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on an idea. ‘Do you think Yasmin’s disappearance is connected with these incidents? There are some sick people out there, Inspector,’ he said, with growing fervour. ‘After September eleventh we went through a bad time.’
    ‘We can’t jump to any conclusions at this stage,’ Mariner said. The incidents would have been looked into, but it seemed a little premature to be making those kinds of assumptions, unless Akram knew something they didn’t. ‘Do you have any thoughts about who might be behind these attacks, Mr Akram? Or anyone who might have a specific motive to harm your family?’
    ‘Apart from the usual?’ Akram glanced up at Mariner. ‘My wife and I built up this school from nothing. When we both left college as trained teachers we could see that the British education system was failing the children in our communities. Many of the children around here have little English when they enter the school system, so they are already at a disadvantage. We founded this school in an attempt to give them a better start. Now every year we are inundated with applications. We have expanded several times but still we don’t have enough space to take all the children who want to come here.’
    ‘And plenty of people resent success,’ said Mariner.
    ‘While others feel very threatened by Islam, as I’m sure you are aware, Inspector. Bad enough having the country overrun with Asians, let alone educated Asians.’ He took a pamphlet from his pocket. ‘We get these all the time.’
    The red, white and blue flyer was being published by an organisation calling itself ‘The Right Way’. Mariner had encountered it before: a right-wing organisation led by Peter Cox, a known racist and white supremacist based in the city. ‘When was the last time?’
    ‘It comes and goes.’ Akram was suddenly uncomfortable. ‘It’s been worse since the letter.’
    ‘What letter?’
    He shifted uncomfortably. ‘I belong to an Asian business consortium. We have all been targets and we were sick of the constant harassment. We wrote a letter to the local press denouncing the cowards who instigate race crimes and in particular The Right Way.’
    ‘So you could have inflamed the situation.’
    ‘It was impulsive, something I now regret. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but it probably hasn’t helped.’
    To put it mildly, thought Mariner.
    ‘This came through the post at the end of last week.’ Akram took from his pocket another sheet, this time of A4, word-processed on a computer, which he handed to Mariner.
    al-Fath (The Victory) Punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women. For them is the evil turn of fortune, and Allah is wroth against them and hath cursed them, and hath made ready for them hell . . .
    ‘It’s from the Koran,’ Akram said. ‘My wife hasn’t seen it. I didn’t want to upset her, especially now—’
    ‘It’s powerful stuff. Do you know if anyone else has received anything similar?’
    ‘I don’t know. I haven’t told anyone.’
    ‘Not even the police?’
    ‘What would be the point? It’s completely anonymous. What could you do? It could have come from anywhere.’
    ‘And the envelope?’ Mariner asked, without hope.
    ‘It was printed anyway, but I threw it away.’
    ‘I’ll need to take this to get it checked for fingerprints.’
    Akram shrugged. ‘As you wish.’ But they both knew that as it stood it was a long shot.
    ‘If you get any further communication like this from anyone, please let me know immediately.’
    ‘Is it possible that Yasmin could have been abducted?’ Akram had clearly begun to give the idea some thought.
    ‘I think in the circumstances it’s a possibility we shouldn’t discount.’
    ‘Please help us to find her, Inspector.’
    ‘We’ll do everything we can. You said you were away from yesterday afternoon? Where did you stay last night?’
    ‘We have family in Bradford.’ As he spoke, Akram pushed open the door to the reception area,