WASHINGTON D.C,

At midnight the street stood very silent.

The crowd in there had also reduced. Only pubs and B&Bs were open at the time in most places of there but cops never sleep. (Cops in night duty don’t) Still they were whistling near The White House.

Few miles away from there was a familiar house, wooden made, consisting big lawn and long parking level.

The area mostly stood quiet and that night too it stayed quiet. It was the perfect condition.

A perfect condition for men who were peeping at the house from the other side of the road. They were in a black dress with thermal glasses. In spite of those glasses which could detect any warm object, they had a torch in their hands which they had not lightened since their arrival there. Those two men didn’t talk to each other.

They waited until Mr. Hudson's and Mrs. Veronica's house lights were turned off.

"Just get in the damn house." said six feet tall 235 pounds Nathan Camshron.

"No, not now. Haq's house mustn't be underestimated as a less risky place." said six feet one inch 275 pounds man Mr. Meredink, Head of MPD, "See, Mrs. Veronica is going to have some water in the kitchen."

And Camshron saw ground floor of her house filled with illumination of fluorescent light. They waited until she was gone to her room.

"A diabetes patient." Camshron added, "Let's go, I don’t want her to come in toilet few minutes later."

They crept to Haq's house and without even looking at the empty parking area Camshron started hitting the door by his strong shoulder.

"Hey stop! You're waking up the neighbors."

SLAM!

The door flung open. Camshron was a very strong man and showed his power. Then they got into the empty house.

Camshron didn’t turn on the lights but started looking in dark by his glasses with a gun in his hand.

"No Mr. Meredink, no lights." Camshron stopped Mr. Meredink, who was just about to activate lights.

They got in upstairs and into the dead man's main room.

Camshron turned his torchlight and started searching for something a second later they entered inside the room.

"Nathan, two nights earlier you were speaking with Mr. Fernsby, then you vanished. He will kill you."

"It would be bad." said Camshron as he searched in the drawer of a cupboard.

"You think here's a basement too?"

"I doubt it."

"You were not sure? I bunked my meeting, and you have bunked two days in DSA Department. Now they should be searching for you. Not Bob."

"Not very sure. If I am right, I will find what I am searching for in this room." he said and focused his torch light on a passport sized photo of a person who looked like an American.

"Was it all you needed?"

"Yes it is."

"You skipped two days if your duty just for this?"

"I am on the case. Just not in the office. Mr. Fernsby will give it a pass."

"Why don’t you share with me what you are thinking?"

"I am thinking it will be unwise for me to speak my mind."

"You know what ripple can hiding things cause." whispered Mr. Meredink by switching off his torch light, "Search for anything else. I don’t want to get you into more controversies again."

He looked at the photo and began searching everywhere in the room, but no embassy papers were found.

"You're right Nathan, no papers." said amazed Meredink.

"It is the reason I want to find out about this person in the photo. He must be somehow linked with this."

"Who might be this guy?"

"For now he is just a random guy in a photograph."

"Are you kidding?"

"I am sharing to you what's in my head. I remember you desperate to know what I was thinking moments ago."

"I don’t see you making any progress, Camshron."

Camshron overheard him and the risks regarding all these carrying on. He heard his senior saying, "You can't get away from your absence by just a photo. There's no other convincing reason."

"Trust me. I will handle the things coming up after this."

"Killing has stopped..."

"I wanted it to be."

"…or may be paused for some reason. Don’t you feel you're wrong? Don’t you care about innocent lives?"

"Sir, you have forgotten something. I was a secret service AGENT while I was in Netherlands. I can kill…and have killed…"

"You are mentioning worthless facts now."

"We must be leaving now. People expect to see me at my desk tomorrow morning. There is a critical difference between two and three."

"Trust me, even one would have been too difficult to handle."

"Let's leave now."

"You would be an assistant detective's nightmare. Two days duty bunk, one hour peeping at neighbors, a fast toss in the house and what do you get? A photo- unidentified one!"

"I am not hard to work with. This work is just not everyone's nine-to-five thing."

"You need a room to stretch?" said Mr. Meredink as they were getting down the spiral stairs.

"I don’t know either. Tomorrow morning…I must be there."

"What will you do with this photo? How did it even end up here?"

"Tomorrow it ends up at my table."

"Hah!" Mr. Meredink scoffed

They got out of the house and locked the door.

"I can't believe MPD head is robbing a house with a CIA's controversial detective." said Mr. Meredink passing near to the parking area.

From nowhere bark of a dog prolonged and soon to its barks were audible as they were out of the gate.

Camshron noticed few dogs from his infrared glasses.

More than dogs' structure it was a red and yellowish body structure with slight traces of greenery.

"Hey! Who's there? You two cunts. Hey!" shouted someone.

Camshron recognized the voice, he never forgot the voice he has heard once.

He was Mr. Hudson.

A dazzling beam of torch light fell straight on their faces and before it could reach up to their faces, they had to run anyhow from there.

Both of them preferred running as a better option, after a while he was shouting, "Stop you crooks. Right there!"

Mr. Meredink got annoyed when he saw half a dozen of dogs running behind them and no doubt, they were going to get some bites.

—

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA,

"It would have been better if those dogs were tigers." Mr. Fernsby bellowed to Camshron, who was in his room. He had underwent through mild dressing and had been pierced by many anti rabies injections.

Some paramedics were hovering in the room until Mr. Fernsby told them aggressively to depart.

Nathan was embarrassed as well as ashamed, but had no regret.

"Look, you must go under our rules. Do you still think you are a private detective?"

Camshron sipped coffee and touches at the wound caused by the dog's claws on his forehead.

"Do you hear me?" Mr. Fernsby got offended by being ignored.

"Yes sir." said Camshron.

"I have had enough embarrassment from the director. I can't face it anymore. Either you work under rules or go back to your old job where you can do anything and anywhere."

"Sir, I'm very near to the culprit."

"You are arrogant. Tut! What's your next plan?"

"I was wondering if Colonel Norton…"

"Oh rubbish!" Mr. Fernsby slammed a glass of water on floor.

"…could help me. I have got this." and he took out a photo from under his pillow.

"Who's this man?"

"A connection to culprit. If I can just find out who this man is, then I can have more information about Bob."

"Okay! You got a photo! Wow!" Mr. Fernsby was just about to squeeze the photograph.

Mr. Fernsby got up and said, "Come to my desk at noon." When he was partially out of the door then said, "By the way, I have heard someone else is also bitten by dogs."

Then he went out of there without saying anything about what he knew about that event last night. Camshron was confused whether he was frank or dominant in him.

But who cared?

He just cared about the photograph. Of course it was not of Bob's. Why would the murderer's photo be in the victim's house? The question rose- was he the one who betrayed Haq and supported Bob?

If not then who was he?