Read Online Abduction by Simon Pare - Free Book Online Page B

than that for me to tire of your love-bites!”
    Inside that sorrow-laden car, I wanted to confess this epiphany to her – that it was vital that together we form a wall of steel against the disaster that was threatening to engulf our family. But immediately the words had formed in my mind, they seemed ridiculous and with an aching heart, I stifled the urge.
    She was twisting her handkerchief around her fingers.
    â€œHe… He rang me again. He said he’d kill her if… What are we going to do, Aziz?”
    Meriem interpreted my silence as a reproach. She averted her eyes towards the windscreen.
    â€œI’ve been trying to tell myself since this morning that I’m going to be no use to my daughter if I keep crying. I stop crying, I think I’ve summoned up enough courage, and then… this bastard calls and whispers into my ear that he’ll cut Shehera’s head off if he feels like it…”
    I made no move to console her: I was too scared that my body might disintegrate if our two despairs should touch.
    She jumped as if she’d just been bitten by a poisonous animal.
    â€œOh no… not again… the phone! Your phone!”
    I read the inevitable ‘Caller unknown’ message on the screen before raising it cautiously to my ear. With dark irony, I thought that I would have handled radioactive material the same way.
    â€œWhere are you?”
    â€œIn the car with my wife.”
    â€œDid you convince the police?”
    â€œYes… I think so.”
    â€œAll right, let’s move on to more serious matters. Get out of your car now. If you’re driving, pull over.”
    I did as he said, asking Meriem to wait for me inside the vehicle. The tension was exhausting me; for a second I felt like an athlete sentenced to run the hundred metres over and over again under pain of death. The memory of a cigarette tickled my tongue. With an intense feeling of nostalgia, I thought, “Ah, a drag of some nice pungent grey tobacco and I’d cope with this better…” It’d been ten years since I’d stubbed out my last fag butt. I promised myself that I would treat myself to a packet of unfiltered cigarettes before the morning was out. A second train of thoughts, just as out of place as the first, had wormed its way into my brain.
    The voice, terribly familiar now, brought me back to my surroundings. I tensed my muscles to ward off goose pimples. I also recognised, somewhere in the background of my sensations, an urge to vomit after another fit of panic.
    â€œWhat I’m about to ask you is strictly between the two of us. Even your wife mustn’t suspect anything. There’s no one next to you? No cheating – that would have disastrous consequences for you know who!”
    â€œNo, there’s nobody. My wife’s in the car. How is my daughter?”
    â€œFine. Now, our deal is simple, Aziz: she will be fine as long as you obey me. Any pranks and – she croaks! Now, open your ears wide and keep calm. Are you calm?”
    The man’s inflexion had changed: more excited, with a hint of – how would you say? – childish enjoyment. It was this cheerfulness that made me feel with awful certainty that the worst was yet to come.
    â€œI’m calm.”
    â€œDo you have enough imagination, Aziz?”
    â€œWhat’s imagination got to do with it?”
    â€œYou’ll need some, because you’re going to have to kill someone for me.”

 
    â€œK ill someone for you? Are you mad?”
    There followed a few seconds of silence – enough time for me to bite my lip at my own stupidity: I had mentioned madness to a madman! Something slimy slithered into my mind: Hey! Don’t act so surprised. Everything’s been mad since yesterday. Why would what this guy’s asking you to do be any less mad? I raised my eyes to the skies in search of help; the blanket of cloud, impassive as ever, looked like a