Romantic Comedy Box Set (Helen Grey Series Books 1 & 2)

by Hodge, Sibel

  Ali smiled. ‘Good, good. Is there anything else you can think of?’

  What was it? What? Something about…Lena. ‘Lena, the woman who was in the cell with me. I think she knows Ferret Face. I think he was her customer. She might know something about his whereabouts.’

  Erol’s dad lifted the phone again and shouted something else. As he slammed it down, Captain Beaky appeared at the door with the same policeman I’d seen talking to Ferret Face in the station.

  ‘Is this the man?’ Ali said to me.

  ‘Yes. No doubt about it.’ I nodded.

  ‘You are a disgrace, Superintendant,’ Ali bellowed at him. ‘You have a position of authority and you’ve abused it! Take him into custody!’

  And the superintendant was hauled off, shouting obscenities, out the door.

  Ali rose. ‘I think we have enough to go on. If you’ll excuse me, we need to get on with the search.’ He glared at Erol again. ‘I’ll deal with you later. And don’t think because you are my son, that you will escape charges. You have no honour!’

  Erol slunk down in his chair, trying to make himself invisible.

  ‘But…what am I supposed to do?’ I cried. ‘I can’t just wait here while you’re out looking for Kalem. I have to do something.’ I looked down at the baseball cap, clutched in my hand, and put it on my head – somehow it made me feel closer to Kalem.

  ‘I agree.’ Deniz nodded. ‘This is my son we’re talking about. I want to come too. And the more pairs of eyes out there, searching, the better.’

  Yasmin clutched her chest. ‘I want to help.’

  ‘Me, too. I can’t just sit here and do nothing,’ Ayshe said.

  ‘Well, I feel partly responsible. If I hadn’t fainted, I would’ve seen what happened to him. So count me in,’ Charlie said.

  ‘You might need me to help,’ Osman said to Ali in a tone that I couldn’t quite work out.

  ‘And me.’ Atila glanced at me. ‘I think we should all go and search.’

  ‘Hang on a minute.’ I narrowed my eyes at Atila. ‘What do you know about all of this? You’ve been acting really strange since we got here. Going off on secret missions and not telling anyone where you’ve been. Acting all cagey and suspicious. What have you been up to?’ I pointed an accusing finger at him. ‘Are you involved in all of this?’

  Atila sat back like I’d slapped him. ‘Of course not!’

  ‘Well, what have you been doing then?’ I shouted.

  Ayshe wrapped her arms protectively around her stomach. ‘Yes? What have you been doing? You have been acting strange.’

  ‘It was supposed to be a surprise. A wedding present for you.’ Atila looked between Ayshe and me, horrified.

  ‘I’ve had all the surprises I can take. Tell me!’ My voice jumped a few hundred decibels.

  Oh, no. This was horrendous. Part of me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to even contemplate that he could be involved in this somehow. But greed did funny things to people, didn’t it? And what other reason could there be for all his sneaking around?

  ‘Well, since my recipe books have taken off, I’ve been thinking about expanding my restaurant business. I don’t need to be at the one in London full-time anymore. It’s successful, and I’ve got an excellent chef and manager now to take over the reins. And I saw an amazing place in Kyrenia the other day that would make a perfect restaurant. I felt like I needed a new challenge, and this would be perfect, wouldn’t it?’ He slipped his hand through Ayshe’s. ‘I mean, I knew how sad you were about going back to the UK after the wedding and being so far away from Helen. I thought this would be the perfect solution. You could be here all the time with each other.’ His forehead creased with worry. ‘Have I done the wrong thing?’

  Ayshe’s tense shoulders slumped with relief. ‘Oh, thank God for that. You had me worried there for a minute. I even thought you were having an affair.’

  ‘An affair? Never.’ He smiled at her.

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’ I shook my head manically, more to myself than anyone else. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course you couldn’t be involved in anything like this.’

  Atila enveloped me in a warm hug. ‘No problem at all. You can’t be thinking straight at the moment. It’s understandable. Now, the question is, what can we all do to help find Kalem?’

