The Green Lady Page 16

  Xanthakos smiled. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t come on to you. I know you have a long-term female partner.’

  ‘Is that right?’ Mavros demanded, irritated by the extent of the research that the deputy commissioner had carried out. ‘Unfortunately your information’s out of date. Niki and I are no longer together.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that.’ Xanthakos smiled. ‘Maybe you’d like to try a walk on the wild side?’

  Before Mavros could answer, his phone rang. It was Lykos.

  ‘Where are you, Alex?’ the young man said anxiously. ‘Something bad’s gone down.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Akis saw a guy aiming a gun at us. He ran at him and got himself knocked out. I’ve called an ambulance. His attacker drove off before I could get to him.’

  ‘What did the man look like?’

  ‘Tall and well built. There was a cap on his head and I didn’t see his face. He was wearing a black handkerchief over his face like a cowboy.’

  ‘And the gun?’

  ‘It was weird looking thing, like an air rifle, but with a bigger barrel. He took it with him. He drove off in a blue pickup. I didn’t get the registration number.’

  ‘But you and Angeliki are OK?’

  ‘Yes. A bit shaken, but . . .’

  ‘Right. Lock up the office and go home.’

  ‘We don’t have a home, just the VW van.’

  ‘All right, stay inside the office. Close all the shutters. I’ll be back in under an hour.’

  ‘Alex, should we call the police?’

  ‘I’ll handle that.’ He cut the connection and turned to Xanthakos. ‘Come on, we’ve got to get back to Kypseli. I think the Son just tried to shoot the ecologists.’

  ‘What?’

  As they jogged to the policeman’s car, Mavros filled him in.

  ‘A blue pickup?’ Xanthakos said. ‘The killer of the burned man drove one of those.’

  ‘What a surprise.’ Mavros was thrust back in his seat before he’d got the belt on. ‘Steady, Telemache. Let’s get there in one piece.’

  They drove out of Livadheia, siren wailing. The deputy commissioner cut it as he got on the radio to his officers in Paradheisos, telling them to set up blocks on the roads out of the town and to be careful – the suspect was armed.

  ‘The Son, if that’s who it is, might have got out of the immediate vicinity already. You should block the road in and out of Dhistomo too.’

  Xanthakos nodded and gave the order.

  ‘Are there any other routes he could have used?’

  ‘He could have gone the other way from Kypseli, heading towards Itea. And then there’s the HMC works. There’s a road heading east on the other side of it, but he’d have to pass through the plant’s security people to get to it.’ He made more calls. ‘I presume this Son is capable of looking after himself.’

  Mavros nodded. ‘You saw what he did with the burned man and it sounds like he was in complete control in Delphi.’

  ‘Shit!’ The deputy commissioner slowed as they approached Dhistomo, but not much. ‘That was something else the Fokidha medical examiner told me. The victim had a puncture mark in his back. The body was taken away by Kriaras’s people before he could do toxicology, but he thinks the phylax was felled by a dart or the like.’

  ‘Maybe that’s what the strange gun fires,’ Mavros said, watching as a white pickup passed through the road block ahead. As Xanthakos spoke to the officers, he considered what that meant. Why would the Son be knocking people out with a tranquilliser gun? Answer – to get them into a state in which he could question them. If they didn’t answer, they were either burned or decapitated. But what was he asking them? Where Lia Poulou was? Why would the unidentified man on the mountain and an ancient site guard be suspected of knowing the missing girl’s whereabouts? Were they members of a group that had kidnapped her? If so, Lia would be in danger following those savage deaths.

  They passed through the narrow defile towards the coast, the bulk of the hills on either side lowering in the moonlight. No blue pickup passed and the officers at the checkpoint at Paradheisos confirmed they hadn’t seen one. Xanthakos called the other road blocks and the HMC people. None of them had seen the vehicle either. He gave orders that the blockades stay in place till dawn.

  ‘I can’t justify impeding the traffic to and from the HMC plant for a second day on what is nothing more than mild suspicion,’ he said, avoiding Mavros’s eyes.

  ‘Mild suspicion?’ Mavros said, in disgust. ‘Lykos and Angeliki nearly got shot. Who knows what he would have done to them subsequently?’

