Arabesk

by Barbara Nadel

  'But later on that year, my mother's hopes for a glittering career for my sister nearly came to an end. Tansu, who had become fascinated by a married man she met at one of her engagements, became pregnant. You have, I imagine, heard about her son, whom she thought she had paid off years ago. But. . . So then I went off to work in the fields while Mother tended the baby. Tansu went on as before.

  'With absolutely no dowry money for either of us, not to mention the loss of my sister's virginity, the idea of either of us marrying was ridiculous. But as Tansu became more and more noted in Adana, and her engagements got bigger and more prestigious, things did start to improve. As the most literate member of our family, I even wrote some lyrics for her, suggesting that she might like to get one of her musician friends to set them to music. But she never did. Of course when she first came to Istanbul in 1970, she was more prostitute than singer. She met her manager, Ferhat Göktepe, in some Karaköy brothel. Not that he didn't know a good thing when he saw it. As soon as he heard her sing he moved his attentions from her body to her throat and from there the Tansu legend was born.

  'The following year, when she had made enough money, Tansu sent for Mother and merest of us, except for her son, of course. One of my aunts raised him from thereon. Tansu had just a small apartment in Besiktas in those days, but it was like a palace to us. She even had a radio on which I used to listen to the BBC. Between that and talking to some of the local children who were having lessons, I became quite good at English. I even thought that perhaps one day I might be able to have private tuition and apply to university somewhere -Tansu had always said that if she ever made a lot of money she would give us all what we wanted. After all, we had all made sacrifices for her.

  'But as her career garnered pace, so did her commitments. Records, radio interviews, television, films, tours. We moved to the house in Yeniköy which was a place she rarely came to in those days, what with her engagements and her many lovers. But with regard to us, she paid for everything. If one of my brothers wanted new clothes, she had a tailor come and measure him up and within a few days suits would arrive. Whenever she bought clothes for herself, she would buy an identical set for me. She was very, very generous, we wanted for nothing. So much so, in fact, that for a considerable number of years I held off from asking her about tuition for university. It seemed so ungrateful in view of all she had done.

  'And then one day I was thirty. Thirty years old, still interested in everything, like a child. Reading, reading, reading in order to educate myself - painfully aware of my own shortcomings. But with no money of my own, I had no choice but to ask Tansu to help me with my ambitions. I was sure that she would. 1 was wrong.

  '"If you go to university at your age, everyone will laugh at you and at me," she said when I put it to her for the first and only time. "And besides, while I keep you, you won't need to know anything, will you?"

  '"But Tansu," I said, "I want to do something with my life. I want to achieve . . ."

  '"Well, why don't you write some nice new songs for me?" my sister said, as she in effect sent me on my way. "That will give you a great achievement in your life."

  'And so I did just that. I both hated and loved my sister because of it and I exacted a small revenge upon her by frequently using words I knew she would not understand. But then her interpretation of words was never very good anyway. The sweetness of her tone and her large breasts are what Tansu Hanim has always been about The songs were always credited to her anyway.

  'So years came and went, and as my sister's career began to fade, so did my chances of finding a man to love. Yilmaz married briefly back in the 1980s, but his wife never did get on with Tansu and so that didn't last By the time Erol Urfa came into my sister's life, my brothers and I were idle, uneducated and useless. We were like soft, soporific odalisques. Fresh from the countryside, this young man woke me up in ways he could never have imagined.

  'I suppose that in retrospect I was a little in love with Erol myself. Perhaps he represented the kind of man I could have had, had things been different Tansu, of course grateful, treated him like a Sultan sometimes and like her personal slave at others. She would still pick up young boys on the streets on occasion too, like she did the night that Ruya died. Not that she has ever been caught doing this. I, meanwhile, just did sad, spinsterly things like look up where Erol came from on the map - some nowhere place up near the Iraqi border. I have always been interested in my country and its various regions but this area seemed to have little to recommend it With the exception of the devil worshippers.

