A Passion for Killing

Copyright © 2007 Barbara Nadel

The right of Barbara Nadel to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2011

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

eISBN: 978 0 7553 7892 0

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Table of Contents

About the Author

Trained as an actress, Barbara Nadel used to work in mental health services. Born in the East End of London, she now writes full time and has been a regular visitor to Turkey for over twenty years. She received the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger for her novel
Deadly Web
in 2005. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed Francis Hancock series set during World War Two.

Praise for Barbara Nadel:

‘Barbara Nadel is in that admirable school of British crime novelists who set their mysteries in cities not their own. It feels right’ Marcel Berlins,
The Times

‘Nadel’s novels take in all of Istanbul – the mysterious, the beautiful. Her characters are vivid, creating a fascinating view of contemporary Turkey’
Scotland on Sunday

‘The delight of the Nadel book is the sense of being taken beneath the surface of an ancient city which most visitors see for a few days at most. We look into the alleyways and curious dark quartiers of Istanbul, full of complex characters and louche atmosphere’
Independent

‘This is an extraordinarily interesting first novel’
Evening Standard

‘
Belshazzar’s Daughter,
with its brilliantly realised Istanbul setting and innovative protagonist was a hard act to follow. But she pulls off the trick triumphantly’
The Times

‘One of the most intriguing detectives in contemporary crime fiction . . . The backdrop of Istanbul makes for a fantastic setting’
Mail On Sunday

‘Unusual and very well-written’
Sunday Telegraph

‘Intriguing, exotic . . . exciting, accomplished and original’
Literary Review

To my favourite carpet dealers.

Acknowledgements

This book was written with enormous assistance from Tribal Collections carpet dealership in Göreme, Turkey. Without the expert guidance and help provided by Ruth, Faruk and Hüseyin I would have been totally lost. The world of carpets is fascinating and fun but also intricate and complicated. So a big thank you to all those involved, which includes the many carpet buyers and aficionados that I talked to as well. Any errors that may be found within this book are nothing to do with any of my tutors – they are totally and utterly all my own!

Glossary

Bakkal
– grocery shop

Balık Pazar
– fish market

Belediye
– local council

Bey
– as in ‘Çetin Bey’, an Ottoman title denoting respect, still in use today following a man’s first name

Çay ocağı
– a small space in a public building, often under the stairs, from which tea is dispensed from a samovar by a usually very old functionary

Efendi
– an honorific Ottoman title denoting a person of high status. Always used when addressing a prince or princess

Gulet
– a wooden yacht

Han
– tradesman’s hall, inn. Sometimes called a caravanserai

Jandarma
– while the Turkish National Police Force are responsible for law and order in the urban districts, the Jandarma cover the rural areas. They are a paramilitary force under joint control of the military and the Interior Ministry

Kapalı Çarşı
– Grand Bazaar

Kapıcı
– Doorkeeper. Blocks of flats have kapıcılar, men who act as security, porters etc., for the apartment community

Kilim
– flat woven rug

Mısır Çarşı
– the Spice Bazaar

MIT
– Turkish Secret Service

‘Mehmet’
– affectionate generic name for the ‘average’ Turkish solider. Like the British ‘Tommy’

Namaz
– Muslim prayer, performed five times a day

Nargile
– a water or ‘hubble bubble’ pipe used for smoking tobacco

Pide Salonu
– a restaurant specialising in the slightly leavened style of bread known as pide. This may be eaten with a variety of toppings including eggs, vegetables, meat and cheese

Rakı
– aniseed-flavoured alcoholic spirit

Sigara Börek
– savoury pastry shaped like a cigarette

Vizier
– minister. The Grand Vizier was the Ottoman equivalent of a Prime Minister

Zabıta
– dedicated market police. The Zabıta check that weights and measures are correct

