Dig Two Graves: Revenge or Honor (35 page)

“Cipher, cipher, it’s a cipher. I took the date in six-digit format and wrote it under …”

“Mary, were you able to decode the message?’

“Decipher dear, do keep up. Certainly, we deciphered it. Once we determined the key, it was a simple matter of substitution and Bob’s your uncle. It says ...”

“Wait. Don’t tell me what it says!” AJ shouted.

“All right, then, but there’s no need to shout. When you find your friend …”

“I’m sorry, Mary. Give me a moment to think.” AJ sat stunned in his chair, pressing the phone tight to his ear. Now he knew where to recover the gold. Millions! Millions that could be his, and Ceres was out of the way. He didn’t need Ceres any more, but yet he did need him and he was going to get him back. “Mary, do you know where the notebook is?”

“You are slow on the uptake, aren’t you lad? It’s right here in my hand.”

AJ closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. The kidnappers didn’t have the notebook. Simple, lovely Mary the nurse had it. Now he had something with which to bargain.

Ceres knew the secret, but he wouldn’t give it up easily. I have to hurry
, AJ concluded. “Mary, I’m going to put Deputy Director Alessandro Moretti on the phone,” AJ said looking directly at Alessandro. “You are going to tell him exactly where you are, and he’s going to send some agents, policemen, to protect you and keep the notebook and your copies of that message safe.”

Alessandro nodded, understanding exactly what was happening.

“Oh, my! Am I in danger? I must lock the doors. I have to let my little puss in first, but then I can lock the doors…”

“Mary… Mary” AJ shouted again to get Mary’s attention.

“Yes,” Mary said weakly.

“I don’t believe you are in danger, but the men who abducted Ceres…”

“Oh, my… it’s me who’s slow, isn’t it? I’ve put a spanner in the works, haven’t I? They’re after that message. Oh dear, it does say there is gold ... When can someone be at my flat?”

“I’m going to let you talk to Director Moretti. Here he is now. Oh, and Mary, thank you. You’ve been a big help.” AJ passed the phone to Alessandro.

He looked at Gia and said, “I’ve got an idea. It’s about as crazy as the one you had, but I think it could put an end to this whole mess. Are you game for one more round?” AJ asked. He wondered where he’d suddenly found a spine.

Turning to Captain Vlacos, AJ asked, “Captain, do you have access to an older black bound notebook, about so big?” AJ indicated a rectangle about eight inches by four inches with his thumb and index finger. “It would be hard bound with lined pages.”

“I can find such a booklet,” he said, a thoughtful look on his face, “but an old one? Why?”

“Yes, it needs to be old and have lots of wear,” AJ replied. “If you don’t have an old one maybe we can scuff up a new one, but an old one would be best. As for why, we’re going to give the kidnappers what they want.”

Gia put her hands on her hips, smiled, and slowly nodded her head. She’d figured out what AJ had in mind.

Another fist crashed into Ceres’ face. The sickening crack of breaking bone reverberated off the sterile concrete walls. Michael Verde, wearing sap gloves, flexed his hands in preparation to strike the old man again. Another blow fell. The powdered lead in the knuckles of the gloves tore into the flesh, breaking Ceres’ nose a second time as his head snapped to the right.

The hard plastic of the flex cuffs dug into his wrists and ankles as he struggled to free himself.
He’ll beat me to death
, Ceres thought. The compound broken nose was swollen and twisted. Both his eyes were blackened and swollen shut. He bled from dozens of cuts, and his nose. Ceres was a man in serious trouble.

“You know, you will eventually tell me what I want to know,” Solaris said quietly. Seated in a plush leather chair in front of his victim, Solaris edged forward, leaning on his walking stick. “Where’s the gold? Where’s the notebook?”

Ceres’ head lolled on his chest then slowly rose and came to the center. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, his resonant voice now nasal from the broken nose. “Yes, I know about notebook … I’ve had it for years, but there’s no secret in it. It’s just notes about what my friend did in the war.” Ceres rested his chin on his chest and turned toward his interrogator.

“You’ve had the book for decades. Don’t tell me you haven’t unlocked its secret!” Solaris thundered. Turning to Verde he said, “Again, and don’t hold back this time.”

“Sir, he’s an old man, I don’t know how much more …”

“You heard me. Get on with it,” Solaris snapped.

Ceres began to laugh. Then he coughed and wheezed, trying to catch his breath as Verde approached him for yet another beating. “Don’t you think I would have found something valuable after all these years, if I knew where it was?” Ceres said through cut, swollen lips.

“Wait!” Solaris shouted as Verde drew back to hit Ceres again. He stood and limped over to the bleeding man. “You may have a point, and since you don’t have the notebook, you must have given it to someone. The young man traveling with you perhaps, or the woman you went to see in Thessaloniki. Maybe whoever you gave the book to would be more willing to talk.”

