My Husband's Murderer

The night was covered with the calmness of cryptic chilly air on the secluded road. The milestone showing the kilometres, placed on the extreme side of the road showing its futile glory of being on the national highway.

The moon's absence was evident enough to make the night darker. One could not roam on the highway alone, not even an animal. The roads of this highway has always witnessed the hollowness as very rarely any vehicle drove on it.

The rattling sound of the night insects was dissolving in the quiet night like the colours mix together just to create a black shade. In between the howling noises of dogs break through the eerie night.

While all was going in the slowest pace, suddenly the air started changing its pace as if someone was behind it, to destroy it's peace, to rumble the deepness of it. The car drove over the road in a speed not giving the air a chance to breathe. It moved like a snake crossing through the parallel air. The alone road perhaps couldn't understand how to embrace the notorious car. The lanes of the road became confused as the car couldn't stay in the one-lane, breaking the rules of the highway.

In the fraction of seconds, the car rammed over the milestone, breaking it in the pieces and shattering them on the road merciless. The air never became hollower than this when the car flipped up. For a moment time was stopped. As if the air left the hold, the car fell down on the road, dragged itself ahead in a speed and hit on the tree.

Delhi National Highway 10

'DO NOT CROSS THE LINE'

Crime investigation detective Anurag Suryavanshi raised the tape and slightly bending down he entered the accident scene holding a camera in one hand. The car was burning in the misery, taking the surrounding bushes in its embrace. Fire brigades were trying to extinguish everything. It looked like the fire was stubborn enough. It was adamant to burn everything whoever come in its way.

Anurag waited a distance away from it.

His eyes sharply observed the entire surrounding scanning every little thing there. The area was covered by the police blocking the road. The whooshing sound of the water splashing over the burning car, the sound of the police van, siren of the ambulance and fire brigade were making the eerie quiet road the most chaotic. It never witnessed the hullabaloo like this before. But it has witnessed something else which no one has.

The imprints of the tires were visible on the road. Anurag was standing in the middle of the road looking at the prints and introspecting in which way it has gone.

It was clearly looking like the car lost its balance or its tire might have blasted. The car went in a zigzag way which was also showing the proof of losing the control on steering.

He argued with his own thoughts. His one part of the mind was being commonly logical while others were trying to find the logic in the illogical things. It was his usual ways at the work which made him unique from others.

Taking a few steps more, his eyes fell on some footprints.

He bends down and noticed the design of it. The lenses zoomed on it making the footprint look more clearer. His camera captured every detail of the footprint.

In the most secluded national highway 10, bushy and rocky road, a flipped car was burning into ashes. Fire brigade seemed to be having control over the stubborn fire.

Anurag clicked some pictures of the burning car. The skeleton of the car started becoming visible. It was coming to the point when it was born just to dissolve into the black-grey ashes.

Anurag walked towards the police officer who was in charge and started discussing with him. After Anurag's suspension period was done in the last week, he was finally at the work.

There is always more behind just-an-accident cases like this.

It's possible that a driver might have lost its balance on the car but the car was upside down. That means it was flipped but how? He looked around and his eyes caught the shattered pieces of milestone. It connected. He looked at road murmuring his own thoughts. The driver lost its balance, hit on the cement signboard and flipped in the air.

He looked at the big broken wood of the tree. Perhaps the car was driving in more than the usual speed limit. Finally hitting to the tree and take up fire.

He looked quite and one doubt popped up in his mind.

Why the driver lost the control over his car?

The basic question led him back to the zero. It should be started from the beginning.

Anurag saw the car was extinguished properly but the smoke was still coming through it. But it didn't stop him from investigating it.

" This highway is cursed, isn't it? Since three years it has been registered almost fifty of car accidents on this highway " Officer told to Anurag.

" I wonder why? The highway doesn't seem that many extroverts for the vehicles" Anurag said walking ahead.

The car was pushed and make it stand normally, on it all burnt tires.

