Page 175 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

“That’s a good start,” I say, trying to encourage her to continue. “What else?”

“I was actually running late but decided to still stop at this little patisserie to get some dessert—Oumar has an obsession with French pastries—when a message came in from his phone.” Mariam clenches her hands together on the table. “I thought he was texting me to let me know he was going to have to miss lunch, but instead. . .”

Her voice breaks.

“It was the video,” I say.

She nods. “I don’t know how long I stood there, playing it over and over. Trying to convince myself it wasn’t real.”

“What did you do next?”

“First I tried calling Oumar, over and over. Every time, it went straight to voice mail. Then I noticed that he was no longer sharing his location. I figured his phone was off, which didn’t make sense either. I ended up leaving and going straight to my father’s offices.”

“Do you think it’s possible this actually has something to do with your father?” I ask, deciding to follow up on my theory.

Mariam’s brow rose. “What do you mean?”

“What if your father was the target? You said you were supposed to be with Oumar, but you were running late.”

“You mean it’s possible that someone was actually trying to take me?”

I nod, realizing the question upsets her. I might be grasping at straws, but to me this is still a valid possibility.

“It would make sense,” I say. “If Oumar doesn’t have access to that kind of money, but someone thinks your father does, they might have originally planned to kidnap you, or even both of you.”

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that possibility. I thought maybe it could have something to do with Oumar’s job. Some of the people he works with. . .well. . .let’s just say he deals with some questionable people.” She hesitates. “If that was true, why send the ransom video to me?”

“I don’t know.” While I want to ensure we are sticking to the facts and not going down a rabbit hole, I also need to cover every possibility. “What we do know is that they decided to go ahead with the plan.”

I take a few more quick notes before going on to my next question.

“Let’s continue with what happened that day,” I say, looking up again while tapping my pen against the table. “You told me you went to see your father, but he couldn’t come up with the money?”

“I did, but he told me I should go straight to the authorities. That it would take too much time to raise the money and that there was no way he could come up with that kind of cash in forty-eight hours. But I told him they’d threatened to kill Oumar if we didn’t follow their demands.”

“So that left you in an impossible situation,” I say.

Mariam nods.

“Did you communicate at all with the kidnappers?”

“I contacted them again this morning. Just before the first deadline hit. Told them I needed more time.”

“And their response?” I ask, taking a sip of my water.

“They gave me another forty-eight hours but also said that there would be no extensions this time. If I don’t come up with the money, they’ll kill him.”

“How much time is left?” I ask.

She glanced at her watch. “We have about forty hours left.”

“And your father. . .where is he? Trying to raise the money?”

She’s crying now, with silent tears running down her face. “He flew to Algiers this morning to meet an old contact. Someone who might help with the money.”

“Okay. Back to who’s behind this. You told me that Oumar gave you my number in case of an emergency—if anything happened to him.” I get up to grab her a tissue from a box on the kitchen counter, then hand it to her. “Had he been acting worried or even afraid? Given any signs that he felt someone was targeting him? You said he was under a lot of pressure at work.”

“That’s the problem. I knew he was under a lot of pressure, but he rarely talked to me about his work. And as for someone targeting him. . .I honestly don’t know. At the time—when he gave me your number—he played down any concern he might have. But he’s been. . . I guess distant is the right word. Like something was bothering him. Now I wish I had pressed him for answers. Been more attuned to what was going on.”