Page 57 of A Silent Reckoning

“Don’t you think we should ration the food?” Shaun asked, humour in her voice. “In case we’re in here for a while.”

Saskia shrugged. “I’ll fight you for it.”

The three women laughed.

Fatima sobered first. “Saskia, you mentioned your Aunt and Uncle were killed. Was it… was it mafia related?”

“I think so. It happened before I was born so I never knew them. No one knows exactly what happened, or if they do, no one’s talking. It was Christmas, thirty years ago. They were preparing to come over to the house for a family meal when they were attacked. Dad thinks it had something to do with a rival.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, how awful,” Fatima exclaimed.

“Jozef’s parents,” Shaun murmured.

Saskia nodded her head while Fatima looked shocked.

“It’s how his throat was cut,” Saskia supplied. “The attackers went after him too, but they didn’t count on a five-year-old boy being just as vicious as the rest of them.” The way she spoke indicated Saskia enjoyed this part of the story. Shaun was beginning to suspect Saskia hero-worshipped her older cousin. “He pulled the knife they’d used on him out of his own throat and stabbed one of the guys through the eye.”

Fatima gasped, her eyes wide with worry. “Oh, that poor boy. To lose his parents and his voice all on the same night.”

Shaun felt the urge to laugh but swallowed it. She didn’t think it would be any less traumatic to lose his parents and his voice on different nights.

“Did they ever find out who did it?”

“No,” Saskia said around a mouthful of dried fruit. “The body left behind was a low-level street thug. No affiliation to any particular family. I think my dad tried to find out but had to give up and write the incident off as a robbery gone wrong. I think it bothers him to this day that he was never able to avenge his brother.”

“What happened to Jozef?” Fatima was Saskia’s rapt audience and Saskia was more than pleased to talk someone’s ear off.

“He went to live with my mom and dad. They’d only been married a few years, so I think it was rough for them to take in a traumatized child, but I think Jozef turned out just fine.”

Shaun did laugh this time and Fatima returned her smile.

Oblivious to the exchange, Saskia continued to eat.

Twenty minutes later someone banged on the door to the safe room, then opened it.

Karl stepped inside, sweeping the room with a serious look. “It’s alright. Someone set a firework off in the club which triggered the alarms. Alex shut the lights down in the building to encourage people to leave the club.”

Karl frowned as though something was bothering him.

“What is it?” Saskia asked sharply, standing and dusting the crumbs from her jeans.

He shook his head, but finally admitted. “It’s a weird coincidence. Someone playing a stupid prank in the club while Jozef is out of town. Almost as if they know he’s away and are testing our defenses.”

“Do you really think that’s what happened?” Fatima asked, fear in her voice.

His eyes softened. “I’m a suspicious man. Have to be for my job. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Fatima looked marginally better, but Shaun knew better. And apparently, so did Saskia.

“What aren’t you telling us?” Saskia demanded.

He looked at her, his gaze still troubled. “We looked at the footage of people leaving the club. Your sister was here.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jozef’s team ran into very little trouble as they moved through Somalia, travelling down the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, into South Sudan. Ali hacked into and redirected a satellite from a large telecommunications company to survey the region as they moved so they were able to avoid any hotbeds of activity.

Every man on Jozef’s team understood the score. They worked hard, paid attention and rolled with the rough living. At the end, the payoff would be worth more than they would have otherwise likely seen in their lifetimes. This was why Jozef took the risks that he took. The payoff.

---