Part 51

Jane didn't sleep that night, she didn't want to think that this was happening. Even after the disastrous diner at the Masood's she wanted to believe, she needed to believe, that if this all really came out they would still love their son. These just didn't seem like the actions of the people that she worked with, that she saw every day, that were her friends. She didn't want to believe that they would pack up their own son and send him across the world just because he didn't fit in to what they expected of him. She couldn't help seeing the image of Syed, his face so sad leaning up against Christian in the street, desperate for his comfort. She wondered if Lucy was right and they should tell Christian. She knew her brother, and she had seen how much he cared about Syed, undoubtedly he would come crashing in and try and start a commando operation to break Syed out of his house. Jane knew that would be a bad idea, unlike Lucy, she could see the big picture. She knew that whatever they did there was the risk that Syed would never be able to talk to his parents again. She still had hope that they could end this entire thing amicably. She had made Lucy promise not to text Christian, no matter what happened. She got dressed for the unit, Ian didn't even notice how distracted she was, and tried to face another day, it seemed she had been dealing with this for weeks and not just three days. When she got to the unit Masood was the only one there.

"Morning." She called and he gave her a friendly nod. She looked over to him, he seemed so relaxed, suddenly the idea that he was keeping his own son hostage and planning on sending him away seemed ridiculous, this was Masood after all. "How's Syed this morning, any better?" She asked carefully looking at him to judge his reaction. His whole body tensed and suddenly Jane started to see the truth.

"He's sick." He told her deadly.

"Poor kid. So when do you think he'll be back on his feet?" She asked trying to keep the little tremor of nerves out of her voice.

"I don't know." He replied. "Now if you don't mind we do have work to do." They spent the rest of the morning in silence. At lunch Zainab and Tamwar came in and when they left Jane checked every single one of her pockets for a note, finally finding it in her jacket.

'Dad's gone insane, he bolted Syed in his room. I'm not allowed to talk to him, something's happening soon but I don't know what, please help'

Jane sighed and ran her hand over her eyes and slumped down in the office, lifting her head up she caught sight of the rota, they had a big dinner function coming up in two days that Masood and Zainab were taking care of. It would keep them out of the house for most of the day, undoubtedly with their new guard like attitude towards Tamwar they would be taking him with them, leaving the house entirely empty. Drawing in a big breath in for courage she went up to the board and taking the thick red pen wrote the first idea that came to her mind 'Council benefit', she needed them to think she would be busy somewhere else. Her plan somewhat together she wrote a note to Tamwar and slipped it in his apron's pocket.

'Don't worry everything is ok, I need you to get me a house key.'

This whole situation seemed surreal, like a movie playing out over their real lives.

"Can we please get Christian here now?" Lucy asked when she told her later that night, as much as she hadn't wanted to tell her she needed to tell someone, to have the words out loud, to prove that this wasn't some dream.

"No, Lucy. Look I'm just going to go in there and talk to him. For all we know Syed really is sick and is just going to spend some time with his grandparents. We can't just kidnap him." She told her trying to sound as reasonable as she could. Lucy gave her one hard look and stood up leaving the table they had been sat at.

"You're kidding yourself." She told her. "I don't see why we can't just ring the police? Those loony's need banging up for this."

"And tell the police what? That we think that Masood might be keeping his own son in his house, and that we have no proof but he might be in there against his will? And what would happen if they went in and found Syed in bed with tonsillitis?" She demanded. Lucy however just shook her head and walked away. She knew she was kidding herself, there was no way that Syed was ill. The next morning there was no note from Tamwar just a backdoor key in her pocket. She shuddered as she looked at it, this was really going to happen.