CRIMES AT CORNERS - SEASON 2

  • 01 Dec - 07 Dec, 2018
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

Ten minutes later, Rehan was waiting at the bus stop. He had never been worried like this before. He thought deeply everything about the circumstances and asked God for help. He looked at the cars and people passing by. He was so frustrated that he end up considering a bunch of some poor guys better than him.

He then looked at the road hoping for his bus but it wasn’t there. He kept on waiting until he thought about his losses; his bike, room’s window and then his wife. How worse can this get?

Then he realised something and felt motivated.

The criminals have nothing left to threaten me. I need my revenge and the only way to avenge is by doing complete and thorough investigation. And then in the end, I will have to expose the crime’s true face to the world. Maria shall be with me. I know she will be. I have to stay strong and fight for her.

He saw his bus coming. He got ready as he had to board it.

Two minutes later, he was sitting inside the bus. He turned on some news channel on his cell phone and heard the live streaming.

“Zafar Mohsin is missing. There is no report of him from anywhere.”

“Oh God” Rehan uttered. “I suppose he and Maria are locked up in one place.”

Several minutes later, as he neared his destination, he stood up from the passenger seat and walked towards the exit of the bus. He waited for the bus to stop and finally, jumped out. He ran as he was impatient about confronting Kevin Rollins.

Rehan turned to the left from where Mr. Rollins’ house was at some distance. But someone grabbed him from his arm. Shaken, as he turned back, he found Mr. Rollins standing there.

“Oh God, it’s you,” Rehan said.

“Yes, now come with me.”

“Mr. Rollins my wife is in their custody…”

“… And she is out of any danger,” Kevin interrupted. “Don’t worry, she is absolutely fine. I know the killers. The one I’m hoping for is the one who is keeping your wife in custody.”

“You’re hoping?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure about it.”

“Look Mr. Rollins! All I’m saying is that first we need to rescue Maria. The kidnapper wants you to give up investigating this murder case. I suggest that we make just one phone call and ask him to release Maria.”

“Let’s walk,” said Kevin instead of paying heed to Rehan’s suggestion.

“The murder case is resolved. I will tell you about the other guy involved later but first you need to hear the story from the beginning.”

“Ok.”

“Maimoona Alam had a really bad break up. Her boyfriend, the celebrity had dumped her. Dumped as if abandoned completely. So she wanted nothing more than just getting married.”

“Ok.”

“So what happened was that she asked her uncle, her father’s brother to find someone for her.”

“To get engaged?” Rehan asked.

“No, not engaged. To get married directly. She was impatient.”

“Oh, it was that urgent.”

“Yes. Anyways, she packed her stuff and stayed out of her house for several days.”

“Why?”

“Because she had her boyfriend’s memories in that house. She just wanted some time alone away from her past.”

“I see, what happened next?”

“Now, there was a serial killer Ali Athar who used to kill people for money. He lived in Sialkot and was a big fan of Maimoona Alam.”

“Ok, so how was he involved?”

“He was the only one; sorry I forgot to tell you about the important part. Maimoona Alam’s uncle was the one who found Abdul Moiz.”

“Abdul Moiz the model or Abdul Moiz the murderer?”

“Both? But right now for the sake of the chronology of the story, Abdul Moiz the model.”

“Ok, please continue.”

“He was about to get married to her. He knew her by face of course but Maimoona Alam didn’t know him by face.”

“Really?” Rehan felt amazed.

“She just signed the marriage certificate without any thorough examining. She didn’t know how her new husband looked like. She only knew his name. So one day while she was in the hotel room, Ali Athar wanted to meet her and he followed her to her room.”

“Wait a minute, hold on. Ali Athar went to that hotel? How did he know she was there?”

“He didn’t. It was all a coincidence. He just unexpectedly saw his dream woman in the hotel room. He wanted to meet her personally.”

“Oh! So, that was unplanned.”

“Yes! He followed her to her room and as she went inside, he knocked the door after a few minutes and entered the room.”

“How did you find this out?” Rehan tried to clear his mind.

“Through hotel staff and guests.”

“I see.”

“Well, what happened next was something I’m not so sure about and these are assumptions. Maimoona Alam thought that this dark skinned guy Ali Athar was Abdul Moiz. She probably asked him and he must have replied that yes he was Abdul Moiz.”

“Oh no.”

“There’s a high possibility that stuff like this must have happened inside the room. So anyways, Ali Athar spent the days with Maimoona Alam being Abdul Moiz. And they were happy together.”

“How do you know they were happy?”

“I’m assuming. I read text messages in Ali Athar’s cell phone. So anyways, as Abdul Moiz the real one, figured out about all this, he lost his temper.”

“Of course.”

“He got furious,” Kevin spoke spontaneously, adding “and now he wanted his revenge. He assumed that his wife betrayed him knowing that the guy wasn’t her real husband. But Moiz was wrong. So he wasn’t thinking logically and he just aimed to kill them both.”

“I see.”

“Then they both were in danger of course. So what happened was that he texted.”

“Wait a second. Who texted?”

“Abdul Moiz texted Ali Athar. ‘You stole my place, I’m going to steal your place’. These were the text messages.”

“So, what do you think that these words meant?”

“I think that Abdul Moiz meant that Ali Athar stole his place as Maimoona’s husband, so he would steal his place as the killer.”

“Oh, right.”

