The Secret Fear

by Solomon Carter

  “As a way out. As protection, maybe. But things were always different. Like you said, nothing happened the first time, and we both know it won’t happen now.” He let the words sink deep. “But Izmir... you were content to put him at risk. You knew what Devirim would do to him if he found out. Of course you did.”

  “Devirim couldn’t harm him. He is Yusuf’s son.”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Miray. Yusuf values Devirim more than his son! Devirim is an Atacan. He’s a means to an end. And Devirim has no loyalty to anyone here. Izmir would have had his private parts handed to him, just like the others in the bad old days.”

  “You’re judging me. Joe... you really don’t know what I’ve been through.”

  “Actually, Miray, I do. And I feel sorry for you. But you should have run a long time back. Instead, you’ve just gotten in deeper and deeper.”

  “Joe, I don’t know what you mean...”

  Hogarth looked at her eyes and hesitated. “Didn’t Izmir ever tell you anything about what he’s been doing...?” His words drifted away. Miray’s eyes began to fill with tears again, but her expression remained blank. “Maybe he didn’t. I just can’t tell with you anymore. But you knew what he was doing with those political contacts. You knew about Ahsen too.”

  “I knew they were trying to help the Turkish freedom fighters.”

  “But did he tell you everything, Miray?”

  The woman frowned and played with her beads. Hogarth couldn’t take it. Miray had either developed into an expert liar or she was telling the truth. Either way, there was no more to say. They were done. Hogarth had to go to the next level.

  “I need to see the old man. Where is he?”

  “What are you going to say to him?”

  “Nothing to expose you, Miray. Don’t worry about that. But my advice to you would be to get out while you still can. He’s in the office?”

  Miray nodded. He turned away and left her standing alone by the shop window. When he was halfway to the counter she called after him. “Joe. You could help me. Maybe we could work things out? Between us?”

  Hogarth swallowed before he looked back at Miray. She was the one who got away. There had been a few in his life, just a few, and she was foremost among them.

  “Not like this, Miray. I’m sorry. There’d always be doubts. I can’t help you like that. It’s high time you helped yourself. Get out while you can.”

  Hogarth turned away and strode behind the counter. He didn’t bother with knocking. He opened the office door to find Yusuf Yuksel and Devirim Atacan talking animatedly in Turkish. Both men glanced up, their faces tense, their eyes burning with a mixture of anger and fear.

  “Kiro?” said Hogarth with a sneer. “Seriously, Yuksel. You’ve got some bloody nerve insulting a dead man at his own funeral!”

  “What?” said Yuksel, regaining his composure. “But the man was a kiro through and through,” he said with a shrug. “He insulted me behind my back, slandering me to my customers. He tried to ruin my business and he thought he could get away with it. Now look at him. He died a violent death and you know what, I didn’t do a thing. There’s no blood on my hands, inspector.”

  “But you would have done it, wouldn’t you? If you could?” Hogarth glanced at Atacan. The man glared at him.

  “That’s your opinion,” said Yuksel. “Which as you know, doesn’t count for anything at all.”

  “But that gunshot at Hamlet Court Road counts for something. It’s on CCTV, Devirim. Ceylon Road car park has cameras all over it. You might have gotten away with what you pulled in Basildon, but if there’s any way we can persuade that warehouseman to press charges against you, we will, and then you’ve got two police officers who will swear that you were involved in two shootings. Add the CCTV camera footage from Ceylon Road to that mix, and you’re in very hot water. Trying to kill a policeman is a very serious business. Trying to do it twice, well, that’s a diabolical liberty.”

  “That man won’t ever speak. I guarantee it,” said Atacan. “Besides, I didn’t have the gun, did I?”

  “But you knew the gunman. And that little excuse can’t be used again now. I saw you with your gunman twice. I know you’re the one pulling the strings. If nothing else, we’d get you as an accomplice to attempted murder – twice over.”

  “Oh. And where is this man?” said Atacan. “In your imagination?”

  “We’ll find him. You know we will. You crossed a line, Atacan. And it wasn’t the first time, was it? You’ve crossed a few very dangerous lines in your time. But you won’t get away with it forever.”

  Devirim Atacan’s eyes misted with thought. His face shone with hatred.

