Chapter 3: Axe of wanderer
"'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
and slipped away with her."
*Music stopped*
"I didn't know you were into classic rock. Here's some more tea."
She took a sip and said, "I really click with 60s songs. I have a whole playlist"
"If you don't mind, can I listen to your playli-"
My phone rang. "Uh excuse me for a while, I have to pick this." I answered the call.
"Hey...It's me, Zelda. So, commissioner sir and our boss are on a business trip which leaves me and Alex. I think we should work on yesterday's case together. That was a mess. Do you have any lead?"
"Zelda, I didn't expect your call. I actually found something related. That watch belongs to a friend of mine, that's what she said. And another thing, she had a pistol pointed to her and somebody gave her their weapon to hide"
He replied, "I see. If she was in contact with the criminal, then they'll obviously try to reach her. Do a thing, let her stay there with you for the time being. Let's meet up and go to your lab. Say, 11:50?"
"Okay. On my way"
"Are you going somewhere?", samriddhi asked.
"Yes it's quite urgent. I'll be back as soon as possible. You can stay at my place. It's safe here"
I left.
"So, Are you planning to continue now? Your leave has surely made us miserable. All the important work is pending. We're falling behind our schedule." We walked down the passage.
"I'll think about it. Let's do this first. What've we got here?
Holy shit...That's blood-curdling. It's a deep wound. Even defending yourself with a sharp object doesn't result in this. This might be very intentional. Did you do a background check on the victims?"
He fished in his bag and took out some papers. "No enemies, not that we know of, both were abandoned from their family, they've been working together since childhood, a tough life they had lived. They both lived at 801 E Walnut St, Pasadena. That's all we found. Apparently, they didn't have any relatives either. They were pretty much on their own. Quite a pity, I must say"
"I live around that place too. My apartment is like two minutes from there."
"Ah yes. And about your friend, do you currently have that weapon she got?", he asked.
"I managed to sneak it in my bag while she was watching TV. I'll leave it here."
After some time, we called it a day and went home.
I went in my apartment. "Hey, whatcha doing?"
"Just playing games. I got bored."
I threw in some simple stuffs for my dinner from the food in the fridge.
"Axe of wanderer, huh. Is that you?"
"Yeaaa and that sandwich looks delicious" She asked for a bite.
"Hold on I got a voicemail. Wonder who'd that be." She played the message.
"Hey, it's me Suveksha. It's been few days. First of all, I apologize for acting like that. I believe I may have freaked you out. I went to your place yesterday but you weren't there. I don't know where you are right now. Listen, I wanna talk. So um, let's meet tomorrow? I'll text you the location and time. I have something to tell you. And don't bring anyone with you. Kay, call me when you get this message!"
Both our pupils expanded as we were both shocked.
"What was that?" We said it at the same time.
"What am I supposed to do now?", she asked me.
"We can set up a sting operation. You should go tomorrow. I'll let my team know. If anything happens, it'll be easy to catch her red-handed", I answered.
"You can use the guest room. Don't stress out about all this. You need a good night sleep for tomorrow."
"Hm. Goodnight. One question though, What are you going to do if and when you catch the criminal?", she questioned.
"I'm just a minor employee. Sometimes, I help out my friends in cases like these. That's not for me to know. What I do know is that she'll be kept in the cell and interrogated by the higher-ups. Everything beyond that depends on their decision. So, you're asking the wrong person. I feel sleepy. Goodnight, you", I disclosed.
It was 6 o'clock in the morning. The loud alarm didn't let us both sleep a little longer.
"Oh Boy, she's only nice when she's silent huh. Good morning"
"Good morning", I giggled.
We put together almost all we had and made something out of random ingredients. That was our breakfast.
"Don't you have any advice for me? Like, what I'll be saying when I meet her?", she queried.
"JUST WING IT", I snapped.
55 S Raymond Ave, The Avenue House. We reached the location at the time mentioned, 15 minutes earlier, exactly. "I've never been here before. Y'all?", Zelda spoke. "I don't know. I feel like I've visited this place. The street, these shops, the vibe, it's just too neighbourly which is weird. Anyways, Let's get ready", I added.
We entered the place. "This is one hell of a fancy restaurant", Alex shouted.
"All right, can you hear me clearly?", Zelda whispered to the microphone keeping an eye on their table from the car.
"Here she comes"
"Hi. I'm glad you came. I thought you wouldn't notice my contact. What would you like to drink? Is Charbono wine okay?", she probed.
"Yea, sure"
I came to their table dressed up as a waitress.
"Two glasses of charbono wine, please", she ordered.
In about two minutes, I served them their drink. Delicate and fresh, very soft tannins with fruity aromas.
"Please enjoy."
They both drank from their glasses, both of them in silence waiting for the other one to bring up a conversation. "You should start the talk", Zelda said to Samriddhi.
"How have you been? We haven't talked in a while after our meet a few days ago."
"Yes, I was quite a mess last time. Very first, I'd like to apologize for that. That wasn't a decent thing to do. However, I realized I owe you an explanation. That's why I asked you to meet me again."
"Thank you. Now, what was the thing that you wanted to tell me?"
"We both don't wanna waste our time so I'll cut to the chase. It was a normal friday night. When I came to my place, I saw that the front door was pried open and a black pry bar was lying on the ground. I cleaned the living room at first and found the dresser drawers and closet door left open in my bedroom. It looked like it had been ransacked, but I still didn't find the burglar", she replied.
"That's horrible. Did anything valuable got stolen?"
Suveksha continued," No. The whole scene was a mess but not a single object was missing. I was quite worried. As I stepped into the kitchen, I heard loud noises from behind, the kind of noise when utensils collide with each other. As I turned to look back and turned again, in front of me, a man stood still holding a gun. I grabbed the sharpest object that was near me. He came running towards me and was about to pull the trigger. Luckily, thanks to the defense classes I had taken during vacation, I pulled his arms and made his body stiff for a while. He let go of the gun he was holding. I had no one I could ask help from. That day made me abject."
" I'm so sorry. What did you do to him afterwards?", Samriddhi quizzed.
"Um, I shot him."
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