Kingdom of Strangers by Zoë Ferraris Page A

wants, which isn’t much.”
    Katya nodded.
    “What are you thinking?” he asked. “Why was she working if I was taking care of her?”
    “Something like that. The problem is, she wasn’t working. At least not where she said she was. But you assumed it was true, so what did you think she was doing with the money she was supposedly making? She never spent it on anything. Didn’t that make you wonder?”
    He shrugged. “I just assumed she was saving it.”
    “Did you ever ask her about it?”
    “Not really.” He went back into the kitchen. Katya dusted some of the cups on the coffee table for fingerprints and thoughtof her father, whose signature move when confronted with difficult questions was to retreat to the kitchen and find something to eat.
    “There’s still milk in the refrigerator,” he said, coming back into the room.
    She looked up.
    “A whole liter of it. She drank it every day. If she were planning on leaving, she wouldn’t have bought milk.”
    “Nobody in your family had any idea you were seeing her?” Katya asked.
    She saw a flicker of hesitation. “That’s right.”
    “Are you absolutely certain?”
    “Yes.” Now he put on a look of paternal agitation. “Believe me, if anyone knew about it, the rest of my life would have fallen apart by now.”
    “What about friends or coworkers?”
    “We were incredibly careful to hide this from everyone.” He gave her a dour look. “It’s not exactly legal, you know.”
    “What about the neighbors?” Katya asked.
    “They don’t care in the least.”
    “How long had you been seeing her?”
    “Two years.”
    “Why didn’t you marry her?”
    “Because she’s already married, to a man who used to rape her and whom she never wants to see again.”
    Katya nodded slowly.
    Ibrahim sat down on the sofa. “I know you’re thinking,
What if she just walked away?
”
    “You have to admit, it’s possible, even with the milk. Sometimes people make spontaneous decisions.”
    “Sure.” He couldn’t seem to get comfortable on the couch, so he stood up and went to the front window. He stood at the very edge and peeked through the gap where the wooden screen didn’tquite make it to the window frame. “We never even opened the windows,” he said, motioning to the screen. “We had these installed and they stayed shut all the time. We almost never went out to eat, but sometimes we’d go to a private beach. We tried not to call each other too much, and we used aliases when we did. On my phone, she’s listed as Muhammed. Not even a last name. We were
careful
.”
    To Katya, it sounded claustrophobic.
    “So yes,” he went on, “maybe she got sick of it. She never liked Saudi anyway. She couldn’t understand why anyone here did what they did. She was raised as a Muslim. She thought she was a good Muslim, until she came here. ‘This place has Mecca,’ she used to say, ‘but these people don’t practice the same religion that I do.’ It upset her.”
    Katya finished dusting and got up. “I’m going to check the bedroom.”
    Ibrahim came over and stood in her way. “I’ve thought about all of this. I’ve gone over it again and again. I was sure that something bad had happened. That’s what my gut was telling me, and usually when my gut tells me something, that’s it. I believe it. But now… I don’t know.”
    “There’s one thing we haven’t considered,” Katya said.
    “Trust me, I’ve considered
everything
.”
    “Then you’ve thought that this may be connected to the case?”
    “The serial killer?”
    “Yes.”
    Ibrahim let out a harrumph. “Okay, yes, it crossed my mind.” He shook his head. Katya could see he was getting tired, half of his mind still back on
What if she walked away?
    She checked the bedroom, but it was as sparely decorated as the rest of the apartment.
    On the way out, she noticed a shiny object protruding from the hallway carpet outside the apartment door. It looked like anail. She bent to inspect it and