Murderer

Arya wandered around his room for a while, and then collapsed on the sofa.His throat was completely dry. He reached for a glass of water, his eyes set on the framed photographs sitting inside the glass cabinet. He took a small sip watching the smiling face of a chubby toddler gripping the little finger of a young girl dressed in her white and blue school uniform. Looking at the picture, it was difficult to tell who looked happier – Arya, who was taking his first steps or his teacher, Esha. She had that look of a young girl who cannot control her happiness and why not – finally someone had held her hand.He found it difficult to swallow, as if a pebble was stuck in his throat and no matter the amount of water, it wouldn’t budge. The glass clinked when Arya finally kept it back on the glass table in front of him. His stomach lurched. With every breath, a hollowness spread in his chest. Breathing heavily, he tried to shut down his meandering thoughts.Two things that eat from

Outside, the wind was gathering speed.Anubhav was sitting with his back pressed against the sofa and his head tilted towards the ceiling. His eyes were closed. He could hear some faint noises, as if people were talking to him through water. A drifting numbness seemed to carry his body and for a moment the sofa felt like quicksand. He was sinking ... and there was nothing he could do about it.He tried to pull himself back, his head began to hurt as if a hangover had kicked in. He was sinking fast. He was having trouble breathing ... he felt like something was covering his face. Then from the centre of blackness within his head came a dazzling source of light with a deafening whistle ... as if he was in front of a speeding train.He was stuck, his entire body numb unable to move. There was no escape. But, he was sinking, the weight of the truth pulling him down. The truth that could save him, the truth Esha had told him yesterday.The sound was gone and it was all white.

Inspector Rashid fought an unfamiliar sense of anxiety as he stood in his garden looking straight at the snow-capped mountains. The skies had cleared up after the rain last night, and the golden sunlight made everything it touched glisten. The trees stood majestically, flaunting their dark green leaves but the inspector didn’t notice any of this, everything seemed blurry to him. He didn’t even hear the calls of the blue-winged Magpies which resonated across the valley nor the sound of the cool breeze that whispered soothingly as it swirled between the mountains. The only thing he heard was the voice of the District Magistrate, it was as if a cassette was being played again and again in his mind. Rashid, we must make an arrest by tomorrow.On the other side of the fence, a lanky boy was milking the family cow. His mother, a young woman of thirty, was shouting something about a man reaching the moon. Her ears, weighed down by heavy earrings, looked out of shape. Small children, dre

The inspector played the different techniques he could employ to handle Jyoti in his mind. He had two lines of attack; one was through the expensive piece of shopping she had done at Solan, and the other about the last evening when she went snooping near Esha’s room. But, he was not going to confront her directly. The idea was to scare the truth out of the young housemaid. He did this twice every day in the police station. Fear was his ally.With a little help from Rishabh, the inspector had converted his room into an interrogation room. Four chairs with a small coffee table at the centre was placed right in front of the window. The room was blazing with winter sunlight and tiny worm-like particles could be seen against the rays, floating in midair. The variety of glass items sparkled from all the corners like secondary sources of light.I must squeeze a confession out of her, the inspector thought, biting his lip.Arya walked in through the open door and occupied the chair

Meera’s left hand was trembling badly.She had a fleeting vision from the time when Mr Vishal Arora and his first wife had brought Esha into the family. Meera was standing at the door, her eyes fixed on the smiling baby, whose tiny fingers were extended towards her. The image was involuntarily replaced by Esha’s lusterless body gazing aimlessly into the emptiness of the room.She dried her eyes with the edge of her turmeric stained blue sari.‘You want to know what I was doing?’ asked Meera slowly. ‘I was in the kitchen with Jyoti. I was making tea and she was distributing it to the guests. She was supposed to make some snacks too. But she got engaged in a conversation with Mr Dhruv and I was getting late ... You might ask what I was getting late for ... TV serial, mother, son and daughter-in-law – big drama – I watch it every day at 5 pm. When Jyoti was back ... I dashed into the living room. The glass entrance door was open ... So, I closed it.’ She paused. ‘You might ask