Target: Tinos Read Online Free

escape a life in chaos elsewhere.
    Greece’s population was now almost eleven and a half million of which ten percent were estimated to be immigrants. No one knew exactly how many more were living hidden lives within the country, but with the abrupt change in Greece’s financial fortunes virtually every lost job or criminal act now seemed somehow blamed on the metanastes or tsigani . No one had to tell Andreas how ugly the anger was brewing—on all sides.
    ***
    Maggie’s voice came over the intercom. “Yianni’s here. He said to tell you he’s read the file.”
    “Send him in.”
    Kouros walked in and sat in a chair across the desk from Andreas.
    Andreas looked at his watch. “That was quick. Just a little more than an hour.”
    “A lot of paper but not much to read. No one saw or heard a thing except for smoke just before dawn. The victims were brothers, one twenty-two and the other eighteen. They were from a tsigani camp set up on the southeast part of the island near the port and far away from where the bodies were found. They left the camp the day before they were found. Their family began to worry when they heard about the murders and the two hadn’t returned for three nights. The victims were preliminarily identified from jewelry found on their bodies, later confirmed by DNA testing. The Tinos police chief personally interviewed everyone in the camp and came up with nothing. No one had any idea of who might have wanted to kill either brother or of a possible motive. The most anyone had to say was that this was ‘not the tsigani way’ of settling scores.”
    “What did forensics come up with?”
    Kouros leaned in and rested his elbow on the desk. “That’s where things get interesting. The victims died of asphyxiation before the fire.”
    “They were dead before they burned?”
    “Looks like it.”
    “How did they suffocate?”
    “Can’t be sure, but forensics thinks it might be gas.”
    “Carbon monoxide poisoning?”
    Kouros gestured no. “Nitrous oxide.”
    “Nitrous oxide?”
    “Yes, laughing gas.”
    “That’s the sort of stuff my dentist uses.”
    “And some use it as a recreational drug. Makes you euphoric, happy. You feel no pain.” Kouros shook his head. “They think that’s what it was because they found a nitrous oxide cylinder in the back of the van behind the bodies.”
    “That’s not what tsigani are known to traffic.” Big time drug dealing by some tsigani was another mark borne by the many.
    “Like I said, it makes things interesting.”
    Andreas picked up a pencil and tapped it on his desk. “Check to see where you can find laughing gas on Tinos.”
    Kouros shook his head. “The Tinos police already did. No luck there. It’s available just about everywhere, on and off the island. And it’s not just used by dentists. Hospitals use it in surgery, motor racers use it to boost engine power, and restaurants use it to puff up whipped cream.”
    “Whipped cream?”
    Kouros nodded. “Find whipped cream and you’re likely to find a nitrous oxide cylinder somewhere. And that’s the dangerous stuff because it’s not mixed with oxygen. If you’re breathing pure nitrous oxide—”
    “You suffocate. Shit. Anything else interesting?”
    “The victims were from a clan that came to Tinos a month before the murders. But their clan wasn’t one that usually spent the tourist season working on Tinos or came there to celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15th.”
    “August 15th is Tinos’ biggest celebration of the year,” said Andreas. “And it draws huge crowds, which means major opportunities for what tsigani do. Maybe the new boys on the block pissed off another clan who thought they might be muscling in on their action?”
    Kouros shrugged. “Could be, but it’s not unusual for transient clans to pass through Tinos this time of year. They always did when we were stationed on Mykonos. Tsigani revere the Virgin Mary and go there to pay their respects.