“Oh! shut up with your flirting Daksh. I am tired, bring something new to impress and amaze me. You are doing the same damn thing since college, it’s been 5 years now and we are married, but you will still not stop throwing those cheeky lines at me”, laughed Ekta and twisting Daksh’s cheeks and teasing him. “Well, my love that’s why we are here beside the pretty ocean enjoying the serenity of this night.”, smiled Daksh putting his hand out and holding tightly that of his partner.

“Look how beautifully the moon has lit up this dark night”, exclaimed Ekta.

“Yeah! Just like you who lit up my darkest of lives on your arrival, love”, smiled Daksh putting his hand around her waist and bringing her closer to give a never-ending kiss.

“The Nature is beautiful indeed,” said Ekta lost in the realms of the beautiful night.

“Not more than you!”, smiled Daksh, “You have already blinded me with your beauty.”

“Here we go again, although you have improved a lot on your flirting skills Dakshuu.”

“My life would be just like a hell without you Dakshuu”, exclaimed Ekta putting her head on his shoulders and feeling the warmth of love.

“Same here”, said Daksh looking into the eyes of Ekta. Their eyes locked, reflecting a deep connection that words could not describe. It was more beautiful that the scenic beauty under which they were sitting, more appealing than all those worldly pleasures, more enchanting than heaven itself. It was Love!

The moon cast a silver glow over the night and on the grounds, we could see love shining. The waves were making a mesmerizing music for the couple. The wind whipped around them, creating a playful rhythm that matched their heartbeat. It was complete solitude and serenity on the beach until broken by a gunshot.

The shot made chaos all over the shore. People around started madly running and screaming. But there was still silence among the couple. The shot had hit Ekta on her head! Daksh was shocked on seeing her love running out of breath. He immediately took out his phone and dialed the ambulance. It was too late till the time ambulance arrived. Ekta succumbed to death. Daksh felt a cold sweat on his forehead. He couldn’t move or speak. He just stared at Ekta’s lifeless body in disbelief. He was crying his lungs out.

The police took over the crime scene and set up a barricading to prevent anyone from entering. Mr. Nikhil Singh was going to handle this case. The body was taken to the hospital for the post-mortem.

“How did this happen?” Mr. Singh asked Daksh who was not in his senses still trying to digest the sudden incident that took place.

“I... I... do…”, he started crying. Mr. Singh calmed him down and took him to police station for further investigation.

“Here have a glass of water and tell us what had happened,” questioned Mr. Singh.

“We both were just sitting admiring the beauty of the nature when suddenly…”, he broke down, “this was all what had happened, please find that bloody criminal Sir.”

“We will for sure! Do not worry”, exclaimed Mr. Singh and told Daksh to leave for his home.

~ At Daksh’s home ~

“Why didn’t you tell me about all this Daksh?”, shouted Mr. Manish Deshmukh, father of Ekta.

“Why? Even a hunter needs to know about his hunt?” exclaimed Daksh still unable to recover over the incident of the last night.

“What do you mean?”, asked a furious Manish

“Oh! Stop overacting Sir!”, shouted Daksh.

“You are overreacting. You are not in your sense’s son.”

“The police will take care… who is in his sense and who is not!”, sobbed Daksh

Mr. Singh and his assistants questioned a lot of eye witnesses at the scene but no one had seen the killer. It was pitch black at the beach and the killer luckily became unnoticed by everyone. It was going difficult for the team to trace the killer with having absolutely no clue about him

“Do you suspect anyone, Mr. Daksh Joshi?”, questioned Mr. Nikhil Singh trying to find a silver lining in the darkest of clouds.

“Sir… I don’t know but I feel he might be…”

“Yes… Go ahead”,

“Mr. Manish Deshmukh, her father and her brother, Ashutosh.”

“Why? Why? Do you feel so?” interrogated Mr. Singh.

“Bloody Money! What else could be the reason? They were not in touch with her for 2 years. Not even on chats! Her mother has given her some property rights before she passed away. Manish and Ashutosh insisted her to give them those property rights but she denied and since then have not talked to them.”, cried Daksh.

“A father killing his daughter! A brother shot his dear sister! Just for money! Kaliyuga indeed!”, sighed Mr. Singh.

~ Interrogation Room ~

“Why did you do this to your own daughter Mr. Deshmukh?”, interrogated Mr. Singh.

The interrogation room was dark all around with only a small window as the source of light, lighting up the room as much as it can. On the chairs were sitting Mr. Manish Deshmukh looking in his sixty-fives and horrified about the claims of killing his own daughter. On the other side, Mr. Nikhil Singh of thirty-eight looking much younger than his age absolutely determined to crack this case.

“I know Daksh told you this… But believe me I hadn’t done anything, why would I kill my own….”, sobbed Manish.

