The Devious Revenge

“We have again investigated the case. The report says a lady Mrs. Fernando, a medical practitioner, was found death in her home. Her throat slashed, left hand broken & bruises all over her body. No forced entry found. No presence of another person detected. No evidence found on crime scene." Inspector Jason said, closing the file. His face was saddened.

"I understand you considered her as your mother. She saved your daughter by donating one of her kidneys to her. I can understand what you are going through... "Inspector Russell tried consoling his colleague.

Jason couldn't bear the loss. The lady whom he considered his mother, the lady who always loved him more than anything else, was now death. Most importantly he never knew why would someone kill her as crime scene indicated violence as well as torture on her.

The police department repeatedly searched the house for any other clues but they only found small traces of Horse’s Hair in the house at the door & near the window. However, that couldn't count for any strong evidence as no horse stables were around & no one owned a horse. All the people and neighbours who knew her were questioned. Every single person who was present there and in the vicinity of the house, was rigorously questioned. Still, no clue was found, nor was any person arrested. Jason again requested the court for further investigation and further enquiries.

Again after all the investigation, no evidence was obtained. No one’s fingerprints were matching with all the prints present in the house, mostly of which were Mrs. Fernando's. With numerous searches of the entire house, still no proper evidence was found.

The court finally closed the case, owing to lack of evidence and no proper crime report by the police.

Jason's daughter, Sara, was suffering from a serious illness. Her kidney, the only one working which was donated to her by Mrs Fernando, was failing and every organ of hers was now responding slowly. She was in the ICU, and every passing day her health was deteriorating. She was kept on strict and strong medication, but her body was not responding. Owing to the stress that she was having regarding her health,she was under depression ,for which she was under medication from a psychiatrist.

Finally, after fighting for more than 6 days, Sara's body gave up.

Jason couldn't bear the loss. 10 days ago, he had lost his mother. And today, he lost his daughter. Since she was born, Sara had a terminal illness. Her kidneys were not functioning properly, and to heal her, one day Mrs. Fernando gave her a kidney. But every passing year, she kept getting sick. Even though she was on medication, still she kept suffering from infections which started causing a serious threat to her health.

Jason was totally disturbed and in severe grief. He just couldn't believe his daughter was no longer with him. He not only lost his daughter, but with her he also lost his peace. It took him more than a month to finally resume back on his duties.

Same week, two other Girls in the area died mysteriously, without any problems in their health.

2 years later

Inspector Jason was seated in his office when he received the envelope. The sender was unknown. Frowning, he opened the envelope & found something that looked like a article. It mentioned the name of a magazine and the respective page number.

What can it be? The inspector wondered. Nevertheless, while returning home, he purchased that magazine from a bookseller and read it as he reached home. It was a monthly magazine, with certain stories, essays written. He turned on the given page number.

As he read the story, he was shocked. He couldn't just believe what he was reading.

The next day, the inspector spoke about this to his colleague, Russell.

"Russell, I just came across this magazine yesterday. Someone sent me the name in a parcel. As I opened the page number indicated on the message, it displayed a story. This story is exactly similar to one of my past cases. Remember the Mrs. Fernando's case 2 years ago? The story exactly resembles to it...!" The inspector then explained him the details of the case that had put him in a despair.

“The initial case said no sign of forced entry was detected. However, in the story, the writer says that the killer entered in using the drain chamber in the kitchen. He says the chamber was dry, as Mrs. Fernando had recently updated her plumbing systems. The chamber earlier was used to drain down the waste water, the drain trap from the kitchen sink opened in the chamber. However, after the plumbing pipe changes, the pipes directly opened up in the outside chamber,& the inner one was left dry. It’s quite huge,the other end opens up in the big pipe just outside the town. The time required to travel from the pipe to the chamber is about 20 min.”

The inspector then explained the details trying to relate it to the real life incident.

“The story indicates that Mrs. Fernando was murdered.The killer must’ve entered through the chamber. I clearly remember we never considered searching the chamber, as we thought it was only used for water cleaning…..Shit..!” Jason sat down frustrated as he released he missed some important evidence.

“I’ll have to speak to the court. We need to restart this investigation…You know how much I wanted to solve this case,don’t you? I need to know who was behind her killing….Please help me out on this…”

The court was not ready for issuing orders regarding the opening of this case,however,after Jason pushed & insisted the court many times,the case was again re-opened.

