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JINN WALKED OUT of the bathroom wearing her new clothes and a towel wrapped like a turban around her head, accentuating her genie-like qualities.
“I’ve got to go,” Leine said to Santa. “I’ll let you know when I have the info on my flight out.” She ended the call and set the phone on the table next to her. “Feeling better?”
“Who was that?” Jinn asked as she walked over to a chair near the window and sat down.
“My partner, Santa.”
“Where does he live?”
“California.”
“Oh.” Jinn unwrapped the towel and draped it over her shoulders, then ran her fingers through her wet hair.
“So, where are we going?” Leine asked.
“What do you mean?”
“To find out what happened to your family.”
“The last time I saw my mother was in my village of Qaram.”
“Where is it?”
“Near the border of Tunisia.”
“That was over two years ago. How did you end up in Tripoli?”
“Some men came and took me away.”
“Without your family’s permission?”
Her expression guarded, she gave a half-hearted shrug.
“Why did those men take you?” It was possible her family sold her, but she wanted to let the kid tell her if that was the case.
Distracted, Jinn stood and looked out the window.
“Jinn. Why did those men take you?”
She muttered something Leine couldn’t quite make out.
Leine softened her tone. “I’m sorry—I didn’t hear what you just said.”
Jinn turned from the window. Leine’s breath caught at the abject misery on her face.
“They lied to me.” Her voice grew stronger. “I didn’t want to do the things they told me to do, so I ran away.”
Leine forced herself to stay put. The urge to wrap Jinn in a protective embrace almost overwhelmed her, but she knew the gesture could be interpreted all kinds of wrong. Don’t let her play you, Leine. Santa’s warning echoed in her mind. Street kids are experts at pulling on heartstrings.
“I’m so sorry, Jinn,” Leine said quietly. “Where were your parents?”
A cloud of anger hardened her features and she clenched her fists. “They tricked my mother. We thought they were going to help us.”
“What did they promise?”
“That I could go to school. It wouldn’t cost my mother anything, but I had to go with them to Tripoli. They said I would stay in a place with other girls who were going to the same school. We would have chaperones.” Tears brimmed in her eyes—the pain was still fresh. “There was no school. We were going to be sent away, to another town. They wouldn’t tell us where. I waited until I saw my chance and ran away.”
“Did you go back to your mother?”
“I tried, but while I was away our village was bombed. No one lives there anymore. My mother didn’t leave word of where she’d gone. Or even if she was alive.” She hugged herself and sank back in the chair.
“And you’ve been in Tripoli ever since.”
“Yes.”
Leine leaned against the headboard and sighed. The story wasn’t surprising. Vulnerable children were exploited every day, especially in times of war, and many were never reunited with their families. Most of the smaller villages were labeled terrorist strongholds by the Libyan Army and had been strategically targeted. The resulting refugees fled to the camps that sprang up along the border.
“How did you manage to survive for so long?”
Jinn shrugged. “I learned how to steal.”
“From the other kids?”
“No. I was recruited by an older boy who ran a gang of thieves. He told me if I didn’t do what he said, he would kill me. He wanted someone my size to help him break into homes and businesses.”
“Because you could wiggle through smaller spaces like windows, right?”
She nodded. “After the first job I stood up to him and told him I didn’t want to work for him anymore. I said I’d report him to the police if he came anywhere near me.”
“And he didn’t?”
“The next night he was captured by the police breaking into one of the homes near the medina. I have not seen him since.”
“That was lucky.”
A smile ghosted across her face. “I am a very lucky person.”
“If it’s all right with you, I think we should go back to Qaram and look around,” Leine said. “Then if we don’t find anything about your mother, we can check with the refugee camp.”
“They will only tell you she’s dead.”
“If that’s true, we can request her death certificate or at least see the report regarding what happened.”
“And you think the people at the camp will give this to us?”
“I’ll tell them that I’m your advocate—that’s someone who works on behalf of someone else. In this case, that someone else is you. I’m sure they’ll allow us to at least look at a copy if there is one.”
“What if we can’t find her?”
“Then with your permission I’ll begin proceedings to place you in protective care. That’s the first step to finding you a new home.”
Jinn seemed to think that over for a moment. She nodded. “All right. But I need to go to the market first.”
That was too easy. Why on earth does she want to risk going to the market?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. There could be more people looking for you. The man I left alive has most likely woken up by now.” She probably should have killed him, but she didn’t have the whole story and was hesitant to take a life without a compelling reason. Obviously, the man with the gun was prepared to kill a child, making that choice an easy one.
“I know how to get where I’m going without anyone seeing me.”
Leine studied her. There was something going on behind that sharp gaze, but Leine couldn’t put her finger on what.
