Jeffrey Siger - Target - Tinos

“As you’ve no doubt noticed, the crimes charged took place less than forty-eight hours ago, which means your client stays in jail until trial, no bail.” That wasn’t quite true in all situations, but it was a risk the lawyer knew he must tell his client.

That brought on a volley of protests, claiming “trumped up charges” and the like.

Andreas raised his hand for the lawyer to stop. “Counselor, the situation is simple. Tell your client to relax, spend a few days with old friends in a place that’s like home to him, just until things ‘cool down.’ He’ll know what I mean. Or, if he wants to test me, to see if I’m serious about bringing the new charges, tell him about the risks he faces if he doesn’t take my deal, and I’m not just talking about the new charges. Remind him I’m one of the cops your client and his buddies tried to murder last night.”

Each lawyer’s client chose the short vacation option.

That was fine with Andreas. He wasn’t ready to arrest any of them yet for what happened in that parking lot. With their connections and money none was likely to be denied bail. Not for just the attempted murder of a cop. Great system.

At least the worst were off the streets for now. All but one. The crooked, bearded cop. No way to arrest him.

But the fates were Greek and once more they stepped in and took a hand. Well, actually broke a hand, two legs, three ribs, and a jaw. The bearded cop was mugged coming out of a whorehouse just before dawn. He was found and taken to a hospital next to GADA where he was under twenty-four-hour police protection, on Andreas’ orders. Rumor had it he decided to accept early retirement. Miraculously, his unbroken hand was the one he needed to sign the necessary papers, scheduled for that afternoon in his hospital room.

“Maggie, where’s Yianni?” Andreas had just said goodbye to the last of the lawyers. He was exhausted and wanted to go home. He’d never made it there last night.

Maggie stuck her head through the doorway. “He’s in his office, with Tassos.”

“Tell them to come in here.”

Maggie stepped inside and closed the door. “I think you should go to his office, Chief. There are still lawyers in the hallway.”

Andreas was about to ask why that mattered but if Maggie said it there must be a good reason. Kouros’ office was on the same floor as Andreas’ but windowless. The door to his office was closed. That was unusual. Andreas knocked.

“Come in,” said Kouros.

Andreas opened the door and looked in. “Another surprise party?”

“No, just little old me and mister ex- lokazides here,” said Tassos pointing to Kouros lying across his desk with a towel over his head. Lokazides was the nickname for the special ops brotherhood of Greece’s equivalent of U.S. Navy Seals.

“A little less noise if you please,” said Kouros.

Andreas didn’t have to ask what happened. “Looks like you’ve been in a fight.”

“ Mano a mano,” said Kouros.

“From what I understand about the condition of the other guy I don’t think he’d agree.” Andreas smiled. “More like man versus bull.”

Kouros pulled the towel off his face, one eye was swollen shut and his nose appeared broken, though it was hard to tell if that would be an improvement over the results of its past breaks.

“I’ll ask Lila if perhaps she has another veil for you to wear to the wedding.” Andreas patted Kouros on the arm. “So, what happened? I thought you were just going to talk to him?”

“I didn’t go there to beat the shit out of him, it just turned out that way.”

Tassos said, “I was there and we tried to talk to him. We gave him the choice you suggested, take early retirement or become your number one target for investigation. He raised various questions about our parentage and yelled to some of his colleagues in the brothel for help.” He looked at Kouros. “It was a joy to watch our young friend here at work. There were three of them plus the dirty cop and I was able to assist with one.”

“A lead pipe to the back of the head was more than an assist. Where did you find that thing anyway?”

Tassos shrugged. “By the end of the exercise our cop friend saw the light.”

Andreas said, “Glad everything turned out okay, good job.”

Kouros stared at Andreas. “I don’t consider being stretched out on top of my desk as ‘okay.’”

“Stop complaining,” said Tassos. “You know you enjoyed yourself.” Tassos looked at Andreas. “So, what do we do now?”

“It’s off to Tinos. We’ve got to get a handle on what’s happening over there.”

“Does Lila know?” said Kouros.

“I’ll tell her when I get home. She won’t mind. Tinos is next to Mykonos.” Andreas smiled. “It’s an easy commute for the wedding. Let’s all plan to leave for Tinos this afternoon.”

Kouros and Tassos looked at each other. Tassos said, “Are you sure you can leave today? You do know it’s Thursday?”

Andreas smacked his forehead with his hand. “I forgot all about tonight.”

Tassos said, “Don’t worry. I know who to talk to on Tinos. I’ll catch the next fast boat and be there in a couple hours. You stay here and keep your bride-to-be happy. No need to start a war with Lila so close to your wedding day.”

“Yeah, getting one going with the Albanians was enough of that sort of thing for me for one day,” said Kouros.

Andreas smiled. “Think positively, Yianni. How could things possibly get any worse?”

Maggie opened the door and popped her head inside. “Chief, it’s Lila. Something about you keeping a promise to pick up your mother ten minutes ago for the final fitting for her dress.”

Kouros put the towel back over his face. “Guess you have your answer, Chief.”

When Andreas’ mother asked him to come along with her to the final fitting, his first reaction was, “Why me?” He knew as much about fashion as he knew about rocket science, probably less. But, his sister couldn’t come and, as the only other child in his mother’s life, Andreas went because he knew how anxious she was to look just right. His mother said she’d never bought a dress “this important” before and wanted it to be “perfect.”

Her home was not far from his office. She’d moved there as a young bride, it was where her son and daughter were born, and her hero cop husband died. The old neighborhood was unrecognizable from when Andreas grew up there. Greek was no longer the dominant language. No language was. It was a hodgepodge of languages, people, and cultures. It was also dangerous.

Andreas and his sister had begged their mother to move but she refused to leave her home, even to live among her grandchildren. All Andreas could do was ask the local police commander to keep a special eye on his mother’s place, and the word on the street was “stay away, it’s protected.” But new trouble moved into the neighborhood every day, and it took time for them to get the word.

Andreas sat at a traffic light two blocks from his mother’s place. The colors and faces passing by were very different from his childhood memories. He guessed at their nationalities. As a cop he was pretty good at that. Profiling some would say. Self-defense said others. Members of certain groups just seemed to commit certain crimes. They specialized. Cops knew that but couldn’t say so publicly.

Perhaps we should, thought Andreas. Bring it all out into the open. Let everyone know the truth, that every group had its special sorts of predators-and that they preyed worst upon their own kind. It’s not helping anyone ignoring that reality. The scum of a group always makes the news, making it easy for the rest of the country to classify everyone in the group as bad. No way that was true. No more so than that all Greeks were…