Cast of Characters

Çetin İkmen
– middle-aged İstanbul police inspector

Mehmet Süleyman
– İstanbul police inspector, İkmen’s protégé

Commissioner Ardıç
– İkmen and Süleyman’s boss

Sergeant Ayşe Farsakoğlu
– İkmen’s deputy

Sergeant İzzet Melik
– Süleyman’s deputy

Metin İskender
– young İstanbul police inspector

Dr Arto Sarkissian
– İstanbul police pathologist

Abdullah Ergin
– an İstanbul Tourism Police officer

Fatma İkmen
– Çetin İkmen’s wife

Zelfa Süleyman
– Mehmet Süleyman’s wife

Muhammed Süleyman
– Mehmet Süleyman’s father

Raşit Bey
– an elderly carpet dealer, a friend of Muhammed Süleyman

Mürsel Bey
– a spy

Haydar
– Mürsel’s sidekick

Peter Melly
– an official at the British Consulate and a carpet collector

Matilda Melly
– his wife

Wilhelmus (Wim) Klaassen
– an official at the Dutch Consulate

Doris Klaassen
– his wife

Kim Monroe
– wife of a Canadian consular official

Nikolai Stoev
– Bulgarian Mafia ‘Godfather’

Emine Soylu
– wife of murder victim Cabbar Soylu

By modern standards the carpet was immense. It must, the elderly carpet dealer reckoned as he passed his expert eye across the piece, measure at least three metres by nine metres.

‘They rarely make them like this any more, Muhammed Efendi,’ he said to his tall and equally elderly companion.

‘No,’ the other replied – a little sadly, the carpet dealer felt. ‘No, Raşit Bey, this carpet is from another time and place entirely.’

And then both the carpet dealer, Raşit Bey, and his friend Muhammed Efendi looked back at the small, rather shabby wooden house that was the latter’s current abode.

‘Come, let us sit and take tea under the apple trees,’ Muhammed Efendi said as he guided his friend over to a table and chairs set underneath some trees to the left of his lawn which was now almost entirely covered by the rich, enormous carpet.

Raşit Bey breathed deeply as he walked, looking around the verdant garden with great pleasure. ‘The springtime in İstanbul is hard to better, is it not, Muhammed Efendi?’

‘Impossible, in my humble opinion,’ Muhammed Efendi replied.

They sat.

‘My son, Murad, will bring tea presently,’ Muhammed Efendi said as he offered Raşit Bey a cigarette from his silver and mother-of-pearl case.

‘Thank you, Muhammed Efendi,’ Raşit Bey said as he took what was a very cheap cigarette from what he knew was a very valuable box. But then that was so typical of a certain section of the old aristocracy. People like Muhammed Süleyman Efendi, or ‘prince’ Muhammed, lived gracious poverty-stricken existences in Bosphorus villages like this one – Arnavutköy – if they were lucky. If they were not, they lived up in the high rise, scrappy suburbs out near Atatürk Airport. Muhammed Süleyman, although never personally having done a day’s work in his life, was very fortunate in having two sons who worked very hard. The eldest, a hotel manager, as Raşit Bey understood, now approached the elderly men with a tray bearing tea glasses and an ashtray.

‘Ah, Murad,’ Muhammed Efendi said as he watched his son serve himself and his friend. ‘Thank you.’

Murad, who was a pleasant-looking man in his forties, first bowed and then lit the cigarettes of both men before returning to the small house he shared with his parents and his own young daughter.

Once his son was out of sight, Muhammed Efendi turned to his friend and said, ‘You know it isn’t right that Murad should still be alone at his age.’

‘Ah, but Muhammed Efendi, your poor son’s wife died in such terrible circumstances. Maybe he feels that looking after his daughter and being, as I know he is, such a good son to you and your wife is enough for him now.’

Muhammed Efendi shook his head sadly. Murad’s wife had died in the great earthquake of 1999, leaving her husband to mourn bitterly and to bring up their daughter Edibe alone. He’d returned to his parents’ house in Arnavutköy almost immediately where, his father imagined, he would remain for ever unless things changed quite dramatically. But Murad was not the reason why Raşit Bey was in his garden now and so he turned his attention back to his friend and the business he wished to conduct with him.