himself and remained hanging there for three days till he started to smell. They had to die before everyone’s eyes. Of course, on the other hand, I was offering them the possibility of a heroic exit which would be accompanied by their biography. You realise what would have happened if I had revealed that these businessmen, politicians and journalists had been planting bombs in banks and the Stock Exchange in the early eighties? It would have meant not only their end, but also of their wives and brothers, who were the shop windows for their businesses. All three of them had grown used to the high life, they were big names and couldn’t stand the thought of ruin, exposure and prison. They preferred the solution that I offered them.’
‘And how did you know that Vakirtzis would commit suicide on the same day that you sent me his biography?’
‘I knew that every year he threw a big party on his name day. I made it a condition. I told him that either he committed suicide then or the deal was off.’
So now all the pieces were there before me: the common secret from the past, Logaras and his biographies, the hypotheses I had made that had been correct up to a point, but that hadn’t got me anywhere. There was just one question I had left.
‘Why me, Mrs Yannelis? Why did you choose me?’
She stared at me and laughed. ‘Because you were the only one who wanted to find out the truth. That made an impression on me from your first visit. No one else was interested. They wanted to take care of the funeral, put the unpleasant event behind them and move on. You were the only one. And something else, that I’ve already mentioned to you twice today.’
‘What?’
‘I think you understand. I don’t know why but I honestly do.’
‘Perhaps I do understand, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is an indictable offence. Incitement to commit suicide is a crime and is punishable. You’ll have to come with me to Headquarters to make an official statement.’
She laughed. ‘Come now, Inspector. How are you going to make the charge stick? You have no tangible evidence other than the printout of a biography written by someone called Minas Logaras.’
‘Perhaps, but I’ll find something.’
‘You won’t find anything, I can promise you. I destroyed the part of the archives that didn’t interest me years ago. The other day when you received the Che T-shirt, I burned the rest. There’s not even one document left, Inspector. Apart from my father’s note. Other people have photos of their fathers to remember them by; all I have is a piece of paper in which mine renounces me.’ Her bitterness was only momentary, she immediately recovered. ‘So how will you make the charge stick, Inspector? And where will you find a public prosecutor to indict me?’
She was right. I wouldn’t. That’s why she had been playing cat and mouse with me. She knew that I wouldn’t be able to touch her.
‘Those three men deceived both my father and my husband, Inspector. My father would never have had anything to do with them if he had known they would become businessmen. He hated businessmen. And my husband would never have tortured them if he’d known that they would become businessmen. He admired businessmen; he swore by Onassis and Bodosakis. The one was found hanged and stinking, the other did fifteen years in prison and from being a torturer became the one tortured. I’m not trying to whitewash anyone, not even myself, but those three had to pay. The frightened little girl beat them in the end.’ It was the first time I discerned a hint of pride in her voice.
She got to her feet to indicate to me that our conversation was over. I wanted to say something to her, but nothing came to mind. Evidently, she saw it in my face because when we reached the front door, she said:
‘Tomorrow, you’ll go to your office and I’ll go to mine. I’ll continue to do all I can to make the companies I manage make a profit; I’ll go on working with Mr Zamanis, Mrs Stathatos, and Mrs Favieros and no one will ever know that I sent the friend of the one and the husbands of the other two to their deaths. But I wanted someone else to know, apart from me. I’m glad it’s you, believe me. Whatever you may think of me, I’m glad it’s you.’
She opened the door for me to leave. I stood in the doorway, hoping that I would think of something to say, but I couldn’t. I could neither revile nor reproach her, but nor could I shake her hand. I simply turned and left.
I got into the Mirafiori, but I didn’t have the energy to start up the engine. I tried to put my thoughts into some order, but it wasn’t easy. I would have to tell Ghikas everything, just as it happened, without concealing anything. The same applied to the Minister. Neither of them would be overly distraught because we couldn’t touch Yannelis. On the contrary, they’d be overjoyed because the suicides had stopped and the case would be forgotten without anything coming out into the open. And Ghikas had an additional reason to be happy: because the next day he would have Koula back working for him.
Did Favieros, Stefanakos and Vakirtzis deserve to die? I couldn’t say. Did Coralia Yannelis deserve to stand in the dock? I couldn’t say that either. So what was left? The three winners: Andreadis, Kalafatis and Yannelis. Along with Ghikas and the Minister. And from what Zissis and Andreadis had said, I was one of the winners, too. Perhaps they were right. After all, I’d managed to get my old job back and my standing with Ghikas and the Minister had gone up a few notches …
I’m not an ungrateful person, but how is it that in the end I always feel like a twerp?
About the Author
PETROS MARKARIS was born in Istanbul in 1937 and now lives in Athens. His number one bestsellers are published in fourteen languages. He is the author of
DAVID CONNOLLY has lived and worked in Greece for over thirty years. He is currently Professor of Translation Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of literary translation and has translated over thirty books by leading Greek authors, for which he has received awards in the UK, the US and Greece.
Copyright
First published in 2009
