Paradise Postponed (Not Quite Eden Book 2)

by Dominique Kyle

  “Well the thing is, Eve, I used to work at that farm didn’t I? Me and Dylan. And I took Sahmir there a couple of times last year. And one time we went up to the old barn I think they’re talking about. It used to be a milking parlour. But it was a great place to hang out when you’re only fourteen, like a big den. So maybe Sahmir told his brother about it some time.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, sounding interested. “That sounds quite likely…” I looked at the police officers, inviting them to join in the speculations. “What do you think?”

  One of them raised his eyebrows. “Could be…” He agreed. There was a short silence. He began to shuffle his papers, frown and bite the top of his biro.

  “Ok, that’s it for now, I guess. We’ll look into the leads you’ve given us, and come back to you if we have any further questions.”

  I picked up my shoulder bag and glanced at my watch. “So can we go now? Jamie’s in the middle of his GCSE’s right now, so he ought to be getting to bed to get some revision done tomorrow…”

  They nodded.

  “Do you have a card so we can contact you if we think of anything, or Jamie manages to glean anything from Sahmir?” I asked co-operatively.

  One of them handed me a card with his name and a phone number on.

  “Could you drop us home?” I asked. “I don’t have any money on me for a taxi, and if Dad’s back there you can have a word with him.”

  Jamie looked at me as though I’d gone a bit mad, but I knew the police would be influenced by my apparent confidence in them and my implicit belief in Jamie’s innocence, so much so that I had no worries about them filling my Dad in with the details.

  Dad was home, standing at the door to greet us as soon as the police car drew up. He was perfect, hugging us anxiously as we arrived at the door.

  “Adam told me what had happened, but I couldn’t find out where you were…”

  “Apologies sir, we couldn’t get hold you.”

  He immediately invited them in, and asked them what the problem was.

  Seated in the new armchairs and plied with coffee by myself, the officers were soon the recipients of Dad’s views of Tariq and his family.

  “It’s taken us months and cost us a fortune to repair the damage. Insurance doesn’t cover criminal arson you know! Fire, smoke, water damage… Had to replace everything, carpets, wallpaper, furniture. Had to insist the girl went back to her family – didn’t like to mind you, with how violent and offensive Tariq and his father and that cousin were at the door more than once, but really what else could I do? I have to protect my own family first… It was only Eve’s quick actions with the fire extinguisher or we could have all burned to our death in our beds…”

  By the time they left, we had given the impression of the perfect family and the officers were believing they were taking away valuable insights into the Rajpar family. The second the sound of their engine died away, there was a ring at the door. I could guess who it was going to be. Dad opened it. Quinn was there with Jamie’s guitar, amp and a jacket he’d left behind. He looked almost normal apart from the purple nail varnish.

  “What’s been happening?” He asked looking anxious. Then he saw the direction of my gaze. “Siân’s run out of remover again…”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll get you some and you can sit and take it off while Jamie fills you in,” I suggested.

  Dad went and made hot chocolate for us all.

  Half an hour later Jamie and I made it upstairs and I went into his bedroom with him and firmly shut the door against our Dad. Jamie sank down on the bed looking pale and a bit haggard.

  “You were brilliant, Eve,” he said gratefully.

  I sat down beside him. “You were pretty subtle yourself,” I congratulated.

  “Would I really get eight years, Eve?”

  “Probably,” I said heavily. “Do you think Sahmir will keep his mouth shut?”

  “He’ll be desperate not to end up in prison as well,” Jamie said. “I did what you said and told him that I wanted to stop and that we were risking it too much and we sorted our story out back then, so as long as he doesn’t crack…”

  “So many kids at the school must know you were dealing…” I wasn’t confident that this would be the last we’d be hearing about it. “But the bonus side of it is that you and Sahmir were doing it so secretly, even Tariq didn’t know, so he can’t tell the police you were selling it, only that you helped set it up…”

  We had to leave it there. There was nothing else to say.

  “Thanks, Eve,” he said in a small voice.

  “I’m sorry about Sally,” I said on the spur of the moment.

  His eyes filled up with tears, so I thought I’d better leave him to it.

  Next morning, after a long lie-in, I found a text each from both Jo and Pete asking if everything was ok, and I sent a text of my own to Rajesh TAk me out for lunch ASAP, but not anywhr we can B overheard.

  Rajesh had got back to me within a couple of hours. Suki wants U 2 cum 2 tea 2nIt, I’ll pik U up at 5 & we can talk on t way.

  Since I’d had to leave the bike outside the Cow last night I asked Dad for a lift back out there to pick it up. On the way we talked about Jamie. I was relieved to find that he had no suspicions whatsoever about Jamie’s version of the story, so I figured he’d do a good job of sounding beautifully innocent whenever asked about it.

  I saw Quinn go out with a kit bag, and come back an hour and a half later looking sweaty. “Where you bin?” I enquired, popping up over the hedge.

  He jumped, startled by my sudden appearance. For a second he looked like he didn’t want to admit to it, then he said, “Rob says I need to be at peak physical fitness to be a good racing driver, so I’ve signed up at a gym.”

