Also, the quality of the Sauvignon Blanc made her consider yet again the ultimate sacrifice. The next time she went to the Crown and Anchor in Fethering, she might order something other than Chilean Chardonnay. How on earth would Ted Crisp react to such a seismic change?
Throughout the meal, Barney was constantly greeted by other friends or business associates. Clearly, he was a popular man around Kayaköy. Or maybe his popularity was based on more mercenary motives. His developments had brought a lot of work to the local builders and craftsmen (who were all cousins, anyway). The holidaymakers who stayed in his villas also made their contribution to the local economy.
And Barney enjoyed his local celebrity. He cheerily shook hands with all the men who approached him and greeted the women with lavish hugs and kisses. Or, at least, that’s what he did with the women dressed in western clothes. He did not hug and kiss the ones in traditional dress; he knew the local protocols.
When Barney had arrived earlier in the evening at Morning Glory, no reference had been made to the message in red that had confronted the visitors earlier. They’d had drinks by the pool, so he hadn’t actually entered the villa and seen the evidence of the still-wet white paint. But Jude felt the subject ought to be raised, so she raised it.
‘Yes, I heard about that,’ said Barney. He didn’t say who he’d heard it from, but that didn’t seem important to Jude. She remembered Travers Hughes-Swann telling her that there were ‘no secrets in a place like Kayaköy’. The bush telegraph of brothers and cousins had no doubt been extremely efficient.
‘I’m sorry,’ Barney went on. ‘Not the greeting I would have wished for you. And, incidentally, it wasn’t aimed at you personally.’
‘Then who was it aimed at?’ asked Carole.
‘Just the Brits generally.’ There was an evasiveness in his eye which Jude recognized from some of the less happy moments in their long ago relationship.
‘But who would have done that? Nita told us most of the locals are somehow involved in the tourist industry and wouldn’t dream of doing anything to disrupt it.’
‘Yes, but there’s always an element. There’s a bunch of ultra-nationalist kids in Fethiye who resent us Brits profiting from their tourist trade.’
Jude reckoned he was lying, just making up an explanation so that they could move on to another subject of conversation. ‘Are you saying it was aimed at you, then?’ she persisted.
‘Probably. You can’t do the kind of work I do out here without putting a few backs up.’ He looked at their glasses. ‘I think we’re going to need another bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.’
‘Oh no,’ came the knee-jerk reaction from Carole.
‘Come on,’ said Barney. ‘I’m more than halfway down my bottle of red and feeling no pain. Have the second bottle.’
‘Well …’ said Carole.
‘Let’s go for it,’ said Jude. ‘After all, we are on holiday.’
ELEVEN
Because of the effusiveness Barney had demonstrated towards other women that evening, it was quite striking that when Nita emerged through the trees to approach their table he didn’t rise from his seat and offer her either a hug or a kiss. Just said a casual, ‘Hi.’
Round her neck hung the red and blue lanyard with identity card attached. She didn’t wear a polo shirt with a company logo on it, but presumably the card identified her for professional purposes. It also suggested she was either still working or had just finished.
‘Got your other person from the airport?’ asked Jude.
‘Yes, all done and safely delivered to their villa. I get the impression they’re going to be high maintenance, though.’
‘Oh?’
‘Already had two calls from them on the mobile. How do they get hot water from the shower, and can they set up the telly to receive Sky Sports? Needless to say, there are detailed instructions for dealing with both problems in their welcome pack. Soon, I’m sure, I’ll get the call about the blocked toilet. I think I’ll earn my money with that lot.’
‘They’ve gone into Sunbeam Cottage,’ said Barney, as a statement rather than a question.
‘Right.’
Belatedly, Barney remembered his manners. ‘Won’t you sit down and have a drink?’
‘No, still got a couple of things to sort out. Got to take a busload of punters who’ve come from Kidderminster to Pinara tomorrow.’
Carole’s ears pricked up. ‘That’s where there are some Lycian tombs, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. And temples, and an amphitheatre.’
‘I definitely want to go there while I’m here. I read about it in my guidebook. It sounds fascinating, with all those tombs carved out of the rock face. Do you fancy going tomorrow, Jude?’
‘I don’t fancy going anywhere tomorrow that is more than three metres from the pool at Morning Glory.’
‘Oh. Well.’ Carole turned back to Nita. ‘Pinara’s supposed to be very impressive, isn’t it?’
‘It is for the first couple of hundred times you see it, yes. After that, everything palls a bit.’
‘I’m sure it does,’ said Jude.
‘But that’s the job – not the one that I would have chosen, but the one that’s chosen me.’ Nita looked down at her ID card and sighed. ‘So that’s the job I do.’
Jude was aware that Nita was not talking to them as she would to her normal punters. She was dropping her professional guard and letting her underlying cynicism show. She thought of them not so much as holidaymakers but as friends of Barney Willingdon. She didn’t have to keep up any facade with them.
‘Anyway …’ Nita snapped herself out of introspection. ‘I must go, brush up my notes on Pinara. See you soon, I’m sure.’ She hovered on the edge of departure. ‘Oh, Barney, just wondering whether you might be going for a nightcap at the Scorpion tonight …?’
‘No, I’ll just be seeing Carole and Jude back to Morning Glory.’
‘And which of the villas are you staying in?’
‘I haven’t decided yet,’ said Barney Willingdon.
Nita was not the kind of woman to give away her emotions, but she flinched at his words. ‘Right,’ she said, ‘I’ll go and get ready for Pinara.’
Jude was trying to work out the subtext of their brief exchange. Surely, Nita had been trying to get together alone with Barney, but he had put an end to such an idea with considerable harshness. She hoped to God he wasn’t clearing the decks of other women because he thought he was going to make some progress with her.
But such speculation was interrupted by the sudden appearance at their table of a swarthy middle-aged man in grubby T-shirt and jeans, brandishing a kitchen knife.
‘You dare come out here!’ he shouted in heavily accented English. ‘You dare to sit here calmly in Cin Bal as if you are the king of everything!’
His words were clearly addressed to Barney, who instantly recognized his assailant. ‘Kemal,’ he said, ‘calm down.’
Jude’s ears pricked up. This must be the swindled partner of Barney whom Fergus McNally had mentioned in the Crown and Anchor.
‘Violence won’t do you any good,’ said Barney.
‘No? It will do me a lot of good – to hurt the man who has ruined my life, who took away my business—’
‘I didn’t take away your business. That was going belly-up long before I got involved.’
‘No, you took it away. You took away my livelihood. To hurt the man who did this will give me much satisfaction!’ And he made a stabbing motion with the knife towards Barney.
He missed by a long way, and instantly Carole and Jude realized that the man was very drunk. His movements were unsteady and his eyes glazed. By now, the commotion had attracted attention from the neighbouring tables and black-dressed waiters were moving towards the source of the trouble. Barney had stood up to get out of the range of Kemal’s weapon.