‘Jabril!’ she said, shocked when he answered. She started walking again, motioning for Tawfiq to join her. After she’d told Jabril about the house with the star, he said he would try to contact Chief Wasim, asking her to inform Taban and Daniel. As they were entering the square she hung up, put the phone back in her pocket and stopped walking. She didn’t want what she was about to say to be overheard in the square.
‘You did well, Tawfiq. I couldn’t have done this without you, and if they find the boys then it will all be because of you. You are my good friend and a good man. I just want you to know that, and I know this wasn’t easy for you. I put you in a bad position but I couldn’t see what else to do. I hope you can forgive me.’
‘I understand,’ he said, his face still drawn. ‘Is Dr Jabril angry?’
‘He’s pleased we may have found where the boys are.’ He was also furious that Tawfiq had let her go to the bird market to see this criminal. She would have to talk to Jabril and explain how Tawfiq really didn’t have an option, because she would have gone with or without him. Nothing was Tawfiq’s fault.
‘We’re good?’ she asked Tawfiq when they got to the bottom of the stairs to her surgery where Rashid was sitting, waiting with Iqbal. He nodded and she ran up the staircase and through reception, ignoring Iman who had jumped to her feet as she knocked on Jabril’s door.
‘Chief Wasim’s organising to raid the house as we speak,’ Jabril said, looking happier than he had sounded on the phone ten minutes before.
‘Thank god for that.’ Sofia collapsed into the chair on the opposite side of his desk. After filling Jabril in on the visit to the bird market, she made a point of letting him know that Tawfiq really had no choice but to go with her because she would have gone anyway, and she had been much safer with Tawfiq.
‘What about Rashid?’
‘He was having lunch somewhere. I couldn’t find him,’ she lied, hoping the matter was settled and he wouldn’t talk with either man about it.
Jabril seemed to accept this. ‘I happened to inform Minister Massoud of this breakthrough,’ he added as she was leaving. ‘He was particularly interested to hear about it and that the information had come from Dr Abiteboul. I got the feeling they knew each other. Do they?’
Sofia shrugged and shook her head. ‘No idea.’
Jabril smoothed down the hair on top of his head. ‘He seemed very interested in Dr Abiteboul. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned his involvement.’
* * *
WHEN SOFIA ARRIVED back in her apartment that evening she was surprised to see her passport sitting on her bedside table. She couldn’t remember taking it out of the bedside drawer and putting it there. In fact, she was sure she hadn’t. On her way out to dinner with Zahra and Jabril that night she knocked on Behnaz’s door.
‘Did you happen to put my passport on my bedside table?’ Sofia asked when Behnaz opened the door, white flour covering her hands and peppered down the front of her black dress.
‘No.’
‘Was anyone in the house today?’
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course.’ Behnaz didn’t appreciate her word being questioned.
‘I think someone must have been in the house.’
‘No one has been in the house. I’d know.’
The two women stood looking at each other. ‘I didn’t touch your passport,’ Behnaz said. ‘You must have forgotten.’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
As Sofia walked out, heading for Jabril and Zahra’s home, she wondered why Behnaz would take her passport out of the drawer and then deny it. She knew Behnaz sometimes went into her apartment when she had no reason to be there, because she would find things not quite how she’d left them. But why would Behnaz touch her passport, and especially now when her visa had been cancelled? Something was not right.
* * *
LATER THAT EVENING, as Sofia, Jabril and Zahra were having an after-dinner coffee in the lounge room while they waited for news from Chief Wasim about the raid, Jabril brought up the subject of Sofia’s visa. As her employer and sponsor, he explained, he had been officially informed of its termination. He agreed with Sofia that it had to be a mistake and had taken the liberty of telling Minister Massoud of its cancellation when he’d spoken to him about the raid.
‘We’re lucky to have friends in high places,’ he said, after explaining that the minister had promised to look into the cancellation. ‘I’m sure this will be sorted out soon and we’ll all be able to go back to normal.’
‘Normal,’ repeated Zahra.
Sofia had noticed that in the last few days Zahra had been uncharacteristically snappy. She was worried that it was because of the talk she had given to the women’s group.
‘These things take time,’ Jabril said, answering the question none of them was asking.
‘With Chief Wasim, everything takes time,’ offered Zahra.
By eleven o’clock they still had not heard from Chief Wasim, nor could they reach him. Jabril suggested they all go to bed, and hopefully when they woke in the morning it would be to the news of the boys’ release.
‘I wish I wasn’t going to Kandahar tomorrow,’ Sofia said, pulling the collar of her coat up around her neck as Jabril walked her back through the deserted square which was lit softly by the glow from the apartments above the shops, ‘but I don’t see how I can get out of it now.’
‘There’s nothing more you can do here,’ he said. ‘We all have to wait and trust that Chief Wasim has found the boys.’
‘Why doesn’t that exactly fill me with confidence?’
30
WHEN JABRIL RETURNED to the house he found Zahra in the bedroom turning the sheets down, but when she saw