  “You had better be careful with your words, inspector,” said Yuksel.

  Hogarth shook his head. “I don’t think so. Old Dev here will figure it out, won’t you? And as for being careful with words, Mr Yuksel, you’d better hope your son is careful with his.”

  The old man frowned. Atacan’s face tightened.

  “Mr Yuksel, I actually came to tell you that your son has been arrested for the murder of Baba Sen.”

  “Preposterous! Outrageous!” said Yuksel. “My son isn’t capable of hurting a fly.”

  “Maybe once, yes. And I bet that bothered you a lot at the time, didn’t it? Which is probably why you gradually turned him into that pathetic outsider he is today. I bet you wanted someone with backbone and a tough reputation to help your rise from a petty scoundrel to a man with enough power to scare people into submission.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The stuff you stock at this cash and carry. It’s all fake Turkish. It’s poor quality, sub-standard fare, and you are foisting it on your customers in return for not destroying them. I know Dev Atacan attends to that side of things, and it was his brother Ferkan before him. We’ve got evidence of the fake Turkish food imports, an epic fraud, probably some evidence of smuggling too. And once this murder case is over, who knows what else we’ll have. Sorry, Yusuf, but this house of cards is really starting to tumble. But to be brutally honest, the collapse really started the very moment Baba Sen died.”

  The old man glowered. “I just told you, we had nothing to do with Sen’s death. But it’s true. I did hate that man because he tried to ruin my business.”

  “But why did he try, eh? When did it start, this hatred? Orcun Sen told us it all began just a couple of years back. Two years ago. About the time you opened your cash and carry – or maybe there was another cause? Strange for a feud as deep as yours to start so recently. I know you’re both very different men. Baba was a fan of Erdoĝan, seemingly a very religious man, and you, well, you’re a crook and a fan of no one but yourself...”

  “Baba Sen only pretended to be religious!”

  Hogarth smiled. “You might be right there, Yusuf. What do you say, Devirim? Do you think Baba Sen was all that he seemed? Is anyone what they seem here?”

  Devirim’s eyes flared. “Keep talking and you’re a dead man.”

  “Ah yes. That’s the old Atacan spirit. If you can’t get what you want, why not threaten somebody? What are you afraid of, Dev? Am I getting too close to the truth?”

  The old man slapped his hands on his desk in frustration. “What is this nonsense! Speak man!”

  “If you insist, Mr Yuksel. What with your son nice and safe inside a cell, today looks a good day for speaking out, doesn’t it?”

  Yuksel seemed baffled. Devirim Atacan’s face seethed and shifted like a bad Picasso.

  “Two years ago, your business started up. Two years, eh? I’ve been thinking about two years a lot recently. Ever since the start of this case I’ve been bumping up against the words two years. Two years ago was when Miray Atacan turned up here – under your care and supervision, Yusuf.”

  Yuksel nodded. “So? She needed somewhere to stay.”

  “And you were oh so willing to help. And who arranged that I wonder?”

  “What do you mean? My son is in a cell and you ask me
about this woman? Who cares about her?”

  “Indulge me for a moment, Yusuf. Who arranged for her to stay here? If you don’t tell me, she will.”

  Atacan shifted in his chair. Hogarth’s eyes gleamed but he ignored the man. Even so, his heart began to beat faster.

  “The woman knew of us through her husband, Ferkan. Ferkan and I had just started doing business back then.”

  “Business. Such a nice euphemism for starting a nasty, black little enterprise as yours. This was when you decided to branch out from money laundering at the car wash into basic racketeering.”

  Yuksel scowled. “It has nothing to do with Baba Sen’s murder.”

  “Wait, Yusuf. Stay with me,” said Hogarth. “Miray came here after your dealings with Ferkan had already started. She came here after you had just lost a key asset for your new business – your enforcer, Ferkan Atacan. Ferkan was shot to death in Canning Town. And when did it happen? Two years ago. It was part of the changing of the guard in the running of the London crime scene. They were clearing out the old order. At least, that’s what it looked like. And what a shame for you. But you were smart. You decided to help Miray Atacan to score a few brownie points with the Atacan family. You hoped that something would come of it. And it looked like that plan worked... because look who turned up! You found a ready-made replacement enforcer when Devirim Atacan decided to get out of London before the new gangs could kill him too. It looked like a very good call, Dev. Who knows? Maybe I would have done the same in your shoes. You got a safe little business start-up to take over, and you stepped right into your brother’s old job, and from what I heard, you even get to take over his wife as well. Nice and tidy, eh? Is that how Yuksel offered you the job? A job and wife package? Or did you think your dead brother wouldn’t mind you taking over his missus as well?”

