32 Chapter 32

One lovely spring morning Ayesha was walking her dog, Spike – a fierce and huge German Shepard. The trees were lush green and formed a canopy overhead. The sweet smell of the spring flowers filled the air. She was enjoying the pleasant morning and the gentle breeze. The sunlight was filtering through the leaves and was playing hide and seek with Ayesha. Usually as the sun conquered the sky during springtime in India, it would become pretty hot; however the mornings were beautiful and a morning walk was refreshing.

Ayesha lived with her parents in their farmhouse on the outskirts of the city. This part of the countryside was sparsely populated, and so the jungles were dense. One could easily get lost if one didn't know the way around them.

Her dog started barking and growling after a few minutes of walking. Ayesha had him on the leash but her dog was so strong that he pulled her towards the jungle. Ayesha was unable to control him and so she was pulled after him. She was pretty scared to venture inside the jungles, and when she saw Spike barking so furiously, she picked up a stone to combat the unknown.

Just a few meters inside the woods, she saw the most brutal vision of her life – a badly mutilated dead body was lying on the ground. It was being mauled by wild dogs. A closer look revealed that the body was a female. Ayesha shouted and ran towards her home. Spike followed her reluctantly. Terrified she immediately called her father and the police.

An hour later the police arrived at the scene. They instructed Ayesha to be there. They had brought sniffer dogs along with them to collect more evidence of the murder. But the dogs kept going in circles. The body was mutilated beyond recognition. All they could make out was that it was a female, milky white complexion, about 5 feet tall. She was wearing a grey coloured skirt and a pink blouse, which was smeared with blood. Her face appeared to have been crushed by something heavy, like a stone.

The police inspector, Abdul Kaiser, came near it and searched for any evidence that would suggest her identity. He found a wallet in the pocket of her skirt that had her I-card along with some money. The body belonged to one Stella Mendes.

He directed the constables to load the body in the van and take it to the morgue so that an autopsy could be performed. In the meanwhile Ayesha along with her father was questioned for a long time before they were allowed to leave. The police asked them not to leave the station without informing them.

Abdul couldn't help noticing a white car on the road that had slowed its speed. While it is normal for anyone to stop or slow down out of curiosity, it was strange that a lady was driving the car with no other passengers. Before he could stare hard to see the lady, the car zipped away. It was difficult to make out what she looked like as she had her sunglasses on. He just shrugged and went back to questioning Ayesha.

A few meters away from the murder scene, the constables found a small hanky, which had R&S embroidered on it. Abdul ordered them to pick whatever little evidence they could find. An hour later the police went away.