Chapter 43: "Red Herring"

Post your reactions as you read, pretty please!

First draft: April 22, 2021

Crying hysterically, Louisa sat balled up on the hospital seats lining the waiting area. Sarah rubbed the younger girl's back, looking a little lost. Consoling someone was never her forte. Salma got up to get water for Louisa, thinking she could do with a drink once the tears were all out.

"Hey."

Salma turned around to see Charlayne filling a water bottle from the nearby water dispenser. She gave Salma a tired smile.

"Hi." Salma nodded, caping her own bottle. "How're you?"

"Good." Charlayne replied. "How are things at your end? I heard Louisa found out she's the target."

Salma was a little shocked to know it was now common knowledge.

"I and Claire were around when the agent visited," she explained, noting Salma's questioning lack of response.

"I see," Salma replied. It made sense. What did not make sense was why Alex was stupid enough to announce it as if it was someone's engagement. Shouldn't information like this be treated with care? How was every one listening in and she did not bother?

"How's she holding up?"

"Not well." Salma sighed. "She'll be alright though. She's a tough one. How's Lena?"

"Same old," Charlayne replied. "The operation was successful -- oh, I almost forgot, Lena has requested to talk to you."

Surprised, Salma eyed her skeptically. Lena's dislike for Salma was no secret. Just before she got shot, she had tried to hit Salma. For her to ask to see her did not make any sense.

"Why?" she asked, confused by the request.

"She said she wanted to tell you something important about Zayn," Charlayne replied.

Salma's stomach clenched. She looked to Sarah sitting beside Louisa. With the junior around, she could not ask what Sarah thought of Lena's request, especially when Salma had not had the chance to explain the pre-shooting spat with Lena to her.

"I'll be there," Salma replied with a sigh.

Charlayne gave her a tight smile and patted her arm.

"Take care," she said.

Nodding at her, Salma turned to leave. She saw Louisa wipe away her tears. Her eyes were red and swollen.

Poor child, Salma thought as she walked towards the two girls. The news of being the target of the cold-blooded sniper attack had absolutely terrified her. Zayn, Salma and Sarah had agreed to keep the news from her for a while but unfortunately Louisa had visited the hospital in the morning when Alex was updating Lena's parents on what had happened and Louisa had heard it all.

Thankfully, Claire had been around. Zayn and Salma were meeting with Sarah and Jason discussing the best course of action when Claire had called him to get to the hospital. Zayn had asked Salma and Sarah to tag along.

"She's going to need you," he had told Sarah.

"I can try to comfort her but with Derek involved, I'm afraid the only help she can get is from you or Agent Wickfield," Sarah replied.

"Or Jason," Salma said.

"Hope he can do what he said he can," Zayn replied.

Zayn had told them what he had found out from Alex. The agent had confirmed all of the Green Coats analysis and followed up with Derek in connection to alleged correspondence with the sniper. The disgusting predator had an alibi ready.

"He claims his accounts have been hacked a fortnight ago," Zayn had said bitterly. "And that they had not yet been recovered from whoever hacked them."

Sarah scoffed.

"Convenient," Salma muttered.

"Alex ran it through forensics and his story adds up. An IP address traced to Russia has been asking him for ransom to decrypt his encrypted files and emails," Zayn continued.

"He probably paid a hacker to do it," Sarah said.

"I can bet on that," Zayn replied. "It's a load of tosh in my opinion. He's definitely tried to turn Louisa cold after she confronted him about the videos on the private servers."

"Thing is, Louisa is going to find out sooner or later, and for the better or the worse, so is professor R.K."

"She doesn't want her parents finding out about that," Jason said immediately.

"With an attack like that, how long can she keep all of it under wraps?" Salma raised a brow. "He's bound to find out."

"Derek has already threatened her with mailing her father all the videos," Sarah said. "It's like a gun to her head. He knows she wants to protect her parents from all the trauma and he keeps blackmailing her with that. Even if professor R.K finds out about the whole mess, Louisa does not want those videos to reach him. I can see where she's coming from. It's sickening to think of!"

Everyone was quiet.

"I think it's clear where to start," Zayn said after a while.

"Delete the videos from the server, at least." Sarah said matter-of-factly.

"Can we do that?" Salma asked, looking between the two of them.

