‘It’s coming.’
Leaning down, she whispered, ‘I’m here, my friend. You’re going to be just fine. I’m going to take good care of you. Do you hear me? You’re going to be just fine. I love you, Jabril.’
She heard Zahra scream from behind and for those few seconds she didn’t want Zahra there. She didn’t need a hysterical wife. She needed to concentrate on keeping Jabril alive. She felt herself being pushed to one side as Zahra collapsed to her knees to take her husband’s head into her arms. Leaning back in, Sofia applied pressure to the stomach again, checking with her eyes that the tourniquet was still holding. Zahra began crooning to Jabril, rocking him back and forth until she looked up at Sofia with the question in her eyes.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I just don’t know.’
Sofia heard the ambulance approaching the square but knew more time would be wasted when the driver discovered the vehicle couldn’t fit down the alleyway. When the medics finally came running she told them what she knew of his wounds and stepped away.
As she stood watching them work, strong arms were being wrapped around her, pulling her away from the crowd that had gathered around Jabril. ‘Come, come inside,’ Behnaz said.
‘No,’ Sofia pulled against the grip. She needed to know he was in good hands. As she watched the medics working on him she desperately searched for something constructive to do but her mind was no longer functioning. This was not the time to lose it. Looking around the square she saw Ahmad, Hadi, Iqbal and Iman standing together out the front of Ahmad’s shop. She focused on them, willing them to bring her back to the moment and to Jabril.
‘You must come inside, quickly,’ Behnaz was saying to her as the medics picked Jabril up and began to carry him out of the square on a stretcher. When Sofia didn’t react Behnaz took Sofia’s face in both her hands, forcing her to look at her. ‘Quickly. It’s not safe for you out here.’
Omar, who had been having his lunchtime nap when the shots woke him, began helping Behnaz move Sofia away. ‘Go inside now,’ he said when they reached the turquoise gate. ‘I’ll guard this door with my life. No one will hurt Dr Sofia.’
Inside the house Behnaz sat Sofia down on the brown floral lounge, still covered in the hard plastic it had arrived in three years earlier. Crouching down in front of Sofia, Behnaz began pulling her hair away from her face, threading it back behind her ears as she had seen Sofia do a thousand times before. As Behnaz began wiping away Sofia’s tears with the end of her black headscarf, Sofia stared at her hands cupped in her lap until she realised they were covered in Jabril’s blood.
‘I need to go to the hospital,’ she said, wiping her nose on her sleeve as she tried to stand. Behnaz pushed her back down again.
‘The ambulance has gone. There’s nothing you can do there,’ Chief Wasim said as he walked into the room. ‘There are things I need to ask you now, Dr Sofia.’
42
EASING HIS WEARY bulk onto the vinyl pouf in front of Dr Sofia, Wasim took his time studying her. He needed to know her state of mind and whether she could be trusted to act rationally. He also needed the time to gather himself. What happened next was critical for everyone. There was no confusion in Wasim’s mind about what he had to do.
‘Did you see anything?’ Sofia looked up at him frowning, as if she couldn’t understand the question. ‘Did you see anything of the shooting?’
‘Yes.’
Wasim waited for her to continue until he realised she wasn’t going to. ‘Tell me what you saw.’
She rubbed her forehead as if trying to recall. ‘I saw a stranger walking into the square, heading for Babur’s chaikhana … for Jabril.’ She shook her head. ‘I saw him pull out his gun and shoot. I remember seeing Rashid shooting a corpse.’ She shook her head again before looking up at Wasim. ‘That’s it.’
Thankfully Rashid had solved the problem of the shooter for him. Dead men didn’t talk, just like those men who had taken the boys. ‘Okay, we’ll deal with that later. Have you seen this man or any strangers in the square lately?’ Again, Sofia looked at him as if she couldn’t understand what he was saying. ‘Anyone watching you?’
‘No.’
Wasim leaned forward and patted her hand. ‘That’s good. Don’t worry, we’ll find who did this.’
Sofia had been agitated, wringing her bloodied hands, her eyes darting around the room, but now her eyes were fixed on him. ‘You know who did this.’
‘We must not jump ahead of ourselves,’ Wasim offered calmly. ‘We need to wait until we’ve finished our investigations before we can decide.’
‘Minister Massoud shot Dr Jabril because of the article. Who else could it be?’
‘That’s not Minister Massoud’s body out in the square. He didn’t shoot Dr Jabril.’ She was staring at him again as if his words were confusing her. She was in shock. This was understandable. ‘Behnaz, can you get Dr Sofia a blanket please?’
Sofia frowned again. ‘Of course it isn’t Massoud’s body in the square. It’s someone he hired to do the job.’
‘We should not jump to conclusions. I understand Dr Jabril has been getting shabnamah from the Taliban long before the
