Ryshia Kennie - Desire In The Desert

Many of his employees were also friends, especially of Tara. Tara was a favorite among the estate’s staff and he knew they were worried sick about her. She had the ability to touch the heart of everyone she met. Little things mattered to her, like knowing the birthdays of each employee. She could ask each of them about their families, the smallest details of their lives and call their children by name. Considering the number of staff in their employ, Emir had never been sure how she did it.

The guard’s hand moved to the Beretta at his side, touching it almost reverently in an unspoken acknowledgment of solidarity.

“Rashad, this is K. J. Gelinsky. She’ll be working with me to get Tara back.”

Rashad gave a solemn salute and a nod.

“Pleased to meet you,” Kate said.

“Been with the family twenty years,” Emir said as the vehicle moved on.

“He has an alibi?”

Emir tensed. “Rashad is devastated by what happened to Tara.”

“But he was questioned?” she persisted.

“He was at home with his family when it happened. There’re a half dozen men who work with him, all of them with airtight alibis. Zafir questioned everyone, not just security.”

“I’d like to see where she was taken.”

“Of course...” Emir said, and couldn’t help but admire the way she remained focused and calm no matter what was thrown at her. “On the outside, away from the main gate.”

“We need to go back,” she said.

“You’re surprised I didn’t stop there right away?” he asked at the slightly puzzled look on her face.

“No.” She shook her head. “You were testing me.” She looked at him, her eyes sweeping his face. “And, yes, I need to see where Tara was taken.”

Dell’s phone buzzed. A minute later he turned around with a troubled expression. “My mother just texted me. My father doesn’t have long.”

“Dell, I’m sorry...” Emir began.

Dell had offered to drive him as a favor between friends. Even with his father in hospital and the family gathered for those last moments, Dell had insisted on at least taking him to the airport. He suspected that Dell had sensed something off—and, as usual, that instinct, which had saved them a number of times on previous assignments, had been right.

“Don’t be,” Dell said as he opened the door and got out.

Emir got out of the backseat. Dell was obviously anxious to go as he handed the vehicle’s keys to him. He looked over to see Kate slip out the other side and grab the small canvas travel bag that Emir remembered tossing into the backset at the airport, which seemed like a million years ago. He turned his attention back to Dell. It was a difficult situation and he wished that he could change things for his old friend.

Instead, he could only take the keys Dell handed him.

“Dad’s had seventy good years. Meantime, you need to find Tara. If you need me, you know...”

“I know, man. No worries,” Emir replied. Dell had been there with him not only today but after his parents’ deaths, and while he and his brothers raised a sister who at the time had been a young teen.

Emir watched as Dell turned with a nod and headed toward a battered-looking Jeep at the edge of the long drive that led to the entrance of the property. He could feel Kate’s presence beside him but he didn’t look at her. He needed a minute to let his emotions settle. There’d been too much tragedy in too short a period of time.

The sky was cloudy and the temperature was in the high sixties, much lower than average. Somehow the air seemed even cooler. He looked over as Kate shivered.

“You all right?” Emir asked as he looked at her with more concern for her comfort than he knew he’d shown since she arrived.

“It’s been a long day,” she admitted. “I’m tired and just a little chilled,” she said as she pulled a lightweight jacket out of her bag, the soft smell of coconut wafting around her.

If she’d been a man he wouldn’t have worried about her comfort. Another reason why she shouldn’t be here.

The masonry wall that surrounded the compound stretched out in front of them. They’d retraced their way on foot to the entrance of the compound, stopping seventy-five feet outside of it to a spot where Emir had been told his sister had been taken. Behind them, it was dusty and flat, a field that stretched into nothingness. Behind that, a public road ran about three hundred feet perpendicular to where they were. It was close enough that, had there been any traffic, the noise would have been disturbing. Ahead of them, rows of palm trees announced the entrance to the Al-Nassar compound.

“They took her with little fight,” Kate said minutes later.

“How do you know that?” he asked. It wasn’t something anyone else had seen. In fact, with one man dead and another in the hospital, it seemed rather a ludicrous pronouncement. A movement behind him had him turning around. On the public road, a thin, sun-bronzed man in T-shirt and faded jeans peddled past on a bike that pulled a small cart. Around them Marrakech spread out on both sides, the city seeming to glow as a result of the rich red clay that defined many if its buildings, whether the towers of a mosque or the walls of the city.

“Do you have the kidnappers’ original message?” she asked.

“I don’t know where you’re going with this.”

“Trust me,” she said, holding out her hand.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, punched in a code and handed it to her.

She took the phone, listened and then hit Replay immediately after it ended.

“What do you think?”

“The voice isn’t distinctive. It’s male, but beyond that there’s nothing. Midrange. No accent of any sort. Odd.”

“Exactly what I thought,” he said.

“Too bad we couldn’t listen to the second. Compare.”

“They were different. I’m sure of it,” he said. Unfortunately there’d been no time to record that message.

She handed the phone to him.

“They used a knife,” she said. She didn’t wait for him to answer for they both knew that had been in the report. “Interesting choice of weapon. Silent, but it also takes surprise or strength, ideally both, to be effective. At least to do it quietly with little struggle.”

“It was dark, past midnight. She was almost home and her security was taken by surprise.”

“Will he make it?” she asked, referring to the man who was now in the hospital.

“I went to see him. He’s critical.” His fist clenched. “Ahmed was a good man—is,” he amended. “He tried to help, to stop them. That’s what I assume from how it all ended. He wouldn’t have done otherwise.” The thought of one of his employees so close to death was gut-wrenching. There wasn’t anything about this case that wasn’t. He cleared his throat. “And then he tried to help me, give me information...but he’s in such rough shape.”

Emir’s voice was tight even to his own ears and he could still feel the pain of seeing someone he’d known for years struggling to live and yet still wanting to help. “Ahmed would do anything for Tara.” He took a breath as if controlled breathing would somehow change how he felt. “It will kill her to find out what has happened to him.” He stopped for a moment, trying to regain control of his emotions.

“He said something?” She looked at him with eyes alight at this new piece of information. “That wasn’t in the report. You spoke to him after,” she said, confirming what was already clear. “What did he say?”

He knew that she was anxious for a clue that would get this investigation on the road. They both were.

“He said ‘desert’ and then, the irony of it all is that the next words weren’t clear, but it sounded like a name—Davar. I don’t know what Ahmed was trying to tell me. He coded almost immediately after.” He clenched his fists, his gaze somewhere over her shoulder, his mind back to that hospital room. “They were working on him when I left.”