Chapter 1

The wail of the siren broke the stillness of the calm night, the light flashing from the red beacon swept through the empty deserted street. Inspector Bakshi took out a cigarette and lit it, the flicker of the light reflecting his tired face and the saggy lines. His Deputy Nek Ram sped the Gypsy through the alleys and by lanes maneuvering with precision. It was 01:00am and the call had come approximately five minutes back, a woman had been murdered in the posh locality of Anand Niketan. Inspector Bakshi was on his way home from a tiring day when he had to turn the vehicle around and head towards the crime scene.

He sighed and remarked aloud to Nek Ram” So we were supposed to be in bed by now and look what we’ve got here. Why can’t these guys if they have to kill someone do it during daytime? At least it would leave us some time to get a good night’s rest”

“Can’t say much Sir. It’s the call of duty. But yes if only we had some more time to ourselves it would be great.”

The gypsy screeched to a stop in front of a bungalow which already had a gathering of people flocking the crime scene, Inspector Bakshi stepped out and looked around. He walked through the open gate onto the porch. An elderly gentleman close to 60 years walked up to him.

“Inspector I am Anil Khanna, I had called reporting the crime. The victim is my daughter-in-law Neha. The corpse is lying in the bedroom upstairs. Let me show you the way up”

Inspector Bakshi and Nek Ram climbed up the winding stairs. The door to the bedroom was open and a lady sat there sobbing besides the body of a girl who must have been around 25 to 26 years of age. She was wearing a night gown and lay sprawled on the floor, her eyes rolled up.

“Nek Ram secure the crime scene” Inspector Bakshi instructed him.

“This is my wife Sulekha Khanna. We were asleep when we heard a loud shriek from Neha’s room. I rushed and found the door open, Neha was clutching at her throat and pointing towards the window. The window was open and the curtains had been swept aside, looking done from the window I saw no one. I turned around and found Neha lying on the floor. Sulekha had also come by then. Neha was gasping for air and asked for water in a feeble voice. I ran to the fridge downstairs but as I reached it I heard my wife crying. When I came back upstairs Neha was no more” Mr.Khanna had tears in his eyes” She was more than a Daughter-in-Law to us….”

Inspector Bakshi put a hand to Mr. Khanna’s shoulder” I am sorry for the loss”

He walked over to the window and looked outside. It was a ten feet drop to the ground and around five meters to the main gate. Outside there was the lane which led to the colony gate. There was a guard posted there who kept records of all entries and exits. From the colony gate ran a six feet high wall around the periphery of the society. The only entry and exit point would be the colony gate unless the murderer decided to scale the wall. Inspector Khanna turned and started scrutinizing the room. The bed sheets seemed to be unruffled, and the objects in the rooms were in their place. He walked out of the bedroom, closed the door and turned the knob, locking and unlocking it. The knob was not broken into and the functioning was normal. He went to the bathroom and peered inside. The washbasin had stains of a mouthwash recently spilled and not watered out. The towel hanging was wet, probably being used to wipe the hands and the face. The toothpaste and toothbrush were in their place, the brush being moist from recent use. The lid of the sanitary pot was down, Inspector Bakshi walked over and lifted it. His eyes caught something peeing out between the pot and the drain.

“Nek Ram get me a pair of gloves” he shouted.

Nek Ram hurried over with a set of fresh white gloves. Inspector Bakshi pulled out a small bottle. He turned the bottle in his hands, concentrating on the label which still had the word “Poison” written on it, but was a bit smudged. He put his hand to the flush and pressed it. The water gushing out was weak! The flush had been used approximately an hour back he thought. From the time he had received the call on the intercom to now approximately forty-five minutes had passed. So the murder actually happened not too long back. The murderer had tried to flush the bottle down the drain but it had got stuck and did not pass through. He assumed it was gone had not doubly checked for surity. Not too smart Inspector Bakshi thought! He smiled to himself, put the bottle in the evidence bag and walked out of the bathroom. He walked around the bedroom searching for the next piece of evidence. He picked up a glass of half-filled juice lying on the corner table beside the bed and smelt it. He looked with interest at the rim of the glass and then turned and looked at Neha. The body lay on the ground, a leg and hand twisted from the fall. The skin had lost its color, the eyes glazed over.

“So Mr.Khanna where is your son?”

“Aditya has been out of town on a business trip to Kolkata. He should be back tomorrow morning. We had called him informing of the tragedy and also intimated Neha’s family” Mr.Khanna replied.

“So who else stays here?” Inspector Bakshi asked

“Apart from me and my wife we have a domestic help Raju staying here. He has gone to his village a week back, his mother is ill and had to be hospitalized. So in total we are five people staying here” Mr.Khanna replied

“Is your domestic help Raju married…what’s his age?”

“He must be around 20-22years of age, a good chap. He was sent as a referral by Mr. Arora a friend of mine. He has been working here for the last two years. We never had any problems with him. He is not married but his parents are looking for a match”

“Hmmm okay…so Mr.Khanna as of now we will proceed with the formalities. I will come back tomorrow morning once your son returns and start the formal investigation. Nek Ram get the register and document everything.”

Nek Ram was busy assisting the forensic team who had arrived and had got to dusting and collecting the evidences at the crime scene. He picked up the register he had been carrying and noted the details.

Inspector Bakshi walked downstairs one step at a time slowly, feeling his weight on the steps. It was one of those modern architectural wooden staircases which are an integral part of interior designs. The wood no matter how good develops creaks after sometime. He attentively heard the creak one step at a time. It seemed uniform all the way to the bottom. So the murderer whoever it was had not used the door as an exit, hurrying down the stairs would leave an imbalance in the wood due to the pressure points resulting in a different pattern in the way the wood creaked.

He walked outside and dispersed the crowd. He opened the door of the Gypsy and sat down lighting another cigarette. The murderer’s entry seemed to be friendly from the prima fascia evidence, there was no sign of a struggle. Death probably happened by poison but he wanted to wait for the post mortem report to confirm that. So here he had another murder case on his hands, he was supposed to be taking Gayathri and the kids to Shimla over the weekend, a vacation long deserved for him and his family, but now it had to be postponed and they would be furious and disappointed with him at the same time. He looked over at the Bungalow from across the road trying to mentally chalk out the initial set of events. How did the murderer gain entry to the house if the main door was locked? Why were Mr. and Mrs. Khanna not aware of the presence of a third person in the house? The murderer was known to Neha surely since the alarm was raised at a much later stage. He got down from the Gypsy and once again walked across to the bungalow. He headed to the window below Neha’s room and looked around searching. The area was quite clean from the regular sweeping in the morning. His eyes landed upon an inhaler which lay there, the only visible object on the clean tiles. He picked it up and headed back to the main door. Mr. Khanna was sitting in the living room, sipping a cup of tea.

“Inspector, I thought you left” he looked up and said.

“I was, but have to wait for Nek Ram. He is till busy with the forensic team.”

“Do you want to have a cup of tea?”

“No Thanks. So Mr.Khanna did you hear anyone entering the house and walking up to Neha’s room?”

“No Inspector. We sleep with the door to our room closed. Also I am suffering from a bad case of cold and cough and am under medications hence must have been in a really deep slumber when all of this happened” he rummaged in his pockets and brought out an inhaler.

He sniffed and said” I have got a blocked nose which effects my hearing to some extent. If I would have been well I am sure I would have heard better”

To be continued……