The Eye Witness

Chapter - 9

Fatma usually hung out at a bar close to the waterfront but it was early even for her. Serkan didn't want to show up at her apartment for the second time in two days so they drove around to some of Aptekin's old lodgings.

"Who would have thought that he'd be so hard to track down?" said Engin. Serkan silently agreed.

They had turned the corner and were coming up to the waterfront near some fishing boats when they saw flashing lights. They decided to see what was going on. The got closer and saw the Medical Examiner's van and the red hair of Pyril standing next to Ferit. It looked like they were waiting for something to be fished out of the harbor.

They walked up to the pair, "What have you got?"

Ferit turned, seeing who it was, replied, "Fisherman called it in, tangled in some of the nets off one of the boats. Looks to be a woman. They're pulling her in now. You may as well come with."

Serkan looked at Engin before saying to Ferit, "Do you know if another team of detectives has been called in? We don't want to step on toes."

"We were waiting to call to see cause of death."

They had gotten the body on the deck of the fishing boat by the time the four of them made it over there. The first officer walked over to Ferit, "Homicide Doc. Throat is slit and it looks like her tongue is missing."

Serkan had a bad feeling about this, a real bad feeling. They got close to the body and he looked down. She wasn't going to be sending him any information on Aptekin or anything else for that matter Fatma had sent her last text this morning.

Engin looked down at Fatma's body, "Shit. Abi, looks like they were sending a message. Just a question of who was sending the message. Pretty good idea as to who they were sending it to though."

Serkan squatted down by the body and noticed that Fatma had something tightly clutched in her hand, "Ferit? She has something in her hand, do you think you can get it for us?"

Ferit squatted down next to Serkan, he had on gloves and used a pen to try to lift her fingers and then tweezers to release the paper. Serkan stood up and Pyril took his place. Between the two doctors they were finally able to release the paper without tearing it. Ferit handed it to Serkan.

He stepped back to see what it was, the small piece of paper had a scribble 'AB 34427 Muhtar Ildir 3 Beyoglu'. He showed it to Engin, "Do you think it's worth a visit? He may be long gone by now, but why not?"

"Ferit, we'll be back."

They ran to the car. They weren't all that far from the address, maybe ten or fifteen minutes. They pulled up at building away and parked, both men drew their weapons and made their way to the address that Fatma had crumbled in her hand. They were in luck that someone was coming out of the building so they ran in. Apartment 3 was towards the back, they silently made their way, Serkan motioned that he would take the back and Engin should take the front. He gave Engin the go ahead.

Engin knocked, "Police. Open up, we'd like to have a talk with you." He repeated it again. They both heard movement in the apartment.

Serkan was out of sight at the back when a familiar head popped out the door. He pressed his gun to the man's head, "Hello Aptekin, going somewhere?"

Aptekin fell to his knees and put his hands on his head, he knew the drill. He wasn't giving Bolat any excuse to shoot him, the bastard would too, and enjoy it. He cuffed him tighter than was necessary, jerking his arms back.

"You're under arrest for the murder of Cenk."

Aptekin didn't say anything, he knew his rights. He also knew he would be out of there by lunch. The witness should be dead by then, that was the whole point after all.