ArShi FS: Cloaked Murderer Last part pg 30 - Page 18

Arnav was sitting leisurely on Anjali's couch with Aman beside him. The dark had prevailed again and it was almost 8 at night, but this time promising to bring out justice to the women who uselessly lost her life.

"Do you think our fish will come?" questioned Aman in a glum tone.

"Of course our fish will come."

"But, what if the fish came and went also"said Aman.

"Aman, I saw our fish outside our office when we were coming here in the car" confessed Arnav.

"You mean…" said Aman his tubelight brain finally flicked and he understood that the murderer was waiting for them to go and meet the inspector before coming here.

"I guess our fish is coming"said Aman in a low tone as soon as he heard the sound of footsteps.

The door opened, and in the darkness Arnav and Aman could see the human figure moving beside the door to switch on the light.

"Caught you!" Arnav said grinning at the expected face he saw.

Aman rose to his foot and rushed to close the door through which the murderer was trying to escape.

"Not so soon" he declared.

"Aman, let's get this murderer to the police station because I believe that all the other suspects deserve an explanation as well" spat Arnav as he stood up and walked past the murderer, not even sparing one glance to the latter!

"Let's go!" ordered Aman.

"But……I…"

The Murderer was not allowed to speak any further as Aman ushered the latter out of the room.

****

By now, everyone present at the police station was aghast seeing the real convict. Never in their wildest dreams had any of them thought that this innocent looking person could be the murderer of her best friend.

Payal Gupta sat on the chair, head lowered, eyes staring at the floor and hands handcuffed!

"So, Mrs. The murderer will you speak, or shall I speak for you?" asked Arnav as he took his place beside a police officer who was himself stunned.

"I didn't do anything," answered Payal in a venomous tone.

"Payal, where were you when Anjali was murdered?" asked Arnav altering his question.

"I…was at home and you can ask Khushi, I even called her when I reached home," answered Payal.

"Payal what is the approximate distance between your house and Anjali's house?"

"By car, it takes 45 minutes to the least. When I called Khushi it was around eight and I was at home at that moment and the second time I called khushi I came to know about Anjali's murder and I immediately left the house and by the time I reached Anjali's mansion, you people were already there, so how could I have murdered Anjali" answered Payal pleased with her satisfying argument.

"Payal, I'm not a fool, you see! And you yourself just admitted that your house is 45 minutes away from Anjali, then how did you reach Anjali's mansion in around 25 minutes that night?" counter questioned Arnav.

"Khushi, do you remember receiving a call from Payal when I was talking to you that night," when Khushi nodded, Arnav continued, "After that, me and Aman inspected the balcony area for around 20 minutes, say 23 minutes to the extreme and by the time we were down Payal was already there. And yeah, don't question me about time because I know my time very well and if I say I spent 20-23 minutes in the balcony then you better not argue with me."

"Did you by any chance fly and come there, Payal" Joked Aman receiving a glare from Arnav in return.

"That was your first mistake, and I did miss on that piece of information but when Aman talked about distance, and taxi, it finally clicked in me that your house was quite far from Anjali's then how come you reached there in so less time" clarified Arnav.

"Next," continued Aman, "When we started assessing what you told us, we realized that you said that on the day before Anjali's murder you met Anjali at the office and that's when she revealed to you about her will change. Anjali was murdered on Monday, so the day you supposedly met her at the office was Sunday. But Sundays are given off as a holiday at Anjali's firm, and moreover on Sunday she usually spend her time with her daughter, so how could you have met her, and uhh yeah, by the way if you want to contradict me here saying that Anjali had an emergency that day and bla bla bla, well, you better not think about it because we confirmed from your office's watchman that on that particular day, neither you nor Anjali came to the office. We became confused here and thus we again went to meet Mr. Roy, Anjali's lawyer!" finished Aman as he waited for Arnav to start with his explanation.

"He didn't help much, but when we told her that you leaked this piece of information to us, he himself was shock. He revealed that Anjali was a detached type of person. She didn't trust anyone in her life, and he confirmed to us that Anjali couldn't have revealed the will issue to you since she wanted to assure confidentiality in this matter!" stated Arnav coldly.

"By that time, every evidence was pointing towards you but still, we didn't have something concrete against you so we continued going in-depth. We decided that we needed to know about your relationship with Anjali these days, so we went to your office, and lucky were we, when we met Miss Sara, the secretary of Anjali and the watchman gossiping out. We started questioning them and they told us that these days the two of you were not in talking terms and Anjali was not even driving you back home. This brought into question again the fact that Anjali couldn't reveal the will issue to you since you people were not addressing each other" finished Arnav as he looked around to notice the shocked face of everyone.