  The policeman nodded. ‘I know, but I haven’t got enough to go on. Let’s hear what the ecologists have to say.’

  ‘I’ll do that on my own. You seem like a levelheaded guy to me, but they won’t necessarily see it that way.’

  Xanthakos’s gaze hardened. ‘You’re telling me how to do my job.’

  ‘No, Telemache. I’ll pass on anything important, though I think Lykos already gave me all that counts. You need to find the Son. That fucker’s capable of anything.’

  ‘If it’s him.’

  Mavros chewed his lip. ‘Trust me, it’s him.’

  Xanthakos dropped him off at the Citroen and went to check on his officers. Mavros looked around and sniffed the hot night air. The bastard was close, he was sure of it. Had he found somewhere to hide out on his own, or was he being looked after?

  Lykos and Angeliki were huddled in the back room of the office, arms round each other.

  ‘Are you sure Akis is all right?’ the young woman asked.

  ‘I’m not a doctor. You heard the paramedic. He should have gone for a scan, but he swore he was all right. They couldn’t force him.’

  ‘He did wake up quite quickly.’

  Lykos hugged her closer. ‘He’s a tough one, there’s no doubting that. He would have stayed on the trailer if the bulldozer had driven into it.’

  ‘A martyr for the cause. A month ago, we didn’t even know him.’

  ‘He has his reasons, my love, you know that.’

  Angeliki nodded. ‘I’m just worried that he’ll harm one of the enemy and we’ll get shut down.’

  ‘It’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen.’

  ‘Easier said than done. He’s on the roof with his shotgun and harpoons. What if that man comes back?’

  Lykos turned towards the statue of Demeter. ‘The Green Lady will protect us. You know that.’

  ‘Yes, she will.’ Angeliki paused. ‘Are you sure we can trust Alex Mavros?’

  Lykos kissed her on the cheek. ‘Not more than we have to, no. From what we saw on the Internet, his heart is in the right place. He’s certainly more reliable than the cops.’

  ‘Except he’s got an agenda and we don’t know what it is.’

  ‘Who cares, if it’s to our benefit? Putting him on that bastard Bekakos’s tail was one of my better thoughts, even if he was heading there under his own steam.’

  Angeliki lowered her head. ‘I hope he didn’t disturb poor Ourania with his questions.’

  ‘It’ll be even worse if Bekakos’s thugs saw him come out of the house. Akis said he thought they arrived afterwards, but he wasn’t sure.’

  ‘My wolf,’ the young woman said in a low voice. ‘Do you really think we have a chance against the HMC?’

  ‘Of course. They can’t pollute land, sea and sky, and destroy the health of people including their own workers without retribution. The HMC will be brought under control. My aunt will help us even if her party doesn’t.’

  His phone rang.

  ‘Mavros has pulled up outside,’ Akis said. ‘There’s no one else around.’

  ‘OK. Come down and get some sleep.’

  ‘I’ll sleep when this is over.’ The connection was cut.

  Lykos went to the front room and looked through a gap in the shutter. Then he unbolted the door.

  ‘Welcome, Alex.’ He admitted the investigator and closed up after
him.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Mavros asked, peering around in the gloom. There was a glow from a candle beneath the statue of Demeter.

  ‘Yes, thanks to Akis.’ Lykos told him where the fisherman was.

  ‘Idiot. If he’s got a concussion, he’ll collapse at some point.’ He caught sight of Angeliki. ‘Hello. Relax, both of you.’

  ‘Has the man with the gun been caught?’

  ‘Not yet. But I doubt he’ll try again, at least immediately.’

  ‘Really?’ the young woman said. ‘Our experience is that the enemy doesn’t give up.’

  Mavros gave her a blank look. He asked them about the incident in more detail, taking notes under a desk lamp. Then he said he needed to sleep, leaned back in the battered office chair and was out in seconds.

  Lykos and Angeliki went to the Lady to make their devotions.

  Mavros was woken by his phone at six a.m.

  ‘Rise and shine, long-haired freak,’ said the Fat Man. ‘I’ve just put a tray of kataïfi in the oven.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Mavros grunted, not even vaguely tempted by the idea of shredded wheat in honey. ‘And goodbye.’

