Remember Cloaked Murderer and Arnie as a detective?đ˛
Well this one is a follow up of that OS and well, here again the situations are entirely different from CM!
Hope you like it as much as u did for the first oneđł
Happy Readings!đ
Part 1
Arnav sat in his office, analyzing the facts. Crime was increasing in India, and as much as it was his job to find the criminals, he couldn't help but loathe his job. How much he would have wanted if this country was free from all sorts of crime. His intense thoughts were disturbed when he heard the voice of his superior ACP Khurana.
Standing up out of respect, he welcomed the elderly person. Behind the ACP was Aman who looked rather pleased this morning.
ACP spoke, breaking the silence, "ASR I have something important to announce."
"Yeah, Sir" said Arnav hinting that he was all ears.
"Well, I know that you don't like any other person interfering in your work and nor do you need any other officer because seriously both of you are more than enough for those stupid bunch, but..." ACP stopped as he looked on Arnav's blank face. He was more than sure that his next words won't please his most efficient officer. Nevertheless, he continued, "But, well, a very talented girl who recently graduated from a very prestigious university wanted to work under you. Well, when her father told me that she needed some training first before she actually goes into the real thing, I could think only of you. You would be able to guide her well and I promise you that she won't interfere..."
"That's ok sir," said Arnav in a stern voice, "Where is she?" asked Arnav in spite of himself.
"Khushi, you may come in!" announced Aman with all his teeth out.
Arnav could roll his eyes as he realized why Aman was looking so pleased this morning.
In came a girl in her early twenties, dressed in a simple traditional outfit that made her look ethereal even in her simple clothes.
"Well, Khushi I'll leave you here with ASR, I'm sure working with him will help you tremendously" said the ACP before leaving.
"Hi, Arnavji, you don't know just how glad am I to meet you today, I mean you have always been an inspiration for me and I admire you a lot and..."chirped Khushi before being interrupted be Arnav.
"Its ASR for you ok," Arnav looked at khushi's face, satisfied that she looked scared, he continued, "Now that you are here, you have to work and make that brain of yours work as well. Moreover, I dislike talkative person, so better keep that in mind."
Khushi merely nodded.
"By the way, why did you choose this field particularly?" Prodded Arnav.
"Well, since childhood I've been fascinated by this type of job and it's always been my dream so I didn't have to think much before choosing this field" blubbered Khushi.
Their conversation was cut short when the office phone rang.
Arnav picked up the phone listening attentively, whilst Aman moved close to khushi .
"When the office phone rings, it means some form of crime has happened," whispered Aman.
As if on cue, Arnav having already kept down the receiver by now bellowed, "Let's move!"
Aman and khushi quickly followed Arnav to his SUV.
***
"Who found the corpse?" asked Arnav in an urgent tone!
"Sir, these 2 boys!" mumbled the constable whilst bringing NK and Karan forward.
"Sir, we didn't do anything...we were..Just..."stammered NK.
"You don't need to justify yourself if you didn't do anything! Anyway, how did you find the corpse?" asked Arnav again.
"Sir, we were swimming when NK legs got entangled in some kind of a chord. I tried to help him and whilst I was trying to get his legs free, I knocked against the corpse and fell in the water..." answered Karan this time, rather confidently.
"Sir, the chord they are talking about was the one which the murderer used to tie the plastic bag with weight balls!" exclaimed the constable.
"Weight balls," riposted Aman.
"Probably to prevent the body from floating so that nobody notices it," suggested Khushi.
Aman nodded, already appreciating Khushi's skills.
"Anybody would have guessed that Miss Khushi," challenged Arnav.
"I did not," countered Aman!
Arnav's glared at both of them before continuing, "Ok, the two of you may go, if I need you I'll call you,"
The two boys nodded and went away. One in his completely calm demeanor whilst the other was still nervous...and fidgeting!
"The corpse is decomposed as per what you said on the phone, so is there anything from which we can identify him?" questioned Aman rather seriously now.
"No sir, "murmured the constable who then led them nearer to the corpse which was being studied.
"Anything" initiated Arnav as he looked on the thoroughly decomposed body.
"It's been many days since (s)he's been killed, weeks maybe. The body is utterly decomposed but we can still get something out of this dead body. But first we need to bring that to my lab, though for sure I can tell you that I wouldn't be able to construct the victims face again!" announced the forensic expert.
