The Shooter Died First
It was 4 a.m. in the chilly morning, but the goosebumps were not from the cold air. The screams were louder than the music coming from the speakers. The corridor outside room no. 104 of Dorm-16 was crowded with students; soon the faculty members started arriving. Window panes were painted with splashes of red. Within no time the police arrived and evacuated the place. It took Rakesh an hour to reach the crime scene from his house.
A drowsy Rakesh entered the room, rubbing his eyes, but was soon completely awake looking at the crime scene.
“What happened here?” Rakesh asked.
“Sir, it appears that the guy sitting on the chair shot his friend who was sleeping and then shot himself,” replied sub-inspector Suresh.
“Any witnesses?”
“No sir, the door was bolted from inside, and the students broke it open.”
“Any evidence?”
“Not as of now, sir.”
The human mind usually tends to neglect the basic facts when the assumed truth is evident. Rakesh could look beyond the obvious story. He carefully moved around the chalk lines and suddenly his eyes got stuck to a small piece of nail inside the sill of the window.
The next morning, all the friends and relatives had been called to the police station for interrogation.
“They were really good friends; we were all very close to each other. I don’t know why Sushant would do this to his best friend,” Shalini said, bursting into tears.
“Calm down, Shalini. Here, have some water,” Rakesh said, handing her the glass.
“Did any of them ever complain about each other’s behavior?”
“Never.”
“You can go, Shalini.”
Rakesh sat on his chair, thinking of all possible reasons why this would happen. Suresh entered the cabin with a laptop.
“Did you find anything?”
“This is the video footage from the CCTV cameras. The post-mortem reports will be available only after three days,” Suresh said.
“Is there anything useful in the footage?”
“Yes, sir. At around 2 a.m., two guys named Manav and Sanjay entered Dorm-16, but they can be seen going back fifteen minutes later.”
“Anything apart from that?”
“Nothing much, sir. The watchman was at the entrance the whole time.”
“Any tampering with the footage?”
“Nothing as of now, sir; we’ll be sending the footage to an expert today.”
Rakesh was stunned looking at the post-mortem report. He couldn't believe what had happened. He urgently called up Suresh.
"Suresh, I want all of Sushant's and Nirav's acquaintances here by 12 p.m. today.”
“Yes, sir,” Suresh replied.
“And get all the photographs and videos from the party.”
The post-mortem report said that Sushant, the one who killed Nirav, died first. But how could someone kill himself first and then his friend? This thought was troubling Rakesh. No one had an answer to this except for the killer. It had now become apparent that Sushant wasn’t the killer; someone had killed both of them.
The police suspected four people. The first two were the sworn enemies of Sushant and Nirav. Manav and Sanjay had gotten into fights with the two deceased many times. The second suspect was Prof. Sunita, whose daughter had committed suicide the year prior; the reason was an MMS allegedly made by Sushant and Nirav. The final suspect was the watchman who was on bad terms with the two; they had also gotten into a scuffle with him a week ago.
“Get me the CCTV footage,” Rakesh said, sipping his favorite black tea.
Suresh brought the laptop and placed it in front of Rakesh.
"Sir, these are those two guys, Manav and Sanjay,” he said, pointing to the video in which Manav and Sanjay were entering dorm-16.
“Call them in.”
Manav and Sanjay were sweating while looking at Rakesh, and their eyes were filled with fright.
“Did you enter Dorm-16 on the night of the farewell party?”
“Yes, sir, but we didn’t kill either of them.”
“So, what happened when you entered the dorm?”
Manav started narrating the story. "Sir, when we entered the dorm, we straight went to their room, but the door was bolted from the inside. We banged on it for ten minutes, but no one replied.”
“And why did you go there?”
“Sir… actually… we had a fight that night. That’s why,” Sanjay said hesitatingly.
“With both of them?”
“No sir, only Nirav,” Manav said.
“And where was Sushant at that time?”
“We don’t know, sir. We didn’t see him the entire night,” Sanjay said.
“Both of you can go now.”
The next to be interrogated was Prof. Sunita.
“Prof. Sunita, is it true that your daughter committed suicide?” Rakesh asked.
“Yes.”
“Reason?”
“No one believed the reason, then why talk about it?” Prof. Sunita replied.
“Did you know Sushant and Nirav?”
“Yeah, they are students of our college, but I never taught them.”
“Never had any interaction with them?”
“It was of no use interacting with those two.”
“Thank you, Ma’am. You can go.”
The final suspect was the watchman.
“Is it true that you had a fight with them?”
“Yes, sir,” Ramu replied while sweating.
“Why?”
“They had entered late at night in the hostel and did not produce their IDs when I asked them to; instead, they started abusing me and then slapped me.”
“Where were you that night?”
“Sir, I was at the gate the whole time; you can check the CCTV footage.”
“You can go, Ramu.”
“Suresh, call the final suspect,” Rakesh said.
“Sir, but he was the final suspect.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Rakesh said, smilingly.
Shalini was sitting in front of Rakesh, still confused about why she had been called.
“So, Shalini. Where were you that night?”
“I was at the party the whole time, and when we heard the gunshot, we ran towards the hostel.”
“The whole time?”
“Yes, sir, the whole time.”
“What happened to your nail that night?”
“My nail?”
“Yes, a piece of it was found in the sill of Nirav’s window.”
“It must have broken; I go to Nirav’s room a lot of times.”
“Was it broken before you killed Sushant, or after that?”
Shalini was now sweating and didn’t know what to say. She was avoiding direct eye contact with Rakesh and fiddling with the paperweight on the table.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shalini said.
“Let me show you something,” Rakesh said and brought the laptop, which was now facing Shalini. “As you can see, Shalini, before 11 p.m., your nail was intact, but in the photographs after that, you have a broken nail.”
Shalini was shocked, looking at the photographs. She never thought she would be caught. She now knew that she could no more fool Rakesh, so she finally confessed.
“Yes, I killed both of them. That night at 11, I went to Sushant’s room. He was getting ready for the party; he thought that I was dating him, but the fool never knew how much I hated him. I had told him to stay at his room after Nirav leaves for the party, and when I saw Nirav at the party, I went to their room.”
“And then you hugged Sushant, which left this hair on his shoulder,” Rakesh said, showing the strand of hair kept in the plastic bag.
“Yes, and then I shot him in his head. I made his body sit in the chair and kept the gun in his hand, pointing towards the bed. I had given Nirav an overdose of cocaine, and he lost his senses. When he went into his room, the lights were off, and he fell on the bed.”
“You seemed to know a lot about rigor mortis?”
“Yes, rigor mortis starts after around 5 hours when the person’s dead. The gun was positioned so that it aimed straight towards the bed. When rigor mortis started, Sushant’s fingers contracted, and he—his dead body—shot Nirav.”
“Brilliant! But why did you do it?”
“These guys were insane; they had made a video of me with Sushant and wanted to leak it. But I deleted it and pretended I never knew about that; this way, I fooled them that I was their friend, and I killed those monsters when I got the chance.”
There was no sign of remorse on Shalini’s face; she was content and satisfied with what she did.
Question: What are your thoughts on this chilling tale? Did the ending surprise you? Share your theories..
Comments
Post a Comment