Madjid’s murder is an offstage killing whose disclosure exposes both the violence surrounding Sapna and the grief Abdel Khader Khan cannot readily voice. Lin learns that Madjid was slaughtered in his own home, with the name Sapna written on the walls in his blood; afterward, the subject settles into a long silence between Lin and Khader.

The News and Its Circumstances

Khader tells Lin about the murder during a conversation that had turned to business. Lin is taken aback by the news. Khader, though visibly crying, keeps his voice composed and apologizes for his tears, explaining that the killing has taken its toll on him. His grief establishes the personal weight of the news before Lin knows its details.

Madjid was murdered in his own house. His body was found in different rooms, and the name Sapna had been daubed on the walls with his blood. The police blamed fanatics who followed Sapna. The account gives Lin and the reader a violent act, a conspicuous mark pointing toward Sapna, and an official attribution, but it does not establish who carried out the killing or whether that attribution is correct.

Grief and Silence

Lin later remembers that he asked Khader about Madjid only once, soon after the murder. Khader looked stricken with grief, and Lin let the subject drop. As days became weeks and weeks drifted into silent months, Lin found it increasingly difficult to raise Madjid’s name again. The murder remains present in his thoughts, but he does not admit those thoughts to Khader.

Instead, their conversations turn to business or philosophy. That contrast makes the silence consequential: the men continue to speak and share intellectual ground, while the loss that most visibly pains Khader remains outside their conversations. Lin understands the unasked question as a secret he, too, is keeping.

Narrative Significance

The murder reaches the narrative through its aftermath rather than through a depicted attack. Its defining image—the name Sapna marked on the walls—connects the death to the violence attributed to Sapna’s followers, while the scene of disclosure centers Khader’s grief and Lin’s response to it. The later recollection shows how a killing can persist not only as a criminal mystery, but as a subject that changes the terms of a relationship by becoming difficult to speak aloud.