Another Perfect Murder

No Loose Ends

It's now been past three year's and I can now rest in peace and enjoy the sweet fruits of labor. I had always prided myself on my presence of mind and intellect. From an early age I was aware of my good looks and I could easily make boys dance around me. The only thing that I was lacking was money. 

 

I was born into a world that promised nothing but a scent of scarcity. raised in a crumbling tenement, I learnt early in life, that beauty opened doors and it was cunning to keep them unlocked. My childhood was a patchwork of whispered dreams and second hand envy, stitched together with grit. My father was a worker in a factory and though we were not poor, I never had the kind of money to buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. My father used tell me, “Aditi, in life, never keep money as the target. Money will automatically come when you work sincerely.”

 

I was going to prove him wrong!

At an early age of 23, I was married off to Sujay who was a businessman and an only son. His family also owned few hundred acres of farmland. He was not very good looking. He was timid and from the look in his eyes, I knew he considered himself lucky to have gotten a beautiful wife like me. He was rich and had a good steady business. I had no reasons, not to like him. Sujay lived in his independent two storied bungalow which was a kilometer away from his parent’s bungalow. It was not big, but it was independent and provided privacy with its tall walls. He also had a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city. This bungalow was used to entertain guests and had a well-equipped bar. With this background, there was no reason why I would not marry Sujay.

The first couple of years were good. We had our son Rushi in two years. The in-laws were happy that I gave them a grand son. But things started go downhill and within a couple of months, time came when our expenses could not match the earnings. Sujay started drinking heavily and we used to fight regularly. Sujay started accusing me of spending far too much. I had always wanted the good things in life, the things that I only aspired for throughout my life and as a husband it was his responsibility to provide for his family and he was just not able to deliver.

Money supply became so tight that we even used to joke about kidnapping someone just to get a good amount of money. We were like descending into madness. Slowly Sujay started to seriously think about really kidnapping children. He started making plans and expressed to me after having a couple of pegs. He was probably under a lot of pressure as his pride was hurt. He had to provide for a new born baby and a beautiful wife who he thought would leave him if the money was not there. And I preferred to keep intact those thoughts of his.

It was a Saturday evening when we were invited to my in-laws house for a family get together. To keep the facade of well being intact, we had retained services of Suman as Aaya for Rushi. She was young girl of 19. She used to be around the whole day working in and around the house and tending to Rushi whenever required. That evening I asked her to stay back to look over Rushi, as we would return late in the night from my in-laws.

Sujay had already had his second peg around six in the evening while surfing the internet, probably for one of those half-brained get-rich-soon schemes, when he turned to me with a sadistic glint in his eyes.

“Aditi, we can be richer by five crores!”, he said.

I just gave him a look that was more dismissive than curious. Getting no response from me he continued in whispered excitement, “This afternoon Suman gave me a lottery ticket that she had bought. While she did not hope to win, she asked me to check on the website. And guess what ….. her ticket is the lucky ticket ….. five f**kin crores!!”

I didn’t like the idea of stealing the ticket from her, but he interrupted my thoughts when he said this money can be ours if Suman does not exist. It was big amount that will surely help me for a lot of things. But what did he mean by "if Suman doesn't exist?"

“Murder?” , I heard myself croaking.  No. I was against murdering anyone. We weren't that kind of people. The small talks and jokes about kidnapping were OK but murder? We had to get to our in-laws in a couple of hours and here my husband, after a couple of drinks was talking murder. But from what he explained, he seemed to have worked it all very well in those few seconds.

He kept the ticket in his wallet and continued, “You call Suman here for some work and I’ll grab her from behind and finish her. You then go to my parents’ house by cab. Tell them our car wouldn’t start & that I’ll join later. I’ll disturb the house, break some items to make it seem like a burglary. We will act surprised when we return at night and call the police.”

I have a sensible mind but Sujay hardly gave me any time to think on what could go wrong in this plan. In those few minutes, I tried to imagine situations of how this can go South, but this plan made on the fly, seemed to be fool proof. Fortunately, for us, our watchman had gone to his hometown for some pooja and except for Suman, there was no outside person.

I added some adult cough syrup to Rushi’s soft drink and asked Suman to put him to sleep. This would ensure that he did not wake up for another 4 hours. Sujay put on the watchman's rain suit and hid in the niche between the stairs and the kitchen. He was looking funny in the rain suit worn inside the house.

I called for Suman. As soon as she walked down the stairs and looked at me enquiringly, Sujay came from behind her, covered her mouth with one hand and slit her throat with the other. All this happened in less than a second.

I was horrified at the sight of blood oozing out of what used to be her throat. He kept on stabbing her from sides. It was all over in just a couple of minutes. She fell on the floor.

It took me some time to gain my composure and we left for my in-laws home. Just outside our compound, Sujay stalled the car. He opened the bonnet. I stepped out of the car and hailed a cab. Sujay joined me an hour later. He cited the delay due to his car's battery problem. Throughout the evening I was distracted and found it difficult to strike normal conversations, but Sujay seemed to have overcome it all. During the conversations he did mention that business was weak and he was looking for other business opportunities. He also said half seriously that he had started buying lottery tickets to try his luck. This was much joked about, and all of us laughed.

We returned around mid-night and on the way back Sujay told me that he had washed and wiped dry the rain coat and removed the jewellery from the bedroom to make it look like a burglary. He hid it under the car seat. On the way to my in-laws he had smashed Suman's  cellphone and threw it away. The jewellery would stay there till the police closed the case.

