Ikmen 16 - Body Count by Barbara Nadel Page B

was of a very pious nature. And although Ard ı ç was not averse to religion, he found that when it entered public life, its influence sometimes led to favouritism along sectarian lines. This sat badly with Ardic and his personal philosophy regarding his department. His own religion was and always had been a private matter.
    ‘To give him credit, the Englishman fought,’ Arto said. ‘That’s why there’s blood in the living room and in the hall. I’d say that the attacker came in through the front door.’
    ‘He let him in?’ İ kmen asked. The kap ı c ı had said that when he tried to deliver Regan’s water, the door had been locked.
    ‘That will be for Forensics to decide,’ the doctor said. ‘But it’s very possible.’
    ‘So he could have known him?’
    ‘Maybe.’
    ‘Çetin, did the kap ı c ı see anyone come to visit Dr Regan last night?’ Süleyman asked.
    İ kmen shook his head. ‘He was out. Drinking.’
    ‘Until when?’ Ay ş e said.
    ‘He doesn’t remember.’
    ‘Time of death?’ Ard ı ç asked the doctor.
    ‘Anywhere between about ten last night and two o’clock this morning.’
    ‘Cause?’
    ‘Ah well, that’s where you’re going to have to be a little bit patient with me,’ the doctor said. ‘The victim has sustained so many wounds, administered I would say by a very sharp, long-bladed knife …’
    ‘A machete?’
    ‘Not really, but something like that. However, that was only at the beginning. Later on I think he used a smaller knife. I’ll tell you why in a moment. Basically he has multiple wounds and it’s going to take me some time to work out exactly which one, if any of them, was responsible for his death.’
    Süleyman looked confused. ‘If any?’
    ‘He could have died from simple blood loss,’ the doctor said. ‘However, what I can tell you is that if my observations are correct, whoever attacked him tried, and failed, to cut his heart out.’
    There was a stunned silence. Then Çetin İ kmen said, ‘Cut his heart out? Are you sure?’
    ‘His chest cavity has been cut open, probably with the large knife, his ribs broken and separated and the vessels around the heart hacked at and in some cases severed,’ the Armenian said.
    ‘But the heart is still in the chest?’
    ‘Such as it is, yes. Where it’s been cut about, there isn’t actually that much of it left.’
    Süleyman said, ‘If the murderer wanted to cut out Dr Regan’s heart, why did he stop?’
    ‘He could have been interrupted,’ İ kmen said. ‘By a noise that made him fear he was about to be discovered, or maybe even by a person entering the apartment. We’ve got officers going door to door—’
    ‘Or,’ the doctor interrupted, ‘what I think is the most likely reason.’
    Ard ı ç frowned. ‘Which is?’
    ‘Well, from a medico-butchery point of view, I’d say that our murderer had very little knowledge of anatomy. For some reason he wanted this man’s heart, but when it came to the reality of obtaining the organ, he was up to neither the job nor the sight of what was revealed when he opened up the chest. I think he just stopped because he couldn’t go any further.’
    ‘Mmm.’ Ard ı ç nodded his head up and down. ‘Doctor, I recall you said something similar about the Tarlaba ş ı semi-decapitation.’
    ‘Yes, that was a possibility in that case too.’
    ‘So we could be looking at the same offender in both this case and the Tarlaba ş ı murder?’
    ‘Possibly, yes.’
    ‘Mmm.’
    ‘Very different victims, however,’ Süleyman said. ‘A crazy, drug-addled fantasist in Tarlaba ş ı , a foreign writer with a doctorate here.’
    ‘Yes, although the Tarlaba ş ı man was well educated, as I recall,’ Ard ı ç said. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice had a much harder tone. ‘But whether one person is doing these things, or twelve, the fact remains that they’re happening and they shouldn’t be.’ He looked across at İ kmen. ‘Movement