85/4 Part Two.

Read the previous part

“Why would I be kidding? How? and who-  that’s what you are here to find, I am putting you on this and don’t disappoint me Jenning”

He despised being called by his last name.

“No chief, I won’t disappoint”

“Your team consisting of two FBI agents is waiting for you inside, they will brief you up and you can take Duncan’s help if you need, I need you to report  me with progress by today evening. “

After saying this, chief drove away and David walked into the living room which showed the old lady’s bizarre taste. There ,  two men apparently in their forties stood, deeply in conversation. He cleared his throat to make his presence felt.

Both the heads turned towards him.

“Hi I am David; you must be the guys the chief just told me about.”

“Yep that’s us Mike and Ricky, FBI agents,  chief put us on this case with you.” said the taller on among them. He was Mike.

“So what exactly happened?  Have they taken the body, what does the medical department have to say about it?”

“Easy buddy, it’s too soon to have any updates from the medicos, they took the body half hour back itself. We will get to hear from the by noon. It seems like she died of suffocation, so that means she was probably strangulated to death” said Ricky.

“Any signs of struggle, I mean it could be a natural death seventy nine isn’t exactly that young and she did not have a very good medical history. Are you sure she was murdered, any evidence of forced entry?”

“Yes there are signs of struggle at the crime spot there was a broken flower vase and a shattered window pane, showing the murderer entered from the window. There were some blood spots on the sheets; Mrs. Smith did not have any signs of bleeding, we suspect the blood spots belong to the assailant. Also when the mail man came he heard some sounds from somewhere around. He thought someone was in the backyard but according to him it could be the neighbor’s cat too. He thought he will get some water so called Mrs. Smith and when she did not respond he came in , found her dead and called the police.”

“ Hmmmm….. He can be our no. 1 suspect, any other suspect?”

“Yes, although we wonder what could be his motive? He says he came here at 7:40 am and called the police came at 8:00 am within ten minutes of getting his call.”

“According to him he was here twenty minutes before the cops came, well that gives him enough time to murder her. Also he could have been lying , there is a possibility he was here much before 7:40. Did he say anything else?”

“Nothing else that can make us suspect him more or that gives a concrete prove that he did it.”

“Did you interrogate the neighbors?”

“Yes, we did , they saw no one , nobody talked to her much or saw her much , she preferred staying inside. The house maid came at 8:00 almost the same time as the cops , she had nothing much to tell  either, except that she left at 6  pm last evening  after giving Mrs Smith an early dinner and ensuring that all doors and windows were closed properly. She was in absolute shock when she heard about the murder.”Mike said

“ She is our suspect number two .” Ricky added.

“ When the mail man came the front door was open and the maid says that she locked all the doors last night . Did Mrs Smith wake up in the morning to unlock the doors ?”asked David.

“ No , the maid  said Mrs Smith was a late riser and unlocked  the door only when she came at 8:00 every morning  , the maid had one duplicate pair of keys .”replied Mike.

“That means she had access to the house any time . We might be on something , I wan to interrogate the maid and the mailman , today , its either of them but first lets get to know the time of the murder  from the medical department. Lets see what they have to say .”

” Yes , once we know the time of murder , we can be sure which one of the two is the murderer.” Mike added

After this they went to the room where the body was found. David had been there once before , except the vase and the window pane nothing seemed to be out of place not even the jug of water that was at the same place .

“ Seems like there wasn’t much struggle , she was quite easy to kill .” said David more to himself.

It was nearly 11:00 when the three sealed the house and left it. Ricky got a call . It was from the medicos , finally they had called. So after 85/4 they went to the Medical Sciences and research department which was a twenty minutes drive.

“ Hi , I am Dr James” said the head doctor there.

They shook hands with him .

“ Well I have nothing very out of ordinary to tell you , she was murdered , strangualted , and she has been dead for nearly twelve hours now. That means she was murdered at around 11:30 pm or at midnight” reported the doctor a bespectaled man

“Are you sure about the time ? And any marks or anything on the body?” asked David.

