come to the gaps. I can't find any link with Sovatzis. Krenek may have organized all this with Dourou without Sovatzis being in on it. Our only hope is Hourdakis. Unless, of course, we can prove that it was Sovatzis who murdered Karayoryi and Kostarakou.'
'Do you rule out the possibility of Dourou having killed them?'
'At best, we can get her for being an accessory before the act. But too much points to the likelihood that the murderer was a man.'
He looked at me pensively. I had ruined his good mood. 'Let's not despair,' he said, more to give himself encouragement. 'We might get some light shed on it from elsewhere.'
'From where?'
'From Dourou. With the case we can make against her, she's not going to get off. When her lawyer explains this to her, she may at last get scared and talk.'
The telephone interrupted our conversation. Ghikas picked up the receiver. 'Superintendent Ghikas.' He always prefixed his name with his rank, whereas, being modest myself, I always said 'Haritos' on its own and the other person might or might not take me for a police officer. 'All right, I'll be right there.' He hung up and smiled at me. 'Things are looking up already. Hourdakis is downstairs waiting for you.'
I ran down the stairs three at a time. The usual coven was outside my office, Sotiropoulos at their head.
'Have you got Hourdakis?' they all wanted to know.
'Later,' I told them and tried to break gently through the ring. The questions rained down-had he talked, what had he said, did he really have any involvement in the case-but I paid no attention. I got into my office and shut the door.
Standing in the center of the room were two men. One was medium height, medium build, and medium hair. His coat was open and he was wearing a suit with a shirt buttoned to the neck, no tie. This had to be Hourdakis. The other was roughly the same age, fifties, thin, with a department-store suit and a tie so worn that it must have been dying of loneliness because there was certainly no other of its kind anywhere in his wardrobe.
'Where have you been, Mr. Hourdakis? We've been looking for you everywhere. We even had to put your wife and son to some inconvenience,' I said.
'I've been on a trip.'
'Christodoulou, Inspector, Mr. Hourdakis's lawyer,' the thin one chipped in. 'I would ask that it be taken into consideration that my client presented himself of his own free will as soon as he heard that you were anxious to speak with him.'
'A warrant has been issued and we would have found him in any case.
'Nevertheless, it's not the same.'
I didn't have time to waste on the lawyer and I turned to Hourdakis. 'Do you know why we have been looking for you?' I said. 'We want to know who was giving you the occasional million that you spread out over your family's accounts-payments for turning a blind eye to the Transpilar refrigerator trucks.'
Hourdakis turned to look to his lawyer.
'I want you to know that my client came here to offer every help to the police, Inspector.'
'Fine. We'll take that into consideration if his answers are satisfactory.' Back to Hourdakis. 'Well then, get on with it! Who was giving you the money?'
'I don't know,' he said.
'Listen, Hourdakis. I've spent too much time on you already. Don't make me lose my temper. We've got the two drivers, Milionis and Papadopoulos. We've also got Eleni Dourou, who took charge of the children. We know everything. Tell us who was paying you so we can put an end to it.'
'My client is telling you the truth,' the solicitor interrupted again. 'He doesn't know.'
I stared at them and I felt something wasn't right. 'How did you get the money?' I asked Hourdakis.
'Let me go back to the beginning. One evening, when I came home from work, I found a package waiting for me. It was an ordinary box, like those used for packing glasses. When I opened it, I found 500,000 drachmas inside. I thought there had been some mistake, but the package had my name and address on it. I was racking my brain trying to think who might have sent it when the phone rang and a man asked me if I'd received the 500,000. I asked his name, of course, but he wouldn't tell me. All he told me was that on the following night a Transpilar refrigerator truck would be crossing the border. If I let it through without inspecting it, he'd send me another 500,000.'
'When did all this happen?'
'I don't remember the date exactly, but it must have been sometime in May of 1991.'
'And so you let it through.'
'Yes. Three days later, I received the other 500,000. After that, he'd phone me and give me the number of the refrigerator truck, I'd let it through without any inspection, and he'd send me the million.'
It was that simple. The first refrigerator truck that had gone through in May'91 was almost certainly empty. If Hourdakis hadn't taken the bait and had inspected it, he wouldn't have found anything. What, after all, was Sovatzis risking in order to test him? A salary, perhaps not even. When he saw that Hourdakis had taken the bait, he began his operation.
'How was the money sent to you?'
'In a package, always. Brought by courier.'
'And who was the sender?'
'It had a different name each time.'
'And why did you stop, given that everything was going like clockwork?'
'The trucks always came at night. I had to change shifts in order to make sure I was there. At first it was easy, because no one wants to work at night. But eventually, they got suspicious because I kept asking to work nights. And then I got wind of the fact that someone had begun asking questions about the trucks.'
'Who was asking questions?'
'Someone from Athens, I don't know who. I never found out.'
I knew. It was Karayoryi.
'As I was eligible for early retirement, I applied and my application was accepted.'
Now someone else was getting money in a package. We'd find him too, but I still had nothing on Sovatzis. Only if we got our hands on Krenek, but he'd be in South America by now.
I took out the famous photograph of the two of them, anyhow, and showed it to Hourdakis. 'Do you recognize either of these men?'
He looked at it and shook his head. Then we went, together with his solicitor, to the photography records. I showed him the photographs of Milionis, Papadopoulos, Dourou, and Seki. He immediately recognized the first two, but Dourou and Seki he said he did not know, had never met. I sent him to make a written statement and then to the cells.
Sotiropoulos was waiting for me. 'What happened with Hourdakis? Did he talk?'
'The chief will make an official statement.'
'Oh, come off it.'
I motioned him into the office. I told him briefly what I'd learned from Hourdakis. I wasn't doing him any special favor because Ghikas would tell the others the same.
'How involved is Sovatzis, Dourou's brother, in the business?' he asked me.
'Do you think he's involved?'
'He's involved, all right, but I'm afraid that you won't be able to prove anything,' he said, puncturing my morale. 'You've absolutely nothing on him. Your only hope is Pylarinos.'
'Why Pylarinos?'
'Because Sovatzis is a pain in the ass for him. If he discovers anything whatsoever, he might just hand him over to you for the peace of mind.'
I liked that idea. 'What did you do about Kolakoglou?' I said as he was leaving.
'About Kolakoglou?' he turned and looked at me in surprise.
'Weren't you going to prove that he'd been sent down unjustly?'
It was no longer a priority; he'd virtually forgotten it. 'I'd really like to, but it's not possible,' he said and sighed. 'Kolakoglou is no longer news. No one's interested in him. Even if I were to put together a report, the news editor would kill it.'
Robespierre, employee of Media Inc., with a lump sum on retiring and a pension. It was already four. I'd been
