Pocket Full of Lies

3- Liar, Liar, pants on fire

Lying and not speaking the truth were two different things right? Right?? That was the only hope I had when I decided to stay quiet about the truth. Well, I didn't decide anything. My body decided on its own to freeze in fear.

"I heard that you always come early in the morning. Then may I ask what made you late today?" The lady officer asked. Her tone was light as if she was merely curious and not suspicious. But you never know. Just because they thought of me as his girlfriend didn't mean I was off the hook.

"Arr...Umm...I...I slept in," I said sheepishly, blurting out whatever came to my mind first.

"Ah okay!" The officer said.

"Only if you were here sooner, this might not have happened. On second thought, it is better that you didn't arrive. Who knows? That attacker could have hurt you too," Aunty said in between.

The male officer cleared his throat, before saying, "We aren't too sure about the fact whether it was an intended attack by someone or just an accident. So I would request you to refrain from making such comments."

"But...but you are suspecting the driver, right? You even called him for inspection," Aunty protested, feeling wronged to have been chastised.

"Being a suspect does not equal to being a criminal," the lady officer told her, looking at her with stern eyes, "so don't go around spreading gossip, before we check the facts."

"Okay," aunty whispered, looking like a small kid who got scolded by her teacher.

Their attention turned back towards me, making me gulp.

"I believe everything will get cleared when we will get to speak with Mr. Rehaan, but we still need to know a few things so that another mishap doesn't happen in case this was really an intended crime," the male officer said, before springing one question after the other about his daily habits, his rivals, our relationship, any fights or anything unusual about his behaviour recently.

While the officers held no suspiciousness on their faces, their questions had me drench with sweat.

Having already been informed by the neighbour that I was the only person around him, they thought I knew everything about him. Or at least I knew him more than anyone else.

How was I supposed to tell them that I knew his favourite food, his allergies, his way of keeping things, his subtle habits; but I didn't know the people he met with or had problems with? He never brought anyone home and nor did I ever saw him talking on the phone. I was just a housekeeper who knew to manage the house according to his preferences. That's it!

I didn't know how long I could let this lie go while maintaining a straight face. There was a huge chance that I would lose composure while answering all these questions. And once the fact that I wasn't his girlfriend was out, I was going to become the prime suspect of this case.

I didn't do anything wrong, but who would listen to me? I had the duplicate keys to the house. Heck, I even had his credit card. There were only my and his fingerprints all around the house. Moreover, the fact I was fired yesterday and also didn't bother correcting them about the girlfriend situation was going to bite me later on. All the fingers would point towards me being the culprit.

Yeah, yeah, I too have watched many crime shows.

"Sir, I think we should stop for now," the lady officer said, "Look how she is trembling. She must be anxious to know about Mr. Rehaan's condition. I don't think she is stable enough to answer all the questions. Let's give her some space to come out of the shock and meet him first."

"Alright," the male officer sighed in exasperation, but nodded nonetheless. Taking out a card from his wallet, he forwarded it to me. "This is my card. Call me when you feel okay enough to answer. It would be preferable for the questioning to be done before tomorrow ends."

They stupidly thought that my trembling was due to my worry for that jerk. Well, it was good for me as I seriously wasn't in a condition to answer anything that wouldn't lead to my own doom.

Grateful for the extra time to think it through about how to tell the truth without looking like a criminal, I took his card with shaky hands.

Aunty squeezed my shoulder comfortingly as we saw the officers leave. "Should I take you to the hospital?"

"Huh?" I looked at her confused.

"To the hospital, to meet Rehaan," she answered, making me face palm mentally.

For whom else she would be asking? Stupid Muskaan!

"No aunty, I will go by myself. Thank you for your help today," I said, before standing up to leave as early as possible.

My legs were still shaky but I still forced myself to walk. Aunty was more dangerous than the police. Staying here any longer could turn hazardous.

A constable stopped me as I was about to leave.

"Ye...yes?" I gulped, scared that the secret was out and he was going to arrest me.

The constable gave me a small reassuring smile, having noticed my scared and disheveled state. "Just wanted to inform you that we are done investigating here. But we might need to come back in case some lead appears. So if it is possible, try to make sure that everything stays at the same place."

Don't worry officer, nothing is going to change. Because I am not entering that house ever again!!

"Ah! Forgot to inform you, it is completely alright to clean up the blood and the broken pieces of vase and the glass shelf," the constable added, looking at me like he did me a favour, "we have taken photos and samples of them. So you don't have to worry about living in that messy and frightening situation."

Spoke too soon Muskaan!

I gave him a fake smile, hoping it would convey how grateful I was for that information.

Now I had no choice but to clean that bloody house. Or else it would raise suspicions when they came for a re-check.

I stood in the corridor, still smiling gratefully at all the investigators as they left the house and went to stand near the elevator.

The stupid elevator took its sweet time to come, leaving me with no choice than to enter my ex-work place.

The condition of the living room was as bad as before, but I was prepared this time. Last time I didn't see much other than the bloodied wall and red river as I was too shocked. But now that I saw clearly, I had imagined far worse than it really was. Apart from that one small area, the house was as clean as I had left it yesterday.

Looking at the huge crack on the tall glass shelf and the bloodied pieces of the broken vase that was placed near the shelf, it didn't really look like organized crime to me. It was more like the clumsy jerk stumbled and crashed into the glass, breaking his head and falling down taking the vase along with him.

I didn't understand why anyone would think this was an intended violence, unless it happened in the opposite order. Someone hit him on the back of his head with the vase and he fell forward on the shelf due to the impact, breaking the glass.

But who would go to these lengths to a guy who never spoke anything other than work related stuff. I bet the only person he has spoken more than five words to, is me, that too for reprimanding me.

No, no, Muskaan don't think like that. This makes you the only person who has the motive to hurt him. I slapped my cheeks, stopping myself right in time.

I started playing music to stop thinking about anything else. Pulling up my sleeves, I got ready to clean the mess.

Picking the broken shards was tiring, but it was damn easy than cleaning the red river. Blood was surely hard to get rid of.

"Cleaning his house even after getting fired, way to go Muskaan!" cursing my fate, I continued rubbing off the stains from the walls and the floor.

He better pay me for the extra work when he comes back.