Legacy. Jeff Edwards
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No stitches were required; the wound was not deep enough. But if El Kalil had placed the slightest pressure on the knife, the child would have bled to death. His warning was abundantly clear.
El Kalil reported his findings to the old men.
‘We want all possible information about the owner of that car,’ they replied.
Chapter Thirteen
Ali Akuba stood beside his daughter’s bed and watched her sleep. She was very young and would probably forget her frightening experience. But it would take time. The girl whimpered softly into her pillow as she slept.
Ali Akuba, on the other hand, would never forget. Forget or forgive.
He walked into the kitchen, where his wife sat sobbing quietly.
Placing his hand on her shoulder, he kissed the top of her head.
‘What shall we do?’ she asked.
‘What needs to be done will be done,’ he said with a steely resolve.
‘Could we bargain with them?’ she asked.
‘No. There is no bargain that we could make that they would not also break if they so wished. There can be no dealing with them. We are doomed if we give in to them, and we will be doomed if we try to fight them. It is simply a question of which doom we choose.’
His wife looked up at him. She saw no sign of doubt in his eyes. His mind had already been made up.
‘What about the children?’ she whispered.
‘I will send them away to keep them safe. I have been considering sending them to a private school anyway. Now it is essential that they go.’
‘What will you do first?’
‘The first thing I must do is warn Mrs Green.’
Dressed in his best suit, El Kalil and one of his student cell members called to the car yard, seeking out the salesman who had recently sold the Rolls-Royce.
‘My family were the former owners of that particular vehicle and my elderly mother would like to have it back. It reminds her of our late father.’
‘Well, I’m afraid that the car has been sold.’
‘Perhaps the payment for the vehicle will not be processed.’
‘No. It was paid by credit card and we ensured payment before releasing the vehicle.’
‘Possibly we could contact the new owner and negotiate with him?’
‘That could be difficult. I was contacted by a salesman from another yard. He had seen the car on the internet and gave my details to the purchaser. The purchaser rang and gave her credit card details. Her instructions were that someone would come to pick it up on her behalf. The credit card was for a company, but I can’t find a phone listing for them. I checked on that straight after the sale went through. I wanted to keep track of them. Easy sales like that don’t come along every day.’
‘So you’ve sold a car, but you don’t know who to?’
‘That’s about the size of it. It’s how things are done these days with the internet and all.’ ‘So the person that picked up the car was not the new owner?’ ‘Possibly. But I was contacted by a woman. She sounded old, and she sounded white, if you know what I mean.’
El Kalil nodded. ‘Could I have the name of the company?’
‘I’m afraid I couldn’t do that.’
‘Yes. Of course,’ smiled El Kalil, as he pressed several banknotes into the salesman’s hand.
The salesman pocketed the notes and shuffled through several documents on his desk. He spun one around and El Kalil took a quick glance.
‘Thank you for your efforts,’ he said, rising and straightening his jacket before leaving the room, followed by his assistant.
The salesman removed the notes from his pocket and counted them. Smiling.
El Kalil returned to the disused garage that had become his headquarters. He phoned one of his students and instructed him to conduct a search for the business called Glimgrow Corporation.
‘What sort of name is Glimgrow?’ he asked himself. He tried to take the name apart, to decipher some sort of hidden meaning, but could find nothing.
The name search revealed the company had just been purchased. It had one shareholder, a female by the name of Jade Green, whose address was care of a firm of solicitors named Grant & Associates. Its usual place of business was listed as a post office box at the General Post Office.
Frustrated, El Kalil decided to try to locate the person who owned the company, Jade Green, however, proved too elusive. She did not vote or own any property under that name. It appeared Jade Green was an alias.
Only when he did an internet search was any reference found to the name. The references were overwhelming. The printer worked overtime spewing forth articles containing the name, mostly in newspapers from years past as well as some more recent items. El Kalil’s eyes lit up at the amount of information. It would take him some time to digest it all.
The old men were pleased with his findings when he reported to them that evening. But they, too, would require time to consider the information.
El Kalil was dismissed and told to keep watch on Akuba. ‘Report anything else that is out of the ordinary.’
When the old men finished reading through the report they decided it was important enough to have a courier collect the data and take it to their superiors in their homeland.
Ali Akuba prepared a detailed letter for Mrs Green. He could not risk being seen posting it, so he waited until a friendly looking businessman caught his taxi the next day.
Smiling widely at the man, Akuba asked if he would be so kind as to post the letter when the good gentleman had reached his destination.
The man agreed, deciding to do the favour in lieu of a tip for the driver.
Both men were very satisfied with the arrangement.
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