Читать книгу Deadline Istanbul (The Elizabeth Darcy Series) - Peggy Hanson - Страница 36

CHAPTER 32

“They have none of them much to recommend them…”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Something was very wrong. The man crumpled down the wall when I brushed against him, though the bump hadn’t been hard.

The Pera concierge stepped onto the sidewalk at my cry. Both of us stared at the huddled form in the shadows.

“Dial for help!” I demanded. The concierge ran inside. A taxi stopped to let out passengers in front of the hotel, so I wasn’t alone on the sidewalk. I rushed back to where the still form lay, waving for help from the taxi passengers as I ran. They jumped out and ran over.

Without a flashlight, I could see only the man’s outline. I grasped his shoulder and turned him over carefully.

“Please move.” The voice from behind me carried authority. I was pushed aside. A flashlight beam lit the scene.

“Hold this.” Hands shoved a briefcase into my arms.

Was it a night for peremptory men? Still, I had bumped the poor man and cried out. I held the briefcase as commanded.

The flashlight-wielder was my unwelcome breakfast companion, that Frenchman. Jean Le-something. Le Reau? He leaned over the crumpled figure, held his finger to the man’s neck, felt his torso, then straightened slowly.

“I am afraid there is nothing to do,” he said.

“You mean he is dead?” I tried very hard to keep my voice steady.

“Yes. I fear so.”

“But why? How?” Istanbul wasn’t exactly a murder capital like Detroit.

“There is a knife wound,” said Le Reau, wiping his hand on a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket.

At that moment, the emergency vehicle and police arrived. Jean Le Reau and I gave our preliminary witness statements, as did the concierge. We didn’t have much to tell.

Cautioned by the police that they would need to speak with us again that evening, Le Reau and I headed as one toward the old-fashioned bar of the Pera. We both seemed to need a drink.