"But still, we didn't understand how you could reach Anjali's house in such a less time and that's when Aman said that if you murdered Anjali, your clothes would at least contain some blot of blood. I took a wild guess that maybe you went to some place close-by, changed your clothes and came back here pretending to be a good sister!"

"Fortunately, Anjali lived in a relatively remote area where only rich people live. We knew that you wouldn't have gone in the close neighborhood to search for a place knowing that it might be dangerous for you. So we took the help of the police force to search for place you could have gone,"

"Uhh Khushi, can you please tell me if Payal called you that day?" asked Arnav suddenly.

"Yes, she did, I was feeding Divya down, and she called me and asked when I would leave from there…" answered Khushi numb.

"So, I was right!" said Arnav winking at Aman, "She called Khushi to ask her to leave from there because she never wanted Khushi to be involved in all these. But when she came to know that Khushi was stuck with the police, she rushed here, and this took her around 15-20 minutes. And I was right to guess that she was at a place situated within 15-20 minutes distance from here, and thus the police searched all the areas situated within that time frame distance…"

"But," Khushi interrupted Arnav, "I told Jiji that I can't leave Divya unfed, and that meant that I wanted to meet Anjali before I go. So…."

"I thought once you will see Anjali you will run away from there. I knew you would be shocked when you see Anjali's corpse, and that's why I gave you some time to come out of it and I called you again after some time. I thought that you will tell me about Anjali and I will suggest you to run away from there but when I called, the police…." Payal answered Khushi's confusion, knowing that she couldn't run away from the law this time.

"Wrong Payal, you didn't give her time to come out of the shock, rather you gave yourself time to deck up and go at home. However, your plan went down the track when the police was informed," snarled Arnav.

"What could I do, I didn't know that Khushi would want to meet Anjali before coming home. However, when Khushi told me that Anjali was sleeping I knew that this was the perfect opportunity to attack, so I climbed up through the pipe, murdered Anjali and I went slowly out of the room, I wanted to rush out through the back door but I saw Khushi standing up and it seemed that she was coming upstairs, so I hid in the room beside" spat Payal, her face full of remorse.

"This explains the foot prints we found in the next room. Anyway, where was I, uhh yeah, I asked the police to find the place and through the investigations, we came to know that you went to Purple's orchid Hotel. I went there, and the receptionist I talked to, immediately remembered you because you acted very weirdly. He told me that you went to that hotel on Monday evening, you checked in with relatively little luggage. And then, at around 7.30 pm you went out wearing a tracksuit and tennis and you had a small bag in your hand. The receptionist found that weird because you seem to go jogging at that hour despite the fact that it's freezing outside. You made him doubt you more, when you checked in the hotel, this time wearing a black cloak. He revealed to me that you looked pretty scared, thus you hurried to your room. You apparently took a bath, washed roughly your tracksuit drenched with blood, called Khushi and upon knowing that she was stuck, you hurried to meet her" concluded Arnav.

"But apparently," said Aman taking on the lead, "you left behind important clues, your clothes, your gloves, your bag, your shoes and most importantly the weapon. You were clever enough to wash of Anjali's blood from the knife, but not smart enough because our forensic docs found traces of blood on the knife you left in your bag."

"I didn't forget that, I was shaken up when I heard that Khushi was stuck here. That's why I checked out, thinking that I will come and take back the things the following day. However, today with the investigation…" answered Payal.

"Yeah, you were busy," retorted Arnav sarcastically, "your plan was good Payal, but it had too many loopholes. However, I have to appreciate your smart brain, you tried to put the blame on the poor servants, but Payal, one thing I can't understand, how did you send the message to….."

"Finally, there is something that our smart detectives couldn't guess, well, I have been stalking Anjali for many days so that I can find a reason to put the blame on somebody else. And I was rewarded, because that Monday went to meet her lawyer and I heard part of her conversation where she said that she wanted to change her will, and I knew I got a perfect goat that I could sacrifice, that's why I went and sent the message to OP, I also threw the phone in a ravine so that it wouldn't become an evidence" said Payal clearing everyone's confusion.

"For once, I did doubt the OP's, but then later I realized that you plotted all this against the OP. I noticed how you always gave too much detail and you were fidgeting a lot when you were in front of me. Not only OP, I doubted Akash even, but then the lawyer told me that Anjali changed her will and now if ever Anjali died Akash would benefit from her entire property. Anjali had changed her will because she felt that it would be better to hand in the responsibility of Divya to her own family rather than to the servants. Moreover, the lawyer told me that Akash was being helped financially by Anjali because she kind of felt that Akash was being deprived of his rights, and that's why we ruled our Akash because he would not have been stupid enough to kill his piggy bank and moreover, sooner or later the property might have been his so he didn't need to murder his own sister to get her property. Akash, had you told us the truth earlier we would have been saved from much trouble" said Arnav.

