“Yes. I follow you.”
His brain was icily calm now, but it seemed to have lost control of his body. He knew that he must try to look as if he were taking it all very philosophically, but his mouth kept filling with saliva, so that he was swallowing repeatedly, and his hands and legs were trembling. He told himself that he was behaving like a schoolboy. A man had fired three shots at him. What difference did it make whether the man had been a thief or an intending murderer? He had fired three shots, and that was that. But all the same, it did somehow make a difference …
“Then,” Colonel Haki was saying, “let us begin with what has just happened.” He was obviously enjoying himself. “According to Mr. Kopeikin, you did not see the man who shot at you.”
“No, I didn’t. The room was in darkness.”
Kopeikin chipped in. “He left cartridge cases behind him. Nine millimetre calibre ejected from a self-loading pistol.”
“That does not help a great deal. You noticed nothing about him, Mr. Graham?”
“Nothing, I’m afraid. It was all over so quickly. He had gone before I realised it.”
“But he had probably been in the room for some time waiting for you. You didn’t notice any perfume in the room?”
“All I could smell was cordite.”
“What time did you arrive in Istanbul?”