Undefiled Queen

Stephen’s POV

I was quite confused and surprised when Merlyn came to me to inform my private detective Arnold wants to meet me urgently.

Arnold was out of the country for the last two weeks. Even just two days ago we talked. When I invited him for Abby’s birthday, he professionally apologized and said he couldn’t make it. Nevertheless I sensed there was some sort unsettling in his voice.

I can clearly understand the pros and cons of his profession because Arnold had been working for me for the last ten years. However when he showed up suddenly at Abby’s party and that too not in guests gathering I am slightly intrigued about the reason for his coming here.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

Is the matter that serious that he couldn’t even wait for tomorrow’s sunrise?

I met Arnold at one of the coffee lounges of my mansion. As soon as he saw me walking to him, he immediately stood up from his seat and offered his hand for a shake. “Good Evening sir, I’m sorry to disturb you during your family celebration. Please convey my best wishes to Abby on her birthday.”

I nodded and lit a cigarette. “Sure. Please have a seat.”

The weather was nice. With Abby around I couldn’t smoke. Also Merlyn hated the smell of cigarettes. I quit smoking but in situations like this a cigarette always relaxes me. I thought Arnold wanted to discuss some serious matters about business but for the next words he spoke it was too far beyond business making my stance turned into a volcano.

“Sir, I’m sorry to bring this information to you three years after the accident but better late than never. Your mishap was not an accident but a planned murder.”

Air washed away from under my nostrils as my ears registered the startling news from Arnold. “How could this be….. I mean you investigated my accident three years ago?…. But you…. Who was the person….” All my sentences went hanging in the air filled within a trance. The news felt unbelievable to my mind.

I had my doubts initially but I trusted Arnold. He employed his men and made an investigation on the catastrophe and I was fully convinced.

“Who did this?” By the time I got the words out I was seeing red.

Arnold was as frightened as a goat when he heard my temper filled words. “Sir, do you remember ma’am’s ex boyfriend, Max? He has a younger brother Michael. Michael paid for the accident to get you killed.

My hands turned to fists as Arnold started releasing the bombs of information one after the other. “When he discovered you survived the accident, he knew living in the same city or even the country would be a threat to his life especially after you were out of danger. Thus he bought a fake passport to escape from this country, did a hair transplantation and plastic surgery on his face so that nobody would recognize him and escaped to new zealand.”

He then handed me a file which had complete details of the planned murder along with pictures of Michael which had before and after looks of his plastic surgery. “Sir, during my investigation after the accident and when you were still unconscious I came to know Max had a younger brother. In cases like this we cannot rule out even the remotest possibilities. I put my men behind him and took out his details. Every information I got about him landed me with more suspicions.”

Arnold then handed me another file which had more information about Michael. “The man was initially in the military. But suddenly he came out of it. Nobody knew where he was and what he did for the next five years and then he was all of a sudden spotted in a remote village of east Carolina. There he worked as a car mechanic in a garage. He talked very less with people that some who did not know him even thought he was deaf and dumb. Michael lived in a small shed very near the garage, worked there for a year and suddenly disappeared, none knew where.”

Each information Arnold was giving came to me like a shock. “A year later, he again suddenly appeared in his brother’s apartment. By that time you had already had Max as your captive.”

I ground my teeth in indignation. “Bloody hell! So both the brothers were scumbags, good for nothing creatures and a burden on the motherland.”

It was the first time I could see a slight smile on Arnold’s features during our whole conversation. “Please do not call them good for nothing creatures, sir. They are good at perfectly concealing their true identities. But I had my suspicions. Because he changed his face not only in records but physically too it took me a little more time but I was confident sooner or later his end was determined in our hands.”

I took a long drag of smoke and listened to Arnold intently. “Sir, he is now arrested and locked in our underground torture cell.”

My eyes flickered with brightness. “This is the most wonderful news I heard so far in our conversation. I was waiting for it all this long. Come on, let’s go. My hands are itching to reach him and crumble him to pieces for every moment of pain that I have suffered since the past three years. He and his brother not only gave me physical torture but mental affliction too which was not for days or months but for years.” I puffed out the smoke from between my lips, nipped the cigarette into the ashtray and walked out with Arnold to reach my car.

