to tell us what you ‘have in mind.’” He emphasized the last three words with finger quotes.

  “And as much as I don’t want to upset your deal with my good friend, Lefteris, I cannot guarantee you’ll get approvals for such ‘other ways’ if they conflict with what the ministry of tourism allows under its lease of the hotel.”

  “Thank you for your candor, Mayor. But I can assure you what I have in mind will bring great riches to the town and all who assist in making my project a success.”

  “That is a philosophy I share. In business it is important to be nice to those who are nice to you.”

  “You will find me to be very nice.”

  The mayor nodded.

  “There is one slight favor I’d like to ask of you, if I may,” said Sergey.

  “Please, ask. If I can help I will.”

  “I would like an introduction to your police chief. I have a delicate matter to discuss with him, and with your introduction I’m sure I’d get his absolute cooperation.”

  The mayor stood up, walked across the room, picked up his mobile phone, and pressed a speed-dial key.

  “Hello, Mihalis. I’d like to see you in my office as soon as you can get here. It’s about a ‘delicate matter.’” He paused. “Great.” And hung up.

  The mayor smiled at Sergey. “He’ll be right over.”

  “Please, I don’t want to impose on your time. Perhaps there’s another office we could use?”

  The mayor waved his hand. “I won’t hear of it. It will be my pleasure to help out. After all, my casa is your casa.” He smiled again.

  Sergey smiled, too, but for a different reason. The mayor’s curiosity had him taking the bait. Sergey knew his only chance at getting the police chief to cooperate was if the mayor were on board. And the only way for that to happen was to make his pitch when they were all together in the same room.

  Step one accomplished. On to step two.

  ***

  Being police chief on Mykonos was much like a minister trying to keep order in a brothel when the fleet was in. The best method was pray and duck.

  Mihalis knew his job depended on keeping locals who mattered happy and that this gig was way better than most. With any luck he might be able to hang onto it for the couple of years left until his pension.

  He parked the blue-and-white police car beneath the overhang of the municipal building and walked toward the steps on the left leading up to the second floor. A young woman stood in the entrance to a bar at the base of the stairs.

  “Opening a bit early aren’t you, Stella?”

  “Just closing. It was quite a night last night.” The bar was hers and, as the last traditional Greek dance place on the island, it was a favorite hangout for locals and traditionally minded tourists ending a late night of celebrating.

  As Mihalis made his way up the steps he wondered what sort of shit storm the mayor had in store for him now. On this island there was always something.

  ***

  The moment the police chief entered the room Sergey stood up and held out his hand. “Thank you for coming, Chief.” He spoke in English.

  “My English not very good,” said the Chief.

  “I’ll speak slowly but if you don’t understand something Wacki will translate. Again, thank you for coming.”

  “Anything to help our mayor.”

  “Thank you, Mihalis,” said the mayor.”

  “As the mayor will tell you, I am about to buy a hotel on your island.”

  The mayor nodded.

  “I am concerned only about one thing. Security.”

  The mayor’s face tightened at the question, and the Chief asked for a translation.

  “I just want to know if I will be safe?”

  The mayor answered. “Of course you will be safe. Why would you think otherwise?”

  “I heard that a prominent businessman was recently robbed and beaten to death.”

  “Exaggeration. It was a crime of passion.”

  The police chief asked Wacki to translate what Sergey and the mayor had said.

  Sergey talked over Wacki’s translation.

  “What do you mean ‘a crime of passion?’”

  “It was the man’s girlfriend and a couple of men who did it. It wasn’t a random robbery,” said the mayor.

  The chief spoke in Greek. “Mister Mayor, you shouldn’t be telling him this. That is not publicly disclosed information.”

  Wacki translated for Sergey.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” said Sergey. “I just wanted to be assured there wasn’t some organized criminal element operating on the island.”

  “Absolutely nothing like that to worry about here,” said the mayor. “Right, Mihalis?”

  The chief shook his head and tried to speak in English. “Please, do not talk about this. It is not my case. It is on Syros. We are not to discuss the case.”

  “Have the killers been arrested?” said Sergey.

  The chief gestured no.

  “If you know who did it, why aren’t they in jail?”

  “They’re in Poland,” said the mayor.

  The chief shook his head. “Please, Mister Mayor.”

  Sergey shrugged. “I guess the lesson in all of this is not to keep a lot of money at home?”

