THE TAJIK LADY DETECTIVE

By Arsalan

Ameena Akhmatova, a Dushanbe-based police profiler whose husband Kirill was accidentally killed and whose four-year old son, Mahmood, struggles to accept Seljuk Kadyrov, a Tajik Military Police Investigator, as his mum's tentative boyfriend. An attempt to abduct the child is foiled by Aunt Farida, Ameena's child minder. Tariq Akhrameev, a warlor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685368623

Arsalan

Arsalan, a learned and well-travelled polyglot septuagenarian ecologist, educator and nonlinear historian, writes about places he has been and situations he has known over the years; of European descent, he is a long-time resident of Australia; his pen name derives from an eventually-doomed relationship with a West Asian girl.

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Copyright © 2022 by Arsalan.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, businesses, incidents and events are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Tajik Lady Detective © Arsalan 2015

Ameera Akhmatova: she is a young profiler, with a four-year old son, Mahmood, a legacy of his dead father, Kirill, an ethnic Russian whose family had remained in Tajikistan after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Kirill Ulyanov, himself a police officer, was inadvertently run over by a young soldier backing an armed personnel carrier into him, in front of a huge audience watching Independence Day which included his then very young son Mahmood.

Seljuk Kadyrov, senior investigative officer in the Tajik Military Police, is Ameena’s tentative boyfriend; Mahmood has yet to warm up to him and the two work to often exclusive schedules; their relationship is tense, as well as intense.

Farida Muratova, a distant relative called Aunt Farida, is Ameena’s housekeeper- cum- child minder during her frequent absences from home in Dushanbe.

Nerses Amchatchuriam, Dushanbe’s chief forensic officer, is a rare Armenian in the Tajik police force, a leftover from Soviet days, and also a committed ecologist.

Tariq Akhrameev, a would- be warlord, big game tourist operator and known to have been involved in both bear poaching, for the Chinese medicinal market, and people smuggling, mainly of Uyghur, Kirghiz and Tajik separatists from Xinjiang Province.

Fateema Akhrameeva, his widow, was once Seljuk’s alternative girl friend, leading to some interesting moments when interviewed by Ameena.

Dilgoosha Nooratova is the tough-as-nails superintendent of the Dushanbe criminal police and Ameena’s superior, with decided opinions of her own as to the value of profiling and of the course of the murder investigation in particular, a believer in ruthless interrogation.

Edward Spender, Irish, an extreme- sports promoter, the leading light behind the Lake Karakul Regatta, glacier climbing and traditional hunting in the Pamirs, not disliked by Tariq, even less so by his widow, is a reluctant, and remote, witness to his rival’s murder.

Rafiq Karimov is not only the step- uncle of the late Kirill, Ameena’s almost- husband, but also the Chief of the Dushanbe Police Force and, while generally, kindly disposed towards Ameena, is not always a match for Dilgoosha, his style cramped by having had a brief affair with that tough lady.

Haroon-bin-Musa, a writer, is a Kashgar-born ethnic activist on the run from Chinese authorities; having been helped to escape by Tariq’s team, has been in hiding since before his once- protector’s violent death

Ahmed Shah Masood, a namesake but no relation to the once- famous Afghan warlord, is a Chinese Tajik, the proprietor of a smuggling ring extending into four countries but also a Tajik nationalist.

Kamal Abool Khalaaf is his cousin from Chitral, Pakistan, a onetime schoolteacher who, having tried to Talibanize the southern half of the Hindukush on Mullah Omar’s orders, business; is involved in sabotaging the China- Indian Ocean link.

I Sudden violent death in the Pamirs

II Rare good times interrupted (Seljuk, Ameena have to interrupt a hiking holiday)

III Edward Spender witnesses the aftermath of an explosion, finds himself a suspect; he ends up protecting Musa bin Haroon later in the story

IV Rafiq and Dilgoosha have a quarrel about how best to conduct the investigation, with undertones of their past affair thrown in

V Fateema is being interviewed and proves reluctant to give clear answers

VII Seljuk and Ameera have a fiery argument over young Mahmood which triggers an important if inadvertent ‘guide in the right direction’.

VIII Ahmed and Kamal decide to muscle in on the late Tariq’s business interests while retrieving Musa bin Haroon in exchange for Mansoor, a Taliban-linked strategist held by the Chinese

IX Edward’s witness is sought but he, once found, is reluctant to say anything, not wanting to spoil his understanding with Fateema

X Nerses forensic involvement with Tariq’s murder compounds what could have turned into professional rivalry, fostered by Dilkoosha.

XI Aunt Fateema displays unexpected initiative in her unconventional attempt to protect Mahmood from a suspected kidnap attempt meant to deter his mother.

XII Ameera turns up at the Afghan market in the Pamir and is threatened by traders.

She is helped by the unexpected actions of an unnamed bull-camel.

XIII Ameera picks up a vital clue during that trip, one which makes no sense until her fight with Seljuk where he comments on Mahmood’s domestic style.

XIV Rafiq manages to stand up to Dilkoosha, for a change

XV Unplanned roadworks help Ameena and Seljuk solve Tariq’s violent death.

I Sudden violent death in the Pamirs

It being September, the Afghans who had crossed the border to Tajikistan to attend the weekly bazaar in the Restricted Area had intended to get back on track before it got dark, those at least that did not mind crossing the border legally. There was a bridle path that they knew to be both a shortcut and also the beginning of the rather unorthodox trail their less law-abiding comrades were to take if they, too, wanted to cover some distance before nightfall, tricky as that was between the glaciers covering the summits. The sudden sound of thunder, while not uncommon, did scare them: not only were avalanches unpredictable in their speed and direction, they also often proved impassable until a mob of people had cleared a path, never certain that another snowdrift would not catch them.

let us have a look, nonetheless, suggested their leader.

Does anyone have a binocular? he wondered.

Afsar does, he was told, this being the lone Uzbek among them.

The man reluctantly pulled out his instrument and began to twist the oculars so as to focus them clearer, then lifted them to his eyes.

You won’t believe it, he suddenly exclaimed. What, Afsar?

there is no snow at all involved but I can see a plume, dust and debris, I’d say.

He passed the binoculars to the leader, directing him where to look. The leader, an experienced hunter, aimed at a larger area to be viewed and agreed that something like an explosion had, indeed, taken place.

I know that area and there is a rock-face missing and stuff sliding around and there are people running around like.. headless chicken?

yes, probably, but let me count how many they are..

they might be someone wounded, o Amir..

for that had been his family’s title in the olden, rather more peaceful, days.

"Yes, likely, but I cannot see that; there’d be undoubtedly some dead as well;