Target: Tinos

Chapter Twenty-four

The three cops stood by their car in the parking lot behind the church and across the street from a grassy, tree-shaded park running up a hillside. “What I don’t understand is how Dimitri possibly could have kept something like that secret from the Foundation’s commission for ten years,” said Tassos.

“You’re assuming that he did,” said Andreas. “And isn’t just taking one for the team. After all, Eleni said he’s dedicated nearly his entire life to the Foundation.”

“But why keep a robbery secret in the first place?” said Kouros.

“The ‘why’ I understand,” said Tassos. “I don’t know if you remember, but the Foundation once announced a public auction to convert some donated treasures into cash to fund its projects. Supporters went wild. They didn’t want their gifts to the Megalochari sold off to strangers. Can you imagine how those supporters would react if they knew how much of what they’ve donated has been stolen?

“I think the ‘why’ is nothing more than our traditional Greek ‘cost of doing business’ attitude. You must give up to get.”

“But if we’re talking about tithing that’s a hell of lot of money disappearing every year,” said Kouros.

Andreas opened the driver’s door. “Guys, I’d prefer if you’d come up with another ‘why’ theory.”

“How about a conspiracy between the supervising government ministries and someone at the Foundation?” said Kouros opening the driver side rear door.

“Another Greek trait,” said Tassos. “When all else fails, find a conspiracy.” He walked around the car and opened the passenger side front door.

“It would also answer your ‘how’ question,” said Kouros sliding onto the back seat.

“Can’t we come up with something else, like biblical justification for all this? After all, we are talking about a church here,” said Andreas.

Tassos sat down next to Andreas. “You mean like not cutting to the edges of your field so that the poor may live off of what is left?” said Tassos.

“That’ll work,” said Andreas.

“But it’s Old Testament,” said Tassos.

“Still works, I’m just looking for someway to justify to myself why I’m willing to ignore a ten year cover-up.”

“Come on,” said Tassos. “You don’t actually believe that no one at those ministries knows about the robberies?”

“I see, we’re back to conspiracies,” said Andreas.

“Yes, but let’s not look upon it as one premised on an opportunity to corruptly profit, but instead evolving out of a genuine desire to protect the victim from further harm by adopting a ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ approach.”

“Wow, you make it sound as if something like that could actually happen in this country,” said Kouros.

“Enough already. Let’s leave it at if we find the thieves we’ll find the killers. And screw whatever else happens.” Andreas started the car and handed Tassos a document. “Here’s the secret map. You navigate. Just tell me the first stop on our treasure hunt.”

“Eleni’s father’s taverna.”

Andreas looked at Tassos. “You’re joking. The Foundation has a secret vault at his place?”

“No. I’m hungry.”

The father put them at a large table beneath a sprawling tree and placed a bottle of water on the table together with what he called the “the yield of their shade,” ripe, freshly peeled figs. Tassos thanked him, and took him aside for a few moments of private conversation.

By the time he returned half the figs were gone. “Hey, you’re eating them all.”

“No, only our half,” smiled Kouros.

“What did he have to say?” said Andreas.

“No more than what Eleni told us.” Tassos popped a fig into his mouth. “Plus, the part about him ‘only telling a few people.’”

“Any one we know?”

“Nope. But enough to say it probably got back to Trelos through him or possibly indirectly though Trelos’ sister. Eleni’s father mentioned it to a metanastes who works here and hangs out at her brother’s bar.”

“Maybe we should ask Eleni’s father if he has any idea where the sister might be?” said Andreas.

“How would he know?” said Kouros.

“Because gossip goes two ways,” said Tassos. “And, I already asked him. The only places he could think of were where we already looked. He said that whole area over by Trelos’ house belongs to their family. It covers practically everything for a quarter mile north of the sea between Aghios Fokas and Aghios Sostis, except for that prehistoric settlement.”

Tassos took another fig. “He did have a bit of interesting gossip on the sister. It seems that fellow who jilted her wasn’t all to blame. He came from a very traditional family but he wasn’t from Tinos and not someone her parents approved of. Her parents were outraged when the couple became engaged without obtaining their consent and refused to give her a dowry. That killed the deal for the boy’s parents. No dowry, no marriage.”

