Devil Is In The Details

Tejas smashes the door open. “It’s not what it looks, officer. I didn’t do anything. Main khooni nahi hoon”. “oh acha? Agar aisi baat hai toh hum bas yuhni evening walk pe aaye the. Just shut the heck up, drop the knife, put your hands up, kneel down.. tawde, aur kuch karwana hai kya?”, “Sir, aur chai nashta bol dete phir last mein handcuffs. How about that?” “Chal tawde, tu bhi kya yaad rakhega, tere liye isse mujra bhi karwayenge but in the station. Right now handcuff that son of a rich prick.” Tejas, senior inspector took the face value and arrested Rajiv. Shamaya, petrified at the sight of her sister’s body, Elisha, Rajiv trying to stand still next to her but was as high as the night sky. 

Earlier that evening…. At around 6 pm.. Elisha had called Rajiv, Vikram, Shamaya and Arjun for a small success party of her newly launched music album. “She delivered another great hit, wonder what’s next for her” said shamaya with a tone of petite jealousy. Shamaya and Elisha didn’t quite go along lately. On one hand where Elisha was climbing the ladder of success rapidly. Shamaya, on the other hand, was incurring huge losses in her new business of pharmaceuticals. Vikram and Arjun were the composers of her new album and Rajiv was her long-time colleague, her duet partner in most of her releases. 

“Hey Vikram, I’ve picked up Arjun. I'm on my way to pick you up. Will be there in another half an hour after we decide what to gift her. Damn this is so freaking hard.” Rajiv muddled. Finally they decided upon getting a Backes & Muller BM 100, one of the world’s most expensive speakers which costs a whopping sum of freakin £295000, but he is the rich kid in the block, so money was not an issue for Rajiv. After picking Arjun up, all three of them at 8 pm, arrived at model colony, one of the posh localities in Pune, where people spend like eating a low hanging fruit. Vikram rang the bell, Elisha opened the door with gloves on. “Why are you wearing gloves? Intending to murder anyone of us?’ Vikram says that in a flirtatious way. “She will murder us, with her beautiful voice tonight. Isn’t that right Elisha?". “of course, Rajiv. Get in fast, I need to remove the cookies out of the oven” 

“Hey Elisha, here is a small gift for you.” Rajiv said. “You really need to change your definition of small. This thing is quite big”. “Just like my….. uhum uhumm”, “You dirty pig, that’s not what I meant. Grow up”. “Chill, it’s a speaker. Let's connect it and get the room willy and woolly.” With dance music on the playlist, everyone started grooving and dancing their mind out. After a while, they took a break, and Vikram asked Elisha to sit and let him prepare drinks for everyone. “What would you like to have? Mr brahmachari? Drink toh tu piyega nahi, toh bacha sirf chai. Should I get that for you?” Rajiv had no other option than to say yes. Vikram went to the kitchen, started preparing tea for Rajiv. While doing so, Vikram asked Rajiv to pass on the knife to Elisha, so that she could cut some ginger to add to the tea, masala tea? That’s all he gets to drink! “Where”s Dheeraj? Isn’t he going to join us to celebrate his wife’s success?” Arjun asked out of curiosity. “Oh you know how busy he can get sometimes. Abhi aata hi hoga” 

At around 9:30pm, the doorbell rings, Arjun opens the door. “Finally, you’re here Dheeraj, we’ve all been waiting for you.” They all continued with the party, everything seemed to be healthy. But was it? Vikram and Arjun decided to leave after some time since they had a flight to catch the next morning for the promotion of the upcoming album.

“So Rajiv, I got a question for you. Do you have any insecurities”? Rajiv puzzled nods and asks Dheeraj to explain. ”So here’s a thing Rajiv. Lately I’ve been feeling insecure about Elisha cheating on me. She's not behaving the same as she used to and she never has time for me. I don’t know what it is but can you explain it to me?” Rajiv perplexed, answered, “I really don’t know what you’re talking about Dheeraj. I think I should be leaving”. “No wait, how does it feel to sleep with her? Is the sex too hot for you two guys?” Rajiv started to lose his consciousness and fell on the ground. On waking up. He saw Shamaya along with the police officers.

After taking him into custody, police started questioning Rajiv. He continuously kept saying that he was with Dheeraj, in his defence, and didn't do the murder and instead believed that Dheeraj might have possibly killed her after he got the shocking news of his wife indulged in infidelity. For once, police believed him and called the other two to interrogate about the same. “Yes sir, we two were there for the party, but Dheeraj wasn't." “No sir, they are lying. He came home around 9:30 pm, and Arjun was the one who opened the door. Ask him.” Turning a blind eye, Arjun continued, “Yes sir, I did open the door but it wasn’t Dheeraj, it was the pizza delivery boy. You can call the Dominos pizza outlet and ask them about our order. You can even check the CCTV which is placed at the front gate.” The footage arrived, it was confirmed that there was a pizza delivery guy who came at that time. It seemed clear to senior inspector, Tejas, that Rajiv had murdered Elisha because after checking the CCTV footage, it was confirmed that there was, in fact, a pizza delivery boy who came at that time even though the face wasn't visible and Dheeraj was in Hadapsar, returning home, his car’s number plate was captured in the traffic signal's CCTV. Forensics confirmed Rajiv’s fingerprint on the knife which was believed to be the murder weapon. All the evidence was pointing at Rajiv. Rajiv had no more points to prove his innocence at the moment yet he continued to stay firm to his statement that he was with Dheeraj. After doing blood test of Rajiv, Tejas said, “Ohkay here’s a thing now.. we’ve found samples of hallucinogens in your blood and also tawde found packets of mescaline in your apartment. So it’s clear that you’ve been hallucinating about being with Dheeraj and so ab se chup b***, bilkul chup! and admit that you’ve killed Elisha.” Rajiv didn’t know what to say, he never did any drugs before and was confused on hearing there were drug samples found in his body. 

All the evidence was pointing at Rajiv and was enough to prove him guilty. Meanwhile Dheeraj arrived at the station. “Where’s that son of a...? Can I please talk to him in private and ask him why did he do it!!??”, because of his political influence, Tejas allowed Dheeraj to talk to him. In the adjacent room, only Dheeraj and Rajiv facing each other, Dheeraj said, “How was the tea? Vikram added magic mint(salvia) in it. Hope you enjoyed the tea.. and yeah, next time. Don’t order pizza from Domino’s. I didn’t like their uniform, or pizza, they sucked to the core. Oh wait. There will be no next time for you. In tomorrow’s verdict, my lawyers will make sure you will be sentenced to death. The chips are down pal and I hope it was a thrilling night for you. Goodnight.”