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you.”
    “This is Officer Petro. He works with us.”
    “A pleasure to meet you, Officer.” She pointed at the box in Petro’s hand. “I’ll take that, thank you.”
    “No need to,” said Kouros.
    Marietta smiled. “Missus Vardi told me to tell you that under no circumstances was I to allow you, or whoever you were with, to smuggle pastries into the house.”
    “She actually said that?”
    “She also said to tell you, ‘Nice try.’”
    Kouros looked at Petro. “Like I said, not what you might expect. It’s all right. Turn over the cookies.”
    Marietta led them through a series of rooms filled with antiques and paintings. Andreas and Lila stood in a room lined with windows offering an unobstructed view of the Acropolis lit up at night.
    Petro stared out the windows as Kouros kissed Lila on both cheeks and turned to introduce him.
    “Petro, this is Lila.”
    Lila stepped toward Petro and put out her hand. “I know how you feel. I can’t believe this view is real either, and I see it every day.”
    Petro blushed. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Vardi.”
    “Please, call me Lila.” She stood about a head shorter than her six-foot, two-inch husband and wore her dark hair simply, at shoulder length.
    “Sorry about the cookies.”
    She smiled, “Cookies? I’d have thought Yianni would have gone for a chocolate cake. I suspect there was a broader conspiracy at play than I imagined.” She glanced at Andreas.
    He shrugged. “I know nothing about any chocolate chip cookies.”
    Lila rolled her eyes. “Then how did you know the cookies were choco—”
    At that instant a brown and white puppy came racing into the room followed by a charging four-year-old.
    “Perfectly timed entrance, my son,” said Andreas scooping the boy up from his pursuit of the puppy. “You know how to rescue your daddy.”
    The boy twisted about in his father’s arms trying to free himself. “Easy, Tassaki, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine.” The boy stopped fidgeting as Andreas carried him over to Petro.
    “Tassaki, this is Officer Petro.”
    Tassaki held out his hand, “Pleased to meet you, Officer Petro.”
    Petro shook Tassaki’s hand. “And a pleasure to meet you.”
    Andreas pointed at Kouros.
    “Nice to see you again, Detective Yianni.”
    Kouros smiled and waved. “You, too, Tassaki.”
    Andreas kissed Tassaki’s cheek. “Well done, son,” and put him back down on the floor to resume the chase.
    “What a well-mannered kid,” said Petro.
    Andreas nodded toward Lila. “It’s all his mother’s doing.”
    Lila smiled. “But he gets his puppy-chasing nature from his father. Would you like something to drink? Wine, beer, whiskey.”
    “Wine please,” said Petro.
    “Red or white?”
    “Red.”
    “And you, Yianni?”
    “Whatever.”
    Andreas walked over and patted him on the back. “Just as long as it isn’t bomba .”
    “ Bomba ?” said Lila.
    “Counterfeit alcohol,” said Kouros.
    “I can’t believe it. I was just talking about that very thing today with Alexandra.”
    “ Bomba ?” said Andreas.
    “Counterfeiters. Her husband is a wine producer and he was complaining to her about wine counterfeiters jeopardizing his business. I assumed she was trying to get me to raise it with you.”
    Andreas nodded. “One of the perks of being the wife of a cop. Friends asking you to get your husband to fix their tickets.”
    Lila gestured at her husband. “Especially when he’s a notorious super cop.”
    “Did she say how big a problem it was for his business?” asked Kouros.
    “No, but according to his wife, Greek wines are gaining exponentially in popularity outside of Greece and someone is counterfeiting top Greek wine labels for EU markets. The stuff in the bottles is bad, but the counterfeit packaging’s so good, he’s worried new customers who have a bad experience with the phony stuff will give up on Greek wines entirely. He thinks it’s a serious threat to the country’s fragile foothold