Also by Jeffrey Siger
The Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mysteries
Murder in Mykonos
Assassins of Athens
Prey on Patmos
Target: Tinos
Mykonos After Midnight
Sons of Sparta
Devil of Delphi
Santorini Caesars
An Aegean April
Island of Secrets (First Published as The Mykonos Mob)
Copyright © 2021 by Jeffrey Siger
Cover and internal design © 2021 by Sourcebooks
Cover design by Ploy Siripant
Cover images © Westend61 GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
Sourcebooks, Poisoned Pen Press, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Apart from well-known historical figures, any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
sourcebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Siger, Jeffrey, author.
Title: A deadly twist / Jeffrey Siger.
Description: Naperville, Illinois : Poisoned Pen Press, [2021] | Series: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis mystery
Identifiers: LCCN 2020021161 (hardcover) | (trade paperback) | (epub)
Classification: LCC PS3619.I45 D43 2021 (print) | LCC PS3619.I45 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021161
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021162
Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Read on for an excerpt from Island of Secrets
Chapter One
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Cover
To Barbara G. Peters and Robert Rosenwald
I owe it all to you.
“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean Sea.”
—Nikos Kazantzakis
Chapter One
“The key to getting away with what I do is lacking any possible motive. Motive’s the first thing cops look for. Which is why I’ve never taken a job that could tie me to a target, no matter how tenuous the link or big the payday. I’m a conservative businessman, and if my work has taught me anything, it’s that fast money comes with excessive risk. It’s the gradual accumulation of wealth that makes a person secure in old age, and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis sat in his office in Greece’s Central Police Headquarters in Athens (better known as GADA) reading and rereading a front-page newspaper article that opened with that paragraph.
A reporter named Nikoletta Elia claimed to have landed an exclusive interview with “the computer underground’s most successful hacker” while on holiday on the Greek island of Naxos. Andreas took it to be a made-up story, likely pieced together by a seriously hungover reporter following an all-night booze session with some braggart trying to impress his bar mates with tales of international intrigue.
Strangers admit to weird things late at night in island bars, but this confession made no sense. It was inconceivable to Andreas that a “conservative” computer hacker who wanted to make it to “old age” would be stupid enough to open up about his business to anyone, let alone a reporter, about how he used his elite hacking skills on behalf of clients to ravage businesses, steal state secrets, and mask murders behind accidental equipment malfunctions.
Still, the article was in today’s issue of Athens’s most respected daily newspaper, and Andreas expected it would kick the city’s many conspiracy theorists into overdrive. What does the hacker’s presence in Greece mean? And why are the police doing nothing about it? As head of Greece’s Special Crimes Unit, charged with investigating matters of national concern or potential corruption, Andreas expected his phone would soon light up with calls from members of Parliament looking to show their constituents that they cared about who visited their country.
Andreas looked at his watch. It wasn’t yet eight a.m., too early for MPs to be calling. His administrative assistant, Maggie, would be at her desk any minute. He’d tell her to take messages. He didn’t have the patience to be diplomatic with politicians this morning. He’d spent most of last night listening to his kindergarten son and toddler daughter coughing. Their colds had kept him awake longer than they had the kids.
I guess that’s what it means to be a parent.
A compact, five-foot-three, redheaded ball of energy poked her head in through the doorway. “Morning, Chief.”
“Morning, Maggie.”
“So, what fresh hells do you have for me today?”
“Just your routine international bad guy on holiday looking for publicity blowback day.”
“That should do wonders for Naxos tourism.”
“You saw the article?”
“Who didn’t? It’s a front-page story by a crime reporter with a big following.”
“But it makes no sense. Don’t people realize it has to be phony?”
“Since when did being phony keep a story off the front page? At least this one’s entertaining.”
“Good, then keep entertaining yourself by taking messages on any calls for me about it.”
“I’ll need to requisition a few more message pads.”
Andreas and Maggie had been doing their variation on a vaudeville routine since he’d returned to GADA from a brief stint as the chief of police on Mykonos. The luck of the draw had landed him with Maggie, GADA’s mother superior and source of all wisdom about its many secret ways.
Ring, ring.
Maggie headed for her desk to answer the phone. “Let the games begin.”
Andreas drew in and let out a deep breath. It’s gonna be a long day. He picked up the newspaper and stared at the byline. “Nikoletta Elia, there must be more to this story than you’re telling us.”
Another line rang. He looked up. A very long day.
* * *
Despite a lifetime of reporting the news, Nikoletta Elia had never expected to write that story, nor had she anticipated the surge of international attention it received. Her editor had sent her
