It was nine 'o clock in the morning, I'd spent three hours n the Elegant Valley. The police came immediately after we called them. I was at the basement, staring at the rooftop filled with cops and foreinsic experts examining the body. Lata and Rita had departed to their work places- Rita went to the hospital and Lata, or Avani went to her office. Avani was a private detective working on the same case as I was. She never told me who her client was, nor did I have any rational reason to know. Sathvik C Kashyap, or inspector Kashyap came into the basement from the first block, walking alongside his subbordinate and ordering tasks, like a military general. He was a tall, thin man of about thirty, muscular man with semi-military haircut .He looked at me standing in the basement and smiled. I smiled back. Sathvik was an old school friend. We were togehter for twelve years until college, where we went on our seperate paths to pursue our carrear.
'Rey,' he said shaking my hand 'it's a pleasure meeting you.'
'Me too. It's been a long time since we last met.' I said.
'How's Kaira?' he asked
''Doing well. She's busy with her work.' I replied.
'How did you get here?' He asked
'I'm investigating into Marry's death. It's been two days now.' I said
'The case was closed. There are only roomers that exist now.' He said. I nodded.
'I don't believe it. I can prove the necessity to investigate.' I said
'I hope. well I can take you up there if you want to.' He offered.
'Please.' I said.
We went to the roof top. There was a tape circumscribing the crime scene. There were foreinsic experts moving in and out of it. Sathvik pulled up the tape and gestured me in. I went in. The body was laid down on a thick cloth covered with a thin white sheet of cloth, like a bedsheet. He gestured them to uncover it. The sight of the body was horrible. It was a man. His face was burnt partially, enough to make it hard to identify. There were wound marks all over his body, like he was beaten, some of his fingures appeared broken. Most part of his body was burnt which made the skin bloated and hard black. He gestured them to put it back on.
'He was tortured to death.' he said 'Must have been dumped last nignt. Does not appear to be a "One Man's" job. I can't be acccurate until the post-mortem reports come in. What do you thing?'
'Probably.' I said 'He was certainly involved in something. He was tortured, which should have been enough perhaps, but they thought him as a threat in whatever they were up to and so killed him. But a place like this is absurd. Quite open but also enough to dump off a body. There is more to this.'
He nodded. 'Fine. I've got some files on Marry. Want to see?' He offered.
'Sure' I replied.
We went to the police station, about ten kilometers West. I was seated in his cabin sipping lemon tea. A subordinate of his got him the file. He opened it and scrutinized it.
'Marry was born in 1972, aged fourty-six, in Kerala. She had two siblings, younger one was Alen and the youngest John. They were together for sixteen years. When their father died, there was a massive fight among them. Alen left the family, John was mentally "Unsound", and Marry got into politics and made it to the president. Alen changed his name, it says here that his new name was kept anonymous for privacy. So we are unaware of anything else.' He said
I sat tight on the chair with my arms corssed, comprehending every bit of information.
'About two weeks ago, Marry was found hanging from the ceiling in her house. All the curtains, doors windows were left untouched. No one broke in or out. No foul play suspeted, as per this record. At first, I suspected foul play. But it seemed I was wrong. Marry was going through quite a trauma. She was severely ill, then there was John, who was quite a trouble for her. She told us specifically to stay out of this. But the wierd part was her sudden increase in the alcohol consumption, just a few days before her death.' He said.
'Pretty complicated.' I said 'Something definitely happend in that hospital and I ought to find out.'
'Yeah that Doctor Khan is missing. We couldn't find him. Fucking bureaucrats never allow us to function.' He said.
'Thaks for everything. Do let me know about the post-mortem. I've got a hunch that it may be related.' I said.
'Anytime' He said.
I got back into my Quid. I'd all the required information. I headed back to my house. It was five-thirty in the evening, which is the peak time of traffic. I was stuck in the traffic jam. The vehicles moved like sloths, the polution at it's peak. I was almost saturated in my mind, tired of the day and waiting to get home. The body was getting to me. Though I've seen death before, a horribible one like this was my first. I felt sick to my stomach, almost about to through-up. On the way, I found a bar- JUNE'S DAY. I knew a little something about it. Marry used to get suppliees of alcohol from them during Christmas and New Year. I went inside. It was quite large, a luxury for a heavely taxed product like alcohol. I went up to the care-taker of that bar. He was a middle aged, short, obese and bald. I tried to get something out of him but all he did was refuse. His attitude added to my pent up strees. I could have beaten his ass to a pulp. But I just showed my courtesy.
Two hours later, at my house I had my diner that I made as usual. Kaira was tired of her heavy duty. We had our little chat and headed straight to bed. Late at midnight, my phone started buzzing. It disturbed us. I streached my hand and tried to reach out to my bed-side table without getting up. Sathvik was calling me.
'Rey,' he said 'The post-mortem just came in. IT'S ALEN!'
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