Pocket Full of Lies

2- Housekeeper/Girlfriend

Looking up towards the tall building from the opposite side of the road, I heaved a sigh. Coming back to the place from where you were fired just a night ago was too embarrassing.

Wondering why was I back here? Why was I standing here when I cackled like crazy while imagining using his credit card and running away? Well there was one simple answer to it. I simply lacked the guts to do so.

Yeah, yeah, laugh at me all you want. My villain era ended even before it could properly start.

'Just throw the card on his face and get out of there. Yes Muskaan, you can do this!' Giving myself a much needed pep talk, I crossed the road and entered the gate to hell.

My eyebrows furrowed when I noticed an ambulance standing on the premises. There was a person inside, but I couldn't see the face because of the crowd surrounding the ambulance.

Wondering whether the second floor's old lady aka the moral police of the society died or was it the silent, brooding uncle of the seventh floor, I took the elevator to reach the fifth floor, where my boss resided.

"Huh? There's no old or frail person on this floor," I wondered out loud to no one in particular as I saw so many people gathered on the corridor. Given the fact that there was an ambulance downstairs, it only made sense for them to gather here if someone from our floor had gotten hurt.

All the residents of the fifth floor were out, covering the passage that would lead to the apartments. I stood near the elevator, thinking whether it would be rude to push past them when someone was hurt. I was still contemplating, when the aunty, who was the immediate neighbour of my boss, noticed me and came running towards me.

"Thank goodness, you are here," she said, holding one of my hands. "You always come early on Sundays. What took you so long today? Especially when your boyfriend needed you the most."

"Boy...boyfriend?" I coughed, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Don't look so shocked. Yeah, you didn't tell us personally, but everyone here knows that you guys are in a relationship.

"We all have been seeing you along with him since the first day he came to live in this house. Why else would a girl of the same age as him come to his house? That too every day, for three years straight. Heck, if we cancel out the fact that you leave at night to go to your house, you two are practically living together. He even leaves the house in your care when he goes out for a few days. I have seen it all."

That's because I work here as a housekeeper, lady.

I wondered whether she was a neighbour or a spy to keep an eye on all the timings I went and got out of the house. She could easily get a job as one if she tried.

I was about to clear the misunderstanding that I wasn't his girlfriend, when my eyes fell on the open door of his house. The crowd had parted a little to hear about the gossip about us from the neighbour/spy aunty, giving me the clear view of his apartment.

Alarm bell rang inside my mind. He never kept his door open. Never, ever, not even for a minute. Forgetting about correcting the misunderstanding, I ran towards the apartment.

I don't know what I was hoping to see, but it clearly wasn't the presence of police officers and a wall with blood splattered all over it. If the wall wasn't enough, the floor looked like a red river.

Not being able to stomach the scene, I vomited right on the spot.

The ambulance was for my boss.

"Who let her in?" one of the police officers shouted, "Take her outside; she might destroy the crime scene."

"She is the girlfriend I was talking about," the neighbour butted in, informing the officers, who breathed out in relief as if they were just waiting for me.

"Give her some time. She must be shocked," the aunty said, before taking me to her home and making me sit on her couch.

Wow! Such an intelligent lady to know I would be shocked. Yet, it didn't occur to her to inform me about the actual news while she was mindlessly showing off her spying skills.

The officer who had shouted at me came inside the house, followed by a lady officer.

"If you are okay, we would like to speak to you," the lady officer said, looking to gauge my reaction.

"What...what happened?" My voice shook as I still trembled, remembering the dreaded sight. If the house was in this condition, then how much worse he would have been.

"He has taken a huge blow on his head. We are still investigating whether it was an accident or someone deliberately did it," the lady officer informed me.

"What would have happened if I had not gone out to take milk and saw the blood seeping from beneath the door? The paramedics said that I called them at the right time or else he wouldn't have survived," the aunty said, as she took a seat beside me.

Her high-pitched and over dramatic voice told me she was looking for appreciation.

"Thank you," I muttered, looking at my hands. I didn't look up to see her face. If she was disappointed, then so be it. I wasn't really in a mood, nor did I have the capacity to make up a speech of gratitude.

The male officer cleared his throat, gaining our attention. "Is there anyone you suspect? Any enemies of your boyfriend, you know of? Or someone who he recently had a fight with?"

I opened my mouth to clarify that I wasn't his girlfriend. Just a housekeeper who was fired yesterday, but the neighbour-aunty beat me to it.

"The driver!" she yelled, standing up abruptly, making me jump at her suddenness.

"Driver?" The officers raised their eyebrows.

"Yeah, Rehaan fired him yesterday. There were many of us who saw Rehaan berating and kicking the old man out of the job," aunty informed, causing my breath to hitch.

"I am sure that the driver's ego must have gotten hurt upon being fired so ruthlessly in front of so many spectators. He has a motive. He surely must have come to get revenge," aunty added, looking sure of her theory.

"You surely watch a lot of crime shows," the male officer muttered, before turning towards his colleague, and ordered, "Call the driver to the station for investigation.

I gulped as the officers discussed the possibilities. I had never met the driver uncle but I knew that he was Rehaan's designated driver, ever since he was five years old.

If such a man could become a suspect then I held no chance. I too was fired ruthlessly yesterday. The only plus side was that no one saw it happening. The moment the truth came out, I was done for.

Hence, I did the smartest and most cowardly thing I could do at the moment- I kept quiet about the girlfriend thing.