‘And your family?’
Again she looked startled, and this time there was something else: she suddenly became guarded.
‘My family?’
‘Back in Algeria. How did they feel about it?’
‘They didn’t know about it. Not for a long time. But when they did hear about it they didn’t like it. It wasn’t so much the dishonesty that they didn’t like, it was the shame. They felt that the family had been dishonoured. Their pride was hurt.’ She grimaced. ‘We Arabs are a proud people. Like the Spanish, only worse.’
‘And your brother?’
‘Abou?’
She took her time about replying.
‘Well, Abou,’ she said then, softly.
She paused. ‘Well, Abou is a simple creature. He sees things in black and white. And the family is important to him.’
‘So he came to you. But when he got to you, he found that you had changed?’
‘Yes, I had changed,’ said Leila, looking down at her hands.
‘So he didn’t know what to do?’
‘What to do?’
‘He came here to do something, didn’t he? Or was sent to do something.’
Again she looked at her hands. ‘It all seemed so simple to him. So clear. I had been dishonoured. The family had been dishonoured. It could not be let rest. But I reasoned with him. I said that things were not like that here. This was Spain and they did things differently And if I was prepared to let it rest, so should he be. Well, of course, he couldn’t understand that. And why should he pay any attention to what I thought? Women don’t usually have much of a voice in my country. And the family had already decided. But, in his way, he loved me. And I think I could have persuaded him.’
‘But then came Tragic Week.’
‘Then came Tragic Week.’
‘Abou,’ said Seymour. ‘I want to talk to you about Aisha.’
‘Aisha?’ said Abou, surprised. ‘Farraj’s daughter?’
‘That’s right. You knew her, didn’t you?’
‘I knew the family. At one time. Farraj worked closely with us.’
‘Us? Your family? Or Lockhart?’
‘Both. My family had had connections with Farraj’s for a long time. In Algeria. And then when Lockhart became part of our family he and Farraj began to work closely together. They were almost partners. Farraj handled things for him in Algeria and Morocco, and then Farraj moved to Gibraltar to work even more closely with him.’
‘And Aisha?’
‘I got to know Aisha when Farraj came back to Algiers on visits, which he did regularly. Of course, I didn’t take much notice of her at first. She was a girl. Just another of Farraj’s family. But then on one visit I did.’
‘You noticed that she had grown up?’
‘Yes. She made me notice her. She spoke up. That is unusual in Arab families and Farraj was quite upset about it. It quite put me off her. I thought it was unseemly. But Leila said that was because she had lived in Spain and that was the way women behaved in Spain. And I grew quite to like it.’
Abou became embarrassed.
‘At one point I even thought of marrying her. Leila would have liked that. She encouraged me. “What you need is a good wife, Abou,” she said, “and Aisha would make you one.” I even went so far as to ask her. Farraj first, of course, and he was not unwilling. But then when it was put to her, she refused. I could not understand that. She said that it was nothing personal but that she wanted her freedom. Farraj was angry with her. It made things difficult for a time and he left her behind when next he visited.’
‘But you did not forget her?’
‘No.’
‘And you knew that she remembered Lockhart?’
‘She was fond of him. She thought of him as another father.’
‘And so it was easy to pressure her, when you went over to Spain yourself, to do something for him when he was in prison?’
Abou gave him a startled look.
‘That wasn’t part of the original plan, was it? It couldn’t be, because you didn’t know that he would be in prison. In fact, when you learned that Lockhart had been taken to prison, you must have thought for a moment that that had put a stop to what you intended to do. What you had been sent to do.’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ muttered Abou.
‘But even before that, it seemed that Tragic Week had made what you planned impossible. But then you realized that it could actually work for you. Help you. With all the general chaos no one would notice or care. You went out on to the streets to find him. But then things went wrong. You suddenly discovered that he had a bodyguard. You couldn’t get to him. And then you learned that he had been arrested and taken to prison, where you couldn’t reach him. You had to think again; and you thought of Aisha.’
Abou did not say anything.
‘You thought of a way of reaching him even though he was in prison. You would poison him in his cell. You made inquiries and found that food could be got in to the prisoners. But that meant talking one of the warders into it, and you thought that could be done better by someone other than you. And then you had an inspiration. You thought of Aisha. You got her to talk to the warder. And to persuade him to pass in some food which you had prepared. Poisoned food.’
‘No, no. It was not as you suppose. How — how do you know this?’
‘She was seen, Abou. Seen in Barcelona, and seen near the prison. And she told someone that she was arranging for something to be taken in to Lockhart.’
‘She will not confirm this! You will not be able to talk to her. You will not be able to ask her that!’
‘Why not, Abou? Why cannot she be asked in Algiers as well as she could have been asked here? And when she is asked, she will tell. Why shouldn’t she? She has done nothing wrong. You tricked her, Abou, nastily, and she will not like that. She looked on Lockhart as a father, remember. And I do not think she will be cowed into silence, Abou, not this time. Her father sent her back to Algiers so that she should not be asked, and she went along with that as a dutiful daughter and because she was not quite sure herself what she had done, unwittingly, or how she had been involved. She was young and puzzled and confused. But she loved Lockhart and she is a spirited girl, Abou, and now she will not be silenced. She will tell all right.’
‘How will you reach her to ask the questions? She is married and her husband’s permission will have to be obtained. And she is in Algeria! And my family-’
‘Your family, yes. In which family feeling is so strong. So strong that it could not bear the shame and disgrace of what Lockhart had done to Leila. So strong that it sent you, Abou, as Leila’s brother, to take revenge.’
‘I will speak to Farraj! And I will speak to my family. They will not allow-’
‘It does not matter what they allow or do not allow. You are in Spain now, not Algeria. And it will be by Spanish law that things will be decided.
‘And as to reaching Aisha, I am not sure that you will find Farraj as much on your side as you think. And if he is not, nor will his friend, her husband, be. Aisha will be allowed to talk. And she will have plenty to say. And, besides — besides,’ said Seymour, ‘I, too, have family in North Africa.’
And that, too, he suddenly realized, had now become definite.
Chapter Fourteen
'But — but he was a good chap!’ said Hattersley, bewildered. ‘I always got on very well with him.’
As if that was a sufficient guarantee of his innocence.
‘Well, there you are!’ said Seymour.
‘I must say, it comes as a surprise. I was sure all along that it was the Government. Or the Catalans. Or the anarchists. Or the Arabs.’
‘Well, it wouldn’t have been the Government, would it? I mean, why wait to get him in jail before killing him? When there were so many better opportunities during Tragic Week. I must say I agree with you about the Catalans, though. For a long time I thought they had a hand in it.’
‘You did?’
‘Oh, yes. But why should they kill the goose that was, from their point of view, laying the golden eggs? At one time I toyed with the idea that some of them might have thought he was going to betray them. There was a fisherman, you know, that was probably going to do that, and they killed him. But Lockhart? Who was out on the streets during Tragic Week trying to act as a safeguard for them? It didn’t make sense.