Arabesk

obliged.

He wiped the sweat from his brow onto the stained cuff of his shirt and said, 'Do you believe him?'

'I don't know,' Suleyman replied. 'Do you?'

'No. But men in view of the fact that Erol never actually told Latife Emin what he was, it is highly unlikely he would have mentioned Coktin to her. And anyway, with aged parents and an unmarried sister to support, Mickey Coktin probably made a rational decision when he came in here and lied to us. I mean, how would you feel if people thought you ran around naked at midnight and ate the flesh of newborn infants?'

Suleyman smiled. 'I wouldn't be very happy about it.'

'Mmm. Especially considering that the more lurid stories about the Yezidis are, in all probability, complete nonsense.'

'But prejudices against them still exist,' Suleyman said, throwing a cigarette across at Ikmen and then lighting up himself. 'And I must admit that it does feel odd to actually have one on the force.'

'No stranger than having someone whose mother could see into the future,' Ikmen said, wryly smiling at this dig at himself. 'Which reminds me, I must get away from here if I'm to see the last of my mother's clients bid farewell to this world.'

'Any idea how Madame might have killed the eunuch yet?' Suleyman asked.

'Dr Sarkissian thinks he may have been stabbed.' Ikmen moved slowly to his feet and then stretched his arms above his head and yawned. 'Although quite why she would want to do such a thing to that poor emasculated creature we shall probably never know.'

'Perhaps the eunuch had some other woman in his sights,' Suleyman said with a smile.

'Well, I can't imagine why that would have bothered Kleopatra,' Ikmen replied tartly.

Spreading his long fingers out across his desk in what appeared to be an attempt to distract himself from the topic, Suleyman said, 'You know that in the old households it was always said that a eunuch could often satisfy a woman like no normal man?'

'What?' Ikmen, his face creased into sharp lines of confusion, attempted but failed to look into his colleagues now shifting gaze. 'What do…'

'To say anything more would cause me tremendous embarrassment, Cetin,' the younger man said as he moved uncomfortably in his seat 'If you think about it for a while I'm sure that the light of truth will eventually dawn:'.

'Oh, will it?' Ikmen said. And then, as things did indeed come into focus, he reddened just a little and mumbled, 'Ah, yes, but of course, um…'

'So shall I see you later?' Suleyman inquired as he watched Ikmen remove his jacket somewhat timidly from the back of Coktin's chair.

'Yes, this afternoon.'

'Good,' Suleyman smiled. 'I couldn't have finished this case without you, you know.'

'Yes, you could,' Ikmen said, moving towards the door of his colleague's office. 'It would have taken you longer, but you would have done it'

And then with a smile he was gone.

***

The Hippodrome Tea Garden was almost completely full when Zelfa Halman arrived for her, albeit flexible, appointment with Mehmet Suleyman. Dressed in a very eye-catching dress of red and black, the psychiatrist looked, to Orhan Tepe at least, like a woman who had been home and chosen her ensemble very carefully. He did not imagine she could have had very much sleep, and as she came towards him in response to his shout of recognition, he could see that her eyes were heavy with fatigue.

'I hate it when it's as hot as this,' she said as she slumped down opposite Tepe who was seated at a table facing the Hippodrome itself. 'I wonder where it's all going to end – when my blood's going to start to boil in my veins.'

'Miss Emin must be very uncomfortable down in the cells,' Tepe said as he beckoned one of the waiters towards him. 'What would you like to drink, Doctor?'

'Coke would be good.'

He ordered her drink plus another peach tea for himself before launching once again into the subject of Latife Emin. 'So, I mean, er, will you, um, have to see Miss Emin, professionally, Doctor, or…' Although he liked her, Tepe's memories of various of his dubious relatives always made him rather uncomfortable around Zelfa Halman.

'No.' She put a cigarette between her lips and lit it. 'Not from what I've seen of her. You don't have to be crazy to perform an act of spite.'

Tepe frowned. 'Yes, but most people don't usually kill innocent people out of spite, do they?'

'No, but I expect some of us would like to,' she said with a smile. 'And besides, I think she showed amazing restraint to have left it so long.'

'What do you mean?'

'I think that I would probably have stabbed the lovely Tansu and then hurled her into the Bosphorus years ago.'

'Oh.' Tepe laughed briefly before becoming grave once again. 'Well, yes, that I could understand. But to kill Ruya Urfa just to get at her sister…'

'Latife Emin is a clever woman,' the doctor said. She smiled up at the waiter who had arrived with their drinks. 'Erol is, was, whatever, probably Tansu's last chance with a younger man. So if Latife set her sister's mind against him then that might well have hurt Tansu for the rest of her life. After all, had Latife's crime gone undetected, then Tansu would never have understood why Erol couldn't marry her and that would have really stung.’

'She's still not going to be able to marry him though, is she? I mean,' he leaned forward in order to whisper, 'if he's one of those then…'

'No. Yezidis don't marry out This won't do a lot for Erol's career either.'

Orhan Tepe sniffed. 'Well, if he's one of those he doesn't deserve a career. They do disgusting things, those people.'

'Oh, bollocks,' Zelfa Halman exploded, briefly slipping back into her native tongue. 'Yezidis don't really rape everything in sight and eat their own young, you know! They're not evil or-'

'But they worship Shaitan!'

Zelfa Halman took a long gulp from her glass before she said, 'Their own conception of him, yes. But in their canon Shaitan has been restored to goodness by God and so the idea that they are evil is preposterous. Anyway, we don't know that people will hold it against him. I like to think the Turkish public are more intelligent than that.'

‘I still don't like it,' Tepe said darkly. 'It makes me feel uncomfortable.'

'Well, that's your problem,' the doctor replied. She leaned back in order to fan her hot face and caught sight of Suleyman. She waved to him.

As he walked towards the table, the tired young inspector smiled. ‘I hadn't realised it was quite so hot,' he said farming his body with the edges of his jacket.

Zelfa Halman passed her glass of Coke over to him with a ghost of a smile.

Tepe who like so many of his fellows possessed more than a sneaking suspicion as to what existed between this pair, started to move up and away from his chair.

'Oh, are you going?' Zelfa asked.

'I'd better,' Tepe said looking across at Suleyman. 'Sir.'

'You don't have to go, Tepe.' 'I think I'd better,' the younger man replied. 'Reports and…'

'Well, don't bother to pay when you go,' Zelfa said with a smile. 'I'll pay for your tea.' 'Oh, well, er, thank you, er…' 'It's OK.'

As Tepe threaded his way out of the tea garden, Suleyman slipped into what had been his seat. 'Hello,' he said to Zelfa sitting opposite him.

'Hello.'