The Selfie

4:15 p.m - same day

Diana, Hiya and the rest of team, which consisted of Arun, Omar, Kalki and Dev were currently in Atisha's apartment, searching for any signs that might help them to move on with the case. But so far, nothing had turned up.

The apartment was just like she had remembered it. The couch was neat and in its usual corner. The kitchen too was neat, except for the dishes in the sink. The bedroom was normal, the bed a little messy. But Diana remembered that that's how it usually was.

Everything looked so normal; you would think the person living here had just gone out for a few hours and would be back soon. It was like nothing odd had taken place here.

Omar and Dev came back to Diana after checking all the locks. "Anything?" Diana asked them hopefully. "Nope. The locks are just fine; no sign of break-and-enter or anything of the sort. Anything else we can take care of? Her bedroom maybe?"
"No, that's okay. Rest a while." Diana answered. Both of them nodded and went out for a break.
Diana sighed. No sign of damage. It probably meant that nobody forced their way in, which also meant that the chances of Atisha's murder having taken place here was very slim. As far as she knew, there were only three sets of keys to enter the house- one was with Atisha, the other with herself and the third with her neighbour who she would interrogate in half an hour. Somewhere she felt that interrogating a sweet seventy year old lady who was still freaked about her neighbour's murder wouldn't really help her. But she had to talk to her anyway.

Diana walked into Atisha's room to search for evidence. But evidence to what, she still had to figure out.

Atisha's room was quite simple. There was cupboard on one wall, and the bed was near the opposite one. A small dressing table and mirror shelf were on a third wall while the bathroom door was on the fourth. Everything was neat; no cliché crime scene of any sort. What confused Diana even more was how there wasn't a single blood stain in the apartment. Not in the living room, not in the kitchen, and now, not in the bedroom either. So, if not here, where else?
She looked around one more time. Her eyes fell on the calendar near the bed. Diana knew that Atisha had a habit of marking her calendar with important events, or just crossing out the days that went by. The last date that had been crossed out was 1 August. The Wednesday which was quite possibly her last day.  Or maybe she hadn't come home after Wednesday but wasn't dead either?

She decided to contemplate later. It was almost time for her little chat with Mrs. Kaur. She asked Omar to keep an eye out for something and then walked out of the apartment.

As she walked out of the apartment, she just randomly glanced at the key bowl on the shoe rack. And in it was a random note that wasn't there before.
"What you are looking for is not here."

She froze. Thank god she hadn't touched it yet. She wanted to know for sure that this wasn't a hoax. She called Omar. When he didn't answer, she called Kalki. "Don't touch this without gloved hands. I want to know if you can find any finger prints on this. If you do, match it and tell me who's it is."

Kalki nodded and delicately picked up the piece of paper with gloved hands and put it in a plastic vacuum sealed pouch. She walked out of the apartment and went down, presumably to her car, where her mobile forensic equipment were.

Pleased, Diana walked out of the apartment and rang the door bell of the neighbouring flat. She waited for a while and finally, could hear faint footsteps from the other side of the door. Then, the door opened.

A very frail looking lady, all of five feet and nothing but a bag of bones, in a nightie with bunny slippers and was holding her cat.

As soon as she saw Diana, she dropped her cat and hugged her. The cat ran back inside.

"Oh Diana, I can't believe she's gone!" The old lady said between tears and hiccups. Diana held on to her and tried calming her down. "Shh...its OK... We need to get past this... Calm down... If you will help me, we can figure this out faster, okay?"
Mrs. Kaur sniffed twice and then led Diana in.
They both settled on the couch. "So," Diana started, and Mrs. Kaur looked at her expectantly. "When do you remember seeing Atisha for the last time?" Diana asked. Mrs. Kaur thought for a while and then looked at Diana with a blank face. "I don't remember."
"Okay... Do you remember anything else that might help?"
Mrs. Kaur looked at her desperately. "No." She said, her lower lip quivering.
Diana sighed. Mrs. Kaur immediately burst out crying. "I... I feel so bad! I want to help bu..but I can't re..remember anything!" She said between tears. Diana sighed again and reached over to hug her. "There, there, that's alright. Its okay, don't cry." Mrs. Kaur calmed down a little.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Diana stood up. "Well, I need to get going, Auntie. I have some work to finish."
"Won't you eat anything before you go? I made some snacks earlier this week. A friend of Atisha had come to visit me. How strange. I hadn't even seen the man before. But he was a nice man; he helped me to make the snacks."
Diana stopped short. "A friend of Atisha? When did he come? Before or after what happened?"
"I think after."

Diana couldn't control her excitement. "What was his name?"
Mrs. Kaur suddenly went blank again. "I don't know."

Diana sighed. "Okay. Well, I really should go now. I'll see you later?"

The old lady smiled. "Of course! You are always welcome!" And then she shut the door on Diana's face.
"That was very welcoming. And helpful too." Diana grumbled as she walked back to Atisha's apartment. As she was walking back, she heard the pounding of feet on the stairs. It faded after a few seconds and immediately started again. This went on for sometime. Diana crept to the top of the stairs.
The stairs were not built completely. One side was attached to the wall while the other was open, without any barriers. It would be quite a deadly fall.

Cautiously, she started climbing down the stairs. She hadn't reached the third step before a blood curdling scream rang out from behind her. Two hands caught her from behind in such a way that she couldn't turn. She looked at the right hand.

The ring.

Diana struggled against the strong hold. She tried screaming, but the assaulter, apparently anticipating her moves, now held her shoulder with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.

Diana struggled with all her might. And suddenly the hands let go.

Because of the humongous amount of force involved, she stumbled a little to regain her balance. But she slipped, and before she knew it, she was falling through the gap between the unfinished stairs.
As she fell, she hit her head on the corner of a stair. She immediately felt woozy with pain. She turned as much as she could to see the top of the stairs.

A lady was standing there, in all her blurriness, smirking, and the ring was glittering because of the sunlight streaming in through a window.

"Atisha?" Diana whispered.
The figure nodded.
And then everything went black.