  ‘Wait a moment. We’ve got important things to talk about.’

  Mavros looked at the young couple. They were leaning against the wall beneath the statue of the ancient goddess, heads touching as they slept.

  ‘Shit and piss, Yiorgo, couldn’t you have waited an hour. I’ve spent the night in a chair Procrustes would have been proud of.’

  ‘All the more reason to get up, lazy bones.’

  Mavros rubbed his eyes and opened his notebook. ‘All right, spill your guts.’

  ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ the Fat Man said, with a guffaw. ‘So, Professor Epameinondhas Phis.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I told you yesterday – the guy Maria Bekakou went to visit.’

  ‘Oh yes. Sorry, I had a hard night even before I hit the chair.’

  ‘Did you now? Anyone I know?’

  Mavros considered telling him about the gay deputy commissioner he’d passed the evening with, but decided against it. Yiorgos had the old communists’ distaste for homosexuals, as well as their hatred of the police.

  ‘Actually, I got beaten up.’ His back and belly were still aching.

  ‘Shit, who was it?’ his friend asked. ‘Do you want me to come down and sort the fucker out?’

  ‘It’s a nice thought, but no. I seem to have got my back pretty well covered.’

  ‘Really?’ Yiorgos sounded disappointed. ‘Anyway, do you want to know about Phis or not?’

  ‘Get on with it, then.’

  ‘He’s been professor of ancient religion at Athens University since 1973—’

  ‘So his appointment would have been ratified by Junta-supporting academics.’

  The Fat Man was silent for a few seconds. ‘I suppose so. What, you think he might be a fascist?’

  ‘Tell me more first.’

  ‘Actually, his title is emeritus now as he’s seventy-seven, but apparently he still has an office in the faculty building. He’s an international authority on the Olympian gods and he still attends conferences around the world – last year he was in Minnesota and Cape Town.’

  ‘The Olympian gods,’ Mavros repeated, glancing at the image of Demeter.

  ‘Those very ones. Among his publications are The Twelve: Heirs of Cronos, Olympians and Mortals, Zeus, Poseidon and Hera, Half-Gods and Their—’

  ‘Anything about Demeter or Hades?’ Mavros felt the ecologists’ eyes on him.

  ‘Em, no. Unless The Olympian Goddesses: Powers Beneath the Throne fits the bill.’

  ‘It might.’

  ‘But if you’re thinking that Professor Phis is one of those nutters who worship the old gods and demonstrated against the Olympic Games, tough luck. I’ve got an article here from The Free News this May where he rips into believers in ancient religion, accusing them of being – I quote – “nothing more than children with no conception of ancient religion’s complexities”. There’s a picture of him too. He’s a crooked old specimen with his hair all over the place and skin like poorly tanned leather.’

  ‘Hang on, will you?’ Mavros turned to the young couple. ‘Hey, do you know a guy called Phis – Epameinondhas Phis?’

  Lykos was immediately on the ball, making Mavros wonder how much he’d heard.

  ‘Professor Phis? Yes, of course. His book on the goddesses is a classic.’ He disentangled himself from Angeliki and went to a shelf. ‘We’ve got a copy here.’

  Mavros nodded. ‘Anything else?’ he asked the Fat Man.

  ‘Just a hoard of inestimable value.’

  ‘Just the facts, please.’

  ‘The gratitude. He’s unmarried – and never has been – but he’s well-connected, sitting on the boards of numerous charitable foundations and museums, both here and abroad. Oh, and he has a personal collection of ancient relics concerning the Olympian gods – figurines, pots and so on – that’s worth over two million euros.’

  ‘I thought you said he lived in a back street off Kifissias.’

  ‘His block certainly doesn’t look like anything special from the outside. Maybe he has a gallery somewhere else.’

  ‘Check that, will you? I still don’t understand what he and Maria Bekakou could have in common.’

  ‘Me neither. Maybe she likes a bit of geriatric.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘No, seriously. You know that magazine Theophrastus? They ran a piece accusing him of being a randy old goat. Apparently he got into naked sunbathing in a big way when he was staying at some shipowner’s villa on Naxos last summer. The daughter and her friends complained and he was packed off back to his hole.’

