Dishonour (29 page)

This was an argument that came up often so I typed in my standard response.

Re: The One True Religion…by Believer at 9.27 on 2.4.09

We will not need to live apart when everyone submits themselves to Allah and it is the duty of every true Muslim to spread his wondrous word.

Re: The One True Religion…by Khalid42 at 9.30 on 2.4.09

Can we not all live in peace and allow each person to choose?

I was about to explain that there would never be peace until the world accepted Allah, when someone else joined in.

Re: The One True Religion…by Fighting4Islam at 9.32 on 2.4.09

Choosing another religion is rejecting Allah—the worst possible sin. How can we walk by and ignore that?

I watched with fascination as the new poster poured scorn on each suggestion that Muslims should just live and let live. His views were shouted down by others calling him ‘extremist’ but they seemed crystalline to me.

I clicked onto his member profile.

Name: Fighting4Islam

Age : 22

Location: the front line

Way of Life: Allah is Our Lord

Mohammed is Our Leader

The Koran is Our Constitution

Jihad is Our Way

Martrydom is Our Desire.

I hope Fighting4Islam is on line. Our exchanges have become the highlight of each day. There is great wisdom in his words and bravery. His refusal to compromise is often seen as arrogance or stubbornness but I see it as purity.

Despite the fact that it’s so early in the morning the forum is buzzing. Someone has posted a link saying Hamas have intercepted UN trucks containing aid and distributed it amongst their followers.

The Zionist apologists are out in force.

Re: UN trucks intercepted…by Khalid42 at 6.05 on 9.4.09

Why are we surprised that a terrorist organisation such as Hamas would do this? They have brought nothing but fear and violence to our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

I skim the responses until I find what I’m looking for.

Re: UN trucks intercepted…by Fighting4Islam at 6.15 on 9.4.09

Don’t rely on mainstream Western media to tell you the truth. Those bringing fear and violence to Palestine are Israel and her supporters.

They want to demonise Hamas because they know the truth…Hamas build hospitals, schools and mosques here. That is their main work and that is why the people of Gaza love them.

I reread Fighting4Islam’s post to check I’m not mistaken. But no, there it is ‘…Hamas build hospitals, schools and Mosques
here
.’

My fingers flash across the keyboard.

Re: UN trucks intercepted…by Believer at 6.20 on 9.4.09

Are you in Palestine, brother?

I wait for the answer. Outside the world is turning. Cars on their way to the station for the morning commute. The electric whirr of a milk float. Even in my house a shower is running in the bathroom.

But in my room it is as if the air has been sucked out. As if I am floating in the vacuum of space. Waiting.

Re: UN trucks intercepted…by Fighting4Islam at 6.25 on 9.4.09

Yes.

‘Are you sure about this?’

Lilly and Jack looked behind them to the back seat of his car, where Taslima was sitting.

She nodded her head, a slight smile playing on her lips.

As she reached for the door handle, Lilly realised that even if Taslima wasn’t having second thoughts about their plan, she was.

‘Hold on.’ She grasped Taslima’s knee. ‘We need to go over this again.’

Jack nodded but Lilly could feel his impatience. Time was flying away. Even so, this wasn’t something they could rush.

‘I tell Jalil that Aasha’s family have sent me to take her out of the country,’ said Taslima.

Lilly breathed deeply. It sounded so easy and yet there were so many things that could go wrong. She tried not to recall her old boss’s face when a previous case had attracted hostile attention. Rupinder had received a beating so severe she had spent six weeks in ICU. Even after the scars had healed, she never returned to work.

‘What if he turns nasty?’ she asked. ‘This man was involved in a horrendous attack on a child.’

‘My instinct tells me that was Malik,’ said Jack.

‘That’s as maybe,’ said Lilly, ‘but Jalil was still part of it. And let’s not forget Yasmeen.’

‘What about her?’ asked Jack.

Lilly rolled her eyes. ‘I’m pretty sure this lot killed her, remember.’

Jack opened his mouth to speak but Taslima got there first.

‘I understand your point, Lilly, that this man may be dangerous.’

‘Exactly.’

‘I’ve dealt with violent people before,’ Taslima said. ‘Don’t worry.’

