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went.

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    MALICIOUS INTENT
    My father, he was angry – he thought she ran away with a boy.
    My mother . . .’ Anoub lowered his head. ‘Almost a month had passed since Fatima went missing. And then one night the police came and told my parents she was dead.’
    Anya felt some of the young man’s pain. She knew too well what it was like to lose a family member. She wrote ‘missing 4/52, found dead 3/52 ago’ and underlined them in her book.
    Anoub stood and paced the small room. ‘It was drugs, but I want you to find out what else happened.’
    Anya spoke quietly. ‘Do you think there’s more to the story than you’ve been told?’
    ‘That’s what I want to know.’ He sighed loudly. ‘How can you understand what it is like, not knowing who to trust? You, with your pale skin and green eyes –’ His voice was so bitter.
    ‘Since September 11, we have been persecuted by police.
    Before then we were tolerated. Now people despise us. The papers say we go around in gangs causing violence. Just because we are Lebanese the police pull us over, search and threaten us.
    For no reason.’ He ran a hand through his hair and stared at Anya. ‘How can we believe anything they say?’
    The man had a point. Radio shock-jocks had vilified Islamic immigrants since the devastation of New York’s World Trade Center towers, and, closer to home, the suicide bomb-ings in Bali.
    ‘What do you think happened to your sister?’
    ‘That’s what I need to find out! This has brought great shame to my father and our family. My father’s business is suffering because our own community disowns us. Many say she died of AIDS. My mother does not speak about it but I hear her crying . . .’ He stopped himself from saying anything more about his mother. ‘Fatima was promised in marriage to a man from our home village. Now my father is disgraced there as well. You cannot understand what this means for us.’
    Anya wasn’t sure whether he was more aggrieved by his sister’s death or the social implications of the way in which she died.

    KATHRYN FOX
    25
    He reached into his back pocket and placed an envelope on the desk. ‘I want you to take this and talk to the police. Find out the truth. Did Fatima have AIDS, like some people are saying? Was she with a man when she ran away? Who gave her the drugs and left her to die?’
    Anya opened the envelope. Stuffed inside were ten- and twenty-dollar bills, amounting to thousands. Almost unrecognizable were wads of old notes, which hadn’t been in circulation for about forty years.
    She replaced the contents. ‘I am very sorry for your loss, but I think you’re mistaken. I’m not a private investigator.’
    ‘But Mr. Brody said he would ask you to look into it.’
    ‘Dan Brody, the lawyer?’
    ‘Yes. He handles my father’s affairs.’
    Anya wondered what sort of ‘affairs’ needed a criminal defense lawyer. ‘As yet, he’s not asked me to be involved,’ she said.
    The young man lifted his chin as though it gave him more authority.
    ‘I want you involved. You’ll work for me, not Brody.’
    ‘I’m afraid I don’t think I can help you.’ Anya stood up and pushed the envelope away. With a reputation to build and the custody fight for Ben, now more than ever, she couldn’t afford to be implicated in anything suspicious or illegal. And she didn’t like Deab’s attitude toward her.
    Anoub refused to take back the money. ‘I am prepared to pay to find out what the police know.’
    ‘I choose whether or not to accept a client.’ Her voice was firm.
    ‘I didn’t steal the money, if that is what you think. My mother has been putting aside a little each week, in case anything happened to my father. She has it hidden around the house and asked me to give some to you. There is more if you need it.’ He sounded desperate, almost pleading. ‘If I can prove that Fatima didn’t have AIDS, it would help my family a great deal.’

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    MALICIOUS INTENT
    Anya studied the grieving