Arabesk

by Barbara Nadel

  No. He put the card back inside his wallet and tried to forget about it.

  Although famous enough to appear regularly in most of the national newspapers herself, Tansu Hanim's family were almost totally unknown to the average man in the street. It was an ignorance that extended even to the fact of her surname which, Ìkmen and Suleyman discovered from the singer's brother, Yilmaz, was Emin.

  Although considerably younger than his famous sister - Yilmaz claimed he was forty - he had neither her confidence nor her challenging demeanour. And under the sort of pressure Suleyman was exerting, Ìkmen felt that Yilmaz must soon crack.

  But Ìkmen was wrong. Whenever Suleyman asked him what he was doing on the night of the murder and whether or not he saw his sister leave the house, Yilmaz just said that he was in his room alone all evening and that Tansu, as far as he knew, had stayed in also. He did not mention the servant Belkis, which - was clever, or perhaps lucky, Ìkmen thought, because it meant that Suleyman was being manoeuvred into a position where he would have to mention her. Soon Yilmaz would want to know why this questioning was necessary, and the reason, as both Ìkmen and Suleyman knew, was only hearsay.

  However, recalling the rather impressive set of security measures, both human and electronic, that had greeted the two policeman at the entrance to Tansu's seraglio, Ìkmen decided to take one of his famous unconventional leaps of faith.

  As Suleyman impatiently wracked his brains to think of another approach he might take to his interrogation, Ìkmen said, ‘I expect you're wondering why we're asking you these questions, aren't you, Mr Emin?'

  'Y-yes, I w-was. I mean you c-come here—'

  'Well, the fact of the matter is,' Ìkmen said as he looked out into the garden and then beyond at the rushing waters of the Bosphorus, 'the video tape from your sister's security system shows that she did leave this house in a Mercedes car on the night of Mrs Urfa's murder.'

  'Oh.' As Yilmaz looked down at the floor, his eyes visibly filled with panic, Suleyman mouthed some very furious if unintelligible words at Ìkmen.

  This had no effect upon the older man, who continued, 'And so you see, Mr Emin, if you did observe your sister leaving this house on that occasion, it would be pointless, maybe even criminal, to keep it from us. Withholding information from the police—'

  'B-but I didn't, I s-swear.'

  'If we had just the video evidence or just the testimony of little Belkis,' Ìkmen paused here for effect and watched Yilmaz's face whiten, 'then there might be room for doubt But we have both, Mr Emin. We have Belkis looking with you out of your bedroom window at your sister driving out of this estate and we have video of Tansu passing through the gates.'

  Suleyman cleared his throat in a very obvious manner.

  Ìkmen deliberately did not look at him. 'And so, Mr Emin?' he asked softly.

  'W-with the g-girl I d-didn't do anything b-bad.'

  'What you may or may not have done with your adult maid is not for us to judge, Mr Emin.'

  'I...'

  'Think carefully before you answer, Mr Emin,' Ìkmen said with a smile. 'I know how difficult these things can be when family are involved. But just take a moment to consider your own position.' He got up from his chair and walked over to Suleyman who all through Ìkmen's conversation with Yilmaz had continued to mug furiously at his old boss.

  'If I had known you were going to lie to him, I would never have brought you along!' Suleyman hissed.

  Holding up one hand to silence his colleague, Ìkmen kept his eyes firmly on the back of'Yilmaz Emin's slumped head. 'Sshh!'

  'What may or may not be on those security cameras—'

  .'We may well soon discover,' Ìkmen said and then added, his eyes twinkling in what to Suleyman was a maddening fashion, 'or not.'

  'I—'

  But before Suleyman could continue, Yilmaz turned to face his tormentors.

  'I-I did s-see my s-sister leave that night. S-she drove out in the—'

  The door which gave out onto the main hallway of the house sprang open with a loud bang as something that looked like a cross between a madwoman and a wild animal threw itself into the room.

  'Yilmaz, you stupid, fucking fool!' Tansu raved as she ran, sharp fingernails raised, towards her brother. 'There is no tape in those cameras, there never has been!' And then she was on him, clawing at his face, her rank alcohol-soaked breath filling his nose.

