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

the people sleeping in the villa, who lay there in utmost silence. There was no stir in the air. The leafy avenue was bereft of any noise, indicating the calm before the storm. Even the trees did not rustle as if they were tensed about what was yet to come. Amidst the dead silence, the clock’s ticking, which was earlier dampened due to the unnecessary ruckus, felt as if it had suddenly started to tick loudly.

And as the clock struck six, it ticked the loudest, which did not make any difference to the surrounding, except that it had now disrupted Ishaan’s sleep. Now he was sitting wide awake in his bed. He reached out for the jar of water and emptied it into the glass adjacent to it. He could only manage to fill a quarter of the glass. Hence, he got out of his bed and trotted to the kitchen to fetch some water. He suddenly felt cramps in his stomach and a series of hunger pangs. So he decided to open the fridge and get himself some leftover food. As soon as he opened the refrigerator, he saw something that made his blood pressure shoot up. His eyes rolled backward, and he fell with a loud thud that rendered him unconscious. And when a person of that structure falls, it does cause a high decibel noise. And that noise did wake up Vibha, who got off her bed hastily, waking up Richa, who was sleeping beside her. Vibha ran downstairs, tying her night robe, and screeched as soon as she saw Ishaan lying unconscious on the kitchen floor.

Slowly and gradually, Ishaan was gaining consciousness, but all he could see and hear were hazy pictures of people murmuring about something in the opened fridge.

“We should definitely call the cops,” said one of them.

“It’s too risky to do that, we did not expect this. We can’t afford the cops to know about what we were upto in here,” said someone who sounded and resembled Richa.

“But we have to do something about the body now. We just can’t keep it lying in here like this,” suggested Nishant.

“Wait, I will give a call to my father. He probably might help us with this mess,” said Abhimanyu.

The next thing Ishaan knew was that he was on the sofa, with siren noises coming from all directions. His head was throbbing with pain, but he couldn’t move. Ishaan tried to get up, but his body failed him. At the entrance sat Vibha, Kaajal, and Nishant, petrified by the whole incident. Their faces were white as ash.

“Will they figure out what we were up to in here?” asked Vibha looking up at the sky.

“I don’t think so they will, for we had cleared everything before we slept right. So nothing to worry,” said Kaajal consoling Vibha.

“And what might that be friends?” asked a man from behind. The four stood up startled and turned back to see a tall man with a long face, with a little stubble on his face. The three stars on his shoulders shining brightly in the early morning sun.

“Inspector Imran Amin at your service,” said the inspector as he stretched out his long hand for a handshake. The four of them just stared back at the hand, and taking the cue the inspector just retracted his hand.

“So as we all know, there has been a cold-blooded murder in this house. The only facts that we could obtain from looking at the body are that it was a “she” who has been murdered, meaning she was a female, so witty of me to come up with that,” said the inspector with a smirk. “But we have sent the body to the forensics, and we will get to know more about it, not much though, I am afraid because the body was completely annihilated, but we are going to try our best,” added the inspector.

“Oh, sure. We would love to help you arrest the person who did that to the poor girl,” said Nishant trying to sound confident.

“Yeah, I will need your help anyway. So I gather she wasn’t one of you, huh. Okay, that means the body was planted in here somehow from the outside,” said the inspector as he went back into the house talking to himself.

“He looks like a crack head to me,” said Nishant as the three saw the inspector walk back into the house.

This time the conversation was interrupted by a Mercedes that stopped right in front of the villa, its headlights flashing straight into the eyes of the three standing at the entrance. A skinny man stepped out of the front seat only to open the rear door. From the back seat stepped out a stern looking man in a suit, with a French beard that did justice his face cut. He came walking towards the entrance of the house, taking long strides.

“Where is Abhimanyu?” asked the man in a surprisingly deep voice to the star-struck trio.

Breaking the silence Kaajal spoke, “He is in the master bedroom, I guess.”

“Yes, yes,” said the other two in tandem.

But before they could complete their sentence, the man just walked off into the house.

“Why does Mr. Shekhawat always have a frown on his face? Doesn’t he ever smile? Wonder when was the last time he laughed?” asked Vibha as the three watched Mr. Shekhawat climb the stairs taking two steps at a time.

As Mr. Shekhawat reached the top floor, he was greeted by inspector Imran.

“Oh, aap finally aa gaye,” said the inspector shaking hands with Mr. Shekhawat.

“Good morning Inspector. I came in as fast as I could. It’s a good thing that I called you as soon as I heard about this unfortunate incident from my son. Could you please update me on the findings of this case till now?” asked Mr. Shekhawat with urgency in his voice.

“Yes sure, how could I say no to a renowned high court lawyer, like you. I will definitely do that Sir. But first, why don’t