An Aegean Prophecy - Jeffrey Siger [83]
‘In my condition I wouldn’t have noticed a herd of elephants camped out in the living room. Did your boys check to see if they planted any bugs in the house?’
‘Yes. It’s clean.’
Andreas walked into the living room and looked at his briefcase. ‘Did your guys touch my briefcase?’ He rarely carried one but did for this trip.
‘I told them if they even breathed on it they’d be singing castrato at Easter services.’
The briefcase was sitting on a patterned chair exactly where Andreas had set it down … almost. Just one half a flower too far back on the seat cushion. ‘Yeah, these guys were good, not perfect, but good.’ He opened the case. Again, everything almost where it should be. The flash drive was not exactly at the same spot on the newspaper as he’d placed it before going out, nor was the folder with copies of the articles and photographs exactly where he’d left it.
‘Looks like they got to everything, and took care I wouldn’t notice.’
‘Any chance they missed it?’ asked Tassos.
‘If they were blind and dumb.’
‘Not those guys. So now what?’
‘Don’t know about you, but for once I’ll be spending my holiday at home. Let the other guys do the work.’ ‘Kalo Paska.’
Andreas paused. ‘How do you say “Happy Easter” in Russian?’
‘Why?’
‘Well, that guy Vladimir wasn’t so bad. The fact he wanted to screw Barbara only made him human. I thought I’d call and say thanks. He did pick up the check.’
‘Probably not a good idea. The only reason he’d want to talk to you - unless you can get him laid - is to make sure this whole thing wasn’t a setup. If I were you, I’d avoid him.’
Andreas nodded at the phone. ‘Good advice. I’m off to the airport.’
‘I wonder what they’re going to do with what they took?’
‘My guess is, start off by ruining a lot of people’s holiday.’
‘As long as it’s not ours.’
‘Amen to that, my friend.’
The area of Costa Ilios was not far from the center of town, but trying to get a taxi from there to the airport at six in the afternoon on the Saturday before Easter required a bit of a miracle. In Andreas’ case, it took a call from the current Mykonos police chief. Andreas hoped to get a seat on the 7:30 flight. It was the first one to Athens since he’d gotten up. He was banking on everyone being where they intended to be by now, what with Saturday night being the main event of Greek Easter.
Andreas was in the midst of a heated argument with a particularly belligerent ticket agent who kept insisting that despite a virtually deserted departures area there were no seats available on the flight, even for a GADA chief inspector.
‘Chief Kaldis.’
The voice was behind him. Andreas turned. ‘Yes?’
‘Mr Brusko would like you to join him for coffee.’ The accent was Russian but the man was not someone he recognized from last night. He was stocky, five-foot-ten, around sixty, and dressed like a college professor on holiday.
Andreas looked around. ‘I don’t see him.’
‘He’s at his home.’
Andreas nodded. ‘I see. Well, please thank him, but I have a plane to catch.’ He looked at his watch. ‘In thirty minutes.’
‘It is very important.’
‘So is getting home in time for Easter.’
‘He can arrange to fly you there.’
‘I’m sure he can, but my family is expecting me on this plane. Please thank him, especially for last night, but I must respectfully decline.’
The man studied him for a moment. ‘It’s about Zacharias.’
Andreas shrugged.
The man smiled. ‘Very good.’
‘“Very good” what? I don’t know any “Zacharias.”’ Andreas looked at his watch and turned back to the ticket agent. The agent looked right past him as if expecting a sign from Vladimir’s man. Andreas leaned in. ‘Bad move, numbnuts. If I don’t have a ticket in my hand in fifteen seconds, I’m coming behind this counter and kicking the fucking shit out of you. And just try getting