  Ali leaped to his feet. ‘It is not protocol, of course, to have you involved in a police investigation. But we may not have much time, and Helen, you might remember something useful on the way. So under the circumstances, I will allow you all to come with me. Let’s find Kalem.’

  Chapter 19

  We all bundled into the small interview room where they were holding the superintendant.

  Captain Beaky stood behind the superintendant who was sitting in the same chair I’d been in two days before. The superintendant didn’t look too happy, but Captain Beaky had a smug smile on his face.

  ‘Right. I want to know who these criminals are, and what your involvement is.’ Ali roughly pulled out a chair opposite the superintendant and plonked himself down.

  ‘You’ve got the wrong person.’ The superintendant folded his arms in a defiant stance. ‘Are you going to take the word of this crazy woman over me?’ He nodded his head in my direction.

  Captain Beaky kicked the bottom of his chair out from under him, and the superintendant fell on the floor.

  Captain Beaky grinned. The superintendant almost had smoke coming out of his ears as he picked himself up, dusted off his trousers, and sat down again.

  Ali slapped a hand on the desk. ‘Enough! We are searching for someone. It could be a life or death situation, and I’m not wasting any more time. Tell me everything you know. NOW.’

  The superintendant screwed up his lips, as if debating what to say. ‘OK, I admit I talked to this man. But I didn’t know who he was.’ He shrugged. ‘He just came into the station and asked me for directions.’ He let out a small, unconvincing laugh.

  Ali gave an exasperated shake of his head. ‘You will have to do better than that.’

  The superintendant shrugged again. ‘That’s all I know. He came into the station saying he was lost, and I just gave him directions, that’s all.’

  ‘Directions to where?’ Ali asked, even though it was clear from his tone that he didn’t believe a word.

  ‘To see my wife, probably,’ Captain Beaky muttered under his breath.

  The superintendant turned and gave him a killer look.

  ‘TO WHERE?’ Ali repeated, losing his patience.

  I was losing mine too. In a minute, I’d kick his bloody chair out from under him as well. Or poke his eyes out. Or…well, something to make him talk.

  ‘Just to the harbour.’ The superintendant grinned.

  ‘This is getting us nowhere.’ Ali stood up. ‘Take him to the cell,’ he said to Captain Beaky.

  ‘With pleasure.’ He pulled the superintendant to his feet and practically dragged him out.

  The short policeman from the other night rushed in and handed Ali a computer printout. ‘We’ve identified the sniper from the photo at the airport. He’s an Israeli citizen who is wanted in connection with several major jewellery thefts and murders in the last few years. I’ve updated all ports, airports, and also the border crossing with South Cyprus with the photo. He hasn’t been through passport control anywhere yet, but if he’s seen they’ll detain him.’

  Ali perused the printout. ‘Good. Any other updates?’

  ‘A search team is busy going through Jacob Podsheister’s yacht. They haven’t found anything incriminating yet. There’s no sign of the statue or Kalem. He’s denying any involvement, of course, but we’ve arrested him. He’ll be here in a minute. We’re still trying to trace the exact location of Kalem’s mobile phone, and Lena has arrived, so I’ll bring her in.’ The policeman’s stubby little legs dashed off again.

  ‘But it all happened hours ago.’ I slumped to the floor, flopping my head onto my knees. ‘The criminals could h
ave already left the country by now. They could have taken their boat to any neighbouring country. South Cyprus, Syria, Israel, Greece, Turkey.’ This was getting us nowhere.

  Yasmin knelt down, hugging me into her warm body. She gently stroked my hair, making shushing sounds. ‘They’ll find him. They have to.’

  But I wasn’t so hopeful.

  Lena strutted into the interview room. ‘Hey? Are we having a party in here?’

  I jumped to my feet, clutching her shoulders and imploring her with my eyes. ‘Lena, you have to tell them everything you know about that customer you were telling me about.’

  She tossed her hair back and glanced suspiciously at everyone gathered in the room. ‘I’m not admitting to anything. I don’t want to get charged with soliciting.’

  ‘I can arrange to have your previous charges dropped if you help us,’ Ali said. ‘You have my word that you won’t be charged with anything, as long as you tell us all you know about this man. He is a dangerous criminal and he is involved in some very serious offences. We need to find out where he could be.’ He showed her the photo of Ferret Face and me at the airport. ‘Is this your customer?’