But Lilly was worrying. She knew that her own brand of enthusiasm often carried people along, often into trouble.

She turned to Jack. ‘Can’t we wire her up or something?’

‘A wire?’ Jack laughed. ‘This isn’t an episode of
Spooks
.’

Lilly put up her hands in surrender.

Taslima fished out her phone and pressed a key. Lilly’s own phone sprang into life.

‘Hello.’

Taslima giggled. ‘It’s me. I’ll keep it on and then you can hear everything.’

‘You’re good.’ Jack wagged his finger at her.

She opened the car and stepped outside.

Lilly watched her walk up the path to Jalil’s house and was filled with sisterly love. As an only child she had longed for a sister. Another girl who would share styling tips for their stupidly curly hair, who would gossip about boys and concoct the best mix of foundation and concealer to
cover a love bite. The complete opposite of Taslima, in fact, and yet there it was.

As Elsa would have said, ‘Feelings are feelings.’

Taslima’s slender hand reached out to ring the bell and Lilly’s stomach lurched.

‘Do you think we’re doing the right thing?’

‘She’ll be fine,’ said Jack, but there was no certainty in his voice.

With less than eight hours left to keep Malik inside, time was running out.

Taslima half hoped that no one would answer the door. In the comfort of the car she’d been clear in her mind that this was the best opportunity for them to find Aasha, but as she’d approached the house, some of her bravado disappeared. By the time she rang the bell she was shaking. She checked her phone, which lay in her closed bag. The line was still open with Lilly and Jack. They would hear if she got into any trouble.

When the door opened she murmured a swift
dua
that Allah would show her the way and smiled.

‘Nawed Jalil?’

The guy was in his early twenties, dressed in an Adidas tracksuit. His beard needed a trim and his left eye twitched.

‘Who wants to know?’ he asked.

‘Taslima Hassan,’ she said. ‘I’m Aasha Hassan’s cousin.’

A mixture of conflicting emotions raced across his face, confusion and fear among them.

‘I don’t think I know the name,’ he said.

Taslima didn’t let her smile slip. ‘Sure you do. Can I step inside?’

When he closed the door behind her and she knew Lilly and Jack could no longer see her, she felt a stab of panic. When he turned briefly to lead her into the kitchen she rechecked her phone for reassurance.

‘Aasha’s family sent me,’ she said.

‘Why?’

This was the crux of it. Everything depended on whether she could carry off the lie.

‘Malik’s locked up and they’re very nervous,’ she said.

The look on Jalil’s face told Taslima that he was equally concerned.

‘They think it will be better for everyone if Aasha is removed from the situation,’ she said.

‘Removed how?’

‘Taken out of the country,’ Taslima continued, ‘for a long holiday.’

The relief poured from Jalil’s eyes to his mouth and a crooked smile spread across his face.

‘Back to Pakistan?’

Taslima nodded. ‘They have someone interested in marriage.’

The man exhaled as if he had been holding his breath for an interminably long time and finally Taslima’s heart began to slow.

Whatever the holes in her story, Jack had pointed out that Jalil would want to believe her. He was right.

‘You know what’s happened to Malik,’ she said, ‘and the police are round at my cousins’ right now. If we move quickly then they won’t be able to make the link.’

‘You want to take the girl now?’

Taslima rolled her eyes dramatically. ‘We fly out tonight.’

‘Tonight?’ Jalil repeated.

Come on, thought Taslima, you know you want rid of her. What could she say that would tip him into her direction? She remembered Jack mentioning that one of Aasha’s brothers had been distressed and vomiting at the very mention of Malik’s name.

‘If they arrest Aasha’s brothers I’m not convinced they’ll keep it buttoned.’

‘Imran’s sound,’ said Jalil.

‘It’s not him I’m worried about.’ Aasha gave him what she hoped was a knowing look.

Jalil frowned. She’d hit the nail on the head.

‘I told Malik we didn’t need to meet up with them,’ he said.

Taslima had him. ‘Look, it doesn’t matter what he tells the police if Aasha’s not around to make a statement.’

Jalil gave one short nod. He had clearly made up his mind.

‘Right then, let’s go.’

