The Fire and the Veil (Veronica Barry Book 2) (14 page)

“So what?”

“The grapevine is very fast,” Khalilah said. “They’d hear Yesenia’s name. She’d be in danger.”

“Why?”

“Because they might decide to blame her for what happened.”

“What?”

“That’s the thing, Veronica. It’s not just Amani’s life that’s in danger. Jahid said it, himself. If they can find someone else to blame, they don’t have to kill Amani.”

“You’re not saying they’d kill Yesenia.”

“I don’t know what they might do.”

“You don’t plan to let them know if we find her at all, do you?”

“I think it would be best if they assumed her abductor killed her. They wouldn’t be dishonored, then.”

“What?”

“I know it sounds strange,” Khalilah sighed. “They wouldn’t be dishonored, but they might see it as something to avenge. I don’t know. I don’t fully understand any of it.”

Veronica sat still. Her mind was spinning. She couldn’t seem to make sense of it all. Amani was being held prisoner somewhere. Her father and uncle wanted to find her, but if they did, they might assume she’d been raped, and that would dishonor their family. One way to fix that was to kill Amani. Another was to find someone else to blame and kill that person. If Amani was already dead they would not consider themselves dishonored, but they might still want revenge for her murder. Which they themselves were contemplating committing. What a mess.

“I don’t want Amani to be killed, and I don’t want anyone else killed in her place,” Khalilah said. “We can’t know who they might target. It’s too tricky to take to Daniel. We just have to find her ourselves and get her to safety. If her family never finds her, they can never determine whether she was assaulted or not. They won’t have reason to kill anyone, except maybe for her abductor, and at this point I don’t feel too badly about that.”

Veronica took a deep breath. She couldn’t think of a better way to handle the situation. It felt very precarious, but what could she do? If Khalilah was right about the way this honor thing worked, if Amani was found and the family decided she’d been raped, anyone might become a target. It was best to keep Amani hidden from her family, so that they would never know either way.

“Yesenia knew Nasir,” Veronica offered. “She wanted to go to him about the person Amani was afraid of.”

“It sounds like this attacker was probably a part of the congregation as well,” Khalilah mused.

“Maybe you could talk to Nasir, ask him for Yesenia’s last name.”

“Under what pretext?” Khalilah asked.

“I don’t know,” Veronica said. She closed her eyes and leaned back into the seat. Then she opened them again. “When are mosque services held?”

“Fridays,” Khalilah said.

It was only Tuesday. They couldn’t just leave Amani in the clutches of her captor for three days.

“Maybe Nasir has a mailing list or something, on his computer in the office,” Veronica said.

“And?”

“One of us needs to get on that computer. Or get access to that list somehow.”

Khalilah thought about this. “Perhaps we can use the cover story. We could go back and tell him you want to bring a guest speaker into your class. We could ask him for a list of people who attend the mosque.”

“He might just give us one or two names of people to call,” Veronica said.

“True. But if I can stand close enough to the computer when he looks up their information…”

“It’s worth a try,” Veronica said.

“Are you ready to go back right now?”

