"What?”

“Your finger prints match the murder weapons.”

“Which murder weapons? Are you talking about the orphanage murders?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Look sir, I have nothing to do with those crimes.”

“Yeah, everybody says that but you can’t belie the science.”

“What science?”

“Your finger prints match the prints on the weapons!” police inspector spoke raising his voice. “Do you understand that?”

“Look, I don’t know where you’re getting with this but you sir, are truly misunderstood.”

“Excuse me?”

“You should understand that planting someone else’s fingerprints on some murder weapon is very easy.”

“Oh, so you’re saying that you are completely innocent and you have been framed?”

“Yes!”

“You’re telling me that it’s a setup by one of the orphanage members?”

“No, not by those people.”

“Then who?” police inspector asked sarcastically.

“I have dumped plenty of women in my life. I haven’t revealed this to anyone but I’m telling this to you. I have played with a lot of women and they all must really hate me.”

“So you think they’ve set you up?”

“Of course, I kind of ruined their lives. How could they let go off me so easily? I think they must have teamed up together and formed this conspiracy.”

“Interesting… But let me remind you that few weeks ago you came to the orphanage and threatened that if you didn’t get your money back, there would be blood. Isn’t that right?”

Jahangir’s eyes opened up in shock. He immediately asked,

“How did you know? I mean, who told you that?”

Inspector smiled and spoke, “You better start counting your days.”

He turned around and started to walk away. Jahangir called him out and said, “Inspector! By blood, I never meant that there would be murders. It was only heat of the moment due to which such words came out of my mouth.”

But the inspector didn’t listen and he kept on walking until he reached the room where Babar was seated. He said to him, “Alright, continue with your story.”

“May I ask what that was all about?”

“Mr Jahangir is the killer. The prints on the murder weapons are the same as that of Jahangir’s.”

“Oh God, really? I knew it.”

“Anyway, finish the story.”

Babar began:

“Almost two weeks ago or less, I was a bit too terrified and I called the mute kid Taha in my room. I wanted to talk to him alone as I really liked this well-mannered kid. He sat on the sofa in the office’ and I began to speak to him, “You know kid, this has never happened before in my life.”

He was listening to me with curiosity and I continued, “I have never seen so much blood before. What has been happening here is just beyond mine or anyone’s imagination.”

The kid blinked several times and wanted to say something. I was about to continue but quite unexpectedly we heard someone scream. I got alert and stood up immediately, then rushed out to see what’s wrong and kept praying. No more murders. No more blood, please!

But unfortunately, I saw a bunch of kids and two of the caretakers gathered outside a room. As I made my way and glanced inside the room, I saw a very gross scene. This time, two caretakers lay dead. And quite like previous victims, their throats were slashed with a knife. The knife was lying on the ground, as well.

I slowly walked inside the room and noticed a handprint in blood that was on the wall. I looked closely at the murdered victims and recognised their faces. They both were recently hired and known for their criminal history. For a moment I realised that all the caretakers who were murdered were the recently hired ones. I called one of the caretakers by his name and I said, “Call the police, now!”

“Alright.”

“And don’t let anyone enter this room. We can’t let anyone contaminate the evidence, got it?”

“Sure sir.”

He left the room to make a phone call. I stood up and went towards the crowd outside. Only one caretaker was standing now, so I asked him, “What happened? Tell me, I want to know every detail!”

“I’m sorry sir, how would I know what happened inside?”

“But how did you find this?”

“What actually happened was that this room was locked for several hours. The three kids who sleep in here were all outside. I passed through here multiple times, each time this room was locked.”

“Locked?”

“Yes locked. Anyway, now it was time for the kids to sleep. As I opened the lock of this room, I saw these two bodies inside. And then I called everyone…”

I interrupted him, “Tell me, who possessed the keys to this room?”

“No one, the keys were hanging where they were supposed to be.”

“So, anyone can pick up the keys and enter inside?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Oh dear God,” I uttered holding my head. “Please go and see if he has called the cops.”

“Sure sir.”

He left the room after that. I looked at the window of the room. It was quite small. No one could have escaped outside from there. I looked outside and among the kids, I spotted Taha. He seemed curious. Right there at that moment, I realised that he was the eldest of all the children in the orphanage and yet the most innocent and sympathetic. I went towards him and said, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright.”

He looked at me with hope and believed my words.

An hour later inside the same room, two police officers were standing. One of them was asking details from the caretakers regarding the murdered victims and how they found them, and wrote them down in his hand book. The other cop was taking pictures of the murdered victims from different angles.