The steam of the freshly extinguished car could be felt even from a distance.

Anurag's lips twitched looking at the burnt state of the car. The more burnt the car, the more it becomes difficult to investigate it.

Anurag looked at the skeleton of someone curled up inside because it was burnt completely.

His face crunched seeing the scenario.

He covered his mouth and stared at the bizarre scene. He had assumed the driver must have died but not roasted into a skeleton-like this.

It was burnt so badly that its skin was mixed with the leather of the seat.

Jesus Christ!

Anurag murmured some words as a habit after looking at the state of the skeleton. He knew it's going to be a task detaching the skeleton from the car seat.

His camera didn't miss a single thing to capture of it meanwhile some officers pulled out the body from the burnt car.

He looked at the body closely, covering his mouth. The body was beyond recognizable. He wondered about the gruesome death of the driver. What could be his karma, that led him into this?

He circled around the car taking pictures of it from every angle. The number plate was burnt. He collected some burnt pieces from inside & ordered his team to find out more things. The case was indeed going to be the mysterious one.

Meantime news reporters reached there, started telly casting the news. Anurag, after collecting whatever he wanted, returned back to the officer.

"I want to check CCTV footages of highway and "

He said when one officer interrupted him.

That officer laughed at him.

" You have just come out of the suspension. Take a chill"

"I chilled out a lot now its work time. CCTV footage as soon as possible" He replied sternly.

"Sir we are not sure if those CCTVs are working or not" One of his team member Ruby told him.

It was expected!

Digital India Smart India they say!

Anurag thought and coldly scolded her.

"Did I ask you about the condition of CCTVs? I said I want to check it right now."

"I'm sorry Sir," Ruby said.

"And I want the autopsy reports," He said. Ruby gaped at him. It was going difficult to separate the body from the leather seat. How it's going to be possible for getting accurate reports of it? She nodded and left.

Anurag walked towards his bike slowly while thinking about the things he was sure about the accident.

There are the footprints nearby the car. Giving a different angle to the case.

There was someone else involved in this too and whenever it happens the case never remains as a mere accident. It turns to the murder.

The engine of his bullet bike roared as he started it and rode away from the spot.

__

Delhi Police Headquarters_

Anurag wasn't wasting much time in this case.

He started checking the CCTV footages of highways. As per the Ruby told him, some of the CCTV machines weren't working properly. Some of them were off.

The night was on the peak heading towards the virgin time before the morning. But there wasn't any hint of sleep in his eyes. His eyes were wide awake watching the footages.

Most of the clips were not working, which got into his nerves.

But he was still putting a hope to find something in the remaining footages.

Ruby was with him. A part of her heart was beating faster whenever Anurag asked anything from the footage. She was trying to pay attention to the footage but he was standing near to her which was causing her to distract. She was noticing how his eyes were glued on the footage, not even blinking those dry lashes. She admired him a little more than a professional.

Anurag was watching the clip for the second time in a row without taking any break.

A car was driving at an accurate speed limit at camera 1. His eyes moved on Camera 2 which was off. His eyes moved down on the 3rd camera and he noticed the car speeds up. He leaned ahead narrowing his eyes suspiciously. As camera 4 was off. His eyes moved to camera 5 and found it crossed the speed limit, that it reached to the point where it started unbalancing. Camera 6 was off, guessing the car hit on the tree and later take on a fire.

Anurag threw the pen on desk angrily. This wasn't a proper footage of the accident. Ruby flinched by his anger but she knew the reason.

He noticed her and regained her Composure.

"Sir water? " She offered a glass of water. He took it and gulped it hurriedly. It was necessary for him to be calm so he could think wiser with a cold head. The victim car was originally a silver Mercedes Benz car.

Very few rich people can afford it in the town.

He grabbed the notepad from Ruby's hands. He started writing down the victim car's number he found it while watching the footage and passed the paper to Ruby.

