You are my Theme for a Dream

Chapter 11

That night she couldn't sleep hoping that he was dead & that she had gotten her wish. It was a pretty hollow victory. So hollow, infact that didn't feel like a victory at all. Tears started falling from her eyes repenting for what she had done. Eventually, she stopped, trying to wipe the tears away. They were coming too hard & too fast to stop anyway, she just let them fall.
In the morning, she called up Neetu to share her grief with her. Weeping again she narrated her the whole incident in sobs. Neetu solaced her hugging her tight & asked her to stop grieving with the words repeatedly flowing from her mouth that she had avenged for her miseries. Ultimately, she left for her home, warning her not to venture out for at least a week.
Early Monday morning, Rahul's parents were back from their holiday & were aghast to see the main door open. Immediately, they rushed to Rahul's room to find their son unconscious & the dried yellow froth sticking out from his open mouth. Soon the family doctor was called, who declared him dead.
His mother started wailing loudly on hearing the doctor.
The police was instantly informed. Within minutes the siren of the police van was heard & the police stepped in.
Soon the officers of the forensic department were called for by them. After a wait of half an hour two officers arrived & started gathering & collecting relevant objects from the crime scene. The used coffee mugs & the hip flask were taken into possession. The finger prints on the sofa & bed were scanned thoroughly & taken to the forensic lab to be tested &!examined. The body was taken away to the hospital where the autopsy revealed the contents of Sulphuric acid in the stomach causing perforations in the oesophagus & stomach & serious infections in the chest & abdominal cavities & the damage to the respiratory tract.
It was a clear cut case of murder. The case was handed over to the crime investigators who soon found out after studying the reports of the forensic department that a woman was involved in this heinous act,
They got into action & within four days they found out from the cobbler sitting on the road opposite of Rahul's house. He claimed to have seen a girl with pants & black T-shirt coming out hurriedly from the house at fore noon .
" But, can you describe how she looked like?" One of the officers asked the cobbler.
" No sir, I got a weak eyesight having cataract in both eyes. But, she was in a great hurry & walked this way(pointing to the road) with brisk steps " he replied.
Both the officers were in a fix hearing his statement. They enquired from all the houses in that row about the girl , but to no avail.
Then it striked to one of the officers to contact the cab agencies as they were aware of the time & day of the crime. Ola, Uber & Metu were contacted & then one of the drivers of Uber remembered to have taken a girl nearly five kilometres away at that hour. Thinking deeply, he also verified the clothes that she was wearing & led them to her house.
Immediately, within half an hour with the help of the local police, they swooped on her house that evening, arrested her & took her to the police station. There she was thoroughly interrogated where she broke down & started crying. Her father was too shocked at the crime his daughter had committed.
Shalu was immediately put to police remand & lodged in jail.
After a couple of days, the murder case came up in the court.
Shalu pleaded ' not guilty' & narrated her story in camera to the judge, truthfully coming out with all the events that led to this dastardly act of hers. Her lawyer even produced the medical reports of the hospital where she had stayed for nearly one year. The coffee shop owner was called for & he also stated that both Rahul & Shalu had been dating daily at his outlet.
Shalu pleaded again & again that it was an act of revenge that had taken place & that it was never a preplanned or ever thought of.
The case lingered on for a month & then giving the final verdict, the judge stated,
"Revenge is absolutely a deeply messed up expression of vindictiveness. It is hard to even call it evil. It is just plain insanity. A result of deeply messed up thinking."
And then, Shalu was awarded a fifteen year rigorous imprisonment which was reduced to ten years because of the pleas for apathy by her father through the lawyer, considering her age & education.