‘Sit down, Inspector, and let’s get on with it because I have to leave.’
I turned round and saw a man in his forties, tall and thin, with hair starting to grey at the temples. He was impeccably dressed, an exact copy of the type Adriani drools over in Glamour and all her other TV soaps. I conformed to his wish and sat down.
‘Inspector Haritos, isn’t it?’ he asked, as if trying to place me.
‘That’s right. Head of Homicide, on sick leave.’
‘Ah, yes. Chief Superintendent Ghikas told me in glowing terms of your act of self-sacrifice.’ He paused for a moment, a sign that he was through with the niceties and was about to come straight to the point. ‘Mr Ghikas also told me that you are a trustworthy officer and that I can talk quite openly to you.’ He fell silent and gave me a searching look. What did he expect? That I would confirm it for him? He saw that I had no intention of doing anything of the sort and so he continued: ‘This whole business of the suicides is particularly unpleasant, Inspector. We’re talking about people who are extremely well known in the political and business world. However much we were saddened by the suicide of Jason Favieros, we all believed that the reasons were most likely personal. Loukas Stefanakos’s suicide, however, has overturned that simple explanation. Stefanakos committed suicide just like Favieros; it’s only reasonable to suppose, then, that there’s something linking the two events. And so the government has been burdened with a problem that it wasn’t expecting and one whose solution is out of its hands.’
‘The newspapers are talking of a scandal.’
‘There is no scandal, believe me. But that is no consolation to us. If there were, it would come out into the open, we would deal with it and that would be the end of it. But a non-existent scandal is a festering wound that could remain like that for weeks, even for months.’
‘I quite understand, Mr Petroulakis,’ trying to emphasise my understanding by my tone of voice. ‘Tell me how I might help.’
‘We want you, very discreetly, to discover the reasons why Favieros and Stefanakos committed suicide.’
‘That might take us some time, without even being certain that we’ll come up with something.’ I reflected as to whether I should continue and I voted in favour. After all, it was better that they should know what they were getting into, as Ghikas had told me the previous day. ‘We have no idea what we might uncover in the course of the investigations.’
He looked at me, more out of curiosity than concern. ‘What do you think you might uncover exactly?’
I told him about the whole business with Favieros, the real-estate agencies and the foreign workers who bought flats through them. He listened to me impatiently and every so often glanced at his watch to remind me that he had an urgent meeting. When I got to what Karanikas had told me, his patience ran out and he interrupted me.
‘I don’t believe that the reasons for Favieros’s suicide had to do with business, Inspector. You should look elsewhere.’
‘Where else, Mr Petroulakis? If he had any personal problems, his family and colleagues would have been aware of it. But they know absolutely nothing. And even if there were any, it would be a huge coincidence if the same personal problems also led Stefanakos to commit suicide.’
‘I’m not talking of personal problems, Inspector. I’m talking about those extreme right-wing nationalists who claim to have forced them into suicide.’
I started to wonder whether I really did have an adviser to the Prime Minister in front of me. Even the explanation put forward by Adriani and Karanikas about them being blackmailed by the TV channel was more believable.
‘What can I say…’ I replied as cautiously as possible. ‘If they had been murdered, I could understand it. Even if they hadn’t done it themselves, we would have found some lead. But suicides… It seems very unlikely to me.’
‘But they’ve admitted it themselves.’
‘When we catch them, they’ll deny everything, and we won’t have any evidence at all to indict them with.’
‘And what about the two Kurds who were murdered?’
‘We might get them for the murder of the Kurds, but we won’t have any evidence linking them to the suicides.’
He leaned over and picked up the newspaper from the table. He unfolded it and pointed to a particular spot. ‘Read it and you’ll understand,’ he said.
‘It was the leading article. I read at the spot he had pointed to.
All the rumours that the two men were being blackmailed by the TV channel that broadcast the suicides live are ridiculous and completely ungrounded.
Even in the hypothetical case that the channel was in possession of certain information, it is ethically unacceptable for anyone to claim that the channel would endeavour to urge a well-known businessman and a Member of Parliament to commit suicide, regardless of whether it might succeed or not.
‘Do you see where all this stuff and nonsense leads, Inspector? As if the supposed scandal weren’t enough, before long we’ll also have the supposed blackmailing by the channel. They’re already starting to put it around.’
‘And who will believe it, Mr Petroulakis?’
‘Everyone,’ he replied, without the slightest hesitation.
I held my tongue, because Adriani and Karanikas had already believed it. The two bodies had turned to mud that they were all throwing at each other: the Opposition at the Government over a scandal and the press at the TV over blackmail.
‘You’re right, but what connection do the nationalists have with all that?’
He stood over me and looked me in the eye from above.
‘The police officers of your generation underestimate the extreme right-wing factions, Inspector. I’m not saying that by way of reproach, I know that’s how you were weaned. But, since being a high-school pupil, I’ve been in conflict with them and I know only too well their methods and what they’re capable of doing. If you were to arrest them tomorrow, I can assure you that you would have public opinion on your side and no one would doubt that they had done it.’
So he had finally opened up and I could see now where he was leading. He couldn’t care less whether I found the reasons behind the suicides of a tycoon and a politician. All he wanted was for me to pin it on the extreme right so that the case would be closed and he would be able to relax. I was about to tell him straight when I suddenly remembered Ghikas’s words: ‘Whatever he tells you, just say “yes”.’ For once in my life, I decided to take his advice.
‘I see, Mr Petroulakis. Of course, we’ll need to get hold of some evidence to make the accusation stick.’
My reply pleased him and he smiled with satisfaction. ‘I’m certain you’ll come up with the evidence. I have every confidence in your abilities.’ He held out his hand to tell me that the conversation was over. ‘And we’ll be in touch,’ he said, shaking my hand. ‘But always call me on my mobile phone, not on the landline.’
It made no difference to me where I called him. My problem was elsewhere. I wondered what I would have to tell him the next time I called him. I was met outside by the Thai girl, who, like a guard of honour, showed me to the door.
As I was going down Octaviou Merlie Street in order to turn into Ippokratous Street and come out into Solonos Street, I reflected that it was the first time that I had felt Ghikas was lending me his support. I couldn’t decide whether this was because he had a genuine liking for me or whether it was due to the fact that Yanoutsos got on his nerves more than I did. Most likely the latter. Of course, this support might simply be due to the fact that I was carrying out an unofficial investigation and, not only that, but while on sick leave too. If something were to go wrong, he hadn’t given me any official orders and consequently he didn’t bear any of the responsibility. Thinking it over again, I decided that this was the more likely explanation. It had nothing to do with his either liking or disliking me, or with his being at cross-swords with Yanoutsos. He was helping me because he was in no danger of compromising himself and, at the same time, he was getting rid of Yanoutsos. I wasn’t sure whether this thought angered me because it made me see Ghikas’s ulterior motives or whether it relieved me because it put him back in his proper place and didn’t upset the existing balance of things.