Hidden Tracks | ✓

13 | tilted stage

Mehmet Dogan was terrified of us.

Especially me.

I knelt down to his level so that I was face to face with him. I dug my gun in his side, making him well aware that if he tried a false move, he'd have very little chance of getting away with it.

He winced as he felt the pressure of my gun. I smirked.

"See, Dogan? I don't think I need to tell you what might happen if you try to run away again."

Granted, those were just (semi) empty threats, but he didn't need to know that. We would never actually take his life, but if he did try to one-up us, we'd definitely consider shooting him in the leg.

He nodded fervently. "I not run! Swear!"

I nodded, still not removing my gun. "Okay. Then we'll just quickly ask you some questions. And we expect honest answers. Understood?"

He nodded again. I began.

"Why did you run when we asked you about Amélie Beaumont?"

He gulped. "I think Amélie send you. I think you is her team."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean, her team?"

"Amélie blackmail me. Tell me if I tell anything to anyone, she come for me. So when you ask me about Amélie I think maybe you come for me, to kill me..."

What?

"Amélie blackmailed you? Why? And how do you know her?"

He hesitated, as if conflicted between speaking and remaining silent. I dug the gun further into his side, and he relented.

"Amélie copy my designs. I design carpets, rugs also. A year ago she come to Istanbul and see my designs. She like them and offer me deal. She tell me she want to buy my design to make her clothes. I say no. I don't want anyone copy my work.

Then she go away. After few days, she come back again. This time she blackmail me. She tell me she know I have wife, daughter. She know my daughter's name, her school. She say she harm them if I refuse her deal. So I have to agree.

From then she take my designs from me. In her deal my condition is I cannot sell my carpets anymore, because they have my designs. I only supply them to her and she use them in her brand. She pay me some money to keep quiet. But she also tell me if I say this secret to anyone, then she come for me and my--my family!"

Mehmet Dogan broke down sobbing, begging me to spare him and that he only agreed to the deal for the sake of his wife and kid.

Meanwhile, I was completely speechless. Never in my dreams could I have imagined Amélie Beaumont, the sweet smiling woman in the pictures, could actually go and do something like this. I glanced at Soler and Miranda to see similar expressions of shock on their faces.

It was simply astounding. Amélie had actually ripped off designs from a poor carpet-maker in Istanbul? Then blackmailed him into keeping quiet?

If this was what actually went on behind-the-scenes in the fashion industry, then I really didn't want to know what else Amélie had done, or was capable of.

Soler resumed the interrogation. "Mr Dogan, you can be rest assured that we haven't been sent by Amélie. We had no idea she threatened you, but we'll ensure she doesn't cause any harm to you or your family. But first tell us, do you have any idea about where Amélie is right now?"

Mehmet seemed a bit more relaxed around us, even though he was still very much on edge. He shook his head.

"I have no contact with Amélie Beaumont except when I send her my designs. I send them by mail. She pay me some money, not much. That's it. She don't speak to me."

We sighed. Mehmet seemed a bit inquisitive. "Who are you? Why you ask about Amélie?"

Miranda spoke up. "We are gathering some information about Amélie for special reasons. You don't need to know who we are."

I looked at Miranda. "I think we have nothing more to ask him, do we?"

She shook her head no, and I slowly released my gun from Mehmet's side. "Go home, Mr Dogan. And start selling your carpets again. Don't be afraid of Amélie, we'll see to it she can't blackmail you anymore. Thanks for telling us everything. But before you leave, give us your phone number so that we can contact you if we need any more information."

He slowly got up, his body language filled with trepidation, as if he was still expecting us to attack any moment. He recited his number to us, I called his phone then and there to check if the number was legit. Then after verifying it, I nodded at him. "Go home, Mr Dogan."

He looked once at us, still scared, then speed-walked (and half limped) back down the street.

After he disappeared from view, I turned to Soler. I raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking him a question.

He seemed to get what I was asking, and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I recorded him." He held up his phone to show me.

Back when we would train at TIA, we'd been prepped for situations like this. Situations where we'd have to confront and extract information from various individuals. Our trainers had drilled into our minds the fact that we always, always needed to record their statements as evidence for future use.

Since I'd been the one holding Dogan hostage, I'd desperately hoped Soler had the brains to remember that we needed to record what he was saying.

Turned out he wasn't as useless as I'd thought.

Miranda nodded in appreciation. "Nice work today, agents, and we certainly got some pretty surprising info on Amélie. I'm not sure how this ties up with our mission at hand, or if it's related at all, but it's info nonetheless. So coming to Istanbul hasn't been a total dead end."

I had to agree with her on that. I'd really hoped we'd get some leads in this ancient city, and even though I wasn't sure how this revelation of Amélie's plagiarising habits was related to her disappearance, at least I knew we'd got something out of this trip.

And, I thought to myself, now that we know the truth about Mehmet Dogan, we can't stay silent about it. We have to help him and call out Amélie's actions after we retrieve her.

a/n: so who expected this turn of events and who didn't? be honest haha.