  As Ìkmen and Suleyman wrestled to remove the singer from her brother before she killed him, Latife watched from the doorway, visibly shaking.

  In spite of the fact that the voice coming out of the radio was that of his beloved Tansu, Erol Urfa turned the volume down. It was one of those songs, those bitter, almost violent numbers that he really disliked. Songs which also contained references to things he preferred to brush aside. Not that Tansu knew. How could she?

  He had, until Merih went missing, always been very careful about what he said and did, as had Ruya. And besides, it wasn't as if Tansu were educated or knew much about anything. But still she persisted with her 'peacocks', both dead and alive, and still she talked of the colour blue 'blinding her eyes'. He had once, some time back now, asked her why she used the symbol of those birds so frequently in her songs. At first she had just looked confused but then she had simply shrugged and said, 'I just do' in such an innocent way as to preclude further discussion. Anyway, with Merih sleeping contentedly at his side he had other more pressing considerations now. And besides, if Tansu loved him, as she undoubtedly did, even if she knew she wouldn't want to hurt him. Would she?

  As the car in front of Erol's shuffled forward, he flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes. There were two teenage girls in the back of the vehicle in front who might recognise him. He couldn't take the risk. Fragile in spirit since leaving Tansu's home, all he wanted now was to get a little time out in the open alone with Merih. He looked across at the baby and smiled. Now that Ruya and what he now knew would have been his second child were dead she was, apart from Ali Mardin, the only connection he had with his old life in this horrible city. Sometimes, like now, he wanted to go home very badly. For all the problems and hardship that attended his life back there, the mountains and the plains more than made, up for all that And to be able to perform the morning and evening devotions outside and without fear of discovery, ah, that was something. In the meantime, he and Merih would just have to make do with Yildiz Park. With luck and on a hot afternoon, there would be more couples with children than clandestine lovers. Not that he was part of any sort of 'couple' himself; he never really had been. Poor Ruya had been far more Merih's mother than his wife. That 'honour' had gone to Tansu, his love, the woman who inflamed his flesh.

  'What a weak and disgusting man you are!' he murmured to himself as he touched the accelerator pedal gently. Blinded by fame and money and sex. And although he was indeed suffering now, he had not suffered for his sins in the way that Ruya had. She, still alone and disregarded in the mortuary, had in the end paid the ultimate price for his vaulting ambition, his unnatural lusts. Some vile creature, he couldn't even imagine who, had come into their lives and taken her away for reasons that were still cloaked from him. According to Ibrahim, word in the bazaars was that Tansu had done it. But he couldn't or wouldn't accept this. The police still had that strange drooling neighbour in custody and although Erol knew nothing about Cengiz Temiz or his supposed friendship with Ruya, he hoped that this man was responsible. He hoped it would all end. If he had spent more time at the apartment, he might have been able to give the police more information about Temiz, but as it was he could do nothing to move the case forward.

  The mobile telephone which was lying on the seat beside his sleeping daughter started to ring. Erol, keeping one eye on the traffic, picked it up quickly lest it wake Merih. She just muttered briefly before descending again into her carbon-monoxide-drenched dreams.

  'Hello,' Erol said as he placed the thing to his ear.

  'Erol, it's Ibrahim, where, are you?'


  'I'm in the car taking Merih to the park,' he told his rather anxious-sounding manager. 'What's the matter, Ibrahim?'

  'You'd better turn round and come back,' Aksoy said. 'I'll meet you at your apartment.'

  A slight twinge of panic started inside Erol's chest. 'Is there a problem, Ibrahim? Speak to me, brother!'

  'There might be, but. .. Look, meet me back at the apartment and I'll tell you all about it then.'

  'Why not tell me now?' Erol said as he felt his heart begin to race in panic. 'Ibrahim!'

  'Just get back to the apartment and I'll tell you then,' Aksoy snapped sharply.

  'But—'

  'As soon as you can, Erol,' and there was a click as Aksoy put his telephone down.

  In spite of the thick heat around him, Erol suddenly felt very cold. Something had obviously happened. Maybe his manager had somehow found out what he shouldn't about the family Urfa. Although quite how he would find conclusive proof, Erol couldn't imagine, and surely that was not something that had to be dealt with urgently. No, it was something else, something far more immediate and serious.