"It's possible," Zayn said, "if we can hire a hacker of our own."

"I'd say encrypting them would be better than deleting them," Jason said, thinking hard. "This is evidence. At whatever point Louisa decides to press charges against him, the videos on that server would be needed to bring him down."

"Dude, we barely have the resource to take the videos down," Sarah scoffed. "You're talking encryption as if we have a CIA level hacker just waiting to be asked."

"We might," Jason replied.

Salma, Zayn and Sarah turned to him, surprised.

"I might know someone who might be able to take up on such a task," Jason said, chewing on his bottom lip thoughtfully.

"You serious?" Salma asked.

"Yeah," he said with a small smile.

Salma turned to Sarah and Zayn excitedly. She was feeling hopeful. However, her excitement was short-lived. Claire had called, making the three of them dash to the hospital while Jason deemed it fit to contact the hacker and start working on the videos. The clock was ticking. With Louisa finding out, they had even less time to act.

***

First draft: July 14, 2021

"I'll go visit Lena real quick," Salma said as she got up. She patted Louisa on her back comfortingly. "It's going to be alright, don't worry."

Sniffing, Louisa wiped her cheek and nodded. Salma smiled at her and took her leave, silently communicating with Sarah if she was okay with taking care of the junior alone. Sarah gave her a reassuring nod.

Feeling the knots in her stomach tightened, Salma rounded the corridor intensive care, where Lena was being treated. She had had a successful operation. The extent of the damage to her shoulder and arm could not yet be ascertained but her condition was now stable and she was out of harm's way.

Salma dreaded the conversation with Lena and almost prayed for her to be asleep or otherwise unavailable for a chat. She got a temporary respite. When Salma walked up to her room, she was told Lena's family was visiting. Salma felt relief washing over her.

Thank you, ya Allah! She said in her head as she promptly turned to leave.

So much was going on. Salma did not have the energy to dig deeper into what dirt - actual or perceived - Lena had on Zayn.

"You can wait, but I don't think you can see her today," a voice said.

Salma turned around to see Charlayne standing by the bench in the corridor. She looked drained. She and Claire had really had it rough with their friend getting shot.

"The doctors are limiting the number of visitors she can see," she smiled apologetically. "They said she needs rest."

Salma nodded in understanding.

"It's alright," she replied. "How's she doing?"

"Better." Charlayne sighed. "It was stressful but thankfully she's making good progress."

"It's taken a toll on you guys too," Salma said.

Charlayne smiled in exhaustion, massaging her neck.

"I think we'll be alright," she replied. "I was just leaving for a coffee break."

"I'll join you." Salma smiled, suddenly feeling pretty tired herself.

They started walking down the corridor together.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" Salma asked.

"Sure," Charlayne smiled.

"Do you know what Lena said about Zayn before she got shot?" Salma began. "About a student dying in his high school?"

Charlayne shook her head sadly.

"I don't know much," she replied. "Lee's cousins and Zayn went to the same high school. Carmen was a friend of Zayn's. He died while they were in school. She thinks he is to blame for it."

"How?" Salma asked, perturbed.

"Can't be sure, but Zayn's rather volatile, isn't he?" Charlayne said apologetically. "I mean no offense, given ya'll are going out and stuff, but he can be pretty toxic. Maybe he'd done something which made her believe he was to blame for Carmen's early death. I'm quite confused myself, to be honest. Lee worshipped Zayn. It doesn't make sense that she blamed him for her cousin's death all along. She was either overlooking his toxic side or believed that he could be better. Nothing makes sense."

Salma stayed quiet. Charlayne was right. Indeed, nothing made sense at all.

"Does she even like him?" Salma asked after a while. "Her behavior before the shooting - it's like you said, it made no sense?"

"I don't know. I think she was just really upset so she said the most hurtful things she could say to him." Charlayne replied as they walked into the café. "I really can't stand Zayn but I see him with you and I think maybe Lee was right and he can be a decent person. It's just that she realized he was never going to reciprocate her feelings for him and that really hurt her, I suppose."

"Scarlett?" Zayn's voice carried over, making the two girls turn their attention to the coffee bar.

"Zayn? My God, what a surprise?" a beautiful red-head waiting for her order, replied. "Hi! How have you been?"

