Arabesk

Chapter 8

At first the thing in front of his face was no more than a vague blur. Given his current assignment plus the rather disordered state of his thoughts, Suleyman thought that it might be a pool of blood, possibly even his own. Well, the thing was red and so a pool of blood was not such a crazy idea. But as he raised his head slowly from the surface of his desk, he began to see certain details he had not focused on before – petals, stems, a vaguely sweet perfume.

'A sprig of bougainvillea,' Ikmen said as he picked it up and sniffed at its flowers, 'from the garden of the Iskender Hamam.'

Suleyman's eyes which were sore and small from lack of sleep blinked as the harsh light from the rising sun outside assaulted them. 'Sir?' he said huskily. 'What…'

'Madame Kleopatra died almost exactly an hour ago,' Ikmen said as he slipped down wearily into the chair in front of Suleyman's desk. 'I left Dr Katsoulis to make the arrangements. After all, she was a Greek and so is he. It's fitting. When he's done I'll send

Cohen, if that's all right with you, and a few of the youngsters over to dig up the fig tree.'

Suleyman, who had by this time pulled himself up in his chair, put his hand up to his head and groaned. 'Why a fig tree?'

Ikmen smiled. 'Ah, but of course you don't know, do you?'

'Know?'

'Cohen, for all his unsavoury habits, is at centre a good man. Strictly speaking he has broken the law, but…' He pushed his cigarettes and lighter across to Suleyman who had been distracting him by searching for his own. 'When he first went to see Madame, she told him something, you see.'

'I knew that,' Suleyman said as he lit up and then relaxed back into his chair. 'But he wouldn't tell me what.'

'She told him,' Ikmen said with a strangely inappropriate smile upon his face, 'that the body of her late husband is buried beneath the fig tree in her garden. She also told him that she killed him.'

'So how was Cohen breaking the law?'

'He should have opened an investigation immediately. That garden should have been dug up while the old woman lay dying upstairs. After all, homicide is homicide whatever the condition of the perpetrator. But,' he sighed and then smiled again, 'she wanted him to promise that he wouldn't do anything until after her death, which he agreed to.'

'He told you, sir.'

'Only because she asked him to. Madame Kleopatra is, or was, one of those characters I came to know through my mother. Probably quite insane. But she was always very interested in my brother and myself when we were young, perhaps because she didn't have any children of her own. I believe she was very good to Cohen and his family too although I don't know how or why. When I make my report I will say that Madame confessed to me on her last gasp.'

Suleyman rubbed his head again and then smiled weakly. 'That would seem to be the best course of action.'

'Good.' Standing up quickly, Ikmen said, 'And now I'm going to take you to breakfast.'

'Oh, but I've got Erol Urfa at nine and I have to get back to Cengiz Temiz.' With nervous rapidity, Suleyman moved various papers around on his desk as if searching for something. 'I must draft a report for the commissioner and then there is the issue of Dr Halman.

Ikmen kindly but firmly placed his hand across Suleyman's, effectively bringing his manic searching to a close. 'If you were to look at yourself from the outside, Suleyman,' he said, 'you would see a man staggering under too many issues. You would see, as I do, confusion and rising anxiety. Now I'm going to take you to that very expensive tourist cafe' across the road and I am going to buy you lots of coffee, some eggs and replenish your cigarette supply. The place has a balcony from which we can view all of our beautiful if polluted waterways. There’ he said as he slipped one arm around Suleyman's shoulders and pulled him to his feet, 'you will offload some of your worries onto me and we will talk.'

'But you're not well, sir,' Suleyman said as he shakily achieved verticality.

'Yes, that's right,' Ikmen replied with a smile, 'I'm not well, so I'm not involved, so I'm not interfering in your work. Oh, and by the way, my name is Cetin from now on,' he said with a twinkle in his eye as he proffered his hand to his colleague. 'Hello.'

Suleyman took the hand with a small bow and, smiling, said, 'Mehmet Mehmet Suleyman.'

Although still early, the streets of the old city were already alive with activity. A horse-drawn cart carrying a huge pile of fruit eased its way down the narrow street, only just avoiding collision with an eccentrically parked BMW. Two little girls resplendent with vast hair ribbons both laughed as the horse appeared to do a last-minute double take. The shaven-headed simitci boy behind them sneered at what he perceived to be the irrationality of such an ancient form of transport. In the shops on the periphery of this scene, the carpet and leather goods men were putting their wares out onto the pavement for display. Occasionally a little competitive, if cheerful, banter would pass between them- stuff about prices and the scandalous degree to which one's rivals over-inflated their charges. From various, and numerous, directions, the sound of Arabesk music floated up towards the two men talking and drinking coffee on the balcony of the Marmara Turist Restaurant

'Now that you've found the baby and are, therefore, officially heroic, you'll have to deal with the press again,' Ikmen said as he drained his coffee cup and then signalled to the waiter that he would like some more.

'Yes,' Suleyman replied with a scowl, 'although I think that the details of the arrest of Mina and company are best left unsaid.'

Ikmen laughed. 'I would have paid good money to see you negotiating for a prostitute. Mina Arda must have thought her business had taken a turn for the better when she saw you.'

'You know mat her mother performed an abortion on her when she was seventeen,' Suleyman said, lowering his voice as he recounted this scandalous fact. 'She claims she has been unable to conceive since.'

'Semra Arda has been suspected of such practices for years’ Ikmen said with a sigh. 'I arrested her on suspicion of just such an offence involving another girl about ten years ago. But there was no proof.'

'But to give your own daughter an abortion!'

Ikmen shrugged. 'It's quicker and cheaper than going to a doctor, plus you don't have to explain anything… These are very poor people, Mehmet, ordinary standards do not apply.' He lit another cigarette and leaned back in his chair. 'So the man with Down's syndrome gave the baby to Mina presumably because he knew she either liked or wanted a baby?'

Suleyman waited until the waiter had taken their empty coffee cups away and replaced them with full ones before answering.

'Yes,' he said, 'although until he speaks to us we won't know how he got hold of the child. Mina says that Cengiz Temiz rescued the baby from the Urfas' apartment after seeing what he describes as a female demon in there. At least that is what she claims he told her.'

'This Temiz is, I assume, very frightened.'

'Yes. He speaks, when he does, in sort of harsh monosyllables and wets himself. It doesn't help either that his lawyer is Sevan Avedykian. When he's with him he won't let Cengiz answer any questions anyway.'

Ikmen tipped his tiny cup up to his lips and sipped the hot liquid. 'That's his job,' he said, and then pausing for a moment's thought he added, 'Have you thought about engaging Dr Halman to help you?'

‘I have.' His face took on a dejected expression here. It was a pose that, Ikmen thought, looked particularly miserable. 'But she was called out to Temizlast night while I was in Karakoy. She found him in a terrible state. She went berserk at me when I arrived – lots of stuff about the evils of the Turkish judicial system. She says that if the family make a complaint she will support it. I can expect her report on my desk at any time.'

'Ah.' And then speaking with his eyes turned away from Suleyman, Ikmen said, 'That must have been quite hard for you in view of the fact that you and Dr Halman-'

'Our private lives must be walled,' Suleyman said, his eyes suddenly hard as he repeated the old Ottoman