We reached our destination in half an hour. He was hanging between the floor and the roof with hands and legs tied with ropes. All of his body was covered with blood and whip marks. The whole room was smelling metallic.

My blood boiled with fury looking at him. Without any words, I walked to the whip hanging from a nail and blew his face with it.

He screamed with pain but it did not satiate me. For all the physical and mental pain I suffered, separation from my wife and not even knowing the existence of my daughter until a couple of months ago – I was supposed to recover all the loss that he and his older brother caused to me. I continued to whip him, until I felt breathless and my hands ached but still I wouldn’t feel the satisfaction.

He went unconscious with blood coming out of his mouth and nose. For a criminal before he is hanged, a physician checks upon his vital organs. If the culprit is suffering even with slightest sickness his punishment is postponed until he is back to health.

I followed the same rule. I beckoned the doctor who was standing beside me to check for his pulse. He shook his head much to my dissatisfaction. “It is weak sir.”

I ordered my men to give him all kinds of nuts, vegetables and fruits to get him back to health but kept him in strict vigilance. One month later he was back to normal and thought he was soon going to be freed. But was it going to be so easy for him? I will inculcate a hope in him to live and then beat him to death.

I ordered my men to whip him until their hands hurt. This process of healing and then beating him again to death continued for three more times and he pleaded with me to award him death. I pulled up his face to see me which was stinking, covered with blood almost hanging to the floor. “Do you know Michael, once upon a time I was in your place. I prayed to God just like you to award me death. None of my limbs moved. For months together I laid on the bed like dead meat. I felt sick of myself, for the life I was leading. My wife left me, my mother used to cry everyday looking at my disabled state and I could not even move my arms to wipe her tears. Today I am giving you back what you gave me. Do you know the proverb – every dog has its day? Three years ago that day was yours. Today is mine.”

“I am sorry. I know my apology will not write off the suffering you endured. But I want you to know I have suffered enough and I repent for my past mistakes. Please do not punish me more. I cannot stand it and give a death sentence.” He requested me.

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Do you think awarding you death is so easy for me? Eyeing somebody else’s wife is transgression and breaking the family of someone who once loved you more than her own life is a sin. Your brother committed an offense by breaking my family and ill treating my wife. I gave him death as a payback It was a simple tit for tat. You shouldn’t have poked your head into this.”

I pulled his hair and hit his head on the wall ahead of him. “You not only meddled with my health, my life but also my family. Your animosity is with me, not with Merlyn and our child. But because of your wrong action it’s not only me but my family suffered too including my aged parents and my grandfather. You owe them an apology for causing them an insurmountable mental misery.”

He screeched in pain when I kicked him in the belly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry and I’m sorry. Please turn me into a normal man again like you did before and I will go and apologize to your entire family.”

“Psst” I twisted my lips. “Now I am past that feeling. Your apology does not give me satisfaction. I want you to live the suffering of all my family members including my two year old daughter who had to stay away from me because of a misunderstanding your brother built between me and my wife. Your mistake here is you supported him without even making an attempt to find out the truth. Are you also a drug addict like him?”

The room smelled pungent because it was hosting a half dead meat of a bloodied man from the last three months. I couldn’t stand there for long because of an urge to puke. My poor men had been standing that deadly smell for many months now. I felt empathy for them and doubled their salary from the day. Before walking out I gave him the hardest hit I could between his legs and turned a deaf ear to his screams to get to my car.

“I do not think that scoundrel could endure more pain. Give a break from beating for a month. Put him back on medicines and let him heal. Afterwards we will start torturing him again.” I ordered the head security of the warehouse before putting the engine of my car to life.

“Sure sir but….”

“But what?”

“I do not think we could continue this for long, sir. The guy had lost the hope to live and gradually me and my men are discovering suicidal tendencies in him.” As much as my wounded heart doesn’t want him to die just yet for the pain I and my family endured, I knew my chief security was speaking the truth because since the last ten days I observed a change in the behavior of Michael. He was no more reacting to my beatings but suffering it with no sense of touch as if his body turned to iron.

The next morning in the wee hours I got a call from my chief security that Michael had committed suicide. He went to the washroom and drank the disinfectant. When he did not come out of the washroom even after an hour, my men broke open the door and found him unconscious.

They immediately took him to the hospital who declared him dead already.