“The strangest and most unique things are very often connected not with larger but with smaller crimes” said Sherlock Holmes. I don’t know why but he always seems to be right about everything. It all began on a warm summer’s night. It was a normal may evening and everything was just normal. Then suddenly there was an ambulance in the neighborhood. What started as a normal day turned out be be a very dark night. There was a dead body in the ambulance and thus began a wind of speculations but one the body came out everyone was taken aback by shock, dismay and tears.
It was our bubbly neighbor riya. She was a young lady in her early 30’s who always carried a smile on her face and probably the most interesting person in our locality. The grief also enlarged due to the fact that she was five months along. Even in the atmosphere of weirdness something was constantly bugging me. I buried the feeling as shock and my reasoning being clouded by grief.
The day later in her funeral I could still had a weird feeling that something was not right. It was because we came to know her body was sent for postmortem which occurs only in the case of murder or suicide. Another thing that didn’t seem right was the fact that her body covered from toe to face with the shroud opposing the usual toe to neck ritual and the fact that I knew that postmortem happens below the neck.
There was something definitely wrong about all of this. Looking around I tried to read the expression of her in laws and husband and all I could sense was fake sadness and cold blood. After all this was done her body was taken for cremation as by her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law. After that everyone went home offering condolences.
Another strange thing that happened afterwards was the members arriving in less than an hour later. The cremation alone takes 20 minutes and then afterwards the remains are to be given to the ganga river which was atleast a 45 min drive from where we lived. The only thing that came to my mind was that they left the dead body to be electrocuted which happens in case of unclaimed bodies.
So I started to look into the things knowing that something was wrong about all this. So first of all I go to the local feds to collect all the intel. The tough part of all that was obviously my age I was a minor for starters and the feds seemed least interested in opening the case and making it an active investigation. With the help of my friend’s father who was a cop-Mr.Khanna I started looking in things. To keep this investigation off the books we were not able to use the official resources.
First of all we came to know about the doctor who declared her dead-Dr. Jones. To be on the safe side we didn’t tell him about the investigation and went undercover as curious relatives. With the help of a distraction from my partner I checked into the report which ruled the death as an heart attack. While looking at the reports one thing caught my attention.
Riya’s sugar level were way above normal and I didn’t recall her having diabetes. One thing that bugged me was that riya’s husband and brother-in-law were certified doctors so they would have known if there was any problem. To get more info about her medical history we went to riya’s mother. She told us that ever since the death of her father she is very sad and alone. Just for the sake of conversation I asked how he died and came to know her father died under controversial circumstances and all the property was transferred in her name. She inherited Rs. 2 million from her father. Things were clear now riya’s was murdered to get the money which is transferred next to kin her son who was an infant. Long story short all the money would be inherited by the in laws.
The mystery was solved but we still needed proof or better a confession. I knew the weak link in all the family is their son and riya’s husband and I know that because I have seen regret on his face and heard him crying in the night. So we started playing mind games with him. First of all we got riya’s picture and behind it stuck”I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER”. We continue playing with his mind and then finally went to give him a visit at the clinic and told him we knew everything.
He finally confessed and validated our original point. What we wanted to know how they killed her because we already knew the motive. He told us because she was pregnant he would give her an insulin injection regularly which resulted in her death due to high sugar. He was a doctor so he knew if the reports will show it as an heart attack and rule out any suspicion. We were recording all of this we had a confession along with a report that comes 9 months after the postmortem.
They were all charged with murder and both of the brothers medical license was suspended. They finally got what they deserved. And I lie in satisfaction smiling about a quote George Bernard Shaw wrote” “Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.”