Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol Page A

wasn’t clear beforehand who was to stay in which room. Reception had allocated randomly. The suites… Well there were two suite reservations. The two suites in the hotel were next to each other and had been booked for the film crew, or rather for Müller and his friend Miss Vogel. As for Bauer and Gust’s rooms being next door to each other,” he said scratching his head, “that was coincidence of course.”
    â€œThat’s a very big coincidence, Batuhan,” I said sardonically. Contrary to what I thought, my manner did not offend Batuhan’s masculine pride. He took out
a notebook from the briefcase, and jotted something down.
    â€œYou’re saying Müller came out of the lift at eleven forty and was last seen alive walking towards his room.”
    â€œYes, and the body was found at five twenty.”
    â€œIt is true that he was murdered in the bath, isn’t it?”
    â€œDo you think we, the Turkish police, are the sort of people to joke about such things?”
    Actually, I’d never felt less like laughing.
    â€œThat left less than six hours. If he hadn’t been killed, he would have started that day with five hours’ sleep. If I’d been in that situation, I’d have gone straight to bed rather than indulge in a bath. All the others said he was drunk, except for those two… What were their names?”
    â€œBauer and Gust. But there was no need for anyone to say whether he was drunk or not, because the autopsy made it clear that he had a high blood-alcohol count.”
    â€œHmm,” I said, deep in thought. Clearly, Müller hadn’t been burned to a cinder by being electrocuted as I’d expected. There was a body on which an autopsy could be carried out.
    â€œIt seems odd to me that someone who was drunk would go and have a bath instead of going straight to bed.”
    â€œGetting into it with a whisky glass is even stranger,” he said.
    â€œHe had a whisky glass in his hand?” I stopped. “In his hand? What do you mean? In the bath?”
    â€œNo, in his hand. He was clutching the glass very tightly.”
    â€œHow?” First his body turned out not to have been burned to toast, and now this.

    â€œIn the case of sudden or traumatic death, the muscles in the lower arms, especially the hands, remain contracted instead of slackening. Haven’t you ever seen war photos showing dead people with flags in their hands, who apparently died for the flag and with the flag clutched in their hand?”
    Without responding to Batuhan’s last sentence, I grimaced and said, “In the bath, with a whisky glass stuck in his hand… Poor man.”
    Suddenly I had an idea. “So, any suspicion of suicide was eliminated because he had a whisky glass in his hand?” I said. As I said this, I thought about the reaction of the wardrobe mistress who had been the first person to see the body.
    Batuhan responded to this, saying, “Suicide never even occurred to us because of the position of the body.”
    â€œFine, but didn’t he try to save himself?”
    â€œThere was no chance of escaping death in such circumstances. Again, because of the muscles. You remember how I said the hands and forearms remain contracted? Well, there is involuntary contraction of the other muscles in the body as well. It would have been absolutely impossible for him to get out of the water.”
    â€œOK, so what state was the body in?”
    â€œWhat do you mean, what state was it in?”
    â€œWell, I thought when people were subjected to an electric shock, they were burned to a cinder, but, according to what you said, that was not the case.”
    â€œYes, a normal electric shock would turn a body to charcoal.”
    â€œYou mean if you put your finger into an electric socket…”
    He carried on as if he hadn’t heard what I said:

    â€œIn water… because water is a good conductor… Death