“Let’s do it.”

~~~

“I would be happy to come and speak to your class,” Nasir said as they stood in the entryway of Masjid Al-Taqwa.

Veronica forced a wide smile. This was not going the way they had planned.

“What subject did you say you teach?” Nasir asked.

“French,” Veronica said, figuring that at this point she’d be safer telling the truth. At this rate Nasir would be visiting Eleanor Roosevelt, and she didn’t see getting one of the geography or world history teachers to collaborate in this scheme. “I’m doing a unit in my beginning classes on the different cultures in the world where people speak French. A lot of people don’t realize how wide-spread the language is.”

“The French certainly colonized quite a lot of the Islamic world,” Nasir agreed.

“Didn’t you say you wanted two speakers, Veronica?” Khalilah asked. “A man and a woman?”

“Yes,” Veronica agreed. “So it would be lovely if you could be one of them, Nasir.”

“And Khalilah would be a fine choice for the other,” Nasir said, beaming at her. “She’s Tunisian, one of those French colonies.”

“Yes, it would be perfect,” Khalilah said smoothly. “But I have my own classes to teach, I’m afraid. We need someone who is available during a weekday.”

“Preferably a Tuesday or Thursday,” Veronica chimed in.

Nasir nodded. He headed for his office, looking thoughtful. Veronica and Khalilah exchanged a look and followed him.

Nasir sat down at his computer and then opened a drawer of the desk, pulling out an old-fashioned rotary index card file.

“I would have thought you’d keep your information on the computer,” Khalilah said lightly.

“Oh, no, I never trust computers,” Nasir said. “New viruses every month. I use it for email and typing things up, but I still keep hard copies of anything important.”

Veronica eyed the rotary card file. How could she get a look at it with Nasir sitting right there? If only he’d just give her Yesenia’s information as a candidate for her class talk. But how could she request Yesenia specifically? Gee, Nasir, I was sort of hoping for someone whose name starts with a “Y.” Veronica wanted to grab the card file away from Nasir and find the card with Yesenia’s name herself. If such a card even existed. There was nothing to prove that Nasir had Yesenia in the card file at all.

“I think Rania Mahamoud might be available,” Nasir said, stopping on a card. “I’ll write down her number, and maybe one or two more.”

Veronica wondered what Yesenia’s last name was. Her information would not be under “Y,” in any case. Unless coincidentally her last name also began with a “Y.” If Veronica knew what her last name was, maybe she could happen to glance at the cards under that letter somehow. Maybe she could stumble, and fall against the desk, and knock the card file to the floor, and find the card with Yesenia’s name as she picked it up to return to Nasir.

Nasir was done with the first number and flipping through the cards again. Veronica couldn’t see how she would accomplish such a feat of clumsiness in any sort of realistic way. Frustrated, she turned away from watching Nasir and faced a bulletin board on the wall. There, in the corner, was a business card with the name Yesenia Saleh.

Veronica was so shocked, she reached out and touched it to make sure it was real.

“How common is the name Yesenia?” she asked, not stopping to think about whether the question would seem strange.

Nasir paused, but he didn’t seem put out by it. “Not very common, I think,” he said. “I only know one.”

Throwing caution to the wind, Veronica asked, “Is it this one? Yesenia Saleh?”

“Ah yes,” Nasir said with a smile. “She’s a social worker. She has been a great blessing to us here.”

Veronica risked a glance over at Khalilah, who was staring at her in surprise.

“I’d have suggested that you invite Yesenia to your class,” Nasir said, “but she as busy as Khalilah is, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, sure,” Veronica said, looking at the card and memorizing the phone number. “I was just curious. I’d never heard that name before.” She turned back to Nasir and Khalilah. “It’s pretty.”

~~~

“You’re brazen,” Khalilah said as they hurried back out to the car.

Veronica stuffed the paper with the numbers Nasir had copied into her purse, mentally repeating Yesenia’s number and trying not to let the sight of these other numbers disrupt her memory of it.

“I can’t believe you just came out and asked him. I was at a total loss,” Khalilah continued in a near whisper. “I never would have thought to even check that board.”

“916-875-2829,” Veronica replied.

“Is that her number from the card?” Khalilah asked, eyes widening. “I thought we’d have to call information for it. Well done.”

They each climbed into the car.

“I’ll call now. Maybe we can go see her right away,” Veronica said. She got out her cell and dialed quickly, worried she’d get the numbers confused. Of course, Khalilah was right. They could just dial information. But this way was faster.

The phone rang three times and then a woman answered, “Sacramento Center for Community Service, may I help you?”

“Um, hello,” Veronica said. “Is Yesenia Saleh available?”

“She’s with a client. She should be done in a few minutes. Would you like me to put you through to her voicemail?”

“Uh… no. Where are you located?” Veronica asked.

“Eleventh and T Street. 1108 T street.”

“Okay, thanks,” Veronica said. She turned to Khalilah. “Eleventh and T.”

Khalilah started the car and pulled out into the street.

“I hope she can tell us who took Amani,” Veronica said. “But if she does, then what?”

“Then we figure out where he’s holding her and go get her out.”

“That will be dangerous,” Veronica pointed out. She didn’t bring up the police again. She knew Khalilah wouldn’t consider calling them, and at this point she was fairly convinced that it was best not to, as well. But some sort of back up would be good. “What about your brother?” Veronica asked. “Maybe he could meet us there.”

