Present Day
Pakistan, around 11 o’clock during the night, there was quite some darkness around a small house. The place appeared quite dark since there were no street lights over there. The house had no lights at all; the darkness of the house was clearly visible through the windows.

There was silence except the sound of birds and insects which was being heard. The area was vacant as there was no one around. There was slightly some fog around the place which made it a little difficult to see around clearly.

After a few minutes, a thin looking man who was around 50 years old walked by. His phone suddenly began to ring. He answered his call and started talking,

“I’ve been calling you for hours man, where are you?”

He listened to the caller and then asked again,

“What do you mean that you are not coming over?”

He then listened to the caller speak and replied a bit angrily,

“Hey, don’t waste my time here. Come here immediately. You are the one who called me over and now, you’re expecting me to postpone this meeting for tomorrow?”

Then after listening to the caller for a while, he cooled down a bit and said,

“Yes, okay. Come now. Come over and please be quick.”

He then, disconnected the call.

He said to himself,

This idiot thinks that I am available for him every single time. He makes me…

He got badly disconnected from his thoughts as he heard the loud sound of a gunshot. He turned to see where it came from. He realised that the sound came from inside the small house.

He got so shaken that the phone fell off from his hand. He uttered,

Oh, my God! What just happened?

He then walked a bit towards the house to see what happened. He stopped

and said,

I think that I should call the police.

One hour later, two police vehicles had arrived. The thin looking old man said to one of the cops who stepped outside,

“I heard a gunshot.”

“But from where?”

“From that house,” he said pointing his finger towards the house.

The police officer looked at the house for a while, and then asked,

“Did you see anyone else?”

“What?”

“I mean did you or did you not see anyone stepping inside or coming out of the house?”

“No, no I don’t think so.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think, yes.”

“You did.”

“I don’t know,” the old man said getting confused. “I think that I heard voice of someone.”

“What kind of voice?”

“Those were some sounds of footsteps.”

“But did you see anyone?”

“No.”

“Do you live around here?”

“Yes. My house is at the corner of the street.”

The police officer looked at the pointed direction and then asked,

“Do you know whose house

this is?”

“No. These three houses are vacant since ten years almost.”

“Including this one?”

“No, a few days back somebody purchased this or maybe took it illegally somehow.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. His name was probably Owais.”

“Owais?”

“Yes. He was living here for quite a few days, or maybe several days. But I’m not sure.”

The police officer nodded his head and said,

“Alright, let’s go inside and see.”

“Okay.”

The police officer said in his thoughts regarding the person he was talking to,

Seems like a very confused personality.

Several seconds later, the two of them reached the gate of the house. They both saw that the door of the house was open. The other police officers followed them and entered inside the house before they could.

“Alright, you can leave for home now,” the police officer said to the old man.

As the cops entered inside, they saw a dead body on a large couch.

“It’s too dark in here.”

One of them turned on the torch from his phone. They all saw that a young adult was lying dead on the couch with the gun in his own hand. As they got closer, they saw that the gun was pointed towards his forehead from the right side.

“Oh, dear!” one of them uttered.

“This must be a suicide, I think,” another one claimed.

They saw that blood was all over his head and on the couch.

“Okay, make sure that nobody touches the body,” the head constable said.

He took out his camera and said,

“Alright, everybody move.”

As everybody moved aside, he captured some photos.

“We’ll take these to our new inspector.”

“New inspector?” one of the cops asked.

“Yes, we have a new officer who shall lead our department.”

“Who is he?”

“He has joined today. Tomorrow will be his first day probably.”

“What is his name?”

“Zain Shaikh.”

“What kind of person is he? He better not be as strict as our previous one.”

“I don’t know about that. Anyways, mark this territory for now.”

“Okay.”

“No one should enter inside this pace. We have to solve this case anyhow.”

Two Days Later

Inspector Zain was at his office that he had recently joined. He was all alone in the office and he was solving some anagrams on a newspaper. The first one was: ORBDBE

He solved it: BORED

The second one was: RSETDSE

He solved it: STRESSED

Some police constable came by his side and saw what he had just solved. Zain asked him as if trying to appear impressive,

“Do you see this? I solved these two within two or three seconds each.”

The constable kept on looking for a few seconds and then said,

“I’m sorry, but I think you have done these both wrong.”

“How?”

“In the first one, there are two Bs, but the word ‘Bored’ has just one.”

Zain ignored it and solved the other anagrams. The constable said looking at the second one,

“The word ‘Stressed’ has the letter S three times, but in the anagram it is just twice.”

Zain then checked the answers of the solutions; he read the answers and realised that the constable was right. He read the answer of the first one and then the second one, one by one.

“Robbed and Dessert.”

He said trying to change the mode of the conversation,

“Anyways, where is our team?”

“Oh…They are coming over. In a minute.”

“Okay.”

