THE NARROW ESCAPEEl-Zaki waited another two minutes then his instincts told him to wander into the kitchen. As he did, he found the old farmer fiddling with his phone.He made to stealthily creep up to him and seize the phone, but just as he moved past the cabinet by the entrance, his arm brushed against a glass bowl containing some herbal mixture. The bowl fell and clattered on the wooden floor, spilling its content.Enrique who had expected this kind of surprise was smart enough to instantly delete the message from his phone. He spun around and looked down in horror at his wife's already prepared potion smeared on the floor. "Good heavens, Don!" he mouthed. "Why are you creeping up on me? And look what you've done to my medication. Am I also a suspect like the men you're looking for?" he was facing him squarely now. A pang of guilt flitted through El-Zaki's mind but he quickly dismissed it. "You will let me see what you've been doing with your phone, won't you?" he stated firmly.

ACCOSTED BY THE POLICE "What's the matter, Camila?" asked Caleb stunned. But Camila only began to weep. "Come on, talk to me. What's wrong? What did your husband say?" he kept probing her. When she still refused to speak, Caleb bent and picked up the phone and placed it against his ear. He heard it too. Gunshots and shouting. Camila looked up just then and saw the look of horror on Caleb's face and wailed. "They've shot my husband, isn't it?" she sputtered. When she got no response she continued bitterly, "What am I going to do now? I can't spend the remaining days of my life a lonely, sad widow." Camila's continuous cries and lamentations made Caleb feel hopeless and distraught. He felt responsible for her misfortune. "I'm so sorry, Mrs Enrique," he said without looking at her. That was the first time he formally addressed the old woman after they became acquainted. And it seemed befitting at the time. "I have watched many people I love either get killed or murdered in cold bl

AN UNEXPECTED TURNAROUND "What are you looking at that is making you white in the face?" Carlos asked observing him. "Nothing, Mr Enrique." Then Caleb turned to Pedro, "I need to speak with you outside.""There will be no whispers around here. If there's something wrong or amiss, we all should be aware of it." Carlos spoke defiantly."I'm sorry, Mr Enrique, but this is a bit personal.""More personal than letting you into our private lives?" Camila replied curtly."Fine," Caleb said in defeat, "the doctor has found someone who claims to know this place. She said he is bringing her over.""Who?!" the old couple asked simultaneously."Someone who used to work with Fabian," he dropped the bombshell on them."My Fabian?" Camila asked getting up. "My boy? You know someone who knows where he is?" she said with optimism in her voice. "Not exactly, Mrs Enrique. I'm not promising anything yet. The person might in fact have lost touch with him by now, but I do know they used to work togethe

A POUND OF FLESH Caleb had reacted in a moment of blind fright. His fidgeting index finger pressed on the trigger - just as swiftly as Carlos had taught him to do: "If someone aimed a gun at you, shoot first without waiting to be killed." It was precise and accurate; directly on the forehead. Brutus was dead even before his body crumbled to the wooden floor. There was a moment of complete silence in the living room. Carlos who had taken position behind the sofa where Pedro had slept on, slowly uncurled to his feet with his mouth hanging open in disbelief. He kept staring at the hideous slender figure of Brutus as it sprawled across the doorway. The dark sunglasses he wore now hung suspended on one side of his ear. His gun had swept under the centre table when it fell off his hand. Then he darted his eyes to gaze at Caleb. "You have outdone yourself for a first-timer." Caleb swallowed nervously. He looked at the revolver in his hand and began strolling to stand by the window look

ON THE RUN "Seems we are in bigger trouble than we even know," Caleb murmured as Doctor Fernandez helped lower him to the sofa. "We have to flee from this place." "Flee?" echoed Camila. "Flee and go where? You seem to be forgetting something...""What?" "That my husband and I are quite old and can't keep up with running from one place to another like fugitives." Pedro spoke next, "What we should rather be concerned about at this moment is how to get rid of the two dead bodies." Adriana was listening to their exchanges without saying anything. The gory sight of Austin's bloodied body crumpling on Caleb's own beside the Jeep kept haunting her subconscious. Pedro turned to her. "You're a doctor, what's your advice on disposing of these corpses?" he asked eyeing her. "You said I'm a doctor, right? Thank God! My advice would have been necessary if I were a mortician." Adriana returned with a sarcastic dint in her voice. It was obvious she didn't like the guy and most certainly didn'