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He shook his head. “All he’ll know was that those men stole your purse. Of course, he’ll want to help you get it back. If we can get facial scans of those men, we’ll have something to start with.”
She didn’t like involving any more people than already were, but what choice did she have? Eli’s life hung in the balance.
Ace led the way to the front of the building and held the door to let her into a gold and jewelry shop that sold high-end items.
Ace approached the man behind the counter. “Sir, do you speak English?”
The man shook his head. “Very little.”
Jasmine touched a hand to her cheek and looked as pathetic as she felt as she stepped closer. In Arabic, she told him that she’d been attacked on the street outside his building and asked if his surveillance camera worked.
The man’s eyes widened. Answering in Arabic, he said, “I will contact the police. They will want to know about the theft and to be on the lookout for the two men.”
Jasmine gritted her teeth. This was just the situation she did not want to happen. “Sir, I’m afraid they will be long gone if we wait for the police. If we could review the recordings of your surveillance cameras, I might be able to identify them. My people have a way of dealing with individuals who harm family members.”
The store owner’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, indeed. My store was robbed last year. The police never caught the thief.” He stepped back and waved toward the door at the rear of the shop. “Come with me. We will find those men.”
Fifteen minutes later, they had images of the men who’d accosted her, had sent them to Ace’s computer guy, Swede, and thanked the shop owner for his help.
He took both her hands in his and gave her a kind smile. “I have a daughter close to your age.” His glance went to Ace. “Like your husband, I would want to find those men before the police.”
Jasmine smiled at the man, feeling awful that she’d stolen an artifact his country valued dearly. When she got it back and traded it for her son, she’d find a way to steal it again and return it to Jordan.
As they stepped out of the shop, Ace looked both ways. “Now what?”
“We go to the airport,” Jasmine said.
“Why do you think they would’ve gone to the airport?”
“Jordan is more or less landlocked and surrounded by Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia. They would be foolish to cross into those countries given the current state of affairs in each. And when I was attacked, one of the men said páre to portofóli.
Ace’s brow twisted.
“It’s Greek for get the purse.”
“Greek, huh?” He waved down a taxi. As the driver pulled up to the curb, Ace leaned close to Jasmine. “When we get a moment alone, I want the whole story about this Eli and why they would take him to get you to steal the artifact.”
She nodded. What did she have to lose? He wasn’t a member of law enforcement, and two heads were better than one in this game someone was playing with her and her son.
On the ride to the airport, Ace’s cell phone chirped with an incoming text. He read it and passed it to her. “Good thing we’re on the way to the airport. The two men who attacked you showed up there a few minutes ago.”
“Was he able to identify the flight they were getting on?”
“No, but he’s tracking them,” Ace said. “Hopefully, we’ll get to the airport before their plane takes off.”
Jasmine leaned forward and spoke in Arabic to the driver, “How long until we get to the airport?”
The driver shrugged and answered, also in Arabic, “Twenty minutes.”
Jasmine met the man’s gaze briefly in the rearview mirror. “I’ll pay you one hundred more dinars if you get us to the airport in ten minutes.”
The man frowned, glanced at the speedometer, then pressed his foot down on the accelerator, getting more aggressive in passing slow-moving traffic.
“What did you say to him?” Ace asked.
She leaned back in her seat, looking for a seatbelt. “I just gave him a little more incentive to get us there quicker.” When she couldn’t find a seatbelt, she reached for Ace’s hand.
The taxi driver wove in and out of traffic, throwing his passengers from side to side across the back seat.
