Into The Shadows by Aayush Borulkar (smart ebook reader txt) 📗

Chapter 14

The sun rays had cracked open the skies and they pierced through the clouds that were hovering over the villa since the last few days. With the sunlight came a glimmer of hope and warmth, which the villa and the people living under it so desperately needed. The sunlight crept into the estate through the slightly open windows, and Erika’s room was no different. The bright sunlight pouring in had filled her room.

“The garden. No grass. Vivek, the missing driver. A murder with no connection whatsoever to the people interrogated,” thought Erika to herself as she lay on the bed, her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. She lay there, clueless as to what was going on around her and where was this case leading to.

Erika was startled by the sudden ringing of the alarm. She moved swiftly and turned it off. She sat up on the edge of the bed and then pulled out the note which she had received at her doorstep, from the drawer of the side table. She read the whole message again and again to herself. “Homicide case file. Truth Be Told,” she repeated to herself.

“Homicide. Truth. Homicide. The garden with no grass. A missing driver,” she continued in her mind closing her eyes. It felt as if a million Erikas were repeating the same few words again and again in her mind. Homicide. Truth. Homicide. The garden. Missing driver. Suddenly she opened her eyes, overwhelmed by the commotion in her head.

“Homicide, a part of a garden with no grass or flowers, a missing Driver!” she said a little loudly, with a spark in her voice.

She got out of the bed hurriedly. She then jumped into the bath and within minutes she came out dressed up and called Avinash. “Try and find a few labourers from around. We have some digging to be done, and also, ask everyone to gather in the living room within 30 minutes,” she said panting heaviliy and hung up

After 30 minutes Erika was walking down the staircase, her hair still wet. She hurried down the stairs trying to tie the wristwatch.

“Had a rough night?” asked Avinash as he saw Erika walk down the staircase.

“No. I mean, yeah, I am only human after all,” she answered. “Anyways, did you find the labourers?”

“Yes, they are ready, and so is the group, waiting in the living room,” Avinash replied.

“Very well, then let’s get on with this,” sighed Erika walking towards the living room.

All the six of them were busy in their work and Nishant was still in his night suit, which was a bit odd.

“We have a few new findings in the case, and we are going to match that up with some evidence. So let’s all gather in the garden then,” said Erika leaving the lot behind.

“What is she up to now, and why the garden?” asked Kaajal.

“Let her do her thing. Let her have her fun,” mocked Nishant.

All of them gathered in the garden, where two labourers were ready with their shovels and spades. Erika ordered the labourers to dig that area of the garden with no grass or flowers, so the labourers began digging the ground with heavy blows.

“Why the hell are we destroying the garden!” Vibha exclaimed. “Abhimanyu, why are you letting this happen? What is she even hoping to find below this?”

But Abhimanyu stood there silently without moving, ignoring every word that Vibha said.

“Please let us do our job. It’s in your best interest,” said Avinash.

All of them stood there, watching the labourers going hard at it. Each blow heavier than the earlier one. They had dug a considerable amount of land but had not found anything substantial yet. The labourers stopped and looked up at Erika, signalling that there is probably nothing under there and that they probably should stop. But Erika did not budge and ordered to resume. Everybody stood there, wondering what was going on in Erika’s mind, and right then, the labourers hit something hard as they ploughed. The sound of a metal hitting a hard surface had caught everyone’s attention, and Erika’s eyes widened. Now the labourers started digging around the hard surface. As they continued digging further, the structure became more visible, and a pungent smell like that of a dead body filled the air. As they were coming closer to the box, the pungent smell from the object increased with every passing blow. Everybody started to cover their noses with whatever they had. The smell had become so unbearable that Vibha could not tolerate it and ran and puked in the bushes.

“Give me a pair of gloves” Erika ordered one of the constables. He took out a pair of gloves from his pocket and handed them over to Erika.

Erika squatted down with her nose covered with a handkerchief to get a closer look at the box. She bent and removed the mud from the box, to her surprise, she saw a skeleton of a dead cat inside it. She got up in shock and was taken aback by the fact that it was just the skeleton of a cat.

“Damn it. It smells so disgusting out here!” exclaimed Nishant. “I still wonder why someone would dig out a cat and destroy a garden,” he taunted. “She is just wasting her time here,” he whispered to Ishaan.

They all left in disgust, including Avinash, while Erika sat there wondering why did she think of this, doubting her instincts. How did she even think the way she did? She sat there overthinking and staring at the big hole in the earth, diving deep into self-doubt.

Suddenly a rusted metallic piece besides the dead body of the cat caught her eye. She got onto her knees and stretched out to reach the metallic object. It was tightly fixed in the ground, hence Erika had to yank the metallic body hard to pull it out of the soil. She held that metallic piece, which was completely rusted. She cleaned the mud off the metallic