“ Yes pretty sure of the time and nothing else of much significance was found and oh , yes the blood spots on the sheet do not belong to Mrs Smith. So that means the assiliant might have got injured at the spot, and tthat means a big wound too.”

“Okay so we are looking for a wounded murderer , and it definetly can’t be the mail man because  she was murdered  much before he got there .”David said.

“ And the maid did not have any signs of injury either.” Ricky said

“ But lets not rule them out without interrogation.” Mike said .

“ Yes exactly , we will take their blood samples and send for analysis to Dr James here.” David said “ Or maybe lets just call them here itself .”

The mailman and the house maid came within half hour. They were made to sit in the doctors office , Dr James took their blood samples and then they both had a medical check up to see if they had any injury. Unfortunately they did not.

That reduced their chances of commiting the crime by fifty percent , fifty because they might have been accompanied by someone. Thought David, this seemed to be going nowhere . Mrs Smith had been murdered for nearly half a day now and they had no suspects or clue . The police could be in a major spot if they did not solve the case soon. The media would question them brutally. He had to report to the chief within 5 hours from now and right now he had no idea what happened in 85/4 last night.

85/4 Part One

 

David woke up with a groan as the alarm went off like it did every morning . This is how he had been waking up for six weeks now since posted in the quiet St. Petersburg  neighborhood . Nothing ever happened there , all he did in his entire day was patrolling the quite deserted streets. Not a soul was seen on those streets . There was no action and a police job without action was pointless , that is what he always said . He detested every single thing about this place .

Today was no different , he got out of his bed , dressed , tried cooking something and failed badly and then decided to go to Cindy’s for a quick breakfast.He could always get a decent breakfast there . He drove out hating his police car , he so wished he could drive a beemer , hi dream car but all he had that old jaunty car.Listening to all time favorite Bryan Adams he he slowly drove to Cindy’s old shackle .It was originally owned by her grandmother , but  owing to her bad health , Cindy ran it now.

” Morning officer” Cindy cheerfully greeted him

“Morning Cindy , how u doin’ ? “

” Good , the usual bacon , eggs and low fat coffee for you ?”

“Absolutely , please make it quick I’m running late.”

“Yes ,sir ” she replied saluting and smiling , David’s favorite smile. He so loved that smile .

David loved her friendly and outgoing way and apart from the good food he got here , she was the reason he visited the cafe every morning. When she went into the kitchen , he picked up the newspaper.

Ten minutes later Cindy cam with his food , his pager beeped.He ignored it .

” Pretty lady , giving me company today ? “

” I will in a bit officer , that guy over there has a monstrous appetite and I have to get his breakfast , after that I will. ” she said pointing at a guy who wore a leather jacket and looked like a thug.

*Beep Beep*  went his pager again.

” Looks like someone wants you real bad.”

“It’s probably the chief , asking me to see if the old lady in 85/4 to see if the old lady is still alive or not “

” Now that’s like a good cop.” she said and walked away.

David watched her go and the beeper went off yet again . This time he checked it , as he had assumed it was the chief . Might be something more important than the old lady today .

” Hey Cindy , I am using your pay phone . “

He dialed chief’s number and waited as the phone at the other end rang . In a way it was good to have lost his phone had his car phone in case of any emergency , but in situations like this not having a phone was like a disability. He knew he would have to get a new phone soon.

” Morning Chief , David here “

” Hey David , the chief requires you immediately , its very urgent . ” the said  voice,  he did not recognize.

” Okay , on my way.”

There was an urgency in the voice he could not ignore . Quickly he put down the receiver picked up his coffee and left his breakfast unfinished .

” Hey Cindy I will see you for lunch , Chief needs me urgently “

He was pretty sure it was nothing but more than an attempt to  robbery but did not want to delay .

At the headquarters , he found just Duncan , who asked him to leave for 85/4 immediately , the chief was expecting him there.

” Arggh the old lady is causing trouble yet again , What ? Did she see some ghosts this time ?”

” Dunno Buddy , was just asked you to tell you to be there . I myself got here few minutes back . You better get going , the chief sounded like its some serious business.”