We approached the house and saw that the lights were off. We opened the door and put on the lights. We entered the living room and saw Suman lying on the floor in a pool of blood at the end of the room. Her clothes were in shambles. I screamed loud enough for the neighbour's to hear and Sujay held me from falling. We stepped back and called 100. Hearing my screams our neighbour's came in a couple of minutes.

The police arrived in 15 minutes and started their usual questions. They asked us to check if anything was missing from the house. I went upstairs with the police constable. Our bedroom was in a disturbed state. The ardrobes were open. Our valuables were missing. I told the police that the jewellery was worth more than fifty lakhs. 

 

The next 10 days were very painful. The forensic reports suggested the time of murder to be near about time of our leaving the house and we knew that (as expected) we were prime suspects. After all the murder took place in our house. But the police could not pin any blame on us till they knew about the motive. And what motive could a well-established married couple with an infant have in murdering a lowly servant?  The only motive the police deduced was the missing jewellery. Our mobile phone records also supported whatever we had told the police.

The police also made inquiries with the guests who were at my in-law’s place. The piece of information of Sujay joining late raised suspicions, but he fended it with the excuse of car battery trouble. Luckily for him the neighbour's CCTV had him on camera looking into the open car bonnet. Lucky for him!

The police investigation suggested a theory that maybe Suman had a boyfriend who committed this crime or with the missing jewelry, burglary could be another angle. Her partially unclad clothes also suggested physical assault among other things. But they were not able to reach to any conclusion. That’s when they started harassing us. They started making allegations.

Three weeks after this incident and after the harassment from police, Sujay started cracking under the pressure. While I used a woman's greatest weapon - tears - whenever I felt I needed some respite from the questioning, Sujay was not so strong. He started having nightmares. He started drinking even more. I used this as a reason to berate about police atrocity on a poor house-wife who was also mother to an child.

In a couple of weeks, this seemed to work as the police seemed to tone down their pressure tactics. We had played the victim to the hilt. But Sujay was losing it and I had a very tough time in controlling him. He started saying that he would go to the police to confess the crime. This alarmed me as it would mean I would also go to jail. I did not want to go to jail. I used to console Sujay, but I could see that he was sinking.

I decided to protect myself. I suggested a plan to Sujay. He could go underground, but it will certainly bring him under suspicion. A better way would be that he writes a letter to me confessing that he had an affair with Suman and in the event of things that happened he was going away from his house to seek atonement. He would also write that though he was in no away connected to the murder, and he will return only when he makes peace with himself. He would further write that he was so distressed that he was even contemplating suicide. I told him that he had enough money in cash with him to sustain a year, post which he could contact me. I will then connect with him and he will return home. In the meanwhile, I would encash the lottery ticket, and we could begin life anew.

Sure enough, in the next interaction with police, he mentioned in the presence of his lawyer that he felt disgusted with the police’s line of investigation and felt like getting away from all this. He also mentioned that he felt like harming himself.

At home, I dictated the the letter for him. He wrote and signed it. We also let go of the watchman citing tight finances. I was making a plan that will end my misery.

A few days later I decided to implement my plan. I put my baby to sleep using the cough syrup and leaving my phone in the house, took Sujay to our farm house in our car. I had taken care to wear no makeup and had a plain insignificant attire. He started drinking as expected and I kept him engaged all the time with my talking. He got heavily drunk and passed out on the sofa. It took me huge effort to drag him into the bath tub and hold his head under water till he went limp. Drunk as he was, he put up only a feeble fight.

Before leaving I looked around the house to ensure everything was the way I wanted. I walked to the main road and got onto a shared Auto rickshaw. I changed three Auto's before reaching home at 9 PM. At home my child was still fast asleep.

The next day morning I called Sujay on his phone. It went unanswered (as expected). I called a few more times in the next hour. I also called my in-laws and asked if Sujay was there. I told them that he had been missing since last evening. Later I went to his study table where I discovered the letter that he had written.

I called my in laws and asked them to call the police. They came with police. I told them among sobs how on the previous day he had told me that he did not find a reason to live and later in the day he had left letting me know that he would return late and that today morning after calling him several times I discovered his letter. During the inquiry the police came to know about our farm house and insisted me to go there with them. 

My in-laws and I went with them and found our car parked inside. I called his cellphone once more and we could hear the phone ringing. I ran inside calling his name. The police followed me. We went inside and saw his lifeless body in the bath tub.

Another three months had passed and the usual police investigation resulted in nothing. They were surprised that two deaths had occurred in a couple of months and yet there was no way of either linking them or any clue. 

 

A few more months passed and they decided to conclude that though Sujay had not confessed to Suman’s murder, it was apparent that he had killed her. That’s why he felt guilty. He probably fell into the bath tub after he was heavily drunk leading to his drowning. During post-mortem, water was indeed found in his lungs and it also proved that he was heavily drunk. Discovery of the missing jewellery in the car also pointed towards Sujay’s involvement in Suman's murder.

Now its past three year's and the cases have been officially closed. My father in law is helping me with the day to day affairs of our business. I have the money from the lottery ticket as well as ten crore's from Sujay’s insurance policy along with the ownership of two bungalows. My in-laws have already named my son as the inheritor of their farmland. It seems after a long-time life has at last been fair to me.

Cheers to me!