  She licked her lips, pondering this for a minute. ‘You’re sure you won’t charge me?’

  ‘YES,’ I shouted before anyone else could say anything.

  She nodded at the picture. ‘That’s him.’

  ‘What do you know about him?’ Ali asked.

  ‘I know that he was staying at that fancy hotel, the Plaza. I thought he might phone me last night to hook up, because I’ve seen him the last few nights, but I haven’t heard anything from him.’

  ‘Where did you meet him?’ I asked.

  She shrugged. ‘I used to meet him at Jacob Podsheister’s fancy boat. Jacob was always arranging parties with lots of ladies, if you know what I mean.’ She winked at me.

  ‘Well, that proves a connection between them. That proves Podsheister organized this whole thing, doesn’t it?’ My breaths came in short, sharp waves, feeling relief at some sort of breakthrough.

  ‘It only proves they knew each other. It doesn’t prove Podsheister hired him,’ Ali said. ‘But it’s a start.’

  ‘How did he contact you?’ Ali asked Lena.

  ‘Podsheister used to ring me up and arrange it.’

  ‘And when was the last time you heard from him?’ Ali asked.

  She tapped her lip with her finger. ‘Thursday night. I hooked up with him after I got out of here.’

  Ali wrote something in a small notebook. ‘Did he say where he was going after he left the island?’

  Lena shook her head.

  ‘Did you overhear anything or see anything suspicious at these parties?’ Ali asked.

  Lena furrowed her brow. ‘Like what?’

  ‘Well, did your client, or any of the others on board, say anything that could help with the attempted murder of Ibrahim Kaya and the theft of his gold statue. Think, Lena. Did they mention anything? Anything at all that seemed suspicious?’ The urgency was evident in Ali’s voice.

  Concentration clouded Lena’s face as she thought about this.

  I held my breath, praying that she’d be able to come up with some information that could help us.

  Finally, she shook her head. ‘No, I can’t think of anything.’

  I exhaled a heavy sigh.

  ‘Well, thank you. If you hear from him again, let me know as soon as possible.’ Ali handed her a card. ‘Any time.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Any time?’

  He coughed. ‘Er…any time in connection with this case.’

  Deniz threw his hands in the air. ‘Another dead end. We’re running out of time. He could be injured somewhere.’

  ‘Now what?’ I said.

  ‘Now we talk to Podsheister.’ Ali picked up the phone on the desk, barking out more orders.

  Captain Beaky reappeared a few minutes later with Podsheister.

  ‘Sit!’ Ali said so loud it left a ringing in my ear.

  Podsheister surveyed the room with shifty eyes and sat.

  ‘You’d better start talking. Now!’ Ali poked him in the chest. ‘We need to know the whereabouts of your hit man and thief, and what happened to Kalem Mustafa.’

  Podsheister looked up with a sneer. ‘What are you talking about? You’re crazy. I’m a law-abiding businessman.’

  Ali moved closer to him, his face an inch away from Podsheister. When he spoke, his voice was as cold and sharp as a steel machete. ‘Don’t worry. The evidence is just a matter of time. We know that you hired two men to kill Ibrahim Kaya and steal his statue. We know that you hired Lena to entertain these men on your yacht. You will not get away with this, so it would be wise of you to tell us where your men are hiding.’

  ‘The only thing I’ll tell you is the name of my lawyer. I want to speak to him now. And you won’t find anything on my yacht. I’ll be out of here in no time.’ Podsheister grinned at us all.

  ‘I wouldn’t bet on it,’ Ali said to Podsheister.

  The short policeman ran up to Ali and whispered something to him. Ali’s expression changed from stern to excited.

  ‘What now? What’s happened?’ I ran a wobbly hand across my forehead, trying to ignore the creepy sneer that seemed to be locked permanently on Podsheister’s face.