  1 read so many things, some true and some false, that at times they made my head hurt Some books accused the Yezidis of human sacrifice, rape, infanticide, while others said that they were simply misunderstood people who worshipped a deity called the Peacock Angel. They were Kurds, like me, but Kurds who would not eat chicken or wear blue or marry anyone other than their own kind; Kurds who lifted up their eyes to pray not to Allah, but to the setting sun. And it was not long after this that I first saw Erol standing in the trees to the side of our house, his arms raised in honour of the great golden ball setting over the Bosphorus.

  'I started to think and to watch. And no, Erol didn't eat chicken, he didn't wear blue, but... It was only when I started to include references to the peacock as lover in the lyrics that Tansu passed off as her own that I knew. His expression as she innocently and without any trace of intelligent thought sang those words ... He knew she couldn't know, and her thoughtless words confused and confounded him.

  'I, meanwhile, remained silent While Tansu screamed on about how Erol would marry her in an instant if Ruya were not around, I thought about how much my sister had become like a child - and about how devastating it would be for her should something happen to Ruya and Erol then not marry her. It's not, as we know, good to be known as a devil worshipper and so Erol would, I knew, never tell Tansu why he would have to return to his village and marry another child-woman instead of her. Tansu would just simply be denied what she most wanted, seemingly on the whim of another. Just like I had been. Then she would hurt just like me. Then she would become that sad, old odalisque that I have been for so many years. Then I would be content and so I am.'

  A few moments of stunned silence passed until Ìkmen eventually said, 'But didn't your sister, once she knew that you were responsible for Ruya Urfa's death, try to get you out of the city in her car?'

  Latife Emin smiled. 'Oh, yes. She loves me. She was prepared to deceive you for me. She thought that

  I'd killed Ruya in order to tree up Erol. for her. She was very grateful.' 'But

  'She's going to be really very badly hurt when she learns the truth.' She smiled again, broadly.

  Chapter 18

  Neither Ìkmen nor Suleyman saw the sun rise over the sparkling waters of the Bosphorus that following morning as the older man helped the younger compose his report on the Emin affair. And as the heat of the day started to build, both of them from time to time spared some thought for the bitter woman who now sat somewhere far beneath their offices, down in the cells. A woman who, just like the odalisques of old to whom she frequently referred, was going to spend the rest of her life amongst other impotent, lonely women.

  'We're burying Kleopatra Polycarpou today,' Ìkmen said as he wiped a tired hand across his features.

  'Not the nicest thing to have to deal with after what we went through last night,' his equally exhausted colleague observed.

  'No. I was going to ask Sinan to accompany me, but now I'm not so sure.' Ìkmen chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip. 'In view of what we've learnt about the Emin sisters I'm wondering whether I ought to get Bulent scrubbed up and take him. Show him I know he exists.'

  Suleyman smiled. Trying to prevent any nastiness between your two boys in the future perhaps?'

  'If Zelfa Halman hadn't postulated such an idea some time ago I would have viewed the Emins as a one-off, but she did and it has made me think. Is she still around here somewhere, by the way?' />
  'Who? Dr Halman?'

  'Yes.'

  'No. But I'm meeting her for something to eat after I've spoken to Çöktin,' he looked at his watch, 'in about an hour. You're welcome to join us.'

  'Thanks, but no,' Ìkmen said with a sigh. 'I really must wash and then find something to wear for this funeral'

  A knock at the door interrupted their conversation.

  'Come,' Suleyman called and the door opened to admit a very dishevelled isak (^oktin.

  Upon seeing the young man, Ìkmen said, 'Ah, do you want me to—'

  Suleyman held up a hand. 'No. Your input could be valuable here.' And then turning towards Çöktin, he said, 'Sit down.'

  Çöktin took hold of a chair that had been leaning against the wall, placed it in front of Suleyman's desk and sat down, Ìkmen, who was sitting at what was usually Çöktin's desk, put his pen down and looked across at the young man.

  'The events of last night,' Suleyman began gravely, 'have, as you know, thrown up some very difficult issues for some of the protagonists in this case.'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Miss Emin, although she has now confessed to Ruya Urfa's murder, has raised certain points which her defence team will, no doubt, wish to bring to light in order to, to some extent, discredit those she has harmed.'

