Jeffrey Siger - Target - Tinos

“Get him a beer,” said Petros to the woman. “But make sure he pays first.”

The man placed two euros and a cell phone on the bar.

The woman put a bottle in front of him and shuffled off into the other room. Petros went back to doing whatever he was doing. The man took a sip of his beer, put it down, and sat as still as a stray cat hoping for dinner to pass by.

Thirty minutes passed and the man had taken no more than three sips of his beer. He’d glanced at everyone coming through the door but hadn’t moved from his stool.

Two blond Polish women, one tall and one short, walked through the door, passed the man at the bar, and went into the other room.

The two said hello to some men at other tables before sitting down at a table in the middle of the room. The man in the blue tee shirt pressed a button on his phone before putting it into his pocket, picked up his beer in his left hand, and walked toward the women. He reached behind his back with his right hand as he stopped at their table. The women didn’t seem to notice him until that moment but immediately gave him their best smiles. The smiles vanished the instant he brought his right hand around from behind his back.

“My badge ladies. Detective Yianni Kouros at your service.” Kouros sat down and put his beer on the table “Don’t mind me, I’m just your baby sitter. My friends will be here any minute.”

Thirty seconds later, Andreas came through the front door headed straight toward Kouros. Tassos was right behind him.

Petros stood up. “What’s this?”

Tassos pointed at Petros’ chest. “Sit down and shut up.”

Petros paused for a second and sat.

“Smart move. Now send a round of beers over to that table.” He pointed to Kouros. “Understand?”

Petros nodded.

“Good.” Tassos patted Petros on the shoulder and went to join Kouros and Andreas. They sat where each could cover the other’s back.

“Sorry about the drama, ladies,” said Andreas. “But since we couldn’t seem to find you to make an appointment, and didn’t want any of your friends in here who might recognize us calling you to suggest you’d be better off not showing up tonight, we thought we’d give you the chance to meet detective Kouros.”

Kouros nodded. “Ladies.”

“Yeah, but your grand entrance just fucked us,” said the tall woman.

“Such language,” said Tassos.

“Now everyone on Tinos will be saying we’re working with cops.”

“Does that have you worried?” said Andreas.

“The Pakistani is dead!”

“One of many,” said Tassos.

“I told you we should have left the island,” said the short one.

The tall one said something to her in Polish.

“Uhh, uhh, ladies. Remember the ground rules. Only Greek,” said Andreas.

“Or what? That you’ll arrest us? That would be safer than being loose on this island,” said the short one. “Why do you think we haven’t been back to our place? It’s too dangerous.”

“But you still come here,” said Tassos.

“We have to work,” said the short one.

The tall one said something again in Polish. Kouros shot out his hand and gripped it firmly over her mouth. “Perhaps you didn’t hear the man. ‘Only Greek.’ Prosze. ” After he’d said “please” in Polish, Kouros took away his hand.

Andreas nodded. “Ladies, you’re right. You do have a very serious problem. Whoever killed your Pakistani friend and your two tsigani friends must be very nervous over what you might be telling us at this very moment. But, it’s too late to change all that. The only way things can get better for you now is if you help us find whoever killed your friends.”

Andreas paused, but neither woman said a word. “And I’m the one cop in Greece who can actually help you when he says that he can. You do know that I’m GADA’s Chief of Special Crimes? I gave you my card, didn’t I?”

The tall one said, “Yes.”

“Do you still have it?”

“No way. We left it on the table,” said the short one. “If we took it with us anyone who saw you give it to us might think we intended to call you, and God knows what rumors that would start.”

Andreas stared at the short girl. She had street smarts. And she was right. He turned his head and looked around the room. All eyes were on their table except for when his were on theirs. That was to be expected. This was where you came to learn your community’s gossip. The Greeks had their kafeneions for morning coffee, the metanastes their after work places for beers. Andreas wished he could hear what they were saying at their tables.

He watched the sister in her slippers shuffle toward them with a tray of beers. One by one she put a bottle down in front of each of them, taking care as she did. He waited until she’d left.

“Do you remember when you told me about the two Carausii brothers talking about their ‘big break’ and that guy they called ‘the shepherd’?”

“‘ Cioban,’ yes.”

“Did they ever talk about that in here?”

“No, they never came in here,” said the tall one.

Andreas looked around the room as he said, “Did either of you ever talk to someone in here about the brothers or their big break?”

“Before they died?” said the short one.

“Yes.”

“No, we kept all that to ourselves.”

Andreas focused his eyes first on one, then on the other of the girls. “Did you ever talk in here between yourselves about what they told you?”

“Of course,” said the tall one.

“Why wouldn’t we?” said the short one. “It was the only interesting thing going on in our lives.”

The woman returned with a tray of glasses and began putting them down separately in front of each person at the table.

Andreas reached over to a nearby table and dragged an empty chair up next to him. “ Kiria. Please, come join us.” He’d used the respectful title for a woman and stood to pull the chair out for her.

The woman kept putting down the glasses as if she’d not heard him. He reached over and touched her arm. “Please, sit.”

She mumbled something and shuffled off toward the bar.

“ I said sit. ” Andreas said it so loudly that two men getting up from a nearby table immediately sat down. But the woman kept walking toward the doorway.

“Yianni, bring her back.”

Kouros lurched out of his chair after her as she went through the doorway into the bar, but Petros stepped into the doorway with his arms spread out above his head, hands on the frame, blocking Kouros’ way.

“Please move, sir. We want to speak to the lady.”

“She’s my sister. Nobody talks to her.”

“Move or be moved.”

Petros swung his right hand down from the doorframe at Kouros’ face. Kouros didn’t duck. He leaned in and drove his forehead into Petros’ chest, knocking the fat man off-balance, as he grabbed Petros’ testicles in his right hand and squeezed the screaming man back into his chair in the bar.

“Stay,” said Kouros. He spun around to find the woman but she wasn’t there. He ran out the front door. She wasn’t there either. He heard a motorbike starting up behind the building and raced to the back just in time to catch a glimpse of a taillight disappearing behind a neighboring building.

“Damnit.” Kouros turned and looked at the wall. “How the hell did she get out there so fast?” The back of the building was solid. She could only have come out the front door. He went back inside to where Andreas was sitting.

“Sorry, Chief. She got away.”

“How the hell did she do that?” said Tassos.

“That’s just what I was wondering. There’s no back door.”

“Ladies, if you’ll excuse us.” Andreas stood. “By the way, if I were you I’d continue keeping myself scarce. At least for the time being.”