Herada File Part 4

“You know who killed them?” There’s no way.

“Yes. I’m not sure but I think I have it all figured out.” said the Inspector. “Round up everybody tomorrow. But before that I need to talk to talk to some people…”

Of course he told me who the killer is but, there is a time and a place for everything. Without suspense, this story would be useless. At the end of this Part, all will be revealed.

The next day was very hectic. All the people involved in the case had to be rounded up. We made them assemble in the school assembly area.

“Good morning everybody.” said the CI in his most excited voice yet. “You may wonder why I have made you assemble here on such short notice. We have solved the case.” Gasps went around.

“Yes, after careful research and many problems along the way, we have found the killer.” I said.

“Our first clue came when the forensic report showed that the time of HANGING was around 9-10 pm.” said the CI. “The actual time of death was much earlier. By the looks of it, it was around 2 hours before that. That made me wonder, why would a person kill another of his kind and wait 2 hours to set up the crime scene? But we will get to that later.”

“Alibis for all the people involved here are pretty good. Some were so good, we got suspicious.” I said. “I looked into many of the alibis and had them confirmed myself. Interestingly, the weakest of all alibis fell through. Mr. Sen, if you noticed is not present with us. His excuse of being at the bar that day has been disproved by a friend who he had payed to keep quiet. He has given a confession that it was him who hanged the boy.”

“What? He is the killer?” asked Principal Verma.

“Gill said hanged ma’am. The person who hanged the boy and the killer are two different people. Mr. Sen was merely an accomplice to murder. We figured this out by the boy’s autopsy report, which had an interesting connection with Mr. Gupta’s autopsy report. Both indicated an MO(Method Of) that with a feminine touch. Yes, our killer was a woman.” Everybody jumped.

“The hanging was done as a way to create a solid alibi for the killer. This was why Mr. Sen was involved. This got us thinking. Why would someone help out another person to this extent? Using our, uh methods, we got the answer out of him.”

“He was having an affair with the killer. Love can make us do some crazy things. Now we knew the person, but we didn’t have a motive. The whole affair thing got us thinking again, what if this was person’s first affair.”

“Mr. Gupta was a wealthy man.” I said. “What was stopping him from getting some action on the side?”

“No way, my husband was perfectly clean. He didn’t have an affair with anyone.” said Mrs. Gupta.

“That was precisely what I went into the city to investigate. I discovered that a certain someone used to live in the city till about two years ago. And true enough, Mr. Gupta had a flat rented in her name, the money for which came from his personal bank accounts.”

“Our first suspect was Ms. Das. Her ‘personal problem’ haunted us a lot. But it turned out that the problem was financial. She had lost a lot of money to a gambling vice. Ms. Das and Principal Verma were discussing how to get her out of this habit that day. If you had told us this before, you wouldn’t have been our prime suspect.”

“Sorry about that, I didn’t want anybody finding out about that little incident.” said Ms Das.

“Well, we all have our own vices ma’am. But that shouldn’t stop you from withholding information from an ongoing murder investigation. This little piece of information was very significant as, if we hadn’t gone behind it, we wouldn’t have cracked the case.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ms. Das.

“Alibis in this case were pretty weak. Providing alibi for a murder is a hard thing to do. But your discussion served its purpose didn’t it, Ms. Verma?” Everybody’s eyes faced the Principal.

“What?” asked the Principal.

“Discussing personal problems gave you the perfect cover for the time of hanging didn’t it Ms. Verma? Yes, Principal Verma is our esteemed killer.”

“What proof do you have?”

“Ah!” I said. “So you’re not denying it then?”

“Uhm, no..no of course I didn’t do it.”

“No use denying it ma’am. We have proof. You have no alibi for the time of death and a motive for murder as well as a very reliable witness. Confess to your crime and maybe the punishment would be a little less.”

“Haha…” Ms. Verma started laughing. A cold and almost psycho laugh. Her eyes had a very cruel glint. “Yes, I did it. I killed the boy and his father. The stupid fool betrayed me. He said he’ll leave his wife for me, but he just left. I was crushed, my heart wanted revenge. I calmed myself by going to therapy but when I saw Jai Gupta’s picture on the school roster, revenge consumed me once again. Killing the boy dragged HIM here. And then that stupid Mr. Sen was easy to twist around. But killing Gupta has thoroughly enjoyable.”

“The crime wouldn't have been solved if you had chosen your alibi properly, Ms. Verma. The term personal problem was what made us investigate through those lines. Your alibi during Mr. Gupta’s murder was very week. Carelessness lost you a perfect crime. Take her away Gill.”

Ms. Verma was sent sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with no chance for parole. After that life became boring again.

Killer’s Mind:

My reasons may not have been the most justified, but I did what I had to do. There are no justifiable causes for murder – except to save the innocent. I hope my story taught you something. Killing never solves anything.

Yeah right, although murder never goes unpunished, it has its own rewards. I would have been driven insane(although I’m there already, I guess) if I hadn’t killed that man.

Who knows…maybe I can commit another one!

THE END