  Atacan almost jumped from his chair, but old man Yuksel slammed an arm across his chest.

  “Be sensible, Dev. He wants you to react. He has nothing on you?”

  Hogarth’s eyes gleamed. “Two years. It’s everywhere I look. Two years ago, Ferkan was killed. Two years ago, Miray comes here. Two years ago, Dev turns up and takes over from his brother. Two years ago, your feud starts against Baba Sen? Why, Yusuf? Do you know?”

  “Two years ago? Because that’s when our business started, when Baba Sen started to bad-mouth us.”

  “Because he refused to be a part of your racket, am I right?” said Hogarth. “Because he refused to pay up.”

  “Not only did he refuse to come on board with us...” muttered Yuksel, “but he dared tell others not to buy from us.”

  “And why would a little old man like Baba Sen have the guts not to pay after you sent your enforcer the infamous Ferkan Atacan to scare him and his family?”

  The old man’s face crumpled. “How do you know I sent Ferkan there?”

  Devirim blinked. Hogarth watched him squirm. The excitement in his chest began to build. Hogarth ignored Yusuf’s question.

  “Was it Baba’s unique faith?”

  “No. Baba was lucky.” Yusuf slapped Devirim’s knee. “Poor Devirim’s brother was killed. He got away with it.”

  Hogarth looked at them both and beamed.

  “Then it was divine intervention maybe? Ferkan died after facing this noble man of faith. And after Ferkan died Baba started speaking out. So why didn’t you challenge him after that then, eh, Yusuf?”

  “We did warn him. But he just didn’t listen. You did warn him, didn’t you, Devirim?”

  Devirim nodded but stayed silent.

  “He probably did. But just how hard did you try, eh, Dev? Maybe not too hard. Am I right?”

  “What?” said Yuksel.

  It was time for Hogarth to risk his only ace.

  “I discovered that Baba Sen started making some regular monthly payments. He kept a record of them. Not even his family knew of those payments. When did they start? Two years ago, of course. Regular payments, a couple of hundred pounds a month. Nothing too big, Nothing too suspicious... and these payments were listed under four letters which I thought were a name a first. FADA. It sounded like it could have been an Arabic or maybe a Turkish name. But it turns out I was wrong on that. But I figured it out today. Those letters weren’t one name, they were two. Baba Sen, the zealot, the man of virtue. That’s what he seemed. But he wasn’t, was he, Dev? Not in the least. Tell him, Dev. Go on. Put us all out of our misery.”

  Devirim jabbed a finger at Hogarth.

  “You are a dead man.”

  “One day, Dev. But not today. I’ll help you out, shall I? Baba Sen was no saint. We already knew that. His own grandson disliked him so much that, well, you’ll find out soon enough. His own son said he was distant and austere. But you know what else he was, don’t you, Dev? Baba Sen was a vengeful, angry man, just like Yusuf here. An opportunist who didn’t want another Turk putting one over on him or draining his business... so he reached out to another man who was just like him. Back then, Dev, the need to get away from the danger in London was so strong, wasn’t it? The new gangs were coming for you. But those weren’t what did for your brother, were they?”

  “I swear I’ll kill you,” said Devirim.

  Hogarth turned his attention to Yuksel.

