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They were in a real hurry to reach the spot. It was their first anniversary. Meanwhile the traffic officer said, “rules are for every one and you are no ex- ception to it, but I will be generous and just give you a parking ticket, just pay the amount and leave . and remember to be careful next time. If I catch you two again driving at speed then Alas! no god will also come to save you.” (Car honking) Beep Beep!! beep beep! It was already 5:30pm. They had to do the necessary work. Raj woke up quickly as they were going to be late again.

This was their first year anniversary and they wanted everything go- ing as smooth as butter. Both of them knew each other from high school when they were both 16 but just one year ago, while their parents were looking for a companion for them, they had stumbled upon each other and their families thought of them being a couple as it will build even more strong ties between two families. and as for them, they knew each other due to mutual friends so it was accepted by them as well and as time flew by they started loving each other more and it seemed like they fell in love again. Everything seemed like a fairy tale and so was it too.

Raj was a state level champion in swimming while Sakshi used to love backing and had her small baking shop down the street. This was Raj’s second marriage about which he didn’t like to talk a lot, but it was sure that he would love Sakshi till his death.

“Hop in the car my love! We are going to be late and I don’t want us to be late for the surprise planned”, said Raj. He loved his wife and knew that she loved him more and had done every possible activity that was in her hand to make Raj happy so he thought why not just do something special for her and make this day a memorable one. So, he blind folded her and took her in the car then his gentleman mood turned on as he opened the door for her. Sakshi tried knowing what he had planned but he held his ground and stuck to his word of not saying anything but showing. She could feel the bumpy path on the way and at some point it felt as if they were on some cliff about to fall down when suddenly he pulled his car for a parking spot. She got excited . He came to open the door and then carried and pulled her out of the car. She could hear the waves so she felt like they were somewhere near the ocean. As the blindfold was being removed from her eyes, she saw a big mansion in front of her . It looked like a beautiful hotel.

As Raj opened the blindfold, he could see her looking at the mansion thoroughly in disbelief and when he told her that he had bought this beach house her jaw dropped in surprise . She could barely move and was frozen still in a place looking at Raj with teary eyes.Then she gave him the tightest hug she could ever give. He was immensely satisfied seeing her face and then felt like all of this was worth it. The house owner gave us a tour of the house. It was not furnished so it was echoing everywhere , then they came to the living room where one could see a wonderful view of the ocean. Raj saw a long chair so he sat over there but little did he know that it was going to make him realize that this small mistake of buying this house would turn into his worst nightmare. As he sat on the chair, he fell down right on his back breaking his spinal cord with some sharp object. When his wife picked him up, her face was in total shock. He raised his eyebrow to question what had happened. But before she could answer he saw the reason . There were human bones stuffed in the chair and it looked like someone had been killed and kept there.The house owner himself looked so confused so they called the National Investigation Department(NID) immediately.

NID officers Jake and Han were asked to report to the site/ crime scene. They greeted Sakchi and Mr Raj and said, “ We are here to investigate and I hope both of you will be of great help to us.” to which Raj replied, “Yes but I need to go to the hospital so I hope this will be a quick one.” and showed them the area where he had fallen and the bones were found. Raj explained what had happened and everything related to the incident and asked permission to leave and officer Jake said, “ Ok thank you , it was a great help. You can go to the hospital but remember you are not allowed to leave the town without our permission otherwise you know the conse- quences.” Meanwhile Raj apologized to Sakshi and said, “I just wanted to make this day special for you but I didn’t know it would end up like this.” She didn’t blame him but deep down Raj had the regret of messing up such a special day, and blamed himself for buying the mansion which was the reason for all the trouble according to him and also felt guilty about not investigating properly before buying the house. But the most important thing was to take Raj to the hospital as he was severely injured.

This was disappointing for Sakshi as well and not because she was trying to blame him but she was disappointed in herself that she hadn’t planned anything further than that for their special say but the least she could do was to drive him to the hospital without further delay. They both started immediately for the hospital and while she was driving, she put on some radio to make the situation better but she knew that there was already an awkward silence that had built up in the car so when she looked over at him she noticed that Raj was already dead.Widemouth, dumbstruck, horri- fied- no words could have explained how much of a disbelief she was in. Just before an awkward silence was built up Raj had apologized to Sakshi for not being able to drive but now he was lying there dead. Sakshi called officer Jake immediately as she was in shock and panicked. She asked them to come to Ganesh street where her husband died and requested them to hurry up. Officer Jake immediately left for them leaving officer Han in the prior investigation site. Officer Jake drove up to Ganesh street with two of his other officers and reaching there I just saw Sakshi crying on the footpath with all her heart out.Sakshi saw officer Jake and when he came near her she bursted into tears on his shoulder. She told him about everything that happened on their way to the hospital.

Officer Jake started questioning her and she didn’t feel like answer- ing his questions but she knew it was for the best so she cooperated. Officer Jake asked Sakshi, “When did you notice him dead?” to which she replied, “When I was listening to the radio there was an awkward silence so to break it when I looked over at him I saw him dead.” He further asked her, “When was the last time you talked to him before you found him dead?” and she again replied, “It was five min before the awkward silence was built up.” The questioning went on and the officer asked, “Do you remember the place?” and Sakshi answered,“Yes, it was I believe before the traffic jam be- cause till then we were talking but after that I started driving and it became quiet.” Finally the officer asked her to go home as it was quite late and in- formed her that Raj’s body would be sent for post-mortem which was the rule. Sakshi cooperated and thanked the officers for their help and prompt action and asked them to contact her for further help if needed.