Ceres knew he’d won only a temporary reprieve. He also hoped he hadn’t put AJ or anyone else in danger.

“Clean him up and give him some water,” Solaris ordered.

Solaris walked purposefully out of the room and slammed the steel door behind him.

“Well, you bought yourself some time, old man,” Verde said. “But not much, I’m afraid. Wish I could help you.”

Captain Tinos Ganis walked unsteadily into the Katerini police station and asked for the garrison commander. Moments later, Gia bounded down the stairs and into the reception lobby, followed quickly by AJ, Georgios, and Alessandro.

“Tinos!” Gia shouted gleefully as she threw her arms around the man’s neck. He staggered unsteadily and grimaced.

“Easy girl, I’m not a well man,” Tinos grunted.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, releasing Tinos. “How are you?” Then after taking a step back and a moment’s hesitations, she said, “What are you doing out of the hospital?”

“Yes, what are you doing out of the hospital?” Tinos’ uncle, Georgios, said glowering.

He took AJ’s hand and shook it warmly then looked at his uncle with a sheepish expression. “I guess I didn’t want to miss anything. I heard AJ’s friend was abducted and, well, I wanted to help. I can stay cooped up in a bed only so long,” Tinos said.

“Glad to have you along,” Alessandro said, shaking the Greek’s hand. Georgios was still holding back. Tinos threw his arms open, inviting a hug and Georgios shook his head and broke into a smile, saying, “All right, come here you fool.” The two men exchanged a hug as Tinos tried to hide his pain.

“So how bad is it?” AJ asked. “All I saw was a lot of blood.”

“The wound, it’s nothing. It just took a couple stitches,” Tinos replied. “The bullet grazed my side, here,” he said, pointing to his right side.

“It was enough to knock you overboard,” Georgios said. “Or were you just trying out for the Olympic diving team?"

“I guess I was trying to get out of the way of another shot,” Tinos grunted. “But when I went over the side I hit my head on the dingy. I’m lucky I didn’t drown. I’m sorry to say my men weren’t as lucky.”

“My boy, you couldn’t have anticipated a direct assault on the surveillance team. I’m sure the investigation’s findings will clear you. Besides, the perpetrator has been neutralized,” Georgios said. He was not as sure as he tried to sound. There would be repercussions, but for now, there was still a job to do.

“Well, we’re glad you’re here. Come on up stairs and we’ll fill you in,” AJ said. “We’re putting together a little plan, and we could use your help.”

AJ, Gia, and the two older men briefed Tinos on what they had learned since the shootings on the Helios and what they had found out about Ceres’ abduction. They tried to keep the speculation to a minimum, but so much of what they knew of the kidnappers’ intentions was nothing but speculation.

When the conversation wound down, Tinos rubbed just below the bandage on his forehead with his right hand and scrunched his eyes together, making a pained face.

“Excuse me, this is my office,” Alessandro said as he reached for his phone. He stepped into the hall to take the call.

“Are you all right, really?” Gia said concern evident in her tone.

“I’m OK. I’ve got a headache, but it’s getting better.” Letting out a sigh, Tinos said, “So tell me, what’s going on?”

“What we need is to shake things up, AJ replied. “We can’t wait for the bad guy’s next move. I have an idea, but I don’t know how to pull it off.”

“Well, let’s hear it,” Gia said.

“It can’t be any worse than the last thing we did,” Tinos added.

“Hey, it worked didn’t it?” Gia said in mock protest. “They came after us didn’t they? That was the goal and we got some damn good intel on them.”

“No argument there,” Tinos said, “and I’ve got the scars to prove it.” He reached around and touched his throbbing side as he chuckled.

“Whoa, that was low,” Gia said.

“Do you two want to hear my idea or not?” AJ said.

Alessandro stepped back into the room and said, “Hope I didn’t miss anything? I have some news.”

“Oh good,” AJ said.

“That was my office on the phone. The second man in the surveillance video is Rafael Arons. He’s on the board of Banco Media Roma.”

Gia frowned and said, “Let me guess, he’s the man…,”

“Yes, he’s the man your father met with the day before he was murdered,” Alessandro finished Gia’s sentence.

“Arons, Arons …” AJ’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to recall the name.

Tinos began, “The woman in …”

AJ snapped his fingers, stabbed the air with his index finger, and said, “Damn, that’s the name of the woman Ceres and I went to see in Thessaloniki. Her father was a rabbi my grandfather knew.”

Alessandro’s phone buzzed, signaling a text message. He opened it, smiled, and said, “Gia, my office is emailing me the phone records on Verde. Can you take a look at them?” Alessandro asked.

“Sure, let me see them,” she said.

Alessandro leaned over Gia to log into his online email account. He located the email with the phone records attached and pointed it out to Gia.