"Grab all the information about this car not many people own this rich car" he said still looking at the screen.

Ruby nodded and went to her chair.

Anurag took a deep breath and started watching the same footages again.

While watching it for uncountable times, his eyes noticed something unusual. He forwarded the time of the camera one. When the victim car drove off, after some fifteen to twenty minutes one car drove on the road. Anurag's brows raised up. The other car was looked weird as it was painted in green. Who paints their car green? He thought.

It has maintained a proper distance, not giving any fishy signs until something unusual he noticed.

It didn't give him doubt until the victim car speeds up and the other car behind it paced up too.

Damn, how could I miss this?

The green car vanished somewhere in the further cameras. How it could be possible? When he rewinds it, he saw the green car passing from the usual route but going somewhere invisible between the off cameras.

Something felt fishy.

If the green car wasn't behind the victim's car then why it was following it?

He checked it again and saw the green car didn't have its number plate which gave him the major doubt. He watched the last camera where the victim car was already started unbalancing but he didn't find the same green car on the route.

Where it could have been stopped? He thought.

Anurag hurriedly opened the map on his mobile and checked the same route.

The highway had a total of four conjoint sub-routes it could have gone at any route. It could have possible that the green car wasn't following the victim car and has taken any of sub route between the margin where it went invisible. But Anurag wasn't a sly thinker. His sharp brain never allowed him to think poorly.

He hit his hand on the table as he got the point. Ruby was wondering what was making him so much furious. She wanted to talk to him but decided to do it later. He knew it there was someone behind it. It was a plan.

Plan to kill someone. But it was utmost difficult task to find out now as old routes did not have any CCTV installed.

Smart! He murmured.

Now he wanted to reach the main culprit. But he didn't have any kind of threads to know who was behind it. Ruby walked at him with a print in her hand. She gave it to Anurag.

Anurag looked at it. The green car wasn't clear but its features were visible. He shuffled and saw the different angles of it. He could see the extreme blur sight of a person sitting inside it.

"Good job Ruby"

Anurag said it in a cheerful voice. Ruby became happy.

"But this isn't enough"

Anurag in her work never failed to miss out any single thing. Perhaps the reason he was suspended from the previous case of the powerful politician.

The reason he was named as

'Modern Sherlock' in his department.

He grabbed his things and got up from the chair. He looked at the Ruby still working.

"It's late. Come I will drop you" He said still looking active at the peak of the late night.

Ruby shook her head. No.

"I am some clues away from obtaining it. I will be fine" She said. Looking at her dedication, Anurag walked towards her. He sat next to her. Ruby instantly looked at him.

"Ruby thanks for supporting me every time " He genuinely said the words and she knew it. Anurag was feeling grateful for having a worker like Ruby in his team. She stood with him even when he was suspended. A team is nothing without a leader. She meant for the line and patiently waited for months until he returned back to the work refusing to work for another officer. For her, he wasn't only her boss but a crush too. She smiled at him and he nodded in assurance.

"Are you leaving? " She asked getting baffled by his actions.

"How can I leave the work in half when I have got dedicated team! " he said and returned to his chair.

Team! Yes, they were a team of two. It made her smile and blush.

Anurag focused in his work. The autopsy reports were still yet to arrive. It was going to take some time but the restless mind of him couldn't find any halt.

Dehradun hospital

"Move move move" The nurses with a doctor was pushing the stretcher towards the operation theatre.

Someone was badly injured and if not treated fast the death wasn't far away.

"Arya keeps your open Arya, don't shut it." A voice of a man she could faintly hear. Her eyes were closing bit by bit losing its senses. The vision was extremely hazy. The numbness was taking over her brains, not letting her the feel of her bloodied head. It was snatching her energy, her power to resume, be in the senses.

"ARYA" She heard him shout and it made her little flinch. Her eyes opened wide but it couldn't survive the strain of it. Darkness soon engulfed in front of her eyes.

___