  Perhaps at last the police had actually arrested somebody for his wife's murder. But if that were so, Ibrahim would not, surely, have said that it could be a problem. If the Temiz man were found guilty, that would not be a problem, that would be a relief, unless.. .Well, the strange neighbour was not the only suspect, was he? As far as the police were concerned, everyone connected with Ruya basically fitted into that category - even Erol himself. As he felt his throat dry up and his eyes bulge with the pressure of fear he switched the radio over to one of the news stations. Not that there would be anything on there yet, but it gave him something to do. And caught in one of Istanbul's legendary gridlocks, there wasn't much that he could do except listen to the radio, sweat and begin to become irrational about his own position in this drama. After all, had he not, alone, found Ruya's body in the apartment? But surely if Ismail's problem were Erol himself, the police would have come for him by now, wouldn't they? With a slightly shaking hand Erol turned the radio down once again, to listen for sirens.

  Chapter 13

  By the time she arrived at the threshold of the tar- and nicotine-stained cell that was Interview Room 5, Tansu Emin Hanim was completely sober. Dressed in a plain white shift she was, as ever, heavily made up -Inspector Suleyman had allowed her the dignity of cleaning up and primping before they left for the station. Travelling as always with a retinue, Tansu was accompanied by her brother Yilmaz and sister, her - manager Ferhat Göktepe, and a very sharply dressed young man who, it soon transpired, was her lawyer. The still weeping, and bleeding, Yilmaz Emin was quickly taken to another interview room while the others were told to wait outside. Only Tansu and her lawyer, Adnan Öz, entered Interview Room 5 with Ìkmen and Suleyman.

  Not wishing to give Mr Öz any opportunity to encourage his client to dissemble, Suleyman launched immediately into the attack. 'Now, Miss Emin’ he said as he sat down beside Ìkmen and then looked Tansu hard in the eyes, 'you are in a considerable amount of trouble here. Both you and your family lied to us about your whereabouts on the night of Mrs Urfa's murder. I now want to know the truth from you about that night.'

  Tansu looked briefly across at her lawyer before replying. 'I'd rather not say,' she said. 'It's personal.'

  'I'm not really giving you a choice, Miss Emin,' Suleyman retorted. 'As I've said, you're in a lot of—'

  'Had I been allowed to consult with my client,' Adnan Öz put in, 'I might have been able to advise her of her options.'

  'Miss Emin was out of her house on the night of the murder, a fact she and her family covered up until this afternoon, Mr Öz,' Suleyman said and then added sharply. 'I don't think she has too many options, do you?'

  But Adnan Öz only smiled. 'I am not unduly concerned about what, in reality, constitutes no more than circumstantial evidence,' he said. 'With forensics now presumably complete, had you gleaned any evidence linking my client with the crime from that quarter, you would not be questioning my client now.'

  'Ah, but you don't know that we don't possess such evidence,' Ìkmen said with a smile. 'That is only an assumption on your part.'

  'A blonde, fur-coated woman was seen at the scene of the crime,' Suleyman said. 'We have a witness’

  'A retarded man, an idiot,' Tansu said to her lawyer and then turning to the policemen she added, 'Erol told me.'

  'Did he indeed.'

  As if suddenly galvanised to action, Tansu sprang from her seat. 'You can't keep me here anyway!' she cried. 'I'm a star! I'm bigger than all of you put together! Turkey's sweetheart!'

  'Will you please exercise some control over your client!' Suleyman said to a bemused Adnan Öz.

  With a shaking hand, the lawyer took hold of Tansu's arm and with some gentle shooshing noises carefully eased her back down into her chair. She wasn't happy about being there but, her small outburst over, she did appear to be calm once again.

  'Now I need some answers,' Suleyman said, 'and I need them now. Why did you go out on the night of the murder and why did you lie about it to us?'

  Tansu sighed and then looked up towards the ceiling in a despairing fashion. 'As I've told you,' she said, 'I went out on personal business which you would not understand.'

  'Make me!'

  Once again, Tahsu turned to look at her lawyer who, in response, simply shrugged his shoulders.

