Close to the Wind (9 page)

At the back door he hesitated. What if someone had come in from the street and was now inside the house? He put his face to the kitchen window. He could see the tap. He could see through the hall to the front door. There was no one inside. He opened the back door, listened, then crept along into the hall.

Papa’s voice came from the upstairs room. ‘Who’s down there?’

Malik was relieved. ‘Papa? Papa? Is that you?’

‘Come upstairs, Malik,’ Papa shouted down.

Malik walked up the wooden stairs and stopped at the bedroom door. He saw the back of a man sitting in the chair, with Papa standing over him. Malik stepped inside and circled the room, saw the face of Hector Valentine, and under his chin saw the blade of Papa’s knife.

‘Where have you been?’ Papa addressed Malik, but kept his eyes on Hector. ‘I told you to stay here.’

‘Let me go, Salvatore,’ Hector pleaded. ‘I told you –’

Papa nudged the knife upwards, cutting the sentence short. ‘Shut up. You’ve told me nothing.’ Papa flicked a finger at Malik. ‘I asked: where have you been?’

Malik held the cat close to his face for comfort. ‘I followed all the people heading to the docks, Papa. I thought I might find Mama.’

Papa tutted. ‘I asked you not to go outside. Didn’t I say that? You should do as I tell you, Malik. I don’t tell you to do something without a reason. Always remember that.’

Hector turned his face to Malik. ‘Tell your grandad to let me go, Malik, eh? He’s got it all wrong. It wasn’t me. I didn’t steal the diamond. It was
Vex
. Vex did it and I tried –’ Papa made a quick little jab of the knife at Hector’s face, making him scream out in pain. ‘Aaargh!’

Malik put a hand up to his own mouth.

‘For God’s sake, Salvatore.’ Hector touched the blood that had begun to trickle down his chin. ‘You cut me.’

‘You’re lying!’ Papa shook the knife in his face. ‘If you had tried to stop Vex, I would have woken up. I would have heard you.’

‘It happened outside …’

‘If it happened outside you would have come back and woken me straightaway. Only you didn’t, did you? Did you fight him? No? I didn’t think so. You’re lying to me. I can tell.’ Papa moved his lips as though he had a bad taste in his mouth and was about to spit. ‘I always know when you lie to me, Hector. I have an instinct for it. Like when you told me I should put my money into those Ligurian bonds. Do you remember? I knew then you were lying, and I know it now. So tell me the truth. You both stole the diamond, didn’t you? The two of you went through
my pockets like thieves in the night, eh? That’s the truth, isn’t it?’

Hector stretched out a hand toward Malik. The blood from his face was smeared across a single finger. ‘Malik, for God’s sake, make him stop.’

Malik could see the bite mark that Papa had made the night before. ‘Stop it, Papa,’ he said. ‘Please.’

Papa saw the bite too and he slapped Hector’s face with his free hand.

‘Hey!’ Hector shouted. ‘Stop this, you old fool. Enough, huh? That’s enough!’

Papa put the knife back at Hector’s throat. His hand was shaking. ‘You think I won’t do it? You think I’m too old? Is that it? Too scared of you? Well, I’m not scared of you, you little man. Now, tell me where he is.’

Hector flexed his hands and sighed. He put his head right back to look at the ceiling. ‘This is so stupid.’ He put his hands in the air as if to surrender. ‘OK, OK, I’ll tell you. It doesn’t matter now anyway – we’ve both lost. Just put that thing away, Salvatore, eh? Put the knife down and let me talk to you, man to man. You don’t need the knife.’

Papa stepped back and held the knife by his side.

Hector took a handkerchief from his trouser pocket and dabbed at the wound on his face. He flicked the wedge of hair away from his eyes. ‘The truth is, I don’t know where they are. Not Vex and not the diamond. He tricked me too. I saw him take the jewel from you and I followed him downstairs and confronted him. He said I should come with him.’

‘I knew it …’

‘He promised me half the money when we sold it, and I went along with it, yes, but then he gave me the slip. He disappeared with the diamond and I don’t know where he is. I was looking for him when you found me first. That’s the truth of it. Really, it is.’ Hector shook his head. ‘We’ve both been robbed.’

Papa shook the knife in Hector’s face again. ‘You’ve not been robbed! How could you have been robbed? The diamond was never yours.’ Papa put the point of the knife under Hector’s eye. ‘Do you know what it feels like to have a friend steal from you? Do you? Can you imagine it? The humiliation? I should gouge your eyes out. I should slit your throat.’

