“Are you ok Mala? Let me get you a glass of water” said the Police officer
“I will be fine, it’s just hard for me to accept that my sister is dead” Mala wiped the tears from her eyes and continued “I feel awful about the fact that I did not try and contact her in the past 5 years and in fact hated her for not keeping in touch with me”.
“Mala, I can only imagine how difficult this must be for you but I will need to get more details about your sister in order to make a case, would next Monday be ok with you, I will give you my card, it has my office address”
Mala nodded.
Following Monday
“Mala you said you did not try to contact your sister in the past few years, can you tell me why you did not contact her? Also I would need some more information about her – her habits, her friends, etc.”
“My sister Asha lived a promiscuous life, we have had many arguments about her lifestyle, she changed men every week, she was heavily using drugs and alcohol and her friends were of shady characters. I would tolerate her because she was my sister but my husband was not too pleased with her. The final straw came when one day she showed up at our house claiming to be sober, she stayed with us for 3 days and appeared all normal and we were surprised. My daughter was 6 months then, one evening she suggested that I go out with my husband on dinner while she watches the baby. It was a sweet gesture and we enjoyed ourselves but were shocked when we returned home, our house was vandalized, the front door was wide open and worst of all my daughter was left all alone. My husband wanted to turn her over to the police but I pleaded with him, I went to her place to talk some sense to her but she was high on drugs. I told her that I will not call her anymore, if she decides to get her act together she can contact me. I was sad and depressed for months because of that night, she never called and I blamed her but now I know why she never called……..” Mala pauses for a while and continues “Officer, I was too shocked the other day but do you have any suspects, how did you find out that she is dead?”
“The utility company employees were digging for some repair work and found bones, the lab did some testing but all we could conclude was that a female around 30 of Asian Indian origin, a bracelet was found at the site, the jeweler was able to find out whom it belonged to, we checked around and no one had heard anything from your sister in the past 5 years or so, her last employer had your name as an emergency contact and so we found you. Right now there are no suspects, her friends could have murdered her for money but it is unlikely as they did not take the very expensive bracelet. The site where her remains has been found is an isolated location, I will leave a notebook for you, please write down anything and everything about your sister, I will collect this in a week’s time – any of her friends name and description would really help”
“I will work on this”
Officer thinks of something and asks “Where is your husband right now?”
“He is on a business trip to Hong Kong, in fact he is returning today, he does not even know about Asha’s death, I wanted to talk to him about this in person rather than over the phone”
“Mala please do not misunderstand us but we need to look at everyone as suspects, can we talk to your husband before you do? We just need to get his side of the story”
“I understand, he is arriving today at 4:15 PM, if you wish I can wait here until you finish talking to him”
“No that will not be necessary”
“Thank you, I have to go and pick up my daughter, I will not return home until late so that your investigation is complete, you see my daughter is 6 and she will ask too many questions”.
At the Airport the Officer introduces himself to Sam and explains the situation, he is somewhat convinced about the couple’s innocence when Sam’s story jives with Mala’s account. Inspector drops Sam to his house and says
“Thank you for your cooperation Sam, if I think of anything else I will contact you, one thing I forgot about to ask your wife about this twice but I do need a picture of Asha, would you happen to have one, it will help us in our investigation” Sam had several pictures and Inspector’s face lights up as if he a new light has been shed in the mystery, he talks to Sam some more and then leaves.
Two Weeks Later the Officer goes over what Mala has written about her sister
“Mala, I am surprised that you remembered so many small things about your sister but forgot to mention one big fact about you and her – the fact that you are twins”
“I ….I am sure…are you sure Inspector you did not forget this? I mean I would have mentioned this”
“Well Mala if I did not know any better I would say that you are Asha and you killed Mala,. The moment I realized that you were twins, my mind started working overtime. I asked your husband and he said the night Mala went to talk to Asha, she stayed there for 2 days and when she came back she was sad and depressed and for months she would just sit there doing nothing. You were pretending to be depressed so that you could learn things about Mala, also you were suffering from with drawl symptoms from the drugs and alcohol.”
“This is ridiculous, you have no proof”
“Right now I don’t but I plan to conduct a DNA test to see if your daughter is really yours – that should prove your innocence or guilt”
“I DID NOT KILL HER!!!!!!!! Yes it is true that I am Asha but I did not kill Mala, back then I was addicted to drugs and I would borrow money from anybody and everybody. I committed a big mistake of borrowing money from J, he was into everything illegal, when I could not repay him he forced me into prostitution and one day I have had enough and I decided to turn myself into a rehabilitation facility, I did not want others to suffer as I did so I vowed to give J’s information to the police. Well J found out about this and he was after me, that is why I stayed with my sister for a while, but he did track me down and his men came after me at my sister’s house, I escaped but they damaged the whole place. I did not go home that night but unfortunately my sister did and they killed her thinking they were killing me.
At that time I knew that if I tell the truth J and his men will kill me as well. This was like a second chance for me, my niece needed a mother, I needed to start from scratch and I felt bad about her husband but I figured I would tell him someday, I suppose that day is today. Officer I would like to do it myself rather than you break the news to him”
Officer thinks for a while and says “I am not sure it’s a good idea to tell the truth now – your or rather Mala’s husband would be hurt and their daughter would be devastated as well. Tell you what I would need more information from you now to catch J and provided we can prove that he killed your sister you are free to live Mala’s life”
Asha’s perspective
It has been twenty years since the kind officer let me go, I answer to Mala, I am Mala, when I talk to myself I address myself as Mala but it all changes when I look at myself in the mirror, I have Mala’s eyes and looks but the mirror mocks me and tells me that I never had it and will never have Mala’s soul.
Close
Keshav : Have heard about this one but not read it yet - will check it out some day.
Filmy with one difference - in bollywood movie the heroine will not let the other men "touch" her here she had the cake and ate it as well
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Kiran: Hell, I had missed this one...
Ekdum filmy... I loved it...
Have you read Irving Wallace's "The Second Lady"?
Just try it out if you haven't :-)
cheers,
Keshav
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Udit : Thanks for the comments and compliments. You are not alone - it seems that my attention span is not that great either these days, glad you enjoyed this :-)
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Wow! Did you write this? Amazing stuff.. captured my entire attention span (considering how fast my attention wavers thats quite a feat! ;) ).. great stuff though.. nice and thrilling.. :)
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DSampath : Thanks for your comments and compliments.
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very interesting story..
can be made into a movie..
liked it....
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BMW : Thanks for your comments. Yeah the point is you cannot run away from yourself - it is easy to fool others and we try to fool ourselves or at least try to :-)
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Though I kind of figured it out as soon as i knew they were twins... Still the ending and the picture kind of touched me. You can run away from everything but yourself...
The story was well told.
bmw.
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Hey MU : Thanks for the visit and compliments
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Supriya : Thanks, better to put these criminal ideas on paper than put them in action
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