It wasn't meant to end like this. Four colleagues lying in boxes in a seedy mortuary in a squalid Afghan hospital. In the fairy tales, the villains always lose and the heroes and heroines are set free.
But tragically this was not the case for journalists Harry Burton, Maria Grazia Cutuli, Julio Fuentes and Azizullah Haidari who left this hotel in Jalalabad at 8.30 a.m. on Monday en route for Kabul. They never returned alive. It is still unclear who murdered my colleagues. The consensus is it was the work of one of the various disaffected mujahideen factions roaming the region.
Two Swedish colleagues and I had contemplated travelling in the same convoy to the Afghan capital. As we had only arrived in Jalalabad on Saturday night, we decided to stay for one more day.
The murdered journalists and approximately 15 other colleagues gathered in the lobby of the Spinghar Hotel after breakfast. All were in good spirits and looking forward to getting to Kabul. At 2.45 on Monday five of the seven-car convoy returned to the hotel, distressed and shocked. They told how the top two cars, carrying the four murdered journalists, had been stopped at a bridge 50 miles from Kabul.
One of the drivers said he saw two of the journalists being pushed towards a river and shot from behind. They reportedly pleaded with their captors for their lives.
Several convoys of journalists had driven along the road to Kabul from Jalalabad up until Monday. One group of Filipino reporters were held up and robbed on Sunday.
The volatility of the situation in the region was reflected in the frantic attempts by journalists and embassies to organise a rescue mission. Pockets of Taliban and Arab fighters loyal to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden are believed to be roaming parts of the country.
Eventually a local commander was dispatched by the Eastern Province governor to lead a rescue party.
Late on Monday night the commander returned to the Spinghar to say he was fired on when he reached the provincial border. He said it was too dangerous to go on.
Yesterday morning an International Red Cross Committee ambulance, with armed security, set out at 7.30 a.m. to the scene.
It arrived back in Jalalabad yesterday afternoon with everyone's worst fears confirmed. The bodies of the journalists were found. They had lain on the roadside all night and it was reported the shoes of three were stolen.