  My God, Rob was taking this really seriously! Reckon Paul and he must have had a real rivalry going at one time.

  “You should take up the running again then,” I suggested wickedly. It’d kill him in the beginning.

  He hefted his kit bag up over his shoulder. “Actually McGinty, that might not be a bad idea.”

  “And give up the smoking,” I ladled on the agony. “Use patches instead.”

  He pulled a face. “Dammit, I suppose you’re right… Shit I hate this fitness lark!” And he disappeared off into the house.

  I stood still, deep in thought. Oh dammit, what should I do now? I couldn’t let him win at this. I went inside and Googled local gyms. I mustn’t accidentally bump into him though. I spotted a ‘ladies only’ one. That was ideal. Cheap introductory initial three month deal. Twenty minutes later I got off the phone clutching my debit card having signed up and arranged my initial assessment and induction for tomorrow at six.

  In the car on the way to Chetsi’s, Rajesh and I went over every detail of what we knew so far.

  “But the main thing I want to know,” Rajesh said heatedly, “is whether they’re keeping Tariq in custody or whether he’s roaming around on the loose at the moment!”

  “I can’t think of any way of finding out without drawing attention to ourselves. Guess Jamie might find out from Sahmir, but I can’t even show too much interest with Jamie as he hasn’t suspected a thing about it being us who reported it. Only Sahmir would be able to put two and two together and we have to bank on him being too scared of Tariq and too scared of us and too scared of prison to let on that he spilt the beans.”

  We drew up outside his sister’s block of flats.

  “Not a word to Suki,” he warned. “Not even a hint – she’s good at nosing stuff out…”

  Us older sisters you know, our little brothers always think we’re spookily psychic, but we just have an extra X chromosome, that’s all.

  It was just us three for tea. Chetsi’s husband was working she said. She’d made all sorts of nice snacks, spiced things out of chick pea flour, fried tapioca and potato cakes, I tried to memorise the names so I could look up online how to make them some time.

  “Raj told me to keep the heat ton
ed down for you. We don’t all have his cast iron stomach…”

  After the meal she chucked Rajesh out then turned to me. “I’ve found out what happened,” she announced. “Tea or coffee?”

  Back at the table nursing our hot mugs, she plunged in. “Thing is, Eve, I’m utterly shocked. It’s making me so angry I barely know what to do with it!”

  I waited. I knew that feeling myself well enough. She reached for a tissue out of the box on the side. “Oh dear, I’m starting already!”

  She’d been pursuing the story of what happened during Partition with first her parents, and then when she came to an unsatisfactory dead end, with her grandmother, aunties, great aunties and uncles and then with some elderly people down the temple. “So I’m going to spare you the details of what I had to go through to wrench these stories out of them all and cut to the chase.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t sure what I was going to hear, but it didn’t sound like it was going to be anything good.

  “Ok, so, to massively simplify things, when India gained its independence from the British Empire, the British decided to partition part of it because the Muslims and Hindus were fighting and it was clear that joint rule wasn’t going to work so they drew a line up the middle of the part of the country where there were the most Muslims and created a new country of it – Pakistan. That meant that any Hindus and Sikhs caught on the Pakistan side of the line had to move over the border into India, and any Muslims trapped in India had to flee to the newly formed Pakistan. Are you following me?” She stopped and looked intently at me.

  I nodded.

  “So obviously I need to emphasis that atrocities took place on all sides, it’s not just one side or the other that misbehaved…”

  I nodded.

  “So what I’ve found out is that it was our great grandfather not our grandfather, which makes more sense. They were living in the Punjab on what became the Pakistani side, and a Muslim tribe laid siege to the village and sent a message into them that if they sent out the most beautiful daughter from each family then they’d spare the lives of all the rest of the village.”

  “That’s quite a dilemna,” I agreed. “What was going to happen to the daughters?”

  “They were going to rape them of course!” She sounded astounded that I wouldn’t know that.

  I stared at her, shocked.

  “And I’ve been told they often deliberately disfigured them as well…” she continued, “and these poor girls never got accepted back in their families. They were considered so shamed that they were outcasts forever.”

  My stomach clenched in reaction.

  “And so,” her voice broke and she reached for the tissues again, “the men of the village sent a message back that they’d rather kill their own daughters than have them shamed in such a way. And then – and I can hardly believe it – but I’ve had it sworn to me that it’s true – my great grandfather got his young daughters to kneel in a line in front of him and hold their long plaits away from their necks, and he cut their heads off then and there with a sword rather than let them be dishonoured!”

  “You’re kidding me!” I felt sick. I couldn’t believe anyone would do that to their own daughters.

  “Believe me, I’m not making this up,” her dark eyes gripped mine. “I could barely comprehend it myself at first but there’s a great-uncle still alive that actually witnessed all this. He was only nine when he watched his own father murder his three little sisters. And then to avoid the potential dishonouring, all the older women went and voluntarily threw themselves down the village well until the well was so full of bodies that there wasn’t room for anymore!”

  “That’s awful,” I said, shaken.