“How long after that did the parents die?” said Andreas.

“You and your patricide-matricide theory. She was jilted about a decade before, so that would have given her a very stale motive.”

“Anything else?”

“She’d tried to get the Foundation to give her a dowry, something they did for girls in need of that sort of help. But the Foundation said that since her family was very rich they couldn’t do it for her. No one has heard her say a word since.”

“That’s probably when she tried to hang herself,” said Andreas.

“Did he have anything to say about Trelos?” said Kouros.

“Nothing more than we already know.”

Andreas reached for the map in front of Tassos. “Since you’re busy with your figs, let me take a look at this.” He spread the map out on the table. “And, Yianni, keep an eye on the father. I don’t want his curiosity costing me my soul oath to God.”

The map was a common tourist map, marked with eleven bright red circles. Starting with a circle in the port town around Panagia Evangelistria, five more ran roughly north centered on Kechrovouni Monastery, the ancient Xobourgo fortress, a Catholic Jesuit monastery, a place outside Greece’s finest basket weaving village of Volax, and a spot on the sea off to the northwest just east of Makrisia Bay. From west to east Dimitri had circled five more sites, beginning at the island’s artistic heart in Pyrgos and moving east to Katapoliani Monastery, the island’s livestock breeding capital in the Steni-Potamia-Myrsini villages corridor, the church of The Prophet Ilias on a western plateau of Mount Tsiknias, and a promontory just west of the Bay of Livada. Within each circle were delicately drawn crosshairs, also in bright red.

“Here comes pappy,” said Kouros.

Andreas quickly folded over the map.

“May I get you anything?”

“Yes,” said Andreas. “Undisturbed solitude.”

Tassos raised his hand, “Sorry, filos, my friend has had a very bad time of it recently. His wife went off on their honeymoon without him. So, let’s just give him his space. I’ll let you know if we need anything.”

The father hesitated as if wanting to say something, but turned and walked away.

“I appreciate what you did to cover for Eleni, but couldn’t you have been a bit nicer to her father? He’s like a brother to me.”

“But he’s not mine, and I made a promise to God not to let anyone but us see this.”

“You know, Yianni, maybe there’s some truth to what I said about the reason for our friend’s mood.”

“I’ve got no dog in this fight. You two work it out,” said Kouros.

“Okay, I’m sorry if I offended him. Does that make everyone happy?” Andreas unfolded the map and spread it out on the table. “Now, would you please take a look at this to see if we can come up with a clue as to how thieves pulled off so many robberies for such a long time without getting caught.”

“My God,” said Tassos, “Those sites are all over island. It will take us ten more years just to get to them all.”

“And places like Xobourgo have been used for concealing treasures for centuries. How the hell did the thieves ever find where the stuff was hidden inside that massive rock?” said Kouros.

“Or any of the other places without a map like this one, with crosshairs precisely drawn over treasure rooms,” said Tassos.

“This is starting to sound like an Indiana Jones film,” said Kouros.

“Let’s just figure out what these places have in common,” said Andreas.

They stared at the map.

Andreas was the first to speak. “The church in town and that convent where the nun’s dreams led to the discovery of the Megalochari are obvious hiding places for Foundation treasures. Not so obvious are the monastery outside of Kardiani and that church in the middle of nowhere on Mount Tsiknias. But I’d say the cleverest move was getting the Catholics into the act by using their Jesuit monastery.”

“So, we have five church related sites,” sites said Kouros.

“Six, if you take a close look at where the crosshairs meet at that spot over by Steni.” Tassos pointed with his finger. “Right by where the crosshairs meet is a small church. Care to bet whether there’s a tunnel running between the church and whatever is at the ‘x’?”

“Okay, so now we have six likely places within church control. What’s that mean?” said Andreas.

Kouros said, “Just like the fortress at Xobourgo, the church on Tinos has always used its properties for concealing treasures from marauders and pirates. I’d bet there are secret passages and hidden rooms for just that purpose at all those locations. The thieves probably knew the same thing.”

“What about the other five?” said Andreas.

