Harem by Barbara Nadel

Harem by Barbara Nadel

Author:Barbara Nadel [Nadel, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2010-05-06T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 14

* * *

Although not entirely fruitless, the day had proved frustrating for those involved in trying to solve the riddle of how Hikmet and Vedat Sivas had left the yalı without being seen. Every room, every wardrobe, every outhouse and abandoned old ‘oriental’ lavatory had been pulled apart, investigated and in some cases turned upside down. But to no avail.

‘There’s nothing even a little odd about this house or any of the things in it,’ İskender said as he wearily joined İkmen at one of the windows overlooking the now dark Bosphorus. From another part of the property the sound of anxious feet on stairs and floorboards was vaguely registered by the two exhausted men.

‘Çöktin just called in from the palace,’ İkmen said as he offered İskender one of his cigarettes. ‘Vedat hasn’t appeared.’

İskender took the cigarette with a nod of thanks. ‘Did you expect him to?’

‘No. But Çöktin and Avcı are going to stay and look around. Yıldız Palace is a big, dark and mysterious site. They are, apparently, getting the guided tour.’

‘He was definitely supposed to be working at the palace tonight?’ İskender asked.

‘Yes, the hotel manager was adamant that Vedat Sivas was not due to work at Ciraǧan again until next Tuesday. They were expecting him at Yıldız.’

‘You don’t think that Vedat himself, in his distress about recent events, just got confused?’

‘It’s possible,’ İkmen said. ‘Yıldız Palace Museum, Ciraǧan Palace Hotel – I can see where confusion could arise. But there’s a chance that Vedat was lying in order to steer me away from Yıldız Palace because that is where he and possibly his brother had planned to be for some reason. A very clumsy deception, if that’s what it was.’

A Bosphorus ferry, alive with lights, if not people, passed in front of the yalı, heading for the Kandıllı boarding point. Very few people would get on now that darkness had fallen. In all probability the ferry would just continue its journey up to the very brink of the Black Sea at Rumeli Kavaǧi, eerily free of human cargo.

İskender wiped away the sweat that clung to his face like a sickly mask in the humid night. ‘I can’t really see them meeting representatives from the Cosa Nostra in the grounds of Yıldız,’ he said.

‘Stranger things have happened,’ İkmen replied and then as if the sound of running feet he’d been vaguely aware of for some time had suddenly increased in volume, he said, ‘What is that noise?’

‘It’s Constable Yıldız,’ İskender said wryly, ‘still convinced this yalı hides secret passages, no doubt concealing a lot of Greek gold. He runs from room to room. The mystery is driving him insane, like the rest of us.’

‘One brother we could lose through incompetence, but two?’ İkmen shook his head. ‘Even the stupidest constable surely couldn’t be that useless, let alone someone as sharp as Çöktin.’

‘I’m just grateful that Ardıç was called away to Ankara,’ İskender responded darkly. ‘Of course we’ll have to face him eventually.’

‘Yes.’ İkmen stubbed out his cigarette and lit another.



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