The Red-Light Area

Wobbling to a messy road

“What have you done to her?” Raien whispered in my ear as he watched Kiara wobbling behind us on the patio. Her face was pale as if she had seen a ghost and body sweating as if she had run a marathon.

She looked like a woman who had just survived the sank of titanic and was ready to collapse any moment due to exhaustion. The trauma was apparent in her eyes. I stared at her for a bit longer than necessary and only averted my gaze when found her looking at me.

“Nothing!” I replied curtly, indicating that I would not entertain any further inquiries in ‘our’ matter and went inside my apartment. Closing the door with powerful force than was necessary.

I instantaneously went to my room and booted up my laptop as I waited for Raien and Kiara to join me. I was looking at the photographs I had clicked in Juana’s apartment and a couple of pictures stole my attention. The sound of door opening and closing was audible and so were the click-clank of footwears that advanced towards my room.

“Have you started working already, Paige? Come, Kiara! Feel yourself at home. You go join him meanwhile I will bring something to eat. What would you like to have?” Raien grinned bringing Kiara to my room who took in my small bedroom-c*m-study as soon as she stepped in and nodded as if approving it.

I neither obviated their presence nor I took them in for I pretended to think of something that had my absolute attention and continued scrolling through the pictures one after another.

"Cut it out, Rainey! We have barely forty-eight hours left. Go get change. We have got a couple of place to visit." I spoke without looking at either of them as I saved a couple of photographs in my phone.

Nodding, Raien left I and Kiara alone, almost instantly as I heard him going into his room and then into kitchen. I was conscious of every single movement in the house, including Kiara’s. She took tiny steps forward until she reached the edge of my bed and sat quietly, looking at her lap. I could hear her rugged breathing and whimpers, making goosebumps rise on my skin.

“Thank You, Pietro. I would forever be in debt-”

“I am not doing it for you or your brother. Don’t get your hopes high. I am doing it for myself and for those who ever believes in justice. I didn’t touch you because I did not want to spoil my soul by taking advantage over someone’s misery. You don’t worth the revenge.” I snapped at her and went back to glaring at my laptop, leaving her on her own.

I tried to come up with every possible excuse—that could justify my rudeness; She was the same woman who had left me; She might be involved in the murder and come here to fool me; she knows the killer but still looking for the right way to put it. There were several of them─ some were rational others weren’t. Another few minute passed, and Kiara sat there watching my face with a hurtful gaze, she shifted uncomfortably on the bed perhaps contemplating over a suitable reply but didn’t say anything for a while and I felt triumphant, bearing pride at rendering speechless.

Silence hung in the air for a while as no one uttered a single syllable. Only clicks of mouse and heavy breaths could be heard as we worked our way out with those pictures and I engrossed myself completely in the work, before Kiara spoke again.

She tried to tell me how sorry she was for my agony and sufferings, but I didn’t let her finish as I spoke cutting her off.

“Push past our personal differences and act professional. Did you apply for bail? There are numerous grounds to challenge the arrest. Did you ask for procedural meeting with Atri since you are his lawyer?” I articulated, looking at Kiara who stared at me with mixture of emotions floating in her eyes. I cleared my throat when didn’t get a reply after waiting for a minute and that perhaps had broken through her state of daze.

“I…ahem…I applied for bail, but the jury rejected my application. I didn’t have sufficient evidences to justify it. The police didn’t let me meet him, citing he was being interrogated. I don’t know what kind of torture he had been put through since he had signed the confessions.” Kiara replied wiping sweat off her face as she made herself a bit more comfortable beside me. “You are my last resort.” She said sheepishly, that made me doubt her existence as a lawyer in the first place.

“You must be f*****g kidding me. Stupid woman! How did you manage to win those criminal trials? You know nothing about law, Kiara. Why didn’t you make a complaint to the superintended or magistrate if the police didn’t let you meet your client? It is your legal right as his pleader. Go meet him and listen to his side of the story, till then I will see what I can do and find from these pictures. We only have two days left to catch the criminal before the trail begins and the Arab delegates leave the town.” I told her and she nodded, standing up.

She asked me if I had any lead in the case and I told her that I was going to search for the Arab who was last spotted with Juana first. Kiara requested me to check the evidences collected by the police officials and I told I was planning on doing it soon.

Afterwards, Raien served us hot-chocolate and cookies as we discussed our plans for two days.

“Ask Atri to spill out whatever he knows. He might have observed something.” I told Kiara before bidding her adieu.