  'Like what?' the white-faced young man asked, not for a moment raising his eyes from the floor.

  'Like the fact that Mr Urfa and his late wife are Yezidis,' Ìkmen said with a bluntness Suleyman probably would not have employed.

  Çöktin turned to look at "him. 'But why are you speaking to me about this, sir?'

  'Oh, come on, Mickey!' Ìkmen said with a small if exasperated chuckle. 'You've never got as close to anyone as you got to Urfa. I won't even go into how you have knowledge about eunuchs in Arab countries but suffice to say, Dr Halman was the only other person I could find who knew about that, and she studies religion for fun. Come on!'

  Çöktin lowered his head down even further on his chest and cleared his throat.

  Suleyman looked across at Ìkmen and sighed. 'Listen, Çöktin,' he said, 'unless, somehow, Latife Emin knows about you then what passes between us here will go no further.'

  'She knows nothing because there is nothing to know!' Çöktin suddenly became almost violently agitated. Then reaching into the pocket of his jacket he took out his identity card which he held up for bom men to see. 'Look here,' he cried. 'Religion: Muslim. Official, on my card. What more do you want?'

  'Goktin—'

  'Erol's bears exactly the same words,' Ìkmen said with a shrug. 'We all know how easy it is—' - 'If Mr Urfa says that his is false then that is his business,' Çöktin said, still holding his card up, 'but mine is not. And besides, quite why you would think that one of these devil worshippers would want to be in the police force, I can't imagine. If you worship Shaitan then you're an evil person quite at odds with the law.'

  'On the surface, yes,' Ìkmen agreed, 'but if they are not evil but simply misunderstood . ..' He shrugged again. 'But your protestations are noted even if, as we all know, they are rather too vehement.'

  'Believe it or not, we were just looking out for your interests, Çöktin,' Suleyman said.

  'I couldn't care less what a man's religion might be,' Ìkmen added. 'I don't have one myself and so—'

  'But most people do care.'

  'You have an excellent record,' Suleyman said, looking the younger man in the eye, in so far as he could. 'There is no question of your being disciplined or dismissed. It was simply that if Latife Emin knew—'

  'She knows nothing about me, I hardly spoke to her.'

  'And Erol? Would he have spoken to her about you?'

  Çöktin twisted nervously in his chair, knotting and unknotting his fingers as he moved. 'Well, not about my religion, obviously. Why would he, being what he is, want to speak to a Muslim woman about a Muslim man she barely knows?'

  Ìkmen smiled. 'Well, that's all right then, isn't it?'

  'Yes,' Suleyman agreed also with a smile, if forced, upon his face. 'I should, I imagine, let you go home and get some rest now. You must be exhausted.'

  'Yes. Thank you, sir.' Çöktin rose quickly to his feet. It was obvious to all concerned that he was anxious to leave.

  'I'll see you tomorrow, then,' Suleyman said as he watched ~!oktin move towards the door. 'Yes, sir.'

  'Goodbye, Mickey Çöktin,' Ìkmen called out as the young man closed the door behind him.

  And men there was silence, Ìkmen looked across at Suleyman who; although seemingly busy shuffling papers, was actually waiting for his colleague to open up some sort of debate on what had just passed, Ìkmen obliged.

  He wiped the sweat from his brow onto the stained cuff of his shirt and said, 'Do you believe him?'

  'I don't know,' Suleyman replied. 'Do you?'

  'No. But men in view of the fact that Erol never actually told Latife Emin what he was, it is highly unlikely he would have mentioned Çöktin to her. And anyway, with aged parents and an unmarried sister to support, Mickey Çöktin probably made a rational decision when he came in here and lied to us. I mean, how would you feel if people thought you ran around naked at midnight and ate the flesh of newborn infants?'

  Suleyman smiled. 'I wouldn't be very happy about it.'

  'Mmm. Especially considering that the more lurid stories about the Yezidis are, in all probability, complete nonsense.'

  'But prejudices against them still exist,' Suleyman said, throwing a cigarette across at Ìkmen and then lighting up himself. 'And I must admit that it does feel odd to actually have one on the force.'

