Not a Normal Crime

It was a normal Tuesday morning in 1977. But it made the rest of my life abnormal.  

I and my junior, Kajal, had a little time before our duty would start. So that day we went to a small tea shop. There was a middle-aged woman sitting right in front of me. She drank her tea while staring at me. I felt weird about her stares but I tried to not let her bother me. I switched places with Kajal and sat on the outer side of the bench but her stares didn't stop even then. 

At that time elections were right on our heads and we, the police, had to serve longer duties. It wasn't a violent election, like the one before it. If it wasn't for that woman, we would have made some political jokes and then simply would have left to start our duty.  

We sat there for almost half an hour. With every tick the clock made, I looked at the woman to see if she was still looking my way and every time the answer was yes. She was still looking my way. I quickly finished my tea and asked Kajal to do the same. I thought I would leave the shop and would not think about the lady again. But nothing I thought happened.

A loud sound came from the other side of the road and when I looked that way. Two men were trying to kidnap a young woman. That sound was the young woman crying for help. I immediately stood up and pulled my revolver out of its case, which was attached to my belt. Then my gaze fell upon that middle-aged woman, sitting in front of me. She was smiling. Her smile was suspicious and so were her stares. 

"Kajal arrest this woman now, while I go after those kidnappers. Bring her to the Station. Now!" I ordered Kajal but she seemed confused about it. Her confusion confused me. I repeated my orders. When she seemed to understand I sprinted after those kidnappers.  

It was weird how those kidnappers kidnapped the young lady in broad daylight and that too right in front of two police officers. Either they wanted to be arrested or they had some really powerful relatives. Whatever it was, at the time the only thing I thought was that I had to save the girl no matter what. 

I shouted at the kidnappers but they didn't stop. I followed them until they entered a house. The house looked quite old and as if its residents had evacuated it. All that was left were cracked and dusty walls. Spider webs had taken control of every corner. The house had lost its color long ago. 

Slowly I walked towards the door, which also looked old. I changed my stance and got ready to shoot. Kicking the door, I saw that those men were slitting her throat. I targeted and shot their heads I aimed and shot them both in the head, but I wasn't able to save the girl. I regretted it.  

Before the blood from the bodies reached the soles of my shoes, I left the house to make a call. I called the police station I worked at. My senior shouted at me over the phone. He said that I could not ask Kajal to arrest whoever I want. He was right. But I had my reasons. At least at that moment I had. 

When I entered the house again, there were neither any dead bodies nor any blood! Shocked, I looked around the house. It did not look like three dead bodies were had been lying there a short while ago. Whatever had happened in the last 20 minutes was all gone! Everything I saw and did turn had seen and done had turned into a lie! I worried about how I would tell my senior about it. I felt like I was going to tell him that Bhanu Yadav would win the elections. But I had no choice. I had to tell him the lies that I myself witnessed and wrote.

But before I tell him anything, I searched for the bullets I had fired. They were nowhere to be found. It was very confusing. If it was all lies then where were the bullets? And if it was all true then where were the bodies?

When nothing more could be done, nothing more could be confirmed, so I went back to the police station. I knew I had arrested a seemingly innocent lady without any proof. I thought I had prepared myself enough for the punishment, but I hadn't.  

The first thing I saw on arriving at the Police Station was that middle-aged woman's smiling face. It was that same suspicious smile.  

"Why did you arrest Mrs. Jones? She is wife of the David Jones, owner of David Motors!" Jayesh, my senior, the head inspector of the police station, exclaimed. I had already had a long discussion with myself on what to tell him so without wasting time, I told him the truth.  

Jayesh replied "A kidnapping? From what Kajal told me it's more like you went mad! No-one saw any kidnapping except you! Apologize to Mrs. Jones immediately! She would have left long ago, but she waited here just to meet you. Be thankful grateful to her." 

"As Mr. Jayesh said, I want to talk to you. Can we sit in your office?" Mrs. Jones said to me after I apologized to her and showed her my non-existing gratitude.  

"Yes. Please come inside, Mrs. Jones." I showed her to my office. 

We walked into my office. I ordered some tea for her. The second suspicious thing about her was that although she was the wife of a rich English businessman, and yet she was drinking tea at that small tea shop. First was her smile.

"Ever since our eyes have met, you have not held back on showing how much interested you are in me. Am I that handsome, Mrs. Jones?" I asked her. She intrigued me.  

"How can I not be interested in a woman like you, Ms. Rathore?" Mrs. Jones replied.  

"I am not that special. And please call me Rani. I am a lot younger than you." I told her.

Mrs. Jones smiled and replied, "You are special, Rani. You saw a crime that didn't happen, right? I wanted to talk to you regarding what you saw." She looked around to make sure no-one heard us. She whispered her next words, "I used to hear people's sorrow but after meeting you I don’t hear them anymore. It means the magic has chosen you. The things you saw were magic." 

"You want to say that, after meeting you, my magic has awakened? Like that in films?" I asked her confused.

"No. The magic I used to have has passed to you. You are its new puppet. It will show you things now." As Mrs. Jones said those words, she looked a little sad and worried. 

"I am the new puppet? Then you were the old one? What did it show you, Mrs. Jones?” I asked her.  

"When I was nine years old, we went to England for a vacation. There we met my father's uncle. Magic came to me through him. I heard people's deepest sorrows that sometimes they themselves didn't know about. I was young but I understood everything. This magic passes from one to another. Whoever it likes, whenever it wants to. It is a curse." Mrs. Jones said.

"You are not lying, right? You are telling me that at the tea shop, you passed your curse just by looking at me? How am I supposed to know what this curse is about?" What Mrs. Jones was saying sounded like a bad joke but, unfortunately, it seemed to be the truth. Amazingly, she looked like a kidnapper but not a liar. She was probably the first person who looked like that.  

"I think the kidnapping, you accused me of, is enough evidence that I am not lying. You are a smart girl. I have explained all I know. You will learn everything else on your own. I will take my leave now," she said and stood up.

Before she left, Mrs. Jones smiled at me. That smile of her was not suspicious. It was scary; it scared me to the bone. It made me sweat. She was hiding something. It felt as if I had confronted a horrifying doll. She felt as if she herself was the curse. Her eyes clearly told me that she was not going to leave me till she destroyed me.

***

Three days after that incident, someone reported three murders in the same old evacuated house whose walls had turned grey with dust. I was totally shocked. I asked Jayesh to appoint me as head of the investigation for that case, because I had things to confirm, and things to learn.

We soon reached the site of the crime. I entered the house first. Three dead bodies were lying in front of me. My team searched the house. Two weapons were identified from the wounds. One was a knife which my team found. Other was a gun which was nowhere. Of course. After all, it was my gun.

That time when I opened the door, the blood from those three dead bodies did reach the soles of my shoes.