In reply Akash lowered his head knowing he was guilty of hiding the truth.

"Payal, you know, Anjali might have died just because of the heavy dose of chloroform, but you stabbed her many times uselessly and dug your own grave, now shall I reveal the reason of this murder or will you grace us with your explanations" shouted Aman as he tried to control his anger.

"Shyam!" answered Payal.

"What, I didn't do anything, she is lying," shouted Shyam in his defense.

"Shyam and I were in love with each other, until Anjali started showing her interest in him. We were good friends and I liked Anjali a lot but what could I have done when she snatched my Shyam away from me. When Shyam asked me break up, I complied because I thought sooner or later he will come back to me, but when I saw him happy with Anjali, I couldn't bare it…I felt suffocated….and…." Payal couldn't continue her statement as she broke into sobs.

"Payal, I wished you could see that Shyam was just after her money, he is a greedy person and for people like him emotions or feelings doesn't mean a thing" said Arnav whilst glaring at Shyam

Payal composed herself and said "I know he was very greedy, but Anjali was no less. Despite the fact that she knew that I loved Shyam, she still made him broke up with me. She used to call him in her cabin all the times, gave him money, gave him promotions, in short she used to do all the things where I failed. I hated the fact that I couldn't give Shyam money whenever he wanted, I hated myself for not being able to be the sophisticated person that Shyam always wanted to be with, I hated myself for not being Anjali..."

"So you though by killing Anjali you would be able to get Shyam?" questioned Aman.

"Anjali would be out of the way, and I would finally get Shyam," finished Payal with a Cheshire smiled adorning her tearful face.

"I think she needs psychiatric help," said Aman looking at Payal who looked utterly unstable for the moment.

"Let the court decide that Aman,"

"My works done, officer, I take your leave now!" announced ASR.

"Thank you ASR and Aman, without your help, this case wouldn't have been solved so soon. But one thing I didn't understand, you said that you found another evidence at Anjali's mansion but you didn't brought it here" said the senior Inspector.

Arnav rolled his eyes, thinking who made this dumb person a senior inspector. Nevertheless, he replied, "Sir, that was a ploy we used to catch Payal, red-handed! We already knew the murderer before we talked to them today, however we still had no concrete evidence as our doctors didn't still find blood traces on the weapon which was found with Payal's things. When we were going to Anjali's mansion, the forensic doc informed us about what they found and so we expected Payal to be there!"

"You people can leave now," declared Arnav seeing the crowd of suspects still there.

"And we are sorry if we have said anything wrong to you during the investigation," Aman said much to Arnav's displeasure. He would never understand why after the end of their every case Aman would say that to all his suspects.

The crowd moved out slowly still not able to accept that Payal was indeed the criminal.

"I will come to meet you, Shyam, soon, wait for me," said Payal upon seeing that Shyam was moving out of the police station.

As soon, as she came out, Khushi broke into sobs. She still couldn't believe that her dear sister could commit such a heinous act. For whom would she live now that her sister would be convicted of a murder? Losing her parents was rather easy to overcome however, now that her sister would be punished who would help her come out of it?

As if on cue, she felt her tears being wiped away by strong yet warm hands. Looking up, her eyes met with Arnav's and for some time Khushi's all haunting questions flew away. Hadn't it been for Aman who interrupted them, yet again much to the displeasure of Arnav, the eye lock would have continued till hours.

"By the way, Khushi, can I have your phone number please?"

"What the!" growled Arnav

"What?" asked Khushi.

"It's an order Khushi, give me your phone number" said Aman.

Khushi gave her number reluctantly, thinking that she may be needed during for court stuffs.

"I'm taking your phone number so that I can contact you when you decide to kill the great ASR with your charming eyes," chuckled Aman much to the embarrassment of Arnav.

"And don't worry, I will pass on your number to this stupid fellow who wouldn't dare to ask your number," added Aman before walking to his car deciding to give the couple some time alone.

Arnav turned to look at khushi who was looking here and there; clearly avoiding him!

"uhh….Aman…was…."stammered Arnav.

"It's okay, anyway I need to leave now bye," announced Khushi.

Arnav bit his tongue in frustration before saying, "Khushi, can I?"

Khushi smiled in spite of herself, nodded and rushed away from there.

***

"Dude, you came so early? I thought you were going to have some hours of staring session" asked Aman in a mischievous tone.

"Shut up"

Aman shrugged.

"Uhh, give me her number" said Arnav.

No reply.

"Aman, are you hearing me" bellowed Arnav.

"Wow, dude, chill, didn't you just ask me to shut up"

"Phone number, Aman"

"Desperate much" laughed Aman before saying, "Ok, ok I will give you before you actually kill me."

~The End~

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