Page 15 of Savage Protector
“He doesn’t seem happy,” Tony murmurs.
“Wonder what it’s about,” Aaron replies. “Maybe they?—”
“Fuck.” This from Ethan, when the angry man grabs the girl by the arm and drags her from her seat. His fist is in her hair, and he’s dragging her head back so she has to look at him.
Her mouth moves, she says something.
His response is to backhand her across her cheek.
“Bastard,” Ethan mutters.
We watch in growing horror as the man forces her to the rail and bends her backwards over it. Her fingers clutch at his loose-fitting shirt. She opens her mouth again. This time it’s definitely a scream.
The other older man is also on his feet. He, too, clutches at the other as though to pull him off, but his attempt is half-hearted at best. The younger man just watches, seemingly unmoved.
The violent one gives her another hard slap, then bends over to shove his face right in hers.
She appears to be shaking her head, but it’s difficult to be sure. Then, without further warning, he slips his arm under her legs and tips her backwards over the rail.
Now the younger one gets up, and all three of the men stand together in a line, gazing down into the water where the red dress can clearly be seen thrashing on the surface.
“Holy fuck. They threw her in. On purpose.” Jack voices all of our outrage. “They’re not trying to help her at all.”
As if to prove the point, the boat swerves away and the man at the controls lets out the throttle. In moments they are skimming across the water, heading west, leaving the struggling girl in their churning wake. None of them gives her a backward glance.
“Holy shit,” Tony breathes. “That’s heartless. I wonder what she did to deserve that.”
“We’ll ask her when she comes round,” Ethan replies. “Ifshe comes round.”
I’ve said nothing so far, simply watched the drama unfold. I think I have a good idea what we just witnessed.
“Frankie, how did you get this footage?” Ethan turns to the youth.
“My new telescope,” he answers brightly. It arrived yesterday, but I didn’t have time to play with it. I set it up this morning and tried it out. There are no celestial bodies to see at this time of day, so I trained it on the ocean. That boat was the only thing out there, so I focussed on that. You saw what I saw.”
“But the video…?”
“My telescope is designed to photograph and record. Obviously, it’s meant for more distant objects but works fine on closer subjects. Like boats at sea. I started the video going at first just to try it out, but I captured a lot more than just a bunch of fishermen.”
Ethan strokes his chin, his brow furrowing. “I wonder who they are? Who is she, and what was it all about? I suppose we have to wait until she’s fit to talk.”
“Not necessarily,” Frankie replies. “I got a few. really good, high-res facial shots of the two older men. Good enough to run a facial recognition reverse search. They were identified as Abdul Hussein and his brother-in-law, Mohammed Mansour. Abdul is fifty-one, Mohammed forty-nine. They both live in Greenoch but at separate addresses. I didn’t get a good enough view of the younger man, but Abdul has a son, Mehrban, aged twenty-seven. My money is on him.”
“And the one at the controls?”
“No idea, he never turned round. But according to Council Tax records for Greenoch, Mohammed has three daughters all living with him, aged eighteen, fourteen, and twelve. The eldest is called Leila. I brought up a pic of her. This was taken about four months ago.” He taps a couple of keys, and a smiling school portrait materialises on the screen.
“That’s her,” I blurt.
“She’s his daughter?” Jack looks absolutely gobsmacked. “He attempted to murder his own daughter?”
Ethan responds. “Strictly speaking, it was Abdul, the uncle, doing all the serious work. Dad did try to intervene, but he was half-hearted about it. The younger one, Mehrban did you say? He just sat there and enjoyed the show.”
“I don’t get it…” Tony says. “His daughter, sorry, niece.”
“I do,” I mutter softly.
All eyes are on me.
