Laurence O’Bryan - The Istanbul Puzzle

‘Aren’t Turkey and Greece friends these days?’ I said.

‘Of course we are, but you must understand there are a lot of crazy Greeks who claim Hagia Sophia, and this whole city, for themselves. They say it all belongs to them.’ He sounded affronted at the idea.

‘What does any of that have to do with what happened to Alek?’ I said.

In answer I got silence. All I could hear were the rumblings from the air conditioning. I waited, imagining Alek lying cold in that drawer. The inspector stared at me, as if he was expecting me to answer my own question.

‘I came here to find out what happened to my friend. And I still don’t know,’ I said, as calmly as I could. ‘And I’ve no idea why you think being Greek would have any impact on Alek’s murder.’

The inspector held up his hands.

‘I will explain why. The last Greek emperor of this city, Constantine the 11th, disappeared in Hagia Sophia the day the city was captured.’ He paused. His tone was firm as he continued.

‘Some Greeks say the last emperor made a pact with the devil that afternoon. That his body was taken below Hagia Sophia and that he will come back, and retake this city when the time is right. So you must understand, Mr Ryan, a Greek being murdered in Hagia Sophia is a big deal.’

‘I don’t believe in legends and I don’t think Alek did either.’ I gave him the kind of smile I reserved for younger children. ‘Our Institute was commissioned by UNESCO to do a simple task here; to verify how the mosaics in Hagia Sophia are being preserved and altered over the years. That’s what Alek was working on. It’s not a big project.’ The air in the room was getting stuffy, thick.

‘There isn’t even a UNESCO representative overseeing us. We’re just recording things, monitoring changes. None of this stuff could have anything to do with what happened to Alek.’

The smell of hospital disinfectant was getting stronger too.

‘UNESCO is monitoring Hagia Sophia?’ he said.

‘We’re taking pictures, inspector.’ Frustrated, I held up my hands. ‘Thousands of tourists do it every day.’ I had to move the conversation on. ‘Can you at least tell me where Alek was found?’

He looked at me as if he was debating whether to say anything more or not. Then he continued. ‘Your colleague was found outside Hagia Sophia early yesterday morning.’ He studied my face. ‘His head was near his body. For that we can be grateful.’

‘He was beheaded?’ I said it slowly.

‘Yes.’ He said, matter-of-factly.

My stomach flipped. I thought about what Alek must have gone through. I held my hand to my chest. The pressure had got stronger.

And the room seemed suddenly smaller, as if its walls had moved in.

He said something I didn’t understand. The words were in English, but I couldn’t make them out.

The fact that Alek had died was bad enough. That he’d been butchered like an animal was too much. This was why they hadn’t pulled the sheet down. I’d been right about his body looking odd. This was sick.

I walked towards the wall, leaned my forehead against it. A wave of revulsion rolled through me. The white tiles were shiny, slick.

How could any human do such a thing?

‘I don’t believe this,’ I whispered. Then I remembered something.

There’d been a story in one of the Sunday newspapers about a decapitation. No details. Just a one paragraph story. Had it been about Alek?

It had all seemed so distant when I’d been reading it. I must have read lots of stories like it. Of atrocities, horrible deaths. There were so many that few registered any more. I swallowed hard.

‘Did what happened to Alek get into the newspapers?’ I turned to face the inspector. He was standing by the table.

‘The media here hunts for such stories these days.’ His tone was hard. ‘There may have been a small item in a Turkish newspaper yesterday. I promise you, we did not give out his name.’

I closed my eyes. Would the media in England find out what had happened to Alek? Would people be tweeting about it soon, speculating about the details? I could only guess what theories would come up, how it would all spin out.

‘Does this sort of thing happen often in Turkey?’

‘This is the first case of beheading in three years. We are not Iraq.’

‘So why did this happen to Alek?’

He shrugged, looked me up and down. ‘Are you planning to speak to the press?’ he said.

‘No.’

His face was a hard mask. ‘Good. We’ll be finished with your colleague’s body in a week or so. There’ll be an autopsy, of course.’ I closed my eyes. ‘You can make arrangements for his body after the results are in. We will hand over all his personal belongings then. ’ His tone softened. He was playing the understanding official again.

Where will you be staying, Mr Ryan?’

‘The Conrad-Ritz. Where Alek is… I mean was staying.’ Alek had told me about the place. I’d called it from Heathrow.

‘My driver will take you there.’

I nodded.

‘Make no mistake,’ he said. ‘We value human life in Turkey, Mr Ryan, unlike in some places. We take a crime like this seriously. As you will see.’

He took a shiny black leather notebook out of his pocket and began writing in it. I wanted to leave, to be on my own, to think.

‘Are we finished?’ I said.

‘Just a few more questions.’

I didn’t say anything.

‘Can you tell me exactly what Mr Zegliwski was monitoring in Hagia Sophia, Mr Ryan?’

I wanted to snap at him. I was too tired for this.

‘The tesserae, inspector. The tiny cubes that make up the mosaics. In Hagia Sophia a lot of them were preserved by the plaster Ottoman workmen covered them with, to conform to Islamic prescriptions against figurative art.’ I spoke slowly. ‘Gradually those mosaics have been exposed. Now we have a chance to record them digitally using the latest techniques, in case they’re damaged in the future. It will help us understand how they’ve changed over time by comparing the images with drawings made over the centuries, which we are also digitizing.’

He made a note in his book.

‘Do you think any of this could be a reason for someone to kill your colleague?’ He stared at me, his hand poised to write.

‘Inspector, the layers of gold that form the sandwich that make up many of the tesserae in Hagia Sophia are thicker and more valuable than those anywhere else in the world. Perhaps he disturbed someone robbing some gold tesserae.’ It was a theory I’d come up with on the plane. Alek had joked about how valuable the larger mosaics were, even broken up.

He took another note. Then he said, ‘Did Mr Zegliwski send anything to you or to your Institute after coming here?’

What was he implying? That we’d been stealing, illegally exporting artefacts, not just photographing them?

‘No, he sent us nothing but digital images. There’s no law against that.’

He closed his notebook. Then, as an afterthought, he said, ‘Do you know about the Orthodox Christian archives, the ones that are missing, Mr Ryan?’

I wiped my forehead. A slick of cold sweat covered it. Alek lay dead a few feet away, beheaded for God’s sake, and this man wanted to know about archives!

‘I don’t,’ I replied. ‘Are we finished?’

‘You didn’t know they were lost when Hagia Sophia was taken over?’

I shook my head. ‘We’re here to record mosaics inspector, nothing else.’

‘Indeed, but any item discovered in the archives would have immense value. They included a letter from Mohammad, peace be upon him, so it is claimed. You can imagine the interest there would be in that. They say it was addressed to Emperor Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor at the time. He visited Jerusalem when the Prophet was in Arabia awaiting his return to Mecca. Such a letter would have a major impact if it was found. It might even be considered important in England, no?’