“What’s next?” Raien asked and I smirked.

~~~

We decided not to waste anymore time sitting idle at home and stare at the pictures for nothing. “Let’s head to Hotel Elysees. We may find our first clue there.” I had said and started towards it.

"That's were the Arab delegates are staying right?" Raien asked and I nodded.  

It took us twenty minutes to reach there. All throughout the drive, I checked and rechecked every photograph keenly and knew a visit to the Red-light area was essential.

"How will we find that guy?" Articulated Raien as we went inside the hotel.

"Iblis Bin Al Said is the name of the account through which money was transferred to Juana's bank account. He had been to strip club as well. Maria told me. We just have to find this guy for our first clue." I spoke as I went over to that reception and asked for a room, a pair of scissors, and some calligraphy paper from the receptionist.

Click! Flash! Click! Click! The flashes, the camera clicks and loud journalist screaming for attention disoriented us as soon as we walked through the entrance lobby. The hotel was full of prominent people that reeked of power and money.

I walked past a couple of girls, shaking head as they chatted animatedly and took the elevator to reach the rooftop.

“It’s not going to work. Those Arabs are intelligent and powerful even if one among them has done it still nobody would accept that. You will have to take the risk besides if it is one among them, we would never be able to prove it.” Raien shirked as soon as the elevator accelerated vertically.

“It isn’t an Arab, Raien. It is somebody disguised as an Arab. Iblis Bin Al Said isn’t an ordinary man who would visit our city for a mere crude-oil deal. He is the Sultan of Sahababad. Some body has used his name to distract the investigators.” I said looking at the camera placed in a corner of the elevator.

“And there couldn’t be only one Iblis Bin Al Said in the world right. Maybe he was some other Iblis bin.”

“Even if he was, which I believe it isn’t. He must be here and all those transactions must be made within our city. The IP address of the bank belonged to Sahababad which meant the man knew Juana before he arrived in the city. It isn’t Hussein’s mother mystery that we need to solve. It’s Juana’s killer that will take us Hussein’s murderer.”

“How do you know all of it?”

“Well, that’s a stupid question considering we were the first one to get the evidences. Also─ the Bookshelf in Juana’s apartment had her bank statements. There were four international transactions all from the Middle-East.”

‘But according to the police record─ all her past transactions were made in the city.”

“Who said one cannot maintain double set of accounts. By the way, the passbook I am talking about was hidden in a form literature book. She wanted to keep it a secret. That’s not it either: There was a type-writer too. Do you know what does it mean?”

“that she was an old school?”

“No, that meant she was a writer. There were ten empty ink cartridges. The type-writer was used more frequently.”

“But why type-writer when we have laptops and computer system. If she enjoyed writing she would have brought a computer system, everyone hates the noise a typewriter makes.”

“Stupid man! Every type of electronic system has storage, both temporary as well as permanent. Importantly, it allows retrieval. She didn’t want her letters to be read or found by anyone else and only typewriter is most secure tool to perform those functions. If she had used a computer system the data would have become possessable by third parties.”

“Woah! The lady was something.”

“NO, she was more than something. She was more than a mere prostitute. Maria told me that she was always looking for adventure in order to forget more important things. She used to talk mysteriously about eternal things, like surrendering to the soul of universe. She always wanted to feel the adrenaline flowing in her veins and that had often landed her into trouble. She used to forget that the only thing that should be flowing through them is blood and not drugs.”

We ended up in a lovely unoccupied suite looking out at the Tower of pleasure located in the Red-light area as soon as we stepped on the terrace. A glass door separated us from entering the main terrace and I used the scissors to unlock it. We entered inside and could see the rooftops of the city, the lights coming on one by one, the families getting together to have Friday supper and almost everything.

“We just committed a crime you know, that right?” Raien let out a low chuckle and I gave him an incredulous look which he ignored. “There are cameras everywhere. How-”

“The scissors don’t only open doors. Now get inside and hurry up.” I said as I started the search. And the feeling I had in the strip club returned: the more beautiful everything was around me, the more wretched I felt.

“You love her and she loves you, isn’t that right? You wouldn’t have endangered your life like that, if you don’t, Paige.” I heard the annoying voice and ignored it.

“Denying and lying, both won’t take you anywhere-”

“I don’t know, Raien? If you’re asking me if I liked her company, the answer is yes. If, on the

other hand, you’re asking me if I could live without her, the answer is also yes. I am a f*****g mess, man. Let’s talk about it later and finish the task we are here for.”

“And what is it? What are you searching for?”

“It’s this!” I said smirking as I watched his eyes going soccer balls.

“How did you find this?”