Yannelis welcomed me in her office. Our appointment had been for five and I arrived twenty minutes late, but that didn’t seem to bother her. I once again confirmed her weakness for outfits because this time she was wearing a pale orange one with an enormous sunflower on the bust, while her trousers were of a single colour. As soon as I had sat down, her secretary appeared with a tray and put in front of me a glass of fruit juice and a plate of assorted biscuits. I was unprepared as I hadn’t been expecting such a welcome and I felt obliged to thank her even though I detest fruit juice and I generally don’t eat anything between meals, apart from souvlaki that is. In spite of my thanks, she read the surprise on my face and smiled.
‘I know you’re here for a friendly chat,’ she said, ‘so let’s start with some refreshments.’
Yannelis was something of a mystery to me. She somehow managed to remain likeable even when she wasn’t on your side, as had been the case a few days previously in Zamanis’s office. However, you also got the feeling that somewhere she set a limit, that you’d come up against a wall if you went a step further.
‘My visit is neither a friendly nor an unfriendly one,’ I said to put an end to the joking. ‘I simply want you to confirm a piece of information for me.’
‘Normally, I shouldn’t say anything to you. Because of the conversation we had the other day in the office of Xenophon Zamanis but also because, thanks to you, Leventoyanni threatened to sue us if we didn’t give her the extra money we are supposed to have taken from the Russo-Pontian.’
Not exactly ‘supposed to’, I thought to myself, but I preferred not to open up old wounds. ‘I haven’t come to ask you about Balkan Prospect but about Balkan Inns, the other offshore company owned by Jason Favieros dealing with hotel and tourist enterprises.’
‘You’re very thorough, Inspector,’ she said with the same calm smile. ‘You leave no stone unturned. You don’t miss a thing.’
‘It’s my job.’
‘As you’re so good at your job, it can’t have escaped you that the company you’re referring to now belongs to Jason Favieros’s heirs and to Mrs Lilian Stathatos.’
‘It didn’t escape me.’
‘So, why have you come to me? If you want information about Balkan Inns, you should talk to Mrs Lilian Stathatos.’
‘I came to you because I considered it still a little early for me to bother Mrs Stathatos.’
I had recourse to my standard argument, but this time it didn’t seem to work because she burst out laughing.
‘Let’s leave mourning out of it, Inspector. The problem is elsewhere. You’re afraid that if you go to Mrs Stathatos with some indiscreet questions, it may reach the ears of your superiors, perhaps even those of the Minister of Public Order, and that will no doubt have consequences for you. And you can’t go to Xenophon Zamanis either because he doesn’t appear to like you particularly. So you’ve come to me because you find me more manageable. I don’t intend, however, to talk about matters or about companies which have nothing to do with Balkan Prospect.’
Once again she had read my mind. I decided to change tack. ‘Let’s look at it from another angle,’ I said. ‘Does an offshore company by the name of Balkan Inns have dealings or any connection with Balkan Prospect?’
‘What sort of dealings?’
‘For instance, has Balkan Inns ever purchased any real estate in the Balkans from Balkan Prospect in order to build hotels?’
She shrugged. ‘That’s something only our local estate agencies would know.’
‘Come now. Surely, you’re not telling me that the local offices don’t keep Headquarters informed?’
‘Even if there were any such dealings, what would that prove?’
I left her question unanswered and continued: ‘Do you know whether the local construction companies belonging to Jason Favieros had been contracted to build such hotels?’
‘The person able to answer your question is once again Xenophon Zamanis, but personally I wouldn’t rule it out.’ She paused for a moment and then leaned forward. ‘Why do you suspect illegal practices in all this, Inspector? What’s more natural than for three companies belonging in whole or in part to the same owner to cooperate?’
‘I repeat what I told you at the outset. I’m not looking into illegal practices but into the cause of Jason Favieros’s suicide. And now, too, into the cause of Loukas Stefanakos’s suicide.’
‘And do you think you’ll find it in the businesses owned by Jason Favieros or by Favieros and Mrs Stathatos or by Mrs Favieros and Mrs Stathatos? Both Jason Favieros and Loukas Stefanakos committed suicide before the eyes of thousands of TV viewers. So any criminal action is out of the question. Jason left no explanation for his suicide, not even a letter. He took the secret with him to the grave. You have to respect that and stop your investigations.’
She looked at me with some satisfaction thinking she had closed all the doors so that I had nowhere to turn. But she had said it all in a way that suited her and had left out the most important element.
‘Do you find it natural that two such well-known personalities, a businessman and a politician, should commit suicide in public and in such a violent way? And do you find it natural that ten days after the death of the one and one week after the death of the other, two biographies of them should appear, both written by the same person?’
She reflected for a moment. ‘I have to admit that it’s not so natural,’ she answered. ‘But it may just be a coincidence. This Logaras fellow may simply have wanted to exploit all the fuss in order to sell books.’
‘The biographies had been sent to the publishers three months previously and more or less on the same day. Whoever this Logaras is, he knew very well what was going to happen.’
She was thinking about it, either because I had convinced her or because she was searching for some counter-argument, when the secretary came in and whispered something in an agitated fashion in Yannelis’s ear. As soon as Yannelis heard it, she jumped up out of her chair.
‘What? When?’
‘Just two minutes ago,’ replied the secretary, leaving the office and closing the door behind her.
Yannelis turned to me. ‘There’s no need for you to continue with your investigations into the causes of the suicides, Inspector,’ she said slowly. ‘Just a short while ago the police arrested three members of that nationalist organisation…’
‘Philip of Macedon?’
‘Yes. They’ve been charged with the murder of the two Kurds and as accessories before the fact in the suicides of Jason Favieros and Loukas Stefanakos.’
‘When did this happen?’
‘It’s just been announced in a special news bulletin.’