‘Oh yes. I wouldn’t want anyone else involved. You know, I like to feel Phyllis still has her dignity.’
‘Of course.’
‘Actually, the reason we dropped by,’ said Jude, ‘is that we wanted to contact Barney, and he doesn’t seem to be answering his phone.’
‘Oh? Well, why don’t you contact Nita? She’ll know where he is, for sure.’
Carole didn’t want to explain why they didn’t try to contact Nita, so she just said, ‘She doesn’t seem to be answering her phone either.’
‘But, Travers,’ said Jude, ‘you told me you knew all the villas Barney’s built round here. I wondered if you might know which one he’s likely to be staying in.’
‘Well, he doesn’t really have a pattern about that. It depends which one’s empty … you know, hasn’t got any holidaymakers in it.’
‘Ah, I see.’ Jude felt a little dejected. Were they back to the position of waiting until Barney chose to contact them?
‘For choice he usually stays in Morning Glory, but of course he won’t be doing that with you there.’
‘No.’
‘As a matter of fact, though, I do happen to know which of his other villas are occupied at the moment.’ He winked one wrinkle-surrounded eye. ‘I like to keep my ear to the ground, you know. With the right contacts, you can find out everything that goes on in Kayaköy.’
‘I’m sure you can.’
‘And I’d put money on the fact that Barney’s staying in a villa called Tulip Cottage.’
‘Oh well, we might drive down and see if Barney’s in,’ said Carole. ‘Where is the villa exactly?’
‘Just further along the hillside towards the village. You don’t need to take the car. It’s easily walkable.’
‘Well, thank you.’ Jude downed the contents of her coffee mug, trying to avoid the chip on its rim. ‘No time like the present. We’ll go and see if he’s in.’
They both left Brighton House with some relief.
The security at Tulip Cottage was at a considerably higher level than at Morning Glory. Solid metal gates were the only break in a high stone wall surrounding the property. Set in cement to either side of the gates were old clay amphorae. Carole and Jude could not see any of the villa itself except for the terracotta-coloured tiles of its roof.
There was an entryphone with a keypad by the side of the gates. But pressing the call button elicited no response.
TWENTY-ONE
When they got back to Morning Glory, they found they had a visitor. Though they had shut up the villa itself, the main gates were not locked, and sitting on a lounger by the pool was Kemal. He still looked scruffy in jeans and grubby T-shirt, but when he began to speak he was a lot more coherent than when they had last seen him at Cin Bal.
‘I thought if I wait you come back here,’ he said.
‘I was just about to get us a drink,’ said Jude as she went across to unlock the front door. ‘Can I get you something?’
He shook his head firmly. ‘No, today I do not drink.’
‘Fine. Not even something non-alcoholic?’
‘No.’
‘You like a glass of white wine, Carole?’
‘That would be very nice.’
Carole sat rather than lounged on another lounger, and there was silence until Jude reappeared with the drinks and asked, ‘Well, Kemal, is there something we can do for you?’
‘It is more what I can do for you. There is something I can tell you.’
‘Oh?’
‘I meet the Englishman Fergus this afternoon.’
‘Ah, yes, so did we.’
‘I know this. He says he sees you. And he says you want to know the same thing he does.’
‘Which thing are you talking about?’ asked Carole.
‘You want to know what happened to Barney Willingdon’s first wife.’
Carole and Jude exchanged looks and sat forward. ‘Yes, we had wondered,’ said Jude.
‘I can tell you.’
‘It was something to do with a scuba diving accident, wasn’t it?’
‘It was, yes. It happened at my diving school.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know you had a diving school too.’
‘No, it is same one. It was my diving school. Then business is bad, Barney buys it from me at very cheap price and puts lots of money in for Erkan. He could have invested money for me still to run the school. But, no, he take away my livelihood. Then he spread bad rumours about me, so that I can no longer get work as a diving instructor in the Fethiye area.’
‘And you want revenge on him for that? That’s why you attacked him at Cin Bal?’
‘Yes, but then I was stupid.’ He shook his head, as if trying to shake out the memory. ‘I was drunk then. I was drunk when I paint message on wall in there.’ He nodded towards the villa.
‘Ah, that was you, was it? You painted our little welcoming message, did you?’
‘It not for you. I think Barney stay here. It for him, to show I have not forgotten, to show I still look for revenge. But that was foolish. Then I was drunk. Today I am not drunk.’
‘But you still want revenge on Barney?’
‘Proper revenge I want. Revenge through courts. I want him imprisoned for things he has done.’
‘And is that why you’re telling us what you know?’
‘More people know the truth, more he is likely to be arrested. Police will not listen to me. They think me lazy layabout, drunkard. They more likely listen to people like you.’
‘Very well then,’ said Jude. ‘Tell us what happened to Barney’s first wife.’
‘She very keen on scuba diving. You know about scuba diving?’
‘Virtually nothing.’
‘Well, is not important the details. All you have to know is that safety is most important. People who learn start with practical demonstration of equipment before they go near water, then in pool, then in sea. And there are certificates people have to get before they go to different levels of diving. Zoë Willingdon does very well at it. First time she come out here with Barney she do beginners’ course, then other times she do more and more. She get Advanced Open Water qualification – that means she can dive almost anywhere. She very good.
‘Well, there is popular place for advanced divers called Sariyerler. It is like a bay and you can only get there by boat. About one hour from Fethiye harbour. The diving spot is called Three Tunnels, like a reef, though not much coral. A hill in the sea, with the tunnels in it. One side is quite deep, maybe forty-five metres, maybe sixty. Only for very experienced divers, but Zoë has the qualification, she is all right to dive there.
‘Anyway, one day she goes out to Sariyerler. I am with her, I drive the boat, and I check all the equipment before she dives. This is very important. You check the first stage, the second stage, the octopus … these are technical terms you do not need to know about. And you also check the weight belt.’
‘Sorry, what’s that?’ asked Jude.
‘Always for scuba diving you have a weight belt. Living human bodies naturally float, so you need the weight belt to keep you from coming up to the surface. The amount of weight on the belt has to be adjusted to the size of the person, obviously. Some weight belts have pouches which are filled up with lead shot; others use solid weights which are threaded on to the belt. I prefer to use those. And the weight belt has a very secure clasp, so that it cannot come undone by mistake.’
‘What would happen if it did come undone by mistake?’ asked Carole.
‘That would depend on how deep the diver was. Near the surface it would not be much of a problem – you just might have lost the weight belt, that is all. But the deeper you are diving, the more dangerous it becomes. If you are, say, thirty metres down and the weight belt comes off, you start to rise slowly but very quickly accelerate. This is very bad. At thirty metres you are breathing four times atmospheric pressure, so four times as much air as you would on the surface. If you rise very quickly this air expands and will probably burst your lungs. It will kill you, anyway.’