“Chief might not be in his senses , why does he take her seriously. I will see you in sometime .” he said and went out.

Every single time David went to 85/4 he regretted it . But the silly old lady would call 911 for the smallest reasons. Once she called because she thought the police could get someone to fix her dishwasher the other time she mistook the plumber to be a thief and David had to go , it took an hour to  convince her that he wasn’t a thief but the plumber she had herself called.

He saw chief’s car parked outside the old mansion along with it two other cars , he had not seen them around before. One of them was a beemer , he envied the owner , it was such a beauty. He stared at it with his jaw dropping.

“David , where have you been ? I was about to call you again , why don’t buy a phone ?”

“Sorry chief, so what’s up with Mrs Smith today , did the ghost get her ?”

“She was murdered last night”

David’s jaw dropped for the second time in five minutes. “You are kidding chief! How? Who did it?”

*to be continued*

An over the top drive

I hope no one from my family ever reads this especially my mom and dad , they would probably disown me if they read this (disown here is an understatement ).

I have the most insane friends whose dictionary does not include the word “Normal” . They are just CRAZY! They  can go upto any level of madness . The post is a prove of this fact. Well me and my gang of girls have this pact that we go for a small road trip after every month’s exams and around diwali . This was mutually decided last year when we went to what we thought wasRDB fort. The pact was sometimes broken and this time it had been too long since we went somewhere and we just had to take a break.

It was decided after the last month’s exam that we would go to floating restaurant which is around 50 kilometers from Chandigarh. But the plan was cancelled due to some  unavoidable circumstances . But this week we got so bugged by college , the lectures were a harrassment the professors even more so and we had endless assignments , submissions and what nots. This was when Swat and Uncle V talked again about the previous month’s plan and told me .I was just looking for this break from college , I asked everyone else and they surprisingly agreed . So it was decided that the people who have activas ( I don’t get the car on weekdays ) would get them and we’d fly outta the cage. It was the six of us and three activas .

Next morning we assembled outside the college and Uncle V and I discovered that Swat had included few of her friends and AV ( who had her own little adventure while coming out of the college , she was caught by the guard but ran away) in the plan and from six we were now eleven people . Now we had eleven people and not enough two-wheelers to accommodate . We thought of getting buses , I hate buses even the one hour bus journey to college whacks me out. They are just too uncomfortable especially the Punjab transport buses and CTU and since college started I have been trying to get used to them.

So anyways we had no other option , unlike the previous times we knew the way to the restaurant . So that meant less of adventure. The first bus we approached did not go to Sirhind , neither did the second one , the third one went exactly where we had to go but it was fully occupied and there were no seats available . So I just moved on thinking maybe we will find a better bus , its always good to have options . After a few seconds I saw SS and AV asking the conductor if they could travel on  the bus top , yes they  freaking thought of it . And when the conductor seemed okay with the idea all of them started climbing . I was like FML , we just joke when we say how cool it would be to travel on a train top or a  bus top but our life is not some bollywood movie where we can do that and sing and dance our way . I had a battle inside me , whether to go up or not by the time I could think of anything everyone was up there except me and Uncle V so I just stopped thinking and climbed .

Phew! I never imagined I would end up doing that . The top was dirty and I honestly was doubtful of sitting there even I had climbed up. But  I believe if you take a decision there should be no looking back , so I finally sat down making myself comfortable. The wind up there felt very nice and the view was amazing too . Have a look at the picture from the top :

We talked like crazy and then started singing as well and drew a lot of weird looks towards us  but who cared . It was glorious . We just don’t say things we do things . But the travelling on the top did not prove very good for our poor hair. The best way to worsen a bad hair day is to travel on a bus top , your hair will be at their best worst .

After an hour long singing and screaming and evading trees that had the potential to hit our heads we reached the floating restaurant. Getting down was major task for a few people who were scared out of wits, specially Swat who after climbing down to disguise her fear said ” Oh , it wasn’t that big  a deal , was it . ” The place was beautiful , we took half an hour to detangle our hair , yeah we are girls , another half hour to make our faces look good . Yes we are girls after all .

