Jeffrey Siger_Andreas Kaldis 02 Read Online Free Page B

to say, and so he said the obvious. “I’m so very sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Kostopoulos.”

Chapter 3
    Andreas never got used to delivering such dreadful, unexpected news. He didn’t want to; his skin was thick enough. He watched Mrs. Kostopoulos go from pounding on her husband’s chest to sobbing against it, but he wasn’t judging how they chose to mourn. There should be no rules for grieving. Especially for a child.
    Ginny Kostopoulos was twenty-four when she met fifty year-old Zanni. Like so many other Eastern-European beauties migrating to Greece in search of work, she put her natural charms to good use on celebrity-filled island beaches catering to the desires of thirsty sun worshipers. Zanni’s were obvious from the start, and Ginny, an unwed mother of a four-year-old son, did not object. They married as quickly as he could divorce wife number two. Zanni adopted the boy, giving him the name Sotiris after Zanni’s late father. He had two grown daughters from his previous marriages and, together with Ginny, twin ten-year-old girls. Sotiris was the only son.
    Andreas waited patiently; he knew the question would come soon. It always did.
    “What happened to our son?” It came from Zanni.
    “He was…” Andreas swallowed hard. “He was murdered.” A priest or a social worker might have put it differently, but Andreas was a cop. And cops want reactions. They’re more telling than words.
    “Murdered? Murdered!” It was Ginny. She dropped her arms from around her husband and turned away from all three men. Her right hand was over her mouth and her eyes fixed on the floor.
    “Who did it…how did it happen?” Zanni did the asking. Ginny didn’t move from her spot.
    “We don’t know yet, sir. It occurred a few hours after midnight. Your son’s body was discovered at dawn and the coroner hasn’t completed his examination.” Neither parent responded. Andreas’ instinct was to say more. “But we think it was directed at your family.”
    Zanni’s expression did not change. His face had turned to stone since Andreas first said his son was dead. Ginny was frozen in place, her breathing increasing rapidly, as if about to hyperventilate.
    They were in shock, a normal and expected reaction.
    “Thank you, Chief, for your concern.” Zanni sounded as if tipping a waiter.
    Andreas thought perhaps he hadn’t made his last comment clear enough or they may have missed it in their grief. “Mr. Kostopoulos, did your son or your family receive any threats? Or can you think of anyone who might have done such a horrible thing as a message to your family?”
    Zanni stared straight ahead. “No, sir.”
    Andreas pressed him harder but got no better an answer than an interviewer trying to force genuine beliefs from a politician. Nor was there a hint of Zanni’s legendary temper; no matter how hard Andreas pushed him it was always the same: “No, sir.”
    Zanni eyes stayed focused somewhere in the middle-distance while Ginny stood with hers fixed on the floor, clutching her arms across her chest and swaying from side to side. She said not a word and was no longer crying.
    The chief of Athens Special Crimes Division had just asked the parents of a murdered boy if their son’s death was a message to their family, and neither asked what the hell he was talking about. Shock or no shock, Andreas knew their silence definitely was not normal.
    ***
    They were sitting in their car in front of the Kostopoulos home. “So, what do you think?” It was the second time Andreas asked that question in the three minutes since they’d left the house.
    Kouros’ first answer to the question was a summary of what the boy’s parents and the household staff told them: Sotiris was almost seventeen, into girls not guys, and well-liked. He’d been playing backgammon at home with two male classmates until eleven when all three were picked up by a taxi for some late-night clubbing. He hadn’t been expected home until late Sunday afternoon, at the