Sophie gets Heartbroken

That afternoon, Detective Kujan and Jennifer go to Sophie’s house in a hurry. Sophie, who was completely unaware of his boyfriend’s death warmly welcomes them and treats them very kindly as her guests. Kujan who just couldn’t stand her hospitality, breaks the shocking news to her without any pause:

‘We went to James’ home today and we found him brutally murdered…’

‘What?’ she asks getting confused. ‘I think I misunderstood what you just said…’

‘No, you heard him correctly,’ Jennifer adds her words while closing her eyes.

Sophie slowly begins to weep yet tries to talk but is unable to speak.

Kujan stands up and leaves the room as he was not in the mood to see any tears or sorrows of any kind. As he walks around her home, he enters the living room and sees some books lying on a glass table. He picks up a book which was entitled, ‘Human Behaviour and Body Language’. He opens the book but is interrupted by a terrific sound of Sophie crying. He puts down the book and goes back to the room, he calls Jennifer:

‘It’s of no use, let’s go from here.’

‘But what about her?’

‘I’m not concerned with her loss; I want the criminals at any cost.’

Sophie gets down on her knees and continues crying out aloud. Kujan looks at her and then says to Jennifer:

‘We can’t enquire her about Margaret and James’ love story, forget her we’ll try to find other people.’

‘You know something Kujan. I am also not concerned with her loss. But if only you had agreed to come along at James’ yesterday, then we might have had something to proceed with in this case.’

‘I don’t agree with that, and he probably would have been found murdered then also.’

‘No Kujan,’ she replies standing up, ‘the doctors said that the wounds on James’ body were inflicted just a couple of hours earlier than when we found him.’

‘Okay fine, I let go of a suspect and he’s murdered now. Now we have two criminals to catch…’

‘This case has nothing… no evidence, no suspects left, a weak motive and not any witnesses at all.’

Kujan leaves as he didn’t want to argue. Jennifer turns to Sophie and asks:

‘You said that you didn’t trust your unfaithful boyfriend, so what’s making you cry so much?’

‘I still loved him,’ she cries.

Jennifer pours water in a glass for her and walks outside the room towards the exit.

Interrogating the Maid

Three days later, Detective Kujan and Jennifer were seated face to face in their office. Jennifer was seeing the photographs of Margaret and then of James, both murdered.

‘We have nothing to proceed with,’ she says.

‘I’m hearing that since three days now…’

‘I think they both have a same killer, because in both the cases the murder weapon was not found, and no foot prints were found as well.’

‘I just need their background stories. I can’t see a motive behind their murders…’

‘About Margaret,’ she says putting aside the photos, ‘we have no one to ask as her contacts have been erased and her neighbours know nothing about her personal life.’

‘Do we have anyone to ask about James’ life, besides Sophie?’

‘Well, his house maid can be of some use but she’s not been seen anywhere lately in his neighbourhood.’

‘House maid? He’s got a house maid and you didn’t tell me about that,’ he asks getting a little angry.

‘Yeah, but how could she be of any use for us?’

‘We’re seeing her right now,’ he orders, ‘contact her, and ask her to report here immediately.’

He stands up and walks outside towards the corridor. Jennifer follows his instructions.

Two hours later, they had a young and beautiful maid at their interrogation room. Her words were being recorded on a tape recorder. Kujan asks her:

‘Since when have you been working for James?’

‘Almost two years now,’ she replies confidently.

‘What was his character? What kind of a man was he?’

‘Well… he was a sort of… a womanizer!’

‘I see,’ Jennifer sighs.

‘But he seemed to be serious with Margaret and perhaps they were about to get engaged as well.’

‘Engaged?’ Kujan asks getting surprised. ‘So he must be devastated for her murder?’

‘Yeah and I think that my boss James must not have been murdered, and his death must be a suicide.’

‘That’s also possible,’ Jennifer says getting her idea.

‘How come it seems possible to you?’ Kujan asks getting confused. ‘There was no murder weapon…’

‘Well officers,’ the maid says,

‘I think you should contact Sophie, she was the one person really close to him.’

‘Okay, you may leave now,’ Kujan replies getting a little irritated.

The maid stands up and a cop escorts her outside the interrogation room.

Jennifer walks towards Kujan,

‘What is making you so confused?’ she asks. ‘I think she’s right about his suicide…’

‘That’s not possible, who hid the knife then?’

‘We have two possibilities, Margaret murdered by someone unknown and then her death caused James to commit a suicide… Secondly, according to Sophie’s statements, Margaret must have been murdered by James and someone avenged her death by killing James.’

‘Maybe… but I think Sophie’s hiding something,’ he says hastily, ‘we need to interrogate her. She must have overcome James death. She’ll talk to us now, because she has to…’

‘So, we’re going to her?’

