Evanly Bodies - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,56

said, "but I suppose I've left it too late and you've started something?"

"It's lamb chops and they could keep," she said, "but in truth it looks and sounds so horrible out there that I think I'd rather stay warm and dry and eat at home."

"We'll go out as soon as I have a day off, I promise," Evan said, hanging his raincoat on the hook by the front door. "Did you get your hike in today before it rained?"

"I did, but I didn't really enjoy it, thanks to you," she said stiffly. "You were acting like such a nervous Nellie that it rubbed off on me. When I was up on the mountainside, miles from anyone, I started to feel uneasy. I remembered that girl who disappeared last summer. So I found myself almost running to get down again. That's just not like me, Evan."

"No, it's not like you, but I can't help wanting to protect you, can I? It's a husband's job."

"Husband's job." Bronwen ruffled his hair. "You are so old-fashioned."

"And it's a wife's job to grill the lamb chops," Evan said, "while the husband finds out if there's still some red wine left in that bottle we opened."

He had just picked up the bottle when there was a thunderous knocking on their front door.

"Who on earth would come up here in this weather?" Bronwen appeared, white faced, from the kitchen as Evan went to the door. "Be careful. Don't open it."

Evan opened the door. "Mr. Khan," he said in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"You know bloody well what's wrong." The Pakistani pushed past him into the living room. Rain had plastered his hair to his face and ran down his raincoat onto the doormat. "Answer me this: What have you done with my daughter?"

Chapter 19

"Your daughter?" Bronwen had come to join Evan in the doorway. "Something's happened to Jamila?"

Mr. Khan came toward her, waving a finger menacingly. "Don't play the innocent with me, missy. You know very well that you put her up to this."

"I'm afraid we're completely in the dark, Mr. Khan," Evan said. "Won't you take off your coat and sit down?"

"I'm not sitting with the people who have turned my daughter against me," Khan said. "She would never have done this if it hadn't been for you."

"Done what?" Bronwen asked. "We haven't seen Jamila all weekend, and we have no idea what she has or hasn't done."

"Run away, of course." Mr. Khan almost spat out the words. "She's gone. Missing. I drove her mother down to the Home Improvement Center to see about rugs for the floor, and when we got back there was no sign of Jamila. We thought she might have disobeyed us and gone to a friend's house. Then it got dark and we started worrying. She would never be out after dark without calling her mummy and daddy first."

"Have you called the police?" Evan asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be a policeman?" Khan demanded, "and yet you are the one behind this. How can I hope for any help from the police when they will all side with you?"

"Please stop shouting, Mr. Khan," Bronwen said. "We're very fond of Jamila. We're as worried as you are. Now what do you think has happened to her?"

"She's run away, of course, because she found out we had plans to arrange a marriage for her."

"If that's true, I can't say I blame her," Bronwen said. "I tried to talk to you the other night, but you weren't prepared to listen to reason."

"It's none of your bloody business what I do with my daughter," Khan said. "This is what is wrong with Western culture, Western women. They get too many ideas. They interfere. They don't believe the husband and father knows best. And now you've got Jamila thinking that way too. She was an obedient little girl before we came here."

"Jamila has been thinking for herself for a long time," Bronwen said. "She was just afraid to express her views to you and her brother. But believe me, the one thing in the world she doesn't want is to marry someone she doesn't know and go and live far away in Pakistan. If you love your daughter at all, you'll listen to what she wants."

"She's a child. A female child. How can she possibly know what is best for her?"

"Now you're sounding like your son," Bronwen said. "This is Wales, where every person has the right to decide for him or herself."

"So you helped her hide from us."

"No,