“Please? It’s important.”
“Fine. But I’m going with you.”
“I’m all right on my own.”
“Humor me.” Something didn’t ring true about the girl’s story, and Leine wasn’t about to let her out of her sight. She had a feeling that she was being played, but she wasn’t sure how.
~ ~ ~
TRUE TO HER WORD, JINN led her through a maze of back alleys, corridors, and abandoned courtyards, ending up at the carpet seller’s stall. The merchant, an older, affable man called Ebrahim, brightened considerably when he saw Jinn.
“Sit, please. Keep an old man company.” Ebrahim nodded to two chairs near him, clustered around a small, engraved metal table with wooden legs. Leine and Jinn each took a seat and waited as he poured two glasses of sweet tea. He set the pot down and handed them both a cup.
Jinn fidgeted, cutting her gaze to the thoroughfare outside the store, watching the stream of people walking past, obviously worried they were being watched. Leine sipped her tea and affected a relaxed pose.
“How long have you been in this location?” she asked the shopkeeper.
Ebrahim gazed into the distance, lost in thought. “Many years. So many I’ve lost count.”
Jinn finished her tea in record time and stood. “I think I left something in the back the other day. Would it be all right if I went to look?”
Ebrahim waved her off. “Of course, of course. You needn’t ask my permission.” He watched her go, the tea momentarily forgotten.
“You’re fond of her,” Leine remarked, bringing him back to the present.
He smiled, revealing teeth stained with age and countless cups of tea. “Yes. She is a rarity—a child older than her years, who has had a difficult life but still cares for others.”
“How did you two meet?”
“One day she noticed I was having trouble lifting a carpet onto its display and she offered to help me. I gave her a little money to sweep out my storeroom and straighten the displays, and she’s been a fixture here ever since.”
He extracted a cigarette from a box lying on the table next to the teapot and offered her one. She declined. He lit his with a silver lighter and inhaled deeply. Exhaling the smoke through his nostrils, he continued. “She is a good soul, although she has had to resort to petty thievery in order to survive. A talent she’s cultivated to the detriment of all else, I’m afraid.” He shrugged. “We do what we must.”
“This talent you speak of may have placed her in grave danger.”
“I am aware of this.” He turned his rheumy gaze to Leine’s. “There have been some recent enquiries.”
Leine leaned forward. “How recent?”
“Earlier today, and again this afternoon. The same man both times.” He took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled. The cloud of blue smoke clung to the air between them. “I expect his return. He didn’t find what he was looking for.”
“Can you describe him for me?”
Ebrahim gave her a description that closely matched the man she’d knocked unconscious, right down to the large swelling near his left temple.
“Be careful, Ebrahim. These men will stop at nothing. They were prepared to kill a child.”
“I am but an old man. They won’t believe I have anything of value. The real question is, what of Jinn?”
“She’ll be fine. I’m here to help her.”
“And how did you come to meet our Jinn?”
“Let’s just say I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
“I see her good fortune has not yet abandoned her.” He nodded, obviously pleased. “Allah, peace be upon him, has seen fit to bring you into her life for a reason.”
“Perhaps. May I ask if she has ever mentioned her family?”
“A mother, but I think she is no longer of this earth.”
“Has she ever spoken of a place called Qaram?”
Ebrahim frowned as he thought, but then shook his head. “Not that I can remember, no.”
“I’ve promised I would help her find her family, but it seems that may be a futile exercise.”
“Her family is here in the market, although there are no blood relatives that I’m aware of. Still, she may not have shared that part of her life with an old man.”
“Be that as it may, I’m determined to help her in any way that I can.”
“Make sure that what you deem as help is actually helpful.”
“I will, Ebrahim.”
His eyes lost focus and he nodded. “We shall see.”
Behind them, Jinn cleared her throat. “We should go.”
Leine turned sharply at the urgency in Jinn’s voice. She stood several feet away, partially hidden by a large stack of carpets. Leine set her tea on the table, grabbed her satchel, and rose.
“Thank you for the tea and for your company, Ebrahim.”
Ebrahim bowed his head. “And for yours, as well. Take care of my Jinn.”
“I will.”
“This way.” Jinn led her past colorful and intricately patterned mounds of carpets to the rear of the store and through a passageway, depositing them into a back alley in the medina.
“You saw someone?” Leine asked.
“The man you knocked down. I don’t think he saw me, though.”
They moved quickly through the dark alleyways. Leine was glad Jinn knew her way around—she’d never have been able to find her way out as quickly as someone who lived there. A few minutes later they emerged from a back entrance used for deliveries and skirted the outer walls of the medina, headed for Rami and the Land Cruiser.