The Tomb in Turkey

EIGHTEEN

Jude took a long, blissful sip from her beer. The first sip was always the best, just the sheer coldness on her tongue, the tingle of the bubbles. Thereafter, she knew, would follow a process of diminishing returns as the beer approached room temperature and she became more aware of the blandness of its taste. But it was worth it for that first moment.

‘If we do see Donna,’ said Carole, ‘what are we going to ask her?’

But there was no time to make plans because at that moment the landlady came bouncing out from the bar to greet them. Denim shorts were tight at the top of her chubby legs, and she wore a red T-shirt with a large Dirty Duck logo on the front.

‘Carole and Jude, isn’t it?’ she asked.

‘You’ve got a very good memory,’ said Jude, whereas Carole just thought Nita must have discussed them with her friend before they’d appeared at Dalaman Airport.

‘Welcome to the Dirty Duck.’ She gestured round her domain. ‘Mine, all mine.’

‘You run it on your own?’

‘Yes. I did have a husband who in theory was my partner in the business, but once the hard work started he lost interest. Contrived to lose interest in me at the same time. So now I no longer have a husband and the Dirty Duck’s all mine.’

‘Was your husband Turkish?’ asked Carole.

Donna’s brows wrinkled. ‘That’s an odd thing to ask.’

‘Sorry. I just thought, having met Nita’s husband …’

‘Ah, the mighty Erkan.’ Though whether she used the adjective as a compliment or in irony was hard to say. ‘No, my husband was a Brit. Still is, come to that – just, thank God, no longer my husband. He’s still around – though I avoid him like the plague. He’s to be seen in the bars of Fethiye, slowing drinking himself to death on raki. Which is fine by me. Thank God we never had any children.’

‘Nita hasn’t got children either, has she?’ asked Jude, steering the conversation in the direction she wanted it to go.

‘No. And I think she’d echo my “thank God” for that.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘This is an extremely male-oriented society out here. Once you’re lumbered with kids it’s fairly difficult to have much of a life of your own. It’s hard enough when you haven’t got them. That’s why my friendship with Nita’s so important to me. It’s easier to be independent when there’s two of you on the same side.’

Carole was by now sure that Donna had no idea her friend was dead and that it would be a serious blow to her when she did find out. But she wondered whether Donna had also been fed the story about Nita returning to England to tend to her sick mother. ‘I actually tried ringing her once or twice yesterday,’ Carole lied, ‘but she hasn’t rung back. Do you know if she’s around?’

‘I assume so. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.’

Jude now joined the lying bandwagon. ‘Actually, the problem might be that she left her mobile at Morning Glory.’

‘Did she?’ asked an astounded Carole.

‘Yes. Well, at least, I assume it was hers. I can’t think who else could have left it … though maybe it was some earlier tenants at the villa.’

‘Well,’ said Donna, ‘it’s easy enough to check if it is hers.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes, if you just switch the phone on and go into—’

‘Don’t we need a passcode to do that?’

‘You probably do, yes. Well, there’s a very strong chance that passcode would be “1066”. I remember once having a conversation with Nita about pins and passwords, and she said the Battle of Hastings was the only date she could remember from history so she used it for everything electronic. I think there’s a strong chance that’d be the code for the iPhone.’

‘Oh, thank you. Well, we’ll try it when we get back to Morning Glory.’

‘Yes. Mind you,’ said Donna thoughtfully, ‘if it actually is Nita’s phone it’d be getting lots of calls. Has it been ringing a lot?’

‘Not once,’ replied Carole.

‘Then it probably isn’t hers.’

The two investigators exchanged the smallest looks of disappointment.

‘Nita’s has got a very distinctive case – pale-blue fishes on a dark-blue background.’

Carole and Jude were even more disappointed. They’d got it wrong. The case of the phone they’d picked up at Pinara had the colours the opposite way round; the fishes were dark-blue on a pale-blue background.

‘One of the things I know from my days being a courier and tour guide,’ Donna went on, ‘is that your mobile never stops ringing.’

Jude looked ruefully at Carole. Of course, given where they’d found the phone, they had rather jumped to the conclusion that it must have been Nita’s, but now it seemed more likely that someone else had dropped it there. Not surprising, really, with people clambering over rocks and tree trunks; a phone could easily slip out of a pocket or knapsack. So probably the mobile had nothing to do with Nita’s death. Strange, though, that the two cases should be so similar.

But even as Jude had this dispiriting thought, another much more cheering one came into her mind. Maybe, rather than belonging to the victim, the phone had been dropped by her murderer.

