He had never thought anyone would ever think the notes he had written to warn Jabril would be considered shabnamah. From the little he had been able to gather from Omar before he came into the house, the idea that the notes on his own gate had been shabnamah had arisen from Omar’s drug-addled imagination, but he could now see how he might use this idea of shabnamah to his advantage, although he needed to be careful because neither Zahra nor Jabril had told him about their notes. Officially, he didn’t know they existed. Hopefully, no one else had seen them either, but if they had it was still in his interests to encourage this idea that they too were Taliban night letters.
‘So,’ Wasim said, clearing his throat, ‘it seems to me that it is more likely this was the work of the Taliban, not Minister Massoud.’ Wasim held up his hand to stop Sofia speaking. ‘Until we know the reasons why, we cannot know the who.’
Sofia was shaking her head violently. ‘No, this is Massoud. He just wants you to think it’s the Taliban.’
‘Dr Sofia, please, I need you to think about this. What you are saying doesn’t make sense. How could Minister Massoud have known about the article?’
‘Why would the Taliban want to shoot Jabril?’ she fired back at him.
‘It could have been because he hired you to work with the women here. It could have been anything.’
He watched the blood draining from her face. ‘You think they wanted to kill him because of me?’
‘That’s not what I said. I don’t know their reasons. Until I investigate, none of us knows what Dr Jabril was doing that may have enraged the Taliban. What I do know is that the minister could not have known about the article.’
He watched Dr Sofia push her fingers deep into her temples. ‘You of all people, chief, know what it’s like around here. He’s a powerful man and people like him have spies everywhere. You even said you might have spies in your office.’
‘No, I believe Dr Jabril said I might have spies in my office. I personally don’t know of any spies.’
He watched a dark cloud passing over her face until she frowned. ‘How do you know about the article, Chief Wasim? No one knew about the article but Zahra, me, Dr Daniel and the editor.’
Luckily he had his answer ready for this. ‘Dr Jabril told me last night when I went to see him about the boys being rescued.’ Thankfully, she accepted this.
‘You know Massoud threatened Dr Jabril?’
Wasim sat up on the pouf. This was not good news. A threat from Massoud would complicate things. ‘What do you mean?’
‘He said something to Dr Daniel about it being a shame if Dr Jabril couldn’t continue his good work.’
‘And this Dr Daniel is the same person who gave you the information about the boys?’
‘It is.’
‘When did this alleged threat happen?’
‘It’s not “alleged”. It was a few days ago, I think. Maybe four. I don’t know. Two? I can’t remember. Ask Dr Daniel. He’ll tell you.’
‘Are there any witnesses to this conversation?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘It doesn’t sound like a threat to me. It could have been an observation by Minister Massoud of Dr Jabril’s good works.’ Sofia looked incredulous. ‘I’m just saying this is what his lawyer will say, although the minister will probably deny the conversation completely.’
‘Oh,’ she cried, burying her face in her hands as Behnaz reached out to put her arm around Dr Sofia’s shoulders, shooting Wasim flames of anger. His wife wanted him to leave Dr Sofia alone but he could not do that.
‘I’m sorry, Dr Sofia, but I have a few more questions I need to ask you while everything is still fresh in your mind.’
‘Talk to Dr Daniel,’ Sofia said, looking up at him through red-rimmed eyes. ‘He’ll tell you. It was when he saw Minister Massoud’s boy dancing.’
Wasim held up his hand again. ‘Please, I must warn you in the strongest possible terms not to say things like that about the minister.’ Wasim took his glasses off to polish, but when he reached for the hem of his perahan he discovered he was wearing his police uniform. He put the smudged glasses back on his nose. It had been a long week and there were longer and more dangerous days to come. Wasim considered his options again and came to the same conclusion: there was only one thing he had to do and that was protect Minister Massoud.
‘There’s a slight problem with your logic. Minister Massoud could not have threatened Dr Jabril because of the article before it was even thought of.’
Sofia looked confused. ‘I don’t know, maybe it was because of this campaign or because of the boys.’
‘Then why didn’t he threaten you when he was talking with Dr Daniel? You see, we got shabnamah too.’
As soon as he spoke he realised his mistake. Behnaz had never told him about their notes.
‘Ahhhh!’ Behnaz cried, slapping herself on the cheeks in frustration. ‘Why did you tell her? Now she’ll leave.’
Ah, thought Wasim, so that was why she’d hidden the notes. He thought once his wife saw them she’d warn Dr Sofia, who’d tell Jabril about the letters, who would then finally get the message that this was serious. Instead, she’d hidden them so Dr Sofia wouldn’t leave. What a fool he’d been.
Wasim knew now Behnaz would only see that he had betrayed her by telling Dr Sofia. No one would ever understand that he had been trying to save Jabril. He also knew that Behnaz would soon begin to wonder how he knew about the notes when she hadn’t told him. Luckily for him, Omar, who was probably still guarding their gate even though he’d stationed one of his men there, had told him about the shabnamah before he’d come in.
‘We’ve been getting night letters too?’ Sofia asked. ‘What did they say?’
‘We only had one,’ offered Behnaz. ‘Only one and it wasn’t a shabnamah. It could have
