‘Thanks, Chief Inspector, I’ll bear that in mind. But right now, I’m planning to be a spy, not a detective.’
Varouxis frowned.
‘I thought I’d take a drive over to the Rentis Training Centre,’ I explained, ‘to see what the opposition are up to, ahead of our return match next week.’
‘They won’t let you in,’ said Varouxis. ‘And there’s a screen to stop nosy parkers. Besides, I happen to know that Olympiacos finish training at one on a Friday, after which Trikoupis always goes to the same restaurant for lunch with his wife, Melina.’
‘Oh well, thanks for the tip.’ I looked at my watch. ‘Perhaps I’ll go and have some lunch myself. What’s the name of this place Trikoupis goes to, so I can avoid it?’
‘It’s an old family place called Dourambeis. But don’t avoid it altogether. It’s probably the best fish restaurant in the city.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Don’t mention it.’
He wasn’t a bad guy, I decided, and I already regretted suggesting he steal the soap.
‘What are you doing tomorrow afternoon, Chief Inspector? Only I have some spare tickets for the match. Panathinaikos versus OFI. Whoever they are.’
‘Heraklion. A good team. This will be an excellent match. And I’d really love to go. But I regret I cannot. If my general found out I was going to a football match instead of investigating this murder he would be angry, I think.’
‘Well, if you change your mind, give me a call. Most of my team are going to the game. You never know. One of them might say something useful. You know that’s why football was invented, don’t you? So men could talk to each other? Women had to invent book groups to do that. Talk, I mean.’
30
This time, when I went outside the hotel, I saw them — two guys in their thirties leaning nonchalantly on the bonnet of a silver Skoda Octavia, smoking cigarettes and getting a little early afternoon sun on their unshaven faces.
‘Where are we going now, sir?’ asked Charlie.
‘A restaurant in Piraeus called Dourambeis.’
‘I know it.’
‘Only see if you can get us there without our police escort,’ I told him. ‘For what I want to do this afternoon, I’d rather I didn’t have any cops watching. Besides, I don’t like being followed. It makes me feel like I’m being man-marked. I get antsy when I’ve got someone on my tail.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Sure, sir. No problem.’
He started the engine and drove slowly away from the front of the hotel.
‘Can you lose them?’
‘This is Athens, sir. We have the worst traffic in Europe. In this city I could lose Sebastian Vettel.’
Charlie accelerated hard and, at the bottom of Syntagma Square, he turned sharply right and sped along a narrow shady street before making a swift left up a hill and then reversing into a small car park. Charlie made the big Range Rover feel like a Mini and it was immediately clear to me he was a professional driver. That shouldn’t have surprised me, I suppose. Nearly all of the guys who drove for Vik had been on evasive driving courses; Vik took evasion in all its forms very seriously indeed: drivers, his wife, tax lawyers, not to mention a whole host of electronic countermeasures rumoured to have been installed on his private jet.
Charlie waited long enough to see the Skoda speed by in a futile attempt to catch us up — and then, when they were past, accelerated forward across the street and down another hill.
‘We won’t see them again for a while,’ said Charlie.
‘Neatly done,’ I said.
At the top of the street he turned left, and drove south on the main road to Piraeus.
‘Dourambeis is one of the best restaurants in Attica,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s an old family place. Usually they’re on holiday until the end of August. So I hope you checked that it’s open.’
‘You mean they close for the summer? When all the tourists are here in Athens?’
‘Only for part of the month of August, sir.’
‘But that’s just crazy. Surely winter would be the time to close.’
‘They close then, as well.’
‘No wonder you’ve got a fucking recession. You’re supposed to stay open during the tourist season, not bugger off on holiday. That’s like a restaurant closing for lunch.’
Charlie grinned. ‘It’s Greece, sir. In this country people do things not because they make sense, but because they’ve always been done that way. Anyway, at Dourambeis I think you should have the scorpion fish. Off the fish counter inside the restaurant. It’s the best in the city.’
‘I’m not actually planning on eating,’ I said.
‘That’s a pity.’
‘At least not today. Hristos Trikoupis is having lunch there. I want to find out who he’s with and perhaps follow him when he leaves. You see, I need to have a talk with him, in private.’
Charlie grinned. ‘I like driving for you, sir. It’s quite like the old days for me.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Before I went into private security, I used to be a cop.’
‘What was your patch? Your speciality?’
‘Low-level detective work. Nothing special. Burglaries, theft.’
‘Why did you leave?’
‘The money. In Greece it’s always about the money. For everything.’
‘I don’t suppose you know Chief Inspector Varouxis.’
‘Everyone knows Ioannis Varouxis,’ said Charlie. ‘He’s the most famous detective in Athens. He was the cop who caught Thanos Leventis, a local bus driver who murdered three prostitutes in Piraeus, and attempted to kill at least three others. Apparently he cut off their nipples, fried them in salt and then ate them. The Greek newspapers called him Hannibal Leventis.’
‘I wonder why Varouxis never mentioned this.’
‘He’s a very modest man, that Varouxis.’
‘No, I meant I wonder why, when Varouxis is investigating the murder of a prostitute who probably had sex with Bekim Develi, that he never mentioned the deaths of those other prostitutes. It seems kind of relevant. Have the newspapers mentioned it?’
‘No, sir. And they probably won’t. At least not until — God forbid — another woman should be killed. You see, one of the women Leventis attacked was an English tourist, sir. It’s not the sort of the thing that the Ministry of Tourism likes to remind people about. Especially at this time of year. It would be very damaging to the Greek economic recovery. Which is very fragile at the best of times. Tourism is one of the few industries we have got left.’
‘Tell me, Charlie, this Hannibal Leventis — I suppose there’s no chance they could have caught the wrong guy?’
‘He admitted it, sir. In court. Although there was some talk of an accomplice who was never caught. The English woman who was attacked, she said there were two men who abducted her. One did the driving and the other one raped her. But none of the three victims who survived mentioned a second man, so her allegations were dismissed.’
‘See if you can find out her name, Charlie, will you?’
‘Sure. No problem, sir. I make a call when we stop the car.’
He drove in silence for a while; and then he said: ‘A couple more things about Leventis, I just remembered.’
‘Yes?’
‘Sometimes he drove the Panathinaikos team bus. Sometimes.’
‘And he used that bus?’