Their food arrived – and very nice it looked too. The sausage and mash was indistinguishable from the excellent dish served at the Crown and Anchor in Fethering. Jude wasn’t too bothered about their not embracing Turkish culture for one lunch. They’d have lots more local cuisine before they left. Besides, she was hungry.

Carole, meanwhile, having made a start on her omelette (garnished with a container-load of chips) was off on an investigative diversion of her own. For reasons that were not clear to Jude, she told Donna about the painted non-welcome they’d been greeted with on their arrival at Morning Glory.

The landlady of the Dirty Duck was puzzled and echoed almost exactly the words Nita had used when the message had first been discovered. ‘Nobody in Kayaköy would have done that – nobody local, anyway. They value the tourist trade too much.’

‘Nita seemed pretty sure it wasn’t aimed at us.’

‘It couldn’t have been.’

‘So who would it have been aimed at?’

Donna shrugged. ‘Barney, perhaps. His business activities round here haven’t made him popular with everyone.’

‘When we were with Barney at Cin Bal on our first evening …’

‘Oh, he took you there did he – for an “authentic Turkish experience”?’

‘He did. And he was attacked there by a man called Kemal.’

‘Ah, yes. Well, he’s certainly got his knife into Barney.’

‘He almost literally had that night,’ said Jude.

‘And you’re wondering whether Kemal might have been responsible for the welcome graffiti at Morning Glory?’

‘Yes. A couple of the words were misspelled.’

‘Well, it’s a thought. Not impossible – assuming he could see straight enough to paint the words. I’m afraid Kemal has the same problem as my ex – the dreaded booze. So cheap out here.’

It’s strange,’ said Carole. ‘For a Muslim country there does seem to be a lot of alcohol around.’

‘Turkey is a very pragmatic Muslim country,’ said Donna. ‘It’s all down to another Kemal. Atatürk. He brought in the Western alphabet, Western weekends, and tolerance of Western habits – including everyone pouring the booze down their throats like there’s no tomorrow.’

‘Yes, I’ve read quite a lot about Atatürk,’ said Carole. ‘An intriguing figure.’

‘That’s certainly true.’

Jude moved the conversation on. ‘How long have you known Nita, Donna?’

The landlady pursed her lips with the effort of memory. ‘Phew, must be nearly twenty years – God, it is twenty years! We met when we first came out here as travel couriers, hardly out of our teens then. We bonded straight away. It was important to have someone supportive around, someone of the same gender. There was a lot of casual sexism around, so we had to learn to toughen up quite quickly out here. Nita was great to me back then, doing a real big-sister job. I was pretty naive, but she was tougher. Well, she’d had to be. Lost her mother to cancer when she was about twelve, and virtually brought up her younger brothers on her own.’

Carole and Jude exchanged looks. They hadn’t been convinced by Barney’s story of Nita having to rush back to England because her mother was ill. Now they knew it to be a lie.

‘And you’ve stayed in touch with Nita ever since, have you?’ asked Jude.

‘Yes. There were long breaks when we didn’t see each other. You know, during the winters or when we were posted to different parts of Turkey. But even then we kept in touch – emails, texts, you know.’

‘Don’t answer this if you don’t want to,’ Jude began, ‘but I got the distinct impression, seeing them together, that there once was something going on between Nita and Barney.’

Donna giggled. ‘Don’t think that’s much of a secret these days. Not sure that it ever was one. Business demands meant that Barney was quite often in Turkey on his own. When he was, he and Nita hooked up straight away. If he came out with his wife, they played it a bit cooler.’

‘And, as far as you know, is it still going on?’ Jude made a conscious effort to use the present tense. She didn’t want Donna to have any suspicion that Nita was no longer alive.

Donna grimaced with uncertainty. ‘That I don’t know. They certainly keep very closely in touch. But I guess things were different after Nita married Erkan.’

‘How long have they been married?’

‘Must be getting on for ten years now.’

‘I must say,’ said Carole, ‘that when we saw them together, there didn’t seem to be much love lost.’

‘No, it isn’t exactly a Mills and Boon romance. I think Erkan kind of lost interest when it became clear that Nita wasn’t going to produce the son he so wanted. That kind of thing counts for a lot out here.’

‘Could Nita just not conceive?’ asked Jude.

‘No, I think she could,’ Donna replied.

‘That’s rather a strange answer.’

‘Yes, I suppose it is. It’s just things Nita’s said to me at times, you know, when we’re on the second bottle of wine. That she might have continued to use contraception … Like she didn’t want the commitment of having children with Erkan. You know, like I said earlier about my marriage.’

‘Are you suggesting,’ asked Jude, ‘that Nita’s still holding a candle for Barney?’

‘I suppose it’s possible. Her marriage to Erkan always seemed to be more of a commercial transaction than a love match.’

