25th December 2018
Pradeep Roy walked inside the hotel room ,as he looked at the body of Roshan ,the newest victim of Miss X . He had so many plans for today including visiting Arjun family in hopes of finding how they knew his Shona.
Shona had told Arjun. That she remembers their name and yet she had no idea how and Pradeep needs to find why Shona was back in India . When he made her promise never to set foot inside India until he finds Miss X
" Just the thing I wanted to see on a Christmas day " his partner Martin spoke up ,he was assigned to the case and called him when he found the note attached to the body shirt.
Dear Rajeev ,
He raped a innocent and the police let him go Scott free because there is no evidence. The girl was a 15 year old child. How could they expect her to follow the protocols ,she was scared and yet she stepped up to find justice even if a year later . Still they let him go ,so I gave the justice she deserved just like Mr X.
Moving on ,I have decided I waited enough ,I know you don't want me to taint my hands with blood . So all you need is to do as I say ,easy right
Yours ,
Miss X .
P.S : Find Pradeep Roy ,he will help you get my message across.
Pradeep looked at the letter in disgust ,he didn't know the Victim deserved his due ,yet as a police office he doesn't approve of citizen taking justice into their hand and especially not someone who had killed innocents.
" The body shouldn't have been found till later today , creating a havoc in our timeline. But the room service got the room wrong and tried to deliver dinner to this room instead of the opposite one ,when the knock went unanswered they opened the door to find the body " Martin was cluing him on the time line. Yet Pradeep mind was worried about the letter.
" I called Rajeev last night and asked him to come " Martin spoke and those words got a reaction out of Pradeep.
" You called Arjun ?? I mean Rajeev ,he can't be seen here . " Pradeep voice raised in an octave and then realized he shouldn't interfere as if he was the lead investigator when he had been called just because his name had been mentioned in the letter .
" Look ,I know you handled Rajeev wife case and you have lost your loved ones because of it . But this case needs a fresh set of eyes and Rajeev would need to see the crime scene to know if it resembles anyone from his book " Martin answered back ,taking Pradeep outburst lightly considering he knew everything that happened because of that case .
" We will send him picture and he can find if it matches through it . Also if you want to talk to him ,I will take you to his house but not here .." Pradeep answered back this time not as a command but as a request ,and was glad when Martin relented.
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She perched her glass a little higher in her nose as she waited patiently for him to come , she will only be able to see him from a distance but it will be worth it .
He won't probably notice her , she took her place in the midst of the reporters. No one is going to notice her and even if they saw her ,they may not be able to identify her .She prided herself with the disguise ,with a glass that covered half her face , a wig that shortened her hair to considerable length and a foundation that turned her skin into a darker colour should have been enough .
But she went and got herself dressed as a man , to further confuse the on lookers. She saw Pradeep enter the hotel and began waiting for Sanskar to come and yet thirty minutes later Pradeep and another guy came down to give a statement.
As always they didn't let the reporters knew about her letter ,only that the victim was found dead and the cause of death were knife wounds. They didnt tell the reporters he was stabbed 15 times . She felt it a poetic justice to stab him that many times.
They also didn't tell the reporters , his body was found by a mistake caused by one of the hotel employees who delivered the food to the wrong room , it was what she wanted them to believe.
Add that to her email to Sanskar ,they will assume she wanted the body to be found later today thus taking her out of the suspects ,since she made the call for food and asked it to be delivered to room 508. But later insisted she mention 506 and their must have been some misunderstanding.
Her Alibi had been made further tight with the arrival of Sanjay wife ,who caused a scene before her room when she found her husband in her bed , poor girl didn't know it was she who sent the text . If the police believed she was sleeping with a married man when the murder happened ,then they won't assume her to be the one who killed Roshan.
She did stay with Sanjay ,but the guy barely lasted few minutes before drifting off to sleep after all she did drug him . He went back to placate his wife and she went back home .
And now she was dressed up as a man and waiting for Sanskar ,she wondered if he would notice that the crime scene was similar to the one in his third book. She couldn't get the Orchids but felt Rose was a nice touch.
When the reporters began to leave ,she left with them .Hating the fact he didn't come when she went to such risks to get his attention, he was gonna get a letter from her tonight stating how disappointed she had been to not see him .
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Arjun had got a call from Pradeep asking him to wait in the house ,from the way he stressed to keep Asha out of the way he assumed he meant Pari ,So he asked Dida and Pari to stay with Asha and not venture out till he calls them .
Pradeep wasn't alone ,as beside him stood another office , unlike Pradeep, his partner looked at him with suspicion. Since it was too much of a coincidence to deem him not guilty.
" Here are the picture ,see if it resembles any crime scene from your book " Pradeep handed him a stack of photos and he saw them and felt his knees shake at the similarities .
" Yes ,the murder of a character in my third book ,the victim had been someone who raped a 14 year old girl. It was in the first ten chapters not sure which one . And though my protagonist didn't kill him ,the suspicion fell on him till it got cleared away later. " Arjun spoke up , wondering why she went to such extents to replicate the crime scene from the book .
" Our victim matches your character description . She is getting bolder by the minute " Pradeep spoke up as he clues in about the letter and showed it to him .
" I am not going to do anything she says " Arjun answered back when he saw the letter .
