Andreas looked at his watch. “That was quick. Just a little more than an hour.”

“A lot of paper but not much to read. No one saw or heard a thing except for smoke just before dawn. The victims were brothers, one twenty-two and the other eighteen. They were from a tsigani camp set up on the southeast part of the island near the port and far away from where the bodies were found. They left the camp the day before they were found. Their family began to worry when they heard about the murders and the two hadn’t returned for three nights. The victims were preliminarily identified from jewelry found on their bodies, later confirmed by DNA testing. The Tinos police chief personally interviewed everyone in the camp and came up with nothing. No one had any idea of who might have wanted to kill either brother or of a possible motive. The most anyone had to say was that this was ‘not the tsigani way’ of settling scores.”

“What did forensics come up with?”

Kouros leaned in and rested his elbow on the desk. “That’s where things get interesting. The victims died of asphyxiation before the fire.”

“They were dead before they burned?”

“Looks like it.”

“How did they suffocate?”

“Can’t be sure, but forensics thinks it might be gas.”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning?”

Kouros gestured no. “Nitrous oxide.”

“Nitrous oxide?”

“Yes, laughing gas.”

“That’s the sort of stuff my dentist uses.”

“And some use it as a recreational drug. Makes you euphoric, happy. You feel no pain.” Kouros shook his head. “They think that’s what it was because they found a nitrous oxide cylinder in the back of the van behind the bodies.”

“That’s not what tsigani are known to traffic.” Big time drug dealing by some tsigani was another mark borne by the many.

“Like I said, it makes things interesting.”

Andreas picked up a pencil and tapped it on his desk. “Check to see where you can find laughing gas on Tinos.”