Plantation A Legal Thriller

by J M S Macfarlane

Chapter 75

  At noon, Ashby and Stefanides kept their rendezvous with Nikos and his wife at a train station on the northern outskirts of Athens. All that the couple had with them was one suitcase while everything else had been abandoned at their flat in Piraeus. They’d said farewell to their parents and in the tears of departure, promised to send money when they could and to try and visit once things had settled down.

  The barman wore a low, flat cap which obscured his face. Despite the cap, Ashby could see the bruising around Nikos’ left eye with blood blisters and cuts around his mouth. He walked with difficulty and had a perceptible limp. Although his injuries were taking time to heal after two weeks, he remained philosophical.

  “You must not blame yourself for this,” he said. “I know the people we are dealing with – I was once a sailor myself.”

  “If I can get you the hundred thousand, I will,” said Ashby. “But we must get the both of you somewhere safe to begin with and then talk about what happens next.”

  “We will go to Poros,” said Stefanides. “I have friends on the island who will look after us if there is any trouble. From now on, we must think of ourselves as targets. You can be sure that the shipowners will hire a gang to track you down and silence you – to silence all of us, if we get in their way. But I’ll be ready for them. They can try all they like. I know how they operate. Those guys don’t worry me.”

  In two hours, they’d left the western Attic peninsula and crossed into Argolis. A further hour saw them to the ferry for the island of Poros and by four o’clock, they’d checked into a small hotel, high above and on the quieter side of the promenade, away from the tourist area. Stefanides knew the owners and had told them to be alert to strangers.

  To guarantee their privacy, they had booked the entire upper floor of the hotel. The proprietor had made a room available for all of them to eat together and another room to serve as a meeting place.

  After Nikos and his wife had settled into their room, the four of them got together over a bottle of Metaxa. The Greeks lit cigarettes and Ashby introduced Stefanides as his guide and ‘negotiator’.

  “Before we eat, let’s talk over everything so that we can trust one another and we all get what we want. Nikos, I’ve promised to pay you and your wife seventy five thousand – because that is all the money I have – and I am paying you, not my company. I will try my best to pay you the hundred thousand you want, if we get the Captain and I can get the other twenty five thousand from someone else such as the shipowners. Here is the five thousand dollars I promised to let you have. I don’t travel with a lot of cash on me but if we find Christoforou and get the evidence I need, I will try and find all of the hundred for you. If we are unsuccessful or if your information proves to be wrong, I will give you ten thousand dollars and two one-way plane tickets to Canada. How does that sound ?”

  During Ashby’s monologue, Nikos had translated for his wife and her eyes had brightened at the sight of the dollar bills. She had nodded to her husband every so often and when Ashby had finished speaking, she fired off a few sentences in Greek.

  “She says : ‘What good is five thousand to us ? We want the seventy five in cash right now so that we can take it with us straightaway.’”

  Hearing this, Stefanides gave a smile and admired the view from the balcony. The barman appeared to agree with his wife that Ashby was trying to cheat them.

  “As I’ve said, I don’t carry that kind of money around with me. And anyway, can you tell your wife that the information would need to be correct before the balance of the larger amount is paid. Whether both of us like it or not, we will have to trust one another. Even if you tell me this moment where Christoforou is and how I can have him arrested, that is only half the problem. I have to make sure that it really is him or your information is worthless – isn’t it ?”

  Again, while Nikos was translating, his wife was shaking her head.

  “You don’t trust me ?” asked Ashby.

  “It isn’t that,” said the barman, “you must understand that we are gambling not just with our future but with everything else so we are uncertain what to do. She is.....upset at what has happened.....and she is angry.”

  “So am I. What they’ve done to you is the same as what they’ve done to my father’s company – and me. My father died a few weeks ago before the court hearing in London which was forced on us by the shipowners. So you see, I have suffered a great loss too, like you and I am spending all the money I have – which I’m paying to you and Mr Stefanides here, to bring these criminals to justice. So, what can I do to reassure you ? I’ve paid you the money this evening which I promised to pay....How about this ? When we get the proof we need, you can return to London on the same flight with me and I will take you to my bank and give you the rest of the money, then and there.”

  Stefanides came in from the balcony, stubbed out his cigarette in a mess of red embers and smoke and said “If we get the Captain and it really is him, not someone else and the police definitely say it’s him, would you pay them then ?”

  “If he confessed to the Greek police or Interpol that he’d scuttled his ship – and the confession was given to an English judge and we no longer owed Hellas Global anything, then, yes, I would. And also to you.”

  “But how long will all that take ?”

  “Perhaps as soon as this time next week.”

