15th April 2023

We were expecting to spend the morning at the mosque sorting out arrangements for the wedding ceremony and then get the downstairs decorating at Lucy’s house finished in the afternoon. But things tuned out very different after our meeting with Tahira was interrupted by the police arriving to tell her that her cousin, Yasmeen, had been killed. It looks like the second in a series of murders of Muslim students. The first was a couple of weeks ago. Peter and I were quite annoyed (to put it mildly) with Lucy for not having told us about the first one. She was one of their acquaintances too. Her name was Rania and she was a student at JMU. Both of them were strangled with their own hijabs and then left by the bins outside their student accommodation buildings.

Tonight, Lucy and Mariam are in this house, sleeping on airbeds on the floor of one of the bedrooms, surrounded by paint tins and other decorating paraphernalia, while Yasmeen’s mother and sister are sleeping in their rooms in the Kensington house. Tahira doesn’t have room for them in her tiny flat, and there wasn’t time to find a hotel for them – especially with it being both a match day and the Grand National!

The SIO is Sandra Latham, the same DCI as led on the acid attack on Mariam and the others. I hope this doesn’t bring all that back for Mariam. She can do without a flare up of PTSD so close to her final exams! But Sandra is at least competent, so let’s hope the killer is found soon.

Lucy made the mistake of telling Jonah about it all when he rang this evening. I think he’s bored at home with Nathan – though how anyone can be bored in a house with a 6-year-old is beyond me – and wanted someone else to talk to. Of course, he wants to come up here and help with the investigation! So far, we’ve all been very firm with him about that.  This holiday was supposed to be about him spending time with his grandchildren as much as us getting Lucy’s house decorated.

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