[Meghana – A Murder Mystery]
Meghana - A Murder Mystery
Vijay entered the police station and so much was going on in this mind hearing the news about Vikas.
He saw a person sitting opposite his chair, from his view he couldn’t guess who it was. He saw Veeraya standing in the corner looking at the files.
On seeing Vijay, Veeraya gave his usual salute and informed that Meghana’s uncle has come to meet him.
Vijay nodded and went to the cell where Vikas was kept. Sunil was taking few details from him.
Vijay went near to Vikas and said, “Are you crazy? What happened to you? Did you really kill Meghana? God!!! Do you know the consequence of your statement?”
Vikas smirked, “Yes, I did it. I killed Meghana. She despised me refusing my proposal, so I decided to close her chapter. I will never allow her to be part of someone’s life other than me”, He blurted.
She never respected my love nor did she acknowledge the truth in it. She walked away that day without even realizing how much pain she had brought in and just crushed my innocent love under her feet. Why should such a person live on earth?
“My intuition has never failed me. Tell me, who asked you to say like this. Whoever it is, I can arrest them and get justice for Meghana’s death. Hundread criminals might escape justice but not one innocent be punished. Have you ever heard of it? You are a true lover, but not a killer… tell me”, Vijay shouted.
CI Parasuram said, “Control yourself Vijay”, as he entered into station. Vijay turned back and saluted him.
“Vijay, he has admitted that he killed her, so why are you trying to pursue him that he didn’t. Are you planning to drag this case? This is not the only case we have so take his statement and file the FIR and damn close the case. Already we are getting too much media attention on this case”, Parasuram said.
Then he turned to Veeraya and said, “Veeraya, minister is coming for a shop opening ceremony in MG Road. Send few of our people for security, I’ve to go and meet Mayer”.
Before leaving the station he patted Vijay’s shoulder and said “Take it easy man”.
Vijay sighed and sat in his chair. Meghana’s uncle was observing all these drama.
Meghana’s uncle said, “Sir, Meghana had mentioned about him few times . I too have a strong feeling that he could have killed her. Please take my statement and file a case against him. We should not leave these criminals in the society”.
Vijay looked at him in a manner that told him he knows what has to be done and then asked, “May I know your name?”
“My name is Sudhakar Rao, working in Andhra Bank” and gave his visiting card to him.
“Where were you when she at the time of her death?” Vijay asked.
“I was in Mumbai branch to take care of some office work. I was informed about her death and immediately rushed to Bangalore. We are still not able to digest the fact”, his eyes turned moist.
Vijay asked, “Please, tell me more about Meghana’s early days with you and your family”.
“Meghana lost her parents when she was studying in 10th, since then she had lived with us. We don’t have kids of our own, so we took care of her like our daughter. She had an independent nature and didn’t want to depend on us. So when she got her job she informed us that she decided to live on her own and promised to visit us when she was free from job”, he took a break for a while
Then he continued, “She trusted few and had very few friends. Sir, we had planned to give her away in marriage this year and even started to find bridegrooms for her ,but unfortunately… this happened…”, and he was neither able to complete his sentence nor control his tears.
Vijay remained silent until he relaxed.
“When did she tell you about Vikas?”
“During her visit to our place, she told a couple of times. I didn’t take it too seriously”, he said.
“Hmmmm… anyway, thanks for coming. I’ll call you if I need any more information”, Vijay stood and shook his hand.
“Certainly, Sir”, and he left.
Once he left Sunil came near him and whispered, “For some reason I don’t like his face, he looks cunning”.
Vijay laughed and became busy in preparing the FIR. Some part of his mind was thinking why Vikas did like that.
Later he got a call from CI and he was needed in MG road for minister’s security.
On the way, Vijay said to stop the vehicle all of sudden. Sunil looked startled and stopped the vehicle with sudden break.
“Look that side, seems to be an accident”, Vijay said by pointing Sunil to the direction of the accident.
They got down immediately and went to the spot. People who were surrounding the scene gave way to them seeing their police uniforms.
A girl was arguing with a bike guy. It appeared as though a guy had hit the vehicle and the scooty was lying down by the force the bike hit it. She was holding her elbow tight and it was bleeding.
He recognized her, Abhignya the girl whom he met in PES Institute. Sunil too recognized her.
Sunil reacted quickly and grabbed the bike guy’s shirt collar and yelled, “Has Govt given license to kill people, loafer, show me your license”. The bike guy kept quiet after seeing him and searched his purse to get the license.
Sunil said, “Sir, I’ll take care of him please take madam to hospital”.
“Abhignya, please come with me, it is still bleeding, he said and asked her to sit in his vehicle.
She was not sure if she can go with him and seemed hesitant to go in a police jeep. But he convinced her that it would be better if she gets treated first and so saying he took her by hand and did the first-aid in vehicle.
On reaching the hospital, she was treated for her injury and they provided a room for her to take the rest for some time. Vijay and Abhignya were left alone in that room.
Both had different thoughts going on in their mind.
Vijay was thinking,
“What is going on here? What I’m doing here? Why am I worrying like this for her when she met with an accident? Being in duty I’m not supposed to spend my time like this. Would I care if someone else was in her place? Off course, I would have cared, but how far? Maybe I would have called an ambulance and send them in it, but definitely not taken them personally to the hospital”.
Vijay was caught in an unknown feeling. He couldn’t decide as to what is going on with him. He liked the feeling though and felt his senses were not in his control when she was near him.
