Midnight in Istanbul: A WWII Espionage Thriller by Kathryn Gauci

Author:Kathryn Gauci [Gauci, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebony Publishing
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

‘GOOD LORD! WHAT on earth happened?’ Sam asked. ‘You look a mess.’

Without waiting for an order, Ilios brought over the raki bottle and an extra glass, and a platter of olives, feta, and hard-boiled eggs. At the sight of the food, I nearly threw up. I put my gun on the table and took off my overcoat and inspected it. Blood had seeped into the lining. Thank goodness the muddy colour hid it the external stains. Ilios took it upstairs and asked his wife to clean it up. He came back with a clean set of clothes and told me to change. ‘Marisa will wash everything for you,’ he said. ‘The coat is too thick, but she’ll do what she can.’

When I took off my trousers and socks, I saw the state of my ankle. It was swollen and bleeding profusely. Sam quickly put a newspaper under my foot to stop the blood trickling into the carpet while Ilios ran back upstairs to fetch his wife.

She crossed herself when she saw the state of it. ‘It needs cleaning straight away.’ There was a sink in the room and she filled a large bowl with hot soapy water and brought it to me along with a towel. ‘Here. Put your foot in this,’ she said, pulling a stool up by my side and gently put my foot into it.

I tilted my head back in the chair, clenching my teeth. The water was hot. ‘Bloody dog!’ I said angrily and took another gulp of raki.

Sam and Ilios looked at each other. ‘A dog!’ said Sam with a broad grin on his face ‘All this blood from a dog!’

I threw him a dirty look. If he was trying to be funny, his joke fell flat. ‘I killed the damn thing.’ I paused for a few seconds, cursing the pain as Marisa sponged the injury. ‘Then I killed the boy.’ I knew they wanted an explanation so I told them what transpired. Now that the drink had quelled my rage, I lapsed into despair at having killed a young boy.

‘You did what you had to,’ Sam said, matter-of-factly. ‘He knew your name and, in all likelihood, would have thought he could get a few liras by going to the police and reporting you.’

‘He was a street urchin killed in a knife fight. It happens all the time,’ Ilios added in a similar tone. ‘The police will probably not even bother to investigate.’

‘He was a boy,’ I replied miserably. I had tears in my eyes. ‘I didn’t sign up to kill young boys.’

Sam looked at me without pity. ‘Get a grip on yourself. Ilios is right. Many people – old and young – get killed in knife fights. No one will suspect you.’

They were staring at me with emotionless expressions – the same expression I’d seen many times before on men used to dealing with danger and death. Then I sat up suddenly. ‘The photograph!’

‘What photograph?’ Sam asked.

‘That’s the reason I came here in the first place – before all this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.