Orhan yawned and stretched. “I could use a kip,” he said. “Fire in?”
“Warm and bright, mate.”
With a happy sigh, and a small bow to Yashim, Orhan lowered himself down the hatch and went off to enjoy the brazier in the fireman’s cuddy down below.
Palmuk took a turn round the walls, looking out and finishing his bun.
Yashim hadn’t moved.
Palmuk leaned over the parapet and looked down.
“Funny,” he said. “As you get older, you lose your head for heights. They ought to pay me more, don’t you think?”
He looked back at Yashim, his head cocked.
“Know what I mean?”
Yashim eyed the fireman coldly.
“A fourth tower?”
Palmuk bent over a basket and wedged his cone of buns between the wickerwork. Then he stood looking out towards Stamboul. He appeared not to have heard.
Suppressing a sigh, Yashim fished for his purse beneath the folds of his cloak. Selecting three coins, he chinked them together in the palms of his hand. Palmuk turned.
“Why, effendi, I call that handsome. A welcome contribution to the Fund.”
The money disappeared into a pocket of his tunic.
“It’s information you want, mate. Effendi. A hint to the wise, am I right? You’ve been handsome with me, so I’ll be handsome with you, as the saying goes. All right: there isn’t a fourth tower. Never was, as far as I know.”
There was a silence. The fireman ran a hand over his moustaches.
Their eyes locked.
“Is that it?”
The fireman shrugged. “It’s what you asked for, ain’t it?”
“Right.”
Neither man moved for a few moments. Then Palmuk turned his back on Yashim and stood by the parapet, looking south to the Bosphorus, lost in the fog.
“Mind the stairs as you go down, effendi,” he said, not looking round. “They’re slippery when it’s wet.”
[ 48 ]
It’s mine,” said the girl.
It was the only thing she’d said so far.
Yashim bit his lip. He’d been trying to talk to her for half an hour.
Lightly, at first. Where was she from? Yes, he knew the place. Not the exact place but…he drew her a picture in words. Mountains. Mist. Dawn creeping down the valley. Was that like it?
A blank.
“It’s my ring.”
