Donna grimaced with uncertainty. ‘That I don’t know. They certainly keep very closely in touch. But I guess things were different after Nita married Erkan.’
‘How long have they been married?’
‘Must be getting on for ten years now.’
‘I must say,’ said Carole, ‘that when we saw them together, there didn’t seem to be much love lost.’
‘No, it isn’t exactly a Mills and Boon romance. I think Erkan kind of lost interest when it became clear that Nita wasn’t going to produce the son he so wanted. That kind of thing counts for a lot out here.’
‘Could Nita just not conceive?’ asked Jude.
‘No, I think she could,’ Donna replied.
‘That’s rather a strange answer.’
‘Yes, I suppose it is. It’s just things Nita’s said to me at times, you know, when we’re on the second bottle of wine. That she might have continued to use contraception … Like she didn’t want the commitment of having children with Erkan. You know, like I said earlier about my marriage.’
‘Are you suggesting,’ asked Jude, ‘that Nita’s still holding a candle for Barney?’
‘I suppose it’s possible. Her marriage to Erkan always seemed to be more of a commercial transaction than a love match.’
‘Oh?’
‘When they met he was just a diving instructor for another company. She was keen on scuba diving and had some lessons with him.’
‘Did she continue with it?’
‘Yes, she was very good.’ Donna wrinkled her nose. ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but it’s not for me. I’ve never fancied it, all that business of putting your head under water. I had one lesson and got terribly claustrophobic. That was enough. But Nita loved scuba diving from the start. And it was Nita’s business brain that enabled Erkan to set up his own diving school. Her brain and Barney’s money.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, Barney bankrolled Erkan when he set up his own diving school. He bought a company that was going belly-up and put a lot of money into making a swish, state-of-the-art enterprise.’
‘Was that so Erkan would always be in his debt?’
‘Possibly.’
‘And Erkan wouldn’t be able to complain if Barney continued his relationship with Nita?’
Donna looked at Jude and nodded slowly in admiration. ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve wondered more than once. Nita never said it to me in so many words, but she said things – again well into the second bottle of wine – which implied that might be what was going on.’
Donna’s openness was very welcome. Jude got the impression that she was as intrigued about her friend as they were, that although she was close to Nita there were still areas of her life to which she had always been denied access.
So she felt empowered to ask her next question. ‘Did you know Barney’s first wife, Zoë?’
‘I wouldn’t say “knew” her. I met her a few times.’
‘And did she arrive on the scene before Barney had started his relationship with Nita?’
‘No. And, needless to say, Nita was pretty miffed about the news. So far as she was concerned, she and Barney were an item – though, of course, she only saw him when his business brought him out to Turkey. What he got up to while he was in England, she had to take on trust.’
Which was probably a rather foolish thing to do, Jude reflected. She thought about the timescale and realized that when she and Barney had their brief affair he was quite possibly already involved with Nita. While it was going on, Jude had never properly trusted Barney. There was always time in his life unaccounted for, time when the demands of his business took him away. Often abroad. Quite frequently to Turkey. She felt even more glad she’d been firm with him when he’d suggested rekindling their relationship.
‘And then suddenly,’ Donna went on, ‘Barney’s out in Kayaköy with a brand-new wife. Which, as you can imagine, was a bit of a slap in the face for Nita.’
‘I can see that. And was it on that first trip out here that Zoë died?’
‘No, it was a couple of years later. Because by then she was quite an experienced diver. Got her OWD.’ In response to the blank faces she explained, ‘Open Water Diving certificate. That made it even stranger that she had the accident.’
‘Do you know exactly how it happened?’ asked Jude.
‘Not the details, no. Barney and Nita both clammed up about it. Zoë drowned, that’s all I know.’
‘And when,’ asked Carole, ‘did Nita and Erkan get married? And, indeed, when did they set up Erkan’s business?’
Donna’s brow wrinkled with the effort of memory. ‘That would be fairly soon after the first time Barney brought Zoë out here.’
‘So maybe that was a kind of pay-off to Nita from Barney? “Thank you very much for all your loyal service, now I suggest you marry Erkan and I’ll give you the money to set up a business together”?’
‘I must say, at the time I wondered if that was what had happened.’
A raucous crowd of English had just entered the Dirty Duck. Large men in shorts and sticklike women with wraps over bikinis. Union Jack T-shirts and far too many tattoos for Carole’s taste.
‘Hello, Donna darling!’ one of the men called out. ‘Back again for your daily specials.’
‘Be with you in a moment, Bazza love,’ she called back, the perfect East End landlady. ‘Have to go, girls.’
‘And what do we do?’ asked Carole, who had just finished her omelette, but only got halfway through the mountain of chips. ‘Pay at the bar?’
‘No, you don’t. These are on me.’
‘Oh no, we can’t accept—’
‘Told you at Dalaman Airport you’d get special rates, didn’t I?’
‘Yes,’ said Jude, ‘but there’s a difference between special rates and getting our whole lunch on the house.’
‘Not at the Dirty Duck there isn’t,’ said Donna with a grin.
Jude looked at Carole, dissuading her from further argument. ‘Well, in that case, we will say a very gracious thank-you for your generosity.’
‘My pleasure, love.’
‘And look …’ Jude pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag and scribbled on it. ‘Here are our mobile numbers. If you hear anything from Nita, could you ask her if she’s lost a phone?’
‘Of course. And you’ve got the number here, haven’t you?’
Jude nodded.
‘It’s strange,’ Donna continued. ‘I haven’t heard from her in the last couple of days. Not even a text – that’s unlike Nita.’
Donna Lucas looked worried. And Carole felt bad. She couldn’t say anything at that point, but she knew the landlady of the Dirty Duck was due soon to get some very upsetting news.
NINETEEN
‘It’s a pity we didn’t bring the mobile with us,’ said Jude as they made their way back to the car. ‘Then we could check out the “1066” code. Still, we can do it as soon as we get back to Morning Glory.’
‘Yes, except now it seems like the phone has nothing to do with Nita.’
‘It’s odd, though, that the two cases are so similar, just with the colours reversed. That makes me think there might be some connection. Anyway, we can check back at the villa. If the “1066” code works, then we’ll know there’s a connection.’
‘Hm. Of course, we’re not going back to Morning Glory straight away,’ said Carole firmly.
‘Why not?’
‘Because we’re very near to Ölüdeniz. And Ölüdeniz is where Erkan has his diving school.’ She pulled out of her bag a flyer that she’d picked up in Morning Glory. ‘And I think Erkan has to be our next port of call.’
Jude didn’t disagree.
Ölüdeniz was as much targeted at British tourists as Hisarönü, but in a slightly more tasteful and upmarket way. There were, to Carole’s relief, fewer Union Jack T-shirts and tattoos. It was very much a regimented seaside resort, pebbly beach laid out with parallel rows of loungers and umbrellas. Given how relatively early it was in the season, a surprising number of the loungers were occupied. Overhead, there was a lot of paragliding activity.