“Money has become the supreme motive for everyone in this world. Daksh only suspects you even he is not sure about this. But you had a strong motive to do so. I am sure you…”

“I didn’t!”, shouted Manish interrupting Mr. Singh, “Not even in my dreams I will think of killing my own daughter. Yes, we had differences but that doesn’t mean I will kill her.”

“We will find out soon Sir”, smirked Mr. Singh

“Ashu! This is how your dear sister called you, know, and what you did to her, Ashuuu!”, Mr. Singh slammed his fist on the table and exclaimed.

“You are wrong Sir… I hadn’t done anything to her. I was even out of station when this accident happened to her.”, Ashutosh wiped his tears with his sleeve.

“Ok? Then what do you want to say about this gun which we found in your cupboard’s locker? This is the same gun by which your sister was killed.”, asked Mr. Singh showing him a pistol. The pistol had a silvery polish on it, shining brightly when the Sun’s rays struck it. On it was written “2019” the year the pistol was manufactured.

“Yes! I even have the license for owing it. I bought it for my safety against some of our business rivals who were constantly trying to kill me and my dad. But still, this doesn’t mean I killed her. There are many who owns the damn same gun model. I have not done anything sir.” pleaded Ashutosh.

“Sir we have the call records which you asked for.”, informed a policeman.

“Take care of him, I will be back soon,” commanded Mr. Singh

Mr. Nikhil Singh went to his cabin along with the papers of call records and began to study it. It was the records of the father and son duo who were the prime suspects of this case. He was deeply engrossed in those records that he even didn’t pay heed of his phone ringing. After about half-an-hour of studying the papers, he exclaimed to himself,

“Seems like the father and son are true. They did not kill Ekta. There are no discrepancies in these call records. I could not find any suspicious numbers in it. The phone location of Ashutosh was of Lonavala and Mr. Deshmukh is of Borivali which is around 20 kms away from Juhu Beach, though a sixty-five-year-old shooting with such accuracy is already out of question.

Appointing killers to kill her? Seems highly unlikely as Ashutosh already was under police security that they demanded from the government because they faced threats from their business rivals!”

After a minute of diving deep into depth of the case, something struck Mr. Singh, “What if the killer never wanted to kill Ekta? His aim was Daksh Joshi?”, soon after this thought he rushed towards the board where he has written names of the victims, suspects and witnesses. He erased the name of Ekta and wrote Daksh in the center and circled it.

~ At Daksh’s home ~

“We believe that Ekta was not the target of the killer. It was you Daksh” told Mr. Singh.

Daksh horrified on listening to the inspector exclaimed, “Then why did he miss his shot? Why my wife had to suffer because of me? Why?”

“Daksh calm down yourself, tell me if someone is trying to take revenge from you. Tell us each and every detail whether it is important or not we will decide it.”

“I was a simple man with no… but wait… sir in our office there was a man, Raman, he used to stalk Ekta. He was our colleague and we even charged him for harassment to the HR. First of all, he was warned but he didn’t stop there. He kept on messaging her, kept on following her after lodging the complaint to the police station, the company had to fire him but that bastard rejoined due to some internal sources of him. He was surely jealous of my achievement specially when I won the “Employee off the Year” award”, Daksh walked over to the almirah and pointed to the award as he elaborated.

“Hmm! Sir it makes a bit of sense now. Yesterday, we even got a bracelet from the crime scene on which it is written “IndiGlobe Innovations” which also indicates that he might be an employee of the company”, informed one of the police assistants to Mr. Singh.

“Damn! Daksh can you please show your bracelet to us.”, asked Mr. Singh

Daksh rose up his hand and showed it to the inspector. His assistant nodded in agreement that it was a similar bracelet and placed a pouch having that bracelet on the table. Mr. Singh gave a weird look to Daksh.

Daksh noticed something wrong and immediately cried out, “Sir are you suspecting me?”

“No… no… Mr. Joshi how could you be? You are as clean as a whistle in front of us. I was just seeing if this bracelet which we found out was not yours.”

“No Sir, I have mine.”, confirming Daksh.

“We have got a new lead in this case! There are high chances that the killer might be Raman. He also had some criminal records since past years. Three cases filed against him, one for trying to kill a person and the other two for sexual assault, decent criminal history indeed! We have to find this Raman guy soon!”

All policemen scattered in different directions to search for Raman. Raman’s phone location at the time of incident was found that of Kamala Nagar which is just a drive of 5 minutes away from Juhu Beach. That’s it! The link seems to be connecting! Raman’s phone was inactive for three days since the crime. After a lot of hustle-bustle and tedious search by the police, Raman was found in the city of Pune. He probably fled to Pune to save himself. He was immediately brought back to Mumbai and interrogated by Mr. Singh.

