Jeffrey Siger - Sons of Sparta

Urich must be the one with the mole . “Urich doesn’t seem the muscle type.”

“He not muscle. He pain. He make big pain. Babis know Urich. That why Niko brought him with us when we go see Babis.”

“The three of you found Babis fishing?”

“Yes. Babis not hard to find.”

“And you gave him the choice of suicide or Urich?”

The bear nodded. “Babis to make it look like vendetta killing, so if heart attack and car accident not believed, your cousins think old enemies kill him. But your uncle never talk of vendetta and Niko worry your cousins go after Babis and Babis name Niko. Niko say Babis weak. He afraid Babis get him in war with your uncle’s family. He call Babis fuck-up.”

“How did Niko get Babis to agree to kill my uncle in the first place?”

He shrugged. “I not know. What I tell you I hear Niko tell Babis when he gave Babis choice of how to die.”

“Was it Niko’s idea to get you to kill Stella using Ukrainian ammunition and bottles?”

He nodded again. “Yes, make look like foreigners kill her. Greeks like to blame foreigners for anything bad, he said. Especially in Mani.”

“Where’s Niko now?”

“Not sure. Maybe Kalamata or Pirgos. But will run soon as Urich tell him what happened tonight.”

“Run where?”

Another shrug.

Kouros looked down at his naked body, then at Stella wrapped in a tablecloth. He breathed in a whiff of the gasoline scented air and thought, Where to run indeed .

***

Andreas listened quietly to Kouros’ middle of the night telephone explanation of what had gone down in the taverna.

“That’s it. I turned him over to the local police and they took him to Sparta. They’re looking for Urich but by the time they catch up with him he’ll for sure have an alibi for tonight, plus a dozen witnesses to back him up.”

Silence.

“Chief?”

Andreas cleared his throat. “You’re a very lucky man.”

“I know. We’d both be dead had we been in that storeroom. Burned to death.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean because I’m lying in bed beside my wife at this moment and can’t say what I’m thinking.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, ‘oh.’ About the only good news so far is there wasn’t a TV crew running around filming while you were wrestling ancient Olympic-style with a gorilla in between bouts of playing hide the salami with our primary witness in a murder investigation.”

“It was a bear, Chief. Besides, no one’s going to find out about this.”

“This isn’t funny, Yianni. And how’s this sound for an opening question by a defense lawyer, ‘Detective Kouros, what precisely were you doing at the moment my client allegedly tried to incinerate the girlfriend of the man you’d linked to the murder of your uncle?’ Answer. ‘Uh, standing stark naked in the middle of the deceased boyfriend’s taverna banging the shit out of said girlfriend.’”

“Okay, so I fucked up.”

“Congratulations, the head on top of your shoulders is finally checking back in. Try using it the next time a hot body in a murder investigation gets your other one doing your thinking.”

“I get it. Honest, I get it.”

“It sounds as if your uncle pulled off quite a trick.”

“What trick?”

“Revenge on his own killer.”

“How’s that?”

“He kept the vendetta threats to himself. He told you, but no one else. When he died, no one but you knew he’d received them, so Niko-boy panicked and took out your uncle’s killer.”

“Not sure that will satisfy my cousins when they hear what really happened to their father. And they will find out. No way to keep this quiet.”

“I agree, so let’s just try to keep it contained. We don’t want your cousins starting a war with everyone in Pirgos. Just limiting their attention to Niko would be acceptable.”

“And how do we keep it contained?” said Kouros.

“By you telling Mangas exactly what happened, who’s responsible, and that we’re going to get him.”

“That should be a fun conversation.”

“You had your fun last night. Now it’s back to work, Detective. ”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. Get the girl out of there. It’s not safe for her living down there alone. Certainly not after last night’s story gets around.”

Kouros coughed. “I know. She knows. She’s leaving today.”

“Where to?”

“Athens.”

“Dare I ask where she’s staying?”

“Not with me. She has friends there.”

“How’s she getting there?”

“Don’t know. Bus, probably.”

“Good. Stay away. You’ve helped her enough.”

“Is that all, Chief?”

“Yes. Just let me know when you’ve spoken with your cousin. I’ll get GADA looking for Niko and Urich.”

“Fine. Bye.”

“Bye, Yia-”

Click.

Andreas stared at the phone. “He hung up on me. Can you believe it? Yianni hung up on me.”

Andreas heard a ruffling beneath the sheets beside him. “Yes,” came a muffled voice. Two pillows plopped onto Andreas’ side of the bed, followed by a click and burst of light from Lila’s bedside table.

“If I were Yianni, I’d have hung up on you long before he did.” Lila emerged from under the covers. She pushed herself into a sitting position up against the headboard.

“What are you talking about? He was having sex with a witness in a murder investigation.”

“Yeah? So discipline him. You’re his boss. But don’t act like you’re his father. He doesn’t need to hear ‘Good. Stay away. You’ve helped her enough.’

“Men are really dumb when it comes to women. They don’t even know how to deal with other men when it comes to women. If one man tells another man that the woman he’s attracted to isn’t right for him, it drives the other man to find reasons why she is, if only to justify to himself why he was attracted to her in the first place. If you let Yianni work this out on his own he’ll realize she’s not right for him.”

“And what if he doesn’t?”

“Then may they live happily ever after.”

Andreas shook his head. “I’ll never understand women.”

Lila nodded. “I know, I’m afraid you never read beyond the chapter on animal attraction.” She smiled.

Andreas waggled his eyebrows. “Is that an invitation?”

Lila laughed. “Up until your Groucho Marx moment the thought had crossed my mind. Where did you pick up that eyebrow thing?”

“It made Tassaki laugh, so I thought I’d try it on you.”

“Stick to flowers, chocolates, and-” Lila jumped.

Andreas had slid his hand under the covers and swept his fingers down between her thighs.

“And this?”

Lila slid down from up against the headboard onto the bed, put her arms around his neck, and whispered in his ear, “Forget about the chocolates.”

“And the flowers?”

“Negotiable.”

Andreas turned off the light.

“Deal.”

***

When Kouros was a kid, he’d had all sorts of trouble with authority figures, though he never quite put his mother in that category. After all, she was different; she was his mother. His father learned early on that the best way to get his son to go along was to play to his conscience. “All I ask, son, is that you listen to what I have to say, and if you do, I’ll back you one hundred percent in your decision, even if I disagree.”

That put quite a burden on a headstrong teenager, for if he did the wrong thing he’d also bring shame upon his father. When his father died, that structural discipline to his life collapsed, and but for his fathers’ military buddies convincing him to join the Navy, Kouros shuddered to think about how he might have turned out.