Khalilah glanced at her, and gave a quick nod. “That’s probably a wise idea, actually. He’s just as worried about all of this as I am. And I don’t have to tell him where I’m taking Amani.”

“You don’t trust your own brother?”

“I can’t be sure he won’t cave and tell Jahid.”

“Why?”

“Fayez was raised with some of the same basic ideas as Jahid.”

“What, you kill your daughter if she’s been raped?” Veronica demanded harshly. She wished she hadn’t. She knew that that wasn’t what Khalilah meant.

“There’s this idea that men should be in charge,” Khalilah said, ignoring Veronica’s comment. “Obviously it’s more extreme in a tribe like Amani’s. But conservative people in Tunisia believe it, too, on a deep level. He may decide that Jahid deserves to know where his daughter is.” She tapped her fingers on the wheel. “I don’t think he really believes Amani’s family would ever harm her.”

“Well, we have plenty of people here in America who think men should be in charge, and that they’re responsible for the women in their family,” Veronica conceded. “Still, you said Fayez is as worried as you are. He wouldn’t tell Jahid, then, would he?”

“He might try to make Jahid swear he won’t hurt her. Swear he won’t tell Hamza. Even that would let Jahid know that she’s alive, and that Fayez knows where. You should have seen Jahid, Veronica. My heart went out to him, as well. He saw her grabbed, you know? Yanked into a van.”

“So he saw her yanked into a van, and then the person who yanked her got into the driver’s seat and took off?” Veronica asked, already thinking she knew the answer.

“No,” Khalilah said thoughtfully. “He said that someone grabbed her, pulled her into the back of one of those large vans, and it immediately drove away. He didn’t have time to reach it.”

“So there are at least two abductors,” Veronica said grimly.

Khalilah sighed. “It would appear so.”

“How is that possible? The vision I had made it sound like there was one person after Amani. How could someone convince someone else to help them abduct her?”

“I don’t know. Money, I suspect.”

Veronica closed her eyes, leaning back into the seat. “Nice,” she said softly. They had to hope that person number 2 had simply been paid to either snatch or drive. Otherwise, the plan to get Amani out without the help of the police just got more dangerous. One person would have to leave the place they were hiding Amni sometime—and if they didn’t, with Fayez, Veronica and Khalilah would be three against one. If a second person was helping the abductor, the odds weren’t tipped so nicely in their favor.

“We have a more immediate problem,” Khalilah said. “We have to find out what Yesenia knows without giving her reason to call the police.”

“Any ideas?” Veronica asked.

“Not really,” Khalilah said. “The best I can come up with is to say that Amani is missing… maybe say I had an appointment to see her about something, and she never showed. Then pretend she’d talked to me a little about her fears…”

“Which is going to freak Yesenia out,” Veronica said, shaking her head. “She’ll suspect something happened to Amani and she’ll still want to call the police.”

“Yes, I think so as well. We could say that the police are investigating already—”

“But if Yesenia realizes that she knows something useful to the investigation she’ll want to tell them about it.”

“Exactly,” Khalilah said with a sigh. “No, I think there’s really only one way that this will work.”

“And that is?”

“Your gift, Veronica. You have to find out the information we need that way.”

Veronica sucked in her breath. Of course. But how would she do that? Shake Yesenia’s hand and hope for a vision?

“I don’t know if that will work,” she said.

“We have to try.”

~~~

As they walked through the double doors into the Sacramento Center for Community Services, Veronica checked her watch. It was four o’clock. One hour until she was supposed to be at Penny Coffee, meeting Daniel. What would she do if they found this guy’s address and had to go over there and try to—what, break Amani free of her prison? Veronica couldn’t just say, “Sorry, Khalilah, I have a date.” But if she flaked on meeting Daniel, she wasn’t sure he’d forgive her. And he’d definitely have questions. Having a boyfriend was more complicated than she’d imagined during all those lonely nights she’d spent these last three years. Of course, back then she hadn’t envisioned becoming some sort of psychic investigator. Veronica shuddered. She still felt weird about the whole psychic thing.

As it turned out, she shouldn’t have worried about making it to meet Daniel.