He has been waiting for a long time.
He looks at his watch, it's been an hour.
He is both bored and excited at the same time. It's not every day that you get to be a part of such an exciting event.
He looks up and thanks the Almighty for bringing closure to this issue after so many years of hard work.
Finally, he hears the sound of the door opening from behind.
Two men enter the room, one is detective Rahman and the other is the man that everyone is buzzing about.
Rahman smiles at him and says,
“Sir, finally we’ve got him.”
His smile shows the pride of success. He knows it is a well-deserved achievement for both of them.
He looks at the man.
The man has a very naive face and skinny posture, wearing regular day-to-day clothes like any other middle-class person.
Who could have thought this man can do such heinous crimes.
Though the urge to hit this maniac is flowing through his entire body; he remains calm, and starts with regular questions.
“It’s just a regular procedure. You need to answer some basic questions. Are you okay with that?”
The man seems indifferent. His gaze is fixed at his toes, and he does not seem to be interested in talking.
“Okay.” The man replies, without showing the slightest interest to look up.
“What is your name?” Detective Rahman asks the man.
“Anis.”
“Why did you kill your own family? How can you be so still after losing everyone in your family?”
This is the first time Anis looks up. He smirks for a little while and suddenly stops,
“I didn’t kill them. I liberated them.”
Both Rahman and his senior are shocked after hearing his answer. They had a suspicion that this man was mad, and now they are certain about it.
“You are saying you have killed your father, mother, wife, sister, and even the newborn child of yours only to liberate them.”
“Yes,” he replied with a calm gesture.
This made both the policemen very curious and they have heard many things about this man, but other than the fact that he has killed his family nothing has ever been proved.
“Can you share your story?”
He laughs for a while and says
“Are you serious? Do you think that anything matters now? There is a saying –Let bygone, be bygone. I don’t think you guys can understand the issue.”
Both the policemen were again shocked, and they really could not understand what this man meant.
“Yes, I think you should share it. This might help us to investigate your issue thoroughly.”
He laughs again, but this time it was loud and stayed for a while. He took his time to calm down.
“Okay then. Can you tell me how would you take it if someone asked about your entire existence?” He stopped, looking at both the officers.
Rahman replied first, “We have legal evidence to prove it. Why should someone ask that?”
Anis smirked again, “What if they don’t believe that. What if someone is questioning all your existence in your mind and the only way to prove to those people is through your mind. How will you react to that?”
The senior detective Kuddus was quite shocked after hearing his answer. What does this man mean? From where did he find out about mind-reading? He is quite certain that this man has lost his sanity. Nothing can be done at this point. He needs to be hanged, whether he is mad or not. It is the final order from the upper management. He is losing interest in this. Now, they will have to hear some insane story from a mad man about his journey towards being mad. He has seen this many a time.
Anis continues as if he doesn’t care what’s going on around him.
“So, it all started three years back, when I used to work for a renowned private company. There was some issue with me and the management. Let’s say, I put faith in the wrong person. The owner of the company had a very naive face, and from his beginning approach towards me, I was mesmerized. I had a valid reason behind it. He wanted me to report to him about any issue with one of the key employees of his company. Along with that, a tap on your shoulder saying the company needs you boosts your confidence sky high.”
Anis stopped and looked at Kuddus with pleading eyes.
“Can I get a Cigarette? It’s been long since I had my last one.”
Kuddus replied, “Actually, we don’t let anyone smoke here. It’s an official facility. However, I am giving you the chance to smoke and this will be your first and last time.”
Anis was having trouble lighting the Cigarette. His entire body was shaking. Finally, Kuddus helped him light it.
“So, as I was saying, I felt very confident meeting that person and by his cordial approach. I put all my efforts to impress him. But I was a fool who thought that he valued his time-tested employee over me and stepped in his trap just the way he wanted me to be.
In the process, I was given a large number of tasks and all of that only to be done by myself. Ultimately, the workload led to a disaster, and I was being treated like garbage.
