Page 164 - James Caan - The Real Deal

Chapter 15

Kidnap (1988)

‘ Kidnapping is a business for some people in Pakistan, and if

they don’t carry out their threats occasionally, then their

business will dry up. ’

I t started with a phone call out of the blue.
Life was going well, the business was great, and Aisha and I
were getting ready to go out one Saturday night.
‘Nazim?’ a voice said on a crackling line.
Nobody called me Nazim any more.
‘Yes.’
‘This is your uncle. I am calling with bad news.’
I hadn’t spoken to my father’s brother for over a decade: I barely
knew him because he’d always lived in Pakistan. Whatever he was
calling me about had to be very serious. Was my mum OK? Or
my dad? Or had something happened to one of my sisters? My
heart was in my mouth.
‘Your father has been kidnapped.’
‘What?’ Kidnapped? He had to be making it up. This was some
kind of joke, wasn’t it?
‘He was jogging in the park yesterday when a car pulled up and
four or five men got hold of him, put him in the car and drove off.

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