Midnight rain in Cairo

Chapter 2: Mystery and Murder

Khaled

“Well if the bastard doesn't want to give an interview then tell him not to bother contacting us for his arse-aches.” I yelled, slamming the phone down very hard. A quick glance, at a small mirror beside me illustrated my face was filled with rage. I did not think anyone would be calm about it anyway, not when your job was at stake. I knew my boss would fire me without a doubt now, his words kept repeating in my head. “ Your last chance Khaled, you haven’t been writing anything interesting so I suggest you set up an interview with someone important so at least we can include it in the Talks with The Arab Gazette  column. Maybe then I can make sure your employment will not be terminated. Don’t fail me Khaled, I know you’re a good writer but I need progress.”

I couldn’t find anyone important to interview, except the Interior Minister. I knew his assistant, who would always ring me up whenever the paper had to feature an article on his boss. But now, that too had gone down the drain, apparently the minister had a lot of work and was under too much of stress. The irony calmed the rage off my face.  I had learned one thing in this job, everyone was an asshole in their own way, some people used you, some people held you back from reaching higher, some people shattered dreams, while others just denied a 10 minute interview and that too after helping them out for 4 years. What can a man, or in this case, a journalist do, we just had to deal with it. I knew all hope was gone or at least going.  I was sure tomorrow morning the Editor-in- Chief would call me into his room, and tell me in the nicest possible way to fuck off.
I started clearing my table and arranging all the papers, so that it would be easy to move my mess tomorrow. A camera bag landed on the table, I knew who it was. “Yousef, you can take the camera back, that arse-hole cancelled the interview at the last moment.” Yousef was a good friend; he was dumb, never heard him talk but in general was an innocent guy. He was an employee at the Arab Gazette just like me, but he worked as a photographer. He nodded and his face told me he wanted to ask if I was getting fired, when I interrupted. “Yes, I’m sure I won’t be here by tomorrow, boss mentioned clearly that this was my last chance.” He face changed again signifying a slight look of hope. “I don’t think the boss will give me one more chance, I know I messed up. Plus, I honestly have lost my “mojo” I think.” He gave a sad smile, came close gave me a quick hug, nodded and then left. His actions were basically saying “It was a pleasure working with you Khaled.”
I sat on my chair, leaned back and started swinging from left to right. I began to think about what Abba would think of me.

Abba was my guardian, he took me in when I was an orphan and brought me up till I was 16. Then one day left me in this world alone. His death put me in with the wrong crowd, women, drugs and occasional petty thefts. But after 3 years of prison therapy, i changed. I came out to the world as a reformed man. From that day onwards I have been a struggling man. Maybe its punishment from god for what I had done before, maybe it was not. But I sure hoped god chooses to redeem me soon.
The phone rang all of a sudden and startled me. “ hello Khaled here,…..aaah ok sir….i’ll be there now……freshen up?.....ok….should I tell Yousef too…no….ok…I’ll be there give me 10 mins.” I put the phone down. This was surprising my boss was telling me to come to his office and that he had a job for me.
I went to the rest room, washed my face with the hand-wash liquid. I didn’t care nor bother to find a new bar of soap. I admired my self in the dirty mirror, fairly built, sharp features, ruffled hair, average height, tanned olive skin, basically a typical Egyptian guy. I tucked my shirt in, adjusted the belt, and sprayed some cologne I had in my office.
The editor’s office was just across the room. It had a huge glass door with black description that read Editor-In-Chief Mr.Zaidi.  As soon as I stepped in I noticed a third person in the room. Inspector Ahmed looked up and smiled “Good to see you Khaled, hope you have been a good boy.”  I had hated this man in the early days of prison, but eventually I had come to know that he was a good guy. He helped me into this place. “Oh I have, and I don’t think I’m benefitting from being good.” I said hinting sarcasm throughout. He smiled. “ Zaidi brief him in quickly, I’m in a rush to get back.” My boss turned to me, “Khaled, first you need to know that there have been kidnappings around Cairo recently, the police haven’t publicized it at all, so not many people are aware of it. But now they decided to let the public be aware so they can take measures for their own safety.” Kidnappings in Cairo were never heard before, I think people always tended to mind their own businesses in this country. The puzzled look on my face made the Inspector speak “ Khaled, we decided that since your interview failed that maybe you could write about all these kidnappings.” What huh?!?!? How the hell did they know about my interview? And about it failing. information travels fast around a newspaper office I guess. Inspector's phone rang, he saw and ignored; stared at me for an immediate answer. “Ya I’d like to write about that, anything that will keep me in my job.” Both of them laughed this time. “Good, come by my office later today,” said the Inspector, as he got and walked out of the room answering his phone in the process. He popped back into the room, with panic written all over his face “The first murder has happened, the body has been found downtown. Khaled come with me now.”  Andrenaline kicked in, like I knew what I had to do. My whole life seems to have summed up for this moment. I got up, ran towards my cubicle, picked up my cell phone and followed the inspector down. This could become the biggest break-through for my career and I could not afford to screw it up. As I was running down, the headline for what I would write, came into my head. Mystery Kidnappings and Murder in the Heart of Cairo.