Petros Markaris - Deadline in Athens

The sound of the shot came from the other room, shattering the silence. I rushed into the hall. The papers flew to the floor. The bedroom was at the back. Through the open door, I could see Thanassis's legs on the bed. When I went in, I found his head on the pillow. His left arm was hanging down, dangling loosely. His right hand, which was holding his service revolver, was on the mattress beside him. The bed was unmade and the blood slowly spread everywhere, dyeing the pillow.

By the time the coroner and forensics boys were done, it was past three in the morning. I sent Thanassis to the mortuary in an ambulance and went home. I didn't want to go to the station because there would probably be reporters waiting and I didn't think I would know what to tell them.

I telephoned Ghikas as soon as I got home. He'd gone to spend Christmas at his wife's family home in Karavomylos. It rang for about ten minutes and then I heard a woman's frightened voice: "Hello?"

"Inspector Haritos. I'd like to speak to the superintendent, please… Yes, it's very urgent."

I had to wait another five minutes before I heard Ghikas's worried voice: "What are you phoning me for at this time? What's going on?"

By the time I'd told him the whole story, he was wide awake, as if he'd drunk three coffees.

"And what are we going to do now?" he said. "What are we going to say to the press?"

I had a solution, but I didn't know if he would like it. "Crime of passion. Sergeant Vlastos had a love affair with Karayoryi. From the evidence we have, we suspect that Karayoryi started the affair with him in order to get information from him. Eventually, she decided to break it off. Vlastos took it badly. On the night of the murder, he had dinner with her and begged her to take him back, but she refused. He followed her to the studios. He made his way covertly into the offices, found her, and continued to plead with her. When he saw that she was adamant, he killed her in a moment of fury. Because everyone knows that Karayoryi had also dumped Petratos, they will fall for it."

"And Kostarakou?"

"He killed her because she knew of their affair, and he was afraid she would talk. When he realized that we were on to him, he put a gun to his head. And it goes without saying that with the evidence that Karayoryi had collected and that Vlastos was holding on to, Dourou will go down for ten years."

"Marvellous!" I heard Ghikas say at the other end of the line. "Not even the FBI could have come up with a plan like that to protect its good name"

I couldn't have given a shit about the good name of the FBI. What concerned me was that the case was wrapped up, Antonakaki and her daughter didn't come into it anywhere, and Thanassis escaped being denigrated after death as a crooked police officer. And the force with him.

Ghikas stirred me from my thoughts. "I don't think there's any need for me to cut short my leave. You can make the public statement." And he hung up.

Of course. He had his head screwed on. He made only the pleasant statements. The unpleasant ones he left to me. Good cop, bad cop.

I didn't have the energy to go to bed. I collapsed on the sofa. I mused that I had been persistently wrong about Karayoryi. I had thought she was a lesbian, but she simply hated men and exploited them. I had seen her exchanging looks with Thanassis and I had thought she desired him, whereas she already had him by the nose. Strange woman. On the one hand, she had had the child so that she could give it to her sister and save her marriage. And on the other, she'd driven Thanassis to murder and suicide out of a professional perversion. Why had the poor wretch got himself involved with a woman like that? I'd rather have Adriani a thousand times over, even if she does fake her orgasms.

Never mind, it was just as well that Ghikas would not be rushing back. I'd avoid having to write the schoolboy essay for him to relay to the reporters. It was even better that Adriani was away. She was fond of Thanassis. She would batter me with questions, moan about his fate, till she drove me around the bend and we would get into a flaming row. In the end, we'd stop talking to each other again. Till the next batch of stuffed tomatoes.