Page 49 of Kiss Her Goodbye (Frankie Elkin #4)

“Kabul fell. More abruptly than anyone saw coming. Well, more quickly than the Americans saw coming. There were those of us in the intelligence community…” Lilla sniffs delicately.

“And the stashes of wealth?”

“Ostensibly, still there.”

“In Afghanistan?”

“According to Sabera, yes. To make it more interesting, she and her partner in crime, Jamil, were the only ones who knew the entirety of the relocation, and Jamil died the day Kabul fell. Meaning Sabera, and Sabera alone, has that information now.”

“She is the key,” I murmur.

“Exactly. A walking and talking map for X marks the spot. Except what is a young Afghan female going to do with loot that requires extraction in a Taliban-run country?”

I don’t have to think about it: “Wheel and deal. Exchange what she can’t use for something she wants even more.”

“Brilliant!” This time Lilla does clap her hands. “Have you ever contemplated spy work?”

“No need. My current job is dangerous enough.”

Lilla leans forward. Her expression has turned serious. “The one thing Sabera wants most in this world—her brother. She’d thought Farshid had died when the Taliban seized Kabul, but she now believes Farshid is being held in a torture camp somewhere inside of Afghanistan.”

“A torture camp?” Daryl begins.

“The international community has known about them for decades,” Lilla supplies briskly. “Including, I might add, that none of the prisoners last very long, certainly not four years.”

Daryl and I gaze at her wide-eyed. Torture camps. Just when you thought a regime known for its horrific violence couldn’t get any more horrific or violent…

“I did some research of my own, starting with Sabera herself,” Lilla begins.

“Her medical records,” I murmur. “You unearthed news of her hospitalization, mental health issues. You’re the one who left the file for Captain Kurtz.”

Lilla stills for a second, then another smile splits her face. She seems pleasantly surprised I connected the dots between the records and her handiwork.

“Pity, but Sabera and pregnancy don’t exactly get along,” she murmurs.

“You think this is all some kind of psychotic episode?”

“Possible. By the time I arrived in the States, it appeared Sabera had already left the apartment she shared with her family. When I tracked her down to the resort townhouse, however…” Lilla frowns.

“My first thought—she looks so much like her mother. I’d seen photos, but still…

Something about how she holds herself, the angle of her head.

I hadn’t expected the way it would hit me.

I wanted to say yes to everything she asked, very silly in my line of work. ”

“Did she say why she was at the townhouse—what had made her go into hiding?”

“I’d assumed a spat with the hubby. Glowering old codger.

Not really my concern. I was more focused on what Sabera had to say about her mother.

That there’s more to the string of abandoned mines than Sabera had first deduced.

Something about her mother planting a code within a code.

Sabera was willing to hand all of it over to me, including the current location of the plundered wealth, in return for rescuing her brother.

Which, even she understood, might prove a smidge difficult for an international intelligence agency, the Taliban being, well, the Taliban and all. ”

“I see the issue,” I agree, while Daryl nods beside me. “You agreed?”

“To bringing Farshid back from the dead? Why, poppet, thank you for having such faith in me. Trust me, nothing would make me happier than assisting Maryam’s son.

Realistically, however…” Lilla arches a brow.

“Sabera, however, is definitely her mother’s daughter.

Just to sweeten the pot, she mentioned she believes the other still-secret mining locations involve large stashes of rare earth elements. Which, as you seem to know…”

“Every government in the world wants.”

“Including my own. Not that Britain would be in position to harvest such materials given relations with the current regime. On the other hand, ensuring the Taliban—and the Chinese, who are meddling everywhere!—do not have access to REEs would be considered quite valuable as well. According to Sabera, the trick to locating these massive sites of a massively important resource just happens to include Farshid. Only her brother knows how to unlock the code to the second half of her mother’s riddle.

Something about her mother always referring to them as—”

“Two halves of one whole,” I fill in.

“Clever if you think about it.” Lilla sits back, sighs heavily. “And pure Maryam. God, that woman was brilliant. The gears churning inside that one pillbox-hat-topped head…”

A thought occurs to me: “You said you tracked down Sabera once you arrived here. Does that mean you were following her as well? Do you know how she ended up in the warehouse district? Who killed the two Afghan men?”

Lilla sits up. “Dead men?”

“The ones who kidnapped her,” I begin, while Daryl states, “The two Afghans bludgeoned to death with a hammer.”

“Homicide by hammer? Ooh, I heard about that on the news. Wait, that had something to do with Sabera?” Lilla appears genuinely surprised.

“Sabera was caught on video near that scene. And afterward, we found a bloody scarf in the townhouse where she’d been hiding. It would seem she was somehow involved.”

“Do you think she killed them?” Lilla sounds delighted.

“Do you think she killed them?” I try out.

“A former university student and current maid? I sincerely doubt it. Sabera’s gift is with patterns, which makes her a brilliant linguist, mathematician, and encryption analyst. Natural-born double murderer, not so much so.”

“What about her husband?” Daryl presses.

“A professor who specializes in math so esoteric most couldn’t even recognize it as an equation? No.”

“What do you think happened?” I venture. “You were ‘looking into things’ around this time.”

“It’s possible I’d returned to the townhouse a few times,” Lilla allows. “If I had to guess, I’d ask the handsome fellow she kept meeting.”

“Handsome fellow?”

“Yank. Middle-aged. Curly brown hair, beard. Rather scruffy, but all in all, I wouldn’t kick him out of bed.”

Daryl blinks, as if that’s more of a description than he required.

“Does handsome fellow have a name?” I want to know.

“Not that I heard.”

“Take any more photos that ‘others’ are now analyzing?”

“You sound like you don’t trust me.”

“I don’t.”

“And yet, I’m not the one with all the secrets. Look: I don’t know what was going on between Sabera and Isaad. Why she moved out—”

“Isaad was killed. Tortured to death. Also warehouse district. His body was discovered just two days ago.”

Lilla stills. Her gaze darts back and forth between Daryl and me. The shrewdness is back. Sabera’s mother apparently isn’t the only spy who tried to hide behind glamour. “Their daughter?” Lilla asks.

“You don’t need to worry about Zahra,” Daryl states gruffly.

“The danger is real,” I emphasize. “Sabera may have mental health issues, but this threat is genuine. Just ask the two Afghans bludgeoned to death, or Isaad, who died with his hands burnt into blackened claws, or Aliah, who’s been snatched from in front of her business.

Whoever else is involved, they’re playing for keeps. ”

Lilla doesn’t speak right away. “If there’s one thing I learned from Maryam,” she drawls at last, “that family knows how to keep a secret. The entire family. Many, many secrets. Including…” She lifts her gaze until she’s staring straight at us.

“For kicks, I did look into Sabera’s brother, Farshid.

I couldn’t find any record of him following August 2021.

If you’d asked me, I would’ve said the reports were true and he died when Kabul fell.

Except then I swear I saw him with my own eyes. ”

“You saw Sabera’s brother, Farshid? Wait, what?”

“Just yesterday. When Aliah was abducted by those men. Someone who certainly looks a great deal like Farshid Shinwari, though in much rougher physical condition, was one of them.” She shudders delicately.

“Poor boy. If that’s what the torture camps did to his body, God only knows what they’ve done to his mind. ”