8

THE PARTNERSHIP

Yesterday’s assignment was a surprise. Aliki Notis came home triumphant, too exhilarated to sleep well. At last it was morning. She sneaked into the bathroom, grabbed a few toiletries and crept back to her room, past his bedroom door, through the living room stuffed with plastic-covered furniture, the big TV and a dining table and chairs. Great bass snores filled the small apartment. All was well, so far.

This was no ordinary case. Everyone could feel the pressure at the Athens Bureau of Violent Crime. The economy of Greece depended on tourists, and murder was bad for tourism. The Minister of Tourism Kandelis, the Chief and everyone else in the Bureau realized this was bad news. The order was clear: no publicity, a quiet investigation, and a quick arrest.

Arditis’ assignment was predictable. He was a rising star, a workaholic with a mind like a machine, and a sterling record. On the other hand, Aliki Notis had been away from the Bureau for two years. Most people, including Arditis, knew little or nothing about her. Rumor had it that the Chief overruled Panis, that the Chief himself picked Notis to be Arditis’s partner.

Aliki knew nothing about the machinations that brought her this stroke of luck. She’d been hoping her next assignment would have with less paperwork and more challenge than the Kavouri case that they’d just finished. Now, here it was. More than she hoped for. A murder– and an important one! What’s more this case would take her out of Athens again, away from this suffocating apartment, and from the incessant scrutiny and disapproval of Angelos Notis.

She was cheerful this morning, thinking he wouldn’t damper her spirits today. He’d come home from work around three, exhausted as usual. If she were lucky, she’d be long gone before he woke up. And she felt lucky. A few hours at the office, and then the boat to Kalini! He wouldn’t like it, of course, but there was nothing he could do about it– except rant, as usual. She moved quickly, putting the toiletries and a few books in the suitcase, although she doubted there’d be time for reading.

“Coffee?” her mother whispered.

“Thanks, mom, but I’ve got to go. I’ll get some at the office.”‘

“Be careful, dear, with a murderer…”

“Don’t worry about anything. I’m sure there…”

” What’s going on here, you two?”

There he was, Angelos Notis, disheleved hair, grey stubble, a big-bellied bear of a man. Suddenly the small bedroom was overcrowded. There are many men like Angelos Notis in Athens, sons of desperately poor peasants, who abandoned the countryside in search of a better life. Uneducated and unprepared for city life, they scrambled to survive. Some managed very well, pulling themselves up into the middle class. Others stayed in the lowest ranks of unskilled labor. Many, like Angelos Notis, are stuck in between, sp