‘So did Nita do it off her own bat?’
He was silent, then said, ‘It could have been a genuine accident.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes.’ But he wasn’t even convincing himself. ‘I try not to think about it, but yes, I’m afraid Nita probably did.’
‘And have you ever been afraid that Nita might have been planning some similar fate for Henry?’
‘No.’
‘She was very possessive. About you. Even when you’d married her off to Erkan and bought them the diving school, it was still you she hoped to end up with.’
‘I don’t know about that. Anyway, what’s all of this got to do with Nita’s murder?’
‘I spoke to Henry about it.’
‘Henry? My wife Henry? When?’
Jude was amazed to find herself replying, ‘This morning.’ So much seemed to have happened since then.
‘What? You phoned Chantry House?’
‘No. Henry’s out here.’
‘Is she?’ Once again he sounded genuinely shocked.
‘She’s staying at the Hotel Osman in Fethiye. And she’s got Fergus McNally with her.’
‘What? Look, if you’re trying to persuade me that my wife would have an affair with a loser like—’
‘That is not what I’m saying. There’s no affair. It’s a business relationship. Henry paid for Fergus’s flights, and she’s also paying him to do some work for her.’
‘What kind of work?’
‘That’s what I’ve been wondering. Some kind of investigative work. Part of it was finding out what happened on that day at Sariyerler when Zoë died.’
‘And the other part?’
‘I don’t know for sure, but I do know Henry had been very concerned about the possibility of Nita trying to eliminate her as well. Had been, I say, but this morning she announced with great satisfaction that she was no longer worried about any threat from Nita.’
‘So are you suggesting that my wife Henry actually paid Fergus to …?’
‘Well, it’s a possibility,’ said Jude.
THIRTY-ONE
Carole, in a state of some confusion, was just leaving the front door of Brighton House when she saw the outline of its owner coming through the main gates.
‘Good evening,’ he said. ‘Funny, I hadn’t got you down as the burglarious sort.’
‘No, I’m not. I came in because I smelt burning and …’ She indicated the pile of dampened-down ash. ‘I think a bit of charcoal must have fallen out of the barbecue and set it alight. I was afraid the house might have caught fire, so I came to put it out.’
‘Well, that was very public-spirited of you. Thank you very much. What a good person you are to have as a neighbour – and not only because of your pulchritude.’
Carole suppressed a shudder. ‘Well, I’d better get back to Morning Glory. Jude went out for a walk, I think, but she’s probably back now and I—’
‘No, she’s not back yet. I’ve just taken her to see Barney Willingdon.’
Carole was too tense to worry that Jude was progressing on their investigation in a major way without her. ‘Really?’ she said. ‘How on earth did you know where he was?’
‘Oh, I make it my business to know about everything that goes on in Kayaköy.’
‘Good. Well, I’d better get back and …’
But Travers Hughes-Swann was still standing in her way, firmly in the middle of the two open gates. ‘While, as I say, I’m very grateful to your public spirit in coming to put out the fire, I do find myself faced by a small niggling question.’
‘And what’s that?’ asked Carole, trying to sound casual.
‘It’s simply: in what way did your coming to put out the fire necessitate your entering my house?’
There was no way of avoiding the direct question. ‘To be quite honest, I was worried about your wife.’
‘Ah. “Her Indoors”,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘Or should it be “Her Not Indoors”?’
Her second, ‘Yes,’ was almost inaudible.
‘I think we need to talk about this, Carole,’ said Travers Hughes-Swann.
The discussion of murder in the ghost town seemed to have transmuted into a kind of therapy session. Jude told Barney the content of their conversation with Henry that morning, and he admitted his terrible fear of impotence. And, yes, he had tried to pick up again with Nita – because he wanted to recapture the past, to go back to the days when sex had been instinctive and natural.
‘I think you need to talk to Henry,’ said Jude.
‘I have talked to her till I’m blue in the face. It doesn’t make any difference.’
‘Talk to her about the problem. The sex problem. You need professional help.’
‘What, you mean I need to go to some smug eleven-year-old doctor,’ he asked scornfully, ‘and tell her I can’t get it up?’
‘It needn’t be like that.’ Instinctively, Jude had started talking in her healer’s voice. ‘There are medical specialists in that kind of area.’
He snorted contempt.
‘Anyway, apart from that, why don’t you ring Henry?’
‘Why?’
‘Well, she’s here. She’s only in Fethiye. She can rescue you, take you to the Hotel Osman for the rest of the night, and you can get a flight back to England tomorrow.’
‘I don’t know. If it was Henry who organized Nita’s death, then—’
‘It was not Henry who organized the death. You killed her!’
They both looked up at the sound, to see a figure framed in the rotting doorway. The bandage round his head looked like a turban in the moonlight. In his hand was a gun.
It was Erkan.
‘Your friend gave you away,’ said Travers Hughes-Swann.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘The lovely Jude. She told me about you finding the body.’
‘I still don’t understand.’
‘Everyone seems to think that Barney killed Nita. That’s the logical thing to think. And once Erkan has killed Barney, the whole affair will be neatly sewn up without any involvement of the police … well, except when they arrest Erkan.’
‘Erkan’s in hospital in Fethiye. He can’t do much harm to Barney at the moment.’
‘Don’t you believe it. I phoned him as soon as your friend Jude told me about you discovering the body. I told him all the details, and I told him that Barney must have killed Nita. As a result, he discharged himself from hospital and got a cousin of his to drive him back to Kayaköy.’ Travers looked at his watch. ‘Barney is probably already dead.’
‘But does anyone know where Barney is? How’s Erkan going to find him?’
‘I know where Barney is. In the ghost town. I’ve told Erkan where to find him.’
‘Why on earth did you do that?’
‘I told you. So that the whole business is neatly sewn up. Erkan kills Barney for strangling Nita. The police arrest Erkan.’ He spread his hands wide. ‘How tidy is that?’
‘It won’t be so tidy,’ said Carole, ‘if I tell the police about finding the body.’
‘No, I agree, it won’t.’
And suddenly he had grabbed her, enveloping her in his body odour. Carole tried to fight back, but there was amazing strength in his wiry tanned arms. He must have had the plastic garden ties ready, because soon she was pinned down in an upright chair, wrists and ankles strapped to its arms and legs.
‘Which is why,’ said Travers, as if there had been no interruption to their conversation, ‘I have to ensure that you don’t go to the police.’
‘Are you threatening to murder me?’
He smiled ruefully in the moonlight. ‘I’m afraid I can’t see any other viable alternative.’
‘Suppose I were to promise you that I won’t go to the police, that I will forget what I saw at Pinara?’