‘Nita hasn’t got children either, has she?’ asked Jude, steering the conversation in the direction she wanted it to go.
‘No. And I think she’d echo my “thank God” for that.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘This is an extremely male-oriented society out here. Once you’re lumbered with kids it’s fairly difficult to have much of a life of your own. It’s hard enough when you haven’t got them. That’s why my friendship with Nita’s so important to me. It’s easier to be independent when there’s two of you on the same side.’
Carole was by now sure that Donna had no idea her friend was dead and that it would be a serious blow to her when she did find out. But she wondered whether Donna had also been fed the story about Nita returning to England to tend to her sick mother. ‘I actually tried ringing her once or twice yesterday,’ Carole lied, ‘but she hasn’t rung back. Do you know if she’s around?’
‘I assume so. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.’
Jude now joined the lying bandwagon. ‘Actually, the problem might be that she left her mobile at Morning Glory.’
‘Did she?’ asked an astounded Carole.
‘Yes. Well, at least, I assume it was hers. I can’t think who else could have left it … though maybe it was some earlier tenants at the villa.’
‘Well,’ said Donna, ‘it’s easy enough to check if it is hers.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, if you just switch the phone on and go into—’
‘Don’t we need a passcode to do that?’
‘You probably do, yes. Well, there’s a very strong chance that passcode would be “1066”. I remember once having a conversation with Nita about pins and passwords, and she said the Battle of Hastings was the only date she could remember from history so she used it for everything electronic. I think there’s a strong chance that’d be the code for the iPhone.’
‘Oh, thank you. Well, we’ll try it when we get back to Morning Glory.’
‘Yes. Mind you,’ said Donna thoughtfully, ‘if it actually is Nita’s phone it’d be getting lots of calls. Has it been ringing a lot?’
‘Not once,’ replied Carole.
‘Then it probably isn’t hers.’
The two investigators exchanged the smallest looks of disappointment.
‘Nita’s has got a very distinctive case – pale-blue fishes on a dark-blue background.’
Carole and Jude were even more disappointed. They’d got it wrong. The case of the phone they’d picked up at Pinara had the colours the opposite way round; the fishes were dark-blue on a pale-blue background.
‘One of the things I know from my days being a courier and tour guide,’ Donna went on, ‘is that your mobile never stops ringing.’
Jude looked ruefully at Carole. Of course, given where they’d found the phone, they had rather jumped to the conclusion that it must have been Nita’s, but now it seemed more likely that someone else had dropped it there. Not surprising, really, with people clambering over rocks and tree trunks; a phone could easily slip out of a pocket or knapsack. So probably the mobile had nothing to do with Nita’s death. Strange, though, that the two cases should be so similar.
But even as Jude had this dispiriting thought, another much more cheering one came into her mind. Maybe, rather than belonging to the victim, the phone had been dropped by her murderer.
Their food arrived – and very nice it looked too. The sausage and mash was indistinguishable from the excellent dish served at the Crown and Anchor in Fethering. Jude wasn’t too bothered about their not embracing Turkish culture for one lunch. They’d have lots more local cuisine before they left. Besides, she was hungry.
Carole, meanwhile, having made a start on her omelette (garnished with a container-load of chips) was off on an investigative diversion of her own. For reasons that were not clear to Jude, she told Donna about the painted non-welcome they’d been greeted with on their arrival at Morning Glory.
The landlady of the Dirty Duck was puzzled and echoed almost exactly the words Nita had used when the message had first been discovered. ‘Nobody in Kayaköy would have done that – nobody local, anyway. They value the tourist trade too much.’
‘Nita seemed pretty sure it wasn’t aimed at us.’
‘It couldn’t have been.’
‘So who would it have been aimed at?’
Donna shrugged. ‘Barney, perhaps. His business activities round here haven’t made him popular with everyone.’
‘When we were with Barney at Cin Bal on our first evening …’
‘Oh, he took you there did he – for an “authentic Turkish experience”?’
‘He did. And he was attacked there by a man called Kemal.’
‘Ah, yes. Well, he’s certainly got his knife into Barney.’
‘He almost literally had that night,’ said Jude.
‘And you’re wondering whether Kemal might have been responsible for the welcome graffiti at Morning Glory?’
‘Yes. A couple of the words were misspelled.’
‘Well, it’s a thought. Not impossible – assuming he could see straight enough to paint the words. I’m afraid Kemal has the same problem as my ex – the dreaded booze. So cheap out here.’
It’s strange,’ said Carole. ‘For a Muslim country there does seem to be a lot of alcohol around.’
‘Turkey is a very pragmatic Muslim country,’ said Donna. ‘It’s all down to another Kemal. Atatürk. He brought in the Western alphabet, Western weekends, and tolerance of Western habits – including everyone pouring the booze down their throats like there’s no tomorrow.’
‘Yes, I’ve read quite a lot about Atatürk,’ said Carole. ‘An intriguing figure.’
‘That’s certainly true.’
Jude moved the conversation on. ‘How long have you known Nita, Donna?’
The landlady pursed her lips with the effort of memory. ‘Phew, must be nearly twenty years – God, it is twenty years! We met when we first came out here as travel couriers, hardly out of our teens then. We bonded straight away. It was important to have someone supportive around, someone of the same gender. There was a lot of casual sexism around, so we had to learn to toughen up quite quickly out here. Nita was great to me back then, doing a real big-sister job. I was pretty naive, but she was tougher. Well, she’d had to be. Lost her mother to cancer when she was about twelve, and virtually brought up her younger brothers on her own.’
Carole and Jude exchanged looks. They hadn’t been convinced by Barney’s story of Nita having to rush back to England because her mother was ill. Now they knew it to be a lie.
‘And you’ve stayed in touch with Nita ever since, have you?’ asked Jude.
‘Yes. There were long breaks when we didn’t see each other. You know, during the winters or when we were posted to different parts of Turkey. But even then we kept in touch – emails, texts, you know.’
‘Don’t answer this if you don’t want to,’ Jude began, ‘but I got the distinct impression, seeing them together, that there once was something going on between Nita and Barney.’
Donna giggled. ‘Don’t think that’s much of a secret these days. Not sure that it ever was one. Business demands meant that Barney was quite often in Turkey on his own. When he was, he and Nita hooked up straight away. If he came out with his wife, they played it a bit cooler.’
‘And, as far as you know, is it still going on?’ Jude made a conscious effort to use the present tense. She didn’t want Donna to have any suspicion that Nita was no longer alive.