“I’m appalled to have to say it. Spyro Leandrou...my
husband...had Patrick killed.”
Elaine gasped. For a few seconds she couldn’t even speak,
but then it didn’t make any sense at all. She must have misunderstood
something. She finally said, “Excuse me?”
“Spyro Leandrou had Patrick killed, Elaine. Your poor
father didn’t commit suicide in prison. He was murdered there!”
The room suddenly seemed to turn sideways, and Elaine felt
like she was in the funhouse at an amusement park. “My dad was not ‘killed’ by
anybody, Kathy.” Her voice wavered. “He hanged himself in his prison cell...”
Her voice trailed off—Kathy was slowly shaking her head.
“He died in jail, that much is true,” she said. “But it
wasn’t suicide. It was murder. Spyro paid someone on the inside to do
it. I don’t know who—a prisoner, a trustee, a guard—somebody.” Kathy paused. “I
know it’s a terrible shock to you, but it’s the truth.”
“That just doesn’t make any sense,” Elaine snapped,
thinking more clearly and now even angrier than before. Had her mother lost her
mind in these years they hadn’t seen each other? “What could your Spyro
possibly have to do with my father? If you met him two years after Patrick
died, like you said—”
“There’s another reason Spyro’s name may sound familiar to
you, Elaine. He was a friend of Patrick’s. They graduated from Peabody High
School together. His nickname was Spider. Remember? I don’t think you ever saw
him in person, but he used to call for Patrick on the phone.”
The synapses in Elaine’s brain started firing like a
fireworks display, making rapid connections.
Yes. Spider, one of father’s buddies. Now Elaine remembered
the man with the deep voice calling when she was just a child, asking to speak
to Patrick, many times. He never left a message.
“Spyro is the one who sold the construction materials that
your father pilfered on the job,” Kathy said. “He did it through his father’s
business, Mikos Corporation. It was a legitimate company back then, run by
Spyro’s father, had a good reputation around Pittsburgh. When Patrick was
arrested and the police found out about his pilferin’, Spyro was afraid he
would talk in exchange for...what do they call it, a plea bargain? If that
happened, Spyro was afraid he would go to jail, too, and his family’s
reputation would be ruined. They’re all Greeks, very conservative, ‘pillars’ of
the community. Ugh! So he paid someone to get rid of Patrick.”
Elaine grabbed her mother’s arms. “Who was it?” she
demanded. “Who killed my father?” Elaine was suddenly out of control—it was all
she could do not to shake Kathy like a rag doll until the woman’s teeth
rattled.
Kathy tore herself free of Elaine’s grip. “I don’t know his
name!”
Elaine stood there for a moment, shaken to the core by all
she had just heard. And then she realized she could not believe a word her
mother was telling her. Why should she?
“How do I know any of this is true?”
Kathy gazed sadly at her daughter. “Honey, do you really
think that your father would have killed himself and left you all alone to fend
for yourself? He would have at least left you a note…”
Kathy was right about that. He hadn’t left a suicide note.
“He loved you more than anything else in the world, honey. You
know that. He loved you more than life itself.”
Elaine swallowed hard, willing herself not to cry. But she
was still far from convinced. “If this is true, how did you find out about it?”
“Slowly. I pieced it together over a period of years, after
Spyro and I were married. I didn’t know he was such a big-time criminal at
first, and he actually wasn’t, not at the beginnin', before he got into all his
international dealin’s. A few months after we moved to Greece, a man showed up
at our villa, askin’ Spyro for money. Spyro paid him off and he went away. When
I asked who the man was, Spyro shrugged it off and said he was just an ‘unhappy
client’ with some sort of business grievance, but it seemed fishy to me. Well,
a couple of years later, the same man showed up at our villa again. This time I
listened through the wall of the library and heard him threaten to tip off the
Pittsburgh police about some crime that happened a long time ago, anonymously,
but Spyro handled him very calmly. Spyro said, “There’s no need to make
threats. How much do you need?’ and the man said, “How much is it worth to you
not to fry for the murder of your best friend, you piece of shit? Contract
killin’ is first degree murder and punishable by the death penalty in
Pennsylvania, in case you didn’t know.”
Elaine’s eyes widened.
“Well,” Kathy said, “I was so shocked by this I nearly
fainted on the spot. Spyro paid him off that time, too, and he went away again.
I didn’t know what to do. At that point I knew that my husband was not only involved
in a murder, but involved in the murder of my first husband! Can you imagine? I
considered flyin’ to Pittsburgh and goin’ to the police, but then I started
thinkin’ about evidence, and the fact that so many years had passed by. I also
thought about what Spyro might do to me when he found out.” Kathy hung her
head, breakin’ eye contact with Elaine. “I’m ashamed to say that I did nothin’,
just lived in fear and misery for a few more years, hopin’ and wishin’ it all
wasn’t true.”
“So you’ve actually seen this man that you say Spyro paid
to kill my father?”
“Of course I’ve seen him! Twice. I told you, he came to our
villa, in person, to blackmail Spyro.”
“What does he look like?”
Kathy thought back. “Tall, almost as tall as Spyro, who’s
six-three, black hair. Very handsome. Unusually handsome, I would say, like a
movie star. Chiseled features, ice-chip blue eyes...and he has this big dimple
in his chin, what do they call it—a cleft. That really stood out on him.” Kathy
paused. “But he looked kind of rough. Weathered. Like he’s had a hard life,
maybe had spent some time in prison.”
“Did he speak with any kind of regional accent?”
“No...not that I noticed. Not a Southern accent, if that’s
what you mean. And not like Pittsburgh people.” She looked at Elaine with even
more desperation, terror in her eyes. “I think Spyro knows I heard that part of
the conversation!”
“How would he know that?”
“Because I think that bitch housekeeper of his, Fenia, told
him. She’s his cousin. Everybody who works for him in Greece is part of his
family.” Kathy looked like she wanted to grab hold of Elaine again, but knew
better. “That’s why I took the papers from his safe! I have to protect myself
from him, don’t you see?”
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