He leaned back on the chair and had his coffee.

“So, how do you like this department?” the police constable asked.

“I don’t know, this is my first time as a police inspector.”

That moment, the head constable came over and said,

“Sir, good morning! We have been assigned a new case.”

“A new case?”

“Yes, a young man was found dead two days back. He committed suicide.”

“Oh… So, it is a suicide. Let’s file the report and just keep it aside.”

“No sir, we have to solve it further. We have to find why he did this, and who was responsible for it and stuff.”

“Okay.”

Next afternoon, a team of few police officers lead by Inspector Zain reached the crime scene. They were inside the room. The dead body was not there. Zain asked from his team,

“Where is the dead body?”

“It has gone for autopsy,” one of the team members said.

“Oh!”

He walked around in the room and as he reached the couch, he saw stains of blood on it and asked,

“So, this is where he committed suicide?”

“Yes.”

“I need to see those pictures.”

He then looked around and he was told,

“This house has no electricity.”

“Well, it is clear then that he suffocated and died.” Zain said with utmost confidence.

“No sir,” the cop who was bringing the hard pictures said to him.

Zain took the hard pictures and saw that the dead person was lying on the couch and his face was covered with blood. The gun was in his own hand in the picture.

“So, it’s a clear case of suicide,” Zain exclaimed, “what is there to work on?”

“We have to find out that why he did it,” the police constable told him.

Zain took out his gun in his hand and said,

“This weapon in not a toy. These kids have no sense of using it.”

Zain then asked,

“What was his name again?”

“Aaraiz.”

“Aaraiz? I thought his name was Owais.”

“No, that was just some old mindless person’s statement. The person’s name was Aaraiz.”

“Oh, okay.”

After Zain looked at the pictures for a few moments, he said with least interest in the case,

“Alright, now we will…now all we have to do is that we have to collect some clues. We have to generate a reason, a reason behind why he committed suicide.”

“Generate a reason?”

“Yes.”

“Generate a reason or find a reason? A true reason

behind it.”

“Whatever?”

The police constables looked at each other thinking how non-serious this new police

inspector was.

Zain’s phone started ringing. He answered the call with amusement,

“Hey, how are you?”

He got the phone on hold and said to his team,

“Alright guys, I’m going to have to take this, and this might take a while. Now, I want you all to go and find anyone who is related to him. Simply anyone at all.”

“Alright sir, we’re on it,” one of them answered.

Zain continued talking on the phone with joy and laughter.

“Let’s go and talk to the neighbours,” the police constable suggested.

Another one of the police officers saw a locket on the ground. It was a silver chain that had heart shaped locket in between. He picked it up. As he opened the locket, there was just one picture on the right side. It was a picture of some woman who appeared to be not older than thirty.

“Hey, look at this,” he said to other police constables.

Others paid attention towards him. He showed them the locket and said,

“I found this on the floor. This is some young woman’s picture. Maybe she can tell us about Aaraiz’ life.”

Others added their comments to the conversation.

“It is possible!”

“Well, this is a good clue.

At least, for the beginning.”

“Yeah, let’s find this girl.”

They all left the house one after another. They saw that Zain was talking on the phone with constant laughter.

While the police constables were walking outside, they saw two teenagers walking by. They called them both and one of the police constables asked them,

“This guy who lived here. The one who committed suicide. Do you know him?”

“No,” one of the boys answered. “Nobody knew him I guess. He didn’t spend any time here outside on the streets with anyone.”

“Do you know this woman?” the constable asked showing him the picture inside the locket.

The teenager looked at her carefully for quite a long while and then answered,

“Oh yes, I think so!”

“You know her?”

“No, no I don’t. I mean that I seem to remember her. I mean I think I have seen her.”

“Okay, try and recall. Tell us where she can be.”

The kids looked at her quite carefully and then one of them said,

“I think she came here few days ago.”

“Did she go to that small house?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe…”

“Oh…Anyways, thanks.”

The police team departed in their vehicles after a while.

Later that night, Zain was seated in his house’ lounge, he was having fun time with his phone. His father came to the room and asked,

“Hi, Zain! How are you?”

“I’m good. How are you father? Have a seat please.”

“So, how is your new job? Are you learning something?”

“I’m having fun there.”

“Fun? Zain your job is a very serious one. This is not a good…”

“…Relax father. This is my life. I go through everything very easily.”

His father sat on the chair in front of him and said,

“Zain, it took me a lot of effort and money to get you this job. You also know that you are not hundred percent eligible for this. And this is your approach towards your job.”

“What do you want from me? I will work hard, fine.”

“What is your current task?” his father asked.

“I have to solve a suicide case.”

“Zain…I want you to do your best in this. You have to solve this case with sincerity.”

“Okay, I will.”

Zain’s phone began to ring. Zain answered the call of the head constable,

“Hello?”

“Sir, we have found a

witness.”