‘Which two?’
‘Abu and this bloke.’
‘Haygill, his boss? He came here?’
‘No, no, not him. Him.’ Qasim pointed a fat finger further down the page at a picture of the victim, Springer.
‘Abu met Springer here?’ Kathy stared at Qasim in disbelief. ‘Surely not.’
‘Yeah, it’s true. Briony brought that old geezer here one day. He was interested in the history of our family. We had quite a chat. Then Briony said she’d take him upstairs to see the mosque, and on their way up they met Abu coming down. Right there…’ he pointed to the stairs at the back of the cafe, ‘… halfway up, they met, and Briony introduced them and they shook hands. Spooky, init, yeah?’
‘You never saw them meet again?’
‘No. He didn’t come here again.’
They had met twice, Kathy thought, both times on stairs, one going up, one down. The first time they had shaken hands, the second time one had shot the other dead. Very spooky.
‘How is Nargis coping now?’
‘Seems OK, on the surface at any rate. She’s a well calm girl, yeah? She’s moved back upstairs, and George and Fran are keeping an eye on her. Every day she gets a little bit bigger.’
‘Her father hasn’t tried to make trouble?’
‘Nah. He wouldn’t dare. And they’re getting counselling now, the pair of them, from the imam and the social worker. It seems old Manzoor is very taken with the idea of a grandchild. Anyway, he’d be too scared you’d come after him again wiv your swizzle stick if he tried anything. You got it on you?’
Kathy patted her pocket. ‘Of course, Qasim. I always carry it when I come to visit you.’
His appreciative roar turned into a coughing fit, and he had to take a deep draw on his cigarette to recover himself. ‘Tell me though,’ he said through the smoke, his voice become squeaky, ‘that money Abu left her. Is she going to get it back?’
‘Depends. We’d be a lot happier about a lot of things if we knew where it came from.’
Qasim studied his fingernails. ‘She won’t tell you?’
‘She says she doesn’t know. Do you?’
‘Abu wouldn’t have told me. He’d have known I’d start charging them rent.’ He gave a wheezing chuckle, his jowls and belly wobbling. Then he added, ‘The only one he might have told, apart from Nargis, would be Fran. They got on well, Abu and Fran, and Fran is good with money. She used to be a merchant banker, did you know that? Well, not exactly-she worked for one, in the City, while she was a student, before she converted to Islam. She’s got her head screwed on, and if I was in Abu’s shoes, and had come into a bit of cash, I might ask Fran where to invest it. Understand that I’m only telling you this because I want Nargis to keep the money. If it’s legit, Fran may be able to set your minds at rest. Nargis is on her own now. She and the baby are really going to need that cash.’
Kathy nodded, thinking that of course that only strengthened Abu’s motive in taking the money to kill Springer. ‘Do you think Fran would tell us?’
‘I could have a word in her ear, if you like. She’s getting a few things down the supermarket right now, but she should be back soon. Why don’t you finish your coffees, do a bit more shopping in the street market, and come back in an hour, eh? You might like to have lunch here. Lamb kebabs is our special today, specially for market day.’
‘Fine. Do we need to book?’
Qasim Ali thought that was very funny.
The sky was darker when they left the cafe, and as they strolled through the market again big drops of rain began to fall. They sheltered under the awning of a second-hand bookstall and studied the titles. They had been talking about Fran, and her abandonment of her previous life to take up the Muslim way, and Leon suddenly said, ‘Ah!’ and reached for one of the books. He checked it, then handed it to Kathy. ‘Here’s something appropriate. Used to be one of my favourites.’
Kathy read the print on the front, Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. She turned the pages, maps of the Middle East to begin with, then an introductory poem, the first verse of which she read out loud. I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, that your eyes might be shining for me When we came.
‘That’s what Max Springer seemed to want to do,’ she pondered. ‘To earn us freedom, even at the expense of truth.’
‘That’s absurd.’ Leon sounded shocked. ‘You can’t have one without the other, surely.’
‘Yes, that’s what Brock said.’
She turned the pages over and noticed a passage describing the Arabs.
‘“They were a people of spasms, of upheavals, of ideas… Their largest manufacture was of creeds…” ’
‘I think that’s what Springer meant by truth-the absolute truth of creeds, whether religious or scientific.’
‘But they’re completely different, scientific truth and religious truth.’
‘All the same, Springer saw them both as opposed to freedom. At least, according to Briony Kidd.’
Her eyes skipped down to another phrase, ‘“Dry souls ready to be set on fire.” Not exactly how I’d describe Qasim Ali, but you never know, I suppose. Let’s go back and see what he’s got for us.’
They ran back through the drizzle and found Fran Said, head covered by a black scarf, waiting for them at the table where they had previously been, drinking a cup of tea. Kathy introduced Leon and they sat down. The pale family at the central table was still there, finishing off large helpings of burgers and chips, but no new customers had been lured in by the amplified voice of Umm Kalthoum.
‘I was telling Leon about your background, Fran. I think it’s really interesting.’
Fran shrugged. ‘Not really. I’m not sure I want an interesting life, just one that I can feel certain about.’
‘Well, I think it’s interesting how you opted for an arranged marriage, for instance.’
‘It worked for me.’
‘But not for Nargis.’
‘It wasn’t the fault of the system,’ Fran said defensively. ‘Her life here and the ways of the old country were just too far apart.’
‘Yet the marriage in Kashmir was valid? So what could Nargis do, if, say, she wanted to marry someone else, like Abu?’
‘That would depend on her husband. Under Islamic law, the wife can’t initiate a divorce. If she did that through a British civil court, and her husband in Kashmir didn’t want the divorce and didn’t pronounce the talaaq, that’s the divorce formula, then in the eyes of Islamic law they would still be married. Nargis hoped… hopes that her husband will divorce her so that he can marry again, only… she doesn’t want it to be to her sister Yasmin.’ Fran’s voice had dropped to a whisper.
‘No, and she’s only fourteen, isn’t she? So Nargis is still married, and that means that she and Abu were living in adultery.. .’ Kathy saw the look of alarm flare in Fran’s eyes and added quickly, lowering her voice, ‘I’m sorry, Fran. I just need to understand the situation that Nargis and Abu were in. Islamic law is very strong on adultery, isn’t it?’
‘“Surely, it is a foul thing and an evil way.” That’s what the Qur’an says.’
‘So they were faced with the alternative of separating and Nargis remaining faithful to a husband she detested, or living together as outcasts from their faith, not to mention under threat of dire retribution from her father and his brothers. That’s about it, is it?’
‘Yes.’
‘It must have been a terrible dilemma. They must have been tempted just to disappear, and start again somewhere else. But where could they go where they could rejoin the Muslim community without being found out? What sort of resources would they need to do that? And then Abu comes home one day with thirty thousand pounds.’
Fran glared at her. ‘You think it was blood money, don’t you? You think someone paid him that money to commit a murder.’
‘What else can we think, Fran? When we spoke to Nargis a week ago she said he’d brought it home about two weeks before. Max Springer was shot exactly two weeks before.’