The Final Signal – Part Two

It had been ten days since the murder of Fizan Shafiq. Lahore's skies had returned to a humid stillness, but for DSP Hammad Rizvi, the storm was far from over.

The confession of Mehreen, the secretary, had brought temporary closure. She had admitted to poisoning Fizan — and the evidence backed her story. A water glass tainted with slow-acting poison, a video showing her sneaking behind him in the kitchen, and the final words gasped from the victim’s mouth: “Don’t… tell… anyone…”

But in Hammad’s gut, something kept twisting.

The crime had wrapped up too neatly.

No killer confesses that easily unless they want to be found.

The Email That Changed Everything

Ten quiet days had passed since Mehreen’s arrest when Hammad received an email from a blocked and encrypted address. There was no greeting, no sender’s name.

Subject: You only caught the pawn.

Message:

“If you think the game is over, you never understood the board. Look deeper into Maheen.

Follow the money.

— X”

Attached was a single PDF: a bank statement.

₹12 crore had been transferred to Maheen Shafiq’s personal offshore account less than 24 hours after her husband’s death.

The message was clear — Mehreen may have killed him, but someone else stood to gain.

A Deeper Investigation

Hammad reopened the case files. According to Maheen, she had been asleep during the murder. But CCTV footage from the hallway showed a faint light under her door… precisely at the time of the poisoning.

When questioned earlier, she admitted letting Mehreen in but claimed she didn’t know her intent.

But the new evidence told a different story.

Maheen had also submitted Fizan’s will to the court just three days after his death. It transferred 90% of Fizan’s estate to her, leaving a mere pittance to his extended family.

A handwriting analyst confirmed: the signature was forged.

Now it was no longer a case of murder. It was premeditated conspiracy — cold, calculated, and executed in silence.

Confrontation Behind Bars

Hammad visited Mehreen in Adiala Jail. He sat across from her in the cold, concrete visitor’s room, her wrists in cuffs.

“I know you didn’t plan this alone,” he said flatly.

Mehreen offered a faint smile. “And yet, you let her walk.”

“She used you,” Hammad said. “Promised you something, didn’t she?”

Mehreen’s expression turned still. Then, in a whisper, she said:

“I loved him once. But she hated him every day.

She gave me the poison…

and a reason.”

She looked up. Her eyes no longer fearful — they burned with betrayal.

“You want the truth?” she asked. “Find the video he never meant anyone to see.”

Hidden Footage

With a court order, Hammad retrieved Fizan’s encrypted laptop from his private study.

Inside a folder labeled “Documents 2017,” hidden within layers of dummy files, was a single video file, timestamped two nights before the murder.

In the video, Fizan and Maheen were in the middle of a fiery argument.

Maheen: “If you rewrite the will, I swear to God, you’ll regret it.”

Fizan: “I won’t let you bleed me dry. This ends now. The will goes to my nephew.”

Her face — cold. Her voice — deadpan.

“Then I hope you enjoy your last meal with him.”

That was it.

Chilling. Undeniable.

The Real Mastermind

It wasn’t just murder.

It was a carefully timed coup masked as widowhood.

Maheen had manipulated Mehreen — using her jealousy, her emotional vulnerability, and her access.

She had orchestrated the poisoning, forged the will, arranged for the offshore transfer… and waited for it to unravel just as planned.

Until Mehreen broke the silence.

Arrest and Revelation

A second arrest was made.

Maheen was taken into custody in the middle of the night, calm and composed in her designer shawl. She offered no resistance.

In court, when the judge asked if she had anything to say, she smiled and replied:

“Sometimes, one lie isn’t enough to bury the truth…

You have to bury people.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Epilogue

Mehreen was convicted of second-degree murder.

Maheen — of criminal conspiracy, forgery, and manipulation with intent to kill.

Fizan’s estate was frozen, and the rewritten will deemed invalid. His nephew — a young boy named Daniyal — inherited his uncle’s legacy.

But the biggest truth?

"The Final Signal" wasn’t the word “Qasim.”

It wasn’t even the whisper: “Don’t tell anyone.”

It was the silent act of resistance — a phone clutched in death, a message left unfinished, a man refusing to let his killers win.

Because even in his last breath…

Fizan left behind a clue.