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.’‘He doesn’t,’ she snapped.‘What I mean is, he’s widowed but has not remarried, and he works in humble employment.’‘He chooses to.’İkmen flicked the ash from his cigarette into an ashtray made of solid gold.‘Yes.Although of course none of this explains why Vedat, according to the young officer who was at the scene when your sister-in-law was taken, was so very anxious for Hikmet not to involve us in the crime.Why was that?’Hale Sivas’ face didn’t show any sort of emotion as she shrugged once again.‘Vedat, like everyone, doesn’t trust the police.’‘Is that so?’ İkmen smiled and rose to his feet.‘You know, criminals are always saying that to me.Isn’t it odd?’ He straightened up and moved towards the centre of the room.‘But maybe you’re wrong about Vedat.After all, he isn’t a criminal, is he? Nevertheless, neither Inspector İskender nor myself got the impression that either of your brothers was telling the whole truth when we spoke to them.’And then without another word he left the salon and made his way into the large, airy entrance hall.Metin İskender, his eyes red from lack of sleep, was leaning against a kilim which hung on one of the rose-coloured walls.‘I just needed a moment,’ he said as İkmen approached.‘Can’t seem to sleep when I’m here at night.’The sound of many people exploring many rooms floated to them from every part of the building.‘Nothing unusual as yet?’ İkmen asked after he had stubbed his cigarette out in the golden ashtray he had carried with him from the salon.‘No.But we’re working on it.Some in a rather more fanciful way than others.’‘What do you mean?’ İkmen asked.‘Hikmet Yıldız is convinced there’s a secret passage somewhere in the house.He keeps tapping the walls.’‘He may well have a point,’ İkmen said with a shrug.‘It could explain how a large box materialised in an upstairs bedroom and how two grown men disappeared without trace.’‘Well, yes, but we’re not exploring the interior of a Rhineland castle here.’ İskender wiped the sweat that had gathered on his forehead with the back of his hand.‘You’ve spoken to Miss Hale?’İkmen lit up another cigarette.‘For all the good it did me.By the way, why haven’t we got a female officer on site? We should have.’‘Farsakoǧlu was due to relieve Gün at eight,’ İskender replied, ‘but she’s sick.’‘Oh?’ Tepe, or so it had appeared to İkmen, had been somewhere he shouldn’t last night.Could it be the lady was ‘recovering’?İskender shrugged.‘That’s all I know,’ he said.‘I hear that confectioner you persisted in pursuing killed himself yesterday.’Angered both by the implication that he bore some responsibility for Hassan Şeker’s death and by İskender’s casual attitude towards it, İkmen said, ‘Yes, he did, Metin.But I don’t think it had anything to do with me.I would tell you what my suspicions are with regard to that situation but since I’m not yet ready to have Commissioner Ardıç privy to my thoughts, I’ll keep them to myself for the moment.’‘Çetin.’‘Well, somebody told Ardıç I was still making inquiries about Hatice İpek’s death!’‘And you think I did?’ İskender shook his head in disbelief and lit one of his own cigarettes before answering.‘Now look, Çetin, whilst acknowledging that you and I are very different men, I think that we concur in the professional respect we have for each other.I don’t like you as a person, I could never be your friend, but I have to respect the decisions you make in a case that I am not involved with and have no knowledge of.We’ve all been in the position you are in at one time or another.’İkmen frowned.‘You wanted to continue your investigation,’ İskender said and then lowering his voice he went on, ‘Ardıç who is so very far from the ground and, let us face it, knows so little takes you away.Of course I guessed what you were doing.But on my honour and with my hand metaphorically on the Koran, I swear to you that Ardıç did not learn what you were doing from my lips!’In spite of İskender’s rather pompous statement about how they were supposed to have professional respect for each other, İkmen believed him.He was ambitious, inclined to be headstrong and lacked charm, but Metin İskender was not known to be dishonest.His manner made him difficult to warm to, but that was all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]