They met Xavier at the café in the village square. He had already been to the supermarket and bought a Johnnie Walker and a replacement bottle of Smirnoff. Jacqui said nothing, even when the bottles clinked together as Xavier set them down on the ground.
‘Well that was weird,’ he said.
‘What was?’ Martha asked.
‘Saw Abbas with a man on my way up to Carrefour. Acting strangely.’
A sensation of pure fear coursed through Kite.
‘What do you mean “acting strangely”?’ he said.
‘Just that. He was sitting in a parked car with another bloke.’
‘Maybe he’s made friends in the local area,’ Jacqui suggested. Both Xavier and Martha laughed at her apparent naivety. Kite was too shocked to join in.
‘What were they doing?’ he asked.
Xavier casually waved the waiter over and ordered a vodka and tonic. Waiting for him to answer was like watching a bullet travelling towards him in slow motion.
‘I only saw them for a minute or two, at the traffic lights,’ he said. ‘Looked like they were having an argument, a heated debate about something.’
‘Weird,’ said Martha.
‘Maybe Abbas is secretly gay,’ Xavier suggested, lighting a cigarette. He put on a cod Middle Eastern accent. ‘Are you friend of Dorothy, mister? Do you drop anchor in Poo Bay?’
‘Xav, that’s disgusting!’ said Jacqui, and glanced over at Martha for support.
‘What did he look like?’ Kite asked. He felt completely removed from their joshing, as if Martha and Jacqui were sitting at a neighbouring table talking to someone else.
‘I dunno,’ Xavier replied. He was wearing Top Gun Ray-Bans. He took them off and polished the lenses on a napkin. Kite wanted to tear them out of his hands and plead with him to answer. Eventually he put the sunglasses back on, picked up his cigarette and said: ‘About the same age as Abbas. Weird lip.’
‘Weird lip?’ Kite instantly thought of Bijan.
‘Yeah. Why you so keen to know? Putting together a Photofit?’
Martha looked at Kite as though she also wanted an answer to that question.
‘Sorry, I’m just wondering if it’s the same guy who came up to me in Cannes after lunch.’
‘What guy?’ Martha asked.
‘Nothing,’ Kite replied quickly. He had only spoken to Peele and Eskandarian about his encounter with Bijan. ‘Just this bloke who cornered me in a café in Cannes and started banging on about Iran. He was roughly the same age as Abbas. Had a hare lip.’
‘Curly hair too?’ said Xavier, intrigued.
Kite knew then that Abbas had been speaking to Bijan. It was as though he had been hit with an electric shock. He managed to say: ‘Yeah, curly black hair. Must have been the same guy.’
Martha was staring at him. She could tell that Kite was distracted by something. She said: ‘Are you OK?’ and put her hand on his arm. At the same time, Kite experienced a wave of relief, realising that if Abbas had found the note in the packet of cigarettes, he would surely have driven straight to Eskandarian, not into Mougins to meet Bijan. But why was Eskandarian’s personal bodyguard arguing with a member of an exile group targeting Iranian VIPs in France? Had Bijan been setting a trap for him all along? Worse still, was Abbas conspiring to have his boss assassinated? Kite was bewildered. He felt that he could not answer these questions without speaking to Peele. Should he write a second note and leave it on the orchard wall or trust that BOX had witnessed the meeting and knew what to do?
‘I’m fine,’ he told Martha, but he could see that she was confused.
‘Why would he be talking to you one day, then Abbas this afternoon?’ she asked. It was the question to which Kite had no clear answer. Perhaps his initial theory had been correct: Abbas and Bijan were working together to investigate Kite. Bijan was not an exile, but part of Eskandarian’s entourage. Yet that contradicted Peele’s assertion that Bijan was a threat.
‘God knows,’ he replied.
‘Is he following us?’ Jacqui asked.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Xavier. ‘Of course he’s not!’
Jacqui told him not to be so condescending and punched him on the arm. Xavier responded by grabbing her wrist and giving her a Chinese burn. The conversation collapsed as the siblings bickered back and forth, drawing disapproving stares from neighbouring tables. Martha put the fire out by asking Kite and Xavier when their A-level results were due. That took them into a ten-minute conversation about gap years and university applications, at the end of which Martha announced that she wanted to walk home and take some photographs. She picked up her camera bag, took the Nikon out and hung it around her neck.
‘Come with me?’ she asked Kite.
Xavier and Jacqui looked at one another but said nothing.
‘You guys can go back together on the Vespa,’ Kite suggested.
‘It’s OK, Mum’s coming to pick me up,’ Jacqui replied.
Kite put a fifty-franc note on the table for the drinks. Xavier immediately gave it back to him, saying it was far too much.
‘My treat,’ he said. ‘You lovebirds enjoy yourselves.’
Jacqui made a noise at the back of her throat and their bickering started up again. Kite and Martha walked away, saying they would see them back at home.
As soon as they were out of sight of the café, Kite reached for Martha’s hand and they kissed. Later, walking out of the village, he told her in more detail about the meeting with Bijan. She was appalled by many of the things Bijan had said, and they talked in general about their opinion of Eskandarian. Martha thought that he was fun
