Free Poisoned Ground: A Hakim and Arnold Mystery (Hakim & Arnold Mystery 3) by Barbara Nadel

shit. But Lee didn’t talk shit and if she were honest the only time anything he’d said had really upset her had happened when he’d phoned to tell her about Vi Collins. He’d been, to Susan’s way of thinking, far too involved and she hadn’t liked it.
    Susan finished her tea and tried not to be annoyed.
    *
    ‘Have you met el Masri?’
    Mumtaz had had to run up the stairs and open up the office as quickly as she could to take the call.
    ‘I’ve seen him, Salwa.’
    Some blurry photographs of Salwa el Shamy, albeit from a distance, had been in a couple of the tabloids that morning. The decision by the Home Office to bar a radical Yemeni Islamic cleric from the UK had reignited the debate, particularly in right-wing circles, about a range of issues around immigration. This included the status of people like Salwa el Shamy.
    ‘You haven’t met him yet?’
    She sounded agitated, but then she would be. The photographs Mumtaz had seen showed Salwa trying to hide as much of herself as she could behind her front door as she let her children into the house. The headline accompanying the pictures had screamed some odious invective she had immediately put from her mind. Salwa quite naturally wanted to hear some good news.
    ‘No,’ Mumtaz said. ‘But I’m volunteering twice a week and so I will meet him. The Advocacy has regular meetings with the hospital staff and that includes the doctors. Don’t worry, it’s in hand.’
    She heard Salwa sigh. ‘You see my family are in the newspapers today?’
    ‘Yes. I’m sorry you had to go through that.’
    ‘They are like vultures. There’s no respect here for Muslims. I don’t know if I can do this any more! I can’t be in this country!’
    She was becoming hysterical.
    Mumtaz said, ‘Salwa, whatever is happening, you must support Hatem. That’s what you’ve decided to do, isn’t it? Stay until Hatem’s trial?’
    ‘And for children.’
    ‘Yes, for them too. They’re all at school.’
    ‘Yes, but …’
    ‘Salwa, what you have to understand is that newspapers like that don’t have respect for anyone. They don’t actually care whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian or a Hindu. If they can make a story out of something they will. And in this case it was the banning of Sheikh al-Kabir.’
    ‘I don’t know this Yemeni holy man!’
    ‘I know that, but his story reignited the debate—’
    ‘They say all Muslims are terrorists! This is not true!’
    ‘Of course it isn’t, but because this Sheikh has said some things about how it is all right to kill non-believers and because Hatem is in prison on suspicion of terrorist offences, some of the newspapers have connected them. Wrongly. But it will stop soon, Salwa, trust me. Tomorrow the papers will find another story and you will be forgotten. It won’t be the same as it was when Hatem was arrested.’
    For a moment Salwa was quiet and then she said, ‘You know this free speech they talk about here? It doesn’t happen for Muslims.’
    ‘It can seem that way sometimes,’ Mumtaz said. ‘But, Salwa,you do have to be strong for Hatem and your children. I am doing my best for you but getting the evidence you want may take some time. I have to become part of the hospital so that el Masri becomes used to me and, hopefully, ignores me. I have to ask questions without seeming to ask questions. Do you see what I mean?’
    ‘You must not make suspicious.’
    ‘That’s right.’ She saw her mobile phone begin to flash and looked at the screen. It was Naz Sheikh. She switched it off. ‘Salwa, I will tell you as soon as I have any news.’
    ‘You will tell to me first?’
    ‘Of course.’ Mumtaz crossed her fingers behind her back. There was no way she would pass on material as sensitive as this direct to the client without telling Lee first.
    Salwa sighed. Calmer now, she said, ‘OK.’
    ‘OK,’ Mumtaz said. ‘Now, Salwa, you go and start your day. Are there any photographers outside your house this