‘Oh?’

‘When they met he was just a diving instructor for another company. She was keen on scuba diving and had some lessons with him.’

‘Did she continue with it?’

‘Yes, she was very good.’ Donna wrinkled her nose. ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but it’s not for me. I’ve never fancied it, all that business of putting your head under water. I had one lesson and got terribly claustrophobic. That was enough. But Nita loved scuba diving from the start. And it was Nita’s business brain that enabled Erkan to set up his own diving school. Her brain and Barney’s money.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, Barney bankrolled Erkan when he set up his own diving school. He bought a company that was going belly-up and put a lot of money into making a swish, state-of-the-art enterprise.’

‘Was that so Erkan would always be in his debt?’

‘Possibly.’

‘And Erkan wouldn’t be able to complain if Barney continued his relationship with Nita?’

Donna looked at Jude and nodded slowly in admiration. ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve wondered more than once. Nita never said it to me in so many words, but she said things – again well into the second bottle of wine – which implied that might be what was going on.’

Donna’s openness was very welcome. Jude got the impression that she was as intrigued about her friend as they were, that although she was close to Nita there were still areas of her life to which she had always been denied access.

So she felt empowered to ask her next question. ‘Did you know Barney’s first wife, Zoë?’

‘I wouldn’t say “knew” her. I met her a few times.’

‘And did she arrive on the scene before Barney had started his relationship with Nita?’

‘No. And, needless to say, Nita was pretty miffed about the news. So far as she was concerned, she and Barney were an item – though, of course, she only saw him when his business brought him out to Turkey. What he got up to while he was in England, she had to take on trust.’

Which was probably a rather foolish thing to do, Jude reflected. She thought about the timescale and realized that when she and Barney had their brief affair he was quite possibly already involved with Nita. While it was going on, Jude had never properly trusted Barney. There was always time in his life unaccounted for, time when the demands of his business took him away. Often abroad. Quite frequently to Turkey. She felt even more glad she’d been firm with him when he’d suggested rekindling their relationship.

‘And then suddenly,’ Donna went on, ‘Barney’s out in Kayaköy with a brand-new wife. Which, as you can imagine, was a bit of a slap in the face for Nita.’

‘I can see that. And was it on that first trip out here that Zoë died?’

‘No, it was a couple of years later. Because by then she was quite an experienced diver. Got her OWD.’ In response to the blank faces she explained, ‘Open Water Diving certificate. That made it even stranger that she had the accident.’

‘Do you know exactly how it happened?’ asked Jude.

‘Not the details, no. Barney and Nita both clammed up about it. Zoë drowned, that’s all I know.’

‘And when,’ asked Carole, ‘did Nita and Erkan get married? And, indeed, when did they set up Erkan’s business?’

Donna’s brow wrinkled with the effort of memory. ‘That would be fairly soon after the first time Barney brought Zoë out here.’

‘So maybe that was a kind of pay-off to Nita from Barney? “Thank you very much for all your loyal service, now I suggest you marry Erkan and I’ll give you the money to set up a business together”?’

‘I must say, at the time I wondered if that was what had happened.’

A raucous crowd of English had just entered the Dirty Duck. Large men in shorts and sticklike women with wraps over bikinis. Union Jack T-shirts and far too many tattoos for Carole’s taste.

‘Hello, Donna darling!’ one of the men called out. ‘Back again for your daily specials.’

‘Be with you in a moment, Bazza love,’ she called back, the perfect East End landlady. ‘Have to go, girls.’

‘And what do we do?’ asked Carole, who had just finished her omelette, but only got halfway through the mountain of chips. ‘Pay at the bar?’

‘No, you don’t. These are on me.’

‘Oh no, we can’t accept—’

‘Told you at Dalaman Airport you’d get special rates, didn’t I?’

‘Yes,’ said Jude, ‘but there’s a difference between special rates and getting our whole lunch on the house.’

‘Not at the Dirty Duck there isn’t,’ said Donna with a grin.

Jude looked at Carole, dissuading her from further argument. ‘Well, in that case, we will say a very gracious thank-you for your generosity.’

‘My pleasure, love.’

‘And look …’ Jude pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag and scribbled on it. ‘Here are our mobile numbers. If you hear anything from Nita, could you ask her if she’s lost a phone?’

‘Of course. And you’ve got the number here, haven’t you?’

Jude nodded.

‘It’s strange,’ Donna continued. ‘I haven’t heard from her in the last couple of days. Not even a text – that’s unlike Nita.’

Donna Lucas looked worried. And Carole felt bad. She couldn’t say anything at that point, but she knew the landlady of the Dirty Duck was due soon to get some very upsetting news.