Yasemın Aydinoğlu - Istanbul Noir

Ali continued to stare at the bodies. Hasan was a little surprised that Ali, a veteran of the business, seemed so flab-bergasted by this minor glitch in their plans, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Actually, he could understand where the guy was coming from. After all, they were all in this unexpected mess together.

Ali didn’t answer Hasan’s question, so the latter continued.

“It was an accident, I swear. It wasn’t planned. The goddamn guy was here when we arrived, just lounging in bed. Then he made his move — he pointed a fucking gun at us, the idiot. You can guess the rest. There was nothing we could do. We thought the house would be empty; we were taken by surprise.”

There was a brief silence.

“We’re not trying to fuck with you, Ali. You trust us, right?”

Ali snapped to, as if suddenly awaking from a bad dream. First he looked at Murat, and then at Hasan, who was waiting for him to respond. The bewildered look in Ali’s eyes had been replaced by the resolute gaze of a man who knows exactly what to do.

“Okay, it’s all right. What’s done is done. Like you say, what’s the difference? So it was one body, now it’s two. You guys bag one of them, and I’ll go get another sack from the truck.”

Hasan and Murat glanced at one another. They could both tell that they were thinking the same thing: He’s gonna make a run for it...

“Let me come with you,” said Hasan. “I could use the fresh air.”

His suggestion was clearly not open for debate, and so Ali did not object. They didn’t speak at all on the way to the truck. Their eyes darted right and left, scoping out the surroundings, but there was no one to be seen. A taxi swiftly passed the truck and continued along its way.

When Hasan and Ali returned with the other sack, Murat had already tied the arms and legs of both bodies. It would be easier to bag them that way.

“I couldn’t care less how it happened,” Ali grumbled. “You got us into this mess, so you carry these bastards out of here. Anyway, I have a bad back.”

Hasan laughed. “All right, Ali. No problem.”

Murat wound the remaining string into a ball and stuck it in his pocket. The extra body was heavy; carrying that sucker wasn’t going to be easy. “Should we make two trips?” he asked, though he doubted Ali would agree to it.

He was right. “Let’s not take any chances. It’s almost morning.”

“I agree,” said Hasan. He glanced around the room, saw the tea glasses and the cigarette butts. “Plus, we’ve still gotta clean up the blood and all this other shit. You go first, Ali, make sure the coast is clear, and then we’ll bring ’em out.”

Hasan and Murat loaded themselves up with one sack each and walked to the door. They figured Ali would open it for them, but he didn’t. A few seconds passed before they turned to look at him. What the hell was he waiting for?

They froze stiff. He was pointing his pistol straight at them. A Glock 17, with a silencer. Hasan’s mouth fell wide open. Their guns were at their waists. But their hands were full.

“What, you take me for some kind of fool or something?” Ali said.

He sent the first bullet into Murat’s forehead. The young man toppled backwards like a felled tree beneath the weight of the sack he was carrying, hitting the wall before collapsing with a thud onto the floor. In a reflex Hasan opened his arms, releasing the sack from his hold. He cast a glance at Murat’s lifeless body before turning to meet Ali’s gaze, the latter’s eyes blazing with inexplicable rage.

Just one extra body... We didn’t do it on purpose...

He took a bullet right between the eyebrows and collapsed to the floor next to Murat.

Ali had a sour taste in his mouth when he slid in behind the steering wheel. He coughed up a ball of phlegm and spit it out the window. He cursed those fucking bastards who’d gotten him messed up in this bullshit. What the fuck — to knock off Kâzım Ağa ’s one and only son? Talk about gall...

They make a man sorry he was born...

He was glad now that he hadn’t met the client. Four bodies would be found in that house come morning. Four men who’d shot one another. Nobody would ever know he’d even been there. Nobody.

Especially not Kâzım Ağa.

Close call, he thought as he pressed down on the gas pedal. Houselights had already begun to dot the twilight sky as the truck made its way downhill.

The young woman was standing with her face to the strait, watching a gigantic ship float by. Its lights looked so beautiful. She wondered what it was like to be inside, watching the shore from out there. Actually, all she wanted to do was go somewhere far, far away, someplace so foreign that everything she had experienced here would cease to exist for her.

“How are we going to pay those guys?” she said, her voice heavy with concern. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Zeynep. If we don’t pay up, those guys will never leave us alone. I mean, they’re murderers for God’s sake. I’ve scraped together a little here and there but... it’s not very much.”

Her voice grew slightly shrill and she seemed to turn into a little girl, like she always did whenever she got excited.

“I’ll get some from my Dad too. I’ll lie about what it’s for, tell him it’s for school or something. Or that I’m sick. I don’t know. But I’ll come up with more. I promise.”

“There’s no way we could’ve afforded it,” Zeynep said, shaking her head. “You can’t even imagine how much they were asking for, sweetheart. Even your father couldn’t have gotten us out of it, believe me.”

She thought of Hasan’s expression, the way he had drooled when he stared at her legs. She doubted the asshole would’ve made do with just the money, but she didn’t tell Neşe that.

Neşe turned around and gave Zeynep a frightened look, all the blood suddenly drained from her face.

“Don’t worry, baby. I took care of everything.”

Zeynep took a puff from her cigarette.

“I told you about that mafia godfather, the one our asshole did business with — Kâzım Ağa. Well, I had a little talk, a little more than a talk, with his son last week, and invited him to the house. An hour before your appointment. He’s no different from all the other assholes. He wanted me to be his mistress, to make me part of his harem. He would’ve taken care of my husband, too, if I’d asked, I’m sure of that. But for what? Why save myself from one animal just to go and be a slave to another? Believe me, from now on nobody’s going to make me do anything I don’t want to.

“Anyway, our boys wouldn’t recognize him; they’re new in Istanbul. And I’m sure that when our boys burst in, he reached straight for his gun. He’s the panicky type. So he wouldn’t have left them any choice. He keeps a gun under his pillow even when he’s making love, can you believe that? They’ll never be able to show their faces in Istanbul after this, trust me. Kâzım Ağa would skin them alive. They either hightail it out of here or they’re finished. Simple as that.”

She took a deep breath.

“If they do cause us any trouble, I’ll make sure the ağa gets wind of their names. I’m sure he’d believe me and not them. I’ve even made up a story already, just in case.”

Her eyes wide, Neşe peered at the woman standing next to her. She felt extremely grateful, but also ashamed. And now, after what she’d just heard, she felt a slowly growing sense of admiration too.

“I’m so sorry, for everything,” she said in a low voice, like a child who’s just broken a toy. “He told me you would get divorced, that your relationship was over. But when I learned the truth... I hated him. I swear, I was going to be out of your lives, if only he’d left me alone.”