“Wait here,” she says.
She descends the staircase, and it’s not long before a light comes on.
“Please come down now,” she says, looking up at them.
Julia goes first, heart thumping wildly. When she reaches the bottom, she finds herself in a tiny, damp room. On the floor, a mattress, pillows, blankets. A sweater and pair of jeans crumpled up in the corner. Something catches her eye. An IV stand. A box of bandages. A bag of syringes.
“He came and took her,” says Ela.
“When?” says Julia.
“Yesterday.”
Julia picks up the bag of syringes. “How badly was she hurt?”
Ela lowers her eyes. “He said she had an accident. That she fell.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” says Julia, fingers tightening round the syringes.
“She was unconscious.”
“A head injury?”
Ela nods. “He gave me medication to give her.”
“What medication?”
Ela hesitates.
“Ela, what medication was it?”
Ela kneels down and reaches inside a box and pulls out some vials and shows Julia.
Julia’s heart races when she sees what they are. “These are tranquilizers, Ela. Why would you do this? You must have known what you were doing was wrong. You’re a nurse, for God’s sake!”
Ela’s eyes fill with tears. “She was safe here. I looked after her.”
Julia shakes her head, incredulous. “Looked after her? You kept her drugged when she should have been in the hospital!”
“The penny necklace,” says Leo. “How did your uncle get it?”
Ela’s eyes flick to him. “I gave it to him. I thought it was gold. He was going to sell it and we were going to split the money. Father knew nothing of this.”
Detective Muhtar interjects. “Did Bambury say where he was going?”
Ela shakes her head.
“He never told me anything.” She pulls out something from her apron. A piece of paper. “But he left this behind.”
Julia takes it. A map. With a hand-drawn route and annotations.
She looks up at Leo and Detective Muhtar. “They’re heading to Laos.”
70
For the first time in a long time there is hope, real hope. They have a map outlining Daniel’s entire escape plan in meticulous handwritten detail. He had predetermined precisely what route he would take from Istanbul to Laos. Recorded well-considered and specific annotations in the margins. Estimated the various times it would take him to get from A to B. Noted where he could stop for gas along the way.
The level of detail was simply staggering: he had left absolutely no stone unturned. If that wasn’t chilling enough, seeing all this written down in Daniel’s tiny neat penmanship—definitely not the usual chicken scratch of doctors’ handwriting—was a sure sign to Julia of how calculating, organized, and in control he was.
Julia lifts her eyes from the map and looks at Detective Muhtar.
“Any idea where he would be by now?” she says.
“He’ll be past Ankara for certain. He’s most probably here in Cappadocia or here in Malatya,” he says, pointing to two of Daniel’s markings on the map.
Detective Muhtar’s phone rings and he excuses himself.
Julia looks at Leo. “You did good, by the way.”
“I did?”
“Finding the image of Ela and Daniel on his Facebook was a really nice pickup.”
“Oh, that.”
She drops into a chair. “Tell me we’re close to finding her, Leo.”
“Yes, I believe we are. I can feel it in my bones.”
Detective Muhtar rushes in, phone pressed to his chest. “There’s been a development. Please come quick.”
*
The sound of her voice is jarring. Even though Julia hasn’t spoken to Toni in over two years, her sister’s voice is unmistakable. Breathy. Slightly expectant. What’s new, though, is the hint of a slur.
Initially there’s confusion because the emergency police operator does not speak very good English.
Toni: “I’m Toni Norris. I’m an American citizen. I was abducted from my hotel in Istanbul by a man named Dr. Daniel Bambury. Please hurry.”
Operator: “What is this word abducted?”
Toni: “Kidnapped, taken against my will. Please hurry. I got away from him but he’s
close by. He’s going to find me.”
Operator: “What is your location?”
Toni: “I don’t know. A small town. We have been driving for a long time.”
Operator: “Are there any road signs?”
Toni: “They’re in Turkish. I don’t understand them.”
Operator: “Can you ask someone where you are?”
Toni: “I can’t, he’ll see me.” A breath. “It’s a desert place. There’s a billboard advertising hot air ballooning. Oh, please hurry. He’s going to find me.”
Operator: “Where is the man now?”
Toni: “Looking for me. I can hear him calling my name.” Pause. “He’s coming. I have to go.”
She hangs up. Detective Muhtar clicks off the recording.
“The call came in this morning. We traced it to Göreme, a small town located in the Cappadocian region. We go there now, okay?”
71
The strangeness of the Cappadocia landscape is the first thing to strike Julia as she looks out the window of the six-seater charter flight. The barren terrain is utterly mesmerizing, something like a cross between Mars and the moon—arid and desert-like, with clusters of weird cone-shaped volcanic rock formations pirouetting into the sky. In the distance, the Southern Taurus Mountains loom majestically, while in the east, large tracks of sandstone dominate the land.
Julia spies a cluster of houses and single-story buildings in what must be the Göreme township where Toni’s mobile was tracked to. The small town is surrounded by more of the cone-shaped pillars, although these have cave-like houses and churches carved into the rock.
“Fairy chimneys,” says Detective Muhtar, raising his voice over the twin turbo prop engines. “They were created over centuries. People still live in them today. Inside they are like normal houses with kitchens and bedrooms and bathrooms.”
“Remarkable,” says Julia.
The pilot says something in Turkish.
“We land now,” says Detective Muhtar, buckling his seat belt and gesturing for everyone to do the same.
Julia looks out the window and feels her throat tighten. How the heck is the pilot expected