‘Don’t do it, Papa.’ Malik began to cry. ‘Please. I don’t like it.’ The cat wriggled free from his arms, fell to the floor and ran toward the wardrobe.

But Hector stayed calm. He put a finger up to the knife and gently moved it from his face. He turned to Malik. ‘Everything’s all right, Malik. Don’t get upset.’ He looked up at Papa. ‘See what you’re doing to him? Put the knife away, man! You’re upsetting him. Isn’t it bad enough that his mother is missing? You do know where they’re taking the women, don’t you? They’re going to the big hotel at the back of the town. They’re taking as many as they can find and they’re not coming back. You know it as well as I do. You should be out looking for your daughter, not worrying about getting revenge. The diamond’s gone, man. Long gone. And that’s a fact.’

Malik felt like he’d been cut. He put a hand to his chest and pressed where it hurt. What did Hector mean about Mama?

Papa stepped back and lowered the knife and Hector shook his head as though he pitied the old man. ‘Your grandfather won’t slit my throat, Malik.’ He sat up straight in his chair and checked his handkerchief to see if he had stopped bleeding. ‘You won’t, will you, Salvatore? After all, we’re not killers, you and I. We’re respectable people. We’re businessmen. We don’t go around pulling knives on people. At least, we don’t if there’s nothing to be gained from it.
And Salvatore, if you’re honest, you know that you would have done the same as I did.’

‘I would not.’

‘Yes, you would. If the tables were turned. Perhaps if you were younger, for sure.’

‘I was going to share the money.’ Papa’s voice was quieter. ‘Don’t you remember? I intended to buy tickets for us all.’

‘Only because you thought you needed us. You realized you couldn’t do it by yourself and you wanted Vex to smooth things over.’

Malik wanted Papa to just let Hector go. He didn’t care who had stolen the diamond – it wasn’t important. But he did want to know if Hector knew where Mama was. That
was
important.

Hector shrugged as though there was nothing more he could do. ‘It’s business after all, isn’t it, Salvatore? It’s money. The winner takes all. The way it’s always been. That’s the game we’ve all played, and the truth of it is that Vex was always better playing the game than either of us.’

‘That’s not true.’

Hector got to his feet and Papa made no move to stop him. ‘Yes, it is. It’s been true for all of us – it’s how it has always been. We didn’t worry about the
losers when we were winning. There’s no point in complaining about it now.’ He walked over to the door.

‘Where are you going?’

Hector shrugged. ‘Does it matter?’

Papa lifted his knife again. He took a step toward Hector. ‘Give me your wallet.’

‘What?’

‘Give me your wallet.’ Papa shook the knife and stepped closer. ‘I mean it. I want you to know what it feels like to be robbed by a friend. I want you to have nothing left.’

Hector actually laughed. He shook his head but he took out his wallet, opened it and removed the cash that had been with him from the night before. He counted out three notes from the top and threw the remaining bills onto the floorboards so that they spread across the room. He held up the three notes. ‘I would like to keep the price of a melon, if that’s all the same to you.’ He put the three notes back into his wallet and put the wallet in his trouser pocket. ‘You can have the rest, Salvatore. But remember, we were never friends. It was always business. I thought you understood that.’ He nodded to Malik on his way out of the room.

Papa folded the blade of the knife back into the handle and put it away in his trouser pocket. He looked defeated. He ran the palm of his hand across his face, then bent down on one knee and began to pick up the banknotes from the floorboards. ‘Don’t stand there doing nothing, you silly boy. Give me a hand. All this crouching down’s no good for me.’

Malik knelt beside him to pick up the notes. He put the large pink ones at the back of his hand the same way Papa did and the cat rubbed itself against their ankles as they crawled across the floor.

He wanted to ask about Mama but now wasn’t the right time – it would only provoke Papa. And yet the question was there and it wouldn’t go away.

‘You seem to have a friend.’ Papa nodded down at the cat. ‘Does it have a name?’

Malik shook his head.

‘You should name it yourself.’

‘It must have one already but I don’t know what it is.’

‘That’s true.’ Papa picked up the last banknote and rested with an arm across his knee. ‘I’m sorry I kicked it earlier. I was upset. I shouldn’t have done it.’

‘No,’ Malik said bitterly. ‘You shouldn’t.’

‘Well, I’m sorry.’

Malik ignored Papa’s apology. He put his own pile of notes on the floor and Papa took them and shuffled them together with the ones in his hand. He held the money out to Malik. ‘Take this. You should have it.’

