Love and Hate

  • 10 Apr - 16 Apr, 2021
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

Iasked the caller,

“Who are you?”

“I am your mother in law’s killer,” he replied from the other line. “I want you to meet me.”

Oh, my God! I uttered in my thoughts.

I was silent for quite a while as I was thinking about what to do. However, he gained my attention again by saying,

“Hello? Are you there?”

“Yeah…Who are you? And where are you speaking from?”

“My name is not important. My motive is what really matters. I will give you an address. I want you two to come over there.”

“Two? Who else are you referring to?”

“Your wife.”

“My wife?”

“Don’t try to play with me. I know very well that you are Martha’s husband and you have two kids.”

I was a bit shaken and was shocked too. So, I just spoke,

“Alright, I’ll be there. What exactly do you want from us? Tell me.”

“Nothing, honestly I don’t want anything from you both. I just have to confess my crime and then, I will be no more I assure you. You can kill me or I will shoot myself.”

I said in my thoughts,

He seems like some insane and a very disturbed person. Who the hell he is?

“What is your name?” I asked from him.

“That won’t change anything. By asking this, it will surely not enhance your knowledge in any way. But if you’ll see me in person then, it is obvious that you will understand quite some stuff.”

“…Okay.”

“Come quickly! Don’t waste time.”

“Okay, I will come soon.”

Martha was listening to me with quite impatience. I said to her after disconnecting the call,

“This man who was on the phone is your mother’s killer. He will text us some address now and we both have to reach there as soon as possible.”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know who he is. But I do know that he is surely not a normal person. I assume that he can be very dangerous for us.”

“Do you think we should go to him?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure that should we or should we not take the cops along.”

“I don’t know, you tell me. I’m confused and very worried to be honest.”

I gave it a little thought and then said after a moment,

“How about we just record our conversation?”

“With him?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I think we can do that.”

“We would at least be able to present it as our main evidence in the court.”

“Yes, that sounds quite reasonable to me.”

That instant moment, I received a text message. As I read it, I saw that some address was stated there as I was expecting.

“He just texted me,” I told my wife.

“The address?”

“Yes.”

As I finished reading the address, I said to Martha,

“This is quite a creepy place where he is asking us to

come to.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This is a very dark place where we can get in trouble easily. I mean it is a totally vacant place; he can kill us there and wouldn’t even get caught. Nobody would even know about that.”

“What if he’s trying to do the same thing that he did with my mother?”

“Exactly! That’s what I was thinking.”

“I think we shouldn’t go there. Let’s just leave it.”

“We can’t leave it like that; I think we can send the cops over there. They can handle it.”

We both were uncertain as to what must be done and so, I asked her,

“What if I take my gun along?”

“You still have that?”

“Yes, yes I do. We’ll both go and hear him out. The loaded gun would be in my pocket with us.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, get ready then. We’re leaving just now.”

Meanwhile, Carl who was at his home received a phone call from the police,

“Hello?” he answered the call.

“Do you know where Brad is right now?”

“He should be at his home.”

“He’s not there.”

“Why are you asking?”

“We have been instructed that we have to keep an eye on him. He is on temporary bail.”

“I’m sorry but I don’t know where he is.”

One hour later, Martha and I reached that spooky place. As we stepped out of the car, Martha said,

“Brad, I’m very scared”.

“Don’t worry. We will record everything that he says. I have the gun in my hand as well.

I will show it to him.”

Minutes later, as we entered inside the house, a yellow bulb was shining in the room. We walked further and saw that an old man with long white hair and beard was seated on the dining table’s chair. He was making a drink or something in a glass. I went on and asked him,

“Are you the one who called us?”

He smiled at us and replied,

“Yes.”

“…Who are you exactly?” I asked after a while.

“You can call me Orlick. I am not a professional killer.”

I paid attention to his face and it kind of reminded me of someone. I was sure that this man was not somebody I was meeting for the first time.

Martha whispered in my ear,

“Show him the gun.”

I kind of did but I was more focused on recalling him.

“Who are you?” I asked again but a little bluntly.

“Just sit down,” he said. “All of your questions will be answered today.”

Martha said in quite a loud voice,

“I think that I know you Mister.”

I was surprised on Martha’s words and asked,

“You know him?”

“I think I have seen him anywhere,” she answered.

Orlick stood up that very moment and said,

“You both know me very well. But it would be a lot better of you to let me do all the talking now.”

“Don’t come near us,” I said to him showing my gun.

“You should not be afraid of me. And I am not afraid of you either. Because in one hour either you two will kill me or I will kill myself.”

