Arabesk

by Barbara Nadel

  'Well, keep in touch then, Çöktin,' Suleyman said. 'I'll see you later.' 'Goodbye, sir.'

  Suleyman terminated the call and then turned his attention back to Ali Mardin.

  'So has that identity card turned up yet, Mr Mardin?' he asked.

  For the first time since the policeman had arrived, Mardin smiled. It was a limp, sheepish sort of thing, but it was a smile nevertheless. 'No, I'm afraid that it hasn't. It—'

  'You do know that it is a serious offence not to show your card to an officer when he requests it?' 'Er, yes, er—'

  'If I had the time, I would pursue this further now, but . ..' What was important here was the fact that the missing child seemed to be getting somewhat lost in all the activity around the murder. 'I will send one of my men round in the morning to view your card,' and then looking up rather fiercely he added, 'That will give you ample time, will it not?'

  'Oh, yes, yes!' Mardin agreed as he bowed down in a way that Suleyman felt was not entirely natural to him. All this obsequiousness had, he thought, come about rather too rapidly. It made Suleyman wonder just what lay behind it all. Was his card simply missing or did he not possess one? Was his card in fact someone else's or was there something on it of which he was ashamed? There were lots of possibilities, none of which he had time to explore now.

  'Oh, and if you do think of anything else you would like to tell me about your evening with Mr Urfa, you will contact me, won't you, Mr Mardin?'

  A little more guardedly, the man said, 'Yes.'

  'So I expect we will meet again.' Suleyman held his hand out to Mardin.

  The man shrugged as his dry palm touched Suleyman's hand. 'Maybe. Goodbye.'

  'Goodbye.'

  As he walked out into the searing midday sunlight, Suleyman took his sunglasses out of his jacket pocket and put them on. Then, as casually as he could, he briefly glanced across at the rather stylish Japanese car that was parked outside the carpet shop opposite Mr Mardin's hotel. So, still there then. Still containing the same amiable-looking married couple. He sighed. Following him to Mardin's place was one thing but now that he was going back to Tansu's ghastly housed he did not need this. As it was, he would probably have to fight his way through the gang of press vultures who were, apparently, camped around the singer's property. But how to deal with his tail?

  If Ìkmen had taught his protege’ anything it was that meeting certain, usually unimportant but troublesome people head on was much better than ignoring their irritating behaviour. The 'doing it with humour' bit did sometimes elude him, not being a natural like his old boss, but he was prepared to give it a try.

  He crossed the road and, with a smile, knocked on the window of the car. With a smooth swooshing sound, the window descended to reveal a widely smiling young man and his equally youthful female passenger.

  'I just thought I'd let you know,' Suleyman said, 'that I'm not going to drive like a lunatic in order to get away from you. The late Princess Diana's driver made that mistake when attempting to get away from the French press. I'm certainly not going to die for the sake of their Turkish counterparts.'

  'Ah . . .'

  'So, by all means follow me if you must. But the drive will be slow and boring and could, quite possibly, involve a hold-up courtesy of my friends in the traffic division. Do I make myself clear?'

  The man's over-friendly expression resolved into a scowl.

  'I suppose so,' he said, but then brightening just a little he added, 'May I quote you on that then, Inspector?'

  She'd just managed to get the child down for an afternoon nap when there was a knock at the door.

  I'll go,' she said to her mother. Madame Kleopatra had been restless for the last few hours and Semra, now seated quietly in the little back yard, was exhausted.

  'Oh, it's you,' Mina said as she opened the door to a small, middle-aged policeman with attitude.

  Cohen shrugged. 'I heard that Madame is really dying now. I've come to say my goodbyes.'

  ‘I didn't know you knew her that well,' Mina said as she moved aside to let him in. 'I thought maybe you'd come to see me.'

  He put his hand gently under her chin and pulled her face close to his. But he didn't kiss her as she thought he might. 'Not this time, my little soul,' he said. This time is for Madame alone.'

  She took his small dry hand in hers and, with only a quick glance back to ensure that the child's door was shut, she led him up the creaking wooden staircase to the strange eyrie that clung to the side of the old baths' caldarium. The story was that Madame's husband had built this bedroom because he had poor circulation and was therefore always cold. The heat from the caldarium had, so the tale went, made his life much easier. Given the present scorching conditions, Cohen was glad that the baths were no longer in use.