I was sitting on the bed resting my back on a cushion. I was so stressed that I had closed my eyes and I wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on around. I could hear that one of the cops was quite furious and he was being tough on the care takers for reporting the entire incident of previous murders too late.

Oh God! Please get me out of all this, I prayed while I sat there.

I opened my eyes and saw that the caretakers were constantly looking at me, hoping I would stand up and speak for them. But I shut my eyes again, trying to avoid the conversation with the police officers.

However, the conversations kept on going. The police officer calmed down eventually and asked other relevant and important questions. I opened my eyes and stood up. I started to walk towards the exit of the room but stopped as one of the police officers called out to me.

“Yes?” I spoke as I turned around and looked at them.

“We need some information from you as well.”

I reluctantly walked towards the cops to answer their queries.

Babar paused speaking then sighed, resting his back on the sofa.

“Tired?” the inspector asked.

“Well, kind of. I’ve been speaking for a while, haven’t I?”

He chuckled and spoke, “Ok, take some rest.”

The inspector stood up and it seemed as if he was about to leave.

“Where are you going?” Babar asked him.

“I must go and see the criminal now. Your story’s almost over now, isn’t it?”

“Actually, it isn’t.”

“It isn’t? What’s more to tell when we already know who the culprit is.”

“No sir, the reason why I’m here and cooperating with you on every step is…”

Babar stopped upon seeing the angry look on his face. The police inspector changed his expression realising he was making it difficult for him to talk. Babar spoke avoiding eye contact, “The only reason why I want Mr. Jahangir arrested is because he is responsible to what happened with Taha.”

“With Taha? Wait, Taha who?”

“The young kid I am fond of.”

“Oh right, the mute one? The one you used to talk to regardless he didn’t speak.”

“Yes, exactly,” Babar answered looking at him straight in the eyes.

“Ok, I get it but wait; you just said that something happened to that kid.”

“Yes, I did. And I believe Jahangir Yousufzai has a hand in it.”

“What? he got murdered too?”

“No, not murdered,” Babar replied raising his hands, assuring him.

“Then, what happened?”

“Let me finish the story, please.”

The police inspector sat down again and spoke, “Ok, continue.”

Babar started narrating:

“By next day, I was quite relieved as we had informed the police and now, there was no chance of anymore murders since the cops were protecting and keeping an eye on our orphanage in order to catch the person if he tries to commit any further crimes.

But if anything happens regardless of all this, then I thought to myself that it must be someone from inside the orphanage. And there were only two caretakers alive by now. Anyway, I went to bed and took some rest, thinking about what I’d been through the whole day.

Taha came to my room. I heard his footsteps. I looked to see who it was and I obviously got delighted to see my favourite kid. I got up and sat on my bed. I asked him to come and sit with me. The kid smiled and came by side. He also sat over the bed. I looked at him and asked, “So, how are you Taha?”

He smiled at me, so I nodded and said, “Good to see that you’re doing well.”

Then he looked at me, waiting for me to speak up.

“Oh kid,” I spoke, “do you have any idea what I’ve been through? Seeing so many people die, it was horrifying for me too.”

He nodded sadly, indicating that he agreed with me.

“I’m really sorry Taha, you’re so young. You shouldn’t have witnessed this stuff. These memories become traumatising.”

The kid turned his face away now and looked down at his feet. Seeing him troubled and uncomfortable, I said,

“Don’t worry about it Taha. You’ll learn to live with them.”

He looked up again at me with hope. I continued, “And I’m sure you’ll look back at these moments and feel like you learned something from them. And you’ll be thankful for them.”

He seemed confused after hearing this.

“What I meant to say is…” I continued, “that some day you’ll look back at these moments and laugh with joy, really.”

He kind of smiled. I then asked him,

“So, is there anything you want to share with me?”

He then moved his hands as if he was holding some imaginary large ball. I asked him, “What is it Taha?”

He kept on waving his hands the same way and then kicked his leg in air while sitting.

“Football?” I asked.

He nodded excitedly. Then he pointed his finger at me and then at himself. I asked, “You want me to play football with you?”

He nodded again, cheerfully.

I stood up and said, “Oh ok, let’s play.”

The soccer ball was kept inside of a closet that was in another room. I went towards the closet after picking up its keys. Taha was standing right behind me. I unlocked then opened the closet and picked up the soccer ball from the bottom shelf. But when I turned around, Taha had disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. I called him out, “Taha? Taha, where are you?”

I shut the closet’s door, locked it, and then walked outside the room calling out Taha. The corridor was all empty and silent. I came back to my room and looked at every possible corner where he could be. I called out to him again, “Taha! Are you around here?”

I felt surprised but realised that he must have left for his room as it was his bed time.

to be continued...