“You killed my mother, didn’t you?” Martha asked him.

“Yes, yes I did. But I also want you two to know that if it weren’t for me then, you two would never have found each other in the first place.”

I stressed all my energy into thinking who exactly this guy was. So, as I couldn’t reach a conclusion, I paid all my attention to what he was saying,

“I sent you two for the same purpose that day. Inside the university’s generator room.”

I remembered now immediately.

It was this man who asked me to bring the spectacles that day. And I was locked inside the generator room with Martha.

Martha said with astonishment,

“Oh, my God!

I came to the university that day and you sent me inside that room to bring your glasses.”

“Yes. The two of you got locked. Who do you think did that?”

We both had an answer now.

“That meeting was no coincidence. I planned it,” he continued. “You both were supposed to fall in love and stay connected as I wanted.”

“Why did you do this?”

“A long time back…Rita, the cruel witch arrested my son. She made him suffer a lot. He was treated even worse than animals.”

Martha remembered the fact that her mother received several death threats.

“You know what I said when Rita was kicking me out of the police station,” Orlick continued, “I said…Keep in mind! If anything happens to my son. I swear that I will return and have my revenge.”

I slowly started understanding and listened to him,

“That moment, I attempted suicide saying ‘Good bye cruel world’, but unfortunately I survived. My leg got injured forever.”

“Mr Orlick, tell us why did you involve us?” I asked him.

“I discovered about how she killed your father. So, I got interested in this when I discovered the fact that Rita’s daughter and her victim’s son studied in the same institute. So, I manipulated you two a bit and arranged that meeting.”

“So, what did you want from us? You wanted me to discover my father’s murder on my own and kill my mother in law?”

“Mr Genius. You just answered your own question.”

“Why did you do this? This doesn’t appear quite impressive.”

“I could not have my revenge on my own. I had to use someone. But that day when I was about to achieve my objective, you chickened out.”

“Oh, my God!” Martha felt disgusted. “You are a bizarre minded person.”

“So, this was why you murdered her?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Because your plan failed when I refused to kill her?”

“Exactly.”

“Oh, dear Lord!” I uttered holding my forehead.

He walked a bit and his leg seemed to be somewhat broken. As I looked at him I remembered and completely understood his entire conspiracy since the day I met Martha.

He then sat in front of us on that chair and said,

“Now, I am in front of you two. You can do whatever you want. Either spare me alive or kill me, I will be dead in a few minutes.”

Martha said,

“We just want you to surrender yourself to the police.”

“I won’t do that,” he answered.

“Listen to me,” I said in between, “what you have done is something unforgivable. But at the same time I am thankful to you. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have met Martha. And wouldn’t have met Martha means I wouldn’t have found true love…not ever.”

He chuckled and responded,

“Look, my objective of life is accomplished. I have killed the woman I wanted to, now I have no reason to live. You guys decide what you want you to do with me.”

Martha said to me,

“Let’s call the police Brad.”

“Wait,” I said to her, I looked at Orlick and asked, “Why won’t you come to the police station with us?”

“No, I can’t. There are bad memories. My son died there. I can’t go there.”

“Died?”

“He committed suicide. Thanks to Rita.”

I was now speechless. Martha said to me,

“Call the police. For once, please listen to me.”

Orlick drank the drink he just made.

I took out my cell phone and thought of calling the police.

We both saw that he kept the glass on the table and sat as if he was resting to sleep.

I dialed the police’ cell number but I lost my concentration when I saw that he was quite still.

I went closer to him and as I pushed him a bit, he fell from the chair.

“Is he dead?” Martha asked.

“It seems so. I think he drank poison.”

“Oh, my God!”

I was a bit shaken, but then I said to Martha,

“Look, the good news is that I have recorded his entire conversation. Now we can present this in court and then this case will be resolved.”

“What about him?” she asked.

“He died with his own choice. We have nothing to do with it.”

“He wasn’t sane, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I agree.”

After a moment of pause, she said,

“I think we should leave now.”

“The cops will think that we killed him if they find out that we were the last visitors who came here.”

That moment outside the house, the vans of the police arrived. The siren of the vehicles was off.

Martha said to me while we were inside,

“This man was sure a disturbed minded person, but he did something good to us.”

“I know,” I replied. “I agree. It hurts my feelings though when you say that our marriage was a mistake.”

“You said that too.”

“I know. And I even know that I was wrong when I said that.”

The two police officers came inside the house and one of them exclaimed,

“Put your hands up.

Both of you!”

to be continued...

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