The Con-Artists

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ

Tires screeched and a blue police cruiser came to a shrieking halt right in front of the CPD. The reporters with their cameras and mics rushed to the car, bombarding questions and recording the scenario. It was as if bees buzzing around the honeycomb.

Officer Asad Qureshi made an appearance, closing the door of the jeep, dressed in a navy blue uniform. Removing his eyeshades he leered at the crowd of buzzing reporters. Their tittle-tattle and flashes were successful in irritating him even more than the compulsion in this case did.

"Sir is the security of our prisons so useless that a murderous woman successfully escaped during the night."

"Why our law enforcement agencies fail to protect citizens?"

"How did that girl run away? Where were the officers at that time?"

"Where did the girl go? Did anyone help her? Is she still in the city? Or able to escape?"

All the mouthing came to a full stop as soon as his hand was raised in the air, a silent but daunting gesture. His comrades stood around him.

"First of all, we are not deaf. We listen to what our people say. We aim to serve our best to the citizens. So please, do not vent your anger on us," Asad's intimidating accent echoed.

"Secondly, about the recent murder case, we found a café worker's fingerprints and we arrested her. The trial was set on Tuesday in which we had to present solid evidence and witness against the suspect, rest of the things had to be handled by the court-"

"Do you have any witnesses, sir?" A reporter interrupted.

"Patience, I'm coming to that topic. Unfortunately, we do not have any eyewitnesses. The murder victim, Mrs. Shabana Farhan's husband is in our custody since he came back from Oman last night. He is shocked and grieved. He clearly demands to see the murderer hanged. Although we don't have any proof that who is the lady's actual murderer. But we have solid evidence against the murderer of Rasheed, the guard. So this is a serious issue, our police search parties are looking for Miss Alina Imtiaz where her chances of presence are," Chatters and whispers started again.

"Her sister, Maryam Imtiaz is also in our custody but she's a child and underage. We do not intend to harm her. Though we request our citizens that if they got any information related to Alina Imtiaz and her whereabouts, they must inform us. She's a wanted murderer, and we want her at any cost," Asad eyes the crowd and ended his speech.

"That's it." Ignoring their never-ending annoying inquiries he walked inside the department, where his main office was situated. The noises were blocked away as soon as the large glass doors closed behind him. He could sense the unusual thick tension that lay in the air due to what happened last night.

His palms clenched into fists as he thought about Alina. How that little sneaky girl escaped easily, challenging his rank and ego. And yet he was forced to act like this.