The Fallen Widow

23. Heavy Price to Pay

Kaneez ordered Meh'r-Bano to stay at home whilst she ran to the prison to visit her son.

"I want to come." Meh'r-Bano protested.

"No! You stay at home with Babu! I will find out!" Kaneez's brain was foggy. She didn't' know what to do first. She wanted to cry, lament, scream but first she had to make her way to the police station.

Meh'r-Bano paced back and forth in the courtyard. Every second of the wait killed her. How did this happen? How did Shafiq murder Mushtaq? Last time Shafiq returned home he was bloody and threatened Mushtaq. Why did he do it? Babu felt the fear and commotion in the house and wanted answers. Meh'r-Bano calmed him down with lies that everything was okay. If he got upset it could bear a huge burden on his weak heart and cause a heart attack, Meh'r-Bano would find it difficult to calm him down.

Kaneez returned near midnight with death carved over her face. Meh'r-Bano rushed to her with a glass of cool water.

"We are cursed. We are cursed!" She cried out sipping the water.
"Did you see him?"

"He didn't do it. He is locked up and faces a death sentence."

Meh'r-Bano gasped. "No!

"He is crying that he is innocent. We have to do something, we need a law man or something. He wasn't anywhere near Mushtaq he was at the garage."

"So why did they arrest Shafiq?"

"He threatened him in the bazaar. Everyone assumes it's him. He has been yelling that he will kill Mushtaq- now he is dead. I don't know what to do- my son faces death sentence."

Kaneez sobbed uncontrollably as Meh'r-Bano held her. If this was true, that Shafiq didn't kill Mushtaq then it will soon be revealed. There was no law in Jahanpur. Police were insignificant, propped up by the haveli. All control was ultimately in Choudhry's hands.

"We need to get a lawyer ammi. We can't let this happen. Shafiq would never kill anyone."

That night Kaneez and Meh'r-Bano came together planning ways to defend Shafiq from the accusation. They went through their little money pot and gold bangles to see if they could hire a lawyer.

"You are literate, you should know how to hire a lawyer."

Meh'r-Bano paused on hearing her mother speak positively about her education. Kaneez valued and needed Meh'r-Bano's intelligence now. Since the day she married Shafiq, her mother in law cursed her education calling it a curse and western wanton thinking. This day had to come. 

"You have to save my son! He didn't kill Mushtaq. I have one son and I can't lose him." Kaneez sobbed.

***

It was two in the morning when Shafiq heard commotion in the prison and shook him from his light sleep. The floor was cold and hard, the food was raw and tasteless. He looked around at the other two prisoners who were fast asleep. An officer came to the cell and unlocked the gate. Shafiq was terrified unsure what was happening.

"Get out." The prison officer barked. "Out!"

Shafiq rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way to the office. In the dim office stood four guards from the haveli dressed in black clenching automatic rifles.

"What's going on?" Shafiq heart pounded with fear looking at the officer. The officer left the room leaving Shafiq alone with Haveli guards and Wajahat Ali.

In his boots, Wajahat Ali crunched the stones under his foot. The prison was a dump. His eyebrows knit together with anger.

"What's going on?" Said Shafiq.