  “Ok, so we’ve got around a week to get this guy. But – he could be anywhere. And how likely is it he’ll confess ? I’d say it’s very unlikely. And if we get him, it will only prove that he didn’t die on the ship when it went down, won’t it ? And that’s all – nothing more than that.”

  “If he confesses, he’ll get a lighter prison sentence. It could be a difference of quite a few years. And Hellas Global said that he and the rest of the crew drowned when the ship sank. Why is he in hiding ? Why hasn’t he come forward to tell the truth ? Why are they threatening Nikos and his wife ? No, the whole thing is a put-up job. They’re hiding something. If the Captain and all the crew escaped when the ship was scuttled, then what happened to the cargo and why did the ship sink at all ? Why are they telling all these lies ? Also, I heard in London that Hellas Global are smugglers ?”

  “Smugglers ?” said Stefanides. “That’s different. They will be using some very tough criminals. But I know them all. They don’t frighten me. You just have to know how to handle them.”

  “A bit like being a lion-tamer, perhaps,” observed Ashby.

  “You could say that.”

  At this point, the barman translated all of what had been said and his wife thought for a time. Then they spoke together at length and the barman replied.

  “She says, ‘If it won’t be very long and if you don’t have much time, we can be patient. And if you want to get the Captain, then maybe you need to work quickly. If we don’t get him arrested, then all of us will be in danger, so we have no choice but to help you to get him.”

  “Precisely,” said Ashby. “Now tell us where he is and everything about how we can find him so that the police can arrest him and depending on what they say, we could go to London the next day.”

  After this was said, silence reigned.

  Around the table, Stefanides was staring at the barman. Next to him, Ashby was contemplating the future and simply waiting. Nikos looked at his wife and said in Greek, “Should we tell them ?” His wife replied “Ne”, the Greek for “Yes, go ahead.”

  Everyone realized this was the Rubicon and once events were in motion, the opposition would know the source of the disclosure, if Christoforou was found.

  The barman got up and limped to the balcony where he stood for almost five minutes while everyone waited. Eventually, he returned to the table, lit another cigarette, poured a large Metaxa and sat down again as his wounds were causing him pain.

  After looking at the others, he said “Alright, then.....this is what old Yannis told me before he got the warning I did. He knows everything about every Greek ship a
nd many Greek sailors in Piraeus. He knows about the Aegean Star and the Captain Stratos and Captain Christoforou. Sailors are superstitious and there are good captains and bad captains. Christoforou had a bad reputation for a long time. No-one liked sailing with him. Everyone knows he is a crook – that he was bad luck. But sailors stick together, they don’t like outsiders. Anyway, after the Captain Stratos sank, someone saw him in the container terminal and then someone else swore they saw him in Megara, a town not far from Athens. At the time, everyone laughed. ‘You must have seen a ghost.’ Then talk got around that before the sinking, he’d been mixed up with criminals and had large gambling debts. Maybe that was the reason he agreed with Hellas Global to sink their ship. But if he was supposed to be dead, he had to stay away from Athens and to get far away. But he still needed to eat, so he had to find a job. Around six months ago, Yannis spoke to another sailor who worked on the merchant ships supplying the islands. This man had been to Kefalonia and Zakynthos on the western coast of the Peloponnese and had put in to Patra – it is the large seaport on the western side of Greece on the Ionian Sea. And there he sees, large as life, Christoforou working on one of the ferries. This sailor had once been in Christoforou’s crew on a different ship so he definitely knew it was him. The ferry he was working on was a ‘ro-ro’ – a roll-on roll-off – it carries cars and trucks and passengers between Greece and Italy. These ferries do the return voyage in two days....”

  “What ferry line was it ? Do you know ?” asked Stefanides.

  “Yannis said it was the Ital-Grec Line which goes between Patra and Bari on the eastern coast of Italy every two days.”

  “That was six months ago – maybe he’s changed jobs now.”

  “I don’t think so. Who would give him a job ?”

  “Is there some way we can identify him ?” said Ashby. “I have a photograph of him – it has a close resemblance to a man who came to my hotel room on the same night when we arranged to meet.”

  “All I know is, he had a reputation for beating up his crew. He is a very big man, around six feet six and around two hundred and fifty pounds.”

  “The man I met was like that and he was a thug. At the time, I thought that he looked just as you’ve described him .”

  “Ital-Grec Line, Patra to Bari, a sailor who is big – we’ll see what we can find tomorrow. Let’s all hope we get him. Until then, let’s enjoy ourselves,” said Stefanides and he yelled out to his friend downstairs to bring up dinner for four with wine from Cyprus.