ENSHROUDED

40

The police came in and both Humaira and Abba were handcuffed and taken to the police station for further investigations. Humaira had been crying all the way, she had been in the police stations for times she couldn't care to count, but today was a different case. She had never thought of killing someone, but today she was a murder suspect. Who called the police in the first place? That's a question for another day. All she had been doing was stared at her blood-stained hands non stop. She couldn't believe the blood in her hands was Rafiq's, that Rafiq was gone forever. Who killed her Rafiq?

They were taken to the interrogation room, and Abba had turned to someone she couldn't realize. He had turned mad, looking flustered as he stared at his blood-stained body as hands. As if he was waiting for someone to tell him he wasn't the one that killed her Boyfriend, he came to the house and met him dead already. They were taken to different rooms but Abba could see her through the glass that was made a barrier between them.

She was silent for all the questions that were being thrown at her, her heart cold and nearly pumping the right blood into her body. She had her eyes fixed on her hands and she breathed ceaselessly. Abba turned to the police officer in front of him and shook his head, "I didn't kill him, she didn't too." That was all he was able to get out of his lips. But he knew he had no way out of this, he was the only suspect they had, then Aisha. And she came in and met him together with Rafiq's dead body.

Even though the police officers were so persistent, neither Humaira nor Abba uttered a word out of their mouths apart from "I didn't kill him." It was in less than an hour when they were taken to the same cell. They sat there silently and all Humaira could do was to stare at her now dried hands. She still couldn't believe what had been happening to her, she couldn't wrap her hands around the saying, 'Rafiq is dead.' How could he die when she didn't fulfil his only wish of getting married to her?

The door turned and an agitated Daddy walked inside the cell. A chair was brought to him and he sat down, looking at Humaira that had herself wrapped around in the farthest corner of the room with legs brought up to her chest as she stared into space. "Aisha," he called, and to Abba's surprise, she looked up and crawled to where Daddy was.

"Daddy, wallahi I didn't kill him. You can trust me this time Daddy." She placed her head on Daddy's laps and that's when tears finally rolled down her cheeks, she felt the knots in her chest slowly loosening and she broke into tears. All that happened had made her flustered that she seemed not to feel or know how to act.

Daddy patted her head sadly and lifted her face from his laps. He knew Humaira can do everything apart from murder, not the one she loved. He could remember her telling him that she loved Rafiq and might as well settle down with him when she felt like. That was what he slept being joyful about, only to be called in a meeting and he was told Humaira and someone had murdered Rafiq.

Daddy cupped her face into his hands and smiled at her, even though ruefully. "Aisha, I need you to calm down and tell me everything that happened. Who was that guy and what was he doing in your house?" He pointed at Abba, who had his head rested on his knees as he thought about the possible way to let his family know. Or even Nuriyya.

Yes! Nuriyya's father was an Assistant Inspector General of police, he knew she could be of help. That gave him a slight feeling of hope, he knew he might be out and he would beg Aisha for her forgiveness. He knew whatever was happening to him now served as a punishment for what he did to Aisha. Nuriyya, he had to call Nuriya.

Humaira choked on her words as she told Daddy how they spent their night yesterday with Rafiq and she was the one that asked him to be at the house before she got to the house, and she stumbled on Rafiq's dead body when she went there. "He always follows me around, he claims that he knows me and I know him too. He said I was married to him but I dealt with him and asked the guards of A & H not to ever allow him in. I saw him behind our car yesterday when I went to show Rafiq the house, and I met him with a dead Rafiq today. Daddy, I didn't kill my Rafiq." She was crying so hard that her whole body shook. Daddy took her into an embrace, drawing some soothing circles on her back.