The Threat

By Mariyam Johar

“If you want to live another day, meet me at the Ayaan construction site at 11 tonight. Come alone.”

He turned over the yellow crumpled paper in his hand, but nothing was written on the other side. He sat perplexed, wondering who could have possibly entered his office in the night to leave the note on his table.

As a criminal lawyer, Amar lived a far-from-ideal life, and he had experienced a lot of strange things in his career. However, this time, he couldn’t figure out who would want to meet him tonight in a deserted construction site.

Maybe it was Mithun… maybe he had been pressured by his wife once again to rob one of his neighbours…

Or it was Deb… after becoming an alcoholic, he had started getting into a lot of unnecessary fights…

Or maybe it was Tanya… she was an enigma. She had come to him a few days back saying that she needed his help with some real estate work… He had told her that he did not handle cases like these, but she had insisted and paid him Rs. 50,000 upfront…

But why would anyone threaten him? He was a criminal lawyer, he met with criminals all the time!

He looked at the letter once again, and thought of the barren site with the half-finished walls, a perfect place for murder. The thought sent shivers through his body.

As the day progressed, he was barely able to concentrate on his work. It seemed as if time was passing both slowly and quickly. Finally, at around 10:30 pm, he took out his revolver from the top drawer of his table and kept it in the side pocket of his jacket. He locked his office and started walking towards the site, thinking of all possible consequences of this meeting.

As he reached the site, the night felt darker and colder, and, for the first time, he felt paralyzing fear rushing through his veins. He slowly walked towards the metal rods piled on one side.

After a few excruciatingly long minutes, he heard a soft thud behind him. He quickly turned around to see a tall well-built man wearing black shoes, black jeans, and a black jacket. He was handsome, with dark brown hair falling on his forehead. It was his eyes that caught his attention, they looked dead in the cold night.

The man stood staring at him for a few seconds. After what seemed like a very long time, the man put his right hand in his jeans pocket, took out a pendrive, and held it out to him. For a few seconds, Amar didn’t make a move. The man took a step forward with his outstretched hand, noiselessly urging him to take it. Amar moved forward slowly, one hand gripping his revolver inside his jacket. When he reached close enough, he took the pendrive from the man and immediately took two steps back. The man turned around and disappeared into the night. Amar stood there for a few minutes not knowing what to do. Finally, he turned around and started walking towards the empty road.

He didn’t stop or look back until he reached his house; however, it was not until he entered his living room that he finally breathed a sigh of relief and said a quick prayer thanking God that he was alive. He retrieved the pendrive from his jacket and switched on his computer. He plugged in the pendrive, impatiently waiting for his system to detect it. When it finally opened, he saw that there were two video files in the pendrive. He quickly clicked on the first file and began watching.

It was a CCTV footage of a small office. A man was sitting at the far end of the room on a desk with some papers in his hand. On his desk was a brass nameplate which stated “ADVOCATE HARSHIT SHARMA”. For a few minutes, nothing happened. After some time, the door behind the man opened and a young woman walked into the office. Amar paused the video to take a closer look at the woman and realized that it was Tanya. Confused, he started the video again. The advocate stood up to greet her and offered her a seat. Tanya, however, remained standing. The man turned his back towards her to pour her a glass of water. Tanya swiftly pulled out a large knife, crept behind the man, and plunged the knife in his back. Amar averted his eyes, and thought that he would be sick. Little beads of perspiration had started forming on his forehead.

He reopened the pendrive folder and clicked on the second video. This was also a CCTV footage of an office, slightly larger than the previous one. A man was pacing around his office talking on his mobile. He was dressed smartly in a suit, with black polished shoes, and hair neatly combed. Amar didn’t know why but he looked familiar. Suddenly, probably in response to a knock, he went to open the office door. It was Tanya. The man greeted her and invited her in. He stood talking to her for a few moments. Finally, he turned away from her and started rummaging a cupboard for something. Tanya slipped her hand into her handbag and Amar felt chilled. She took out a large knife, came up behind the man, and plunged it in his back.

Amar vomited right there on the carpet. Once he had recovered from his shock, a nagging feeling made him rewind the video to the point where the man was walking about in his office. He zoomed in to take a closer look at his face.

He suddenly recollected why he looked so familiar, he remembered where he’d seen him. He also now understood the meaning of the note which he had considered a threat at the time. It was the same man who had given him the pendrive…

By Mariyam Johar