The next morning started with a new case and the team were visiting the crime scene.
A girl had died in a party and by the looks of it, it was a suicide. But there's always more to than what can be seen by the naked eyes.
The guard, who had called the police, had mentioned that around midnight when he was closing the door, he heard the breaking of glass. It was accompanied by the scream of a girl and soon a thud was heard. When the guard rushed to see what happened, he found the girl lying in a pool of blood.
Lisa had taken the body to the forensic lab. Sameer and Aisha were talking to the people who were present there in the party.
"Why are we even called here? It clearly is a suicide." Sakshi commented as the remaining team had gone to the terrace to see where the girl had jumped from.
Shree and Chotu were ready to hear a sarcastic remark from Arjun. But all of them were surprised when new joinee, acp Mukherjee beat him to it.
"Miss Anand, please go and ask someone down there for a thigh-length one piece dress and pointed heels. Wear them and come back here."
The juniors had a confused look on their faces whereas Arjun understood what she was trying to do.
A while later Sakshi came back in an orange one piece short dress. It was clear that she was unable to walk in the pointed heels too.
"Now climb up. Don't worry, i won't push you off of here."
Sakshi, although skeptical, went towards the corner and tried to get up on it. However, she was unable to do so.
"Did y'all get my point now? The girl who died was wearing a black dress and pointed heels similar to what Miss Anand in wearing right now. It would've been impossible for her to get up on this wall without anyone's help. So, this clearly isn't a suicide."
The team went downstairs to meet the other two members. Sameer and Aisha had gathered the namelist of the people who had come to the party. And after talking with quite a few of them, their suspicion was on the guy who had hosted the party. They were informed that he was the girl's ex boyfriend and their breakup was a mess.
Going back to the ETF office, the boy and his father were asked to come for interrogation. It didn't take them long enough to understand that the boy was 'a spoilt brat of a rich dad'.
After a lot of threatenings, the boy confessed that he had initially wanted to drug the girl by mixing it in her drink. But he also said that he wasn't the one who killed her. To others, it seemed like he was lying. But the second in commands could sense that there was more to this whole thing.
Sameer and Aisha along with Riya and Arjun had gone to meet the family members of the girl. Her family consisted of her mother, older brother and sister. All of them were crying at the loss of the youngest family member.
Nothing felt weird.
The team sat in the conference room raking their brains to think what was missing. The evidence board was filled up with the pictures of the girl that night, suspects, their motives.
Sakshi had brought coffees for everyone and cutting chai for Arjun. As per Riya's request, she had also given her a tissue paper. Everyone wondered what she was gonna do with it and were surprised to find what a hygiene freak she was when she cleaned the rim of the cup with the tissue.
As if the cutting chai had worked it's magic, suddenly Arjun pointed out that the girl was wearing a pink scarf in the beginning which was nowhere near her when her body was found.
On been enquired again, the person who had last seen her when she was going to terrace confirmed that she was indeed wearing the pink scarf. However the guard said that he didn't see anything like that.
The team decided to visit the family again. Something certainly felt off.
And their doubts were confirmed when the elder sister of the deceased girl suddenly came to invite them all for her wedding which was to be held next month in their outhouse.
Who thinks about marriage when your sister just died?
However, when the girl mistakenly or intentionally switched on the wrong switch of fan, all their eyes fell on the same pink scarf which they had seen in the pictures. It was cleverly hidden under the flowers in front of the dead girl's picture.
But before any of them could comment on it, Sameer stood up saying that they need to leave now.
The team was sure that it was the family who had caused the murder. But the question was, why they did it.
"Why was the elder sister suddenly talking about marriage?"
"I don't think that she was talking about marriage. I think she wanted to mention the outhouse. We should go and check."
"But where is-"
Sameer was cut off by the ring of his phone.
"What?!"
The juniors were startled at the loud voice of their chief. Whatever it was, had to be bad enough for him to react like this.
"The girl's ex bf, the guy who was our first suspect, is missing."
And just as if a switch was turned on-
"Shree! Find out the location of the outhouse she mentioned. They surely have taken the guy there."
It almost took an hour to find the location and another half an hour to reach there. Slowly and carefully, the team made its way inside knocking out the goons who came in their way.
There, in the middle of the courtyard, a guy was kept tied to a chair whose his face was covered with a jute bag. Beside him, there was the elder brother of the dead girl.
The team charged forward and the brother along with the other goons were soon captured. All of them were taken to the ETF office where the mother was also brought.
Realising that they were caught, both of them spilled the truth without a bit of remorse.
Turned out that the girl was in love with the boy. But they were from different castes. The girl's mother was a strict opposer of inter-caste marriage and had forced her to breakup with the guy. However, when she had forced her to get married to another guy, the girl ran away from home.
In rage, and in order to protect their reputation, the girl's mother sent her son to finish her off. The brother had brought back the pink scarf as a reminiscence of his sister.
The day ended with the successful solving of the case and as for Riya, her first day as a part of ETF had gone well.
As the team was going back home, Sameer had suggested Arjun to drop Riya home along with Shree and Chotu as their houses were on the same way.
After dropping the juniors, Arjun was surprised to find that she lived so close to his previous house, the house which was once his home, but now he didn't know what he should call it.
The ride was silent, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Judging from their lack of interaction, Arjun didn't expect her to say thank you when they finally reached her house. But he was pleasantly surprised when she did so.
Maybe the girl isn't so stoic as she appears to be.
******************************************************
"Sir, how's it going? When are we going to catch him?"
"We are keeping an eye on him for proofs."
"If this isn't going to be an official arrest, then why do we need proofs to catch him?!"
"We'll catch him officially. Be patient."
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Destined
General FictionThe hot headed acp, Arjun Suryakant Rawte, was once a fun loving guy. Riya Mukherjee, the encounter and research specialist, is a new joinee in the etf office. ****This story will be slightly different from the original 'Har yug mei ayega ek Arj...