Page 36 of Kiss Her Goodbye (Frankie Elkin #4)

“We found one item in his pocket,” Detective Marc allows. He doesn’t immediately elaborate. Roberta addresses the issue by reaching out and punching her brother’s arm.

He gives her a look, downs two more pistachios, then picks up a piece of Turkish delight.

“A gathered band of long black hair,” he finally gives up. “Like maybe a ponytail that someone had whacked off. I’m guessing it belonged to Sabera? Some kind of proof of life.”

Roberta stares at her brother as if he’s an idiot. “You mean a lock of hair?”

Detective Marc freezes with the candy halfway to his mouth. His eyes widen slightly.

I do the honors: “A lock that has no key… What do you wanna bet that token came with a note that Isaad read out loud, and a certain four-year-old overheard?”

“A lock that has no key,” Detective Marc sighs heavily. “All right. I can buy that. Which, assuming it’s Sabera’s hair, makes her the key that has no lock?” He eyes us all expectantly.

“Of course.” Roberta is on a roll now. “A key with no lock could definitely mean a cipher to crack a code, which given Sabera’s skill set and feverish writings would make sense.

Clearly, she has something others want, making her the key.

Meaning whoever is doing the hunting needs Sabera to get their heart’s desire.

And based on what we’ve seen thus far, they’re really, really intent on getting their heart’s desire. ”

“If they had a lock of her hair, they had her,” her brother interrupts.

“Maybe they did,” I grant, then give Roberta and Daryl a look. “But as we debated while reviewing the bloody towels at Sabera’s resort hideout—maybe one hammer later, they didn’t.”

Aliah appears horrified, Roberta impressed.

“They tried to squeeze her for this mystery information,” Detective Marc fills in skeptically. “But somehow a twenty-three-year-old, slightly built female got the upper hand, killed both her captors, then made her escape?”

Roberta punches him again. “Give me a hammer right now and I’ll show you how it can be done.”

Wisely, her brother doesn’t take her up on that offer.

“Tracks with everything we saw at the resort,” Daryl agrees with me. “The bloody scarf—we wondered if she was the victim or the perpetrator. Maybe she was both. Kidnapped and assaulted, but able to escape. She couldn’t very well return home, though—not with people looking for her.”

“But she could reach out to her husband. Have you had a chance to subpoena Sabera’s phone records yet?” I ask Detective Marc. “To see who she’s called since she’s gone missing?”

“You mean in the eight hours since we last spoke? Uh, no. Courts, not to mention due process, take a more leisurely approach to these things. However”—he skewers me with a look—“we could access Isaad Ahmadi’s phone.

As you imagine, there are dozens of calls from him to her, mostly short, just enough time to leave a message. ”

“Him trying to contact Sabera,” Daryl grunts. “Get her to come home.”

“Maybe.” Detective Marc eyes us thoughtfully. “I’ve only had a moment to glance at the call logs—” His voice breaks off abruptly. “Shit, you might be right about something.” He pulls out his cell phone, quickly scrolls through a few screens, nods slightly.

“All right.” The detective’s found what he was looking for.

“It’s not the number as much as the pattern.

Sabera has been missing approximately three weeks, yes?

Looking at that timeline, first couple of days, there’s a flurry of calls from Isaad’s phone to hers.

Say, a husband desperately trying to reach his wife.

But then the activity suddenly drops to two calls a day, almost like clockwork. You could argue, a routine check-in.”

“He found Sabera.” Roberta does the honors. “Knew she was safe enough.”

“Until three days ago, when suddenly, the call activity spikes again, reaching a near frantic level during the thirty-six hours before Isaad receives the mystery package and takes off.” Detective Marc glances.

“One interpretation could be that within that timeframe, things went south—he could no longer reach Sabera. Hence his renewed intensity. Then the box arrives with her hair plus the mystery note, and off he goes to meet with whomever sent the message.”

“She was discovered,” Aliah breathes. “Sabera had hidden away to stay safe. But they found her, these men who want what she has. They took her. But then…” Aliah frowns. “She must not have given them what they needed? So they lured out Isaad instead? Because he might know something?”

“Or,” Detective Marc considers out loud, “to up the stakes. If you can’t make someone talk by hurting them, next best option is to hurt someone they love.”

Aliah shivers, the rest of the room falling silent.

I’m frowning. I can both see and not see all of this.

“It feels to me we’re getting somewhere,” I allow slowly.

“First off, we can be pretty sure Sabera holds the secret to gaining something extremely valuable. Other people clearly know and somehow followed her to Tucson.” I eye Aliah.

