IPKKND FF:Justice Comes At A Price[Epilogue Upd!]

Laxmi walked up the stairs to the study. Dinner had been completed half an hour ago and it was time to serve the coffee. Anjali had instructed her to call down Shyam, who had left for the study immediately after dinner, stating some important work regarding his case. The study was on the second floor, a little way down the corridor, on the left side. It was easy to miss if one didn't know the architecture of the house.

Laxmi walked towards the door, muttering about how late the guests were staying and how she would have to wait until everyone left before she could clean up and go to bed. She knocked on the door a couple of times but on getting no reply, she called out to the man inside. Five minutes later, she decided that courtesy was obviously not going to work in this situation and pushed open the door slowly, her eyes searching about the room for the man she had been asked to summon.

She saw him slumped forward on the desk, a few papers underneath him and the table lamp  witched on. She frowned before making her way up to him and shaking him slightly. Honestly, how could someone fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position?  He was still not stirring so she shook him a little harder. This time he moved but what she saw was not what she was expecting.

"UGH!!!!"

...

"ASR, is it true? Is Jeejaji really dead?"

Arnav Singh Raizada looked at the dusky girl standing next to her. He knew her very well and underneath all her airs and graces resided a caring human being. She hadn't been present during the dinner party and it was natural for her to want to know more.

"Yes Lavanya."

She gasped and looked around for the person who was probably most affected by the incident. Anjali - his wife.

"Where's Di?"

"She's in her old room, waiting for the doctor to give us a specific cause of death."

Lavanya nodded and started walking up the stairs to the next floor, hoping to be able to comfort the woman after she had encountered such a great loss. She was not surprised to see the room full of people.

Anjali was sitting on the centre of the large bed, crying softly into the shoulders of a young girl with an equally distressed face but a slightly calmer demeanor. Lavanya recognized her as Shyam's younger sister Payal. A young man stood near the cupboard, looking worried and glancing between Anjali and Payal from time to time. Lavanya wasn't too sure of who he was but when she saw him lay a hand on Payal's shoulder she realized that it was Akash Gupta, her not-so-secret boyfriend. This was the second time Lavanya was seeing him and he seemed to be a decent fellow. But why then was there so much of a fuss regarding their relationship? It was only when she collided heavily with a person did she realize that there was someone else in the room whom she had missed. It was a young girl, barely in her twenties, glowing with the radiance of youth and innocence. Her hair was in a long braid and her large hazel eyes darted towards her face before she apologized profusely for bumping into her.

Lavanya didn't have time to respond or contemplate about who the girl was as a stern voice sounded throughout the room, grabbing everyone's attention immediately.

"Mrs. Jha, we're ready to begin the questioning now."

Lavanya frowned at the tall young man standing at the door. She was confused by his choice of words. In fact, they made absolutely no sense at all.

"What do you mean questioning? And why are you here anyway Bhaiya?"

Detective Inspector Kashyap glanced briefly at his little sister before continuing in his formal and even voice.

"I mean exactly what I say. We are ready to begin the questioning. And I am here because of my duty as the Inspector of Homicide, Delhi Police."

"But what's your duty got to do with Jeejaji's death?"

"It has everything to do with me because Shyam Manohar Jha did not die in his sleep. He was murdered."

Just so you'll know, I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan. So expect lots of similarities 😊

Chapter Two - What They Saw