Chapter 105
Steve’s Gym looks a lot like its owner. A squat brick building, intimidating at first sight, but with the door always open and everyone always welcome.
Chris and Donna step over the threshold.
After the excitement in the graveyard yesterday, they had gone back to Fairhaven and checked on Joe Kyprianou’s hunch about the original investigation.
No one from Kent Police had ventured into Northern Cyprus.
There was no mention of Johnny’s family connections.
There had been no meaningful investigation at all.
Chris had seen the names of the two officers who had been sent to Nicosia.
No surprises there. They’d have come back with tans and hangovers and nothing else.
He and Donna had then been having another look at all those passenger lists coming in from Larnaca to Heathrow and Gatwick in the week before the murder of Tony Curran. Nearly three thousand names, mainly men, and mainly Cypriots.
Looking through list after list of names, Chris remembered something else that Joe Kyprianou had said. If Johnny had come to the UK, he would have needed help. A fellow Cypriot would be the obvious choice. Did Chris know any?
As the names flashed before his eyes, he realized that he did.
They had then gone back to the original Tony Curran file.
There was no doubt that in the early days Steve Ercan had been in and around Tony Curran’s crew.
Mentioned in dispatches, but never anything to bring him in for.
And whatever he had been doing for Tony hadn’t lasted long.
He’d opened Steve’s Gym long ago, and it had gone from strength to strength.
Chris and Donna both knew officers who trained there.
The place had a good reputation, and that wasn’t the case with all gyms.
Even today the gym was packed. A Wednesday afternoon, an atmosphere of quiet hard work, no preening and posturing.
Chris has been meaning to join a gym, but at the moment he’s waiting for his knee to stop hurting.
No point aggravating it. As soon as it has settled down, he’ll join.
Take the bull by the horns. He had felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his arm after the run up the hill to the graveyard to save Elizabeth. Almost certainly nothing, but even so.
Steve had been expecting them, and had met them by the door with a crushing handshake and a huge smile. They are now in his office, Steve sitting on a yoga ball, chatting happily.
“Listen, you know as well as anyone we don’t have trouble here, and we don’t cause trouble here,” says Steve.
“I do know that,” agrees Chris.
“The opposite, innit? You know that. We take people in, we turn them around. No secrets, yeah?”
“I was in Cyprus recently, Steve.”
Steve stops smiling and bounces a little. “Okay.”
“I didn’t really know much about it before I went. I just thought holidays, you know.”
“It’s very beautiful,” says Steve. “Are we just gossiping or what?”
“What are you, Steve? Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot?” asks Donna.
There’s a beat, very short, but very telling to a good copper. He shakes his head. “I don’t get involved in all that, not for me. People are people.”
“We’re agreed on that,” says Chris. “But even so. What side of the line were you? We can probably find out another way, but since we’re here.”
“Turkish,” says Steve Ercan. “Turkish Cypriot.” He shrugs; it’s of no concern.
Chris nods and writes something down, just keeping Steve waiting for a moment. “Like Johnny Gunduz?”
Steve tilts his head to the side and looks at Chris anew. “That’s a name from a long time ago.”
“Isn’t it, though?” says Chris. “Anyway, that’s why I was in Cyprus. Trying to track him down.”
Steve smiles. “He’s long gone. Johnny was crazy. Good luck to the guy, but someone would have killed him by now. Guaranteed.”
“Well, that would explain why we can’t find him. But you know, I’m a police officer, and sometimes something doesn’t seem right.”
“That’s the job, innit?” says Steve Ercan.
“I want to suggest a story,” says Chris. “Just something we’ve been thinking about. And you don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to react, just listen. Can you do that?”
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve got a gym to run, and I still don’t know what you’re doing here.”
Donna holds up a hand, conceding the point. “You’re right. But just hear us out. Two minutes, and you’ll be back out there.”
“Two minutes,” agrees Steve.
“You’re one of the good guys, Steve,” says Chris. “I know that; I don’t hear a bad word about you.”
“I appreciate that, thank you.”
“But here’s what I worry has happened,” Chris continues. “I think a few weeks ago you get a message, or maybe it’s just a knock at the door, I don’t know. Either way, it’s Johnny Gunduz.”
“Nope,” says Steve, shaking his head.
“And Johnny needs help. He’s back in town for something. Maybe he doesn’t say what; maybe he does. And he turns to you, a little favor, for old times’ sake. Somewhere to stay? Maybe just that. He doesn’t want a record of whatever his new name is anywhere in town. And no one’s to know?”
“I haven’t seen Johnny Gunduz in twenty years. He’s dead, or he’s in prison, or he’s in Turkey.”
“Maybe,” says Chris. “But Johnny could be trouble if he doesn’t get what he wants.
He could burn this place down pretty easily, I’d have thought.
He’s the type to do it too, so maybe you had no choice.
And it’s only a couple of days. He’s just got to deliver a couple of things, then tie up a loose end.
Then he’d be gone. How does that sound to you? ”
Steve shrugs. “Like a pretty dangerous story.”
“You’ve got a flat above the gym?” asks Donna.
Steve nods.
“Who stays there?”
“Anyone who needs to. Not everyone who comes in here is from a stable background. A kid tells me he can’t go home, I don’t ask the reason; I just hand him the keys. It’s a safe place.”
“Who was staying in the flat on June seventeenth?” asks Chris.
“No idea, I’m not the Hilton. Maybe some kid, maybe me.”
“Maybe no one?” asks Donna.
Steve shrugs.
“But you think maybe someone?” says Chris.
“Maybe.”
“Johnny is very well connected in Cyprus,” says Chris.
“Not my world.”
“You’ve still got family over there?” asks Donna.
“Yes. Lot of family.”
“Steve, if Johnny Gunduz had come here and asked if he could stay,” begins Chris, “if he put pressure on you of any kind, or maybe he paid you? If you agreed, if he slept upstairs on June seventeenth, there’s no way you would tell me?”
“No.”
“Consequences too great? Consequences for family in Cyprus?”
“I think that’s been two minutes, if we’re honest.”
“Agreed,” says Chris. “Thank you, Steve.”
“Anytime. You’re always welcome here. I mean that. We could sort that gut out in a heartbeat.”
Chris smiles. “It had crossed my mind, I don’t suppose there’s any way I could take a look upstairs before I go? Just see if Johnny left anything?”
Steve shakes his head. “You could do me a favor, though.”
“Go on.”
“Could you stick this in Lost Property? Someone dropped it a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve asked and asked, but I don’t know who it belongs to.
” He reaches into a drawer, pulls out a clear plastic wallet filled with cash, and hands it to Chris.
“Five thousand euros. Some tourist must be kicking themselves.”
Chris looks at the cash, looks at Donna, then back at Steve. Would this have prints on it? Doubtful, but at least Steve is letting him know he’s right. “You don’t want to keep it?”
Steve shakes his head. “Nope, I know where it’s been.”
Chris hands the wallet to Donna, and she puts it in an evidence bag. They both know that Steve has just been very brave. Chris stands and shakes his hand.
“I know Tony Curran was a bastard,” says Steve. “But he didn’t deserve that.”
“Agreed,” says Chris. “Up to a point. Anyway, me and my gut will be back here soon.”
“Good lad.”