  Mavros was about to dismiss that when he thought of Ourania and what Rovertos Bekakos had done to her. ‘What age were these girls?’ he asked.

  ‘Hang on. Here it is. Fourteen.’ Yiorgos paused. ‘Ah, shit. Same as the missing girl.’

  And Ourania, Mavros thought, his stomach churning.

  ‘So what are your orders for today, partner?’ the Fat Man asked.

  ‘For a start, lose the lip. Let me think. It’s either Maria Bekakou again or the professor. At his age, he probably doesn’t go out much. Do you fancy going back to Kifissia?’

  ‘Your wish is my etc.’ Yiorgos sounded very upbeat.

  ‘Be careful. Park in a different place. This’ll be the third time you’ve been up there. You mustn’t get spotted. If you are, pedal to metal, OK?’

  ‘I can hardly wait.’

  Mavros closed his phone and sat back in the chair. Could Lia Poulou’s disappearance have to do with child abuse? Was she being kept as a sex slave? If so, who by?

  His thoughts were interrupted by another call.

  ‘This is Bitsos. Are you alone?’

  Mavros moved to the front of the room. ‘Yes,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘You sound like Nipples of the Week has handed out free samples.’

  ‘No, but you’ll be providing me with a life subscription when you hear this.

  I’m on my way back from Trikkala, where . . .’

  Mavros listened as the journo went through what he’d heard about the murdered woman, a professor at Athens University like Phis. The pomegranate seeds and the savagery were definite links to the other killings – and, he was sure, to the Son.

  ‘Not a word to anyone,’ Lambis Bitsos said, when he’d finished. ‘Especially not your obese friend. There’s a heavy-duty blackout on this story – supposedly because of the Olympics, but I’m not buying that.’

  ‘Neither am I. Some rich and influential people’s posteriors are on fire.’

  ‘You should be a hack, Alex. But, yes, I agree. What I don’t understand is the ritualistic traits of the murders. Any thoughts?’

  ‘Actually, yes, but I’m not sharing them on the phone. I suggest you get down here as soon as you can.’

  ‘What, to Neapolis?’

  Mavros realised he hadn
’t said where he was. ‘I’m still near Paradheisos in Viotia?’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I’ll tell you when you get here. If you look on the map, you’ll see there’s a village called Kypseli on the coast five kilometres further west. The stone killer we’ve been talking about was very likely here last night. I think he’s still in the vicinity.’

  ‘Viotia, land of cows, Muses and bumpkins, here I come.’ Bitsos rang off.

  Mavros put his phone in his pocket. He was taking a chance involving the hack so directly in the case. Then again, Lambis didn’t know what his case was – and he was very good at digging the dirt. Opening the shutter slowly and seeing no sign of the Son, Mavros looked out across the polluted bay. In this neck of the deforested mountainsides, there was no shortage of muck at all.

  SIXTEEN

  Angie Poulou slept fitfully, as she’d done since Lia had gone, and finally got out of bed at six thirty. Paschos’s bed was already empty. She heard the shower in the ensuite bathroom and remembered the first time she’d seen the house in Ekali, only a street away from the then prime minister’s private residence. She had been married for a few months and they’d spent the previous weeks in the Grand Bretagne in Syndagma Square, waiting for the final touches to be applied. She had never seen so much luxury, even after the hotel. Their room contained two double beds, but there was still enough space to house several families.

  ‘We’ll need it when we have five kids charging around,’ Paschos had said.

  But Angie had never wanted more than one and when Lia arrived that feeling grew stronger. Her daughter was perfect, there could never be another one like her, and Angie didn’t want her deprived of anything. She didn’t want to spread her love thinly. Paschos never knew, but she went on the pill after she stopped breastfeeding Lia. After years of sex that decreased in frequency and quality – her fault, she knew – her husband gave up trying. He wasn’t angry. Paschos never displayed anger. He was happy enough with one child, though she knew he was disappointed there was no son. She satisfied her own desires without resorting to the lovers that many of her fellow wives took. The fact was, sex had become insignificant to her after Lia. She had been fertile and had given birth to the most beautiful child. She wanted nothing more.