Petros Markaris - Deadline in Athens

Standing in the center of the room were two men. One was medium height, medium build, and medium hair. His coat was open and he was wearing a suit with a shirt buttoned to the neck, no tie. This had to be Hourdakis. The other was roughly the same age, fifties, thin, with a department-store suit and a tie so worn that it must have been dying of loneliness because there was certainly no other of its kind anywhere in his wardrobe.

"Where have you been, Mr. Hourdakis? We've been looking for you everywhere. We even had to put your wife and son to some inconvenience," I said.

"I've been on a trip."

"Christodoulou, Inspector, Mr. Hourdakis's lawyer," the thin one chipped in. "I would ask that it be taken into consideration that my client presented himself of his own free will as soon as he heard that you were anxious to speak with him."

"A warrant has been issued and we would have found him in any case.

"Nevertheless, it's not the same."

I didn't have time to waste on the lawyer and I turned to Hourdakis. "Do you know why we have been looking for you?" I said. "We want to know who was giving you the occasional million that you spread out over your family's accounts-payments for turning a blind eye to the Transpilar refrigerator trucks."

Hourdakis turned to look to his lawyer.

"I want you to know that my client came here to offer every help to the police, Inspector."

"Fine. We'll take that into consideration if his answers are satisfactory." Back to Hourdakis. "Well then, get on with it! Who was giving you the money?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Listen, Hourdakis. I've spent too much time on you already. Don't make me lose my temper. We've got the two drivers, Milionis and Papadopoulos. We've also got Eleni Dourou, who took charge of the children. We know everything. Tell us who was paying you so we can put an end to it."

"My client is telling you the truth," the solicitor interrupted again. "He doesn't know."

I stared at them and I felt something wasn't right. "How did you get the money?" I asked Hourdakis.

"Let me go back to the beginning. One evening, when I came home from work, I found a package waiting for me. It was an ordinary box, like those used for packing glasses. When I opened it, I found 500,000 drachmas inside. I thought there had been some mistake, but the package had my name and address on it. I was racking my brain trying to think who might have sent it when the phone rang and a man asked me if I'd received the 500,000. I asked his name, of course, but he wouldn't tell me. All he told me was that on the following night a Transpilar refrigerator truck would be crossing the border. If I let it through without inspecting it, he'd send me another 500,000."

"When did all this happen?"

"I don't remember the date exactly, but it must have been sometime in May of 1991."

"And so you let it through."

"Yes. Three days later, I received the other 500,000. After that, he'd phone me and give me the number of the refrigerator truck, I'd let it through without any inspection, and he'd send me the million."

It was that simple. The first refrigerator truck that had gone through in May'91 was almost certainly empty. If Hourdakis hadn't taken the bait and had inspected it, he wouldn't have found anything. What, after all, was Sovatzis risking in order to test him? A salary, perhaps not even. When he saw that Hourdakis had taken the bait, he began his operation.

"How was the money sent to you?"

"In a package, always. Brought by courier."

"And who was the sender?"

"It had a different name each time."

"And why did you stop, given that everything was going like clockwork?"

"The trucks always came at night. I had to change shifts in order to make sure I was there. At first it was easy, because no one wants to work at night. But eventually, they got suspicious because I kept asking to work nights. And then I got wind of the fact that someone had begun asking questions about the trucks."

"Who was asking questions?"

"Someone from Athens, I don't know who. I never found out."

I knew. It was Karayoryi.

"As I was eligible for early retirement, I applied and my application was accepted."

Now someone else was getting money in a package. We'd find him too, but I still had nothing on Sovatzis. Only if we got our hands on Krenek, but he'd be in South America by now.

I took out the famous photograph of the two of them, anyhow, and showed it to Hourdakis. "Do you recognize either of these men?"

He looked at it and shook his head. Then we went, together with his solicitor, to the photography records. I showed him the photographs of Milionis, Papadopoulos, Dourou, and Seki. He immediately recognized the first two, but Dourou and Seki he said he did not know, had never met. I sent him to make a written statement and then to the cells.

Sotiropoulos was waiting for me. "What happened with Hourdakis? Did he talk?"

"The chief will make an official statement."

"Oh, come off it."

I motioned him into the office. I told him briefly what I'd learned from Hourdakis. I wasn't doing him any special favor because Ghikas would tell the others the same.

"How involved is Sovatzis, Dourou's brother, in the business?" he asked me.

"Do you think he's involved?"

"He's involved, all right, but I'm afraid that you won't be able to prove anything," he said, puncturing my morale. "You've absolutely nothing on him. Your only hope is Pylarinos."

"Why Pylarinos?"

"Because Sovatzis is a pain in the ass for him. If he discovers anything whatsoever, he might just hand him over to you for the peace of mind."

I liked that idea. "What did you do about Kolakoglou?" I said as he was leaving.

"About Kolakoglou?" he turned and looked at me in surprise.

"Weren't you going to prove that he'd been sent down unjustly?"

It was no longer a priority; he'd virtually forgotten it. "I'd really like to, but it's not possible," he said and sighed. "Kolakoglou is no longer news. No one's interested in him. Even if I were to put together a report, the news editor would kill it."

Robespierre, employee of Media Inc., with a lump sum on retiring and a pension. It was already four. I'd been on my feet for forty hours. I decided to close shop and go to sleep.

Before leaving, I called Sotiris in and told him to leave no stone unturned until he had something on Sovatzis.

They came one by one and handed me their reports. And with each report my hopes tumbled. In the end they were crushed completely. No one had been found who could recognize Sovatzis. Not at Hellas Channel, or on Karadimas Street, where the Albanians had been murdered, or in Kostarakou's neighborhood. No one knew him on Koumanoudi Street either. None of the building's residents or the neighbors knew him. The fox hadn't gone anywhere near The Foxes so as not to arouse suspicion.

I was in a state of despondency because the doors were closing, one after the other. In the end, I'd have to take the plunge. I'd bring Sovatzis in and lean on him. I tried to work out what the best tactic would be: to use the evidence I had on him and Krenek, or to try and scare him with the twenty years his sister would get. But before I had come to any conclusion, the telephone rang.

"Come up," Ghikas said in that curt manner he uses when he has someone with him and he wants to play the boss.

I wasn't wrong. "Big-shot visitor," Koula said to me as I went through.

"Who is it today?"

"Pylarinos."

My hopes were raised. For Pylarinos to have come back meant that he had something important to tell us. Could Sotiropoulos have been right after all, that he was going to sell out Sovatzis for his own peace of mind?

He was sitting in the same chair he'd sat in during our last meeting. As soon as he saw me, however, he got to his feet and shook my hand warmly.