  “Apparently it was happening in villages all over – if you see ‘died falling down a well’ on a death certificate it means that the woman threw herself down the well to save the family honour! And then the men folk who didn’t manage to flee were massacred. My nine year old great-uncle hid under a pile of rugs in a cupboard till it was all over then crept out when they’d all gone and managed to join the exodus to India and went to live with his eldest brother, my grandfather, who was already there.”

  “That’s such an awful story,” I said. “I’m trying not to think too hard about it because it’s making me feel ill.”

  “And then no-one in the family ever spoke about it again!” She sounded scandalised. “Even my own parents didn’t know.” She blew her nose loudly, then blew it again even more thoroughly. Her big dark eyes fixed on me and glistened with what I recognised as rage. “It’s made me completely re-think my attitudes to feminism. I used to think that western society shouldn’t interfere in other countries’ social policies, but now I’m thinking we really need to be speaking out about all oppressive acts against women, wherever they take place!”

  She leaned forward across the table to me. “So are you with me on this?”

  “On what?” I established cautiously.

  “The fight against the oppression of our fellow sex! We’re going to rescue that girl Nasim from that terrible family of hers, yes?”

  I hesitated. Her hand was up, palm flat towards me, “High five?”

  I’d already tried to rescue Nasim once and learned that some people have to want to be rescued first. But her dark eyes were sparking with passion and determination, and I could see that here was a force that would sweep all before her.

  “High five,” I agreed and slapped her palm.

  Only thing was, the main step that might start the release of Nasim was getting her older brother put safely away, and I wasn’t free to tell Chetsi anything about that. All Raj and I could do was sit and wait it out.

  “Where’s Pauline?” I asked as I walked back in. She’d been there earlier making another fabulous roast, and I’d washed up without being asked to.

  “You don’t need to do that, petal,” she’d cooed. But I knew that if I didn’t she’d be storing it up in a mental black book to use against me to Dad at some time in the future.

  “She’s busy packing her flat up,” Dad said.

  “I’ve just heard an awful story from Rajesh’s sister,” I told him, throwing myself down beside him on the sofa, and spilling it all to him. He tut tutted suitably but didn’t seem all that surprised.

  “A lot of that goes on in a time of war, Eve, even today…”

  “Surely not today?” I protested.

  “Just thank God you live in England not Afghanistan or the Sudan or some place like that…”

  “Please tell me Dad that you wouldn’t think it was so shameful if I got raped that you’d want to kill me!”

  “I’d want to go out and kill the bastard who did it, but of course I wouldn’t want to kill you!” He patted my knee as a signal of robust comfort. “But I certainly wouldn’t sacrifice you to the ravaging hordes to save myself either. What a terrible position to face as a father…”

  That night I woke up screaming, panting and kicking out. When I dropped to sleep again I crashed awake for a second time, fighting and yelling all screwed up in the bedclothes, my heart hammering in my chest.

  I crept into Dad’s room. “Dad?” I whispered, then, “Dad!” A bit louder.

  “What? What?” He woke with a start. “We’re not getting fire bombed again are we?”

  “No, I keep having nightmares and I’m too scared to go back to sleep.”

  Yawning, he pulled back the bedclothes like he used to when we were tiny. “Get in then.”

  “I keep dreaming Tariq is beheading me with a sword, or throwing battery acid in my face, or lying in wait for me round a corner -” ready to grab me and rape me, I could have finished, but didn’t because this was Dad I was talking to.

  “Not the best bed-time story that girl told you was it?” He agreed sleepily. He reached out for my hand and took hold of it in his huge one, then fell straight back to sleep again. When I woke up at first light and found myself beside his gently snoring supine form, presumably on HER side of the bed,
I felt a bit silly and snuck silently back to my own bedroom and fell asleep for the last couple of hours of the night in my own bed.

  “Have you found out from Sahmir what’s going on at their end?” I asked Jamie at breakfast.

  He shook his head. “He’s not answering texts. We’ve got a maths paper tomorrow, so I’ll try to get the low down then…”

  Stil no news bout T. I texted to Rajesh.

  I watched my back on the way to work. And then on the way back.

  At the gym induction the girl asked me what I was wanting to achieve.

  “I don’t know,” I confessed. “I just know I want to be fitter. And also, I work in a physical job and I need to be stronger for it, lift heavier things, have a stronger grip and arm strength.”

  She put me through my paces, which on the running and rowing machines were pathetic, though she said she was impressed at my strength on the weights given my size. Then she took me round all the machines and showed me how to use them and wrote me out a personalised programme with a chart for me to fill in.

  At the end when I was about to go she added as an afterthought, “And we also have a regular women’s self-defence course on a Wednesday night.”

  I turned back and said without hesitation, “Sign me up for that.”

  “Well..?” I demanded of Jamie on Tuesday evening.

  He shook his head. “He wasn’t in the exam.”

  We looked a bit worriedly at each other. Jamie bit his lip. “I hope he’s not in prison.”

  I hope Tariq is, I thought.

  “I’ve only got physics this week, and Sahmir didn’t take it, so unless he answers his phone…”

  On Wednesday I learned how to throw someone off who was holding me down, get my wrists out of someone’s grasp and disarm someone of a knife. I hoped I would never to be put in the position again of being obliged to use them.