" Look Arjun ,if her victims were only criminals than maybe even if it is against my work ethic ,I can support your decision but she will go after innocent as well . How many innocents died in your books .Imagine her going after them just like Sakshi . " Pradeep dealt the final blow that brought in the pain that he managed to keep at bay
When Arjun first created the story of a modern day Robin hood named X ,he decided to give a tragic past to the character and killed of his wife . Around the fourth book, he decided to give detailed information about her death and until he saw his very own wife killed in the same way ,he didn't know how much loss he would incur due to the few sentence he wrote in a book.
" We will find her Arjun , the more confidence she gets the more mistake she will make " Pradeep was speaking but Arjun had been locked up in his own wandering thoughts.
Yet he managed to ask Pradeep if he talked with his family about how they know Pari, he promised to drive straight to his house before going back to the station .
Neither Arjun or Pradeep let his partner know about Pari, the only person who knows the identity of the killer and yet forgot everything about her past.
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Ragini Laksh Maheshwari drove back home disappointed that the elusive Rajeev was no show ,she hated him . No one had ever seen Rajeev the writer of Mr X (The Man behind the Mask ).
The series had initially six books according to the publisher but cut down to four with a abrupt ending , most of the world didn't know the reason except very few including her .
She parked her car and walked inside to face the disapproval of her mother in law who didn't like having a reporter as a daughter in law but stuck with one when the doctor bahu went missing .
Yet Ragini plastered a smile as she greeted her mother in law ,only for the smile to drop when she saw him standing before her ,she didn't think twice before rushing in to hug him .
At the frown disapproval sound from her mother in law made her break out of the hug . She hated the rules that held her in chains. Yet her eyes spotted her husband who had zero reaction to his wife hugging someone else
Of course he didn't care what happened to her ,when he loved Shona and got married to her instead . She tamped down the resentment and turned to greet their guest who was smiling at her .
" Bhai ,what are you doing here " Ragini asked him and saw his smile flicker out of his face at her words .
" Actually I came here to enquire about a body that was found two weeks ago , since no one filled a official complaint. We came to the conclusion it was unsolvable ,until we stumbled upon a missing person advertisements that run for little less than a year
I just came in to check if the person went missing around the same time, and from your husband who shared the details , I think we found the right person . I am sorry to say Ragini but your cousin is dead ." Pradeep answered back wiping the smile out of Ragini face.
Ragini stumbled down in shock and even then it was Pradeep who held her , she looked at him and hated him a little for the lack of emotion in his face , Shona was like a sister to him and he was telling the news of her death without a flicker of emotion.
" I hoped ,she just ran away. I kept posting the missing advertisements with her description than her name and picture .Hoping she will return back . And yet she had been dead all this time " Ragini voice wavered as she realized the last bit of hope vanished from her .
" I have to see her " Laksh voice made her wonder how her husband would feel to lose the girl he loved and yet Pradeep told then that body was in no condition to be kept ,so they buried her after the autopsy
" How did she die ?" Ragini asked willing it to be an accident or maybe she could accept a terminal sickness but she knew even before Pradeep spoke up ,it could be only one answer .
" She was stabbed and pushed away from a cliff " Pradeep kept his voice grave but Ragini hands reached across and slapped him .
" She died because of you ,You killed her. And yet from what I saw in the hotel she continue to get away and you can't catch her " Ragini words may have seen like it didn't make sense to her in laws and husband but he understood from the way his face fell at her words
He turned and walked away but not before uttering those words that shattered her , " But you brought her back to India " . It wasn't a accusation but just the plain truth .
Pradeep walked away ,hating the pain he caused Raguni by letting her assume Swara was dead , but on his way to the Maheshwari house , he found out about the missing person advertisements and he knew it was from Ragini .
Because the advertisements didn't have a name or photo ,only two people knew Swara Bose had been alive ,to the rest of the world she was dead and so he knew why their had been no picture or name. Because Ragini was trying to protect her identity from the killer not realizing she already got her
Which meant the murderer must be closer to Arjun family than he assumed ,which meant he had to make the whole family believe Swara was dead. Hence he lied and broke Ragini heart .
He called Arjun ,who answered back in the first ring .He had been waiting for the call from him .
" How did my family knew Pari? " Arjun voice asked and Pradeep didn't know how he will react but he told him the truth .
" Shona had been engaged to marry your cousin Laksh , she went missing the day before her wedding and everyone assumed she ran away. " Pradeep spoke up and waited for Arjun to get over the shock.
" But I saw the wedding picture, he got married to a girl named Ragini ,I think " Arjun voice held a tone of disbelief .
" Yes ,when Shona went missing ,they made your cousin marry her cousin instead " Pradeep answered back.
" So Shona has a cousin ,when will she come to meet her " Arjun asked and Pradeep knew he will understand ,so he told him about his decision to let everyone assume Swara was dead .
Pradeep ended the call but his mind was filled with chaos ,he knew he need to catch the killer before she finds that Shona had escaped the clutches of death second time around.
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Arjun didn't expect that Pari past would shatter him ,yet the knowledge Pari was in love with his cousin didn't sit well as he wondered when his feeling towards her turned murkier .
He knew he had to tell Pari about her past ,yet found himself unwilling to share it with her. Finally he had all the missing piece of Pari past and yet he felt like he was missing an important truth.
Pari or Shona was a girl shrouded with mystery around her and until her memory return she can't help him any more than she can help herself by solving the mystery of who killer his wife .
P.S :" That it for now , So did I confuse you more .Let me know yours thoughts and Feedback .Hit the votes if you liked it "
Juanita Reid