Salma blinked when the lady hugged him.

"I've been better," Zayn replied.

Scarlett laughed.

"I heard about the whole mess. I'm sorry for the -"

A ringing phone interrupted her. She struggled to pulled her phone out of her purse.

"I'm sorry, I have to take this."

"Sure." Zayn smiled.

Salma was watching the whole exchange, slightly perplexed. Charlayne cleared her throat to grab her attention.

"That's Carmen's sister," she pointed at the lady. "Scarlett Walker."

Salma brow furrowed.

"They were in high school together?" she asked.

"Yes," Charlayne confirmed. "From what I know Scarlett was pretty territorial over him. She was quite the bully back then. Beating people up and stuff."

The wheels in Salma's head started whirring. She eyed the woman with the side parting neatly styling her flame red hair. Scarlett was dressed to perfection in her dark business suit and high heels. She had a hand resting on Zayn's arm as she continued talking over her phone.

Was that the girl from Will's story? The girl who had a claim over Zayn and beat Lenny up for being friends with him?

"What is she doing here?" Salma said out loud.

"Probably visiting her cousin," Charlayne replied the obvious.

Right. Salma thought. She's Lena's cousin.

Hold on a minute . . . Does that mean Lena isn't Lenny? Salma thought out of blue, getting muddled. Zayn's past was more shady than Sthooriya's politics.

"No offense, you can go say hi," Charlayne said, "but I'd excuse myself. Meeting Scarlett with Zayn's around is a recipe for disaster. She's unpleasant if she considers you a threat."

"Seriously?" Salma's scowl darkened as she watched the Scarlett get off her phone and turn to Zayn with a dazzling smile. Her crimson painted lips going perfectly with her hair and her name.

"I'm going to go see Lena." Scarlett smiled apologetically. "Dad managed to convince the doctor so I have to . . ."

"I'm getting myself a coffee," Salma said stubbornly, her eyes zeroed on the physical embodiment of a perfect professional lady.

"Okay, then." Charlayne replied, looking both impressed and scared. "Good luck."

Salma marched into the café just when the immaculately dressed woman grabbed her coffee from the barista.

"It's such a shame we could not have a proper chat," Scarlett was saying, "but we'll catch up in a couple of minutes. We need to go through all the details."

"That would be lovely," Zayn replied with a tight lipped smile.

"It was nice running into you," she made an attempt to hug him again. Zayn backed off.

"No more hugs, Ma'am!"

She pouted.

"Oh, I've heard about it all," she said matter-of factly, and smacking his shoulder, she hugged him all the same. "I'll keep it in mind for the next time though."

"I'm grateful," Zayn mocked exhaustion.

They laughed before Scarlett pushed past Salma.

"Excuse me, please," she said, rushing towards the exit. Zayn turned around to wave at her when he saw Salma standing a few paces away.

"Let me guess, you want a coffee?" He smiled.

"Yep." Salma pursed her lips as she stepped up the line.

"Your coffee, sir," the barista behind Zayn placed his order on the counter.

"Thank you," Zayn smiled at the man before walking over to Salma. "Here?"

"I'm not taking your coffee." Salma shook her head.

"It's not a bother. I already had one."

"And you ordered the other because . . ?"

"I knew you would want one," Zayn provided. Salma fixed him with a 'not amused' stare. "I'm not kidding. Check your phone."

Frowning, Salma took her phone out of her pocket to see two texts from Zayn

Zayn: Are you still with Lou?

Zayn: Fancy a coffee or something?

Salma felt a confusing mix of emotions. She was generally confused and skeptical about everything she had discussed with Charlayne and witnessed, but she felt a streak of warmth at his thoughtfulness.

"Impressed by how nice I am?" he asked smugly.

"No." Salma deadpanned.

Zayn laughed. Cracking a small smile, Salma accepted the coffee he offered.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Zayn smiled. "I suppose it's a good thing I ran into my lawyer, otherwise I might have missed you on your way here."

"Your lawyer?"

"Yeah," Zayn pointed at the exit. "The red-headed lady. I wanted to discuss Louisa's situation with her but she had to dash."

"I see." Salma bit her lip, not sure if Zayn was lying or telling the truth. He really didn't have a reason to lie to her. Unless --

"Bee?" Zayn eyed her questioningly. "Is everything alright?"