This led me to search for new jobs by any means possible and I do mean by every means possible, I was so desperate to get out of there that I even didn't bother about ethics. But as I was recommended by one of their business partners, they needed me to stay there and prove I was not in perfect mental condition. On one hand, this will ensure that I was gone from their company, and also on the other, it will not affect their business relationship. A win-win situation for them.”
Kuddus was surprised, “How is that a winning situation for that company? They are losing an employee and also their good relationship with a friend. “
Anis smiled for a brief moment and said, “That’s the difference between us and him. He believes if you can use one's weakness against him, you can get more business than from a good relationship. Indeed, this is not how typical people think, but this is how he thinks, and it got him more deals than he ever had before.”
Anis stopped to inhale the smoke coming out of the burning cigarette and tried to make circles from the smoke. Then after some failed attempts he stopped and started talking, “To be frank, I was always a dimwitted person. So, as any other fool would do, I emailed my reference and tried to inform him what was going on with me. But, I was such a fool who even did not know that emails have a back-up in every organization and can be viewed by others. Later, I understood this was exactly what my owner wanted me to do. It gave him a valid reason to go against me legally and frame a legal complaint against me.”
Kuddus was quite surprised by the way he was explaining the scenario; it was as if he knew everything. He asked, “Why didn’t you inform the local police station?”
Anis replied, “At that time, I was so scared of losing the job like any other middle-class person that I did not know what to do.”
Kuddus said, “Okay continue.”
“However, as soon as he was able to frame the complaint, he started hacking my phone and started to communicate with all my contacts and friends. He started to frame me as a public enemy to all my contacts. It gave him both a good reach and also the ability to connect with my previous employers. Even my friends were scared to talk to me as my phone was being hacked and they were all informed by him from the very beginning. They were also middle-class people and so the first thing they thought was to get as far away as possible from me for the safety of their family and friends.”
Kuddus could not understand how this experience could make a man kill his entire family.
Anis's expression changed suddenly. His face started looking pale as if he was scared of something. He continues, "Next he started questioning my experience, education, and even my nationality to my reference. And, when all this was going on around me, my reference and my employer kept the entire issue hidden from me. I could only guess what was going on from the social bullying that I was facing in that company. "
Anis stopped," Can I get a glass of water? "
Kuddus went out of the room and called to bring water for Anis. Chotu, a boy of 16-17 years old, brought the glass of water and kept it in front of him. Anis drank the entire glass of water in one sip.
Anis starts again," After several months of convincing and proving by my reference, he acted as if he was convinced. But, I had a firm belief that this man cannot be convinced so easily. I was quite fade-up of all the drama that was going on around me and so, I submitted my resignation letter, which was approved within two days. That was the first time I felt good because I could get out from all those social bullyings and all the drama that was going on around me. "
Anis paused for a while as if he was thinking about what to say next. Then he started again," During my final day at that office, I saw the Director and the Managing Director was having a meeting in the conference room, which was at the opposite part of the office from where I sat. However, with all my surprise I was able to hear what they were saying. I could hear he was saying that he will make sure my entire family and the whole world knew what a psycho I was. The logical explanation that I could reach was that I had an excellent hearing capability, or why on earth should I hear what he was saying from the far-end corner of the office."
Anis stopped and took a long breath. Kuddus could not believe what he was saying.
This is the first time Kuddus could feel that there was something wrong. He asked," So, you did nothing even though you were being socially bullied."
Anis smirked again, "He had a unique way of bullying. No one will ever come in contact with you, but where ever you go, you will find people are shouting slang at one another. The funniest part of it was there were even life threats in those abuses."
Kuddus asked, "Why did you care?"
It seemed like Anis was searching for words and finally, "I don't know how you will take it. But, all the abusive words that I have heard were the ones from my childhood."
Kuddus could not believe his eyes. How could an employer know what his employee was called during his childhood and why should anyone go through that much trouble to find that.
Kuddus could understand the story is being told from only the point of view of Anis and not the entire story.