  “This wasn’t about money,” said the mayor. “Christos had o
pened his safe and given them everything in it. There was nothing left to steal. They killed him out of passion. Isn’t that right, Mihalis?”

  The chief looked beaten. “Yes, Mister Mayor.”

  “Good.” He looked at Sergey. “I hope our little discussion was helpful.”

  “Yes, very. Thank you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Once out of the mayor’s office, Sergey hurried down the steps and walked straight for a blue dome church across the harborfront road from the municipal building. It sat on the edge of the sea at the beginning of a concrete pier running about a quarter of the way across the middle of the old harbor. The pier’s seaward side was filled with large motor yachts tied up stern first, and its other side with smaller pleasure craft and colorful fishermen’s caiques.

  Sergey stopped in front of the church.

  “The blue dome means it’s a church to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of sailors.” It was Wacki coming up from behind him. “Some like to think of him as Santa Claus.”

  Then I should light a candle to thank him for the mayor’s gift to me, thought Sergey.

  “What was it with those questions about ‘security?’ I could have told you there was nothing to worry about. Everybody knows it was Christos’ girlfriend who did it. It’s the worst kept secret on the island.”

  “I wanted to hear it from the police chief.”

  Wacki shrugged. “I told you the mayor would play ball. But it was a good idea to reassure him that his friends wouldn’t be hurt. They can be very nasty.”

  Their time will come. “I want to take a look at those boats next to the pier. I’ll see you back at the hotel.”

  “Fine, I’ll let you know what gossip I pick up from the locals about you.” Wacki smiled.

  Sergey walked out onto the pier as if he’d not heard him. A fisherman mending nets on a caique nodded hello. Sergey returned the nod and squeezed past a tourist couple trying to snatch a peek of life among the yachting crowd. He stopped at the end of the pier and stared across the water toward the hotel.

  Teacher was right to say Anna had to go. If they’d found her she would have talked. He better get word to the other two. No, he’d better get rid of them. Couldn’t chance blowing this opportunity. It would be tough enough once that mayor learned what he had in mind. The mayor and his cronies would try to take it for themselves or fuck him if they couldn’t.

  Shit.

  If he didn’t get his hands on Christos’ information his plans were ruined. The police didn’t have it or else that ass-kissing police chief would have told the mayor, and from the way the mayor was blabbing on about Christos’ safe there’s no way he knew anything about Christos’ leverage.

  Maybe it’s still in Christos’ house? Goddamn bitch. If she’d gotten Christos to tell her where he’d hidden the stuff I wouldn’t have this problem.

  Sergey turned and headed back to the church. Once on the road, he turned left and walked past a row of farmers selling fresh produce out of small vans and trucks. On the beach behind them, fishermen stood around a long marble table aimed back toward the sea displaying their morning catch for sale.

  Wacki was sitting in a taverna across from the market with a man in a panama hat. Sergey didn’t stop. He had to figure out a way to get his hands on Christos’ files.

  Damn, I forgot to light that candle.

  ***

  Andreas watched the man walk up to the hotel desk and ask the clerk for his room key.

  “Mister Tishchenko.”

  Sergey swung around in the direction of the voice.

  “Yes?”

  “My name is Andreas Kaldis.” He pointed to the two men with him in the lobby. “We’re with the Greek police.”

  Sergey answered in broken Greek. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand Greek.”

  Andreas switched to English. “Is this better?”

  “Yes, but who are you?”

  “We’re with the Greek police.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “We have some questions we’d like to ask of you.”

  “Here?”

  “No, let’s go upstairs to the dining room. It should be empty now.”

  “Please.” Sergey waved his hand for Andreas to lead the way.

  The dining room was one flight up and they sat at a table by a window overlooking the sea.

  “Do you mind if I see your identification?” said Sergey.

  “Not at all.” Andreas pulled his ID out from around his neck.

  Sergey smiled. “It certainly looks official, but I have no idea what it says.”

  “I’m Chief Inspector for Special Crimes based in Athens. Detective Kouros is my assistant, and––”

  “I’m Tassos Stamatos, Chief Homicide Inspector for the Cyclades, based on Syros.”

  Sergey’s face showed no emotion. “Thank you. So, how can I help you?”

  Andreas said, “We understand you’re new on the island.”

