Meghana - 7

On entering the police station, Vijay saw Sunil and Veeraya in a serious discussion.

Sunil informed him that the function went well and managed when CI enquired about Vijay.

Through the corner of his eye Vijay was able to notice the excitement of Sunil and he knew what was coming next.

Sunil asked, “How is madam sir?”.

He said, “She is fine”

He avoided Sunil's over enthusiastic question by saying, “Can you bring Meghana’s case file”

He said “Ok, sir”, and handed-over the file to him.

Vijay noticed Sunil's disappointed and just smiled to himself. He informed Veeraya and Sunil that he is leaving early to home with the file. Vijay’s mother was surprised to see him as he rarely comes home early. He changed to casual clothes and went to his room with the file.

He began to inspect the details of the case. He took a pen and wrote down the events.

Friday 11:30 PM - She Left the pub

Around 12:00 AM - She took the parcel

Around 12:30 AM - she dropped her friend

Around 12:40 AM - She met Vikas

Around 1:30 AM - She reached her home

“As per Vikas, he had put an Arsenic poison in raitha that was packed along with the main parcel. Arsenic is a rat poison; the same thing was mentioned in the autopsy report, so it deduces that Vikas was the murderer… But my heart was saying, he was not a criminal….......what I'm missing here”, Vijay went into deep thinking.

He took the autopsy report to verify the details again. While going-through the report… suddenly a thought sparked in his mind. He took the case file and opened the page where the crime scene photos were attached. He closely verified those photos and then he smirked … because he got a proof to say Vikas didn’t kill her.

The next morning, he went straight to Vikas and asked,”How did you kill her”?

Vikas was clearly annoyed by the question and simply said,” How many times do I have to tell? ... I killed her with rat poison, that’s it”, he exclaimed.

“No, you didn’t”, Vijay yelled at top voice.

“Are you crazy? I’m confessing myself, how can you say that I didn’t kill her? I don’t want anybody's sympathy here. “, Vikas grumbled.

“Ok, here is the fact. That night Meghana didn’t eat the parcel food at all. She ate some other poisoned food, which caused her death. We didn’t know exactly what was that? But we would find that”, Vijay said.

Vikas was gazing at him unbelievably.

“No… no… you are lying… I’m the murderer… I’m the murderer … don’t try to save me”, he shouted.

“Vikas… calm down…, don’t behave like a surd. Here are the photos that we took that night. You can see in these photos that she didn’t even open her parcel. And here is the autopsy report which shows that there are no traces of the parcel food. She indeed ate some other poison food”, Vijay finished it in a soothing voice.

He continued after some time – “What are trying to achieve by confessing that you killed her… you are actually making the killer to escape and make him do some more crimes. If she is alive, she would never have appreciated this.”

Vikas eyes become moist… he clenched his face with his hands and sat on the floor.

He cried a lot then said, “I tortured her, I harassed her. I know she might have spent many sleepless nights because of me. I never thought about that when she was alive, now I am realizing.

How cruelly I behaved. When she is no more, I don’t have right to live, I should also die. But please don’t leave me… kill me…kill me…” he fell on the floor.

Vijay tried to comfort him for some time then he called his parents and sent him with them. Later he called the CI and told him that Vikas didn’t kill her, so he would continue the investigation to find the true murderer.

“Now the case has come where it started, who is the murderer?” Vijay was thinking.

“What should we do now Sir?” Sunil asked with disappointment in his voice.

Vijay smiled and said, “There are several unanswered questions here Sunil, first, she ate some poisoned food that caused her death. However, that was not part of the parcel that she bought that night. But where did it come from? Why she ate that food instead of the parcel that she bought? Had someone given that food to her? If that would be the case, how come she ate it? The person might be a well-wisher or close friend of her, whom she believed blindly. It is really hard to predict who that was”, Vijay sighed.

“Hmmmm.... So many unanswered questions and I need to find the murderer soon before he strikes again!”, Vijay thought.

(To be continued …)