~ Interrogation Room ~

“Yes! So now tell us in detail why did you commit this crime?”, questioned Mr. Singh in raging tone.

“I didn’t do anything!”, pleaded Raman.

“Stop this utter nonsense, you had the motive, you were found near the crime scene, each and every thing is pointing towards you, my boy!”, shouted Mr. Singh

“Being near a crime scene makes you a criminal, well, this is utter nonsense, Mr. Singh”, smirked Raman.

“Shut up and tell us the truth”, raged Singh slapping him hard on his face.

“I didn’t! You are an intelligent inspector, never thought of checking the CCTV camera of the location of which I am claiming to be?”, questioned Raman

This thought struck Mr. Singh as he nodded to his constable to check the CCTV footages of the streets of Kamala Nagar.

“You are still under our custody”, shouted Mr. Singh and went off to his cabin

The CCTV footage arrived till evening and Raman was seen on the streets of Kamala Nagar smoking with bunch of other lads. He was also wearing a bracelet of the company in spite of being fired from it. Well, this means he didn’t kill her, then who? Mr. Singh again engrossed in his thoughts,

“What has happened to me? A person having a decent criminal record is thinking better than me? Why couldn’t I think of the CCTV footage at the first time? What is it that I am missing? Who was trying to kill Daksh? Or the killer’s target was Ekta only? So many questions to answer!”

Mr. Singh took a deep breath and sat down on his chair relaxing, his hand on his head still thinking about the case. He ordered his constable for a cup of tea. Mr. Singh closed his eyes and was lost in the maze of this case. After a moment the constable brought his cup of tea and after taking a sip or two, he straight away went to the same board which had the names of suspects, victims, etc.

“Found a bracelet of IndiGlobe Innovations on the crime scene… It was not of Raman, our prime suspect… Wait, did Ekta’s body had that bracelet,” Mr. Singh rushed to the photos of the crime scene and looked at the wrists of her and gave a cunning smile, “No! This means… One who was showing us the road to the destination was actually our destination. Need to investigate further before arresting him, this seems highly unlikely to me!”.

The next day Mr. Singh went to the office of IndiGlobe Investigations to ask about Daksh and his wife. Trying to find anything that could prove to be a strong evidence for this case. What he found out at the office shocked him.

“Now tell us in detail.”, Mr. Singh dragged a chair and sat in front of him with a stern look.

“I didn’t…”, Daksh was interrupted by Mr. Singh who slapped him hard raging at him, absolutely in no mood to hear any fake stories further.

“Listen! Daksh, I am fed up of your fake stories now… Just tell me the truth. The bracelet you showed me that day was not yours. It was of Ekta’s.

You beautifully carved a story which portrayed you as the most innocent person on Earth. You told us that you won the “Employee of the Year” award but not that you were fired from the company just after two months because some discrepancies were found in your work. You were fired from the company so practically why will someone wear a bracelet of the company from which he has been fired? Tell us each and every detail of how did you plan this murder. Who was the killer? See, now you don’t have any option tell us the truth!”, inquired Mr. Singh

“Yes! I killed Ekta.”, Daksh confessed with a trembling voice, “I was fed up with her!”

“Just fed up? There’s more to it Mr. Daksh Joshi.”, roared Mr. Singh.

“Bloody Money! Fine! When I was fired four months before from the company it hit me hard. She, a working woman and I am just sitting idle in my house. But wait there’s more to it, those property rights, I wanted to have my hands on those property papers but Ekta always diverted the topic whenever I talked about it. She sometimes teased me about just sitting and doing nothing, this boiled my blood. Talking about how I planned it? Well, the killer was Kabir, one of the history sheeters, I appointed him to kill her at that beach when I with her so that there are no suspicions on me. He fled to Etawah, UP after killing her. Though, he had a pretty good accuracy know? Sorry coming back to the topic. Money is the supreme leader in today’s world, people with money can win the world. That is why we see people like Raman who in spite of committing some serious crimes is roaming free in this world without any speck of worries!”, spoke Daksh confidently showing no signs of guilt in him.

Mr. Singh ordered his assistants to search for Kabir and put him behind the bars.

“Money indeed a necessary evil! You will suffer Daksh for your deeds, but I was amazed about your thought of your wife working and you not. Your neighbors told me that you were a decent man with proper manners but you had this kind of rubbish thought in your mind. Well!”, said Mr. Singh as he went to his cabin and took a sigh of relief that the case was now solved.

A small trivia for you all:

The couple had planned to go on a holiday to a country which you have to find out about:

“The writer tells you to focus on first,
Only then you will find and quench your thirst,
Ever wondered why only seven characters were named
Find it out and your name will be proclaimed!”

.    .    .