Tassos pointed to the map again. “Xobourgo is a no-brainer. It’s a stone honeycomb of secret places. And that spot outside Volax is filled with volcanic thirty-foot high monoliths and bizarre-shape boulders covering a plateau of natural hiding places. As for Pyrgos, it’s home to some of Tinos’ greatest marble sculptors and the crosshairs are fixed on a place filled with some of the finest examples of their craft, entombments in the Pyrgos cemetery. Another not so unusual hiding place for treasure.

“But what I can’t get a fix on are the two along the coastline. There’s nothing there but shoreline.”

Kouros took a paperback book out of his back pocket.

“What’s that?” said Andreas.

“A guidebook to Tinos.”

“You’re kidding,” said Tassos.

“How do you think I’ve been able to find my way around this island on my own? Or know how to pronounce ‘Xobourgo’? Don’t knock it, it’s been very helpful.”

“So, we’ve got nine obvious hiding places and two that aren’t. How-”

“Chief, I’ve got it!”

“I haven’t even asked the question?”

“I mean about the other two. According to the guidebook those spots marked by the sea are caves! The one up by Makrisia Bay is called Mygospilia and the other cave is Spilias, over by the Bay of Livada.”

“Very good, Yianni. Put that guidebook on your expense account.”

“I have an expense account?”

“Back to my question. How did the thieves possibly figure out all eleven hiding places without someone on the inside tipping them off?”

“Anything on that in your guidebook?” said Tassos. “Check out those suggested day long excursions to places of interest around the island. Perhaps it’s listed under ‘Follow the yellow brick road to secret hiding places.’”

Kouros shot Tassos the middle finger.

“That just might be the answer,” said Andreas. “They ‘followed’ the Foundation’s ‘inconspicuous’ couriers when they transported valuables from Panagia Evangelistria to the other storage sites.”

“But how would the thieves know who to follow?” said Kouros.

“Because the couriers are ‘longtime’ employees of the Foundation. Do you care to bet how many locals could tell you right now who the likely couriers are if you put the question to them?”

Tassos said, “That still doesn’t explain how the thieves found the hiding places, let alone got inside. They would have had to follow the couriers into the middle of nowhere to find some of those places. They’d be spotted in a minute. Even a helicopter would be noticed.”

Andreas rubbed his eyes. “Not necessarily.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” said Tassos.

“I can’t remember the name of the book, but it had some pre-historic man character with a unique way of hunting dangerous prey far quicker than he was. He’d start out by stalking his quarry as far as he could before losing it. Then he’d wait at that spot until the prey passed by another time, and track it from there as far as he could again before losing it. The hunter did this for as many days as it took to find the quarry in its lair.”

“Nice story, but that would take a hell of a lot of time,” said Kouros.

“And patience. Especially since we’re talking about eleven sites,” said Tassos.

“Not really,” said Andreas. “Panagia Evangelistria is obvious and you could easily follow the couriers to Kechrovouni Monastery and the Jesuit Monastery without being noticed. The same for Xobourgo and, depending on the time of day, Katapoliani Monastery, as well. And with Pyrgos being such a popular place for tourists, couriers wouldn’t be likely to notice anyone trailing them unless their stalkers were dumb enough to follow them into the cemetery. That left only five storage sites requiring more time and ingenuity to pinpoint. But why would the thieves care how long it took to find the others, or for that matter, however many more secret sites there were? They’d already struck it rich with six locations to rob at their leisure.”

“Uhh, Chief, there’s another explanation,” said Kouros.

“Which is?”

“They put a tracking device on the courier vehicle and followed its signal to the sites.”

“I like Andreas’ theory, it has a more traditional flair to it.”

“Whatever way they did it, it could have been done without the thieves being tipped-off by someone on the inside,” said Andreas. “So, that leaves us with three open questions aside from who they are. How did they get in, how did they transport the items, and where did they take them?”

“To repeat myself, it would take a lot of time and patience to case those sites before finding the best way to get in and out undetected,” said Tassos.

“And specialized electronics help to get around the alarms and cameras,” said Kouros.