  Sensing a slight fissure in the singer's psychological armour, Suleyman pressed his advantage. 'I should remind you that were you to be convicted of the murder of Mrs Urfa, you would spend the rest of your life in prison.' Then leaning in towards a now cringing Tansu, he added, 'And you and I both know what those places are like, don't we?'

  'My client has committed no crime, she has nothing to fear.'

  'If that is the case,' Ìkmen said with a smile, 'she can tell us what she was doing on the night of the murder, can't she?'

  'All right! All right!' Tansu said, her hands raised above her head in a gesture of frustration. 'I'll tell you, but...' She looked at the three men around her, each in turn, her eyes nervously shifting from one to the other.

  Ìkmen raised his eyebrows. 'But?'

  Tansu took a long white cigarette from inside her handbag and lit up. Her fingers were shaking. 'But I don't want Erol to know.' Her eyes filled with tears and she added, 'You know?'

  'I take it,' Ìkmen said with as much gravity as. he - could muster, 'that what we are talking about here is something of a, er, romantic nature?'

  'Well. . .' Again the eyes were shifty. Adnan Öz, for his part, took to close observation of the floor.

  Patience not being one of Suleyman's strong points, he moved into the silence that had overwhelmed Tansu's last remark and said, 'So, Miss Emin, are we talking about another man here?'

  'I don't want Erol to know,' she reiterated urgently. 'You won't tell him, will you?'

  'Whether or not this information becomes public depends largely upon what bearing it has upon Mrs Urfa's murder. Now, Miss Emin, are we going to work together or not?'

  Tansu's shoulders heaved upwards in a resigned little shrug. Her silicone-nlled breasts, Ìkmen silently observed, stayed exactly where they were.

  'Erol and I had argued,' the singer began, 'in the afternoon.'

  'What about?'

  She sighed. 'About him going off to his friends to see the football and then spending all of the next day with her.'

  'With his wife.'

  'Yes. I'll be honest, I hated Ruya Urfa and I wasn't sorry when she died, but,' she looked up at the policemen with what could have been a straight and honest face, 'I didn't kill her. After I argued with Erol, I had a little too much to drink and in that state I started to think about. . .' she suddenly looked away, her face a little red now, 'about myself and my life and, well, I decided as the evening went on that what I should do is go out' She looked up at them again. 'And so I did.'

  'Where did you go?' Suleyman asked.

  'I drove
around. I thought a lot about what I had given to Erol and I felt bitter.'

  Suleyman looked at Ìkmen who refrained from catching his colleague's eye. If Tansu had given so much to Erol, it certainly wasn't on one-way traffic.

  Tansu straightened her shoulders. 'And then, Allah forgive me, I parked up by Istiklal Caddesi, had a few more drinks and found a boy.'

  Adnan Öz frowned down at the floor and then cleared his throat

  'And who was this boy?' Ìkmen asked as he attempted to wrest his eyes from the livid colour of Mr Öz's cheeks.

  The singer laughed, a rough, smoke-scarred rattle. 'How should I know!' she said. 'Such meetings don't involve an exchange of personal details. Besides, I'd had a few drinks as I said and so even if he did tell me his name, I wouldn't remember.'

  'Do you know what he looked like? Was he in uniform or

  'He was twenty something, I suppose, and pretty. What more can I say? We shared a few drinks, he put his arm around me . . .'

  'Did he know who you were?' Ìkmen asked. 'If you can remember, that is? I mean your face is not exactly unknown, is it?'

  She laughed again but this time with even less good humour than before. ‘Oh, come on!' she said as she pointed with both hands at her face. 'Does this look like the photographs in the newspapers or what?'

  'Well, er .. .'

  'I know you all think that I'm some dreadful plastic doll sort of woman, and I admit I am.' Her facial expression turned from bitter to grave.- 'Even I know I am not like that air-brushed odalisque in the magazines. No amount of surgery can possibly take away all the lines and creases. I always wear dark glasses ...'

  'Were you wearing your fur coat?' Suleyman asked.

  'One of them. But I left it in the car.'

  'Where did you meet this boy?'

  'In a bar. I don't remember which. Some place off istiklal.' She looked straight at both of the policemen, 'And yes, I know I must have been close to Erol's apartment, but.. . Anyway, the boy and I eventually left and ...' She hung her head in what looked like shame.