And what Abhignya was thinking is a mystery! A girls mind thinks a lot than guys under such situations…
Is he falling in love ??????????
She opened her eyes and looked straight at Vijay with a mesmerizing smile,
Ah… when he saw her looking into his eyes with such a smile all the preparations he had done to talk to her was of no use.
He couldn’t take his eyes off and heard her saying, “Thank you so much”
Vijay smiled and said, “Your welcome but, As a police officer it’s my duty (really????)“
She said, “I have a feeling that I have met you before but am not sure when and where”
He literally blushed and said, “Glad that you asked me now, was wondering if you will remember me or not”
“Yes, in your college. And of course it was by accident. I do remember your name, Abhignya”, he smiled.
She grinned, “Now I got it! I wondered how you knew my name when you asked me to come to the hospital”
He was fascinated by the way she expressed herself and so lively to watch her expressions.
He scolded himself for flying in the air with admiration for her and finally came back to reality and said, “Let me know your parents phone number, I will inform them”.
“No, it’s fine. I don’t want them to unnecessarily worry about me and moreover if they knew am in hospital definitely they will come to see me despite their work. Frankly, I don’t want to scare them off for this little accident. With that bike guy’s help I have happily bunked college “, she laughed.
On seeing her laugh with such childish mischievousness, he remembered a quote that he read somewhere,
“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
Every time he saw something new in her he was captivated by it. He knew he hasn’t felt these feelings before with anyone.
He too laughed and asked, “What is your father name?”
“Hmm… started Interrogation, ha?” she smirked.
He said, “No… No… I just asked casually”.
“I was just kidding. My father has his own farm and with my brother’s help he takes care of it and my mom is the world’s best home maker”, and my native is Malur.
I stay with my uncle’s family here in Bangalore and studying engineering”.
She felt proud and happily said, “I am the first person to study engineering in my entire family”.
He awed her and said, “Excellent, I appreciate your effort to have come this far and all the best of your future”.
“Now, it is your turn. Please share your family details”, she leaned a bit towards his chair to listen care-fully.
He smiled and said, “My father is a retired military cornel and my mom is a wonderful home maker. We stay in Yaswant Pura … I had an elder brother, he was also a police officer but he passed away in a naxalite attack.”
She observed his shaky voice, understood the pain and emotions when he mentioned about his brother’s death. She didn’t expect a Police officer to be so frank about his feeling and sharing it with a person he met only few times, but still even she couldn’t bare his pain and she knew death may end life but not the feelings and memories that one felt for another.
“You know, I have never spoken to any police officer before. You are the first”, she deliberately tried to divert the topic.
He chuckled and said, “Yes, it’s the same here. I have never spoken with any girl this much”.
“What? Don’t tell me lies… a handsome guy like you should be having many girlfriends?” she had thrown a stone in dark.
“What? Don’t tell me lies… a handsome guy like you should be having many girlfriends?” she had thrown a stone in dark.
He blushed hearing “handsome guy….”, and caught off guard when she knew that he felt shy abt her comments.
“I had been busy with my work and have strived hard to get to the position where I am now and earning a good name is hard these days… It’s hard being an honest cop! … So, I missed the opportunity to engage with girlfriends and do parties… also not impressed by anyone till a few days before …” saying that he left the sentence unfinished and left it to induce her curiosity.
But she was more careful than he had thought and so she flooded him with questions and asked “how did you become a police officer? I hope you won’t mind to tell me”.
“It’s my pleasure to tell you. When my brother passed away it was a big shock to my family. After that incident, my mother forced me to do either engineering or medicine she didn’t want to lose me like my brother at such a young age… Since childhood, my father and brother inspired me in lot of ways and I respected them for what they are and what they have become and what they did to serve the people… Though my mother refused, my father encouraged me a lot and convinced my mother and …” he stopped and smiled at her trying to guess her expression.
“Great!!!” he thought as she is not giving away anything from her expression. She is difficult to read.
“Was I boring you with my auto-biography?”
“No way it’s so awesome to hear, please continue”, her voice seemed firm.
“I respect this job and more than anything I love what am doing. It presents so many challenges and I love solving it… Even my mother wanted me to become software engineer with its 5 to 6 figure salary… I have wondered if anyone of them dreamed becoming a software engineer or just joined the job for its salary and status symbol”, he said.
“It is very nice to know about you. I wish that I am bit determined like you are”, she said.
He had opened up to her more than he never had to anyone in his life. “This is not correct”, He chided himself.
“OK, Abhignya, I’ve to go now. I think, you will get dis-charged after some time, take care”, he said and was ready to leave the room.
She got up from her bed and said, “Once again thank you very much for your help. Sometime later when you free please come home, I will introduce you to my uncle. He is fond of police officers”.
“Sure, I’ll come. Bye”, he almost asked her phone number but controlled himself and left her room.
“What is happening to me? Why I need her phone number? I should keep myself busy, otherwise, I’m getting distracted” he mumbled himself.
He knew that these feelings have become usual when she is around or when he thought about her.
He thought, “I don’t have the control but the heart of mine wants to control that which doesn’t belong. It’s just that the feeling of wanting to have everything to oneself.”
He looked at the watch after coming-out of the hospital, and said “Great!!!”
It was almost evening and it would be too late to attend the shop opening, so he decided to go station.
[image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Your_temperature_is_dropping..jpg]