to the policeman’s ear. ‘I’m going to show you something,Chief Superintendent,’ he whispered. ‘Something that will upset you. But for your sake and for your wife’s sake, you must remain calm.’
‘What are you talking about?’ said Khan.
‘Take a good look at the man who is standing behind your wife over there,’ said Hassan.
Khan’s frown deepened. She was talking to a middle-aged saleswoman and holding up the green dress. Behind her stood a tall, good-looking Asian man with gelled hair and a gold earring. He was wearing a shiny leather jacket with the collar turned up.
‘You see him?’ said Hassan. ‘The man in the leather jacket with his hands in his pockets?’
‘Yes, I see him,’ said Khan. ‘What’s this about?’
‘I want you to look at this,’ said Hassan, taking a mobile phone from his coat pocket. ‘It will upset you, but you must keep calm because the man who is standing behind your wife has a knife in his pocket and if you react badly he will stab her in the throat, then run off to the street where a motorcycle is waiting to spirit him away.’
Khan’s jaw dropped.
‘Smile, Chief Superintendent. Smile as if you haven’t a care in the world.’ Hassan held up the mobile phone, the screen facing Khan. His thumb pressed a button and a jerky video began to play.
Khan bent closer to the screen. A woman in jeans and a T-shirt was lying on her back on a floor. Her mouth was taped so all he could hear were grunts. An Asian man grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides. Khan’s stomach lurched as he realised it was his niece, Sara. A second Asian man unfastened her jeans and pulled them down her legs. He tossed them to the side, then ripped off her panties. Sara was kicking out but the first man was holding her tight. The man who had ripped off her panties looked into the camera and Khan caught his breath. It was the man now standing behind his wife in the shop.
‘Keep smiling,’ said Hassan, ‘as if you haven’t a care in the world.’
Khan stared at the screen in horror. The man who was holding Sara let go of one wrist and the second man pulled off her shirt. Sara was tiring. Although she was still struggling there was no strength in her movements.
The camera moved closer as a knife cut through her brassiere. Her full breasts fell free and Khan wanted to look away but he couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. She was naked now and he could see the tape round her mouth pulsing as she breathed.
The first man grabbed Sara’s hair, grinned at the camera and raised the knife. It flashed downwards and blood spurted across her throat. Khan gasped.
Sara thrashed around for a few seconds, then went still. Blood formed a pool round her body. For the first time Khan realised she had been lying on a sheet of plastic.
The man put away the phone and shrugged. ‘Stay calm,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to hurt you or your wife.’
‘Who are you?’ said Khan.
‘I told you. You can call me Hassan.’ His thumb flashed over the phone’s keyboard.
‘You killed her?’
‘Actually, the man standing behind your wife killed her. Then we took her to the alley where her body was found. There is nothing to connect us to her murder. Trust me on that. Nothing other than the video on this phone. And I have just deleted it.’
Khan’s wife was still deep in conversation with the saleswoman, and behind her stood the man from the video, his hands deep in his pockets. Khan’s mind was spinning. He’d just seen a video of his niece being brutally murdered, and the man who’d done it was standing behind his wife. He knew that as a police officer he should run over and grab the killer, pin him to the ground and arrest him for the murder of a pretty young girl who had never done anyone any harm. Dear, sweet Sara. He clamped his teeth together.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Chief Superintendent,’ said Hassan. ‘You’re thinking that you should be acting like a policeman. Calling for back-up. Pressing charges against me for the murder of your niece. That was your first impulse and, of course, it’s understandable. But I’m sure you realise now that the reason I went to Sara’s funeral was so that I could follow you home. I know where you live, Chief Superintendent. I have stood outside your house and watched your son and daughter go to school. I have watched your wife go shopping. I have watched you come home at night. And the man who killed your niece is just as capable of killing your wife and your children. So take a deep breath, stay calm and try to smile.’
‘What do you want?’ whispered Khan.
‘What I want, Chief Superintendent, is for you to stop acting like a policeman and to start acting like a Muslim.’
Salih and Tariq walked down the street to the multi-storey car park where Salih had left his rented Ford Mondeo.
‘Who was he?’ asked Tariq.
‘That doesn’t concern you,’ said Salih.
‘You showed him the video you took of the girl we killed.’
‘Tariq, I told you at the start. You obey me without question.’
‘I have obeyed. I have done everything you asked. But I would like to do more. I would like to learn from you.’
Salih frowned. ‘I’m not seeking an apprentice.’
‘Then let me help you,’ said Tariq.
‘I don’t need help,’ said Salih. Tariq seemed about to say something, but instead he bit his lower lip. The two men walked in silence to the car park. Salih didn’t say anything until they were sitting inside the car. ‘You can tell no one what you have done,’ he said.
‘That’s a given,’ said Tariq. ‘I killed a girl. Why would I tell anybody?’
Salih ran his hands round the steering-wheel. ‘What about Mazur? Is he okay about what we did?’
‘He believed Hakeem, that we were carrying out
‘And you, Tariq? What do you believe?’
Tariq flashed his gleaming white teeth but didn’t say anything.
‘Your smile doesn’t impress me,’ said Salih, flatly.
‘I didn’t mean to offend you,’ he said.
‘Why did you ask me who that man was, the man I spoke to?’
‘Because you told us the video was to show people in Pakistan. You didn’t say we’d be showing it to someone in England. And it was clear from the look on the man’s face that he knew the girl.’
Salih exhaled slowly.
‘It was a mistake to ask you, and for that I apologise,’ said Tariq.
‘It’s complicated, and I have been less than honest with you,’ said Salih.
‘Hakeem said that in helping you we would be helping the struggle against the infidel.’
‘That is true,’ said Salih.
‘Can you explain to me why killing the girl helps us hurt the infidel?’ Salih’s eyes narrowed, and Tariq held up his hands. ‘I’m sorry, I’ve offended you again.’
‘What do you want from me?’ asked Salih.
‘I want to help. And to learn.’
‘To learn what?’
The fire was back in Tariq’s eyes. ‘I have never seen a man like you before, even in Afghanistan. We trained there in a camp, they taught us to kill, and yet even the men who taught me were not like you.’ The words tumbled out and Tariq took a deep breath to calm himself. ‘It was easy for them because they were fighting in the hills and they could shoot at the enemy with their Kalashnikovs and RPGs. In Pakistan they taught us how to make bombs, but bombs are an easy way of killing people. What you do, it’s more . . .’ Tariq struggled to find the right word. ‘It’s more intelligent. More considered. The way we abducted and killed that girl, it was perfect. You had every step planned. We were never in danger of being caught. You told us what we had to do, we did it, and it was perfect.’
‘It has to be that way,’ said Salih. ‘There can be no margin for error.’
‘That’s what I want to do,’ said Tariq.