  ‘Lock Podsheister up in the cells,’ Ali said to the policemen. Then he gently placed a hand on my shoulder. ‘OK, everyone else follow me.’ Ali led the way out of the interview room and stopped in the corridor to brief us. ‘They have traced Kalem’s mobile phone GPS location to a beach further up the coast. Unfortunately, he hasn’t made any calls or texts from it since the day before yesterday, though, and there must be a reason why he hasn’t tried to contact anyone yet.’ His tone implied that we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

  But I didn’t care. It was a lead, and the only one we had. ‘Come on.’ I ran towards the front entrance. ‘What are you waiting for?’

  ****

  Ten minutes later, the police Land Rover turned off the coast road and onto a bumpy track. I could see a police helicopter, hovering above the small horseshoe shaped beach in front of me. I hoped they could see something because it looked completely deserted to me.

  We bounced down the track, heads and elbows banging against the windows, and screeched to a stop. Three more Land Rovers arrived behind us.

  I jumped out the door before Ali had even turned off the engine. Scanning the sandy beach, I looked one way, then the other. Nothing. No one was here. So where was his phone?

  ‘Any sign of him?’ Deniz climbed out.

  ‘Is he here?’ Yasmin took Deniz’s hand to steady herself as she got out.

  ‘Where is he?’ Ayshe gasped.

  ‘Yes, where?’ Charlie said.

  ‘I can’t see him.’ Atila shaded his eyes from the sun to get a better look.

  Ali spoke briefly into a radio, then looked at us all. ‘The helicopter hasn’t spotted him. There is no thermal image coming from this area.’

  ‘Yes, but what does that mean?’ I grabbed his arm.

  ‘It means that there is no body heat coming from this area,’ he added with a pained look.

  Which meant that no one was alive on this beach.

  Ali patted my arm. ‘OK, now we search the beach.’

  The beach cut into soft sandstone cliffs at either end, where years of sea water had eroded them into unusual bumpy shapes like you’d see on the surface of another planet. Maybe there was a chance he’d got washed onto the rocks, and we just couldn’t see him yet.

  Twenty other officers spread out across the beach, looking for Kalem’s mobile phone or any clues that could trace him.

  We all followed together, hoping for a shout from one of them to say they’d found something.

  All eyes scanned the beach. And when we got to one end, some of the officers clambered up onto the smooth rocks. A few shallow caves, like gaping mouths, were hollowed out under the rocks, but Kalem was nowhere to be found.
<
br />   Back up the beach we all went again, scouring the area once more.

  ‘Here!’ One of the policemen slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and picked up a mobile phone that was wedged in the sand.

  I ran towards it, staring at it with dread. ‘It’s Kalem’s. He must be here somewhere. He must be.’

  The rocks at the other end of the beach were bigger with more caves, and the stubby-legged policeman explored them methodically.

  I shivered, wrapping my arms around me.

  His back disappeared into one of the shallow caves.

  I held my breath, craning my neck, but it was impossible to see into the cave from where we were standing above.

  ‘Is he there?’ Deniz said.

  ‘Is it my son?’ Yasmin wailed.

  ‘Oh, my God.’ Ayshe’s hands flew to her mouth.

  ‘No. It can’t be him.’ Charlie shook his head in denial.

  Stubby Legs reappeared, shaking his head.

  My hands flapped around uselessly. ‘Where is he then?’

  Osman wandered away from us, walking up the beach, gently stroking his beard as he examined the sand.

  ‘What?’ I said. ‘What are you looking at?’

  We all gathered around as he crouched down. ‘There was a boat here. A small dinghy type of boat, not a hard-bottomed one. It was pulled onto the shore. You can see the tracks.’ He pointed to the sand. ‘My guess is they came here straight from the Plaza.’

  I stared at the beach until it swam out of focus, but all I could make out were some small indentations in the sand. It didn’t look very much like a boat track to me, but then what did I know?

  He tilted his head and, after a few minutes of careful thought, stood up with his back towards the indentations, head down, dark eyes concentrating on the ground. He walked in a straight line from the beach to the shingle area where we’d hastily parked the Land Rovers. He crouched down again by the shingle, pointing to four small indentations in the pattern of the stones. ‘Look here. There was a heavy vehicle waiting – some sort of four-wheel drive. They got into the vehicle and drove away from the beach.

  ‘Can you tell how many people there were?’ I asked.