The Case of The Disappearing Body

Chapter I

Part 1

“It is one of those dreary and desolate Sunday mornings”, thought Radhika to herself as she stood by her bedroom window quietly sipping her cup of coffee. “Too late to see any drunken teenagers making their way home after a night out and too early to see the joggers or older couples out for a walk”. She wasn’t wrong. The streets were deserted and the sky overcast. It had been pouring all night, and had stopped briefly, but as she looked up into the sky, she knew that it would rain any minute.

Radhika was almost going to turn back into her room, when she saw a man in a gray suit walking quickly on the footpath of the opposite side of the road. He was dragging behind him, a small black traveller’s bag – the kind that’s allowed as cabin baggage on aircrafts. However, it wasn’t this traveller that had made Radhika halt. Not more than 20 feet behind him, a woman was cautiously following him.

Radhika couldn’t move a muscle. The duo was now clearly in her view. Suddenly the man stopped in his tracks and he turned around to face the woman. Was he very tense, or was it Radhika’s curiosity, she couldn’t tell. His expression had become more and more animated as he was trying to explain something to the woman. What it was – Radhika couldn’t hear. The woman on the other hand, was getting more and more distressed. The man was now walking towards her, trying to calm her down, but it made the woman even more furious. Out of nowhere, the woman pulled out a gun and pointed it straight at the man.

“Oh no no no! This is getting way out of hand!” Radhika had panicked. She had to save the strange traveller’s life. Maybe if she created a scene, the woman would get scared and run away. She tried opening the window and screaming out to the duo, but the hot and humid weather had jammed it into the sill. There was a loud bang, and ever so simply, a small bullet claimed the life of a grown man.

Radhika must’ve been in a trance as her hands reached out to her cell phone and dialled the one number she could recall. “Shalini, there’s been a murder.”

Part 2

Aryan’s eyes scanned the surroundings as he walked towards the cordoned off area, where the forensic team and a few constables were busy working. A glance at the crime scene, and he knew that something was horribly wrong. All he saw was blood. A large pool of deep red blood covered most part of the sidewalk, and majority of the cordoned off area. A lot of blood, but no body. A couple of forensic experts were leaning over the nauseating pool, apparently collecting samples, but Shalini, his lead forensic expert was sitting at the edge of the sidewalk, away from all the action, with her head in her hands. Her pale face caught Aryan’s attention as he walked up to her.

“What’s going on? Where’s the body?” he asked.

“I don’t know” Shalini said, her eyes not leaving the ground. “It’s gone.”

“What do you mean? Where did it go? Are you alright?” Aryan’s bombardment didn’t seem to help her, when Shlok interrupted, “Umm, Sir, we lost the body.”

Aryan’s bewildered look prodded the poor constable to go on. “Shalini ma’am and her team had barely gotten out of the ambulance when a black SUV appeared out of nowhere. Umm, Sir, some unidentified masked men picked up the body, dumped it into their car and drove off. Shalini ma’am and the rest were at gunpoint by one of these men until they secured the body. There was nothing they could do.”

A quick glance at Shalini told Aryan that she seemed to be recovering. “Yes, yes of course there was nothing they could’ve done.” Aryan said, “So now we have a murder but no body, a victim but no identification. Hell are we even sure that he is dead?”

“Yes, we’re quite sure that he’s dead. There’s no way that he could’ve survived all that blood loss.” Shalini had finally gotten round to talking, “We have an ID. They took the body, but not the victim’s travel bag. He’s a Shoaib Khan; tech is tracking down his address and next of kin.”

“And, Sir, Shalini madam’s friend, Radhika Parmar is our key eye witness. She saw the murderess, and is now sitting with the sketch artist. We’ll have a face ready in no time.”

Aryan was thoughtful for a second, and then asked Shlok to inform the victim’s closest relative as soon as possible. Walking back to the crime scene, he felt at a loss. Why would a man, a business man, walk about the streets with a travel bag in the wee hours of a Sunday morning? Who was this woman? Why did she follow him? Why would she want to kill him? Who were these masked men? Why steal a dead body, but leave the travel bag behind? Too many questions and not a single answer.

Part 3

Back at the headquarters, Aryan was staring at the sketch of his prime suspect. He was just about to call for Shlok and ask him to send the sketch to every check post of the city, when Shlok walked in. “Sir, I just spoke to the victim’s wife, Rufina Khan. She seemed pretty shaken up. She said that she would come here after dropping her 5 year old son at her sister’s. I offered to drive her, but she refused.”

“Good” Aryan said. What was he to tell her once she got there – that they lost the body even before they could make sure that he was dead? Brushing the thoughts of the uncomfortable conversation away, he handed the sketch to Shlok and said, “Circulate this to both official and unofficial sources. I want her identity in 24 hours.”

But Shlok wasn’t listening to Aryan. He was gaping in shock at the sketch. “Sir, we don’t need to circulate this. I know precisely who she is. In fact, I think I just gave her enough time to run away with her 5 year old kid.”

(Chapter 2 will be live in 48 hours)