  Although it was obvious from the rattling sounds that emanated from the rickety wooden bed that they were in the presence of one who was dying, the pattern of light from the delicate filigreed shutters made Madame Kleopatra, if not lovely, not unpleasant to look upon.

  Mina motioned Cohen into one of the chairs beside the bed and then sat down herself. With a smile the policeman took one of the old woman's hands in his and then kissed it.

  'You know,' he said looking at Madame but addressing Mina, 'when I was a child Madame used to let me and my brothers bathe here for free.'

  'Why did she do that?'

  He looked away from Madame just briefly in order to smile at Mina and then he said, 'We were poor, you know. My mother died when we were very small and Dad was just a useless drunk. We moved here from Balat so that the old man didn't have to go so far to get to Cicek Pasaj.'

  'A Karaköy story.'

  'You have it,' he sighed. 'Well, Dad didn't exactly have a lot of control over us and so, as young boys will do, we went around pretty filthy most of the time. At school we were looked down upon, scruffy uniforms.' He laughed as he looked down at his less than perfect police uniform. 'Until, that is, Madame happened to see us one day. "Bring those poor Jewish boys to me," she said to that skinny old eunuch with the gold teeth she'd taken in God alone knows how long before.' 'A eunuch? What—'

  'It's a long story,' he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. 'But anyway she led us in, directed us to the men's section and we had a bath. Then before we left she told the eunuch, in front of us, "You are to let the Jewish boys in whenever they wish and you are to charge them nothing.'' She said it very haughtily, which is what she was like.'

  'So when did you last see Madame then?' Mina asked.

  'Oh, it has to be thirty years ago now,' Cohen said. 'I know that the baths were closed by then and everyone said Madame was dying.'

  'So why are you here now?'

  'I was passing and she just stuck her head out of this window.' His gaze drifted across the filigree shutter. 'I raised my cap to greet her and she smiled one of her haughty ones. "So they made you a policeman, did they, Jew?" she said, and I replied, "They wouldn't have done if you hadn't cleaned me up, Madame." Then she scowled. "Oh rubbish," she said, or something like that "They would have had you anyway. You're a clever little man, I could see the brightness in you and your brothers always. And if your police friends should ever say otherwise, you send them to me." And then she slammed the shutter closed and was gone.'

  'Did you ever know Madame's husband?'

  'No. Why?'

  'Well,' Mina said, 'my mum says Madame had no family of her own but her husband's people should probably be told that she's dying.'

  'I have no idea who they are,' Cohen said. He turned back to look at Madame just as she opened her eyes. 'God!'

  'No,' the old woman rasped, 'not God.' She lifted up one papery hand and patted the side of his face. 'Come close, Jew.'

  Her breath was both laboured and rank and although he knew logically that she was just an old, dying woman, Cohen felt repelled. As she began to whisper, he winced. By the end of her little speech his expression was, however, one of shock rather than repulsion. At first Mina tho
ught it was the rapidity with which the old woman sank back into coma that so disturbed him. But as soon as she saw the policeman whisper inaudibly into the old woman's insensible ears and then jump up from his seat as if scalded, she thought that perhaps Madame had said something shocking.

  'What did she want?' Mina asked as she followed his rapidly retreating figure out of the room.

  'Nothing,' he said shortly, hurrying down the stairs. 'Yes, but

  Just as Cohen drew level with the door to the child's room, the baby began to cry. For a moment, possibly because his head was still full of whatever it was Madame had said, Mina thought that he hadn't noticed.

  But she was wrong.

  'Is that a baby?' he asked as, uninvited, he pulled the door open.

  'Yes,' Mina said, 'it's a friend's. I'm looking after it for her.' Then, pushing past Cohen, she went over to the bed upon which the baby lay wrapped in a pretty gold brocade cover.

  'I didn't think you lot often had children,' Cohen observed as he let his eyes drift distractedly around the room. Then, as if to himself alone, he added, 'What a terrible place to house a baby.'