"Hmm, Ok, take it, I'm sure the dead body would like to talk to you in private" grinned Arnav as he gave the permission to take the body away.
Arnav and Aman went closer to the river, while Khushi stayed back. Something shining caught her eye as she moved to the area where the corpse had been previously kept.
"ASR, there's something here," shouted Khushi announcing her discovery.
Arnav strode near her, kneeled down and saw what could potentially be a very important clue.
"A watch!" exclaimed Aman as he moved closer to the couple.
Arnav put on his gloves and took the watch. "Precisely a Rolex watch," corrected Arnav.
***
A victim.
With no face
A very clever Murderer
A Rolex watch.
That was all he had!
"ASR," Khushi's sweet voice broke the chain of his thoughts.
"Sir, I did some research about Rolex watches, uhhh, can you hand it to me, please?" demanded Khushi.
Arnav handed it to her.
"Sir, according to what I found, this brand of Rolex watch is waterproof which means that it can stay under watch for 24-48 hours approximately. The watch stopped on August 30th which means that the murder might have happened on 28th or 29th August," completed Khushi quite satisfied with her work."
"And ASR," added Aman just as he entered Arnav's cabin, "Rolex watched usually have a serial number and if this is a real Rolex, not an imitation, we might be lucky to get the name of the purchaser."
"Hmm ok, have you contacted the supplier of..."
"Yeah ASR, already did so, and we simply have to wait for any information now."
"Good"
They had to wait another 5 minutes before they could get any more information about the Rolex watch.
Aman cut down the call as he spelled out what he's been told, "The Rolex watch is of a certain Mr. Akash Malhotra. He bought it around 1 and a half year ago in India itself, apart from that Mr. Akash only gave his contact number. But, that would be useless because we aren't going to call the dead now, are we," laughed Aman at his own joke.
"Shut up, Aman, and go and find everything that you can get about this Akash!"
"Yeah, ASR!"
Aman went away as Arnav and Khushi discussed about the case.
Some 20 minutes later Aman came back with a single piece of paper with him.
"Surprisingly there is barely any information about this Akash. Neither traveling clues nor any bank accounts from which we could have got something! But, yeah he was a tenant at some Shyam Manohar Jha's for around 6 months and we've been able to get his contact number," informed Aman.
"That's weird, anyway call him," ordered Arnav.
"Yeah, but before that, I just met our forensic doc and he told me that it would be extremely difficult for the body identification, unless they get a photo or something which they will compare with the dead body's physic and guess whether that's Akash or not!" said Aman.
"Hmm, ok, dial that Shyam's number first," proclaimed Arnav.
Aman dialed the number and handed over the receiver to Arnav.
After a few rings a man with a calm voice answered the phone.
"Hello," he greeted.
"Hi, is that Mr. Shyam Jha speaking?" asked Arnav.
"Yes," was the answer.
"Well, this is Detective Arnav Singh Raizada speaking to you, actually we found a corpse which seems to be that of your previous tenant, Mr Akash Malhotra..."Arnav gave some time to Shyam to get over the news.
"So," answered Shyam almost immediately in a calm tone.
"He was your tenant right," counter questioned Arnav.
"Yes" came the answer again
"For six months?"
"Yeah!" he replied.
"Ok, so any idea about who the murderer might be?" asked Arnav.
"No" was the straight answer, "I haven't met him since the past one year, in fact he went to Canada and I shifted geographically and since then I didn't hear of him."
"Oh ok," replied Arnav, "Uhh, by the way I was wondering if you had any photograph of Mr. Akash, this would help us to identify the body."
After some seconds of silence, Shyam answered in an urgent tone "Sure, sure will send it to you."
"Would it be possible to send it via mail," asked Arnav.
"Sure, give me the e-mail address," he beseeched.
Arnav recited the E-mail address and placed the receiver back to its holder contemplating over what happened just now.
"He sounded to calm for my liking. At least after sharing the same house with a person for 6 months I would have expected Mr. Jha to be a little taken aback," fretted Arnav.
"Maybe he knew about the murder or maybe he is even involved in it," suggested Khushi.
Arnav nodded though he knew that at the beginning everyone seems to be a suspect but that the end the murderer turns out to be someone unpredictable.
To be continued
Note: Waiting to hear all ur wild guessesđAnd sorry to keep some of you waiting for this for like forever...my lappy was sick so was unable to post!
Do leave you precious likes and feedbacksPart 2- pg 8
part 3- pg 15
Pushpa Impossible
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