Works for me, thought Tassos. “So, where’s tonight’s pickup up spot?”
“Mantamados, on the northeast coast of Lesvos, about thirty kilometers north of Mytilini, and a dozen kilometers southeast of the refugee-friendly landing beach of Skala Sikamineas.”
“That’s a pretty big area. Do you have anything more precise?”
“The smuggler’s supposed to hang off the coast and wait for a call around midnight for specific pickup location details.”
“Can you get me those pickup coordinates?”
“Hard to say,” said Ibrahim. “No telling how a Turkish smuggler might react to being asked to cooperate with the Greek police. Besides, it could all be a ruse to distract your police from his real plan for getting off the island, just in case someone like you happens to get wind of his plans from someone like me. I hear this guy’s a big time paranoid.”
“Sounds like there’s more than one involved in this.”
“Fuck you.”
“Just get Malik’s brother-in-law to get the pickup coordinates from his smuggler friend, and to text them to me at this number as soon as he has them—that is if he wants me to do what I can to rid your smuggler cronies of their madman problem. Understand?”
“Yes.” Ibrahim hung up without saying another word.
Good. Tassos smiled. He felt back in the action and alive again. Now to call Andreas.
Before Maggie gets back.
l l l l l
Jamal had delivered his information on Aryan’s secret trip to Lesvos to his brother-in-law personally. He saw it as his chance to resurrect himself into Malik’s good graces, and demonstrate just how valuable he was to Malik’s business.
“Are you certain?” said a visibly excited Malik. “I mean absolutely certain that Aryan is back on Lesvos and that the Greek police want to arrest him there?”
Jamal assumed an air of unaccustomed confidence in the presence of his brother-in-law. “No question. The smuggler identified him, and I verified through a friend with high-level contacts in the Greek police that the Greeks are anxious to arrest him for the murder of Volandes. The Greek police want us to provide them with the coordinates for Aryan’s pickup as soon as he gets them to the smuggler.”
Jamal lowered his head, but kept an eye on Malik. “If you wish to be rid of this foreign devil, now is your chance. Just give me the word and I’ll arrange to pass along the pickup coordinates to the Greek police.”
Malik bit at his lower lip and paced the living room. “You’re certain?”
Jamal nodded.
“But the Greek police still must prove he killed Volandes, or else they’ll have to release him.” Malik pressed the heel of his hand to his chin and patted at his cheek with his fingers. “And he’ll surely return here to murder us all.”
“Brother-in-law, I’m certain that with all of your resources you can find witnesses to testify that he was the assassin, though you may not need to do so. He must have returned to Lesvos to deal with that troublesome NGO woman. If he’s successful, they’ll have him for her murder. But no matter, for once he’s in a Greek jail there are ways to assure he never leaves alive.”
Malik drew his hand away from his face. “Yes, you’re right. All of that can be arranged.” He walked over to his brother-in-law and placed his hands on Jamal’s shoulders. “You have done well. Now do whatever you must to see that the Greek police capture him tonight. I will take steps to assure that this arrogant defiler never leaves their custody alive.”
l l l l l
Tassos spent the first few minutes reassuring Andreas that all was going fine on his end, and the phone calls were not a strain on his health, though he did ask that Andreas not mention them to Maggie.
By the time he finished telling Andreas of his conversation with his Turkish contact, Andreas had no doubt Aryan planned on killing Dana or Ali before midnight. Possibly both. He looked at them as he hung up the phone. How to tell them without sending them off the deep end came as his first challenge. Keeping them alive, let alone capturing Aryan, was a whole different story.
Andreas told the group, “I have news.” He turned to the commander. “How many men can you spare to work security at the press conference?”
“In this economy? You must be kidding.”
“What are the chances of getting other commanders on the island to spare a few cops?”
“They have less to work with than I do. What’s on your mind?”
Andreas’ eyes jumped between Dana and Ali. “The possibility we talked about is now a reality. Mihalis Volandes’ killer is back on the island.”
“What?”
“He arrived on a smuggler’s boat this morning, and plans to leave the same way before midnight.”
“Why?” asked Dana.
“Why do you think?” said the commander.
“Your press conference,” said Ali.
“Why would he want to come to my press conference?”
No one said a word.
Dana shut her eyes. “Yes, I don’t believe I just said such a stupid thing.” She opened her eyes. “He doesn’t plan on there being a press conference.”
“I can get you both off the island right away,” said Andreas.
“To where?” asked Dana.
“Athens. From there, go wherever you want.”
“What about Ali?” she asked.
“I can get him to Athens. Where he goes from there is out of my hands.”
“Because he’s a refugee?” said Dana.
Andreas shrugged.
“Couldn’t the killer follow us to Athens?” asked Ali.
“Yes,” said Andreas. He looked at Dana. “But my guess is he won’t bother to come after you if he believes you don’t actually know his identity and have given up on trying to learn it.”
“But that’s just a guess,” she said.
Andreas nodded.
“What if we stay?” she asked.
