Vicki was cursing herself, "How the hell, I let her escape? Such a horrible person, throwing a baby to slow me, down." Her phone beeped, "Ha, it's the twerp."
"What's the matter, twerp?"
...
"What Veronica is poisoned?"
...
"Ok, I'm coming."
"Guess what, now a murder convict dies of poisoning? What the fuck is happening around, these days?" Vicki looked pissed.
(Behold)
On arriving at the station, Vicki noticed a very rare spectacle, newspaper reporters, media persons have thronged the station and the police had to put barricades, to stop them.
"Quite a ruckus, but who the hell leaked it?" Vicki had her doubts, there are sources of News agencies in the department but this is against the protocol to inform such a murder this early.
A familiar crime reporter of a daily spotted her.
"Vicki what's happening? Is a prisoner being poisoned? Is the suspect one of the force? " Chet was full of questions.
"Calm down, before I knock you out." Vicki's threat relented Chet, "Who gave you this information, Chet?"
"A stranger called our office and said someone is poisoned, around 30 minutes ago." Chet answered.
"Do, you have their number Chet?" Vicki asked again.
"Absolutely, our office phone had CLI, so we got hold of the number", Chet showed the number to Vicki, who promptly copied it in her smartphone.
"Vicki can I get a scoop, once you crack that case?" Chet looked at her with pleading puppy eyes.
"Yeah; Whatever." Vicki shooed him away and entered the station by flashing her id card.
(Inside)
The crime scene has already been taped by police line and the body was being checked by the forensics.
"The cause of death is severe asphyxiation due to cyanide poisoning. The poison was in the water which she drank from the bottle. On her body there is no trace of poison and no other injuries, her health before the death looked fine."
The forensics officer concluded his initial analysis.
Timmy was deep in thought, while Maria was being ruthlessly interrogated by the cops. Despite having an alibi that she was with Timmy the whole time, some cops had it hard to digest.
"Timmy, do you what's the matter with the racket outside?" a cold voice asked him. Timmy spun around to meet, the pink orbs, dazzling with dissatisfaction.
"Someone might have called the media for some cheap attention." Timmy answered his partner.
"Somebody informed them from a payphone about the incident, so that the investigation can be things first twerp, brief me." Vicki reasoned.
"Again, the twerp is back." Timmy thought, "The incident occurred around 10, when a person who posed as victim's lawyer came to meet her, they chatted for 10 minutes, then that person left..." Vicki interjected "How could you know that she is a poser?"
"Well during the incident, the real lawyer was with me. She came to the office to meet me, Veronica wanted to disclose something very confidential to me, so the lawyer came to get me." Timmy answered.
"So this is a doppelgänger case?" Vicki smiled snobbishly.
"Come again, please?" Timmy had no idea about that term.
"Can't expect any better from you." Vicki mentally face-palmed herself over the lack of her partner's vocabulary. "It's refer to those cases where the culprit takes up the appearance of an innocent person, commits the crime so that the true culprit is never found and the unfortunate person is the scapegoat."
"But, if that's the case then this crime is very peculiar, because the person who was to be framed had an airtight alibi." Timmy looked doubting.
Vicki flashed an haughty smile, "The culprit's only motto was to kill Veronica, so the information remains buried. They weren't focused on making a scapegoat out of Maria. Did she said anything about the testimony?"
"Nope, she only said that Veronica wanted to confess something important; she didn't tell Maria also, so she couldn't furnish anything more." Timmy replied.
"Did she left any dying message or something? You were there at the time of her death?" Vicki asked, the familiar folds on her fore-head is back.
"Nothing particular, she crawled towards us and grabbed the cuff of my right sleeve." Timmy showed the thing.
"What's there, that insignia? it's a lion?" Vicki looked astonished as there was an insignia of a lion on Timmy's cuff.
"She probably wanted to tell me something, that surely can't be a dying message." Timmy tried to shake off the feeling of being inconvenient.
"Did her lips move? Did she tried to utter something?" Vicki was curious.
"Probably not. Fluids and saliva were coming out of her mouth. She couldn't even move her lips." the sudden realization hit Timmy.
Vicki noticed this, "You must be Schroedinger's idiot, being idiotic and intelligent at the same time. Yes that was the dying message."
"If that's the dying message then Veronica must know the culprit personally, even though they disguised themselves as Maria." Vicki nodded, "Twerp, let's check the CCTV footage of the doppelgänger."
The cops have given a reprieve to Maria as her alibi was air tight and especially a police detective testifying for her , her point got only stronger. Now the duo was looking at the CCTV footage, "Stop it and zoom. Timmy look carefully."
Timmy couldn't find any anomaly in the still frame, Vicki again pouted her lips in frustration, "Look at her feet, look at how big heels she is wearing, that woman with heels is as tall as Maria without heels. She is a shorter person, probably around 5'-3"."
