Rough Cut: Rosie Gilmour 6 by Anna Smith

Author:Anna Smith [Smith, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781784293147
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2016-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Rosie watched, delighted and perplexed at the same time, as Laila began running as soon as she spotted her mother and sister among the crowd at the arrivals hall in Glasgow Airport. So much for her instructions to stick together in case any of the story had leaked out and there was a media scrum. Matt sprinted after her, determined to get the reunion pictures that would make a historic splash and spread for the Post. Omar had told Rosie it was best if he walked off the flight on his own and disappeared into the crowd. He didn’t want to run the risk of being spotted with a reporter, or with Laila, by one of his own. That way, he could pick up all the inside information discreetly. There would be some ructions in the Asian community once Rosie’s story hit the front page, and it would be best if Omar was able to quietly keep his ear to the ground.

It was only once they’d flown from Islamabad to Heathrow that Laila had phoned her mother to tell her she’d done a runner, that the Post had come and rescued her. She’d already confided in Rosie that her mother had been totally against the marriage, and had threatened her husband with divorce if he went through with it. When he did, and Laila was taken away in the middle of the night, she’d left, taking Laila’s twelve-year-old sister with her to stay with her parents. But this was never going to be an ordinary Glasgow divorce. Pakistani women didn’t just walk out on their husbands. The fact was that there would be consequences that could impact on Laila and her mother. But right now, when she saw Laila and her mother in floods of tears, hugging as Matt fired off pictures that they could never in a million years have staged, she knew she had done the right thing.

A taxi from the Post picked them up outside and drove them to Laila’s grandparents in Maryhill. They were waiting at the door of their big sandstone villa. Seeing the delight on their faces made Rosie suddenly realise that whatever she had witnessed in the name of religion in the lawless, brutal backwater of the Swat valley, this was a family who cared about each other first and foremost. No politics, no dogma. Just glad to have their granddaughter back home. Rosie smiled to herself as she told the taxi to head to the office.

*

‘There’s going to be all sorts of political shit flying around once our story hits the streets, Gilmour. But it won’t half leave the rest of the papers with their mouths dropping open. I do love it when that happens.’

McGuire was in bullish mood as Rosie graphically spilled out the drama of the last few days.

‘I want to use all of that, every cough and spit. The stoning of that poor bloody woman will rock the world. We hear about that kind of thing, but when do we actually ever see it? I hope Matt’s pics are good.

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