Behind The Bushes…
She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag, covered with her blue silk scarf…
It had become her habit over these past years to come here in the morning and sip coffee after her night shift at a BPO. It always had been a great relief to Pihu to walk all the way down this sea-side road flanked by line of thicket, bushes and flowers before finally arriving at this café. It had always refilled her with more energy, more enthusiasms after her tiring work all night. But today was a different day, for anxiety had completely filled her heart after the incident that occurred early this morning, even the thought of which sends chills down her spines.
Everything was just the same as they had been for years, until the dreadful incident occurred. She was walking down the stretch with her ears phones tucked into her ears listening to her favorite songs on her iPod. The late October breeze blowing slowly filled her mind with calmness and the foggy weather fitted very well with her mood today. She was engrossed in enjoying the weather and the song when suddenly she saw something move behind the bushes. Afraid, she removed her ear phones instinctively and heard some subdued sounds as if somebody had been groaning.
Afraid, yet curious, she tip-toed towards the sound and hiding herself behind a bush, carefully peeped through it. What she saw turned her stomach to ice and she sat frozen to that spot. She saw a man, with his back towards her, bending over another, who was lying flat on the ground pleading for forgiveness. But the pleads fell on deaf ears and the man, putting his one hand over the mouth of the other, took out a knife with another and thrust it into his stomach. Once. Twice. Thrice. Blood oozed out of the gash. The man tried to shout in pain but the murderer's hand was strong enough to prevent any loud noise to escape through his mouth. And then, as if three gashes in the stomach weren't enough, the murderer gave two more in his heart, crushing down every chance of his survival.
Her heart almost stopped beating and she stared in disbelief at the horrible scene. Although she was numb with fear, she didn't make a single sound or even a minute gasp. Then suddenly with her trembling hands took out her cell phone and quickly clicked a picture of the murderer holding the knife and the victim lying on his pool of blood. The murderer then threw the blood stained knife away into the bush and then turning his face towards her gave a loud cry of joy. Pihu saw his face now clearly for the first time and at once a ghastly whiteness spread over her face when she realized that the cruel murderer was none but the same colleague who sat just beside her in the office, the same boy who had once saved her while she and her friends were in a big trouble at a bar and the same friend on whom she had bestowed all her trust upon. Although she recognized his face, she failed to recognize his eyes. The dead-like eyes of the murderer devoid of all emotions were in total contrast to those soft kind eyes of her friend. She laid there for a long time stricken into silence and when finally she got back to senses, the murderer had left the spot, leaving the corpse behind.
Then, slowly Pihu stood up and as if in a trance walked towards the dead man. The lifeless body covered with blood sent chills down her spines. She stared at the corpse with a grim and shuddering fascination and the corpse stared back at her with his eyes wide open and a face frozen in a glassy stare of horror. Pihu shuddered and stepped back, but his eyes demanded justice. The torture of her indecision and fear threatened to crush her, until finally she decided to bring justice.
Although terror held her like a vice-like grip, she went into the forest in search of the murder weapon. She searched thoroughly leaving no stones unturned and stopped only when she found it. She then quickly took off her blue silk scarf and carefully used it to hold the knife so as not to rub off the murderer's fingerprints from there and put hers' instead. She then used her scarf to carefully cover the knife and went off to continue with her usual habit of visiting the café.
"Maam, so late today?" the waiter had asked her.
"Shift ended late," she had replied shortly and had added, "Serve me my coffee quick," to end any further conversation on the matter.
Now, she sat back there sipping her coffee and staring out of the window, thinking about the horrible incident that took place a few minutes back and planning justice. An uncomfortable premonition of fear pervaded her senses and she knew she would have to call the police and giving them all the details would have to hand them the murder weapon that was still lying beside her hand-bag un-noticed and unfit for her small bag.
So, she sat there playing with the idea of dialing 100 when suddenly she remembered about Rohini. Rohini was in the Police force and had once told her that she had recently been shifted to the area of her office and had also told Pihu that if ever she needed any help she could always give her a call. Pihu quickly opened her call-log and dialed her number. When Rohini picked up all she said was—"Come to the Starbucks café, quick. It's very urgent." and cut the call to avoid any further conversation over the phone.
Rohini reached within ten minutes, probably sensing the urgency in Pihu's voice. Pihu waved her hand and Rohini rushed in her direction. They did away with the waiter by ordering two cups of black coffee.
"Now tell me what is it?" Rohini asked as soon as the waiter left.
Pihu mustered all her courage and closing her eyes began, "I have witnessed a murder."
"What?" Rohini almost screamed, but managed to bit back her excitement.
Pihu nodded and went on to narrate the whole incident. She had to stop in between when the waiter came to serve them their coffee. Rohini heard her carefully and took note of every detail possible and her expression changed from horror to anger to astonishment.
After she finished, the only thing Rohini asked was, "You really have the murder weapon now?"
Pihu nodded and pointed with her eyes towards the knife covered in her scarf.
"And the victim's body?" Rohini asked after a short pause.
"Probably, still lying there," Pihu replied and then showed her the picture of the crime in her cell phone.
"But the murderer's face isn't so clear here. How do we identify him?" Rohini asked, confused.
"I have seen his face, crystal-clear," Pihu replied.
"Oh! Very good then. Can you then describe his face so that our artist could sketch his…" Rohini began.
"No, that's not needed. I can show you his photograph," Pihu cut her short and then taking her phone from Rohini's hand scrolled down to bring out her selfie with the man.