The next day, Inspectors Jason & Russell took the crew & started searching Mrs. Fernando’s house which was sealed locked since the past 2 years.

“We searched everything, including the Chamber inside the house for forced entry, but we never found anything, sir. The storage cabinet next to it looks undisturbed. One team also actually travelled the whole distance from the sewer pipes to the main chamber in the house, but the pipes are too narrow for anything to pass through, let alone a human being. No further entry or exit marks are detected near the chamber. Again we land on nothing…” The search team gave their reports to Jason.

The next day, Jason again got a envelope. As he opened it, he again found some papers inside: a prescription written by a doctor to Mrs. Fernando & some photos of her with another person. Ironically, the photos showed the inspection chamber next to her. Jason enquired about the doctor. His name was Dr. Steven, a psychiatrist in the city.

The next day, Jason was seated in his office when again he received an envelope. Again the sender was anonymous. He opened it, and found some photos of Mrs Fernando during her younger years. There were total 3 black and white photos, and in every photo, Mrs. Fernando was standing next to the storage cabinet in the kitchen. Again Dr. Steven was found present in one of the photos.

Jason eyed the photos again. In all the three photos, only the lady had shifted her position. Again no proper clue.

"Some mysterious person desperately wants the killer to get arrested. He has first sent a story similar to the case, and now, three more photos with a written medical prescription from some Dr. Steven." Russell placed all of those on the table. "What can all this possibly mean?"

"They are giving us a clue..... But I am still not able to find the real killer. Whoever this person is, he was in a close contact with Mrs. Fernando. Else he wouldn't have access to all this data..." Jason said, thinking hard.

"We have found another set of evidence, sir...." the research team again came up with another update as Jason revisited the site.

Jason then looked at the evidence found. It was smoke ash, the leftover of a burning cigarette.

"What surprises me is the fact that we never found this cigarette's ash when we had conducted search operations two years ago. It means someone had entered the house just recently either to collect or destroy evidence." Jason then referred to the shoe marks found in the compound wall." Possibly these are made by the person who made a entry inside the house... But who can it be...? "

"Do you remember the horse tail hair that was found in the earlier investigation two years ago?" Russell suddenly added.

"But we never found what it referred to..." Jason said.

The next day, two more photos of Mrs. Fernando were posted to Jason’s office, this time, again she was alone, leaning against the storage cabinet.

Jason kept the earlier ones and the recent one photos next to each. All five of them were old, in black and white print. In all of them, Mrs. Fernando was standing alone, either by the storage cabinet or by the chamber. Jason still couldn't get anything from the photos.

That night, Jason went home. As he sat down for dinner, he was still thinking about the case. (italic) How could anyone just come inside, kill the victim and escape out without any trace? Also, how come the probably the same killer can come in, destroy the evidence and escape out?

Suddenly Jason remembered the story. He read the story again. As scanned the story, one paragraph caught his attention : “Mrs. Fernando kept all of her important things in the storage cabinet placed in the kitchen. She always …..” Jason couldn't read the next complete sentence as his thoughts drifted elsewhere.

Suddenly,he remembered the photographs. He had kept them with himself,as he was sure he may require them at any time. He looked at all five of them placing them in a line.

Instantly he realised the idea of the person who was sending the photos to him. Keeping aside everything, he started his vehicle and dashed back to the police station. Running towards his cabinet, he searched all the documents & reports that were prepared 2 years ago. As ideas kept clicking in his mind,he also saw the documents of the current case that he was handling : The Mysterious deaths of two other kids in the town. He also had requested his team to search if anyone around had sold their horses. Now all things came crystal clear in his mind.

“Russell…Sorry to call you late at night…!” Jason immediately phoned his colleague. “I think I have found something……Please listen to me first………The photographs sent by the mysterious person show Mrs. Fernando standing next to the cabinet in the kitchen. I have searched all the reports & records of the previous investigations & in all of them,we have skipped the storage cabinet thinking that it was absurd to search inside. I think we should search it right now,because probably……….oh c’mon,I know its late in the night,but please we need to solve this case….”

Half n hour later, Jason met Russell outside Mrs. Fernando’s house. Russell’s eyes were red & he looked as if he was forced out of sleep.

“I’m sorry,but we need to look at the storage cabinet..” Jason crossed the yellow tapes & hurried inside the house. Using torchlight,he rushed to the storage cabinet. It was open.referring to instances from the story,he searched for a hidden safe on the rear wall amidst the clothes. Finally he found one. There was a file inside it,which contained documents & certain medical prescriptions from Dr.Steve. As Jason scanned every document in the file,slowly things started becoming more & more clearer.