Malik shook his head. He didn’t want Hector’s money. ‘Why did Hector say Mama was taken to a hotel?’ There. He had asked it.

Papa looked away. ‘I don’t know. It’s something he made up. I don’t know why he said that.’

Malik knew that Papa was lying to him. He raised his voice. ‘I want to go back and look for her, Papa. I want to go to the hotel.’

‘No, Malik, you can’t do that. We have to catch the ship.’ Papa nudged the money into Malik’s chest. ‘Please, take the money.’

Malik ignored the cash. He stood up. ‘I’m going to find the hotel. Which one did Hector mean?’

Papa stood up too. ‘Hector doesn’t know what he’s talking about!’ he shouted.

‘Then why did he say that she was at the big hotel?’

‘I don’t know. Hector thinks he knows everything but he doesn’t. He can’t do, because I saw her today. OK? Are you satisfied?’

Malik’s heart leaped into his mouth. He stepped quickly across to Papa and stood close so they couldn’t avoid each other’s eyes.

‘Where did you see her? Was she at the docks?’

‘Yes. I saw her at the docks.’

‘But … where? She wasn’t with those people in the street. I looked for her everywhere and I couldn’t find her.’

‘No. She wasn’t with those people. She was at the docks before then. I saw her before I found Hector, before I put my knife to that thieving bastard’s throat and brought him here. I saw her, Malik, and I spoke to her. So you don’t need to worry. She is fine. She is safe and she will be at the docks tomorrow. That’s what she told me.’

Malik wanted to believe Papa – he really did – but he couldn’t tell whether he was lying or not and anyway, he couldn’t think straight. The idea that Mama could have been so close but was not here with him now was more than he could bear. ‘So where is she?’ he howled. ‘Where is she now?’ He looked quickly over to the door, in case she might be standing there. ‘If she knew I was here she would come and find me. I know she would.’

‘Are you calling me a liar?’ Papa shouted in
Malik’s face. ‘Is that what you think of me? Is it?’

Malik pulled away and threw himself down on the mattress in tears.

Papa came and stood over him. He put his hands into his pockets and then took them out again. ‘She’s my daughter,’ he said quietly. ‘Don’t forget that, Malik. Mama means the same to me as you do to her. Just because she’s older doesn’t make it any different. I wouldn’t lie about my own daughter.’

Malik didn’t want to listen but he heard what Papa said and it made sense. But why hadn’t she come back with Papa? Where was she? Malik knew better than to ask more questions, so he just put his head on his knees and cried.

Papa fiddled with his fingers. ‘Stop that, eh?’ He leaned down and put a hand to Malik’s head. ‘Come on. Come on.’ Malik let Papa wipe the tears from the top of his cheeks. ‘You’re a very brave boy, Malik. Very brave. It’s not right what you have had to put up with. It’s not right at all. Mama has so much to do before the ship leaves, but she told me to tell you that she loves you very much. She asked me if you were being brave and I told her you were. I said we make a good team.’

That sounded like just the sort of thing that
Mama would say and Malik wanted to believe it. He really wanted to. He lifted his head. ‘When did Mama say she would meet us?’

‘At ten o’clock, Malik. She said she would meet us at ten o’clock.’

‘At the front of the building with the red windows?’

The old man threw his hands in the air. ‘Still so many questions! Yes, at the front of the warehouse. At the place where anyone would meet their loved ones. Is there anywhere else to meet at the docks? Because I can’t think of anywhere.’

‘At the big crane. That would be a good place to meet.’

‘The big crane? Well, yes, I suppose so. But it’s not at the crane. We shall meet at the warehouse, right by the big red front door. That’s what we agreed. Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.’

Malik had a place and a time. So that was definite. That was for sure. He flung his arms round Papa’s neck and kissed his bruised face gently. ‘I’m sorry I was rude, Papa.’

Papa smiled. He looked pleased and a little embarrassed. He pulled away from Malik and stood up. ‘Now you must stop asking all these questions
because I must think things through.’ He brushed his trousers down with the back of his hand. ‘Young people ask too many questions. Have I ever told you that? No one does as they’re told any more. When I was your age, I wouldn’t dream of asking so many questions. I wouldn’t have dared!’ He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a paper bag full of chestnuts. ‘Shame these have gone cold. There was a man with a brazier at the dock.’ Papa took a chestnut for himself, then handed the bag to Malik who took one of the cracked brown nuts and loosened the skin with his knife.