Andreas looked her straight in the eyes. “I believe he’ll try to kill at least one of you before midnight.”
“Another guess?”
“I’d say that one’s closer to a sure thing.”
Dana stared at the ceiling. “What are the chances of your catching him if we stay on Lesvos?”
“Depends.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Depends on how willing you are to listen to me, and how many local police we can get to help out.” Andreas looked at the commander.
“I’ll call in some favors and get a few of my cops to work double shifts. How’s six sound?”
“Better than none.”
“What do you want me to do?” Dana said.
Andreas smiled. “Whatever I tell you.”
She forced a smile. “Some particulars, please.”
“First, we have to move the site of the press conference.”
“But everything’s set to go at Volandes’ house. If we change locations, we’ll likely lose press coverage.”
“And if you don’t, you’ll likely gain funerals,” said Yianni.
“A bit dramatic, but he’s right,” said the commander. “You picked a location in the heart of the city, one that gives the killer way too many options for how, when, and where to take you out. We can’t possibly cover them all.”
“But doesn’t he kill with a sword?” said Ali.
“That’s his favorite weapon,” said Andreas. “But he’s just as deadly with firearms.”
“Or a bomb,” added Yianni.
“Something I’d prefer not to think of,” said the commander, “but again, the site you’ve chosen lends itself to all those possibilities.”
“Where do you suggest we move it to?” Dana asked Andreas.
“Someplace outside of town where it’s not so easy to ambush you
. A location not familiar to the killer, but yet not so far out of his comfort zone as to discourage him from going after you.”
“How the hell do you expect to find a place like that?” said the commander.
“I don’t,” smiled Andreas. “As the local cop, that’s your job.”
The commander waved an open palm in Andreas’ general direction. “How am I supposed to know what’s out of his ‘comfort zone?’”
“I can help you with that,” said Andreas. “He came ashore this morning in Mantamados, and expects to be picked up in the same general area after midnight.”
Dana spread her arms wide. “But if we switch the press conference to Mantamados, won’t that make him suspicious?”
“Or, he might see it as fate,” said Andreas. “We’ll just have to come up with a convincing reason for the shift, and hope it passes a paranoid psychopath’s sniff test. The bottom line is, you have to move the conference site. For certain the killer already has a plan in place based on the location you picked. We’ve got to shake up his planning if we expect to catch him without endangering you unnecessarily.”
Andreas let the word hang in the room for a moment, then looked directly at Dana and Ali. “Before going any further with this, I must ask again whether you’re each willing to take the risk. This is no longer a hypothetical threat. The danger is real and now. We’ll do our best to keep you safe, but you will be targets, no doubt about it.”
“Excuse me, Chief Inspector,” said Ali, “but from what you’ve told us, we’ve been targets since this morning.”
Dana’s eyes shot toward a window across the room facing the street and an open sea beyond. Yianni got up and pulled the curtains closed.
She smiled at him. “I guess my anxieties are showing. Obviously I’m not psychologically cut out for being a human target.”
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Andreas. “Shall I make the arrangements to get you to Athens?”
Dana gestured no. “You misunderstood. What I meant was, if you don’t catch this killer I’ll likely spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, wondering if he’s out there searching for me.” She looked at Ali. “But as you said before, this is not just about one of us. You’re as much a target as I. What do you want to do?”
“I’m used to people trying to do me great harm. Some have succeeded. Those who failed only did so either because I fled them or I did what they asked. This man is but one of many of his sort from my past, and of likely many more to come.” Ali hesitated. “But he’s the first one I’ve had the chance to strike back at.”
Andreas told the commander, “Sounds like they’re set to go. So I guess it’s up to you to come up with a new location for the press conference.”
The commander rocked his head from side to side. “There’s a place that could work, and it comes with a terrific backstory that might even justify the last minute change of venue. At least to the press, because I’m not sure there’s any change that won’t spook our killer.”
“If the place is as good as you say,” said Andreas, “there might just be a way to push the killer’s buttons hard enough to overcome any second thoughts he might have.”
Yianni leaned forward. “What sort of magic button-pusher do you have in mind?”
“A press release.”
“What makes you think he’s going to read a press release?” said the commander.
“Because Dana’s going to issue one announcing a change of location for the press conference.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. What makes you think he’ll read it?”
“Because he’s thorough in his planning. The night of Volandes’ murder, do you think Aryan just happened to be hanging around Volandes’ garden, hoping his victim would appear? Or that, when Ali received a call telling him Volandes had something important for Dana, there was any chance of Dana showing up instead of Ali? Aryan knew Volandes was on Chios for the day and would return late, likely tired and wanting to head straight home, and that Dana was away on Mykonos.” Andreas tapped his finger on the table. “Believe me, he’ll read it.”
Andreas looked at Dana. “It’s time to write it.”
Dana reached for her keyboard. “In the beginning….”
