CHAPTER 1
Jenni threw her pen down in frustration. It was 10 o clock and still she hadn’t come up with a story for her column. She was sick and tired of this job. She accepted this job offer as the columnist for a mediocre newspaper when she began losing her hope of making it as an investigative reporter. She thought that with enough experience she would have better chances of acquiring a job as reporter. But that was three years ago. She fell into the comfortable but boring routine of a daily columnist even though it hardly stimulated her. Her logical and analytical mind is better suited for reporting than writing these fluffy pieces like who dates whom and who inherited what. With a sigh she went back to brainstorming hoping that some idea would pop up.
The tring tring of her cell phone broke her already precarious concentration into shreds. “Jessi calling…” She debated with herself whether to pick the call or just ignore. She was in no mood to deal with her erratic and unstable twin. But the consistent ringing made her to attend the call. She was greeted by an unfamiliar voice. She hoped against hope that it was not another call asking her to escort Jessi from another of the dark and shady local pubs she frequents.
“Freddy speaking.. How do you know the owner of this number?” Jenni was not surprised by the rudeness in his tone. Her sister hardly have any classy friends.
“I am her sister. May I know who you are and where my sister is?”
“I found a lady’s dead body behind the cement factory downtown. I got this mobile from her purse and dialled the first number in the call log”.
Her heart stopped for a second. Her twin sister dead? No.. it cant be.. This guy must be wrong. She will know if Jessi is in trouble. This can just be a ruse to get her downtown.. But for what? That doesn’t make sense. Nobody would go into this much trouble if their intention was just to mug her. She was confused and her mind was refusing to believe that her sister is dead.
“Are you there lady? I haven’t got all day”
“I am sorry. Are you sure she is dead? Did you check her pulse?”
“I am not touching the dead body , I knew I shouldn’t have bothered to call you. I am not gonna be tied up with this. Good bye lady”
“No!!! wait!! Where are you exactly? Did you call police?”
“the alley behind the cement factory next to the river”
Beep.. beep.. he had cut the call..
Frustrated with the lack of information, Jenni picked up her keys and rushed to her car.. She called police on the way and gave them the details. When she reached the scene, she could see that a crowd have already formed and two police jeeps were already parked in the aisle. She pushed through the crowd to where the Officer was standing. She saw the dead body. Yes it was her sister. Dead and pale!!! There were signs of violence. Blood was oozing out of her head like she was hit there with something. There were scratch marks on her face and arms. Her sister was always so vivacious and energetic!!
Not able to stand the sight, she turned towards the Inspector.
“I am Jenni. I called you about the murder”
“Ah yes ma’am! This is your sister?”
“Yes, Her name is Jessi. She is a DJ in Enigma”
“From preliminary investigation, its clear that this is a classic case of rape and murder”
White hot anger pulsed through her body when she heard Inspector explaining about her sister ’s murder in such a cold and unemotional way.
“I don’t think so!! My sister is a trained martial arts expert and I know she can defend herself.”
“She reeks of alcohol and I am sure if tested we could find signs of drugs in her blood. I don’t think that she could have defended herself against a kid at this stage. We are sorry for your loss ma’am. But I think your sister was a disaster waiting to happen”. With this he turned and left to talk with other policemen.
True, her sister was out of control. What with her drug use and over drinking she was the apt candidate to be raped and murdered. But Jenni’s mind wouldn’t allow her to believe this to be a rape. She felt something more devious was at work here. She went near her sister’s body. Her clothes was torn. It was too perfectly torn to be torn in haste. It looked like someone wanted it to be perceived as rape. She know she don’t have enough evidence to convince the Inspector otherwise. All she had was a gut feeling. She knelt down to adjust her sister’s dress. It was then that she saw it.
“Inspector!! Inspector!!! There is something on her chest.. Like she is branded with hot iron”
“Yeah.. we saw it. It might be another of her tatoos gone bad.”
“How can you dismiss it so offhandedly? This can be a clue of some sort to identify the murderer. When I saw her yesterday she didn’t have any kind of tatoo on her chest. And it looks like it was freshly burned.”
“Look mam, We did a background check on her. She was involved in all kinds of drug deals. She is not what we call as an epitome of virtue. This can either be a gift from her so called boyfriends or a drug deal ended badly. Frankly speaking we have enough on our plate and don’t have time to waste on investigating why a slut like this was murdered.”
Jenni was shaking with anger. It is her sister. She had to get to the bottom of this. Jessi doesn’t deserve to be treated like a street dog. She went back to her sister. Police was ready to take her away to morgue. She was lifted in stretcher and taken to ambulance. Jenni just stood there watching the headlights of ambulance fading away. Now she was literally alone.. Jenni and Jessi lost their parents at the age of 15. The added responsibility made Jenni wordly wise and a mature beyond her age where as Jessi’s life took a turn towards disaster.
Back at home, Jenni was tossing and turning in her bed. Sleep was eluding her. The sight of burned flesh of Jessi’s body was troubling her. No one would carry a burning iron rod around. This one clue eliminates the probability of it being a rape or chances that she was the victim of fights between drug lords .No one would be insane enough to brand someone….
Unless… Unless the person is actually insane….
To be contd…
