Missing Pieces of a Puzzle

  • 01 May - 07 May, 2021
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

“Hello?” Zain answered the call of the head constable.

“Sir, we have found a witness.”

“Okay, well done! Who is it?”

“She is a young woman and she is claiming that it was a suicide.”

“We already know that.”

“She claims that she was standing there at that moment.”

“Standing there?” Zain asked. “What does she mean by that?”

“She means that she was at the crime scene. In that house.”

“The crime scene? Wait, you are saying that she was inside that house when that guy Aaraiz committed suicide?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what we have been told.”

“So, that’s perfect. This case will now be resolved sooner than we can even think.”

“Really sir? How?”

“This girl must know him quite well. We will simply ask her. She will tell us exactly what he was going through.”

“But sir, don’t you think that we should cross question her?”

“No, no we don’t need to,” Zain replied. “She must be an honest and truthful person.”

“Oh…well! Okay then. If you are satisfied with her testimony.”

“I’ll come there tomorrow. We will go to her house and ask her whatever that needs to be known.”

“Okay and what about other witnesses?”

“No, we don’t need any. One is more than enough. All we need to know is why Aaraiz committed suicide.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll come tomorrow then.”

“Sure!”

Zain after saying this disconnected the call.

************

Next morning, Zain left his house. He sat in his car with the driver. The driver then turned the engine on.

One hour later, Zain along with his team knocked the door of some apartment. After a few minutes, a young woman came outside and asked,

“Yes?”

“Is your name Kiran?”

“Yes.”

“So, you are the one who testified yesterday that you saw Aariaz committing suicide?”

“Actually, I went there for some other purpose. I wasn’t quite expecting this to happen.”

“Okay, can you tell us how you were related to him?”

“We were nothing more than friends.”

“Look…” Zain said looking around for a moment, “we are going to ask you some more questions.”

“Okay.”

“You can either come with us to the police station; we will be really kind to you, I promise. But, if you do not trust us then you should allow us to come inside.”

She remained silent thinking for a while and then replied,

“Alright, you can come in. Only you can!”

A minute later, while Zain was sitting face to face with her at the dining table, he asked her,

“What can you tell us about Aariaz?”

“One thing that I must add is, there was another guy with me also. His name is Asad. The two of us saw him committing suicide right in front of us. We both were together.”

“Oh, well, okay! Who was this guy?”

“His name is Asad. He is a close friend of mine.”

“I see…”

“Okay, now we need more information about the victim. Tell us about everything that you saw there.”

************

Later that evening, Zain was inside the police station and was talking to himself,

Alright, I have Kiran’s testimony…Now I need a little more evidences, so that I can satisfy the police department.

He looked at his team members who were standing at some distance. He said,

I will send them. I will ask them to gather as many evidences as they can. Then after compiling all of them together, I will generate a theory.

The truth doesn’t really matter actually.

He picked up the newspaper and said,

I just have to make sure that this news does not reach to the media.

His cell phone began to ring. He saw that it was his father’s call, he answered the call,

“Hello father?”

“Son, are you working seriously?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You have a job of high responsibility.”

“I know…”

“Make sure that you have to work harder than you always do.”

“I know and I understand. I will call you later.”

“You can work overtime, if you have to.”

“Sure, bye.”

Zain disconnected the call.

************

Next day, the Head Constable Waqas who was given this task of collecting more clues was standing outside a bowling club holding Kiran’s photo. He said to one of the security guards,

“Can you stop someone for a while?”

“Who?”

“Anyone who comes here quite often…”

“Oh…Is it something serious?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I will.”

After few minutes, the security guard called the head constable from some distance and pointed towards a young adult who was stepping outside.

Waqas walked towards that young guy and after standing right in front of him, he said,

“Hello!”

“Yes.”

“We need your little time. This is a police case.”

“Okay, I would be glad to. What can I do for you?”

“Do you know this woman?” Waqas said showing him the picture.

“I don’t know her,” he replied quite reluctantly.

“Are you sure?”

He then paid close attention to it and then said,

“I think I have seen her.

Yes, I have seen her!”

“Here?”

“Yes, over here. She used to come here. In fact, she still does.”

“So, you know her?”

“No, I don’t know her. I have just seen her, here only.”

“I see. So, what can you tell me about her?”

“She umm… she used to, she used to come here with someone. She came with some boy of her age.”

“Do you remember that guy’s face?”

“I think that I do. Or maybe I don’t. If you can show me his face, then I can probably recognise him.”

“Alright, apart from this,” Waqas said. “Do you know how she was? I mean did you notice anything unusual about her?”

“No.”

“Was there any special incident related to her, of here?”

“I’m sorry, I wish I could help you but I don’t remember any such thing.”

“Alright lastly, how many times did she come here?”

“For sure I can say may be two or three times I have seen her here.”

“I see. Anyways, thank you for your help.”

They both shook hands.

