Chapter Forty-seven

STILL SEATED ON the bench, the shadows lengthening all around me, I dialled another number.

‘Good afternoon, Mr Brodie David Wilson, ’ the manager said when he heard my voice. ‘Perhaps you have more adventure for the help of me and the simple carpenter-folks? ’

‘Not today, ’ I replied. ‘I want to know about the State Circus in Milas – what time does it start and finish? ’

‘You are a man of many great surprises – you wish to make a watching of the circus? ’

‘No, I was thinking of performing. ’

He laughed. ‘You are pushing my leg. ’

‘Yes, ’ I admitted. ‘A colleague suggested going, and I was wondering how much time it would take. ’

‘I will go on to the line of the Internet, ’ he said, and I heard him hitting a keyboard in front of him. ‘Yes, here it is – all in the language of Turkish-men. It is of great good fortune that you have the advantage of my orifices as a translator. ’

‘And excellent orifices they are too, ’ I said.

‘The times are of the following – the Grand Parade starts at six of the night evening and the extravaganza of the final piece finishes at eleven thirty. ’

I thanked him and clicked off. Darkness fell at around eight thirty so, under cover of night, I could be in Cumali’s house by nine. By the time she drove back from Milas, it would be past midnight, giving me three hours to do the job.

It was an assumption, of course – an unquestioned belief that the circus would end on time. You would have thought I would have learned how dangerous assumptions could be.

I glanced at a clock on a nearby building: it was 5 p. m. Four hours until my clandestine date at the old port, four hours to take a boat ride, four hours to find a secret pathway.

First, though, I had to find a store that sold building supplies.