  “F.A.D.A. – they were letters in Baba Sen’s notes of every payment he ever made. Can you work it out, Yusuf? I couldn’t. Not at first. But it’s funny how a couple of bullets whizzing past your head can really help focus the mind. I’ll help you out, shall I? F.A. translates as Ferkan Atacan. D.A is Devirim Atacan. FADA. Those four letters were a summary of the task completed and the man who carried it out. The man Baba was paying for the job done. Baba Sen has been paying Dev Atacan a lump sum of two hundred pounds every month for two years – ever since he paid Devirim Atacan to kill his own brother! He paid you to do it, and you did it, didn’t you, Dev? You made it look like a gang-war hit. But you only did it because you were an opportunist like everybody else involved in this hideous mess. You saw what your brother had, and you wanted it. The safe exit. The new life. A pretty wife. That’s how it happened. And after it was done, you knew that if you ever threatened Baba Sen, he would have exposed you. You should have had the best motive of everyone involved to want that old man dead. There was even a letter ‘A’ carved into his head to implicate you. But I knew it wasn’t you. Baba Sen didn’t fear you and he didn’t fear Yuksel because he was still paying you off every month. Once the job was done, receiving two hundred a month for nothing feels like a sweet little deal, eh? So why spoil it by threatening the man or killing him? Funny the way that killing your own brother proves you didn’t kill Baba Sen. The Sen murder was too clumsy, too messy, too indecisive for the likes of you. What you did to your brother was clinical, brutal, and cold. So, it’s good news, Dev. You’re off the hook for the Sen murder. But if what I know about your family is true, then you’re going to have a few problems with them pretty soon now, eh?”

  “You’re lying!” spat Devirim. “You’re dreaming!” he said, his face flushed. Yuksel looked at him with doubt, and then disgust.

  “That’s why Baba Sen was never scared of you, Yusuf. He didn’t need to be. His prior arrangement with Devirim made him immune.”

  “Lies! I’ll kill you, I promise,” said Atacan.

  “But you do that, Dev, and you’ll go to prison. And you won’t be safe from your family in there, will you? You might as well hang yourself now instead. At least you’d stay in one piece.”

  Devirim stood up. Hogarth took a sharp intake of breath but kept his face even.

  “I’ve got the evidence, Dev. It’s all nice and safe at the station. What a let-down you’ve turned out to be. Not just for your family, but everyone. Old man Yuksel here, and Miray too. Think she’ll want to marry the man who topped her first hubby? Not likely, Dev. Sounds like a real turn off to me.”

  The man seethed. He was shaking.

  “With the charges you’re facing, a jail term is definite. Killing a cop on top of
that? Not a good move at all. If I were you, I think I might want to disappear. Permanently. Another country might be your best bet. Or even better, a long slow walk into the sea. Better than the alternatives, am I right?”

  The old man watched, speechless, as Devirim Atacan turned away and yanked the office door open. He turned back and stared at Hogarth.

  “You’re a dead man. I promise you.”

  “All the broken promises I’ve heard in my life – I can’t even count them, Dev. On your way now. Before I call in some backup. Oh, and take that big idiot of yours with you. You know – the one who can’t shoot for shit.”

  Devirim slammed the door and left Hogarth with the old man. Yuksel looked pale and drawn. He was shaking. Hogarth wondered if he was going to throw up.

  “See, Yusuf. Your little fiefdom started dying from the moment you over reached yourself, Next time, I’d stick to cleaning cars and rinsing cash. It’s time to shut down your cash and carry. You’re getting a bit long in the tooth for the Don Corleone routine anyway. Think about it. I’ve got the evidence now, Yuksel. And if Dev does fly the coop, I’ll have the warehouseman as well. Not good, eh? Still, I best be off. I don’t want to keep your son waiting, do I?”

  Hogarth stepped closer to the old man’s desk and planted the one lira note down in front of Yuksel. He looked at it. The word KIRO stared right back at him. “Ironic, wouldn’t you say?” said Hogarth. He opened the door and walked out into the shop. Miray watched and rushed towards him as he walked to the door.

  “What did you say to him?” said Miray. “What did you say to Devirim?”

  “Only the truth, Miray. You know, you should really try it some time. I don’t think Devirim will be around to bother you anymore. But one question, Miray – if you had a chance at a brand-new future, not one dictated to you, but one of your own choosing, what would you go for?”

  The woman’s eyes flickered with confusion. Hogarth started walking. She caught up with Hogarth again as he reached the door.

  “I don’t know. Maybe I would spend my life with you...”

  Hogarth smiled and shook his head. “I don’t think that’s it. Just think about it for a while. And then for the first time in your life, why not go for what you really want instead?”