Jeffrey Siger was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He practiced law at a major Wall Street law firm and, while there, served as Special Counsel to the citizens group responsible for reporting on New York City’s prison conditions. He left Wall Street to establish his own New York City law firm and continued as one of its name partners until giving it all up to write full-time among the people, life, and politics of his beloved Mykonos, his adopted home of twenty-five years, and spear fish in its Aegean waters. When he’s not in Greece, he enjoys his other home, a farm outside New York City. Murder in Mykonos, the first in his Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series, was the number one best selling English-language novel in Greece, and his second in the series, Assassins of Athens, is also a bestseller. The Greek press has described him as a ‘prognosticator’ of Greece’s societal unrest and attitudes. For more information log on to www.jeffreysiger.com Praise for Jeffrey Siger: ‘This is international police procedural writing at its best’ Booklist ‘With ten million Greeks, half of who think they are writers, how come we had to wait for a foreigner to come along to write such a book!’ Esquire Magazine (Greece) ‘The must-read book of the week!’ OK! (Greece) Also by Jeffrey Siger: Murder in Mykonos Copyright Published by Hachette Digital ISBN: 978-0-748-11789-5 All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2010 Jeffrey Siger All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. Hachette Digital Little, Brown Book Group 100 Victoria Embankment London, EC4Y 0DY www.hachette.co.uk Contents Also by Jeffrey Siger Copyright Acknowledgments Author’s Note Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 AN AEGEAN PROPHECY To my brother, Alan. None better. Acknowledgments Petros Alafasos and Georgia Toli; Mihalis and Roz Apostolou; Olga Balafa; Tonino Cacace; Nikos Christodoulakis and Jody Duncan; Giannis Dimotsis; Lori Estes- Markari; Andreas and Aleka Fiorentinos; Nikos Ipiotis; Nikos Karahalios; Panos Kelaidis; Artemis Kohas; Alexandros Kontogouris; Dimitris and Elsa Kordalis; Nicholas and Sonia Kotopoulos; Manos Kounenakis; Ilias, Lila, Demetra, Maria, and Ioanna Lalaounis; Giancarlo and Diamara Leone; Sharon Lock-Sikinioti; Angelo Lyberopoulos; Ilias and Laoura Macropoulos Lalaounis; Linda Marshall; Roberto Mendes-Coelho and Edward Prendergast; Nikos Nazos; Nikos and Georgia Nomikos; Lambros Panagiotakopoulos; Barbara G. Peters and Robert Rosenwald; Eraldo, Antonella, and Camilla Prini; Christos Psallidas; Theodore, Manos, and Irini Rousounelous; Eileen Salzig; Antonia Sapounakis; Christine Schnitzer-Smith; Deppy Sigala; Alan and Patricia Siger; Jonathan, Jennifer, Azriel, and Gavriella Siger; Karen Siger; George and Efi Sirinakis; Ed Stackler; George and Theodore Stamoulis; Maggie Taylor; Pavlos Tiftikidis; Jessica Tribble; Sotiris Varotsis; Miltiadis Varvitziotis; Zanni Vasilakis. And, of course, Aikaterini Lalaouni. Author’s Note Athens is the cradle of Europe. Six thousand years of history still alive in one place, crammed with sources of Western man’s intellectual thought and artistic expression. It stands as a symbol to the world, a source of infinite pride of Greece and endless wonder to its visitors. But, like every great city, it has its dark side: places where a civilization’s worst practice their values, or lack thereof, and where cops do battle every day. Those places no more define the soul and life of Athens than do their counterparts in Paris, London, or New York. But they do exist. And that is where stories such as this are told.