‘Do you know whether your husband was acquainted with Apostolos Vakirtzis, Mrs Stathatos?’
She laughed. ‘What a naive question, Inspector. Is there any politician or would-be politician, or even town counsellor for that matter, who doesn’t know Apostolos Vakirtzis?’
‘Do you know whether he was on friendly terms with him?’
‘Another naive question. You couldn’t be on anything but friendly terms with Apostolos Vakirtzis. You had to appear on his show, give him interviews whenever he wanted, always supply him with the information he asked for. Otherwise, he would declare war on you and, sooner or later, he would succeed in eliminating you.’
‘And what about your husband, Mrs Favieros?’
She shrugged to stress that she had no idea. ‘Jason knew so many people, from politicians to businessmen, that it was impossible among all that crowd to distinguish Vakirtzis or anyone else.’
There was no point in my going on. Even if he had known Vakirtzis, Favieros certainly wouldn’t have told his wife. My next question was a difficult one because I didn’t know whether I should ask it and also because I didn’t know what answer I might get.
‘Could your husbands’ suicides be connected at all with your own business activities?’
‘I don’t see what possible connection there could be…’ Favieros began, but Stathatos cut her short.
‘None whatsoever,’ she said abruptly. ‘The partnership was between Sotiria and myself. Jason and Loukas had no involvement at all and, what’s more, I have no intention of discussing my business activities with you, Inspector.’
‘And I have no intention of asking you about your business activities, Mrs Stathatos. They’re of no concern to me. Though what you just said, that Loukas Stathatos and Jason Favieros had no involvement in your businesses, is not exactly true. If I recall correctly, you had, together with Jason Favieros, an offshore company that dealt in hotel enterprises in the Balkans.’
She wasn’t expecting me to know that detail and so I caught her off guard, but she quickly recovered.
‘Ah yes, Balkan Inns,’ she said complacently, as though she had forgotten about it. ‘But I was never personally involved in that. It was run by Jason and Coralia Yannelis.’
I began to think of Coralia Yannelis as a sort of Minister for Balkan Affairs in the group of companies. I would have to try my luck with her once more. I found her far more likeable than Stathatos, even though she hadn’t really told me anything despite all her smiles and friendliness.
Koula opened her mouth for the first time as we got up to leave. ‘May we have your permission to search the computers used by Mr Favieros and Mr Stefanakos in their offices and in their homes?’
Mrs Favieros turned and looked at her in astonishment. Mrs Stathatos once again adopted her haughty expression as though the very sound of Koula’s voice was an annoyance to her.
‘And just what do you expend to find on the computers, young miss? If Jason and Loukas had left suicide notes, we would know about it.’
‘I’m not looking for suicide notes, Mrs Stathatos,’ Koula answered in a firm voice. ‘Mr Favieros’s private secretary informed us that Mr Favieros had been spending hours shut up in his office in front of the computer prior to his suicide. So much so that it had caused her to wonder. Mr Vakirtzis’s partner had also said the same thing about him to the Inspector – namely that he, too, had been spending a great deal of time in front of his computer. So we would like to search them in case they contain some evidence.’
Mrs Stathatos shrugged.
‘Loukas didn’t have a computer at home, only in the office. I’ll tell Stella, his secretary, who is still working there, to allow you access.’
The way she said it revealed her certainty that we wouldn’t find anything. Koula thanked her and I nodded to her that we should be going. The secretary sitting outside didn’t even raise her eyes to look at us as we left. Perhaps she didn’t hear our footsteps on the thick carpet.
36
‘I really don’t understand, Inspector.’
Coralia Yannelis looked at us with an expression that was both ironic and inquisitive at the same time. We had gone straight there from the offices of Starad, because it was only five minutes’ drive from Vikela Street to Aigialeias Street.
‘If I’m not mistaken, this is the fourth time you’ve come here and I can’t understand your interest in these suicides. I’m starting to suspect that there’s something else behind all this that you’re not telling us.’
‘There’s nothing else behind it, Mrs Yannelis.’
‘So are you telling me that your interest is purely on a human level? That you’re desperate to learn why Favieros and Stefanakos committed suicide in such a tragic way?’
‘And Vakirtzis. The day before last, Vakirtzis also committed suicide in an even more tragic way.’
‘All right, Vakirtzis too.’
‘Did you know him?’
‘Of course, along with ten million other Greeks. You couldn’t open a newspaper without coming across Vakirtzis, or turn on the radio without hearing his voice.’
‘But you didn’t have any connection or dealings with him?’
She laughed. ‘You still think that the reasons behind the suicides of Jason and Stefanakos are to be found hidden somewhere in Favieros’s group of companies or in their joint companies or in their wives’ companies. But where does Vakirtzis, a journalist, fit into all that?’
She waited for an answer from me, but she didn’t receive one because I didn’t have one. I didn’t have any answers, and the ones I did have were not all that convincing. Those who shared my suspicions did so simply because they had the same gut feeling that I had, like Ghikas for example, or because they were scared of some scandal, like the Minister.
Yannelis saw from my silence that I was at a loss and continued: ‘I can assure you that Jason and Stefanakos, at least, did not commit suicide because of the prospect of bankruptcy. If you don’t believe me, all you have to do is ask to see their companies’ balance sheets and give them to a specialist to examine. He’ll tell you that the companies are doing just fine.’ She paused for a moment and her tone suddenly became cold. ‘Three people have died by their own hand, Inspector, and before thousands of eyes. That’s tragic for their families and also for those who knew and loved them. But they weren’t murdered, so why do you care?’
Her irony had turned into controlled indignation. They were dead anyway, I thought to myself. If they had been murdered instead of committing suicide, I would have come up with a lead far more easily. How was I to explain to Yannelis, without any evidence, that to my mind the three suicides were indirectly murders? And how was I to convince her that if we didn’t come up with the reasons behind them soon, it was very probable that the suicides would continue and we’d be faced with a suicide epidemic that we wouldn’t know how to stop? If I had been dealing with a murder, I would have been able to involve another three or four divisions. I would collect evidence, have bank accounts opened and, sooner or later, I’d get to the bottom of it. But now I had neither evidence nor arguments and I was going round in circles like a mouse on a wheel.
‘Do you think it a mere coincidence that three leading figures from the world of business, politics and journalism should commit suicide in succession?’
She shrugged. ‘Some coincidences are inexplicable.’
‘And the biographies? The two were published within ten days of each suicide and the third was delivered to my door at the very moment that Vakirtzis was committing suicide.’
This time, she didn’t answer straightaway. ‘Agreed. The biographies lend some weight to your argument. But who’s to say they weren’t already written and the author is simply cashing in on the events? All three of them were well-known personalities and lived action-packed lives. That’s a temptation for any biographer. After all, there’s the example of that nationalist organisation that wanted to take advantage of the suicides to draw attention to itself. Perhaps the biographer was doing the same thing.’