Arabesk

'But-'

'As soon as you can, Erol,' and there was a click as Aksoy put his telephone down.

In spite of the thick heat around him, Erol suddenly felt very cold. Something had obviously happened. Maybe his manager had somehow found out what he shouldn't about the family Urfa. Although quite how he would find conclusive proof, Erol couldn't imagine, and surely that was not something that had to be dealt with urgently. No, it was something else, something far more immediate and serious.

Perhaps at last the police had actually arrested somebody for his wife's murder. But if that were so, Ibrahim would not, surely, have said that it could be a problem. If the Temiz man were found guilty, that would not be a problem, that would be a relief, unless…Well, the strange neighbour was not the only suspect, was he? As far as the police were concerned, everyone connected with Ruya basically fitted into that category – even Erol himself. As he felt his throat dry up and his eyes bulge with the pressure of fear he switched the radio over to one of the news stations. Not that there would be anything on there yet, but it gave him something to do. And caught in one of Istanbul's legendary gridlocks, there wasn't much that he could do except listen to the radio, sweat and begin to become irrational about his own position in this drama. After all, had he not, alone, found Ruya's body in the apartment? But surely if Ismail's problem were Erol himself, the police would have come for him by now, wouldn't they? With a slightly shaking hand Erol turned the radio down once again, to listen for sirens.

Chapter 13

By the time she arrived at the threshold of the tar- and nicotine-stained cell that was Interview Room 5, Tansu Emin Hanim was completely sober. Dressed in a plain white shift she was, as ever, heavily made up -Inspector Suleyman had allowed her the dignity of cleaning up and primping before they left for the station. Travelling as always with a retinue, Tansu was accompanied by her brother Yilmaz and sister, her – manager Ferhat Goktepe, and a very sharply dressed young man who, it soon transpired, was her lawyer. The still weeping, and bleeding, Yilmaz Emin was quickly taken to another interview room while the others were told to wait outside. Only Tansu and her lawyer, Adnan Oz, entered Interview Room 5 with Ikmen and Suleyman.

Not wishing to give Mr Oz any opportunity to encourage his client to dissemble, Suleyman launched immediately into the attack. 'Now, Miss Emin’ he said as he sat down beside Ikmen and then looked Tansu hard in the eyes, 'you are in a considerable amount of trouble here. Both you and your family lied to us about your whereabouts on the night of Mrs Urfa's murder. I now want to know the truth from you about that night.'

Tansu looked briefly across at her lawyer before replying. 'I'd rather not say,' she said. 'It's personal.'

'I'm not really giving you a choice, Miss Emin,' Suleyman retorted. 'As I've said, you're in a lot of-'

'Had I been allowed to consult with my client,' Adnan Oz put in, 'I might have been able to advise her of her options.'

'Miss Emin was out of her house on the night of the murder, a fact she and her family covered up until this afternoon, Mr Oz,' Suleyman said and then added sharply. 'I don't think she has too many options, do you?'

But Adnan Oz only smiled. 'I am not unduly concerned about what, in reality, constitutes no more than circumstantial evidence,' he said. 'With forensics now presumably complete, had you gleaned any evidence linking my client with the crime from that quarter, you would not be questioning my client now.'

'Ah, but you don't know that we don't possess such evidence,' Ikmen said with a smile. 'That is only an assumption on your part.'

'A blonde, fur-coated woman was seen at the scene of the crime,' Suleyman said. 'We have a witness’

'A retarded man, an idiot,' Tansu said to her lawyer and then turning to the policemen she added, 'Erol told me.'

'Did he indeed.'

As if suddenly galvanised to action, Tansu sprang from her seat. 'You can't keep me here anyway!' she cried. 'I'm a star! I'm bigger than all of you put together! Turkey's sweetheart!'

'Will you please exercise some control over your client!' Suleyman said to a bemused Adnan Oz.

With a shaking hand, the lawyer took hold of Tansu's arm and with some gentle shooshing noises carefully eased her back down into her chair. She wasn't happy about being there but, her small outburst over, she did appear to be calm once again.

'Now I need some answers,' Suleyman said, 'and I need them now. Why did you go out on the night of the murder and why did you lie about it to us?'

Tansu sighed and then looked up towards the ceiling in a despairing fashion. 'As I've told you,' she said, 'I went out on personal business which you would not understand.'

'Make me!'

Once again, Tahsu turned to look at her lawyer who, in response, simply shrugged his shoulders.

Sensing a slight fissure in the singer's psychological armour, Suleyman pressed his advantage. 'I should remind you that were you to be convicted of the murder of Mrs Urfa, you would spend the rest of your life in prison.' Then leaning in towards a now cringing Tansu, he added, 'And you and I both know what those places are like, don't we?'

'My client has committed no crime, she has nothing to fear.'

'If that is the case,' Ikmen said with a smile, 'she can tell us what she was doing on the night of the murder, can't she?'

'All right! All right!' Tansu said, her hands raised above her head in a gesture of frustration. 'I'll tell you, but…' She looked at the three men around her, each in turn, her eyes nervously shifting from one to the other.

Ikmen raised his eyebrows. 'But?'

Tansu took a long white cigarette from inside her handbag and lit up. Her fingers were shaking. 'But I don't want Erol to know.' Her eyes filled with tears and she added, 'You know?'

'I take it,' Ikmen said with as much gravity as. he – could muster, 'that what we are talking about here is something of a, er, romantic nature?'

'Well…' Again the eyes were shifty. Adnan Oz, for his part, took to close observation of the floor.

Patience not being one of Suleyman's strong points, he moved into the silence that had overwhelmed Tansu's last remark and said, 'So, Miss Emin, are we talking about another man here?'

'I don't want Erol to know,' she reiterated urgently. 'You won't tell him, will you?'

'Whether or not this information becomes public depends largely upon what bearing it has upon Mrs Urfa's murder. Now, Miss Emin, are we going to work together or not?'

Tansu's shoulders heaved upwards in a resigned little shrug. Her silicone-nlled breasts, Ikmen silently observed, stayed exactly where they were.

'Erol and I had argued,' the singer began, 'in the afternoon.'

'What about?'

She sighed. 'About him going off to his friends to see the football and then spending all of the next day with her.'

'With his wife.'

'Yes. I'll be honest, I hated Ruya Urfa and I wasn't sorry when she died, but,' she looked up at the policemen with what could have been a straight and honest face, 'I didn't kill her. After I argued with Erol, I had a little too much to drink and in that state I started to think about…' she suddenly looked away, her face a little red now, 'about myself and my life and, well, I decided as the evening went on that what I should do is go out' She looked up at them again. 'And so I did.'

'Where did you go?' Suleyman asked.

'I drove around. I thought a lot about what I had given to Erol and I felt bitter.'

Suleyman looked at Ikmen who refrained from catching his colleague's eye. If Tansu had given so much to Erol, it certainly wasn't on one-way traffic.

Tansu straightened her shoulders. 'And then, Allah forgive me, I parked up by Istiklal Caddesi, had a few more drinks and found a boy.'

Adnan Oz frowned down at the floor and then cleared his throat

'And who was this boy?' Ikmen asked as he attempted to wrest his eyes from the livid colour of Mr Oz's