#33

A car was going through a street which was surrounded by the woods. Perkins had his hands on the steering wheel. Rubina was sitting beside him on the passenger seat. He slowed down and pulled over the car.

"Come on."

Rubina unfastened her seat belt. She opened the door and stepped out of the car. She put her hands into the pocket of her long jacket. Perkins joined her and their made their way into the woods among the tall cedar trees. A small wooden house was built in the middle of the forest. A car was parked outside the house. A man wearing a bomber hat was digging a hole with a shovel. Upon hearing the footsteps he stopped digging and looked at his right. Rubina and Perkins stopped there. She was astonished to see that the man standing before her with the shovel in his hand was Kyle Hopkins.

She said, "Hopkins!"

He asked, "You told the girl about me?"

Perkins answered, "She knows about you, Hopkins."

"Oh."

He told Rubina, "Now you are finally here, let's have a discussion."

Rubina and Perkins were sitting at a round table. Hopkins came to them with a tray having three coffee cups. He kept the tray on the table.

"Please, have it."

Rubina picked up the cup followed by Perkins. Hopkins picked up the last left cup on the tray. He sipped the drink. He stepped away from the table to the window.

"I know Rubina about what Perkins did with your fiance. And somewhere I should be held accountable for his actions."

He took another sip.

"Are you listening to me or not?"

She replies, "I am listening."

He hummed.

"But I was not wrong. I was concerned about my people. There is a certain community which is responsible for the terrorist attacks that took place in my country. Rizwan was the part of that community."

Rubina kept the cup on the table and stood up.

She yelled, "You can't put the blame on an entire community just because of a handful people."

Hopkins smirked and turned around.

"I knew I was wrong but I couldn't take a chance to protect my people. Well, later on I had to leave my own country and the people when they started protesting against me. I realised those whom I thought were my own were never mine. Even my wife left me too. I was all alone and then I came to Jeddah to start my business."

She interrupted, "Wait a minute. Jeddah, Blackstone, that means you are behind the Brownfields."

"Wise woman. I liked it. Young women like you are getting wiser nowadays."

"So, Yusuf is acting as per your directions."

"I am controlling everything connected to Brownfields."

Perkins said, "She was saying that she is going to stop them."

"Oh, really."

Hopkins kept the cup on the slab and stepped towards her and came closer to her.

He said, "Girl, I know you are dedicated towards your duty but let me speak a couple of words in front of you."

He grabbed her cheeks with both of his palms.

"That's impossible."

She held his palms and put them down.

"I am going to stop it anyhow."

Hopkins looked at Perkins.

"Perkins."

"Yes sir."

He said, "A massive attack is going to take place within next seventy two hours somewhere in the world."

She kept looking at him with a perplexed expression on her face.

Hopkins asked, "Will you be able to stop this, dear?"

Perkins gave the car key to her.

"Take this."

She kept looking at the key for a while.

Hopkins said, "What are you waiting for? Go. You have to stop the attack, right?"

She took the key and starter walking towards the doorway. Hopkins stretched his hand towards her feet. He grabbed her feet and pulled it quickly. She fell on the floor and groaned. She turned around and saw him. Perkins came to them.

He said, "She couldn't even walk. How she is going to stop the attack?"

He took out his handgun.

"Shall I kill her now."

Hopkins replied, "If I had to kill her I would have done it earlier. I just want to play more with her."

He kneeled down before her. He grabbed her head.

"Darling, let me show you something."

Rubina started digging the ground with the shovel outside the house. Hopkins was sitting on the wooden staircase with the coffee cup in his hand. He removed his cap and kept it beside him. Perkins was standing on the deck holding the wooden railings. As she digged deeper she got the glimpse of a bone. She stopped digging when an entire piece of arm bone was visible to her.

Perkins said, "I think she has found it."

Hopkins held his knees and stood up. He went near to the hole. He looked at the bone.

"Hmm."

Rubina removed the soil from the bone and found that it was an entire body of skeleton buried.

She said, "What is this?"

Hopkins smirked. He took out his cigar. He lit the one and started smoking.

He asked, "Can you guess who she is?"

She kept looking at the skeleton for a while. She shook her head.

"No."

She looked at Hopkins. He smirked.

"Well, she is Janice."

"Janice, your wife."

"I used to miss her a lot after our seperation. On my insistence, she came to meet me one last time from DC."

They started having a walk together.

He said, "When I sat with her I realised she wasn't interested in what I was talking. She just wanted to leave as soon as she could."

"You might had tried to stop her."

"Of course, I did, but she didn't stop. I wanted her to be with me forever but someone else had took place of mine in her life."

"You killed her then."

"I didn't mean to kill her but I couldn't see my wife with another person. That's why I killed her and buried in my garden."

"I have heard a lot of crazy stories of yours. This is the craziest one. You should be feeling pity for what you did."

"Well, it's a no. I know she is no more but she is still living with me."

"Where, at the garden?"

"Ofcourse."

"That's just a skeleton."

He stopped walking and so did she. He turned to her.

"If you ever call her a skeleton, I won't even think before burying you beside her. For you it's just a skeleton. For me she is still my Janice."

She huffed.

"You are crazy."

"Yes, I am. Now see how maniac I am."