“Thank you. We appreciate that.”
“Zara?” Pete asked. “Will she still be attending?”
“I think you need to ask Zara that question,” Okoro said, watching the men unload the truck. He looked at Pete, his dark eyes unreadable. “Her mother gave up everything to marry me and live out here in the middle of nowhere. But it was a choice she willingly made. She would want her daughter to have that same choice.”
“And what about you?” Pete asked. “What do you want?”
“I want my daughter to be safe.” He was quiet a moment, smiling to himself. “My wife used to tell me there’d be no sons of Nigeria if there are no daughters of Nigeria.”
“Wise woman,” Pete said.
“Very.” Okoro nodded at the truck. “She’d also say that we should help those who are helping us.”
Pete looked relieved. “Definitely.”
The three men walked over to the truck, helping to unload the shingles. On their way back, Sam saw Lazlo watching Nasha jumping rope, chanting “Sator, arepo—daughters of the sun. Tenet, opera, rotas—convey me to the light …”
One of the girls quit turning her side of the rope. “That’s not a jump rope song.”
“It’s the only one I know,” Nasha said, crossing her arms. “I learned it from Amal.”
“Start over. We’ll sing one for you.” Soon, Nasha was happily jumping to a song about a teddy bear turning around.
Curious about Lazlo’s interest, Sam asked, “Since when have you found jump rope so intriguing?”
“Not even in my youth, Mr. Fargo. But the song strikes a chord …”
“Teddy bears?”
“The Latin ditty she was singing before that.”
“Will it make the work go faster?” He nodded toward the trucks being unloaded.
“On my way,” he said, his gaze still on the girls.
As Sam left the courtyard, he glanced toward the office, where Remi and the lieutenant stood, Remi holding a tablet, nodding as she pointed to something on the screen. A few minutes later, she was on her phone. She looked up, and waved him over.
“Renee,” Remi whispered, then listened intently to whatever her friend was saying. “Of course. We won’t say anything to Amal until I hear back from you. We can head out first thing.”
“For what?” Sam asked as she disconnected.
“That break-in at their dig site. It was definitely Warren.”
“Why are we going there? The police should be handling that.”
“He’s dead, Sam. They found him at the bottom of the villa.”
“Did he fall?”
“That’s what Renee thought. But the police don’t seem to be treating it like an accident. The only thing that leaves is suicide. She doesn’t want Amal to know until she’s sure about what happened. We have to go back.”
She gave him her this is nonnegotiable look just as someone started laughing from the roof of the dorm. He glanced that direction, seeing a couple of soldiers laying flats of shingles across the decking. Between Pete, Wendy, and their new guardian angels, there was really very little he, Remi, or Lazlo could do here. He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call the flight crew and let them know. Next stop, Tunisia.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
What you help a child to love
can be more important than what you help him to learn.