Princess Play by Barbara Ismail

Author:Barbara Ismail [Ismail, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Asia, Southeast, Fiction, Crime, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9789814423434
Publisher: Monsoon Books
Published: 2013-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter XX

Pak Nik Lah was preparing for the ceremony, as he always did: talking to the family, chatting with neighbours, and in this case, even speaking to the police about Maryam’s role. Speaking to Maryam herself, he found the conversation turning more towards Jamillah, as Maryam peppered him with questions with far more determination than he approached her. Afterwards, he was amused to find that she was as skilled an interrogator as he, though admittedly their styles were quite different.

Pak Nik Lah took a far more avuncular, even passive role, encouraging his informants to speak at will, following the wanderings of their mind with interest. Maryam could appear either sweet and motherly, completely sympathetic, or stern and motherly, tolerating no evasions, demanding a straight answer. The bomoh was unused to being on the informant’s end of the conversation and found he talked as much as anyone.

Maryam told him about her illness: the aftermath of a concussion, complicated by what appeared to be a rational fear of more attacks to come. She told him of her previous case, and the black magic, together with poison, which had been used against her. At that time, at least, she’d found the charm, and she was grateful it hadn’t touched any of her children. But now, though the enam sembilan assault had been directed entirely at her, Aliza had been hurt in what Maryam considered a related act of violence.

‘And I can’t even find out who did it!’

‘Do you have any ideas?’ asked Pak Nik Lah gently. ‘I’m sure you have your suspicions.’

She thought for a moment. Pak Nik Lah offered her a cigarette and she accepted it absently, took a deep drag, and started speaking slowly, as though just now putting into words what had been inchoate thought.

‘I like Rahim. I do. He’s a hardworking boy; well, a man really. And even though I can’t condone what he and Zaiton did, at least no one else was hurt. During my last case, everyone I spoke to had second wives, and their first wives were miserable. Now Rahim, he did the right thing as soon as he could. But I wonder …’

She stared off into the greenery. ‘Is he protecting someone else?’ she mused. ‘Zaiton says she told her mother, who agreed to the marriage, but that doesn’t mean much because I can’t check it. But then,’ she now argued for the other side, ‘what else could Jamillah do? Forbid them to marry when her daughter was pregnant? Of course not!’ she answered her own question. ‘It’s impossible. She’d allow them to marry, no, she’d force them to marry.

‘Did Zaiton realize that? Well, she should have! She’d have no reason to fear her mother’s refusal.’

‘And Rahim no reason to protect her?’

‘I doubt the two of them have ever discussed it,’ she said morosely. ‘He’s in love with her; he’d do anything to keep her safe and happy, don’t you think?’

‘Me? I don’t know anything about it.’

‘Yes, you do,’ Maryam corrected him. ‘You spent time finding out about Jamillah and her family, and even Murad and his.

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