“But evidently the Foundation didn’t start to put in that sort of security until years after the robberies began. And by the time it did, I’m certain the thieves had stolen more than enough to buy whatever brains and equipment they needed to get around anything the Foundation installed,” said Andreas.

“It’s a no-brainer how they transported the stuff,” said Tassos. “In their pockets, and not a soul would notice. They could have used motorbikes or even walked away. We’re talking gems and small pieces of gold, not tea sets and paintings. As for ‘where the stuff is,’ how about anywhere in the world by now? And if any is still on Tinos, I think you guys realize by now that this island is nothing if not one big hiding place.”

Andreas took a drink of water. “It seems to me that we’re looking for a person or persons capable of spending extensive amounts of time patiently locating and carefully reconnoitering eleven sophisticated hiding places, and of circumventing elaborate electronic surveillance and security systems once they do. And who are smart enough to realize that by committing tiny burglaries they’re not likely to draw the sort of heat they’d do with big ones.”

“A ‘don’t kill the golden goose’ approach,” said Tassos.

Andreas nodded. “It’s almost as if the bad guy doing all this hasn’t had anything better to do with his life for the last ten years or so.”

“You’re saying Trelos?” said Kouros.

“He’s always been the obvious choice, and he sure as hell fits the profile, even knew how to scramble my recorder,” said Andreas.

“Plus, as he said to you, he’s ‘invisible.’ No one on the island ever notices him, and everyone expects to see him in the craziest, out of the way places,” said Tassos.

“But didn’t he tell you he only gave away his family’s money?” said Kouros.

“Are you suggesting he wouldn’t lie?” said Andreas.

Tassos rocked his head from side to side. “Frankly, I’m not so sure he’d have thought of himself as lying even if he is the thief. Do you remember Eleni saying that when Trelos’ parents died they left one of the ‘largest bequests ever’ to the Foundation?”

“Are you’re saying he considers himself to be recovering his family’s money from the Foundation?” said Andreas.

“Who knows what he thinks, but the timing works,” said Tassos. “The parents died a dozen years ago, the first thefts were noticed two years later but, considering the Foundation’s inventory practices, there’s no telling when the first robbery occurred. Under any scenario, though, Trelos had more than enough time dancing all over the island between his parents’ deaths and the first robbery to figure out how to pull it off.”

Andreas said, “What doesn’t fit is how he found killers disciplined enough to do his dirty work and keep quiet about it. He doesn’t seem the type to inspire confidence or loyalty in the breed that does that sort of work. And I definitely don’t see that happening if he never talked to them.”

“But he obviously knows how to get followers,” said Kouros. “He does have his ‘priests.’”

Tassos shook his head. “As far as we know he’s paying them to act as recruiters at so much per soul. They would never have to know a thing about the nasty side of his business. And as long as his priests and their recruits are paid on time, everyone’s happy.”

“I think it’s time to bring Trelos in for some serious questioning. Not that I expect him to talk, but I don’t want him out there arranging more murders while we’re running around trying to nail him. It makes me anxious, and that makes me prickly.” Andreas smacked Tassos on the arm.

“Oh, so that explains it. And here I thought it was just your missing Lila and Tassaki,” said Tassos.

“That too.”

“So, do we wait for him at his place, or on the road by the spot where his parents died?” said Kouros.

Tassos looked at his watch. “I think it’s too late to catch him on the road. There’s probably a better chance at his house.” Tassos pointed south toward the town. “That’s where he lives, over there to the left of the town just beyond and across from the prehistoric acropolis.”

Andreas stared. “From up here, the Vriokastro looks a lot like the tip of Tinos’ new port on the other end of the bay between them. Interesting how two very different places, separated by a mile and a half of shoreline and five thousand years of history end up with the same designer.”

“Why mess with Greek perfection?” said Tassos.

Andreas smiled. “Spoken like a true Greek god. But before we leave our lofty perch to go down and mingle among the mortals, let’s stop by police headquarters and borrow some ballistic vests. Just in case our boy might be expecting us and has made some welcoming arrangements, I don’t want to make it easy for him.”

“Are you trying to make me anxious, too?” said Kouros.

“Make that ‘us.’”

“It’s good to share.”