  'It's not so bad,' Mina said and held the child protectively against her chest.

  Cohen shrugged. Then turning quickly he walked smartly out of the room without another word. As he disappeared, Mina let go of the breath she had been holding and then kissed the baby's head. Whatever Madame had said to Cohen had certainly shocked him. But in the circumstances that was probably a very good thing.

  As soon as Suleyman's car disappeared down her drive, Tansu's demeanour changed completely. Whereas her mood had been one of soft conciliation and even at times tearful distress while the inspector was in her house, his departure provoked something far more malevolent.

  'I can't believe you agreed to speak that posh boy's words without any discussion,' she snarled at a grey-faced Erol. 'We're stars. We don't just get pushed around!'

  'He is a policeman, Tansu,' Latife said as she put a calming hand on her sister's shoulder.

  'When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it!' Tansu roared and then hurled herself down at Erol's feet. 'You just say whatever you feel you need to in order to get Merih back, my darling. Don't worry about whether the police are there.'

  Had Erol Urfa had any emotional resources left with which to respond he would probably have stroked Tansu's head as was his custom. But he was like stone now. Anxiety and sleeplessness had taken their toll and when he did respond it was with only a very weak smile.

  As Tansu covered Erol's leaden legs with tear-stained kisses, Latife felt that the time had come for her to leave. There was no point in talking to either of them in their current moods and besides, if Tansu as she so often did managed to provoke Erol to lovemaking in spite of his own feelings, she did not want to be around. She strode out of the room, her face set and grave. But when she was once again by the swimming pool her mood lightened. She picked up the book she had been reading before the policeman arrived and, with a smile, resumed her studies.

  By five o'clock that afternoon the results of the fingerprint analyses had come through. They necessitated the reappearance of Cengiz Temiz in Interview Room 3. A very tired-looking Suleyman observed the trembling man sitting opposite him with something between odium and pity. Çöktin, who sat beside his boss, leafed briefly through the documents before looking up again as Suleyman spoke.

  'So, Mr Temiz,' Suleyman said, 'I ask you again, where were you on the evening of the eleventh of August nineteen ninety-nine?'

  Cengiz Temiz just carried on shaking, his mouth lolling open, soundlessly.

  'I do need some sort of answer from you, Cengiz,' Suleyman continued in what he hoped was a rather more conciliatory tone.

  Cengiz Temiz's small eyes darted rapidly between the two faces in front of him. Although he did not feel able to admit it, he wanted to go to the toilet quite badly.

  'I didn't hurt Mrs Ruya,' he said as he pushed his hands between his legs and leaned forward.

  As this was the first thing that Suleyman personally had actually heard Temiz say directly to him, it was quite a breakthrough. It also gave him the opportunity to tackle the man regarding more recently acquired evidence. Before he began he tried to bear in mind what Zelfa Halman had told him about speaking to people like Cengiz. It also briefly passed through his mind what the psychiatrist had said about the chances of someone like Cengiz being able to both plan and execute quite a complex murder. In the face of the evidence, however, he had to put that to one side.

  'Cengiz,' he said leaning forward in order to show the man his fingers, 'do you remember when one of the officers downstairs asked you to put your fingers in ink and then press them down onto paper? It made finger marks or prints.'

  'Mmm.' It was a grunt without any accompanying movements. Suleyman assumed that it meant Cengiz understood.

  'Well,' he said, 'what we do is, we look at your prints and the prints of some other people and we try to match them with finger marks our forensic people collect at the scene of the crime.'

  Nothing. Suleyman looked across at Çöktin who, for some reason, was smiling at Cengiz Temiz. When Suleyman cleared his throat, the younger officer changed his expression.

  'Now it seems,' Suleyman continued, 'that your fingerprints match some of those at the scene of Mrs Urfa's murder. Not that you are alone in this. We've also found prints from Mr Urfa, baby Merih, and Mrs Urfa's prints on lots of things including kitchen equipment and her pen. The problem we have with you is that only your prints have been found on Mrs Urfa's body. Forensic have found your marks on the lady's spectacles and on a gold bangle round her wrist. Do you know what I'm saying here, Cengiz, or—'

  'Didn't hurt Mrs Ruya! Didn't do it!'

