Then Karayoryi sprang to mind. Hadn't everything started with her? Wasn't she the one who'd got me all worked up about the child and sent me off to investigate? We hadn't found a child, of course, but the old women had seen something that looked like a bundle. What if it was a baby wrapped in a blanket? How could she have made that distinction in the dark?
I picked up the internal phone and told Thanassis to come into my office. While he was on his way, I added the last bit of information to the report and handed it to him.
"Give this to Koula and then come back, because I need you for something," I said to give myself a little time to make my decision.
Why did I want to get involved? Why didn't I let the case, if there was a case, take its official course? I'd had the department on its feet thousands of times, and in the end, nothing came of it and instead of points all I got was a tongue-lashing. This was why I'd never been sent for further training, not even to the Panteion School for seminars, let alone to the FBI.
Thanassis returned before long. He thought I had a job for him, and he stared at me with that look that said, "I'm a moron." "I know you're a moron," I replied, again with a look, "but I need your help."
"Be honest with me, Thanassis," I said to him, "is that Karayoryi woman hot for you, or am I wrong there?"
He wasn't expecting it, and he was flummoxed. He looked at me in both surprise and alarm. "What makes you think that, sir?" he mumbled. He didn't know what else to say.
"I'm asking because I happened to notice the way she looks at you, the smiles she gives you… Come on, don't tell me you haven't noticed yourself?"
"It's just your imagination," he said quickly. "Why would she fancy me?"
"It depends… She might be after you because you're a fine young thing. Or she may be coming on to you because she wants access to the department and wants a scoop… or maybe both..
"Am I one to talk?" he said in an offended tone. Not that he'd be the first.
"That's exactly what I want, for you to talk to her. I want you to phone her, supposedly confidentially, and tell her that you have some information for her. And when you're with her, I want you to find out what she knows about the child."
He stared at me dumbly. I waited for it to sink in, because, after all, he was a moron, as we said. "Let me explain, so you know," I said, after giving him a moment to think. "Two days ago, Karayoryi asked me whether the Albanians had a child. And yesterday, on the news, she said that we were looking for a child. It was a lie, but she must have had some reason for saying it. Today an old woman neighbor told me that she'd seen the couple getting out of a van and that the girl was carrying a bundle. The bundle might have been a baby that she couldn't see clearly in the dark. So I want you to find out just what it is that she knows and why she keeps dropping hints."
"Don't make me do this, please, sir," he stammered in obvious distress.
"What am I making you do, dimwit?" I don't call him a moron because we say that silently, like conspirators. "For years, you've got by in here through skiving, and I've always turned a blind eye! And once in a blue moon, when I send you on a job and pay your expenses and find you a chick, you start being difficult!"
"I don't want to get into trouble, sir. If anyone sees me and the people upstairs get to hear of it, I'll be in deep shit."
"Why should you get into any trouble? At worst, I'm the one who'll be in trouble for sending you. Or are you afraid that if it gets out, I'll play the fool and blame it all on you?"
"No," he said quickly, but then he began hemming and hawing again. "And then there's my girlfriend. If she finds out I was with another woman, I'll have real problems, and how am I going to explain things to her?"
"Send her to me and I'll give it to her in writing that you went on official business. Now get out of here and don't come back without the information."
He stood there and stared at me like a frightened pup. "Be off with you!" I shouted, and he took to his heels.
I didn't give a shit about the points.
CHAPTER 8
Before going home, I stopped by the bank to get the thirty-five thousand that Adriani had asked me for. I wasn't proposing to give it to her that particular day, but everything had worked out well for me and I was in a good mood. First of all, I was sure about the Albanian. With him, at least, I was in no danger of slipping up. And second, I'd adjusted the report without Ghikas getting wind of it. Of course, the business with Karayoryi was far from foolproof because Thanassis wasn't the smartest guy on two wheels and if he let it slip that it was me who'd sent him to fish for information, Karayoryi would make it front-page news and I'd have a hurricane on my hands. But you can't have all the hatches secured; you have to take the occasional risk.
I had a bank card. It was Adriani's idea. For her own selfish ends, but, anyway, it was convenient for me. At first, she pestered me to open a joint account, but that I wouldn't hear of. I'd have been witless to make her a partner to my money and end up tearing my hair out when there was nothing left in the account. Not that she was a spendthrift, but I decided to leave her on a diet before she could work up an appetite. When she saw that she wasn't getting anywhere, she changed her tune and persuaded me to get a bank card. She thought that she'd be able to discover the code and sneak off with the card to withdraw whatever she wanted, but it never happened. I gave her thirty thousand each week for the housekeeping, and whenever she asked me for more, I let her wait a few days before forking it over. I always gave in, but not before making her life difficult so she wouldn't get carried away. The only thing she'd succeeded in doing was to send me off shopping now and again, supposedly because she hadn't time, so she could put the money she saved to one side.
I put the card into the slot. "Touch here for Greek," the message came on the screen, to show that it was cosmopolitan and I was a peasant. I decided to put one over on it though and touched the second key, which said: "Touch here for English." Not that I. understood everything it said in English, but I knew the sequence of keys blindfolded and I didn't care. It was as though I was repeating the conversation with Thanassis here too, silently, through the eyes: "I'm a moron"-"I know you're a moron." Except that I was the moron now because the machine told me everything I had to do, spelling it out, just in case I didn't understand and flubbed.
I withdrew fifty thousand and went home. Adriani was sitting in her usual spot, in her armchair, with the remote control in her hand. Except that this time it wasn't the policeman she was watching, it was some other guy who'd married the mother and wanted to screw the daughter, but the daughter was having none of it. I stood over her, and, just as every other evening, she was either not aware of me or she simply ignored me. I took the thirty-five thousand, which I'd already counted, out of my pocket, and, without saying a word, I let it fall into her lap. It surprised her, totally absorbed as she was by the daughter and stepfather; the girl was swearing at him, and he, evidently a masochist, was sweet-talking her. Just for a moment Adriani moved her gaze from the screen and stared into her lap. Her left hand suddenly grabbed the five-thousand notes while her right let go of the remote control. She leapt up, and the control fell to the floor.