or something?’
‘Kind of,’ Lauren smiled. ‘Here’s the thing, Fahim. All we have to go on is your call. If the cops moved in and arrested your dad with no clue what’s going on, they’d probably make arses of themselves. We know you reached out and called the hotline because you wanted to help, but you were scared and you hung up. We understand that, but now we’re here to help you.’
‘And we can help find your mum,’ Jake added.
‘Help how?’ Fahim asked.
‘We want all the evidence you have,’ Lauren said.
Fahim shrugged. ‘I don’t have evidence. Just some stuff I overheard when my parents were fighting.’
‘What stuff?’ Jake asked.
‘Something to do with the Anglo-Irish crash, for sure,’ Fahim said. ‘I don’t know what they did, but I heard them fighting about it. Then that night they were fighting again and my mum threatened to go to the police and tell them what was going on. When I got up the next morning she was gone.’
‘Do you think your dad killed her?’ Jake asked.
This wasn’t subtle and Lauren shot him an angry look.
‘She doesn’t have friends or relatives in this country,’ Fahim said weakly. ‘I hope she’s alive, but if she is she must have run off in the middle of the night with a bloody mouth, no phone and no money.’
‘What does your dad say?’
‘Lies,’ Fahim said, close to tears. ‘First he said she was at a spa, then she was supposedly looking after someone. The last time I mentioned her name he just glowered at me, like I shouldn’t. And he wiped the CCTV tapes.’
Lauren’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What CCTV?’
‘We’ve got cameras covering the front door and the outside of our house,’ Fahim explained. ‘I waited for my dad to go out and looked for the recordings from the night my mum disappeared, but he’d put in a new set of tapes.’
‘We know she hasn’t used her credit cards or mobile phone since the night you called,’ Lauren said. ‘Although if she was involved in a plot to bring the plane down she might well have another identity.’
Fahim shook his head. ‘She threatened to go to the police … I don’t know anything for sure, but she definitely didn’t like whatever it was my dad has done. The thing is, I’ve got no evidence and the school shrink thinks I’m a nutter so who’s gonna believe me?’
‘That’s where we come in,’ Lauren explained soothingly. ‘Tell your dad that we’re friends from your new school. If you invite us home, is he likely to complain?’
‘He doesn’t mind me having mates round, as long as they don’t make a racket,’ Fahim shrugged. ‘Our house is pretty big and my dad’s usually either out or he works in his office until at least seven.’
‘So who looks after you?’ Jake asked.
‘The cleaning lady is around in the morning. It used to be my mum, but now, if Dad’s out at a meeting or something I’m on my own until he comes home and makes dinner. Sometimes that’s not until eight, or even later, so he leaves me a note and a ready meal to go in the microwave.’
Lauren tried to speak with authority. ‘Our first step would be to discreetly gather as much evidence as we can. We’ve already bugged your dad’s home and mobile-phone calls from the exchange. We’ll also try and get listening devices in the house to record his conversations and we want to go through all his documents and computer files.’
Fahim looked worried as he bit the end off a couple of fries. ‘And what about me?’
‘What do you mean?’ Jake asked.
‘Suppose you get evidence against my dad and my mum doesn’t come back?’
Lauren wasn’t prepared for this. ‘Our files say that you have an uncle nearby and heaps of relatives in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.’
Fahim shook his head. ‘My uncle Asif and my dad do everything together. If my dad is involved, Asif is too for sure. If they go down I’ll end up being adopted by my granddad and I hate it in Abu Dhabi. He’s mega rich, but he’s the most miserable old git you’ll ever meet.
‘All my aunts and uncles tiptoe around doing exactly what Granddad wants them to do because he’s nearly eighty and they want their share of his loot when he pegs it. My cousins are a laugh, but they get sent away to Islamic schools that are like, mega strict. They have to learn the entire Koran by heart and