“A city they didn’t even know would be their future home? ”

She shrugs.

I decide to let that go for now. “Let’s just fast-forward to she was discovered. But she must’ve seen something first—or someone—that spooked her enough to go into hiding. Unfortunately, she was found out. The two men, who we know are from Afghanistan…”

Nods around the room.

“Tried to get the secret out of her. Failing that, they lured out Isaad. And then… somehow those two guys end up dead. Sabera not only walks away, but also makes it all the way back to the resort. While Isaad doesn’t?

He gets left behind to now be tortured by…

other Afghan men, South African men, evil men?

This… this is where it starts to fall apart for me again. ”

Detective Marc nods. “Yeah, that scenario gets messy fast. Unless there’s a third party we have yet to identify.

Which at this stage of the game, why not?

It’s gonna take some time to thoroughly analyze Isaad’s call logs.

He was a busy guy. Tons of calls, dozens of recurring numbers to reverse search, including ones in DC and Texas.

Hadn’t this family just gotten here? Because Isaad seems well networked for a newbie. ”

“They had only recently arrived in Tucson,” Aliah corrects. “They have been in the US for nearly a year, the past eight months at a base in Texas. Which may explain many of the Texas numbers.”

“There’s another key time period to analyze as well.” I gesture to Aliah. “Sabera disappeared once before, for three days, right? I’d be curious who Isaad was calling then, and are there any correlations between those numbers and the ones he’s been dialing for the past few weeks.”

“Sabera vanished once before?” Detective Marc gives us a look.

“It was nothing.” Aliah waves a hand. “She returned; all was well.” Then as the detective continues to glower, she adds, “I will get you the dates.”

“All right.” I try to pull this together in my head. “Sabera is the key. Certain people with violent tendencies are clearly willing to do most anything to get their hands on her.”

This earns me a round of nods. I warm to my subject.

“But just to be interesting, Sabera is also searching. Reaching out to retired military veterans with contacts in Afghanistan. Her two afternoons a week when she takes off on some unknown errand. Her absence after seeing you that afternoon, Aliah, when she came to your store all upset. If she’s the one who’s supposedly in the know, what’s she looking for? ”

Aliah appears genuinely bewildered.

“Could… could she have lost it?” Daryl starts. “Like had something but lost it after arriving in Tucson?”

“Like her mind,” Roberta asks dryly, “because I feel like I’m about to lose mine.”

“That’s not a bad theory,” I counter. “Sabera’s agitated behavior, alleged drinking. There’s something going on with her. Let alone the repeated emphasis on a past filled with trauma, trauma, trauma.”

I shrug, not certain how to explain all the jumbled thoughts in my head.

“There’s still some kind of X factor we’re missing.

A third party who remains invisible. A connection to the past that’s still hidden.

Something real spooked Sabera three weeks ago.

And now she’s both looking and hiding. She’s predator and prey.

And both… both roles appear to be equally deadly. ”

I’m on to something. I can feel it. But the what remains just out of my grasp. Predator and prey, though. I’m stuck on that notion, and the full implications of it make me shiver.

“Now that Isaad is dead,” Aliah asks hesitantly, “do you think Sabera will return? To keep her daughter safe?”

“I don’t think her reappearing helps Zahra,” I say honestly. “It’ll probably make them both a target.”

“Then we’ll have to do it.” Daryl rises to standing, expression set.

“Do what?”

“We’ll guard Zahra.”

“I can’t order protective custody without more evidence of a direct threat,” Detective Marc begins.

Aliah adds nervously, “I do not know that she will be safe here.”

“We got this. You’ll come with us, you and Zahra both. You’ll be secure at the estate.”

“Are we allowed to do that?” I ask in awe, because that would be perfect. Gated drive. State-of-the-art security system. Pet snakes. I certainly wouldn’t attack anyone there.

“It’s decided,” Daryl states.

Detective Marc appears too surprised, Aliah too overwhelmed, to argue.

Just in time for Zahra to appear, iPad clutched in her tiny hands. She takes in the adults in the room, then wordlessly hands over the device to Aliah. Apparently, her show is over.

“Hey, Zahra, want to go on an adventure?” Daryl asks her.

“It includes an iguana. Her name is Petunia, and her skin is surprisingly warm,” I tack on.

“I’m coming, too,” Aliah adds soothingly.

The girl studies us. I wait for her to ask about her mother or her father. But in the end, she nods once, then returns down the hall.

It makes me wonder how much she might have overheard. And fear for what this little girl might have to survive next.