Free The Istanbul Puzzle by Laurence O’Bryan

make this stuff up and get it published?’
    A horrible sense of déjà vu came over me. There’d been speculation in the press in London too, after Irene had died. Some stories had claimed that she’d been killed by friendly fire. It had been totally unsettling. It was one of the reasons I’d gone out there.
    ‘You think they made it all up?’ Her tone was sceptical. ‘You know nothing about this Labarum thing?’
    Her arms were folded.
    ‘I didn’t say that.’ There was no point in denying it. ‘Alek told me all about Constantine military standard, the Labarum thing, as you call it. He claimed . . .’ I hesitated. The craziness of what Alek had said when he was alive seemed spookier now that he was dead.
    ‘He claimed . . .’ Was this how he’d be remembered?
    ‘Do go on,’ said Isabel.
    I sighed. ‘Alek said the Labarum of Constantine would reappear at a time of great change.’
    That was enough for her. She raised her hands in the air as if she didn’t want to hear any more.
    I shrugged. I’d always been a cynic when it came to Alek’s crazy theories. This one was only a bit stupider than the rest.
    ‘If he’d found even a part of this banner of Constantine, it’d be worth a mint, right?’ she said.
    ‘Yeah, but he wasn’t looking for it.’
    ‘Why do you think they’re talking about it?’ she said.
    ‘It’s one of the legends of Hagia Sophia. That’s enough reason for them to write this stuff. Some people like stirring things up. It sells newspapers. But whatever they say, there’s no way the Institute was part of a search for the Labarum. And whatever you say about him, I honestly don’t think Alek was either. He would have told me. We should sue that newspaper.’
    She shook her head. ‘Not a good idea, unless you like spending a lot of time in hot court rooms.’
    ‘Well, their story is full of crap.’
    ‘So where did Alek take this photograph?’ She tapped her finger against the print lying on the table.
    ‘Like I said, I’ve no idea.’
    I shaded my eyes. The sun was way too hot already. My skin was burning.
    Despite my insistence that Alek was innocent, I knew I had to consider that there was a chance, if even an outside one, that he might have become involved in something he hadn’t told me about. Sure, he valued his job, but what about all the weird stuff he used to go on about?
    Had he spread his crazy ideas about Constantine’s Labarum? Had someone persuaded him to look for it?
    Isabel gazed out at sea. Then she turned to me.
    ‘Why did you go to Afghanistan after your wife died?’
    Someone had been digging about me. But it was a question I’d answered many times before. I put my hands on the table, palms downward.
    ‘I went to Afghanistan because the Institute I work for got permission from the Ministry of Education there to do an aerial survey.’
    ‘You’re telling me it was a coincidence? Your wife had died out there six months before; then you get to go out there. Come on Sean, I’m not stupid.’
    I pressed my palms down on the table. I’d heard this response before too. ‘What would you do if your husband was murdered, and no one was ever caught for it, never mind punished, and the whole incident ended up almost forgotten?’ I was getting louder, but I couldn’t help it, ‘If the whole thing is brushed away as if it never happened?
    Her voice was softer when she responded. ‘I heard you almost got yourself killed. That you were lucky to be deported.’
    I stared out to sea. We sat in silence.
    ‘I’m not going to argue with you,’ I said.
    What she’d said was all true. I’d managed to visit the nearest village to where Irene had been murdered by a roadside bomb. I’d ended up in a room with ten armed men and a nervous translator. I’d been hoping to find out which group had killed her. To get closure. Put a name to the bastards.
    An American patrol was called in by a local guy. I was taken into custody, handcuffed, put on a plane out within