She opened the attachment and saw it was a lengthy spreadsheet with telephone call data showing the date, time, target number, destination, duration, and direction of each call. The spreadsheet covered approximately six weeks and there were twenty-one thousand phone calls and text messages listed. She typed the URL of her remote access program into the browser, entered her password and connected to her office computer.

“I can give you most frequently called and social interactions in a few minutes,” she said, looking up from the screen.

“Do what you can,” Alessandro responded.

With access to her analysis software, Gia’s finger flew over the keys. She sorted the data by duration and quickly saw nearly all of Verde’s calls were very short, three minutes or less. Next she sorted by the numbers Verde called. Again, nothing obvious revealed itself. Then she tried a sort by numbers that had called Verde. AJ walked past Gia to get a cup of coffee from the credenza at the end of the room. He came and stood behind her studying the rows and columns Gia was working on when his eye fell on something familiar.

“Gia, wait,” he said. “Go back a little. What are you looking at, exactly?”

“These are Verde’s phone calls sorted by incoming then outgoing. What do you see?” she asked, her curiosity aroused.

“This number here,” AJ said, pointing to the screen. “How many calls are there to or from this number?”

Gia filtered and sorted the spreadsheet data by the phone number AJ wanted.

“There are forty-three incoming and eighteen outgoing calls involving that number,” Gia said. “Do you know whose number that is?”

“What time period does this cover?” AJ asked.

“The last six weeks. AJ, what’s wrong? What do you see?” Gia said. The others in the room gathered around the computer screen.

“The International Calling Code for the U.S. is 1, isn’t it? This is a U.S. number. It’s a 305 area code,” AJ said, pointing to the screen.

“Yes, that’s a U.S. number. Do you know whose it is?” Gia asked.

“It's my boss's cell phone number in Miami. My father’s best friend, Luis Echeverria has been feeding Verde information.”

“… and Verde’s been feeding it to Solaris,” Gia said.

“Gia, look at the calls since we left Miami,” AJ asked.

Gia sorted the data again.

“Now look for the most frequently called number,” he said

“There are two,” she said.

“What’s the country code of San Marino?” AJ asked.

“I can get that,” Captain Vlacos said. “I have a list on my desk.”

The captain dashed out of the room. The only sound was the whoosh of the ceiling fans and the hum of the fluorescent lights while they waited. Vlacos burst back through the door, shuffling through a dog-eared sheaf of paper.

“San Marino’s dialing code is 378,” the captain said.

“Well done, captain,” Georgios said.

“Does one of the high frequency numbers have a country code of 378?” AJ asked Gia.

Gia bit her lower lip as she scanned the sorted data. She stopped scrolling and looked up at AJ.

“Verde’s most frequently called number has a 378 dialing code. He’s calling San Marino. We have Solaris’ number!” she said triumphantly. “There’s a clear connection between Verde, Arons, and his bank, and a strong, but unconfirmed connection to Solaris,” Gia said, visualizing how her link chart would look after she updated it.

“There’s a connection to my boss, too. How many times does that 305 area code number show up?”

Gia counted the lines on the screen and said, “There are thirty-six incoming and ten outgoing calls.”

“I’ve been calling my boss with regular updates. Looks like Verde wasn’t the only leak. That helps with the plan I’ve been thinking about.”

“What do you have in mind?” Georgios asked.

“Let me make one phone call and then I think I’ll be able to explain the whole thing,” AJ replied.

AJ grabbed his cell phone and dialed. Luis answered on the third ring.

“Luis, this is AJ,” he said. He hoped he could pull this off. It was important.

“Ah, AJ. How are you?” the Miami lawyer asked. “Where are you?”

“I’m fine Luis. I’m still in Greece, but I’m worried. My friend, the one I’ve been working with, has disappeared.”

“Oh, that’s terrible. Is there anything I can do to help?” the man in Miami asked.

“Funny you should ask Luis, because there is something you can do. You can have your friend in San Marino call me,” AJ said.

The phone was silent as Luis Echeverria took in the gravity of what he’d just heard.

“I don’t know what you mean, I don’t know anyone …”

“Save it Luis. I don’t know everything, yet, but I will. I want to know why you set up my father. Why? What did you get out of it?” AJ was cold, matter of fact.

“I … I didn’t know anyone would get hurt,” Luis said. “He was my best friend.”

“And he was my father. You can tell me or tell it to the cops. They’ll be on the way shortly,” AJ said. “How did it start, when?”

“It was over a year ago. First, it was some banker from Rome. He called to set up a phone call with one of his clients. I thought it would be a big international account,” Luis said. “He said he would pay for information on Andreas. It seemed harmless.”

“A little betrayal never hurt anyone, is that it? Harmless until he was murdered. Why did you keep working for him? Was it the money?” AJ asked.

“No, not for money. He said he’d expose what I’d done. I had to tell him what you were doing and where you were,” Luis said.

“Every time I called you, you passed our conversation on, didn’t you … didn’t you!”