Trixy and The Crescent Of Rana

CHAPTER 22 : THIRD TIME

They tell third time is a charm but no one told Maahir the third time would be a woman, not the woman lying before him, lifeless and headless.

"Looks like our killer had gone to his natural style," said he, to himself, squatting beside the flaccid trunk. He shuddered to think it had waited there for nearly three hours for them and the blood that had squirted out the neck had dried completely into a dark frozen pool of redness.

The body was reported around seven by a Bhel poori vendor while doing his regular evening rounds in Variyar nagar. The neighbourhood was a very silent and eventless one, filled with old retired couples visited only by their daughters with their grandchildren during summer breaks. So, it was not surprising to know no one had heard or seen anything suspicious at all.

The head had been cleared out immediately by the police but it had taken them three hours to identify the murder with theirs and pass it up to Trixy's squad 5. What shocked Maahir was that they hadn't lifted the body till then.

He looked at the melancholic figure sprawled limply before him. She was lying on the muddy edge of the road, faced upward and faceless, both her arms stretched out on her left. It looked like she had staggered a step or two to her left before the killer had struck her from the opposite side.

The cut was neat and precise, just like the first one. Maahir was certain now the killer is using some kind of sword. He had had to move in to slice.

Imagining the murder left a deep pit of rage in him, at this unknown brutal monster that could gash the throats of innocent women just like that. He could not comprehend how one's conscience could allow it. What was the meaning in all this killing? What could one hope to accomplish with this barbarian act?
He flinched at the sudden touch on his shoulder.

Ezhil had returned after talking with the family. He was actually surprised when she volunteered to do it, after he saw how uncomfortable she became in Madhan's house. But then, it was that or examining the dead mutated corpse of a fellow young woman.

"What do we know about the victim?" asked he, getting up on his feet. They strode a few paces up to find a lonely corner beneath the dim brightness of a street light.

He already knew she too had filed an application through the Pearl agencies, affirming for once and all it is indeed a serial killer they were chasing after.

"Name is Nisha, working as a chemistry lecturer in Yuuei University," said Ezhil, "She had applied for a junior scientist post in National Chemical Laboratories, Manyan through Pearl agencies. A post was received confirming her fellowship only two days ago."

She was more or less reciting the entire information, with tight stiffness. She was, for the first time, doubting her decision to join Trixy. Is she really strong enough to handle such naked displays of brutality? She feared just how many nights she was going to wake up abruptly because of this one night.

"How is the family?"

She relaxed a bit now, with sympathy. "The mother hasn't stopped crying. The father is broken too but managed to say a few words. I don't know if he was relieved or appalled to hear his daughter was just a victim to some guy's unreasonable madness. She had no known lovers. There is a younger sister though, who looks the most devastated of all. I wish I could have said something comforting to them."

"You could have said we are going to catch the bloody bastard who butchered their daughter, no matter what."

"I wanted to comfort them, not us."

He smiled grimly, in spite of himself.

"What do we know about the killer?" asked she, leaning back on the nearby wall.