For Immediate Release
**CHANGE OF LOCATION for Dana McLaughlin Press Conference**
Dana McLaughlin, Executive Director of SafePassage, is honored to announce that at the urging of the beloved Bishop of Mytilini, the press conference scheduled for 16:00 today will be held instead at Taxiarchis—the Holy Monastery of Archangel Michael in Mantamados.
The Bishop will conduct a brief memorial service in the presence of the monastery’s most holy icon of the Archangel, a sacred treasure created with the blood of tenth-century Christian martyrs slaughtered during Easter Week within the monastery’s walls by pirates in service to the Ottomans. The Bishop wishes to bestow this distinct honor upon one named after the Blessed Archangel, his friend Mihalis Volandes, another resolute Christian slaughtered during Easter Week within the sanctity of his own walls, the same as those whose blood now blesses the holy icon.
At the conclusion of the service, Ms. McLaughlin will hold a press conference to address recent developments in the Mihalis Volandes investigation and announce the names of both the audacious killer and his migrant trader employer.
Chapter Twenty
Aryan had returned to Lesvos early that morning, prepared to implement a simple plan designed for finishing off the refugee and the NGO woman by the end of the day in a manner that left no doubt Ali had killed both Volandes and McLaughlin. The forensic supervisor had done as Aryan had instructed him, accomplishing the critical first step: convincing the prosecutor to release Ali.
Aryan planned on Ali dying of the same cause as the McLaughlin woman, with a simple suicide note in his pocket: “I loved her. But she only loved him. I thought if he were gone she’d love me. But she doesn’t care. I don’t want to live. But first she must die.”
All Aryan needed to make it work was a venue that played well with his storyline. He couldn’t believe his good fortune when that morning McLaughlin announced she’d scheduled a press conference on the very spot where Ali had allegedly killed Volandes—Ali’s competitor for McLaughlin’s affections in Aryan’s tale. She’d picked the perfect place for a conclusion uniting Ali and McLaughlin in death at Ali’s hand.
The press would eat it up. Some would play it as a dramatic end to a love triangle among McLaughlin, Volandes, and a refugee, while others as proof of how ungrateful refugees could so easily turn on their saintly benefactors. Either way, the heat would be off Aryan, and two potential problems eliminated: the refugee as the only person who could conceivably identify him as Volandes’ killer, and the McLaughlin woman, the only one pushing to tie Aryan and the Turks to the murder.
McLaughlin’s new press release changing the venue was not good news. It meant he’d wasted a half-day preparing a now useless setting for the perfect assassination. It had been such a good plan, too. Brilliant, in fact, if he had to say so himself.
But brilliant as it was, he doubted he could modify his plan in time for the rescheduled press conference. In order for it to work he’d need to scout the new location for what he needed, and yet still find a way to kidnap Ali before killing McLaughlin. Too little time, and too risky.
He knew he should leave the island and forget all about those two. After all, what was the real downside of walking away? There was no evidence tying him to the Volandes murder, only his paranoia that had him thinking the refugee could possibly identify him. And, scream and shout all she liked, the McLaughlin woman had to be bluffing with her claim to know his name, let alone anything about his affairs.
Of course, once back in Turkey he’d have to get to the bottom of how the Turkish police learned his real name, and eliminate those responsible for betraying him,
but to think the McLaughlin woman had anything to do with that exceeded even his customary level of paranoia.
Then again, even paranoids had enemies. He took another look at the press release. Moving the press conference to Mantamados bothered him. He distrusted coincidences. But, then again, it was plausible that the Bishop wished to honor his friend with a service at a place befitting his death in a church dedicated to the saint after which Volandes had been named. Aryan hadn’t realized that his method of killing Volandes fit perfectly with the legend surrounding that monastery. He smiled. One coincidence might be said to have cancelled out the other on that choice of location.
But even assuming the change of location was legitimate, the McLaughlin woman must be bluffing about what she knew.
He chuckled to himself as he imitated a reporter asking, “And who, pray tell, Ms. McLaughlin, are your audacious killer and his migrant trader employer?”
Yes, the time had come to stop giving in to his paranoia, and to check out the boat schedule for the next ferry back to Turkey. No reason to wait until midnight. That only gave his migrant trader partner more time to develop rambunctious ideas.
He grinned. The McLaughlin woman couldn’t even get their relationship right. Malik Tiryaki wasn’t his migrant trader employer, but his partner.
In an instant all glee drained from Aryan’s face.
Migrant Trader…M and T…Malik Teriyaki.
Audacious Killer…A and K…Alban Kennel.
The bitch not only knew his name but also Malik’s. And she’d taunted him by using their initials in the press release.
Time to revise plans.
l l l l l
Malik sat at his dining room table. The bottle of raki in front of him had served its purpose. At forty-five percent alcohol, the distilled grape and aniseed national drink of secular Turkey had given him the courage and insight he sought. He poured more of the clear liquor into his glass, added a bit of water and watched the combination turn into a milky white cloud. He stared at his glass and thought of how rapidly his own life had changed, except the clouds engulfing him were an ugly bloody-black.
An Aegean April Page 24