The Tomb in Turkey

TWENTY-ONE

When they got back to Morning Glory, they found they had a visitor. Though they had shut up the villa itself, the main gates were not locked, and sitting on a lounger by the pool was Kemal. He still looked scruffy in jeans and grubby T-shirt, but when he began to speak he was a lot more coherent than when they had last seen him at Cin Bal.

‘I thought if I wait you come back here,’ he said.

‘I was just about to get us a drink,’ said Jude as she went across to unlock the front door. ‘Can I get you something?’

He shook his head firmly. ‘No, today I do not drink.’

‘Fine. Not even something non-alcoholic?’

‘No.’

‘You like a glass of white wine, Carole?’

‘That would be very nice.’

Carole sat rather than lounged on another lounger, and there was silence until Jude reappeared with the drinks and asked, ‘Well, Kemal, is there something we can do for you?’

‘It is more what I can do for you. There is something I can tell you.’

‘Oh?’

‘I meet the Englishman Fergus this afternoon.’

‘Ah, yes, so did we.’

‘I know this. He says he sees you. And he says you want to know the same thing he does.’

‘Which thing are you talking about?’ asked Carole.

‘You want to know what happened to Barney Willingdon’s first wife.’

Carole and Jude exchanged looks and sat forward. ‘Yes, we had wondered,’ said Jude.

‘I can tell you.’

‘It was something to do with a scuba diving accident, wasn’t it?’

‘It was, yes. It happened at my diving school.’

‘Oh, I didn’t know you had a diving school too.’

‘No, it is same one. It was my diving school. Then business is bad, Barney buys it from me at very cheap price and puts lots of money in for Erkan. He could have invested money for me still to run the school. But, no, he take away my livelihood. Then he spread bad rumours about me, so that I can no longer get work as a diving instructor in the Fethiye area.’

‘And you want revenge on him for that? That’s why you attacked him at Cin Bal?’

‘Yes, but then I was stupid.’ He shook his head, as if trying to shake out the memory. ‘I was drunk then. I was drunk when I paint message on wall in there.’ He nodded towards the villa.

‘Ah, that was you, was it? You painted our little welcoming message, did you?’

‘It not for you. I think Barney stay here. It for him, to show I have not forgotten, to show I still look for revenge. But that was foolish. Then I was drunk. Today I am not drunk.’

‘But you still want revenge on Barney?’

‘Proper revenge I want. Revenge through courts. I want him imprisoned for things he has done.’

‘And is that why you’re telling us what you know?’

‘More people know the truth, more he is likely to be arrested. Police will not listen to me. They think me lazy layabout, drunkard. They more likely listen to people like you.’

‘Very well then,’ said Jude. ‘Tell us what happened to Barney’s first wife.’

‘She very keen on scuba diving. You know about scuba diving?’

‘Virtually nothing.’

‘Well, is not important the details. All you have to know is that safety is most important. People who learn start with practical demonstration of equipment before they go near water, then in pool, then in sea. And there are certificates people have to get before they go to different levels of diving. Zoë Willingdon does very well at it. First time she come out here with Barney she do beginners’ course, then other times she do more and more. She get Advanced Open Water qualification – that means she can dive almost anywhere. She very good.

‘Well, there is popular place for advanced divers called Sariyerler. It is like a bay and you can only get there by boat. About one hour from Fethiye harbour. The diving spot is called Three Tunnels, like a reef, though not much coral. A hill in the sea, with the tunnels in it. One side is quite deep, maybe forty-five metres, maybe sixty. Only for very experienced divers, but Zoë has the qualification, she is all right to dive there.

‘Anyway, one day she goes out to Sariyerler. I am with her, I drive the boat, and I check all the equipment before she dives. This is very important. You check the first stage, the second stage, the octopus … these are technical terms you do not need to know about. And you also check the weight belt.’

‘Sorry, what’s that?’ asked Jude.

‘Always for scuba diving you have a weight belt. Living human bodies naturally float, so you need the weight belt to keep you from coming up to the surface. The amount of weight on the belt has to be adjusted to the size of the person, obviously. Some weight belts have pouches which are filled up with lead shot; others use solid weights which are threaded on to the belt. I prefer to use those. And the weight belt has a very secure clasp, so that it cannot come undone by mistake.’

‘What would happen if it did come undone by mistake?’ asked Carole.

‘That would depend on how deep the diver was. Near the surface it would not be much of a problem – you just might have lost the weight belt, that is all. But the deeper you are diving, the more dangerous it becomes. If you are, say, thirty metres down and the weight belt comes off, you start to rise slowly but very quickly accelerate. This is very bad. At thirty metres you are breathing four times atmospheric pressure, so four times as much air as you would on the surface. If you rise very quickly this air expands and will probably burst your lungs. It will kill you, anyway.’

There was a silence. ‘And is that what happened to Zoë?’ asked Jude.

Kemal nodded. ‘I swear I checked the clasp on her weight belt, but somehow it came undone.’

‘Accidentally?’

‘I don’t see how it could be accidental.’

‘So someone tampered with it?’

‘I think. Tampered – or just undid the clasp. They have a quick-release mechanism for emergencies.’

‘And you think it was Barney who undid it?’

‘No, Barney was not with us on the boat that day. But I think Barney planned it.’

‘Zoë couldn’t have done it herself, could she?’ asked Carole.

‘Suicide? I don’t think so. It’s a pretty nasty way to go. Anyway, however experienced they are, nobody ever dives alone. You always dive with a “buddy”, so the two of you can keep an eye on each other, help out if one or other of you gets into difficulties.’

‘Or, in this case, help the other one to get into difficulties by undoing the weight belt?’

‘That’s what I reckoned, yes. Though it’s very difficult to prove.’

‘I’m sure it is.’

It was Carole who asked the inevitable question. ‘So who was Zoë’s “buddy” that day?’

Kemal replied, ‘Nita.’