Ben.
âAt least heâs going in the right direction,â said Fran.
Marthaâs Place, the middle one of three restaurants on the shallow river that ran through the village, was reached by a bridge that looked a lot more unstable than it actually was. Trees lined both banks and shaded the tables that were set on pontoons in the water, attended by ducks and the occasional goose. Below them against the bank sat a row of kösks, the covered Turkish outdoor seating areas. Justin was waiting for them on the other side of the bridge at the head of the steps that led to the pontoons, a comfortable-looking middle-aged woman with plaited grey hair by his side.
âThis is Martha,â said Justin.
âHello,â said Martha, beaming at them. âCome on down and letâs get you something to drink. What would you all like?â
A small waiter was sent scurrying to procure coffee all round, and Martha led them to a table in the middle of the river.
âThis is wonderful,â said Libby, gazing round. âIâve never seen anything quite like it.â
âBeautiful, isnât it?â agreed Martha. âWeâre very lucky.â
âHave you been here long?â asked Guy. âOnly I was told that there was only one river restaurant when I came to the bay some years ago.â
âYes, we were the first.â
âAnd you knew Alec Wilson,â prompted Fran.
The beaming face fell. âWe did. I canât believe ⦠any of this.â
âWe felt the Jandarma werenât really concerned to look into the death properly,â said Ben. âAbout his mother, for instance.â
Marthaâs face lightened. âIâve spoken to the consulate in Antalya this morning, and they are going to intervene. I donât think the locals were even going to do an autopsy.â
âBut he was drowned, is there any point?ââ said Harry.
âYou know better than that, Hal,â said Peter. âThey need to know if he was dead before he went into the water.â
âAnd he must have been,â said Libby. âNo one could have tied that bag to his waist if heâd been alive â or conscious.â
âDo you know anything about his mother?â asked Fran. âShe ought to be told.â
âHe never even told me her name,â said Martha sadly, shaking her head. âHe told me sheâd found him, and that was all.â
Everyone except Martha looked at Harry, who smiled.
âTheyâre all worried about me,â he explained. âI found out about my childhood only last year, so itâs a bit close to home.â
âOh.â Martha looked mildly confused, but the moment passed with arrival of the small waiter and the coffee. âEnglish coffee,â she said. âNot Turkish. Ismet likes the Turkish, but I canât stand it.â
âWhat did the consulate say about finding his mother?â asked Fran.
âThey said there must be some evidence in his house, but they didnât know if it had been searched properly.â She shook her head again. âIsmet says heâs pretty sure it wouldnât have been.â
âWhat about how he got out to that cave?â said Guy. âSomeone with a boat must have taken him out there.â
âAlec had a boat himself, but the Jandarma said it was still beached.â
âSomeone would have heard an engine though, donât you think?â said Guy.
âI doubt it. Unless they lived right by the waterâs edge. And a boat taken out at night wouldnât have gone from the part of the beach by the hotels.â Martha sighed. âIt must have been a local. Nobody else would have known where to get a boat, or how to take it round the headland.â
âOr how to get a body down to the boat,â said Libby.
âUnless the body was still alive when it got into the boat,â said Ben.
Chapter Five
They all looked at