Free Santorini Caesars by Jeffrey Siger Page A

“Do you have names?”
    â€œI’ll give you names, but I think it’s better if you decide for yourself what sort of threat they actually present.”
    â€œHow are we supposed to do that?” said Yianni.
    â€œThey’ve put together a retreat this weekend for senior and general staff level officers to discuss the future of Greece.”
    â€œSeniors?” said Andreas.
    â€œSeniors are the equivalent of majors through colonels, and general staff are admirals, generals, and air marshals.”
    â€œWith all due respect, Brigadier, you can’t be serious,” said Yianni. “Top level military brass calling an open meeting to plan a coup?”
    The Brigadier smiled. “They’re not insane, Detective. The stated purpose is to discuss new ways in which the military can help Greece’s government negotiate its way through the continuing crisis.”
    â€œSounds rather transparent and non-confrontational to me,” said Yianni.
    â€œYes, precisely like the bullshit Greeks are used to hearing every day from their civilian leadership,” said the Brigadier.
    â€œAre you suggesting it’s meant to be something more?” asked Andreas.
    â€œLike a means for determining who among them might be sympathetic to using aggressive methods for restoring Greece to glory?” added Yianni.
    â€œPerhaps it’s just their way of getting away for a weekend with their buddies,” said the Brigadier with a shrug.
    â€œWhere’s the meeting?” said Yianni.
    â€œSantorini.”
    â€œA bit out of season, isn’t it?” said Andreas.
    â€œProbably why they chose it. Beauty, calm, and invisibility.”
    â€œDo you know where on Santorini?” said Andreas.
    â€œI can get the information for you, but there’s no way they’ll let you in.”
    â€œJust get us the info,” said Andreas.
    â€œDon’t kid yourselves. These are tough guys, all very security-conscious, and a lot smoother than their Golden Dawn ex-military brethren-turned-members of parliament.”
    Andreas leaned back in his chair. “And if they’re behind your daughter’s murder, deadly too.”
    ***
    Andreas tossed Yianni the keys as they reached the rear of the police car. “You drive.”
    Yianni opened the driver side door as Andreas slid in on the passenger side. “I see you like the Brigadier’s idea of having a chauffeur.”
    â€œI must respect the workings of an ingenious tactical mind.”
    â€œI won’t even try to guess what’s running through your head.” Yianni crept the police car along the walkway through a crush of noontime pedestrians and onto the street.
    â€œI was wrong about the person the Brigadier would be using to track down his daughter’s killers.”
    â€œAre you saying we should call off surveillance on his aide?”
    Andreas nodded. “He knows that if his daughter’s murder was meant as a message to him, he’d be risking the lives of others in his family to use someone obviously connected to him.” Andreas slapped his right hand on the dashboard. “He’s using us to do it for him. No one can say he’s behind it because it’s only natural for cops to be looking for the killers.”
    â€œIf that’s his plan, then why did we have such a hard time getting him to tell us who’s organizing that meeting on Santorini?”
    â€œHe could be playing the reluctant virgin,” said Andreas.
    â€œThere aren’t too many of them around these days. Reluctant or otherwise.”
    â€œI’ll take your word on that.”
    Yianni patted the steering wheel. “But what you say makes sense for another reason too. If the Caesars aren’t the bad guys, and word got out he’d been accusing them, he’d have made some serious enemies and undermined his reputation among his fellow military brass. Cops and soldiers share the same