  'No stranger than having someone whose mother could see into the future,' Ìkmen said, wryly smiling at this dig at himself. 'Which reminds me, I must get away from here if I'm to see the last of my mother's clients bid farewell to this world.'

  'Any idea how Madame might have killed the eunuch yet?' Suleyman asked.

  'Dr Sarkissian thinks he may have been stabbed.' Ìkmen moved slowly to his feet and then stretched his arms above his head and yawned. 'Although quite why she would want to do such a thing to that poor emasculated creature we shall probably never know.'

  'Perhaps the eunuch had some other woman in his sights,' Suleyman said with a smile.

  'Well, I can't imagine why that would have bothered Kleopatra,' Ìkmen replied tartly.

  Spreading his long fingers out across his desk in what appeared to be an attempt to distract himself from the topic, Suleyman said, 'You know that in the old households it was always said that a eunuch could often satisfy a woman like no normal man?'

  'What?' Ìkmen, his face creased into sharp lines of confusion, attempted but failed to look into his colleagues now shifting gaze. 'What do . ..'

  'To say anything more would cause me tremendous embarrassment, Çetin,' the younger man said as he moved uncomfortably in his seat 'If you think about it for a while I'm sure that the light of truth will eventually dawn:' .

  'Oh, will it?' Ìkmen said. And then, as things did indeed come into focus, he reddened just a little and mumbled, 'Ah, yes, but of course, um . . .'

  'So shall I see you later?' Suleyman inquired as he watched Ìkmen remove his jacket somewhat timidly from the back of Çöktin's chair.

  'Yes, this afternoon.'

  'Good,' Suleyman smiled. 'I couldn't have finished this case without you, you know.'

  'Yes, you could,' Ìkmen said, moving towards the door of his colleague's office. 'It would have taken you longer, but you would have done it'

  And then with a smile he was gone.

  ***

  The Hippodrome Tea Garden was almost completely full when Zelfa Halman arrived for her, albeit flexible, appointment with Mehmet Suleyman. Dressed in a very eye-catching dress of red and black, the psychiatrist looked, to Orhan Tepe at least, like a woman who had been home and chosen her ensemble very carefully. He did not imagine she could have had very much sleep, and as she came towards him in response to his shout of recognition
, he could see that her eyes were heavy with fatigue.

  'I hate it when it's as hot as this,' she said as she slumped down opposite Tepe who was seated at a table facing the Hippodrome itself. 'I wonder where it's all going to end - when my blood's going to start to boil in my veins.'

  'Miss Emin must be very uncomfortable down in the cells,' Tepe said as he beckoned one of the waiters towards him. 'What would you like to drink, Doctor?'

  'Coke would be good.'

  He ordered her drink plus another peach tea for himself before launching once again into the subject of Latife Emin. 'So, I mean, er, will you, um, have to see Miss Emin, professionally, Doctor, or . . .' Although he liked her, Tepe's memories of various of his dubious relatives always made him rather uncomfortable around Zelfa Halman.

  'No.' She put a cigarette between her lips and lit it. 'Not from what I've seen of her. You don't have to be crazy to perform an act of spite.'

  Tepe frowned. 'Yes, but most people don't usually kill innocent people out of spite, do they?'

  'No, but I expect some of us would like to,' she said with a smile. 'And besides, I think she showed amazing restraint to have left it so long.'

  'What do you mean?'

  'I think that I would probably have stabbed the lovely Tansu and then hurled her into the Bosphorus years ago.'

  'Oh.' Tepe laughed briefly before becoming grave once again. 'Well, yes, that I could understand. But to kill Ruya Urfa just to get at her sister .. .'

  'Latife Emin is a clever woman,' the doctor said. She smiled up at the waiter who had arrived with their drinks. 'Erol is, was, whatever, probably Tansu's last chance with a younger man. So if Latife set her sister's mind against him then that might well have hurt Tansu for the rest of her life. After all, had Latife's crime gone undetected, then Tansu would never have understood why Erol couldn't marry her and that would have really stung.’