‘First of all, let me say that I am very sorry about Bekim Develi.’
I nodded silently.
‘To die so young was a terrible tragedy. And that it should happen in Greece, during a match like that, was most regrettable. Actually, I wanted to speak to you earlier today but my superior, Police Lieutenant General Stelios Zouranis, felt that this might interfere with your preparations for tonight’s game. Indeed, that you might think this to be a crudely partisan attempt to influence the result.’
‘I’m not sure that anything would have affected our performance tonight. We were awful.’
‘Under the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that you lost. For the record I should tell you that I am a Panathinaikos supporter. So, it makes my skin crawl even to be here. Your player, Hemingway, he should never have been sent off. But that was just typical of a match against Olympiacos. Somehow they always contrive to win.’
I looked at my watch. ‘You’ll forgive me if I ask you to come to the point, Chief Inspector. We have a chartered plane waiting to take us back to London. It seems that your air-traffic controllers are going on strike at midnight. And we really don’t want to miss our take-off slot.’
‘I know. And believe me this is most regrettable also, sir. But I’m afraid that none of you will be permitted to leave Greece.’
‘What?’
‘Not tonight, at any rate. Perhaps not for several days.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Not until we have completed our inquiries. The Minister of Culture and Athletics has spoken to the manager of your hotel and he has generously agreed to extend your stay until this whole matter has been resolved.’
‘What matter? Your inquiries into what?’
‘I am in charge of investigating a violent crime, Mr Manson. Specifically, a homicide. Perhaps even a murder.’
‘Murder? Look, with all due respect, Chief Inspector, what’s this all about? Bekim Develi had a heart attack. In front of thirty thousand people. I can easily understand that there will have to be a post-mortem into his death; that’s normal in any country. But I fail to understand the need for a police investigation as well.’
‘Oh, it’s not Bekim Develi’s death I’m investigating, sir, although I believe there will have to be an inquest — standard procedure.’
‘Then whose death are we talking about? I don’t understand. Has something happened to someone on my staff?’
‘No sir. Nothing like that. The body of a young woman was found in the harbour at Marina Zea, near Piraeus, this morning. Some boys discovered the body in ten feet of water, with a heavy weight tied to her feet. Our investigations revealed that this woman had a plastic room key for the Astir Palace — your hotel — in the pocket of her dress. This afternoon we went to your hotel and found that the room key had been issued to Mr Develi. We also checked the hotel CCTV and, er... well, see for yourself.’
Varouxis opened up his iPad and tapped the Video icon to show me a grainy-looking piece of film.
‘This is her arriving at Mr Develi’s bungalow, on Monday night. As you can see, the time identification shows it to be 2300 hours. You will agree that this is surely him saying goodnight to her at the door, yes?’
‘Can I please view that clip again, Chief Inspector?’
‘Certainly sir.’
I watched the clip several times, but it was not to verify what Varouxis had said regarding Develi — clearly it was Bekim. Instead I wanted to establish if the girl entering and leaving the dead man’s bungalow was Valentina, the escort to whom he had introduced me; it wasn’t, which was a relief as it absolved me from having to tell the Chief Inspector that I had slept with the dead woman. The girl in the film was good-looking and given Bekim’s predilection for renting late-night female company it didn’t take a detective to guess her profession. His hands were inside the girl’s knickers as he was still saying hello to her.
‘Yes, that’s him all right,’ I said. ‘For obvious reasons I’d ordered a player curfew on visitors that night which Bekim Develi seems to have ignored. The girl I don’t know.’
‘You’ll admit then that it’s possible Bekim Develi might have been one of the last people to see this girl alive. You see there’s CCTV of her going into the bungalow; but none of her leaving.’
I nodded. ‘Yes, I suppose so. But to be fair to Bekim, she might have left by the back door, to the terrace.’
‘Yes, that’s possible. But certainly if he himself was alive now we should want to speak to him very urgently, in which case I would be having this conversation not with you but with him. Where did you meet her? What time did she leave? That kind of thing.’
‘I guess you would at that. Just to clarify one thing. Does this injunction on travel back to London apply to Mr Sokolnikov and his guests on Mr Sokolnikov’s yacht?’
‘No. Only to those of you who were staying at the Astir Palace, which is where the dead woman was last seen alive.’
I nodded. ‘All the same, to detain a whole team for the behaviour of one man — a man who’s now dead — it seems a bit excessive.’
‘On the face of it, it might seem that way. But look here, we both have difficult jobs to do, Mr. Manson. Me, I have to balance what’s right from a procedural, investigative point of view with what’s legal and fair in this situation. And you, well, I should think it’s an impossible task you have, sir. Trying to police the behaviour of young men with wallets as large as their egos and their libidos. Perhaps you’ll also admit that it’s possible Bekim may not have been the only City player in that bungalow when she came through the door. That he was not the only player to break your curfew on visitors.’
‘Look, Chief Inspector, I’ve already agreed that it’s Bekim Develi in the film clip. But there is no proof in that footage that anyone else was there.’
‘No, not in the footage. You see, if I can’t speak to Bekim Develi then perhaps I can speak to someone else who might also have met this unfortunate young woman. Perhaps they had — in Greek we call this a trio.’
‘A threesome,’ I said.
‘Precisely so. I’m a married man, but one reads about such things. In books and newspapers.’
‘Is there any evidence of a threesome?’
‘Some, perhaps. The DEE — that’s our forensics team — they went to Mr Develi’s room this afternoon. They found indications that some kind of party occurred, perhaps. I don’t want to go into too many details but traces of cocaine were found although it’s impossible at this stage to say if the drugs were his or hers.’
‘Bekim Develi would never have taken cocaine on the night before a match,’ I said firmly. ‘I’m certain of that. He wouldn’t have taken the risk.’
‘I’m sure you’re right, sir. I dare say you’ve warned all of your players about the foolishness of such behaviour, on repeated occasions. Then again, it was you who ordered them not to entertain any girls in their rooms on the night before the match. An order that we now both agree that Bekim Develi flagrantly disobeyed. I would not insist that you remain here in Greece if I didn’t have a good reason to do so; and since I think I have at least two good reasons, I’m hoping you’ll see things from my point of view. That I can count on you to cooperate with my investigation.’
‘While I can of course see things from your point of view, Chief Inspector, I wonder if you can see things from mine. The free movement of EU nationals is a fundamental principle of the Treaty under article 45. It might be argued that the whole team will suffer economic damage if it is prevented from leaving here tonight.’