Arabesk

of her surname which, Ikmen and Suleyman discovered from the singer's brother, Yilmaz, was Emin.

Although considerably younger than his famous sister – Yilmaz claimed he was forty – he had neither her confidence nor her challenging demeanour. And under the sort of pressure Suleyman was exerting, Ikmen felt that Yilmaz must soon crack.

But Ikmen was wrong. Whenever Suleyman asked him what he was doing on the night of the murder and whether or not he saw his sister leave the house, Yilmaz just said that he was in his room alone all evening and that Tansu, as far as he knew, had stayed in also. He did not mention the servant Belkis, which – was clever, or perhaps lucky, Ikmen thought, because it meant that Suleyman was being manoeuvred into a position where he would have to mention her. Soon Yilmaz would want to know why this questioning was necessary, and the reason, as both Ikmen and Suleyman knew, was only hearsay.

However, recalling the rather impressive set of security measures, both human and electronic, that had greeted the two policeman at the entrance to Tansu's seraglio, Ikmen decided to take one of his famous unconventional leaps of faith.

As Suleyman impatiently wracked his brains to think of another approach he might take to his interrogation, Ikmen said, ‘I expect you're wondering why we're asking you these questions, aren't you, Mr Emin?'

'Y-yes, I w-was. I mean you c-come here-'

'Well, the fact of the matter is,' Ikmen said as he looked out into the garden and then beyond at the rushing waters of the Bosphorus, 'the video tape from your sister's security system shows that she did leave this house in a Mercedes car on the night of Mrs Urfa's murder.'

'Oh.' As Yilmaz looked down at the floor, his eyes visibly filled with panic, Suleyman mouthed some very furious if unintelligible words at Ikmen.

This had no effect upon the older man, who continued, 'And so you see, Mr Emin, if you did observe your sister leaving this house on that occasion, it would be pointless, maybe even criminal, to keep it from us. Withholding information from the police-'

'B-but I didn't, I s-swear.'

'If we had just the video evidence or just the testimony of little Belkis,' Ikmen paused here for effect and watched Yilmaz's face whiten, 'then there might be room for doubt But we have both, Mr Emin. We have Belkis looking with you out of your bedroom window at your sister driving out of this estate and we have video of Tansu passing through the gates.'

Suleyman cleared his throat in a very obvious manner.

Ikmen deliberately did not look at him. 'And so, Mr Emin?' he asked softly.

'W-with the g-girl I d-didn't do anything b-bad.'

'What you may or may not have done with your adult maid is not for us to judge, Mr Emin.'

'I…'

'Think carefully before you answer, Mr Emin,' Ikmen said with a smile. 'I know how difficult these things can be when family are involved. But just take a moment to consider your own position.' He got up from his chair and walked over to Suleyman who all through Ikmen's conversation with Yilmaz had continued to mug furiously at his old boss.

'If I had known you were going to lie to him, I would never have brought you along!' Suleyman hissed.

Holding up one hand to silence his colleague, Ikmen kept his eyes firmly on the back of'Yilmaz Emin's slumped head. 'Sshh!'

'What may or may not be on those security cameras-'

.'We may well soon discover,' Ikmen said and then added, his eyes twinkling in what to Suleyman was a maddening fashion, 'or not.'

'I-'

But before Suleyman could continue, Yilmaz turned to face his tormentors.

'I-I did s-see my s-sister leave that night. S-she drove out in the-'

The door which gave out onto the main hallway of the house sprang open with a loud bang as something that looked like a cross between a madwoman and a wild animal threw itself into the room.

'Yilmaz, you stupid, fucking fool!' Tansu raved as she ran, sharp fingernails raised, towards her brother. 'There is no tape in those cameras, there never has been!' And then she was on him, clawing at his face, her rank alcohol-soaked breath filling his nose.

As Ikmen and Suleyman wrestled to remove the singer from her brother before she killed him, Latife watched from the doorway, visibly shaking.

In spite of the fact that the voice coming out of the radio was that of his beloved Tansu, Erol Urfa turned the volume down. It was one of those songs, those bitter, almost violent numbers that he really disliked. Songs which also contained references to things he preferred to brush aside. Not that Tansu knew. How could she?

He had, until Merih went missing, always been very careful about what he said and did, as had Ruya. And besides, it wasn't as if Tansu were educated or knew much about anything. But still she persisted with her 'peacocks', both dead and alive, and still she talked of the colour blue 'blinding her eyes'. He had once, some time back now, asked her why she used the symbol of those birds so frequently in her songs. At first she had just looked confused but then she had simply shrugged and said, 'I just do' in such an innocent way as to preclude further discussion. Anyway, with Merih sleeping contentedly at his side he had other more pressing considerations now. And besides, if Tansu loved him, as she undoubtedly did, even if she knew she wouldn't want to hurt him. Would she?

As the car in front of Erol's shuffled forward, he flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes. There were two teenage girls in the back of the vehicle in front who might recognise him. He couldn't take the risk. Fragile in spirit since leaving Tansu's home, all he wanted now was to get a little time out in the open alone with Merih. He looked across at the baby and smiled. Now that Ruya and what he now knew would have been his second child were dead she was, apart from Ali Mardin, the only connection he had with his old life in this horrible city. Sometimes, like now, he wanted to go home very badly. For all the problems and hardship that attended his life back there, the mountains and the plains more than made, up for all that And to be able to perform the morning and evening devotions outside and without fear of discovery, ah, that was something. In the meantime, he and Merih would just have to make do with Yildiz Park. With luck and on a hot afternoon, there would be more couples with children than clandestine lovers. Not that he was part of any sort of 'couple' himself; he never really had been. Poor Ruya had been far more Merih's mother than his wife. That 'honour' had gone to Tansu, his love, the woman who inflamed his flesh.

'What a weak and disgusting man you are!' he murmured to himself as he touched the accelerator pedal gently. Blinded by fame and money and sex. And although he was indeed suffering now, he had not suffered for his sins in the way that Ruya had. She, still alone and disregarded in the mortuary, had in the end paid the ultimate price for his vaulting ambition, his unnatural lusts. Some vile creature, he couldn't even imagine who, had come into their lives and taken her away for reasons that were still cloaked from him. According to Ibrahim, word in the bazaars was that Tansu had done it. But he couldn't or wouldn't accept this. The police still had that strange drooling neighbour in custody and although Erol knew nothing about Cengiz Temiz or his supposed friendship with Ruya, he hoped that this man was responsible. He hoped it would all end. If he had spent more time at the apartment, he might have been able to give the police more information about Temiz, but as it was he could do nothing to move the case forward.

The mobile telephone which was lying on the seat beside his sleeping daughter started to ring. Erol, keeping one eye on the traffic, picked it up quickly lest it wake Merih. She just muttered briefly before descending again into her carbon-monoxide-drenched dreams.

'Hello,' Erol said as he placed the thing to his ear.

'Erol, it's Ibrahim, where, are you?'

'I'm in the car taking Merih to the park,' he told his rather anxious-sounding manager. 'What's the matter, Ibrahim?'

'You'd better turn round and come back,' Aksoy said. 'I'll meet you at your apartment.'

A slight twinge of panic started inside Erol's chest. 'Is there a problem, Ibrahim? Speak to me, brother!'

'There might be, but… Look, meet me back at the apartment and I'll tell you all about it then.'

'Why not tell me now?' Erol said as he felt his heart begin to race in panic. 'Ibrahim!'

'Just get back to the apartment and I'll tell you then,' Aksoy snapped sharply.