After some hours officer Jake contacted Sakshi again and ordered her to come to the police station immediately as he had found some important information on the case. Sakshi arrived without any delay at the police sta- tion .

Officer Jake explained to Sakshi that he had looked at the car and had seen a bullet that was fired and on further investigation he had found that the seat that Raj was sitting on was reclined and this would only hap- pen when someone adjusts the seat so may be the killer was trying to kill Sakshi but when the killer fired the bullet it went on hitting Raj as he was adjusting the seat and it reclined so according to the officer the real tar- get was Sakshi and due to the shooter’s mistake Raj was shot dead. Sakshi seemed shocked to know this and asked officer Jake if this was the real reason to which officer Jake agreed that this could be the possible reason. He further asked Sakshi if there was anyone behind this or any suspects who could have benefited by murdering her. Sakshi vaguely guessed that if it was about her then it could have been Raj’s ex-wife as she disliked Sakshi from the first day of their marriage. Hearing this the officer immediately contacted Raj’s ex wife and called her to the station informing her that Raj was no more and it was about the case for which she was called.

Raj’s ex-wife was Kamila. Upon asking whether she hated Sakshi and wasbehind all this she said that she indeed hated Sakchi because she was the reason for their separation and she did blame her but now she had her ownfamily which she was happy with so she would never in her life ruin that happiness with her own hands. The officers were not much convinced, however, they asked if she suspected anyone who could have been behind all this and asked her not to leave the town until the case was solved. Kamila further told the officers that although she did not like Sakshi, she and Raj were fine with each other and were both even taking turns to take care of their son Rohan.

The officer thanked Kamila and asked her to take her leave and co- operate with them if any other information was required during the inquiry. This was getting really confusing for the officers sp they decided to go to the crime scene again expecting officer Han to have found some information about the bones that were found there. On reaching the scene , officer Han reported to officer Jake that he had found some shocking information and that all the people who were in the suspect list must be called immediately to reveal the information. Sakshi, Kamila, Rohan, Kamila’s current husband, Raj’s mother and father and the owner of the mansion were called immedi- ately.

Officer Jake said to all, “Well as you know we found out the murderer and not only of Raj but also of the person who had been killed and whose bones were stuffed in the chair. and indeed it’s someone from this room so just know the person next to you can also be the one who killed your loved one.” Sakshi pointed at Kamila and said that she was behind all this to which Kamila replied, “Don’t come quick to the conclusion as it might be you or someone from your family and it is a fact that I do not get anything from killing.” Officer Jake interfered and said that it was not their job to draw conclusions and it was the job of the officers to dig out the facts.

The officer then revealed that the person who was dead and found in the mansion was Raj’s lawyer who was handling all his property matters. They had sent those bones to the crime bureau for the testing and when the professor checked those bones it was of a man who was about the age of 34 . But for a human body to fully rot, it would take around 50 years . He showed that the head bone had a small hole inside it . Firstly, he was hit by some heavy object and then his whole body was kept in sulphuric acid until all the flesh came off and later his bones were kept inside this chair. As sulphuric acid is only sold in approved shops no one could purchase it easily and in Nepal only “THE ACID STORE” and “ALL ACID” shops are approved. and about Raj, he further explained that the car seat was already reclined to the back and Raj had his spinal cord broken so he could not move his body so Sakshi sought that as an opportunity and had ordered Rohan to shoot him.

Sakchi was taken aback and tried to defend herself by saying, “Why would I kill my husband by myself ? I would never even dream about it and that also with the help of my step-son.How could you put such an accu- sation on me just because you could not find the real killer?” Kamila was shocked and so was everyone else. Officer Jake told Sakshi, “Well miss, re- member the time when you found a paper in the closet and so to check about the paper you went to the lawyer. The lawyer said to you that it was the paper of a new property and also that after 15 years all this property was going to the charity and you don’t have to lie about this because when deleting the CCTV footage you forgot to burn it and instead you threw it in the dustbin. So, we saw that and it was an amazing plan to kill the lawyer and keep those bones in the only furniture in the mansion knowing that Raj had a problem standing for long and that he would sit on the chair at one point or the other. Also, trying to make it look like someone was trying to kill you instead of Raj but by mistake they killed him was a good way of making us try to think that Kamila was behind all this while it was you who was the main culprit.”

Everyone in the room was completely shocked and Raj’s mother cried telling Sakshi that she couldn’t believe that she could kill her husband for the sake of property as they believed that they both loved each other so much. Kamila, equally shaken by the truth, blamed Sakshi for using her son Rahul for such a crime and destroying his life only because she was greedy and selfish.Officer Jake reminded Sakshi that bad deeds are always exposed and what goes around comes around. Finally , the truth was revealed and Sakshi and Rohan were arrested and taken to the jail so that they could be presented for the hearing at the court.