"Of course," Salma snapped out of her confusing thoughts.

"How's Louisa?"

"Better I think," Salma replied. "I left her with Sarah."

"Poor Lou." Zayn sighed.

Salma nodded in agreement. They walked in silence, each following their own train of thoughts. Salma stopped when they entered the main hall. Zayn turned to her.

"I have to go visit Lena," she said.

Zayn's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I ran into Charlayne earlier," Salma explained. "She said Lena wanted to see me, but her family is on the visit so I decided to take a walk."

Zayn was quiet for a while, his frown deepening.

"I've heard they're limiting the number of visitors she can have," he said. "She's already had the permitted number."

"Oh," Salma said quietly. She already knew that.

"Why did Lena wanted to meet you?" Zayn asked the question Salma had been expecting.

She took the chance to confront him on the matter.

"I suppose she wanted to tell me about the kid that died in your high school," Salma said quietly, carefully studying his face.

Zayn's expressions changed. His features hardened. Salma swallowed, bracing herself.

"What was she talking about Zayn?" she asked. "Why did she say you killed a student?"

Zayn's phone started ringing before he could reply. Still searching her questioning eyes, he pulled his phone out and attended the call.

"Yeah, I'm still around," he replied, his jaw set and eyes hard. "Perfect. I'll be there."

Opportunity to talk wasted, I guess. Salma turned away from him and released a shaky breath. Zayn hung up the call.

"Come with me," he said.

Salma turned to him in surprise.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see," Zayn replied as he held his hand out instead of just grabbing hers this time. Salma's eyes went to and fro between him and his hand. She took his hand. Zayn led the way out of the hospital, his hold gentle and pace normal.

"And where are you two headed?"

Salma and Zayn turned around to the source of the question. Spogmae was standing next to the entrance door, watching.

"Out." Salma pointed behind her.

"You do realize 'out' can't be done so casually anymore," Spogmae replied. "You're supposed to inform your shadow before going 'out'."

"I wasn't - we're not going out of the hospital premise, right?" Salma turned to Zayn.

"No," Zayn replied, moving Salma and himself to the side to let a people pass. "Just the lawn outside. Next to the parking."

"I didn't think it required a pre-information," Salma told Spogmae.

"Alright," Spogmae nodded. "Be careful. With all the bullets flying around, your outdoorsy activities really gives us a stomach ache."

"I thought the target wasn't her," Zayn said shrewdly. "Why the extra measures?"

"These aren't extra measures." Salma sighed.

"Precisely. They've been in place for a while now," Spogmae confirmed. "Also, she's always the target. You can never not be too careful."

Spogmae fixed Zayn with a very pointed stare. Salma wondered if she was trying to let him know the Green Coats are not around only when they have a threat warning. They are always around.

"We have to go." Salma gave Spogmae a tight smile.

She tugged at their intertwined hands, prompting Zayn to move. The Green Coats strict gaze was making her feel uneasy, even though it was boring holes in Zayn's skull, not hers.

"Doesn't it get overwhelming?" Zayn asked. Salma knew he meant the strict surveillance.

"I know things could get worse." She shrugged. "If I don't cooperate or try to sneak around the loopholes, people may get hurt."

Salma felt Zayn squeezing her hand.

"I really hope things work out for you," he said quietly.

"I know they will, Inshaa'Allah."

"This way." he said tugging at her hand.

Zayn turned to a pavement down the left. In what seemed like a totally casual move, he dropped her hand, and draped his arm around her shoulder instead, pulling her closer. Stifling a shiver, Salma glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He waved at someone near the parking lot. Salma followed his line of vision and froze with shock to see who waved back.

The professional looking redhead. Lena's cousin's, Zayn's high school fellow and admirer, Carmen Walker's sister and Lenny's bully.

She was supposedly Zayn's lawyer and someone who was still territorial over him and they were walking straight towards the car she was standing next to.

Why was Zayn taking Salma to see Scarlett Walker?

Author's Note:

Oh dear! *rubs hands excitedly* The bullying, redhead from Will's High School story is here? What do you think she's like?

Drop your theories about Scarlett and who she actually is?

Vote, comment and share. Drop by my patreon.

Lots of Love.

J.