‘I don’t recall.’
‘He showed you the tunnel into the house?’
‘What house?’
‘Cameron’s.’
‘There’s no tunnel into my house,’ Cameron offered.
I turned to her, surprised at my own anger – Dodge was her husband, and in all the interviews her friends had said that he adored her. ‘Don’t tell me there’s no tunnel – I’ve walked along it.’
‘So? Even if there is,’ Ingrid interrupted, ‘nobody ever showed it to me.’
‘Gianfranco says that he did.’ I was making it up, hoping to shake the hell out of her. It didn’t work.
‘Then he’s a liar,’ she shot back. Cameron had been badly thrown by both the information and my anger, but not Ingrid – she stepped up to the line and came right back at me.
‘You believe him?’ she said. ‘Franco’s your witness? A guy who feels up middle-aged women on the beach for ten and change. Any decent lawyer would tear him to shreds. Did you ask him about dealing weed, huh? Or find out that his name’s not Gianfranco and he’s not Italian – but what woman is gonna have a fantasy about getting head from a guy called Abdul? But you knew that, of course—’
She looked at my face as I was inwardly berating myself – I had sensed there was something in Gianfranco’s English that was more Istanbul than Naples, but I hadn’t taken the time to think it through.
‘Oh, I see the nationality escaped you,’ she said, smiling.
‘It’s not relevant. I don’t care what his name or country is.’
‘I care,’ she responded. ‘It goes to the question of credibility. Gianfranco’s got none and so far you’re batting on less.’
‘You a lawyer, Ms Kohl?’
‘No – but I read a lot.’
There was something in the way she delivered the line and turned her eyes on me that made me think of bare boards and a cold rehearsal room. I took a stab.
‘Where was it – New York, LA?’
‘Where was what?’
‘You studied acting.’
Ingrid didn’t react, but I saw Cameron glance at her and I knew I was right.
‘You can theorize whatever you like,’ she responded. ‘If Abdul – I mean, Gianfranco – knows a secret way into the house, then I would say it’s him in the photo. He probably killed Dodge.’
‘That makes no sense,’ I retorted. ‘What’s the motive?’
‘What’s mine?’
‘I think you and Cameron are lovers. I think you both planned it and did it for the money.’
She laughed. ‘Cameron and I are strangers. We’ve run into each other half a dozen times. The longest time we’ve spent together was in a vet’s surgery. Some love affair.’
‘That’s all true for Ingrid Kohl,’ I said. ‘But I don’t believe you are really Ingrid Kohl—’
‘Then take a look at my passport,’ she fired back. ‘This is total bullshit. Jesus! Of course I’m Ingrid Kohl.’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘I think you stole an identity. I think you’re acting a part. I believe that, whatever your real name is, you and Cameron have known each other for a long time – maybe you even grew up together. You left Turkey Scratch, or wherever it was, and went to New York. Then both of you came to Bodrum for one reason – to kill Dodge. That’s a capital crime and, even if you avoid the injection, you’ll both spend the rest of your lives in jail.’
Ingrid smiled. ‘Turkey Scratch? That’s funny. You make that up – like you did the rest of it?’
‘We’ll see. I’m not done yet—’
‘Well, I am.’ She turned to Cameron. ‘I don’t know about you, but I want a lawyer.’
‘Yeah, I need legal advice too,’ Cameron replied, looking like a deer in the headlights. She grabbed her bag and started to stand.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a series of questions.’
‘Are we being charged?’ Ingrid demanded.
I didn’t say anything – it was clear she wasn’t easily bullied.
‘I thought so,’ she said into the silence. ‘You can’t hold us, can you? You don’t have any jurisdiction here.’ She smiled.
Cameron was already heading for the door. Ingrid picked up the throat lozenges and tossed them into her bag. As she slung it over her shoulder she turned and stood close to me. I couldn’t help it, I felt like I was flying a kite in a thunderstorm.
‘You think you’re very smart, but you don’t know about me or Cameron or anything. You don’t know half of what’s happening. Nowhere near. You’re lost and you’re grasping at straws, that’s what this is all about. Sure, you figure you’ve got some evidence. Let me tell you something else I read – “evidence is a list of the material you’ve got. What about the things you haven’t found? What do you call that?” ’