Sotiris looked at me pensively. 'Who could that have been?' he said, at a loss because no one came to mind.
'It was probably one of those women who carry out research or advertising campaigns. She'd have taken to her heels, afraid she might lose a day's work. Have you found any wire or wire cord?'
No.
'That's what he used to strangle her with. Have you talked to the neighbors?'
'Yes. The ones above and below were at home yesterday evening, but they heard nothing.'
For them not to have heard any disturbance meant that Kostarakou didn't put up a struggle. He'd killed her just like Karayoryi, suddenly, when she wasn't expecting it. Both of them had known him and hadn't suspected him. That's how he'd been able to take them unawares. He did what he'd come to do, put the wire back in his pocket, and left as quietly as he'd come.
'Did they see any stranger coming or going between six and eight, when the murder took place?'
'I asked, but they saw no one. There's no super in the building. The woman in the shop opposite says that it's a big block and there are always lots of people coming and going. She didn't see anyone who looked odd to her.'
'Why should the murderer look odd to her, Sotiris? He wouldn't have a sign on his forehead, would he?'
I was in a vile temper and I took it out on him, though he was in no way to blame. He understood and remained calm.
'I'm gonna go see Ghikas,' I said and patted him on the back. 'He'll be waiting for a report. If you find out anything new, call me at the station.'
Koula had been waiting for me. As soon as she saw me come in, she jumped to her feet.
'God, what's happened now?' she said, trying to pass her curiosity off as concern. 'Are all your people suffering from a death epidemic?'
'My people? Since when do I work for the TV channels?'
'That's not what I meant,' she replied, giving me one of those playful smiles that she used to bring Ghikas to his knees. 'It's just that with all the dealings you have with them, you've become rather hand in glove. They're downstairs now, waiting for you.' She nodded in the direction of Ghikas's office. 'He didn't want to see them and sent them to you.'
The good guy and the bad guy. He was the good guy who gave them the good news and feathered his own nest. I was the bad guy who was left to sort out the mess.
'Can I go in?' I asked Koula.
'Do you have to ask? He's like a cat on hot bricks.'
Apparently Koula meant what she said because I found Ghikas standing behind his desk. He indicated that I should sit down in a chair while he sat on the edge of his own.
'Well?' he said impatiently.
I gave him all the information, piece by piece, along with Markidis's view that we were dealing with the same murderer. He looked at me thoughtfully.
'Do you think it's the same person?' He said eventually.
'All the evidence points to that.'
He let out a huge sigh as if he'd missed winning the lottery by just one number. 'Then the likelihood of Kolakoglou being the culprit becomes more remote. Even if he made good on his threat and killed Karayoryi, he had no motive whatsoever for killing Kostarakou.'
With difficulty I refrained from saying, 'I told you so,' but he took the sting out of my tail.
'And for the same reason, Petratos couldn't have killed them either,' he added, without concealing his satisfaction at having proven me wrong. 'You got me into hot water with Delopoulos for no reason. Let's suppose that he killed Karayoryi because she left him and was a threat to his job. It's a bit far-fetched, but let's suppose it's true. Why, then, did he kill Kostarakou?'
'He'd have a reason if she was blackmailing him.'
'Blackmailing him? Kostarakou?' It seemed incredible to him.
'Let's say she had some evidence to prove that Petratos had murdered Karayoryi. She said nothing about it to me when I questioned her, but she went to Petratos and blackmailed him. She saw it as an opportunity to get something out of it for herself. Let's not forget that he'd brushed her aside to promote Karayoryi. Petratos told her that he'd come to her flat so they could discuss it. He went armed with the wire and strangled her. Then he turned her home inside out, searching for the incriminating evidence. Karayoryi sat down and talked to the killer. Wouldn't she have talked to Petratos? Kostarakou opened the door to him. She wouldn't have opened it to Kolakoglou, most likely, but to Petratos, why not? And both victims were killed instantly, unsuspecting. Would it have crossed their minds that they were in danger from Petratos? The profile fits perfectly.'
I'd kept the 'profile' for the end. It was the icing on the cake. He listened pensively and silently.
'All that might work as a hypothesis,' he said cautiously, 'on condition that Petratos is without an alibi. If, for example, he was in the studio at the time of the second murder, then your entire theory falls to pieces.'
'He goes to the studio at seven-thirty, an hour and a half before the main news bulletin. I verified it before coming to see you. Markidis says that the murder happened between six and eight. If he killed her around six, he'd have an hour and a half to get from Ieronos Street to Spata. In his haste, he left the front door open. My mistake was that I didn't investigate him more thoroughly from the beginning.'
It was as if I were saying to him: 'My mistake was that I let myself be talked out of it by you, you and Delopoulos, and that I didn't do what I knew was right.' He swallowed the bitter pill just as I used to swallow the cod-liver oil my mother used to give me to make me strong.
'In other words, we've found the murderer? So we can give up on Kolakoglou?'
He was fishing for any other little morsel. Keep hold of yourself, Haritos, don't let this one run away with itself, I thought to myself. Blow hot and cold.
'No, it's still a hypothesis. We're still looking for Kolakoglou.'
'If we had a sample of Petratos's handwriting, that would shed some useful light,' he said with some reluctance.
I'd willingly have got my own back, but the more I thought of it, the more my satisfaction abated. 'To some extent.'
'Why only to some extent?'
'Let's suppose that it was Petratos who wrote the letters. That doesn't prove that he killed her. And vice versa. Karayoryi had her finger in a number of pies. Maybe someone else had threatened her, and that doesn't leave Petratos in the clear. There's a pile of other incriminating evidence. Let me first find out where Petratos was yesterday evening between six and eight. We can take it from there.'
'If we suppose that Kostarakou was killed by the other person, the one she was blackmailing, how did he know that what he was looking for was at Kostarakou's?'
'From the news. They made Karayoryi's phone call to Kostarakou public knowledge.'
All he could find to say to me before I left was to keep him informed. For no other reason than to cling to a little honor.
As soon as they saw me coming along the hall, they ran up to me, as if I were returning from some long journey. I looked around, trying to pick out some unknown face among them, the new reporter for Hellas Channel, but all the faces were familiar and I was left wondering.
'I appreciate your concern and I know what you're feeling at this moment,' I said in a mournful tone. 'This makes two of your colleagues murdered in the space of a few days. But for the time being, all I can tell you about is the actual murder.'
And I began to let them have it, holding nothing back. They pushed their microphones at me and listened in silence. I finished, and they still kept silent. The shock prevented them from pressuring me to give them something more as they normally did. Only that tiny woman, the one with the red stockings, asked me eventually: 'Do you believe the murderer to be the same person, Inspector?'
'The first indications suggest to us that we are dealing with the same person.
Another one plucked up courage and asked: 'Do you still believe the murderer to be Kolakoglou?'
'At this moment in time, we are investigating every possibility. We cannot exclude anything.'
So saying, I took a step forward to break through the wall they'd formed around me. They silently stepped
