Fourteen #3
Stroking the slumbering puppy, she listened to Omar.
Apparently, shortly after Omar’s meeting with Robby, when he’d refused to return to Kabul, the head teacher at the nursery where Omar was working called him into his office to tell him he was being ‘let go’.
The boss gave no explanation but implied there was evidence linking Omar to drugs.
‘I left and got a job in Reading. What choice did I have?’
That only lasted a few months, before, once again, he received his notice.
The same thing happened in Bristol, and when he found a job in Taunton, then Barnstaple.
‘Each time, just before I lost my job, Robby came to see me, offering to finance my trip to Kabul, to pay for a security guard if I was nervous – as if that would help me! That’s why, this time, I haven’t bothered to get a job.
What’s the point? I hoped that if I didn’t get a job, he wouldn’t be able to trace me, but then Helen showed up, and now Robby. ’
‘This is weird. You’re not the one causing trouble. Robby’s the one who needs to wake up to the fact that he’s being used.’
‘He doesn’t know that the real reason I left was because I was an interpreter for the British army. He thinks I left because I was about to be accused of drug smuggling, and he says his contacts with the Taliban assure him they can get those charges dropped. He thinks he can trust them!’
‘Tell Robby why you can’t go back and make him promise not to tell anyone else. He’s the CEO. He must know how dangerous the Taliban are. Surely, he can be trusted not to put your family in danger.’
‘Did he strike you as a man to trust?’
Ivy thought back to her brief interactions with Robby: the tense meetings with Helen, the nasty tone in his voice when he confronted Omar in the pub. Her heart wanted to believe Robby wouldn’t endanger anyone’s life, but she had to agree with Omar – it wasn’t a risk worth taking.
‘Is Helen in trouble too? Has Robby got something he’s using against her?’
He shook his head. ‘No. Robby tracked me to Barnstaple. When he met me, I stupidly told him I’d fallen in love with the area and would stay even if he had me fired – I hoped he might leave me alone.
He didn’t. I lost my job. But Robby must have taken what I said seriously.
He convinced Helen I was involved in drug smuggling, and that finding me and getting me to return to Kabul was the right thing to do.
He got her a job near Barnstaple, here in Brambleton. ’
‘And you’ve told her the truth, that you were framed for drug smuggling?’
‘She worked out for herself that I am innocent. When she saw me return Victor’s wallet, she asked herself if that was something a drug smuggler would do. I told her my suspicions about FF, that something dodgy is going on and that I was framed in order to silence me.’
‘And she knows about your sister?’
His eyes widened, ‘No. She doesn’t know about my past or my sister’s, and she mustn’t.
You are the only person who knows. Promise me you won’t tell her.
Don’t talk to her about any of this. She still talks to Robby; she no longer thinks I’m involved with drugs but I’m not sure I’ve convinced her something is wrong at FF. ’
‘What reason have you given her for being allowed into the UK?’
He winced. ‘She assumed like you did that it’s because I’m a Christian.’
‘But you must tell Fred, you can trust him.’
He thought for a moment, chewing his lip. ‘All right. But promise me you won’t speak to Helen. You can tell Trish and others about me being here legally and how I got here, but don’t talk to Helen, she’s too close to Robby.’
Ivy swallowed. ‘Don’t worry. I never break a confidence. But why don’t you tell Robby you’ve forged a new life here in Brambleton, and you don’t want to go back to Kabul?’
‘But I haven’t, have I? He’s seen to that.’
‘So, what are you going to do?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. Move on again.’
Ivy felt her throat thicken. She didn’t want to lose him. She exhaled slowly. ‘This must be linked to what you started to uncover in Kabul.’
‘Yes, I’d worked that out. But I never uncovered the truth.’
‘Then we must find out together, so you can settle properly, get a job.’ She wanted to add, ‘in Devon’, and she fervently hoped he would choose to stay close, but the most important thing was to enable him to live a decent life.
Omar shook his head. ‘It’s not that simple.’
Ivy hesitated, then shared some of her own struggles from her time as a vicar – the moment she’d realized she was being sidelined, that once she’d raised the issue of the Archdeacon’s excessive expense claims, important meetings started happening without her.
She wished she had fought back. ‘You must fight,’ she told him firmly. ‘You don’t have to do it alone.’
He looked at her, something altering in his expression. ‘I feel safe with you,’ he admitted. ‘And Fred. You both make me feel human again.’
Ivy smiled, touched. Then, in an unexpected turn, Omar tilted his head and smiled. ‘Fred ... I’ve seen the way you look at him. Have you ever asked him if he feels the same?’
The words settled over her like snowfall, soft but chilling her to her core.
How could she ever risk asking Fred if he felt the same?
If she did, and she was wrong, she could ruin everything between them.
She treasured Fred as a good friend, a reliable, comfortable presence.
She couldn’t bear it if she lost their friendship in the desire for something deeper.
Still, this wasn’t the moment to unravel that.
Omar’s problem remained and she couldn’t solve it alone.
She glanced at him, more at ease now, the stiffness in his shoulders easing with every sip of wine.
Jez nosed at her hand, and she got up, popping the puppy into Omar’s lap.
Watching Omar scratch behind Jezreel’s ears, absent-mindedly content for the first time that evening, Ivy realized that to maintain that carefree approach, Omar must prove his innocence.
She would support him, and in the morning, she would recruit another helper.