Julia and Leo exchange a glance. The freshman suicide.
“Heavy stuff?” says Detective Muhtar.
Yasmin’s face grows tense. “There was an incident back home. Someone died and I felt partly responsible, which is why I went overseas in the first place. To get away from it all. It was a terrible time.”
“And you fell in love with Daniel?”
“Absolutely. He was everything I could want in a man. Kind, considerate, handsome.”
“And he loved you too?”
She studies her hands. “I thought so. There was talk of him meeting my family.”
She trails off.
“What happened?” prompts Detective Muhtar.
Her mouth twists into a wry smile. “Toni happened.” She glances at Julia then lowers her gaze. “Daniel and I were on a local bus in southern China. We were heading to the Lonji rice fields; autumn is supposed to be the best time of year to go because of the changing colors and the final harvest. At the last stop before the bus went deep into the mountains, this girl gets on with this crazy pink hair, ear stretchers, totally funky. She sees that Daniel and I are the only other foreigners on the bus and comes over to talk to us. I liked her right away. She was really funny and told us about her recent trip through India. We got to talking and decided we would do the trek through Lonji together, just the three of us. The trek started off well enough but she gets sick on the third day. I don’t know, ate something bad, whatever. And Daniel plays doctor.”
She falls silent. For a moment, Julia wonders if that’s all Yasmin intends to say.
“And?” says Julia.
Yasmin looks at Julia, the misery clear on her face. “I had no clue. Or maybe I just refused to see. Looking back there had been signs. The lingering hands, the smiles. Daniel meant everything to me. He was the one, you know. I felt it in my bones. I wanted to marry him and have his babies. He told me that’s what he wanted, too.”
She begins crying again, hard.
“I didn’t know they were having an affair for sure until I called Daniel at the Bulgarian orphanage and the staff told me he’d cancelled. When I tried to reach Toni in Greece, I found out she wasn’t there either. That’s when I realized they must be together for some alone time before the group trip across Turkey. I confronted Daniel when he arrived in Istanbul. He admitted that he and Toni had been having an affair. He told me they had met in Istanbul and he broke it off with her.”
“And you believed him?”
Yasmin nodded. “I did.”
Julia glares at her. “You lied to us. You told us you went to Bulgaria with Daniel and you both arrived together in Istanbul on Sunday.”
Yasmin lowers her eyes. “Daniel asked me to. When Toni didn’t show he got nervous. He said it would look bad if everyone knew he had met Toni right before she went missing. They might think he had something to do with it. He said something like that could ruin his career.”
Julia’s stunned. “So you just went along with it?”
Yasmin nods. “I trusted him. There was no way I thought he would have done anything to Toni.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier? All this precious time wasted!”
“I’m sorry. I truly am.”
“Really? You’re sorry?” says Julia. “Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself?”
Yasmin weeps into her hand. “I didn’t want to believe he had anything to do with Toni’s disappearance. I still can’t believe it. He’s a good person. Apart from his fling with Toni, he’s never done anything to hurt me. He’s a doctor, for God’s sake.”
“You turned a blind eye.”
Yasmin shakes her head vehemently. “No! It wasn’t like that.”
Leo interjects. “Do you know where he might have taken her?”
She looks at him. “I have no idea.”
“Are you sure?”
“I really don’t have a clue.”
Julia bends down to face Yasmin. “There’s something you’re not telling us.”
“I don’t know where he is. Honestly, I don’t.”
“Oh, stop this, Yasmin,” says Julia. “How can you still protect him after what he’s done?”
Yasmin buries her face in her hands. “Please. I don’t know anything.”
“You’ve got to think, Yasmin,” says Detective Muhtar, gently. “Is there anything that might give us a lead? Anything at all?”
Yasmin takes a breath. “There was a text.”
“Between Daniel and Toni?”
Yasmin shakes her head. “No. I snuck a look at his phone in the days after Toni went missing. There was a text between him and a car rental place. He rented a vehicle. He told them he needed it for a cross-country trip to Lebanon.”
“Was it a white van?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did he rent it from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think, Yasmin,” presses Detective Muhtar. “What was the name of the hire place? You must have seen it.”
Yasmin studies some midpoint in the air then nods to herself. “Supercheap Rentals, maybe?” She turns to look at them. “Yes, that’s it. Daniel rented the vehicle from a place called Supercheap Rentals.”
64
The trouble with big sisters, Daniel ponders, is that they meddle. Oh, they think they’re doing their little sisters a favor by mothering them and getting involved in matters that are none of their business, but what Julia doesn’t know is that underneath it all, Toni is fully on board with starting a new life with him.
Julia doesn’t understand Toni. Nobody does, not like him. But that’s big sisters for you, thinking they know best, thinking they are somehow superior just by age alone. His own sisters were the