Lilly put her hand over the Bluetooth sensor and smiled at Jack.

‘You were right,’ she whispered. ‘She’s bloody good.’

They’d patched Lilly’s phone through Bluetooth so that they could hear Taslima on speaker phone. The sound was muffled and crackled wildly in her bag.

‘Does she keep a bag of crisps in there?’ asked Jack.

Lilly pictured Taslima’s bag. The slimline diary, the leather-bound copy of the Koran and the second phone for emergencies. There was certainly no food or rubbish.

They’d sat, rapt, at Taslima’s attempts to get Jilal to divulge Aasha’s whereabouts. Lilly cringed at the idea that sending Aasha away would be the end of all their problems. Surely anyone with half a brain would realise that there was Ryan in the equation?

But Taslima had banked on Jalil being desperate, and a desperate man asks few questions.

When they emerged through the door, Lilly couldn’t quite believe it. The plan had worked. Taslima was a genius.

Jalil led Taslima to a battered Ford Focus and they got inside. Like a complete professional Taslima’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker towards Jack’s car.

‘Bloody fantastic,’ Jack whispered, and started up the engine.

Was it really going to be this easy? Would Jalil simply take them to Aasha? It hardly seemed possible.

The Ford raced out of Bury Park.

Jalil’s voice came through the speaker but the words were unclear as they fought with the car’s engine and the noise of the road outside.

‘What’s he saying?’ Lilly whispered.

Jack shrugged.

Taslima’s voice in response was louder, unnaturally so, no doubt to compensate for the background noise. Lilly prayed it wasn’t obvious to Jalil.

‘The plane leaves around seven,’ she said. ‘Will there be enough time?’

Jalil’s answer was monosyllabic—Lilly guessed at a solitary ‘yes’. She did a quick calculation in her head. Wherever Aasha was being kept couldn’t be more than an hour’s drive. With any luck this would all be over very soon.

The car bore left onto the dual carriageway and quickly picked up speed. Clearly Jalil wanted to put an end to all this too.

The traffic was heavy, lorries and vans all steaming their way out of Luton to the motorway. Jalil’s car began weaving impatiently, overtaking a juggernaut on the inside lane.

Jack followed behind, narrowly avoiding being forced off the road.

‘Christ,’ he muttered, and Lilly put her finger to her lips.

As they approached a line of traffic cones—a flimsy barrier between the cars and half a mile of waterlogged ditches housing uncovered pipes—everyone jockeyed for position as the road narrowed to one lane. A taxi and a stretch limo tried to force their way in front of Jack. Jack kept his foot on the pedal, not giving an inch.

The electric windows of the limo came down and a gang of women dressed for a hen party began waving and shouting at them. By the look of them, they’d already started drinking at breakfast.

Lilly gesticulated to her watch to show that they were in a hurry.

A plump woman in a pair of bunny girl ears leaned out. She held a bottle of Lambrini in one hand, a cigarette in the other. A learner plate hung round her neck on a string and flapped in the wind.

‘Got a light?’ she squealed.

Another woman in a white cowboy hat trimmed with marabou roared with laughter.

Jack ignored them and kept his eyes ahead. The limo signalled to be let in. Jack ignored that too.

‘Let us in, you miserable fuckers,’ the bunny girl slurred.

‘You tell ’em, Jade!’ the cowgirl shrieked.

The bunny girl leaned out even further so that her breasts hung over the side, barely covered by a crop top emblazoned with the words ‘Porn Star’.

‘You need your leg over, mate, then you might not be so uptight.’

Lilly glanced at Jack, saw the muscles of his jaw working up and down. He couldn’t let the limo come between Jalil and him, but the limo was now close enough for them to reach out and touch. If he didn’t ease back they would collide.

‘Jack?’ Lilly whispered.

‘Yes, mate,’ called the cowgirl. ‘Come in here and we’ll release your tensions.’

Jack gritted his teeth but kept his foot flat.

‘How about a quickie before I get married?’ Bunny Girl hiccuped. She threw both her arms wide as if to embrace Jack. ‘Shit.’ She let go of the bottle and it arced into the air, spraying cheap wine over Jack’s side window. It landed with a thud, then a crack, on his windscreen.