Rohini took it from her hand and staring at for sometime asked, "You knew him?"
"Yes, he's my fr…umm…my colleague, Rehan," Pihu replied, sure enough that he can't be called her friend anymore.
"Fine, you do one thing. Please lead me to the murder scene. I'm calling my team too," Rohini replied and dialed some numbers. They paid for the coffee and when their team arrived they together went straight to the crime scene with Pihu giving the directions.
As expected, the body of the victim was still lying there, untouched, unnoticed and undiscovered. Rohini had already narrated the whole incident to the inspector while in the police jeep and now they handed him the murder weapon. The victim's body along with the knife was at once sent to the forensic lab. Pihu accompanied by Rohini, the inspector and a few other officers went to the police station for further investigation.
"Miss Pihu Malhotra, we do not have any definite prove that the murder was committed by your colleague Mr. Rehan Kapoor," began the Inspector, a bit thoughtfully.
"But sir isn't the photograph enough?" Pihu asked.
"No, Miss Malhotra. That isn't enough. Firstly, you have not clicked the picture of Mr. Kapoor killing the man but only holding the knife and secondly his face isn't clear there," the inspector grew more thoughtful.
"Okay, fine. Do you know his address? We can bring him here at least for a short interrogation on the statement of an eye-witness," he added after a second thought.
Pihu knew his address very well and wrote it clearly on the piece of paper forwarded by the inspector. He at once set his men to bring Rehan to the police station. But on reaching their destination the police found his doors locked. A thorough investigation of his neighbors revealed that he was planning to leave for Delhi and probably have left for the airport this morning. With this information they headed towards the airport and ransacked it until they finally got hold of Rehan.
"Mr. Rehan Kapoor, you have to come with us to the police station for a bit of interrogation," declared one of them.
"But…but… I have an important meeting at Delhi. My flight…," he began.
"Oh! Come on! Justice is more important than your work. Your meeting can wait," the officer cut him short.
"No! It can't! " Rehan shouted.
"Don't shout like that Mr. Kapoor. We have an eye-witness who has seen you murdering another man. She's at the police station right now and our inspector has ordered us to take you there. So, please don't you dare mess with us," another officer said strictly.
"An eye-witness? Who?" Rehan asked nervously.
"You will get to know everything once you come with us," said the officer and grabbing his hand dragged him to his jeep.
Back at the police station, the report that the blood on the knife and that of the victim matched had already arrived but the post-mortem report would take some more time. The Inspector, Pihu and Rohini were discussing the incident when Rehan accompanied by the police officers entered from behind.
"Who has witnessed me murdering…," Rehan began but stopped abruptly as soon as Pihu turned to look at him.
"Pihu!" just an exclamation escaped his mouth.
"Yes, I saw whatever you did there," Pihu retorted sternly.
"You bloody…," Rehan began; his face has long lost its colour.
"No swearing here please, Mr. Rehan Kapoor," the Inspector said and then turning towards his men said to one of them, "Officer, take him to the forensic lab for testing his fingerprints." The officers followed at once.
After sometime they returned back along with the fingerprint report. The fingerprints have matched, as expected.
"So, Mr. Rehan, we have an eye-witness and your fingerprints on the murder weapon to prove that you are the cold-blooded murderer who has cruelly murdered the man. So, do you have an alibi or you want to confess it all?" asked the Inspector.
After a long deep silence, Rehan finally said, "Yes, I have committed the crime but haven't you wondered about the motive? A person doesn't just murder another for fun."
"What motive do you have?" the inspector said raising an eye-brow.
"I'm saying it. But before that can I ask Miss Pihu Malhotra a question?" Rehan asked sardonically.
"Yah, proceed. Ask her," Rohini said.
"Pihu, you have seen the victim, right? So didn't you recognize him? Didn't the face seem familiar to you even once?" asked Rehan, sarcasm clear in his voice.
After a bit of hesitation, Pihu finally nodded her head.
"Then would you mind telling these people who the man is?" Rehan asked.
"The man… the man… is Raghubir. He was eve-teasing me while I was at a bar with my friends one day. Then, Rehan had come to my rescue," Pihu said with tears in her eyes.
"Yes and since that day I had been tracking this man's activities and his intentions didn't seem right. He was keeping an eye on Pihu and was searching for an opportunity to harm her. I have come to know of his intentions beforehand and so I arrived at the spot and before he could harm her I took the life out of him," Rehan explained with a wry smile.
"But that isn't the way, Rehan. You could have informed the Police first. We could have helped you then. You just can't take the law in your own hands and eliminate a man. Why did you do such a foolish thing?" Rohini asked.
"Because I love her. Because I wanted to protect her. Because we are engaged," Rehan shouted and flaunted his engagement ring at them.
"But this is not right, Rehan. You shouldn't have done this. No matter how bad a man is, we have no right to kill him just like that. When we cannot create life who are we to destroy them?" Pihu said, still crying.
"I love you. We are engaged. Whatever I did that was all for you. But see what you did to me, you handed me over to the police," Rehan broke down and hid his face in his palms.
"I love you too, Rehan. But I really can't spend my whole life with a person who has brutally murdered another especially when I have witnessed it all with my own eyes. And, you are wrong Rehan, we are not engaged, we were," Pihu replied and opening her engagement ring threw it in his direction. Rehan looked up at her in astonishment.
"This relationship isn't possible any more, Rehan. I still love you and perhaps would do so for years to come but I can never forget what I saw you do today and the crime is beyond forgiveness," Pihu said, and wiping her tears ran out of the police station.