"Hey, McCarthy; look into all contacts of Veronica who are around Five feet three and just check whether did anybody called Veronica yesterday or not?" Vicki ordered the inspector.
"Yes, Ma'm." the inspector nodded.
(The lunch and Headache)
"Twerp, you dragged me in this, so you better buy the lunch." Vicki stated in a matter of factly tone.
"I was thinking of making something at home..." he was again being interrupted by Vicki; "No worries, I can live with that."
"Vicki, I wnna ask you something?" Timmy's voice was uncharacteristically cold, "Why are you doing this to me?"
"Your choice twerp, I pick on you or I knock out out cold." Vicki suddenly looked more interested in her finger nails.
"Do, you seriously hate me?" Timmy sighed.
"Yes, I do, now keep moving or I wanna break something." Vicki glared at him.
Timmy hung his head and moved towards his home.
It was a small and hurried endeavour due to the time constraint, Timmy cooked Chicken fried rice for two.
"Hmm, you surely clean your place." Vicki commented on the cleanliness of Timmy's place, Timmy didn't respond.
"Hey, airhead I'm talking to you?" now Vicki was pissed, she didn't like being ignored. Timmy didn't mind her and was busy finishing his bowl.
Suddenly Vicki got up from the table, and yanked Timmy up. "Ignore me once more and you'll envy the dead."
"What else you can do to me? You already knocked me out call me names, you downgrade me at every possible chance. I might not be as good as Ricky, but I'm trying ok..." he sounded almost pathetic.
"Maybe I went little over the top, the twerp seems broken." Vicki mentally censured herself.
"I know you are hurting, I really can't feel your pain, but I only want to help." Timmy's comments were counter productive, "You piece of shit, you think I'm that miserable?" Vicki punched Timmy's left cheek with all her might.
It was a knockout blow. Bruises formed instantly over his cheek, "Shit I lost it again, why the twerp has to be like this?"
She had already consumed her lunch for free she had no purpose to stay back, especially after the incident, but something held her back. " The twerp might wake up with a headache and a severe bruise, I should probably help him, he didn't deserve this after his hospitality."
Vicki carried him bridal style, "yeah he is amazingly light, doesn't have the muscle mass of Ricky." and set him up in the bed, then used drenched her handkerchief from the tap water and cleaned his bruise. Timmy slowly regained his conciousness, a stingy pain on his left cheek made him wince.
He opened his eyes, to see a very worried Vicki nursing his bruise," You're Schroedinger's hater, you hate and don't hate me at the same time."
Vicki blushed a little, "You got on my nerves, you shouldn't say stuff like that. Though it may sound weird, I don't really enjoy hitting you, even more so recently."
A dusting of pink adorned Vicki's cheeks. Timmy again was mesmerised by her, he never saw her being worried for him, he didn't expected it in the first place. He only expected to wake up all alone, with a throbbing pain.
"So, you're drooling on me again." Vicki comment while nursing his bruise, she has again caught him staring at her face, "Do you like me?"
The question hit like a bullet, he never expected this, from the very first day ha had developed feelings for her, despite her rash and caustic demeanour, the flame is never snuffed out, though dimmed enough to hide in the eternal darkness, now that flame suddenly got some spark infused and rendered the brunet blushing and avoiding eye contact.
"I don't trust people, they took advantage of me when I was weak, they only hurt me when I let my guard down, so I have dulled myself, I hate everything, so nobody dares to cross my path. I only loved one man, who loved me for who I am, never tried to pick faults in me or correct me, my past didn't matter to him, only I was his first priority, now he is no more." a tear escaped Vicki's eyes.
Timmy despite being afraid of Vicki, knew what he needed to do, even if it earned him a punch, He hugged her, "You can trust me, I'll never betray you, I like you."
Vicki didn't mind the hug or first two sentences, but "How could you like me? the same person who treats you like piece of shit? Who might even beat you up for this."
"The truth is stranger than fiction, I know that you have duped in the past, I won't dupe you and I like you a lot."Timmy still held onto the hug.
It seemed familiar, not those touches of the pseudo empathy but of genuine companionship, the feel when Ricky hugged her for the first time. She hugged him even tightly, "I really don't know whether i like you or not, so I'll have to do it."
She let go of the hug and kissed him with full passion, she thrusted her tongue in his mouth, the tried to resist with his tongue but eventually gave in. She liked to be in control and he understood that. She felt the fire again, yet she felt sated. She knew the answer, she broke the kiss and and cooed in his ears seductively "I like you too twerp."
Timmy was astounded, he blurted "Really?"
"Yes for realies." she started to strip Timmy as well as herself, she felt the passion again, she felt like being with Ricky again.
Both of them were stark naked now, she slowly mounted on him, holding his hands, kissing him wildly. She thrusted her hips against him, he responded by thrusting his erect member in her. It felt great, it felt liberating.
