“What do you think he’s going to do?” Musa asked.
He seemed to be getting more nervous by the minute.
As far as they knew, Boss was still speaking to the girl.
He was going out of his mind trying to guess how that was going.
Daudi lay on his bunk while Musa paced the room, making sure that neither of them settled. He didn’t have an answer to the question, and he wasn’t even sure if his friend expected one.
“This doesn’t feel good, Daudi.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Daudi said.
“What if he decides that we can’t afford to let her go? What if bringing her back here gets her killed?”
“Then it gets her killed,” Daudi said. He’d tried not to think about that possibility, but it was there at the back of his mind. Boss was more than capable of making a drastic decision if he felt cornered.
Or if he decided her blood would avenge Lebna.
“We should do something. Say something.”
“What can we do? We can’t go in there when he’s with her… he would kill us for it…”
Any further musing on their fate and whether they should intervene was ended by the door opening. A figure stood in the opening. “He wants to see you both. Now.”
Neither of them hesitated. Daudi was off his bunk and out the door a second behind Musa. Not wanting to make things worse by making Boss wait, they hurried to the kitchen. Boss was just coming out of the room when they reached him. There was a moment where they didn’t know what they were rushing into, and then relief swept through them as Boss said, “She knows nothing. She doesn’t even know Lebna is dead.”
“What?” said Daudi. “How can she not know?”
Boss gave a grunt. “Why would you think she would? Or did you think that little girl killed him and dumped his body at our gates?”
“Of course not, but I thought…”
Boss cut him off. “I am fed up with hearing that word coming out of your mouth, Daudi. The pair of you have got us in a hole full of shit with the man who runs that fucking town shoveling it down on our heads. When he finds out that you two are behind his daughter’s kidnap you are both dead men. So, tell me now, who saw you? We need to limit the damage here. If we can.”
“Nobody,” Musa insisted, finding his voice.
Boss raised an eyebrow but said nothing for a moment. He turned his gaze to Daudi.
“A couple of shopkeepers,” he said. “Maybe one or two people in the street…”
“And her fucking sister,” Boss added.
“Sister?”
“Yes, her sister. The one Lebna was screwing. You two idiots didn’t even realize that there were two girls in that apartment? I despair. You two are braindead… The older sister got out first… you left her in the street, watching you as you grabbed this one. She saw you, saw your car, and which way you went. Even if the others didn’t realize what was going on, she did. I would bet your lives their father is already hunting you.”
“But he doesn’t know we’re here,” Musa said, desperation creeping into his voice.
“You think not? Are we, perhaps, invisible? We have moved into his territory. We have taken trade from his table, money from his pocket. He knows who we are and where we are. This will be the first place Sol Danjuma comes looking for you.”
“You want us to leave?” Daudi asked. It was the logical thing to demand, exile for them, and better than the alternative, turning them over to Danjuma for punishment.
He glanced at Musa to see a mixture of confusion and panic on his face.
It was an offer that he hoped Boss would refuse.
Daudi offered up an alternative. “We should take the girl back to her father and apologize, throw ourselves on his mercy.”
“That might save me a whole lot of trouble,” Boss agreed. “But in his place, I can’t imagine being forgiving. I send you to him, I am throwing you to the wolves.”
“We’ll take out chances.” Daudi said.
It was just bravado.
He was saying the things he thought that Boss wanted to hear.
But at the same time, he was praying he wouldn’t take them up on it.
If he went back into the town, he was a dead man.
And so was Musa.
Boss grunted again. “You two can babysit her while I decide what we’re going to do.” He didn’t condemn them, but it was a long way from salvation. Boss walked away from them. Daudi glanced at Musa and saw a look of relief on his face that mirrored his own.
Daudi led the way into the dining room. It was a grand title for the place that they ate—a room with half a dozen Formica-topped tables surrounded by a mismatched assortment of chairs. Everything in the room had seen better days, apart from the girl.
She might be young, Daudi thought, but add a few years and it wasn’t hard to see why Lebna had fallen for her sister.
“You two morons again?” she said. “Come to take me home then?”
“Can I get you anything?” Daudi asked, ignoring her barbed jibe.
“Ah, so you’ve been reduced to room service? You really did fuck up, didn’t you?” She slouched back in her chair; arms folded in front of her.
“Something like that,” Daudi said. “Look, you don’t have to believe me, but I’m sorry about this. Lebna was my friend. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
The girl smiled and suddenly any tension in the room disappeared. Daudi hated himself. If Boss couldn’t find a way out of this, she would be dead soon. And it would all be his fault.