“Or on a boat tied up offshore,” said Tassos.
“I think we’ll take a drive around just to see if we’re as alone as it looks. Give us a shout if anyone comes over the causeway.”
“Will do.”
They drove toward the lighthouse at the end of the island. Aside from rocks, trees, and a few crumbling sheds within a fenced in area securing the lighthouse, this part of the island offered no place to hide. The lighthouse doors and windows stood securely locked and showed no signs of forced entry.
Andreas turned the car around, drove past the museum, and parked thirty yards before a bright-white church with a terra-cotta-tiled dome roof. Next to the car, a half-dozen small, weather-beaten fishing boats lay scattered on the ground or propped up on pieces of scrap wood. Beyond the boats, down by the water, two tiny shacks looked in worse shape than the boats. They found no one in the shacks or boats.
The restaurant at the end of the causeway had a sign marked CLOSED, and none of the five men in the taverna next to it came close to matching Niko’s description. Andreas and Kouros walked to the church and tried the front door. Locked.
“A lot of people come here to get married because this island is where Paris and Helen spent their first night together before sailing off to Troy.”
Andreas smiled. “I sure hope things end up better for the newlyweds than it did for those two.”
They turned and stared across the water toward the harbor-side road in Gytheio. That got them a quick wave from Tassos sitting in a parked car on the other side of the causeway.
By nine-thirty Andreas and Kouros were back in their spot by the entrance to the museum.
Twenty minutes passed, filled with small talk of the anxious sort cops do while waiting for all hell to break loose. Nothing serious about family or futures, just silly things to keep their minds off what might erupt at any second.
Tassos’ voice barked through the two-way. “You’ve got company coming. A van full of tourists.”
“He might be using that as cover.” said Kouros.
“Anything’s possible,” said Andreas.
“You’d have thought our records guys could have found a photo of him,” said Kouros.
“Never got arrested and keeps himself out of the papers. Let’s just hope he hasn’t dyed his hair.”
They waited for the van to make it across the causeway and the additional three hundred yards to the museum parking lot.
“Motorbike coming now. It might be our guy,” said Tassos.
“How can you tell?” asked Andreas.
“He’s wearing a helmet, and since practically no one in Greece wears one, it makes me think our guy is trying to hide something.”
Andreas smiled. “We’ll keep an eye out for him.”
They watched the motorcycle overtake the van just beyond the church, pull into the lot, and park at the head of the path that ran past them up to the museum entrance. The driver wore jeans, work boots, a light blue jacket and a full-face black helmet. He got off the bike and walked by them, up to the museum’s front door without taking off his helmet.
“He must like his helmet a lot,” said Kouros.
“Careful, Yianni, he’s reaching in his jacket pocket for something.”
Both cops pulled their guns and opened their car doors slightly in case they had to move quickly.
The driver never turned around. Just fiddled with the front door until it opened and went inside.
Andreas let out a breath. “He was reaching for keys.” He spoke into the two-way. “False alarm. It was a museum employee opening up the place.”
“First time I’ve been wrong today,” said Tassos.
Andreas and Kouros watched a small group of foreign tourists unload from the van and head toward the front door.
“They look like pensioners from Germany,” said Andreas to Tassos.
“They’re about the only pensioners with money these days,” said Tassos.
“Unless the bus driver’s our guy, I’d say Niko’s late for our appointment.” Kouros pointed at his watch. “It’s ten after.”
“Tassos, we’re going inside. Just in case Niko got here before we did. Let us know if more company shows up.”
“Be careful.”
Andreas and Kouros holstered their guns as they got out of the car. They scanned the windows of the museum buildings as they hurried along the stone path, down and up steps toward the entrance.
Inside, an elderly couple stood reading a poster on a wall next to a desk with a handwritten sign, TICKETS HERE. A pockmarked man wearing a black baseball cap marked MANI in white letters sat behind the desk in front of a door marked OFFICE.
“May I help you?” said the man in the hat.
Andreas walked over to him. “Yes, sir. My friend and I were supposed to meet someone here at ten.”
“There are about a dozen visitors inside. Maybe your friend’s in there.”
Andreas shook his head. “No, we’re looking for someone younger. In his forties. With a line of white hair down the middle of his head.”
As they spoke a tourist couple moved in front of Andreas. “We’ll take the senior special,” said the woman, pointing for the man with her to get something out of his belly bag. “My husband has proof of our age.” She spoke English with a heavy German accent.
The man in the hat smiled. “That won’t be necessary. I believe you.” He handed them two tickets, the couple paid, and went inside.
“Sorry about that, gentlemen.”
“No problem,” said Andreas.
“So, you’re looking for a man with a silver streak in his hair?”
“White. Like a skunk,” said Kouros.
The man nodded. “I see. You mean like this?” and he pulled off his hat. “You’re late, gentlemen.”
Andreas hoped he didn’t look as startled as he felt. “That was you in the motorcycle helmet?”
“Yes, officer. It’s the law to wear a helmet, and I obey the law.”
“It’s Chief Inspector Kaldis, and this is Detective Kouros.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Niko extending his right hand.
Neither man took it.
“You know that whatever you say will be used against you?” said Kouros.
“Of course, but I have nothing to hide. Though I do think we should move into the office for this discussion rather than having it in front of the tourists. Some of them may understand Greek.”
Kouros went behind the desk, opened the door, and looked inside. He nodded to Andreas.
Andreas gestured for Niko to get up.
Niko stood as tall as Andreas, but much slimmer in a sinewy, not lanky, way. Andreas followed Niko inside the office and closed the door behind them, never taking his eyes off Niko for a second.
Kouros pulled up a metal folding chair. “Sit.”
Niko did. Andreas and Kouros did not.
“We’re here to arrest you in connection with the murder of two men and the attempted murder of two others.”
“Including me,” said Kouros.
“I assumed that’s why you were looking for me. But for the life of me I can’t figure out why. So, I asked one of my cousins to allow me to take his place here as a volunteer this morning. I wanted the chance for us to talk. To show you that everything I’ve done was an attempt at preventing harm from coming to anyone. ”
“You have a strange way of doing that,” said Kouros.
“Not sure what you mean.”
“You and your buddies talked your family’s old friend Babis into killing himself,” said Kouros.
“Oh yes, poor, Babis. I tried my best to convince him not to take his own life, but he was so wracked with guilt at what he’d done to your poor uncle that I just couldn’t talk him out of it. And, yes, perhaps the fact that he’d also betrayed my father made him feel doubly guilty. But I was there simply to end any further bloodshed in the Mani.”
“Yeah, right. Too bad your buddy we arrested tells a different story. He has you pissed at Babis for screwing up my uncle’s murder and leaving you exposed as his accomplice.”
“I don’t know what he told you, but his Greek isn’t very good and he must have misheard. I went there to tell Babis he was crazy to have killed your uncle. That it would never get him back in the good graces of my family. Yes, I did for a moment lose my temper with him, but that was when he said he’d tried to make it look like part of an old family vendetta. I called him a ‘fuck-up’ because the idiot was threatening to get my wife’s family involved in his crazy twisted thinking. And, yes, I might have said I’d see that he died far more painfully than he could ever imagine if he got my wife’s family involved in his craziness. But I certainly wasn’t suggesting he take his own life.”