“Moiz had been following him probably or must have searched him out through the internet. This was probably how he knew things about Ali Athar as the criminal and his cell phone number.”

“Right, so what happened next?”

“The next thing that happened was that Abdul Moiz contacted someone who was a strong influence on media. Someone who could help him hide the truth from the world and the media.”

“Oh, so who was he?” Rehan asked curiously.

“About this, I won’t just answer you. I will show you the picture. Because in order to believe in this, you need evidence.”

“You have the photo in your phone?” Rehan asked.

“Yes!” Kevin said and handed over his phone to him. The picture shown two guys talking to each other. The dark skinned guy on the right was Ali Athar. The guy on left wasn’t quite clear, so he tried to zoom in the image, but he accidentally turned it off.

“I’m sorry,” Rehan said returning the phone to Kevin.

“No problem,” Kevin replied taking the phone and opening the image with the clear view.

“I’m guessing it’s Maimoona’s ex-boyfriend,” Rehan spoke.

Kevin handed over the

phone and said, “Go on, see

for yourself”

Rehan took the phone and got badly shocked as he saw the face of Ali Athar’s crime partner.

It was none other than Zafar Mohsin, the host of Crimes at Corners.

Rehan was shocked, so much that he started stuttering.

“Oh my… Oh my… Oh my God!”

Kevin took his cell phone back. 


Rehan continued, “Oh my God, it’s him?”

“Yes!”

“I still can’t believe it,” Rehan spoke, “but wait, I heard on news channels that he was missing and no one has heard from him.”

“That’s what he’s doing. He’s hiding from everyone. Do you know why? Because right now he is the one under whose custody your wife is in.”

“Oh my…” Rehan exclaimed raising his hands slowly towards his forehead.

“But don’t worry. This guy is absolutely harmless. He does not kill anyone. He is doing this just for the sake of money.”

“For the sake of money?”

“Yes, he is absolutely harmless. He will not harm any living being. Ali Athar is the dangerous guy, we have to be cautious regarding him.”

“Complete the story please.”

“Yes, so I was saying that Ali Athar used Zafar Mohsin made a strategy of bribing cops and keeping everyone away from the crime scene in order to manipulate it. You know now why they were doing this.”

“To pull wool over everyone’s eyes.”

“Exactly.”

“So, this means that everything we’ve been told regarding this case on Crimes at Corners was a lie.”

“Well, this is interesting. Not everything. Everything was not a lie.”

“How come?”

“You see they wanted to earn the trust and confidence of their viewers. So they had to reveal stuff that was believable. Do you get it?”

“Right. I think you’re right.”

“So now the identities have been swapped. In front of the world, Ali Athar the dead guy is Abdul Moiz. And the guy still alive is Abdul Moiz.”

“So what are they going to do? I mean are they just going to leave the mystery unresolved.”

“Not exactly. There is a lot of manipulation behind the cameras. They will edit some picture and make it look like that Ali Athar the guy who is already dead was caught by their team but he was found dead when they caught him.”

“You mean to say that they will present it in their show as if they had almost caught him alive but he committed suicide or anything like that.”

“Most probably that’s what they’ll do. But only if they get out of the situation they are stuck in.”

“What situation?”

“They are not making a move. They are silently being blackmailed.”

“By whom?” Rehan asked but got the answer. “Oh you mean by you.”

“Yes, which was why they kidnapped your wife.”

“You know when I woke up I saw that there was a white handkerchief. I was sedated by some chloroform.”

“That was inevitable.”

“You knew this was coming?”

“No I didn’t, honestly I didn’t. But there was a chance. And that was why I asked you to leave your house immediately.”

“Yes, you did.”

There was a silence for a moment, until Rehan spoke up.

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to make a phone call. You will call Abdul Moiz and tell him that I am willing to give up on these investigations.”

“How are you so sure that he’s alone?”

“I’m assuming. He might not be. Anyways you will tell him that we surrender. If he says that he wants to hear it from me then I’ll talk to him.”

“Then?”

“And then you will ask him about Maria’s whereabouts. If he obliges and reveals the place, then you will go and rescue her.”

“Ok.”

Rehan took out his phone and ended the conversation by saying, “So all this crime took place because Abdul Moiz was furious about the misunderstanding created by Ali Athar the killer.”

“It wasn’t just a misunderstanding. He stole his wife. And his wife didn’t even care to find out the truth.”

“How could she have? If she accepted the marriage without even knowing how her husband looked like.”

“Well, that’s one point of view. Anyways, just call him so we can get on with this.”

Rehan dialled Maria’s cell phone number. He felt a bit scared as it was ringing. The call was answered by a male voice.

“Yes?”

“Sir, Kevin and I are willing to surrender. We are not going to investigate the murder any further.”

“I need to hear this from Kevin Rollins.”

Kevin took the phone and spoke instantly.

“Hello this is Kevin Rollins, I am stepping back. I will not come close to it again.”

“I need your word one hundred percent,” the criminal spoke.

“Ok, tell me how can I make you believe it?”

“Be with Rehan when he will come to take Maria. He may leave but you’ll have to stay with me.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Kevin turned on the loudspeaker. They both can hear the criminal now.

“And remember Kevin, if you bring cops along with you then you find Maria’s dead body.”

The call got disconnected. Kevin and Rehan looked at each other with a tense look.

to be continued...

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