the voices of the women scrabbled along the corridor behind them as Makana followed the doctor. At the end of the dark hall was a study. Here, too, the walls were covered with bookshelves. There was a desk next to the window, which was shuttered. Somewhere in the distance the muezzin started his call for the sunset prayer. The smell of stale cigar smoke hung in the air. Ridwan Hilal eased himself down into a padded armchair behind the desk that looked as if someone had beaten the life out of it. He gave an exhausted sigh and passed a hand over his beard before remembering he was not alone. He opened his eyes and gestured at a chair pushed back against the wall. The eyes were dark and buried under thick eyebrows that jutted out from his head. Makana’s gaze fell on a photograph of Meera as a young woman. Ridwan Hilal noticed, and leaned forward to lift the frame off the desk.
‘She told me about you,’ Hilal said. ‘She wanted us to talk, you know.’
‘Yes, I’m sorry we couldn’t meet under more pleasant circumstances.’
‘Have you ever been in love?’
‘A long time ago.’
‘Before I met Meera I knew nothing about love. I read poetry. I studied it, analysed it. I even wrote papers on the stuff. But it was only when I met her that I realised I had never understood a word of it.’ He blinked nervously as he spoke. ‘Without her I am the same bumbling fool I always was. Perhaps that is the way of things. Love is a brief light that when it fades leaves the world darker than it ever was.’ He set down the picture and sat for a moment gazing at it before looking up. ‘Why have you come here?’
‘I spoke to Meera the day before she died. She believed that she was in danger.’ Makana reached into his pocket to produce the copies he had made. He set them down on the desk. ‘Have you seen these before?’
Hilal glanced over the sheets in front of him before giving a shake of his head.
‘That’s probably because she didn’t want to worry you. She believed they were a threat meant for her personally.’
Hilal leaned back in the chair, large hands clasped together over his sizeable paunch. ‘Are you suggesting that these letters are related to her death?’
‘Meera thought so.’
‘This is the Sura of Al-Nejm. We look to the stars for direction. Stars are not threats, Mr Makana, they are a portent of something bad or evil. A warning.’
‘You think someone was trying to warn Meera that she was in danger?’
‘That is what I would have said, had she asked my opinion. My wife had a strong sense of drama, which is probably why she interpreted these as a threat.’
‘You’re sure of that, even now?’
‘Certainly. My wife had little time for religious texts. That was my department. She excelled in English literature. She knew them all. Pinter, Bond, Beckett, as well as the classics of course. Marlowe and, naturally, Shakespeare, whom some of our Islamic brothers believe was an Arabic sheikh. Ignorance knows no bounds, Mr Makana.’
Once he got started nothing stopped, or even slowed down Ridwan Hilal. The big hands rested on his large belly and he lowered his head to stare at Makana.
‘I repeat my question. Why are you here, Mr Makana?’
‘I was hired by Mr Faragalla at the Blue Ibis company. He thought one of the letters were a threat aimed at him. That might still be the case. Meera understood them to be meant for her. She talked to me about them. She wanted me to talk to you.’
‘Why would she want you to talk to me?’
‘I think she thought I might be able to persuade you to go abroad.’
Hilal was silent for a moment. ‘Are you saying that we might have prevented what happened?’
‘Meera knew she could never hope to persuade you to go abroad. I don’t think she wanted to go herself, but I believe she was considering the idea. She was scared.’
‘She was one of the bravest women I ever met.’ The big head rolled from side to side like a melon balanced on a stick. His voice was anguished. ‘Do you know what a crime it was for her to have to work in that awful place? A travel agency? With her intelligence? Her learning? She could talk to you for hours about Hardy and George Eliot and make you want to run instantly to read