by Simon Brett
‘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.’
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 Ju
de 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?’
‘Barney would.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, he always had a kind of … I don’t know what you’d call it – a fetish, maybe – for making love in the open air.’
‘Oh?’ said Carole.
‘And the more bizarre the location, the more he liked it. Something about the situation turned him on … particularly if it was a kind of public place, where there was a risk of discovery. That always added something to the experience for him.’
There was a long silence before the inevitable question arose. ‘And how do you know this, Jude?’
No way round it now. ‘Because, a long time ago, I had an affair with Barney.’
‘Did you? But you told me you didn’t.’
‘I didn’t exactly say that.’
‘You definitely implied that you hadn’t had a relationship with him.’
‘Well, yes, I thought it was probably simpler if I—’
‘This does change things very considerably,’ said Carole, in the manner of a hanging judge.
‘Only a little, really,’ said Jude uncomfortably.
‘I mean, if he was just a friend who had chosen to lend you his villa in Turkey, that’s one thing. If he’s a lover, the situation becomes very different.’
‘An ex-lover, Carole. From a very long time ago.’
‘But it puts me in a very difficult position.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, if I’m benefiting from what I took to be Barney Willingdon’s altruistic generosity and it turns out he’s doing it “for services rendered” …’
Jude had a horrible conviction that she knew how the sentence would be completed – and she was right.
‘Well, it’s as if I’m living off immoral earnings.’
Jude’s inability completely to suppress a giggle when the line was finally spoken did not improve the atmosphere between them.
‘If you’d told me about this before, Jude, I would never have agreed to come to Turkey.’
‘I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you.’
‘And you’re sure the affair’s over?’
‘God, yes. Years ago.’
‘And neither of you thought you might rekindle it while you were out here?’
Jude couldn’t lie in response to the direct question. ‘Barney did imply he’d like us to start it up again.’
‘Did he?’
‘But I made it very clear to him that I wasn’t interested.’
‘And is that true?’
‘Of course it’s true. We had a good time, but as I say, it was long ago. Barney always liked sex and he was good at it, but I’ve never believed in going back over a route I’ve travelled before.’
‘Hm.’ Carole took off her glasses, which didn’t need polishing, and polished them. ‘Well, I can’t say I’m happy about the situation.’
‘No. I didn’t expect you to be.’
‘Particularly if Barney turns out to be a double murderer.’
‘We must find out whether he is or not,’ said Jude, hoping that getting back to their investigation might dilute her friend’s disapproval.
‘That’s going to be difficult if we can’t find him. We seem to have run out of avenues of enquiry.’
‘I wouldn’t say that.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There is one avenue of enquiry we haven’t explored yet.’
‘And what’s that?’ as
ked Carole, still grumpy.
‘Henry Willingdon. I think tomorrow morning we should go to the Hotel Osman in Fethiye.’
Carole agreed that was worth trying. There was a long silence between them. Then Carole asked, ‘And are you saying that when you were in a relationship with Barney Willingdon, you and he used to … have sexual encounters in public places?’
‘We did a bit,’ a blushing Jude admitted. ‘Not very often. And we were very young.’
‘Hm.’ Another long silence. ‘And where was the most public … or unusual place that you … used?’
‘The top of a Number twenty-seven bus.’
‘Good heavens,’ said Carole Seddon.
TWENTY-THREE
They arrived mid-morning. The Hotel Osman was set a little way from the sea at Fethiye, with a view over the marina. Rows and rows of yachts were moored along the pontoons, and as Carole and Jude moved from the car to the hotel foyer they could hear the clattering of halyards against metal poles.
The Osman was a small hotel, probably family owned. The urbane gentleman behind the reception desk confirmed that Mrs Willingdon and Mr McNally did both have rooms booked in the hotel, but regretted that Mr McNally had left early that morning in the car. Mrs Willingdon, however, was in her room. If they liked to give their names he would ring through to her.
A short telephone conversation ensued, and then Carole and Jude were told that Mrs Willingdon would meet them on the roof terrace. Would they like some tea or coffee sent up? Both opted for coffee and were then directed to the lift and told to go up to the sixth floor.
The roof terrace was well-appointed and high enough above the city to command splendid views to the sea in front and the forest-clad hills behind. It had a small pool with loungers around it and a shaded area with metal table and chairs near an empty bar.
There was no one there when Carole and Jude arrived, so they took seats in the shade and waited. It was not long till Henry Willingdon appeared. She was wearing white cotton trousers and a light-blue top. They remembered her from Chantry House as a rather pale blonde, and she still looked that way, though possibly even paler. Whatever she had been doing since she arrived in Fethiye, it had not involved spending any time in the sun.