Jeffrey Siger - Assassins of Athens

'I got a call this morning from a Captain Cacace of the Italian Police. He said Zanni Kostopoulos told him to call me.'

Giorgio shrugged. 'About what?'

'I asked the same thing. He said last night some local boys over in Sardinia took a shot at kidnapping Kostopoulos' wife and kids.'

Giorgio blinked twice.

Andreas shook his head. 'Didn't work out too well for those boys. They ended up either dead or in jail. All ten of them. He wanted to know if I might know the guy who hired them to do it. I didn't, but I thought you might.'

'Me? Why me?'

'Remember that girl in here with the Kostopoulos boy the night he was murdered?'

Giorgio nodded. 'Yeah.'

'The captain told me that one of the guys in the kidnapping crew was her ex-boyfriend.'

Giorgio shifted in his chair.

'Yeah, and the same guy said they were hired for that job by someone who contacted them through her.'

'What's the name?' It was Giorgio's first show of interest in anything Andreas had said.

'Nobody I ever heard of.' Andreas pulled out his notebook. 'Mavrakis, Demosthenes Mavrakis. You know him?'

Giorgio looked straight ahead at the wall. 'Never heard of him.'

'Hello, is Efisio there?'

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. 'Who's calling?'

'Anna, Anna Panitz.'

'Been a long time.'

'Yes. I know, but I must speak to Efisio. It's very important.'

'He's not here.'

'Do you know where he is?'

'Back in his village, in Sardinia.' The speaker let out a breath. 'The funeral is in a couple of days.'

'What funeral?'

'His.'

Demon grabbed the phone. 'Dead. He can't be dead! What happened?'

Anna heard a hum on the other end of the line, but Demon kept yelling into the phone.

'The line's dead. They hung up,' she said.

Demon threw the phone against the wall, then swung around and slapped her face. 'It's your fucking fault.' And stormed out of the apartment.

Anna touched her fingers to where he'd slapped her. Despite everything else Demon had done to her, this was the first time he'd hit her. She swore to herself when she fled Efisio that no man ever would strike her again.

It was time to move on. Andreas was in his office with Kouros when the call came in from the cops covering Anna's apartment. They played what they caught on tape. Andreas bit at his lower lip while he listened, and Kouros seemed to be holding his breath. When it came to the part where Demon stormed out of the apartment, Kouros threw his right fist in the air and yelled, 'Yes!'

Andreas smiled. They listened to the tapes again and hung up.

'First good news in a long time. The son of a bitch is worried.' Kouros pumped his fist again.

'Wait until the Angel Club boys figure out Demosthenes' decision to hire new muscle cost them a mega-payday with Kostopoulos.'

'Has Kostopoulos told them yet?'

'Tassos said the next time the negotiator calls, Kostopoulos will tell him everything's off because of their attempt to kill his family in Sardinia. That, together with our little visit to Giorgio, should tie everything together for them very nicely.'

'They will be pissed. Do you think they'll kill Demosthenes?'

Andreas gestured no. 'Doubt we'd be that lucky. This is a business problem for them. As much as they might want to whack him, he's the only one who can convince Kostopoulos they had nothing to do with Sardinia. At least that's what I'm hoping they'll do.'

'Otherwise, he's dead.'

'And we lose. Oh, well, too bad for Demosthenes.' Andreas smiled. 'That would really upset me. Especially the painful, drawn-out way they'd do it.'

'I can tell you're all broken up at the possibility.'

'It's up to Kostopoulos now. If he pushes the right buttons, we've got Demosthenes working overtime on saving his ass from his former buddies.'

'What about the Old Man and Linardos?'

Andreas gestured no. 'The most that muscle has on them is Demosthenes' word that they're involved, and I doubt they put much value on his word these days. Besides, the Old Man and Linardos are too powerful for them to go after. It would bring down the wrath of Greece's powers that be for attacking one of their own and shatter whatever business arrangements those mob guys must have with some of them.'

Andreas stretched. 'On the other hand, Demosthenes desperately needs the Old Man's help to get to Kostopoulos. Otherwise, what's Demosthenes? A nobody, a less than nobody. "Hi, Mr Kostopoulos, I'm the one who hired the people who killed or tried to kill members of your family, but trust me when I say the ones who killed your son had nothing to do with Sardinia."'

Kouros laughed.

Andreas frowned and shook his head. 'Demosthenes can't think that's going to work. He must know his only chance at getting to Kostopoulos, and living, is if he convinces the Old Man to intervene directly with Kostopoulos.'

'Why would the Old Man do that? What does he have to gain coming out of the closet at this point in his life to announce he's a terrorist? And not just a terrorist, the head terrorist.'

'That's the wing-and-a-prayer part of the plan. I've no idea what will do it. I'm leaving that up to Demosthenes. We've motivated him. Let's hope he can do the same for the Old Man.'

Maggie stuck her head in the office. 'Yianni, those cops from up north called, the ones you had following the guy you tailed to the airport. They said he's on the move again. He's back over the border into Greece and headed to the airport. They'll call you as soon as they know where he's headed.'

Kouros turned to Andreas and smiled. 'Care to bet where Demosthenes' old buddy is headed?'

Andreas clapped his hands together. 'Let the games begin.' The message was 'Be outside Kato Patissia metro, 9 a.m.' Another metro ride to another tough neighborhood. Probably another unpleasant car ride, too.

Demon's mind wandered to thoughts of his future and of private drivers to whisk him to such places. He knew he could never put these sorts of meetings behind him. He would always need these types. Now, to convince them they still needed him.

He looked at his watch. Nine-fifteen. Where is he? The answer came in the form of a taxi pulling up beside him. 'Taxi, mister?'

'No, I'm wait-'

Demon got in the back seat. 'Didn't recognize you. Nice touch, no one notices a Balkan taxi driver these days.'

'What the fuck did you do?'

'Beg your pardon.'

'You heard me. Sardinia.'

'Oh, yes. Well, you left me with no choice. What was I supposed to do? The gentlemen I report to made me do it. I wanted you to get the job but-'

'Enough of your bullshit. You've cost us a lot of money. Kostopoulos killed the deal. Thinks we tried to kill his wife and kids. You asshole.'

Demon sounded calm, but his heart was racing. He expected Sardinia was the reason he was here, even anticipated the anger, but expecting something and facing it eyeball-to-eyeball, even through a rearview mirror, were very different things.

'I understand you're angry. But, you've profited quite handsomely over the years from my relationships with very powerful people, people who want to continue working with you, through me, making you more money than you can imagine. This is just a slight bump in the road.' He paused and waved a hand as if swatting away some minor distraction. 'To continue with the analogy, my friend, you cannot imagine the extraordinary opportunities that await us if we just stay on the road we've traveled together for so long, and so prosperously. Trust me.'

'Trust you!' He laughed. 'I'm a simple man, so let me put it to you in simple terms. I don't care about your buddies or connections. You're the one we deal with, you're the one we know, and you're the one we no longer trust. Either you straighten out this shit storm you created with Kostopoulos or — to continue the analogy…' he paused to smile in the rearview mirror. 'It's the end of the road for you. Asshole.'