Finally when everyone was done , we headed for breakfast , which wasn’t that impressive . I felt the place was shaking because it was on top of the water , but everyone else denied that. Apparently they are not vibration sensitive . Uncle V – It was shaking , don’t you deny it just for the sake of contradicting me . After the breakfast we went and sat on the bank of the river and a nice time . It indeed was a peaceful place something like Jainti Dam ,talked discussed things and clicked a few pictures and came back . Here are few more pictures to make you envious .

                                                                    Came across this while shopping. Talk about bad advertisements.

 

Traffic Woes

As a kid I used to sit on the back seat of the car as my mom drove through the traffic. I used to find it
really amusing as she loudly said things to the rickshaw wala who suddenly thought of attempting a
wheelie in front of the car and blindly continued riding oblivious of my mom yelling at him . “What is
this man trying to do, rickshaws should be permanently banned”? “They need to be taught some traffic
rules, who has given them the right to drive like this.”

Now that I have started driving I realize how maddening it is to get stuck in traffic. I learnt until you have
learnt driving you have never really learnt swearing – Robert Paul. There are times when I hurl abuses at
the cyclists or the crazy pedestrians who decide to cross the road just when my car is five meters away
from them or the dude who overtakes me from the wrong side at the speed of 100km per hour.

I see traffic jams as the gathering of captives who are forcibly put together, and try to somehow wriggle
out of the crowd. We get to see various kinds of people in the traffic jams. Amidst all these little less
crazy people comes the lunatic who fancies driving his way through the wrong lane and further blocks
the traffic from all the sides. Binging out another ten ‘captives’ out of their cars who think they can
control the traffic and start giving directions to confuse everyone. “Take a turn that way, no this.
Reverse a little , turn a little left no turn right.” The monstrous traffic jam swells up with captives being
added every second.

You have the few spoilt ones honking continuously; maybe they feel honking clears up the traffic ahead
or perhaps they are under the impression that their honking is music to the ears of the other people.

Then you have the ‘uncles’ who roll down the window of their car , look here and there talk to the
person next to them, discuss the cause of the jam and talk about it like they are some detectives solving
a murder mystery .They go on blaming the system while the person listening nods in agreement .

In the scene we also have the angry young guy, who is probably late to meet his girlfriend; he is the one
providing maximum entertainment, he goes berserk and uses the words that boost your vocabulary. A
friend of mine starts abusing in Panjabi whenever driving on a crowded road. “B@!&!*$d , somebody
teach him how to drive , move away , don’t you see me coming” He is always ready to go out of the car
and give a piece of his mind to everybody on the road but when it comes to ladies , he is very forgiving
and lets it go with just a smile on his face. “Kudi hai , chalta hai, maaf kitta agar munda hota toh chadna
nahi si ”(“It’s a chick, I forgive her, had it been a guy I would have come to blows ”) he says in his
Panjabi.

“B#%$?y, @$&*!&e, what’s going on ? I will call my friend in the police department”, says the dude who
sees the jam as an opportunity to flaunt his contacts. Buddy the solution is not calling your friend from
the police department but moving your car in the right lane.

The person who is fretting the most is the uniformed driver of the ‘babu’ in the back seat of the red
beacon car. “Sahib has to meet the chief minister, please move your car”. He says this when the actual
cause of the traffic is the cavalcade of the chief minister’s cars, is expected to pass through that route any minute.

When the entire situation is out of hand the traffic, the traffic is at a standstill and there is a complete
havoc on the roads , suddenly from nowhere comes the traffic cop , usually a man with a protruding
stomach , double chin and lacking skills in maneuvering himself let alone the traffic. He signals to the left
and then right. Slowly the traffic gets a organized and the captives are freed, most of them late to get to
their destination. The distraught boyfriend has already got a million calls from his girlfriend. The uncle
is the first one to zoom away. The honking guy is still honking but now it does not sound as bad as it did
earlier.