“I don’t know,” said Agatha, almost hating him. She took a gulp of her wine.

“Well, if you’re doing nothing tomorrow, you may as well come to Nicosia with me and meet Mustafa. Yes, the more I think about it, the more I’m sure he’s ill.”

Agatha’s heart rose. At least he wanted to see her again.

“Have you eaten?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“I’ll stand you dinner.”

“All right. Where?”

“I don’t know the restaurants. I’d like somewhere with authentic Turkish cooking.”

“I know a place at Zeytinlik. Called the Ottoman House.”

“Where’s that?”

“Just outside Kyrenia. You turn off before you get to the Jasmine Court Hotel.”

“I’ll drive, if you like,” said Agatha.

“No, we’ll take both cars because you’ll be going back to the hotel afterwards.”

So much for all my dreams of a hot night of passion, thought Agatha, but still, it’s a start.

The Ottoman House Restaurant was in a garden, quiet and serene, candle-light, tinkling fountain. The proprietors, Emine and Altay, gave James a warm welcome. The food was excellent and Agatha amused James with her stories of the terrible tourists on the yacht.

“The thing I can’t understand,” said Agatha as they worked their way through an enormous meze of little dishes of crushed walnuts, hummus, village bread, pita bread, local sausages, olives and what seemed like a hundred other delicacies, “is why that unlikely sixsome got together. Olivia obviously thinks Rose is beneath her.”

He laughed. “I know what you’re doing. You’re seeing murder already.”

“Well, it’s odd.”

“So how’s Carsely anyway?”

“The same as ever. Sleepy and quiet. I’ve left my cats with Doris Simpson.” Doris was Agatha’s cleaner. “How’s the book going?”

James, Agatha knew, was working on a military history. “Not very well,” said James. “I try to start early in the mornings and do some more in the evenings, but it’s so hot. It’s the humidity, too. Cyprus never used to be so hot. I used to think all those scare stories about global warming were simply…well…scare stories, but now I’m not so sure. And there’s a chronic shortage of water on the island.”