Free Rough Cut: Rosie Gilmour 6 by Anna Smith

It’s normal. But I was so upset at my sister’s death. I know in my heart she did notkill herself. She was very unhappy. She just wanted to be back home, but it wasn’t allowed. She was here now and that was the agreement between the families. Nothing we could do about it.’
    Rosie watched as the younger girl linked her fingers through Sabiha’s.
    ‘So, who are you married to?’
    ‘I am married to the cousin of Farooq, but he is not here a lot of the time.’ She dropped her eyes to the ground. ‘He has another wife in Bradford, and he spends time there. For business as well. I cannot ask. Is not my place.’
    ‘I understand,’ Rosie said, even though she didn’t. She didn’t understand any of it – not the multiple nor the arranged marriages or the culture of fear – where young women had no say in their lives or their future, even within their own families. But you couldn’t say that out loud in Glasgow or anywhere else without being accused of racism. The truth was that in most people’s everyday lives you just let everyone else get on with it, as it was none of your business how anyone lived. But these girls were miserable, terrified and vulnerable.
    ‘So,’ Rosie turned to the other girl, ‘why are you crying? Why do you not want to go to Pakistan?’
    ‘Why do you think?’ the girl answered.
    ‘I can make a guess,’ Rosie said. ‘Are you to be married over there?’
    The girl nodded.
    ‘Yes. To a man I have not even met. I am fourteen years old and he is forty-eight. Old enough to be my grandfather.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m to go with my uncle to Peshawar later in the month, the wedding will take place immediately and then our families will be linked in marriage and in business.’
    Rosie didn’t know what to say.
    ‘Do you want to tell me your name?’
    ‘My name is Laila. I’ve been here all my life. I go to school here. I’m studying to go to university and I want to be a doctor.’
    ‘Do you want to get married? I mean, in the traditional Pakistani way?’
    The girl shrugged and stared into the middle distance.
    ‘Who knows? I’m fourteen. I don’t even think about things like that. I just know I don’t want to go there and be married to some old man right now.’ She bit her lips tight.
    ‘It’s not just about the marriage,’ Sabiha suddenly said. ‘It’s the whole criminal thing.’ She paused, glancing at the younger girl. ‘They are part of . . . of something dodgy. People go missing and their passports are used by criminals.’
    ‘What do you mean? What criminals?’ Rosie screwed up her eyes.
    ‘I have heard they use people for smuggling and then they kill them over there. But they keep their passports, then they use them and doctor them so they are fakesfor other people. But I have only heard it, so I don’t know any more.’
    ‘That’s unbelievable,’ Rosie said. ‘How do you know this?’
    ‘I don’t know for sure. But I overheard them talking.’
    ‘But is it organised? Who is in charge?’
    Sabiha shook her head.
    ‘I don’t know who does this and that, but I know that my husband is part of it and that is one of the reasons he is down south a lot of the time. They are all criminals.’
    ‘Smuggling what?’
    Sabiha looked at her cousin, who seemed to give her the slightest nod of her head. Then Sabiha glanced up at Rosie.
    ‘Diamonds.’
    Rosie looked straight at both of them for any sign that they were lying in their eyes. There was none.
    Rosie got into her car and sat back, shaking her head, still aghast at what Sabiha had said and wondering how McGuire would react. As she switched on the engine, her mobile rang in her bag. It was Don.
    ‘Hey, Rosie. What you up to?’
    ‘Actually, I’ve just been walking in the park.’
    ‘Must be nice to be idle, strolling around all day, listening to the birds.’
    ‘Yeah, sure. I was meeting someone.’
    ‘I didn’t know you were into dogging.’
    ‘I’d bet that you know more about dogging than