There was a silence. ‘And is that what happened to Zoë?’ asked Jude.
Kemal nodded. ‘I swear I checked the clasp on her weight belt, but somehow it came undone.’
‘Accidentally?’
‘I don’t see how it could be accidental.’
‘So someone tampered with it?’
‘I think. Tampered – or just undid the clasp. They have a quick-release mechanism for emergencies.’
‘And you think it was Barney who undid it?’
‘No, Barney was not with us on the boat that day. But I think Barney planned it.’
‘Zoë couldn’t have done it herself, could she?’ asked Carole.
‘Suicide? I don’t think so. It’s a pretty nasty way to go. Anyway, however experienced they are, nobody ever dives alone. You always dive with a “buddy”, so the two of you can keep an eye on each other, help out if one or other of you gets into difficulties.’
‘Or, in this case, help the other one to get into difficulties by undoing the weight belt?’
‘That’s what I reckoned, yes. Though it’s very difficult to prove.’
‘I’m sure it is.’
It was Carole who asked the inevitable question. ‘So who was Zoë’s “buddy” that day?’
Kemal replied, ‘Nita.’
TWENTY-TWO
‘There was a long silence, then Kemal said, ‘Of course, I had no proof that was what happened. When Nita came to the surface – quite a long time after because she came up gradually, as you should from that kind of depth – she claimed she was nowhere near Zoë when the accident happened. She said it was a few moments before she even realized that Zoë wasn’t with her.
‘And when Barney heard about it, he just wanted the whole thing hushed up – his wife had died in a tragic accident, that was all. Somehow he managed to limit the amount of official investigation there was out here, and he had her body flown back to England for the funeral. But, although he seemed to want to keep it quiet, he still managed to spread around the fact that the accident happened on my watch, so people thought my diving school was not safe. The bookings fell disastrously – that was why Barney could buy the business so cheaply from me. This is why I hate him,’ Kemal concluded simply.
‘And you think,’ asked Carole, ‘that Barney set up Nita to sabotage the weight belt?’
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t think she did it off her own bat?’
‘Sorry? What does this mean – “bat”?’
‘It’s just an expression. It means – did she do it herself rather than following Barney’s orders?’
‘Why should she do that?’
‘She had been having a relationship with him. Suddenly, he’s introducing a new wife. Nita can’t have been very pleased about that.’
‘No.’ Kemal looked as though he hadn’t considered this possibility before. But he quickly dismissed it. ‘No, it is something Barney would arrange. It is not something Nita would do … from her own bat?’
‘Have you seen Nita recently?’ asked Jude suddenly.
‘No. Not since that evening at Cin Bal.’
‘Kemal,’ said Carole, ‘you mentioned earlier that you wanted to see Barney in prison …’
‘Yes.’
‘For the murder of Zoë?’
The man shrugged. ‘Yes. Or for another of his crimes. There are many people he has injured. I do not mind why he is imprisoned; I want revenge.’
‘But why didn’t you go to the police at the time, when Zoë died?’
‘I did not want to draw attention to what might be seen as a lapse in my safety procedures at the diving school. Besides, then Barney was my friend. We were partners in building projects. He wanted his wife’s death hushed up; it suited me too that it should be hushed up.’
‘And what’s made you change your mind about that?’
He spread his hands wide in a gesture of hopelessness. ‘Now I have nothing to lose. My business is gone, my marriage is gone, my reputation is gone. All I now live for is to get revenge on Barney Willingdon.’
There was a silence, then Carole said, ‘Earlier you told us that Fergus McNally also wanted to know what happened to Zoë.’
‘Yes.’
‘He’s another man who feels Barney’s done the dirty on him.’
‘I know this. There are many people who Barney has … how do you say it? “Shafted”?’
‘Something like that. But do you think Fergus wants to know how she died for the same reason as you do – to get Barney arrested for the crime?’
‘No, I don’t think that is his reason. He is trying to find out on behalf of another person.’
‘Who? Henry, Barney’s current wife?’
Kemal nodded. ‘Yes, it is she who wants to find out the truth.’
The two women exchanged a quick look before Carole asked, ‘Any idea why?’
‘I think perhaps she is worried that a man who could arrange to have his first wife killed might consider doing the same for his second.’
All investigative routes seemed to lead to Barney Willingdon. After Kemal had left, they tried phoning him again. But this time his mobile was switched off, not even offering to take a message.
In spite of their large lunch at the Dirty Duck, both women were feeling hungry by then, so Carole offered only token resistance to Jude’s proposal that they should eat out again. They didn’t take the car but walked out into the thyme-scented evening and found their footsteps leading them back towards the ghost town. And, in spite of the array of other restaurants they passed, eating once more at the Antik seemed a pleasantly easy option. After all, that was where Barney had come looking for them the evening before.
But there was no sign of him that night.
They found the Antik almost empty, but the number of the owner’s family who were around made the atmosphere congenial and welcoming. Carole and Jude were subdued, though, both frustrated by their lack of progress on the investigation.
‘I almost wish I’d dreamt what I saw in that tomb in Pinara,’ said Carole grumpily. ‘Wouldn’t that be nice – just the fantasy of a middle-aged woman with an overactive imagination? But no, sadly, my mind was not playing tricks. There is absolutely no doubt that I saw Nita and that she’d been strangled. Which is extremely unfortunate and just raises a whole lot of questions. Not only who killed her, but why she had been killed in the tomb at Pinara. And who moved her body? And where is it now?’
‘Yes.’ Jude paused. There was something she had been keeping from Carole since the idea of their Turkish holiday first came up. She had put off telling her friend for very good reasons, but she felt the moment of revelation could not be deferred much longer.
‘I think,’ she began cautiously, ‘that I can possibly explain why Nita’s body was in the tomb.’
‘Can you? Well, why on earth haven’t you told me before?’
‘Because I wasn’t sure,’ Jude lied. ‘But now, taken in conjunction with the text on Nita’s phone …’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The message talked about using the old place for the old purpose. And if it came from Barney—’
‘Which it seems very likely it did.’
‘Well, if it did, it would be in character for him.’
‘In what way?’
‘I don’t think there’s much doubt that what was being proposed was a sexual encounter.’
‘Oh?’
‘And clearly in a place that he and Nita had used for sexual encounters before.’
Carole looked really puzzled. ‘But who on earth would want to make love in an ancient monument?’