It was 3:00 AM in the morning,when Dr. Steve Harley heard a knock on his door. He was one of the renowned psychiatrists in the city. As he opened the door,he saw a two men standing outside.

“I’m inspector Jason & he’s my colleague,Russell. We need to speak with you on one of our recent case.” The doctor was alarmed for a second but didn’t deny them.

“Mrs. Fernando used to work with you,I presume..?” Inspector Jason asked.

The doctor nodded with a yes.

“2 years ago,when she was murdered, we presume you were at your clinic?” The doctor again nodded.

Jason then produced the photos of the two girls who had died mysteriously. “I heard these two girls are also taking medications from you?”

The psychiatrist saw the photos,stared them for a moment,& suddenly his expression changed. He panicked,as if he realised something.

Jason immediately detected his expressions & pushed the door open. He kicked the psychiatrist down with his leg. Handcuffing the doctor,Jason growled at him. “When I visited Mrs. Fernando’s house,in the cabinet,I found the files where your prescriptions were written. I also saw your photos with Mrs. Fernando. You like smoking flavored cigarettes, right? The ash was found in the living room carpet. When I entered, I saw a horse carriage outside. My team confirmed that you had just sold them away, not more than 8 days ago. Horse hair samples were already detected on site, when the killing happened. You never kept horses two years ago, but you preferred going out of town for horse racing." Jason, sniffed and wiped his nose as he continued, "Now I know you killed her…She was such a humble lady, a mother figure to me…! And you not just killed her,but also those two young kids?” Removing his daughter’s photo,he said, “MY daughter was also taking medication from you…! So should I suppose my daughter died because of your medications? Why were you such a psychopath to murder all of these women? Now answer my questions…..why did you murder all of them…?”

Dr. Steve Harley looked at the inspector with despair.

"I understand that you consider me as a criminal, who killed four women. But before that, listen to me first..."

"Mrs. Fernando, was working with me for some years. Spending hours together, she slowly started developing a liking for me. One day she proposed me, but I had other person in my mind. I never ever had looked her from that perspective. I discarded her, following which she started suspecting me and blamed me that I was in love with someone else. Medication was my love, my passion, and I couldn't think of anything else other than that. I tried persuading her, but she kept adamant. She started started inducing hard and changed drugs to three of my young patients, one of them was unfortunately, your daughter, Sara." the doctor paused, trying to get a hold of the thing."

I tried to stop her, but she kept doing it..... I couldn't bear all of it and told her to leave the job immediately. "Dr. Steve got lost for a moment.

" The next day, she committed suicide. She had informed me that morning, that she'll be finishing herself.... "

" You are lying...!" the inspector shouted," you killed her...! "

" I never killed her. I had come to stop her. I did want her to live, but she only wanted to frame me. She never left a suicide note, as she only wanted to ruin my life by making me a criminal oh the eyes of police. Your department investigated the crime, but couldn't find any evidence o her killing. It's because she killed herself in such a way as though it appeared some other person did it.But I wanted justice, not for me, but for those innocent kids who were ill because of her. I wanted justice for your innocent daughter. .."

"So you mean..." Now things clicked in Jason's mind.

"I wrote the story and posted it to you. I kept sending you the photographs of her that were available with me,highlighting the storage cabinet as it contained certain important data which could prove you the real case." He then showed the inspector the letters & documents that Mrs. Ferenando had sent him, revealing her revenge on him. He also showed the inspector the important notes that she had sent him threatening to commit suicide.

"I had entered that day in her house to collect some of the photos, & my shoemarks were detected by your search team. I also had horses & i was fond o them,which is why Mrs.Fernando tried framing me by placing horse tail hair near the crime scene. All in all,she had totally decided to put me in,but due to lack of evidence,she couldn't do it..."

Jason couldn't believe what he was hearing. All this was done by the lady whom he considered as his mother & most importantly she did it just to revenge a person,who said no to her as he more passionate about his profession. he remembered how nicely his daughter used to mingle with Mrs. Fernando, & how nicely he considered her as a family of his own.

Days later,with 2 days still left for the closure deadline that the court had set in for the case, the police filed the chargesheet.

Dr. Steven was convicted,but was released as he was not responsible for any of the deaths.

THE END