'Think of it as a mushroom farm,' said Andreas, coming up behind him. 'Don't worry, I'm right behind you.' He gave Tassos a gentle prod in his backside with the butt of the shotgun.
Tassos gave a quick, one-finger fuck-you response, then carefully stepped inside. About fifteen feet from the entrance, the tunnel made a sharp right into total darkness. Tassos aimed his flashlight up-ahead. Not only was it pitch-black, it was cramped and a mess.
'You'd think the guy would clean up some of this shit,' said Tassos. 'Just so he wouldn't trip over it.'
'I don't think cleanliness is one of his virtues,' said Andreas, shining his light along the base of the wall. 'Well, here are his mushrooms.'
'I'm not sure I'd want any of those in my salad,' said Tassos, directing his own light along the wall. 'They look like the 'let's take a trip back to the sixties' kind.'
'Doesn't surprise me.'
They walked another twenty feet or so, to a point where the tunnel turned left. Andreas' shotgun went around the corner first. Just in case.
'My oh my,' said Tassos. 'What do we have here?'
'Looks like our buddy likes to play with chemistry sets,' said Andreas.
'A crystal-meth lab. Son of a bitch.'
They did a quick search of the rest of the tunnel. It ended about thirty feet from the lab at a cave-in. 'Dead end,' said Tassos.
'But we have a possible source for the meth in the bodies.'
Tassos nodded. 'Yes, but even if it was meth from this place, it doesn't mean Panos killed them — or even gave it to them. We've always known he was into this shit. It's no surprise.'
'Christ, you're a downer. Fine, maybe it's not enough to get him on the murders, but we've got him nailed on the drugs.'
Tassos shrugged. 'You know, now that you mention it, I don't see any roofies here.'
Andreas nodded. Roofies, the date-rape crowd's street name for the prescription drug Rohypnol, would be a much more damning find. They continued to look everywhere but found nothing more than methamphetamine.
'I don't understand this,' said Andreas. 'You said he uses Rohypnol on women at his bar, so why the meth?'
'Meth's the drug of choice for a cheap way to a long-lasting sexual rush. He probably supplies it in return for a bit of the action. Doubt he uses the stuff himself, though. Once the excitement's passed you crash into an intensely deep sleep. He's too busy during the tourist season to sleep that much.'
'But why meth in the victims' bodies?'
'I don't know, maybe the killer wants to keep them deeply asleep or sexually aroused.'
'Hard to imagine how he'd get a terrorized girl to do the meth or — even if he could — how it'd get her aroused.'
'If she was out on Rohypnol — like our friend here uses — he could shoot her up with meth while she was under and have her right where he wanted her.'
Andreas looked disgusted. 'Bastard sure knows his drugs. That would explain why the only traces found in the victims were methamphetamine. The Rohypnol wouldn't show up — it passes through the victim's system too fast.'
Tassos moved his light along the base of the wall. 'Who knows, maybe he adds a bit of mushrooms, too.'
Andreas waved toward the entrance. 'Let's get back to the car and call for someone to watch this shit-hole until forensics gets here.' Andreas made his call and began driving back to the main road. 'Do you still want to look for the artist?' asked Tassos.
'It beats banging my head against my desk trying to figure out what all this means.'
Andreas made a left onto the main road and turned left again just beyond the gas station in Ano Mera. It was another narrow dirt-and-gravel road winding north through old, scratched-out farms. He lit another cigarette.
'They all were found in the same four churches. That must mean something,' said Tassos.
'But what do they have in common? All four were kept up by Father Paul, but he took care of four others with no bodies.' Andreas looked for the road Panos had described. 'And the bodies were found in churches named after male as well as female saints.'
Tassos said, 'What do Saints Kiriake, Marina, Fanourios, and Calliope have in common that makes them so different for our killer from Saints Barbara, Nicholas, Phillipos, and Spyridon?' He shook his head. 'I think we need a priest.'
'Right now I'm looking for an artist.' Andreas tossed his cigarette out the window and turned right onto a dirt road leading to a two-story, white house with blue trim that sat just below a hillside church with a blue roof.
'Must be to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors,' said Tassos. 'They're the only churches with blue roofs.'
Andreas parked next to an SUV by the front of the house. They walked to the door and knocked. No one answered. They called out again, but still no answer. Andreas tried the door. It was unlocked. He pushed it open and called out again, 'Hello, anybody home? Hello.'
They looked at each other and walked inside. They'd explain later. The front room was neatly furnished and clean. Everything seemed to be right in its place. They walked into the kitchen and found it just as neat. They went upstairs and Andreas once more said, 'Hello, anybody home?'
There were two rooms and a bathroom upstairs. They looked in the rear bedroom first. Not a thing out of place. A photograph in a silver frame sat on the nightstand next to the bed. It was of two blond and smiling children, a boy and a girl. The other room faced south and was bathed in light. It had to be his studio. What looked like finished paintings stood lined up against the wall closest to the door. Unfinished paintings were everywhere else, all neatly arranged according to their relative stages of completion.
'Looks pretty normal to me,' said Tassos.
'Me, too,' said Andreas. 'And I recognize his stuff. He is famous.'
Tassos walked over to the line of finished paintings and began looking through them.
Andreas was standing in the middle of the room looking at all the unfinished works. 'Tassos, do you notice something about his paintings? Something every piece seems to have.' His voice was excited.
Tassos kept looking through the finished ones. 'No, what?'
'Turn around. I'll show you.'
Tassos turned and watched as Andreas pointed to every visible canvas. 'Look there, there, there and there. They all have the same thing.'
Andreas walked over to the finished paintings and Tassos moved aside so he could get to them. Andreas scanned them quickly, then looked up and stared in disbelief at Tassos. 'My God, there's at least one in each of his paintings — a tall, blond, naked nymph.' As if crazed, Andreas had them search every drawer, every corner, every inch of the house. They found absolutely nothing incriminating. Not even a pornographic magazine or drug harsher than Advil.
Dejected, Andreas and Tassos were sitting on the wall outside the house smoking when the call came through from the station. Manny had shown up, and Kouros wanted to know what to do with him.
'Hold him!' Andreas shouted, then calmed his voice. 'Until I get there.'
He looked at Tassos. 'I thought we had our killer.'
'Yeah, but when you think about it, the only thing that made it seem that way was his paintings.'
'You mean the only thing so far.' Andreas was ornery.
Tassos shrugged. 'So, let's find him and talk to him.'
Andreas picked up a stone. 'Yeah, but we can't fuck around with him. He's a famous American artist. All we can do is talk.' He threw the stone and stared after it. 'For now.'
Tassos nodded.
'It seems too much of a coincidence that all the victims are tall blonds and all his paintings have tall blonds,' Andreas said.
'Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way,' said Tassos. 'What if the killer knows this guy's work? After all, he's been painting on Mykonos longer than the killer's been doing his thing here — and that's why he's going after tall blonds?'
