Roy arrived four hours later with another man who did not speak. His tongue had been cut out during torture in the Iran/Iraq war.
There was a small rowboat attached to the roof of their old maroon colored Ford Taurus.
They quietly wrapped Geraldine’s body in a black plastic bag they had brought with them, and transferred it into the trunk in the dead of the night.
Then they drove to a deserted spot on the coast. Roy unpacked some tools from the trunk and laid them on the ground next to the body in the bag. Next, at Roy’s command, they all stripped naked.
"Kamal, you must learn to fix your own problems" explained Roy.
"Cut up the body" he ordered.
"I could never do that. I love her" said Kamal with a bowed head.
"If you don’t then if you are caught you will be executed or spend the rest of your life in jail. It is your choice. Choose wisely." said Roy rationally.
Eventually Kamal realized that he had no other choice.
Tears were streaming down his face as Kamal began to cut at Geraldine’s neck with his hunting knife. It was much more difficult to do than he had expected, he seemed to saw for hours before her hairless head finally separated and rolled across the wet ground.
Roy and the other man then drew their knives and dismembered the rest of the body.
They lifted down the rowboat from the top of the car. Inside was a lobster trap. Roy threw all the body parts except the head into the trap. They followed this by a few bricks to add weight. The other man put the boat in the water and put the trap inside. He rowed about half a mile offshore and threw the trap weighed down by the bricks over the side to feed the local lobster and crab population. They figured most of the flesh would be gone before morning anyway. The trap was rusty and it would soon breakup scattering the bones across the ocean bed.
The three men then went for a quick dip in the icy ocean to remove any blood and re-dressed.
Roy wrapped the head in another plastic bag and put it in the trunk of his car then drove them back to the hotel.
"Where are the keys to the girl’s car?" asked Roy.
"I am not sure. I think they are in Geraldine’s handbag inside the room."
"Get them. While you are there wipe down anything you touched to remove your fingerprints."
Kamal took a few minutes to wipe down the door knobs, bathroom taps and the bedhead. He found the handbag and brought it together with their other belongings out to Roy’s car.
Kamal gave Roy the keys, who in turn tossed them to the other man. Kamal rode with Roy.
They drove for an hour in convoy before they pulled into the woods and buried Geraldine’s head in a deep hole.
Kamal was comforted on the drive home by the feel of Geraldine’s red hair in the plastic bag in his pocket.
By the time they made it back to Boston it was morning. They parked the Volkswagen in the car park of a mall and then drove Kamal back to the Brotherhood building.
Back at the motel in Maine, the maid cleaned the empty room and unknowingly erased all remaining DNA evidence.
The next day Kamal was sitting quietly on his bed and spotted the bag containing Geraldine’s long red hair. He had thrown it on his desk when he unpacked his pockets before going to bed.
He opened the bag and kept running his fingers through the soft hair.
Later that day he took the hair to a custom jewelry manufacturer. The craftsman designed an amazing gold bracelet with the hair woven into the piece. The bracelet would take 6 weeks to make, and would become Kamal’s most treasured possession.
Chapter 13
Half way through a mathematics class two men in ill-fitting suits entered and strode to the front of the room.
"I am detective Mike Slattery" said the older shorter man.
"I am detective O’Brien" said the younger man who could have been a linebacker in another life.
"We are investigating the disappearance of a student by the name of Geraldine Flynn" explained detective Slattery.
"Has anyone seen her recently?" asked O’Brien.
One of the girls piped up and announced "She hasn’t been to class for a few days."
"How long exactly?" asked the big guy.
"I don’t think she has been to class all week" replied the girl.
"Anyone else seen her?" enquired O’Brien.
When there was no more information forthcoming from the students, Slattery walked to the front of the room and placed a handful of business cards on the desk "if any of you think of anything at all that might help us find Geraldine, please call me."
Ten minutes after the detectives left, Kamal’s heart was still racing. He thanked Allah that the bracelet was not scheduled to be complete for some time yet.
Chapter 14
There was a feint pounding on the door while Kamal was in the shower. He thought it was the caretaker, so he opened the door wrapped in only a towel.
Kamal tried to hide his surprise when detectives Slattery and O’Brien barged straight in.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kamal trying to sound in charge.
"How about we ask the questions lover boy?"
"All right, I understand. Go ahead and ask whatever you want. Just let me dress first."
The detectives made no attempt to leave Kamal alone as he quickly pulled on his clothes.
"Why didn’t you tell us at school yesterday that you were Geraldine’s boyfriend?" asked O’Brien.
"But I am not her boyfriend" said Kamal unconvincingly.
"We checked around. It seems Geraldine’s friends have heard about her mysterious lover, and you go sailing with her all the time. We put one and one together and we came up with you as Don Juan" explained Slattery falling into the good guy routine.
"Where is she, what have you done with her?" asked bad cop O’Brien.
"I have no idea what you are talking about" said Kamal sounding as indignant as he could.
"Then you won’t mind letting us take your fingerprints to compare them against her car that we found in a mall parking lot" said bad cop.
"Be my guest. What would be the point of that? Geraldine often picked me up and we went to the river together. We sailed a boat together."
"Ok, I guess that explains it" said good cop Slattery.
"Where were you last weekend?" asked O’Brien.
"Why I was here all weekend of course. We have exams next month. I was studying" explained Kamal.
"And the other students here will confirm that I guess?"
"I expect so, but I did spend most of my time here in my room."
"Did you eat with the others?"
"I don’t really remember. I know I had a pizza one evening."
"And you deny being Geraldine’s boyfriend?" asked Slattery.
"Of course I do, we were just friends, that’s all. Besides she was not Muslim anyway" said Kamal.
"What do you mean was?" asked O’Brien sharply.
"Is or was. Either way she is not Muslim, so we could not be together" explained Kamal trying not to dig a larger hole for himself.
"Don’t leave town" said O’Brien "Here is my card. Call me if you mysteriously remember anything you want to tell me."
The two detectives walked silently to their car. They knew never to discuss a case until they were out of earshot.
The older Detective Slattery asked O’Brien, "What do you think of Pashwari?"
"I think he knows lots more than he is telling us. My gut tells me that this he is up to his neck in this. Maybe this guy even murdered the girl and hid her body" said bad cop O’Brien, "what do you think?"