  'Didn't do what, Cengiz?' Suleyman insisted. 'What didn't you do?'

  Once again the silence rolled in across the terrified wastes of Cengiz Temiz's face.

  'Look, Cengiz,' Çöktin put in, 'if you didn't hurt Mrs Ruya or if what happened was an accident then you don't have to be frightened, do you?'

  'When people die people get hung.'

  'Not now. People do go to prison but . . . Look, Cengiz, if you didn't kill Mrs Ruya then just tell us when you touched her and—'

  'She was cold after .. .'

  'She was cold after what, Cengiz?' Suleyman asked, feeling his heart racing with the anticipation of one who knows he might be on the verge of a breakthrough. 'After. . .'

  'Must go to the toilet now.'

  'Yes, all right, but first—'

  'Now.'

  Çöktin, who was much less excited about what Cengiz might be about to say than Suleyman, said, ‘I think you ought to let him go now, sir.'

  'Yes, in a—'

  'Now!' Cengiz's face was really quite contorted. As he grimaced and gummed his way through a succession of expressions, Suleyman, who had not noticed this need in his prisoner before, lost valuable seconds in argument.

  'This urgency is really very sudden, Cengiz,' he said, 'in view of what we have been talking about.'

  'I think it's all part of his condition, whatever it is,' Çöktin whispered into Suleyman's ear. 'I think you'd better let him go.'

  'Yes, but—'

  It was then that the sound of running water accompanied by deep, humiliated sobs were heard coming from Cengiz's large sad frame. Although unable to understand the more subtle aspects of life's diversity, he did know that in this horrible, dirty little room with policemen firing questions at him he was once again in trouble that would cause him pain. And this time, he knew, they would not just send him home when they had finished their questions. This time they were going to keep him.

  Tansu stood on the very edge of the cliff, her eyes streaming with tears. Then with a flick of her proud head she turned to the man wearing some sort of foreign uniform who stood beside her and spat, 'I would rather die than be your woman!'

  And with that she, or rather a stuntwoman, launched herself into the deep blue abyss below.


  'Singers should never act,' Çetin Ìkmen said as he lit a new cigarette from the butt of his last smoke. 'Elvis Presley stands as a warning to us all.'

  'Oh, I enjoyed his films,' Fatma said as she passed briefly in front of the screen herding a reluctant child towards the bathroom.

  'None of us is perfect,' her husband muttered as he watched a picture of a group of young army conscripts flash up on the screen. Erol Urfa performing his duty for the Republic.

  'You know, Fatma,' he called out over both the sound of the television and the running water from the bathroom, 'if I wanted to know when Tansu Hanim was born or where Erol Urfa comes from I wouldn't have the faintest idea from this programme.'

  'She's a little shy about her age,' Fatma yelled back. 'It's why she chooses to change what Allah has given her.'

  'The plastic surgery?'

  'Yes.' With dripping hands she re-entered the living room and stood for a moment, her hands on her hips. 'Have you seen Bulent yet?'

  Ìkmen's face darkened. 'Only from the balcony.'

  Fatma raised her eyes towards heaven. Then changing the subject once again she said, 'Did I hear you say that Kleopatra Polycarpou is finally dying?'

  'You shouldn't listen when I'm on the telephone,' Ìkmen said with an expression of what could have been mock sternness on his face.

  Fatma, who was accustomed to such looks, simply carried on, 'But is she or—'

  'Yes, it would seem so,' Ìkmen said with a sigh as he watched a piece of film showing Tansu and Erol on the beach at Bodrum. 'Cohen went to say goodbye.'

  'And phoned you up to tell you?'

  'Yes.'

  'Why?'

  'Because there is a problem with . . .' Suddenly realising what he was being drawn into, he stopped, looked at Fatma and said, 'And you know Kleopatra Polycarpou how, Fatma?'

  'Oh, I've never known her myself, Cretin;' she said with a smile. ‘I know of her because I've heard you speak of her and because Mrs Onat kept house for her for a while before she took on that,' she sniffed as if she had a bad smell under her nose, 'that woman.'

  Ìkmen frowned. 'Nothing was ever proven against Semra Arda.'