Still Midnight

At Ba

He took his time, sitting down, rolling his shirt sleeves up, assessing the tall, anxious boy without addressing him. Gobby handed him one of the tapes and they turned away in their seats to the tape recorder, noisily pulling the cellophane off two cassette tapes which they slipped into the tape recorder behind them. Omar watched, frightened, as the policemen looked at each other, nodded and shut the cassette cases, pressing record. A high-pitched yowl filled the room as they turned back to the table. Reverently they waited until it had finished.

Omar looked quizzically at Gobby.

‘Blank bit o’ tape,’ said Gobby quietly.

Pathetically grateful for the explanation, Omar smiled and leaned towards him, clutching at the implied kindness, pleading with Gobby to be his ally.

Gobby looked away.

Ba

Ba

Omar looked at both of them. ‘Living?’

‘A job. What do you do for a job?’

‘I’ve just graduated.’

‘From uni?’

‘Glasgow Uni, yeah, law school.’

‘Law school?’ He was building to something but Omar interjected.

‘Got a first.’

‘Good, good. Have you got a job to go to?’

‘No, still looking around, ye know…’

‘Had interviews and so on?’

‘Well, no, not really, not sure if Law’s for me really.’

At the back of the viewing room someone made a joke about one less of ’em. No one laughed. Jokes about lawyers were fine but the guy was Asian and the racist co

‘I want you to talk us through what happened tonight.’

‘OK, OK.’ Omar took a sip of water.

‘Whenever you’re ready,’ said Ba

‘OK, well me and Mo-’

Ba

‘Yeah, Mo. Me and Mo were sitting in the car-’

‘The Vauxhall?’

‘I was outside with Mo, in the Vauxhall, round the corner, smoking actually, and had the radio on, just chatting and, and we heard a loud sort of ‘pop‘ like a ‘pwomf’ sort of noise, never heard anything like that, and there’s this light, sort of white light in Meeshra’s window…’ The story got faster and faster, the words splattering into the room. ‘And we never even said anything to each other just, like, ran-’

‘What did you think it was?’

Omar looked confused.

‘The noise,’ explained Ba

‘Honestly?’ Omar tipped his head sincerely.

Ba

‘I thought it was a gas canister on a stove cooker. It’s stupid because we don’t use a stove cooker but in Pakistan you often hear of honour killings where a mother kills a daughter-in-law if she’s had an affair or something and the way they do it is tamper with the gas canister on the stove. Stupid,’ he shrugged, ‘but that’s what came to my mind…’

‘Are your family from Pakistan?’

‘No.’

‘Why would you think that then?’

‘Du

Ba

Omar shook his head and blinked, bringing himself back to the memory. ‘Um, I was on the passenger side, the road side. I opened the door, stepped out into the street,’ he flicked his hand to the side, as if he was throwing a cigarette butt away, ‘ran around the bo

‘Mohammed’s car?’

‘Yeah, yeah, Mo’s car…’ He had lost his thread.

‘To the house?’

‘Yeah, jumped onto the wee garden wall there, ran over, slipped at the corner a bit, caught myself, didn’t fall, ran to the door-’

‘Was the front door open or shut?’

‘Um, shut.’

Morrow felt sure he was telling the truth, from his short sentences, the distant look in his eyes, the way he glanced downwards to see the road, the garden wall and the reflexive flattening of his hand in front as he stopped himself from falling.

‘The door was shut-’

‘And you opened it?’

Ba

‘Yeah, I opened it.’ Omar looked at Ba

‘And?’

‘ And. ’ He stopped, glanced into the camera and froze a moment as he realised that the eye was judging him. His forehead wrinkled suddenly, a child giving an excuse, and he looked away. ‘And what?’

‘What did you see when you opened the door?’

Omar looked at the camera again but his brow had straightened defensively. ‘Saw my folks standing in the hall, on the right.’ He put his hand out to indicate their position. ‘Saw my brother Billal there too, near the door, standing in front of his room. The door was open behind him. Saw my wee sister, Aleesha,’ his throat caught when he said her name, ‘standing to the left, with her hand up.’ He raised his left hand, twisting the wrist like the Statue of Liberty. ‘Everyone was looking at her hand…’ His chin buckled at the memory and he lost his breath.

‘What about the men?’ said Ba

‘The men.’ Omar shook himself. ‘The men were standing in the hall, yes. One with my folks, between me and my folks, the other in front of Aleesha, looking at her. His gun was down there.’ Omar slung his hand down, at ninety degrees to his thigh.

Morrow sat forward.

Omar was pointing two fingers at the floor, his hand wide, out of kilter to his body. ‘The gun had smoke on it. I looked at his face and I thought he had a really long jaw because he was wearing a balaclava and I only saw him from the side. But then he shut his mouth…’

‘There were two men?’

‘Two men-’

‘What did the other one do?’

Ba

Anxiously she looked at the officers sitting next to her and noted which were straining towards the screen along with her, who was willing Ba

Back on the television Omar carried on. ‘He shouts “Rob”, “Where is Rob?” He came ru

‘Did they ask if you were Rob?’

‘Me?’ Omar touched his chest and looked surprised. ‘Me? Well, he sort of looked around and said, “Who is Rob? One of you is Rob.” ’

‘But did he ever say, “You are Rob?” ’