Malicious Intent Read Online Free PDF Page B

brother. He appeared so arrogant, but when he spoke of his mother he became surprisingly vulnerable. His defensiveness and paranoia didn’t justify his arrogance, but could explain why he came across as so abrasive.
    She took a deep breath. ‘Presumably, if the police were involved, the coroner requested a postmortem, an autopsy, on your sister.’
    ‘The pigs would not let us bury Fatima when we wanted.
    They defiled her body.’
    Anya was aware of the Islamic tradition of burying the dead as quickly as possible. In a suspected overdose, screening for infections such as HIV prior to the autopsy further delayed proceedings, despite efforts by the coroner and pathologists to respect the family’s wishes. For families, the wait could be devastating and poorly understood.
    ‘If a doctor can’t complete a death certificate,’ she explained,
    ‘or the cause of death is unknown, the coroner requests a postmortem. Particularly if the circumstances surrounding the death are suspicious. It’s the law.’
    ‘Fatima’ – Anoub faltered for a moment – ‘died with a needle in her arm in a filthy toilet block.’ He sat again and stared at a bookshelf of medical texts before speaking.
    ‘My parents came here as teenagers. They wanted us to have a better and safer life but made sure we followed Islamic law.
    After Fatima left school, my father allowed her to work as a medical secretary in Merrylands. This made her see how much trouble Western immorality caused. She despised women who came to the practice with pregnancies and diseases caused by debauchery.’
    Anoub took a deep breath, and tightly clasped his hands.
    ‘She looked forward to marrying my father’s cousin until that last night.’ His facial muscles tightened. ‘She said the train was late but my father did not believe her. He says she had a boyfriend and forbade her to return to that workplace.’
    ‘How did Fatima respond?’ Anya gently probed.
    Anoub was matter-of-fact. ‘She cried and went to her room. In the night, she left and no one saw her again – alive.’

    KATHRYN FOX
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    ‘I’m very sorry about your sister,’ she repeated. The way her brother spoke, Fatima’s life couldn’t have been easy. It was not surprising she ran away if her father forbade her to have freedoms other people took for granted. ‘But I don’t know how I can help.’
    ‘Did the person who left her give her an infection?’
    Anya wondered why Brody hadn’t discussed the case with her. Anoub Deab’s motivation seemed odd. He seemed far more worried about infection than how or why his sister died.
    Reputation meant more to his family than she’d appreciated. It occurred to her that he might have wanted to pursue his own version of justice for the person who left Fatima in the toilet.
    She hoped she was wrong.
    ‘Do you think she had a boyfriend?’
    ‘That’s part of what I want you to find out,’ Anoub snapped.
    ‘You must realize I can interpret the pathologist’s report and find out what I can from the police, but that’s about all I can do. Like I said before, I’m not a private investigator. I review medical evidence.’
    Anoub straightened. ‘Because of Fatima, people think we are drug dealers. My father is being followed and we have had threats on the phone.’
    Anya suspected the man was paranoid, but then again, his father required the services of an expensive criminal lawyer. ‘I know some of the police investigators who cover western Sydney. If you’re being threatened, you can tell them about the calls. They may be able to trace them.’
    ‘We cannot do that. My father forbids it.’
    Anoub’s attitude made Anya uncomfortable, but his request was straightforward. She looked at the small car on her desk and thought of Ben and the lack of work offers. Anoub would obviously pay for her time, and she didn’t have to like him or the way his family treated women. She felt sorry for the mother, wanting to know what had really happened to her