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.Ersu Nadir remembered this kind of activity from his time in the army.When he and his soldier brothers had gone out on patrol, they’d prepared themselves in a similar fashion.Some members of the Special Forces team had already been deployed outside the hotel and, with the help of Sergeant Farsakoğlu inside, it had been decided to attempt to infiltrate the building via the kitchens at some point.But the heavily mustachioed police sergeant, who was apparently her fiancée, was almost wearing the floor of the pub out as he paced back and forth in a state of high anxiety.The overweight police commissioner pointedly ignored him.As far as Ersu could tell, there were no immediate plans to storm the hotel but he could also understand İzzet Melik’s state of mind.Ayşe Farsakoğlu was the woman he intended to marry and so of course he didn’t want her to take any risks.The commissioner came and sat down opposite Ersu, slopping some of his coffee as he moved behind the table.He said, ‘Now, Ersu Bey, about this man Hüseyin Hikmet.’‘The one that Nar hit over the head.’‘Yes.You told us he was tall and in his thirties, but is there anything else you can tell us about him?’‘But you have his ATM card, his name, surely—’‘Ersu Bey, it is a common name,’ Ardıç said.‘The more we can narrow the field, the better.Did you perhaps recognise him as someone who had worked on a casual basis at the hotel before?’‘No,’ Ersu said.‘But then people come and go all the time.’‘Was there anything distinguishing about this man? Something like a mole on his face or a scar?’Ersu Bey replayed in his mind what he recalled of Nar hitting the man over the head and then the three of them putting him in the fridge and undressing him.He’d just been a rather tall, dark, ordinary-looking thirty-something man, quite hairy on his body, and well muscled without looking as if he was a bodybuilder.He’d struck Ersu Bey as the sort of man who had continued to keep fit after his discharge from army service.Not unlike himself in that respect.But had he possessed any distinguishing marks or scars?People got all sorts of scuffs, abrasions and dents when they did their military service.He himself had a slightly misshapen right calf where he’d broken it when on patrol that day he’d fallen into a cistern just outside the city of Mardin.On bad days he limped.Ersu Bey closed his eyes.Sometimes, cutting out distractions in the present allowed the memory to have more of a fighting chance to find what was only barely noticed in the past.Sergeant Farsakoğlu, the transsexual and Ersu had pulled the man’s clothes off roughly.Aware that any one of his colleagues could come down the corridor at any moment, they’d done what they’d had to do quickly.Nar had chirruped on about how Turkish men always wore vests because they were all basically mummy’s boys.But beyond that.And then, finally, he remembered.He looked at Ardıç and said, ‘He’d lost his little finger.On his left hand.There was just a stump.’Nar was very aware of the fact that all of these masked gunmen called each other on their mobile phones.She’d searched Hüseyin Hikmet’s pockets to try and find his phone but his jumpsuit was heavy and had pockets all over the place and it was only when her right leg appeared to break out into ‘When I’m Gone’ by Eminem that she discovered the small zip-up pocket just under the knee.She was in the toilet.‘I need you in the ballroom,’ a man’s voice said.‘OK.’ She knew she had to keep all her responses short and sweet.Her voice had been affected by hormone treatment; even without that, she didn’t necessarily sound like Hüseyin Hikmet, the man in the fridge.‘Where are you?’ the voice asked.‘I’m in the.’ Turkish men could be very coy about toilets.‘Downstairs,’ she said.He got the code.‘All right,’ he said.‘But don’t be long.’Nar stared down at the phone for a few seconds.Then she came out of the toilet cubicle and, looking about to make sure that she was alone, she called her own number.After a short pause, Ayşe Farsakoğlu answered.‘Who is this?’ she whispered.‘It’s me, Nar.’‘Nar? But you haven’t got a phone, I’ve got your—’‘Ayşe Hanım, listen,’ Nar said.They didn’t have time for details.‘Keep this number and call me on it.Where are you?’But Ayşe hesitated.It was then that Nar thought that maybe the policewoman feared some sort of trap.‘My leg rang and I found the phone in a small pocket underneath my knee,’ Nar said.There was another short pause and then Ayşe said, ‘I’m in the front lobby but I’m moving out soon.Do you know who these people are yet?’‘No,’ Nar said.‘But I do know that something very strange is going on.’‘Yes, Nar,’ Ayşe said.‘I think I’ve worked that out!’‘No.’ Nar looked nervously at the door into the toilets.‘İkmen had a stand-up row with whoever leads this bunch,’ she said.‘You know where we saw that dead body in the bar?’‘How can I ever forget?’ Ayşe whispered.‘One of those doctors discovered that all that blood was fake,’ Nar said.‘Fake?’‘As in the blood you see on TV.İkmen reckons that this game they’re being forced to play is being loaded against them.’‘So the man we saw dead in the bar wasn’t dead?’ Ayşe said.‘Maybe,’ Nar said.But then the toilet door opened and she ended the call and put the phone back into the pocket just below her knee.Chapter 17All of the actors had been up on the fourth floor of the hotel when Söner Erkan was murdered.Not only was the company staying on that floor, they were all supposed to be there at that time in order to enact the fake killing that was to have provided the highlight of the murder mystery evening.Apart from Lale Aktar, who had found the body, Burak Fisekçi who had been in the lavatory, and the hotel concierge who had been at his post, everybody else’s whereabouts had still to be established.Now Krikor Sarkissian, armed with a guest list, performed a roll call of everyone in the ballroom.He asked them to say where they had been just before Lale Aktar came downstairs with blood on her dress.As they gave their answers he watched them and those around them for any sign they might be lying.The roll call also allowed him to determine who the guests who had supposedly been shot really were.Once he had completed this task he went back into the Kubbeli Saloon and sat down next to his brother between İkmen and Süleyman.Hovsep Pars, Lale Aktar and Arto Sarkissian spoke quietly to each other on one side.With his pen, Krikor pointed to each name unaccounted for on his list.‘Aysel Ökte is a great believer in the decriminalisation of addiction and in prison reform,’ he said.‘I know her quite well.She came to the clinic for meetings often.But then there are these three.’ He pointed to three men’s names on different parts of the list [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]