Petros Markaris - Che Committed Suicide

The weather had changed. The sky had filled with black clouds and it was stiflingly humid. I turned in Vasilissis Sofias Avenue once again and by the time I had got to Kifissias Avenue it was as though night had fallen.

Eirene Leventoyanni lived at 3 Korae Street in Polydrosso. On reaching Varnalis Street, I asked a kiosk owner where Korae Street was. He told me to take the second left off Kanari Street.

‘How should we approach this Mrs Leventoyanni who sold her flat in Larymnis Street to the Russo-Pontian?’ asked Koula.

‘Like we approached the public notary. The notary and the estate agent pocketed the difference and now the Russo-Pontian has made a complaint and we’re looking into it.’

‘Will it work?’

‘Why shouldn’t it? Greeks are more afraid of the tax office than they are of the police. Unless Karyofyllis has warned her.’

‘There’s no question of that if they swindled her and pocketed her money. If they did warn her, that means she was in on the scam.’

Number 3 was a four-storey newly-built apartment block, with lamps and plants in the entrance. We looked at the doorbells and saw that Mrs Leventoyanni was on the third floor.

The door was opened by a round-faced, chubby woman of about forty-five, who was wearing all the colours of the rainbow. She had a cheery smile on her face but, as soon as I told her who we were, the smile faded and was replaced by an expression of alarm.

‘Is it Sifis?’ she murmured.

‘Who’s Sifis?’ I asked her.

‘My son. Has anything happened to him on his bike?’

‘No, no, calm yourself,’ Koula interrupted smiling. ‘Nothing’s happened to your son. We’re here on another matter.’

Leventoyanni let out a sigh of relief and made the sign of the cross. Then she stood aside to let us enter. If her clothes were all the colours of the rainbow, her house was a veritable greenhouse, with plants that began in the hall and ended on the balcony, more like a jungle. I wondered what possible use the balcony might have when you couldn’t sit down for the plants.

‘It’s the only way we can get some respite from the sun that bakes the house every day from eleven in the morning to five into the afternoon,’ Leventoyanni explained on seeing my puzzled expression. ‘Coffee?’

Koula declined, I asked for a glass of water. I was surprised that she still hadn’t asked us what two coppers were doing on her doorstep. She didn’t ask straight out but, after bringing me the water, she sat down and looked at us enquiringly with that permanent smile on her face.

‘Mrs Leventoyanni, you sold a flat in Larymnis Street, is that right?’

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘You see, my husband has played the football pools for years. Once, he came up with a winning line so we sold the flat in Larymnis Street and together with his winnings we were able to buy this house.’

‘How much did you sell it for?’

She showed the same alarm that she had when we had introduced ourselves and asked in a voice that was trembling despite her efforts to control it: ‘Excuse me, but why are you asking? Is there some problem?’

Koula saw that Leventoyanni was wavering between innocence and alarm and she went to sit next to her to reassure her.

‘Mrs Leventoyanni, it has nothing to do with you, nor with the house you sold or the one you bought. It’s others we’re investigating. You have nothing at all to fear. If you prefer, you don’t have to tell us.’

I was about to put the brakes on her, because it’s one thing to reassure the citizens we’re questioning, but it’s another to open their eyes to what we’re doing, when I heard Leventoyanni say quite simply: ‘Eight and a half million drachmas. Twenty-five thousand euros to the nearest round figure. Twenty-four thousand nine hundred and something to be exact.’

‘Are you sure you didn’t receive forty-five thousand euros?’

‘Why on earth would you say that?’ she asked surprised.

‘Don’t take it the wrong way, Mrs Leventoyanni, but were you the one who collected the amount?’ asked Koula very nicely. ‘Could your husband, for instance, have collected the amount, kept the twenty-five thousand you needed for the purchase of this house and put the rest in the bank?’

Leventoyanni looked at her very seriously this time and heaved a sigh: ‘The transaction was conducted by me and it was I who collected the amount. Both the house in Larymnis Street and this one are in my name. I take care of everything on my own because if I’d left it to my husband, he would have lost it all on the pools or the lottery or at the casino in Loutraki.’

‘Now, now,’ said Koula smiling. ‘Don’t forget that it was the football pools that enabled you to buy the flat.’

‘Do you think, dear girl, that one winning line makes up for everything my husband has lost all these years in gambling and betting?’ Then suddenly she remembered the important question. ‘But tell me, why are you asking me all this?’

Because the conversation was going well between them, I let Koula go on. She told her the whole story with the Russo-Pontian, Karyofyllis and the Iliakos Real Estate Agency. Leventoyanni listened to her calmly, but suddenly leapt to her feet.

‘Those bastards…’ she murmured. ‘Those crooks…’

‘What’s wrong?’ Koula asked, taking her hand to stop her going into a panic. ‘Sit down and tell us in your own time.’

‘I just recalled something that at the time I hadn’t attached any importance to. When we were at the notary’s office and he was filling out the contracts, he turned and asked the estate agent: “What sum shall we put?” The other one looked at him askance and said: “What are you asking me for? Don’t you know?” The conversation ended there and afterwards we signed the contracts. Obviously, the notary was asking whether he should put the actual sum on the contract or the sum I would receive.’

‘Was the estate agent around thirty-five with cropped hair?’

‘Yes, that’s him.’

After what Leventoyanni had told us, there was no longer the slightest doubt that the whole business had been set up with the participation of Karyofyllis. We had learned what we wanted and I was getting ready to get up and leave when Koula stopped me with another question.

‘May I ask you something else because otherwise I’ll be wondering,’ she said to Leventoyanni. ‘Didn’t the Russo-Pontian understand what was going on?’

‘What would the poor fellow understand, dear girl? In one hand he was clutching a folded plastic bag and with the other he was holding his wife’s hand and smiling contentedly. They were like two lovebirds buying a little place for themselves so that they could get married.’

‘Did you receive the money in cash?’

‘No, the notary had the cheque ready and handed it to me. “They always pay in cash and I don’t want to inconvenience you,” he said. Do you see what he did? He took forty-five thousand in cash from the Russo-Pontian and gave me a cheque for twenty-four thousand nine hundred and something… And he and the estate agent pocketed the rest.’ She leapt to her feet and began shouting: ‘I’ll sue them, I’ll drag them through the courts!’

She was so angry that she even forgot to say goodbye to us. In the distance, you could hear the sound of sporadic thunder. It must have been raining somewhere. As we were going towards the car, I reflected that Koula had a special talent for loosening the other person’s tongue. If and when she returned to the office, I’d have her give seminars on how to elicit answers to Vlassopoulos and Dermitzakis, who were still limited to shouting, force and intimidation.

‘So tell me, Koula,’ I said to her as we left Korae Street and turned into Epidavrou Street. ‘Where did you learn how to get people to open up like that? As far as I know, you only deal with paperwork in the office.’