time.
The room was about the size of a four-car garage turned sideways. A beat-up wooden bar ran along the front left wall just far enough to take five mismatched bar stools. Past the bar, four rectangular tables covered in white linen tablecloths and looking decidedly out of place sat lined up across the middle of the room, while two scratched and marred wooden tables along each sidewall took up the rest of the space. On the rear wall, a door to the left was marked WC and a door to the right stood open, revealing a small kitchen. A dull, uneven glow of orange light struggled to reach the floor from three very dirty and ancient overhead fixtures.
Above the bar sat a television set. Next to it on a wall hung an out of date calendar showing a huge pair of tits surrounded by a woman.
Seven men sat at the tables in the middle of the room, a total of ten bad guys, plus however many more might be hiding in the kitchen and the woodwork.
The three cops stood at the end of the bar facing the tables. None of the bad guys said a word. They all stared at Andreas, as if they knew he was in charge.
Andreas smiled, “And a very good evening to all of you.”
A heavily bearded man in sunglasses and sitting off to Andreas’ right said in perfect Greek, “What do you want?”
Andreas pointed over his shoulder toward the front door. “For starters, have your friends join you where I can see them. I think ten to three are good enough odds for you. Besides, it would be very bad manners if one of my colleagues had to stand with his back to you while we talked.”
The bearded man paused for a moment before nodding for the three to come forward. They brushed by the cops and stood along the back wall, behind the men at the linen covered tables. Andreas looked at Kouros and jerked his head toward the front door. Kouros walked to the bar, picked up a barstool, and wedged it snug against the door.
“Just so we’re not disturbed by any unexpected patrons,” said Andreas.
“So, like I said, what do you want?” said the bearded man.
“You already know,” said Tassos.
“Tell us again.”
“It’s not about you,” said Andreas. “At least I don’t think it is. For all our sakes I pray it’s not.”
“What does that mean?” said the bearded man.
“Hate crimes against tsigani aren’t popular these days with the E.U. They lead to investigations by Europol.”
“What’s that got do with us?” said a fat but muscled bald man sitting at the center of the seven men.
“I don’t care about you. I care about me. I’m in charge of what happens in Greece, not a bunch of foreign pricks. But if they give me a hard time, I give you a harder one, because you boys are suspects numero uno.” Andreas had found you could justify almost anything by claiming ego when talking to macho types.
The bald man nodded. “As long as you understand there’s a price.”
Andreas gestured no. “I don’t think so. I’m here to get information, not make a deal. I’ll owe no favors for anything you tell me.”
The bald man bristled. “That’s not the way we do business.”
Tassos said, “Sorry to tell you, but today’s payback time for past favors owed.” He turned his head toward a slim, gray-haired man on the far left. “Right, Aleksander?”
The gray-haired man looked surprised. “Didn’t think you’d recognize me, Tassos.”
“It’s good plastic surgery, but you still have that habit of tugging hard on your right earlobe when you’re under stress. You ought to work on it.”
Aleksander smiled. “Thanks for the tip.” He looked at the bearded man. “Tell him what he wants to know.”
The bald man said, “But-”
Aleksander raised his hand, the bald man instantly shut up, and Aleksander nodded at the bearded man.
The bearded man cleared his throat. “We had nothing to do with the two on Tinos.”
Andreas nodded. “I’m sure. But what can you tell me about what happened there?”
“Nothing more than you already know.”
Andreas bit at his lower lip and counted to five. “I get it, you had us come all the way out here just so you could whisper those three lovely little words in my ear, ‘we know nothing?’ Don’t take me for an idiot. Two tsigani from a clan in your backyard are incinerated in an execution that made headline news across Greece and you expect me to believe that if you knew nothing about it before it happened you simply ignored it and went merrily along without the slightest concern over who might be next? No, my friend, I don’t believe that for a minute.”
The bearded man glared at Andreas.
Andreas glared back. “I’m still waiting for an answer.”
“Okay asshole.” It was the bald man. “Aleksander wants you to know the truth, so here’s the truth. We would have killed those two if we thought they were behind what’s going on.”
“What does that mean?” said Andreas.
The bald man looked at Aleksander, waited until he nodded, then turned to Andreas. “Someone is organizing something big. And whoever it is doesn’t want us in on it.”
Smart thinking, thought Andreas. Let these guys inside your tent and you’re history.
“ Ians and is from all over Athens are involved. But we can’t get a line on who’s putting it together. If we could-”
The bearded man cut the bald man off, “We wouldn’t allow such a potential threat against our country to go forward.”
Who’s this guy think he is, their lawyer? thought Andreas.
Tassos shook his head. “Guys, I just want to know who whacked those two tsigani. And, frankly, so far I haven’t heard anything to convince me it wasn’t you.”
Bald man said, “We live in Menidi among tsigani. We need each other, and besides, they’re only a small part of whatever’s going on. Singling out tsigani over this gets us into a war with everyone involved. We’re better off biding our time until we find out who’s behind it, then we’ll do what has to be done to put an end to it once and for all.”
He smiled. “And I can assure you that when that time comes the responsible ones will be wide awake and feel the end coming.”
How the hell did he know the two brothers were dead when they were incinerated? thought Andreas.
“I’m still not convinced,” said Tassos.
The bearded man nodded. “I can understand why you might think that. After all, that tsigani clan was going against our interests, so it’s only logical we would want to make an example of them.”
He paused.
“But the trouble with your thinking is that those two murdered tsigani were on our side. They have an older brother who sided with us against his clan, and a few days before his two brothers were killed one of them got word to us that they should have listened to their brother. They said they thought they were on to who was organizing everything and would let us know as soon as they knew for sure.”
“Why their sudden change of heart?” said Tassos.
“They said they didn’t want to go against the church,” said the bald man.
“The church?” said Andreas.
“Yes, a church on Tinos, and they wanted no part of it.”
“Which church?” said Andreas.
“Panagia Evangelistria.”
“What’s supposed to happen?” said Tassos.
“All we heard was it involved robbing Panagia Evangelistria. They died before getting us any more information.”
“They used those words?”
“Yes, ‘robbing Panagia Evangelistria.’”
“And that’s all you know?” said Andreas. “No idea of when it’s supposed to go down or what they’re
