“Surely the phone calls are enough?” says Julia.
“It’s circumstantial, so it is not likely.” Detective Muhtar pauses. “Arresting Ela may not be our best strategy anyway.”
Julia looks at him. “What do you mean? She’s our best chance of finding out where Daniel is going.”
Leo interjects. “Detective Muhtar’s right, Julia. Ela could refuse to talk, like her uncle and father did, then where would that leave us? No. We need her to cooperate. Treat her with kid gloves.”
“My thinking exactly,” says Detective Muhtar.
69
Ela Cevik’s eyes widen when she opens the front door.
“Merhaba, Ela,” says Detective Muhtar. “May we speak with you?”
Her eyes pass from him to Julia then Leo and back again.
“What do you want?”
“It would be better if we come inside.”
She pauses. “You have news of my father?”
Detective Muhtar shakes his head. “This is not about him.”
She bites her lip. “They refuse to let me see him.”
“His charges are very serious.”
She falls silent. Somewhere in the distance a cow moans.
“We’re not leaving until you talk to us, Ela,” says Julia.
Ela meets Julia’s eyes briefly, then quickly looks away. “I have nothing to say.”
She looks over Julia’s shoulder and her mouth tightens. Julia turns to see two women standing at the top of the driveway, staring.
Julia says, “Surely you would rather talk inside, Ela, the village must be gossiping enough already.”
Exhaling, Ela eventually nods. “Very well. We can talk in the living room.”
She turns to trudge the length of the hallway, the others following. When they enter the living room, Julia’s shocked by the state of it. The place is a mess and looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since the day of Ela’s father’s arrest. Packaging and debris litter the floor from when the artifacts were seized by police. The curtains are drawn against the sunshine, only adding to the gloom, and there’s an unpleasant odor of meat left too long on the kitchen counter.
“Please sit,” Ela says, tonelessly, taking a seat herself.
No tea this time, no home-baked spiced cookies, just a blank stare at some midpoint in the distance.
Detective Muhtar leans forward, lacing his hands together.
“What can you tell us about Dr. Daniel Bambury?”
Ela’s face remains passive, artificially so. “Who?”
Detective Muhtar plays along. “He worked as a doctor with Viva Volunteer Medical.”
She shrugs and says nothing. Julia notices the slight tremor in her hands.
“You worked there also, I think?” says Detective Muhtar.
“Occasionally.”
“But you never met a Dr. Bambury?”
She shakes her head. “Not that I recall.”
Julia’s sighs, exasperated. “Ela, stop this. We know you knew each other.”
Detective Muhtar digs in his pocket for his cell phone, unlocks it, and shows Ela the photograph Leo found of Ela and Daniel on Facebook.
When she looks, a flush of red creeps up Ela’s neck.
“That’s you, isn’t it, Ela? With Daniel Bambury?” says Detective Muhtar.
She lifts her eyes. “Yes, I may have worked with Dr. Bambury a few times, I do not believe that is a crime.”
“Five,” says Detective Muhtar.
She frowns. “Five what?”
“You worked with Dr. Bambury on five occasions.”
“Oh, I don’t think it was that many,” she says weakly.
“According to your employment records at Viva it was.”
She stands, shaking. “I would like you all to leave.”
Julia doesn’t move. “We’re not going anywhere, Ela. Tell us what happened. Toni was here, wasn’t she? Did Daniel ask you to hide her?”
“Please leave.”
“Ela, it’s pointless denying it. We have evidence.”
“Your evidence is incorrect. I haven’t done anything.”
“Sit down, Ela,” says Detective Muhtar.
Ela licks her lips. “Am I in trouble?”
“That depends on your level of cooperation.”
She stands there, not moving.
Julia says, “We have phone calls, Ela. We know he was in touch with you the night Toni disappeared.”
Ela swallows. “I was scared.”
Julia frowns. “Why were you scared?”
Ela drops back into her chair and holds her head in her hands. “You have to believe me. It wasn’t just about money. Yes, he paid me, but he threatened me also. I did something very stupid while I was working at Viva and he said he would tell.”
“Daniel blackmailed you?”
Ela nods. “They dump medication close to its expiration date. We are not meant to take it but sometimes I do. Sometimes I take it to sell to make a little money.” She looks up. “You must understand. Life is very hard. My father is a learned man and has no job because of the economic climate. We do what we can to survive. Daniel said if I did not help him, he would tell the medical board and I’d lose my license. I would be without my livelihood—”
Julia raises a hand. “Okay, okay, slow down, Ela. Take us back to the beginning.”
Nodding, Ela takes a breath and interlocks her restless hands. “I had not heard from Daniel for over a year when he called me nearly two weeks ago and asked for my help. He said he had a friend who had injured herself and needed a place to stay.”
She hesitates.
“Go on,” says Julia.
Ela stands. “It is better that I show you.”
Julia exchanges a look with Leo and Detective Muhtar. “Show us what exactly?”
“Come.”
Ela crosses the living room to the rear door and retrieves a set of keys from a rusty hook. Julia, Leo, and Detective Muhtar follow her outside to a courtyard with whitewashed walls and pomegranate trees bending with fruit. In the distance, half a dozen cattle graze in the fields. Ela takes a stony path around a corner, pausing when she reaches a disused wine barrel. She rolls the barrel to one side exposing a wooden access with a latch to some sort of underground area. Bending, she unlocks the access to reveal a set of stairs plunging into