  “Yes, just arrived yesterday.”

  “And that you’re buying this hotel.”

  “Word travels fast.”

  “All the way from Bialystok,” said Andreas.

  Still no emotion.

  “What has us wondering, Sergey…You don’t mind if I call you Sergey, do you?” said Andreas.

  Sergey gestured no with his head.

  “Ah, I see you’re already picking up our language,” said Tassos in Greek.

  Sergey showed no reaction.

  “What has us wondering is where you got the money to buy this place?” said Andreas.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “It is when someone with your background shows up here spending big-time money.”

  “Greece isn’t a laundromat,” said Kouros.

  “If you know my history, then you know that I’ve paid my debt to society on that false charge. And that it soon will be expunged from my record. I’ve also served my country honorably. I’ve come here to establish a legitimate business.”

  “Will your girlfriend be joining you?” said Kouros.

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  “Of course you do,” said Andreas.He nodded at Kouros. “Show him the photograph.”

  Kouros pulled an 8x10 out of an envelope and slid it across the table to Sergey.

  Sergey stared at the photo but said nothing. “A dead woman on a gurney. Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  “Polish police fished her out of a cesspool in the town you gave as your address when you got out of prison.”

  “Like I said, is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  “She did to Christos Vasilakis,” said Andreas.

  Sergey blinked. “Who’s that?”

  “Come on, Sergey,” said Andreas. “If you’re on this island ten minutes you’d have heard the story of the club owner bludgeoned to death and robbed.”

  Sergey swallowed. “I did not know his name. Yes, I’ve heard of that terrible tragedy.”

  “Did you also hear who killed him?” said Kouros.

  “I didn’t know that was public knowledge,” said Sergey.

  Andreas tapped the photograph. “This dead girlfriend you shared with the victim. She did it with the help of some men.”

  “Well, if you know the three who did it, your case is solved so why hassle me?”

  “Three? Did I say three?” said Andreas.

  “I thought there were four,” smiled Kouros.

  “I thought you said it wasn’t public knowledge?” said Andreas.

  “I just came from a meeting with the mayor. He told me it was the girlfriend and two others.”

  “I wonder how that subject came up?” said Andreas.

  “He was trying to reassure me that Mykonos was a safe place to
do business.”

  “What did he tell you about the murder?”

  “That it was a crime of passion, not robbery.”

  “But the safe was wide open. Sure sounds like robbery to me,” said Andreas staring into Sergey’s eyes. “Maybe they didn’t find what they were looking for.”

  Sergey didn’t blink. “I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

  Andreas kept up his stare. “But if they didn’t, maybe they’re still looking for it?”

  Sergey shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Kouros reached over, picked up the photograph and held it up in front of Sergey’s face. “You still don’t recognize her?”

  “Are you suggesting I’m a suspect?”

  “For the moment let’s just say that you’re a series of unexplained coincidences,” said Andreas.

  “Well then, if you’re done with me for now, do you mind if I go to my room? I’ve a lot of work to do.”

  Sergey stood but the cops did not. “So, may I go?”

  “As long as you don’t leave the island,” said Andreas.

  “Don’t worry. I have no reason to.” Sergey walked toward the stairs and said without turning around, “I love it here.”

  ***

  “What do you think?” said Andreas when Sergey had disappeared.

  “Is it okay to talk here?” said Kouros.

  “Yeah, he’s gone,” said Tassos. “I sure wish I understood English better. I couldn’t follow everything.”

  “Don’t worry. I got to play your hard ass part,” said Kouros.

  “He doesn’t rattle easily,” said Andreas.

  “Smart ex-cons learn to be that way around cops,” said Tassos.

  Andreas explained to Tassos what Sergey had said, then shook his head. “I don’t get it. If all he wanted was to buy this hotel, why murder Christos?”

  “Jealousy?” said Kouros.

  “What, kill the lover, kill the girl, then try to become a big man in the very place where cops are most likely to be looking for you? Sounds more like a psychopathic egotist to me.”

  “Maybe he didn’t think we’d find out about his connection to the girl?” said Kouros.

  “Then he’s stupid, and we’ll nail him. But somehow I don’t think that’s the answer. Tassos, do you think you could find out if Sergey was telling the truth about his meeting with the mayor in a way that doesn’t raise suspicion? For the time being, we want to keep gossip to a minimum.”