************

Two days later, the sub inspector of the department came to the police station and saw how Zain was sitting relaxed. After implementing the formalities, he said to Zain,

“Sir, I hope the case is in progress.”

“Yes, it is…” Zain answered.

“Do you hope you will resolve it?”

“What is there to solve? It is already solved. I know for sure that it is a suicide. There can be any reason like love or something…”

“But it needs to be resolved further. We have to find out what was the scenario behind all this.”

“Don’t worry, it is all resolved already.”

“The issue is that we are answerable to someone.”

“Who?”

“The Superintendent is coming over next week. And I’ve been told that he will listen to us regarding this case.”

“Listen to us?”

“He wants to know everything. He is the one I am really worried about.”

Zain got a little serious and after changing his sitting position, he asked,

“So, you’re saying that the Superintendent is coming over to see how we have resolved the case?”

“Yes. He might ask us about the details quite deeply.”

“First, tell me, how do you know this?”

“I heard in the department. He is coming over to this city. For this case especially.”

“Oh, my God!” Zain got quite worried.

There was silence for a while, so the sub inspector said to him,

“Let’s start working on this case. We will generate a theory that would be all true.”

“I don’t know about true, but it should definitely appear realistic. We should be able to convince them; that we have discovered the truth.”

“But why shouldn’t we work on the reality? Let’s find the actual truth. We really can, if we work harder.”

“Sure,” Zain replied casually.

Later during the afternoon, the two of them were having lunch.

“Here’s what I will do,” Zain said. “I will ask my entire team to find as many clues as possible. Then, after we will have plenty of evidences, we will generate a theory.”

“Yes, we will. We will make a stronger case that we can present to the court.”

“Oh no dear, don’t think about the court and all. Right now, just do as much as you can to satisfy your seniors.”

They kept on talking for a while and then separated.

************

For the next few days, the police officers spread across the city with the objective of finding the clues related to this case, as if digging them from underground.

They met almost everyone who was connected with Kiran or Asad in some way. Whatever that appeared before them, that seemed related to the case was presented before Inspector Zain.

The police team tried to find Asad, but he could not be found at all. They couldn’t even find his picture. Kiran’s testimony on the other hand was not enough to resolve the entire case.

One morning, Zain who came to work earlier than usual started running around his police station as if conducting an exercise. He was in a phase of anxiety, since the case was assigned to him and he was not in a mood to work hard on it.

While he was running, he saw the head constable coming to work, so he lowered his running speed. Zain asked him,

“You came earlier or is this your every day’s time.”

“No, I came on my usual time. But you’re here earlier.”

“Yes, I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“This case is really bugging me. I just want to get done with this as quickly as I can.”

“The Superintendent is coming tomorrow.”

“I know. That’s what I am worried about.”

“But haven’t you designed any theory yet. I mean our police constables provided several clues.”

“I don’t even remember them,” Zain replied.

“I can remind you all of them if you want me to.”

“No, not verbally. Send me a text message with all of those clues listed.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“And what is the name of our Superintendent again.”

“Atif.”

“Atif, okay. I’ll see it. I’ll handle him myself.”

Zain left him and continued his exercise.

That evening, Zain made a list of all the clues that his team had collected. He wrote that list on a paper from a text message sent to him,

Heart shaped locket with Kiran’s picture on one side.

Picture at old party.

Wounds on Aaraiz’ chest.

Documents of Asad’s new car.

Aaraiz’ Text message.

House with no official documents.

Asad’s severe conflict with someone.

Gun in the dead body’s hand.

Kiran’s testimony.

Zain closed the lid of the pen as if he felt quite tired. He then uttered,

This job should not be boring like this, every time there’s a new case.

Later during the night, Zain was at his house’ living room and was having a cold drink while walking. He said to himself,

Tomorrow, the superintendent is coming. I have to show him something. I have nothing unfortunately. Now I need to do something. True or false theory, doesn’t matter to me. It must appear true and realistic.

Next minute, he sat on a couch and kept the list of clues before himself. Zain looked at the paper before him and read all points,

Heart shaped locket with Kiran’s picture on one side.

Picture at old party.

Wounds on Aaraiz’ chest.

Documents of Asad’s new car.

Aaraiz’ Text message.

House with no official documents.

Asad’s severe conflict with someone.

Gun in the dead body’s hand.

Kiran’s testimony.

Zain then, said in his heart,

Now with the help of all these clues, I will have to generate a theory that will appear realistic before them. These are the only pieces of the puzzle that I have.

************

Next morning at around eleven o’clock, the police superintendent was sitting at Zain’s police station. Zain came before him and after sitting on the chair opposite to him said,

“Look sir, I have done what I could. I have collected all of the clues. We have a theory that we will share with you.”

“Okay, that’s good. That’s what I came here for.”

“Well to be honest, I generated this entire theory on my own. My team just collected the clues.”

“Okay, when did you?”

“I generated this last night. I stayed up all night. I was working on this. And so, I finally came up with this theory.”

“Alright, please start now.”

Zain started narrating…

to be continued...

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