The police van screeched to a halt outside the building. Two men in police uniform with guns drawn ran up the stairs to the second floor and rang the bell of apartment 213.
There was no response, and one of them just pushed the door.
It opened with no difficulty. They rushed to the living room where the TV was
on and blaring.
They recoiled for a moment at the ghastly sight of the body
of a young woman around 25 in her nightie lying on the sofa with blood sprayed
all around. The body was puckered with several stab wounds.
There stood still by the side of the sofa, a heavily built
man in his late 30s in faded jeans and a T-shirt. His hair was dishevelled, and his
clothes were dotted all over with irregular patches of blood.
One of the men felt her nostrils and flashed torchlight on
her wide-open eyes and remarked, "Dead", to no one in particular.
" Hey, you gave a ring, is it? Who killed her, any
idea?" asked the second man to the man in jeans.
"Do you have any doubt? Here is the evidence.
Look," he said and took a blood-soaked kitchen knife from the sofa.
" Stop it, I say. Drop the knife and hold up your
hands," shouted the policeman with the gun pointing at the man.
As the man dropped the knife, the other policeman went
behind him and put the handcuffs on the hands behind him.
"Why did you kill her?"
"Go to the bedroom and find for yourself", he said
with a smug smile.
The policeman saw the body of a young man in his twenties clad
in pyjamas on the bed. He had obviously been strangled with a tie, and his head
smashed later by some blunt weapon.
"Who is this guy? Anyone known to you"
"How would I know? I have cast my eye on him for the
first time in this bed of mine"
"Is the lady in the living room your wife?"
"What else do you think, you moron, my concubine, is
it?"
"Why did you kill them both?" the policeman asked,
realising the stupidity of the question.
"For fun, you idiot", the man spluttered in rage.
“Are you so dumb?" he asked.
A mobile phone started ringing, and by the time the policeman
could locate it, the ringing stopped. The mobile was found in the pocket of the
pyjamas of the dead man. He checked the calls and said to his colleague that the
call to the police was not from this mobile.
Surprised at the sudden disclosure, they called the security guard, who
was luckily standing outside the door. He identified that the dead duo was
a couple and that the man in jeans and cuffs was a visitor seen for the first
time.
There was a puzzled look on the faces of the two policemen
as they surmised a psycho.
Who was he, and what was he after? Any clue?
It was then they heard clearly an instruction from someone
in an adjacent room to a few possibly assembled there.
"Cut and pack up for the day. The shooting is over”
The men in uniform peered inside to see the men folding
curtains and packing several cameras and stands.
The director smiled at the man in jeans and asked, “Who
asked you to talk so much to the policemen? You have gone beyond the script. You were
to stand there mostly quiet?”
“Who rang the police? It was not me,” asked the man in
jeans.”
“It was for bringing true effect; we had arranged a call from a
booth. They and the security man were part of our group. No real police were
involved,” exclaimed the director.
There were peals of laughter and clapping for the
successful shooting from all, including the young woman, the man in pyjamas, and the security guard.

A funny twist. Happy Halloween !
ReplyDeleteChitra
That's an interesting story! Appeared so real!! Atin Biswas
ReplyDeleteWhew! God it sounded so real. An interesting one for Halloween. As always loved the narration.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful story with an awesome twist. You scared me mama - I really thought you have started writing murder mysteries too ☺️
ReplyDelete