‘No, I’m bringing her here…’

Not Expected

Later that hour, Detective Kujan arrives outside Sophie’s apartment and rings the bell twice. There’s no answer, and as he was getting impatient he bangs the door open breaking the lock and enters inside.

‘Sophie!’ he exclaims. ‘I’m taking you…’

He looks around for her and finds her nowhere. He walks towards the living room and gets shocked to see her lying dead with her hand holding a pistol to her mouth and a splash of blood on a wall behind her. It seemed as if she had shot herself as an act of suicide. The blood stains seemed a whole day older. Detective Kujan loses his vision for a second and feels dizzy. He leans against another wall and closes his eyes as in regret,

‘I didn’t expect this,’ he says getting uneasy.

He walks around angrily as the scene was creating chaos in his mind. He makes a phone call to Jennifer and asks her to arrive there immediately.

Moments later, as Jennifer enters inside seeing the door busted open, she whispers to herself:

‘Not again…!’

Then as she approaches further, she sees the suicide scene and touches her lips in a shock. Detective Kujan says to her:

‘I should have thought of this happening sooner than expected.’

‘Oh… God!’ she replies. ‘Did she commit suicide because of James?’

‘I don’t know. I’m taking the day off. I can’t handle this situation right now…’

He puts on his coat and prepares to leave. He speaks to her before moving out:

‘Call the ambulance right now and prepare another report…’

She however continues to see around the room and examines the dead body.

The Case gets Complicated

That evening at Kujan’s office, he was lying on his chair with his feet resting on the desk. He was drinking alcohol to reduce his stress but it was no use. Jennifer was seated in front of him and she was writing something on a fresh paper. He looks at her and says:

‘Forget it, we have nothing…’

‘That’s what we always say, but I’m not giving up too soon.’

‘Too soon?’ he mocks, ‘I think it’s too late now, the killer has left no clue behind for us to reach anywhere.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean to say,’ he says putting down his feet, ‘every time we have a suspect or a motive, and next moment we just lose it. Right now, we have no evidence of any sort.’

‘What about the pistol we found with Sophie?’

‘That only justifies about a suicide committed by her. But in James’ case there was no murder weapon found. I’m sure he was attacked and murdered, his death was not a suicide like the maid said.’

‘The maid,’ Jennifer says getting an idea.

Then she notes down another statement in the paper.

‘What are you writing there?’ he asks.

She stops writing and shows him the paper where she had written points. The sheet was entitled ‘The Possibilities’. He takes it from her and reads:

‘The Possibilities:

1- James murdered Margaret, Margaret’s avenger murdered James and Sophie committed suicide in James’ grief.

2- An unknown killer murdered Margaret and James, and then Sophie committed suicide.

3- The unknown killer murdered Margaret, James’ committed suicide in her grief and then Sophie committed suicide.

4- The maid murdered James and perhaps Margaret and then Sophie committed suicide.’

As he finishes reading it, he reconsiders the fourth possibility and asks Jennifer:

‘Why would the maid kill James?’

‘For his wealth I guess, after all she was the one who tried to misguide us for his suicide.’

‘I’m still confused… anyways, one thing is clear that Sophie committed suicide in James’ sorrow… so let’s keep her death aside. Margaret and James still have no motive which defines that both of them were murdered.’

‘I agree, but we need to call that maid again,’ she says.

Stressed Kujan reads the paper twice again and gets even more confused. He crumples the paper angrily and throws the glass of alcohol on the wall that wasn’t really far enough. The glass shatters and the pieces fall around the room and over Jennifer. She gets a little frightened and exclaims:

‘What are you doing sir?’

‘Nothing!’ he yells losing his temper. ‘The case won’t be solved ever. It’s just getting more and more complicated.’

The Disturbed Mind

Two days passed away and the case doesn’t proceed. The entire team of San Francisco Police Department was working on this case and Detective Kujan was badly obsessed with these murder mysteries. He had never seen a case like this before since he had joined the SFPD.

So another day, Kujan arrives at a restaurant and meets Jennifer who had asked him to meet her there for lunch. As the two of them are seated face to face, he asks her in a frustrated state of mind:

‘So, why did you call me here today?’

‘Well, to be honest, I just wanted you to have some rest. I can see that your mind is very tired and you need to take a break…’

‘That won’t resolve anything,’ he speaks hardly.

‘Come on Kujan, you can’t just keep thinking about this.’

‘Well, okay… what else do you have to talk about?’

‘Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you,’ she says looking around, ‘I mean tell me something about yourself before you joined SFPD.’

‘I was a better person then; I guess… I was a flirt I had different girls to hang around with, I still do I mean I really enjoy company of women.’

‘No offense, but were you a womanizer like James?’

‘…Oh, I had something to ask,’ he says as his mind changes, ‘James’ murderer I’m not sure about, but what if Sophie is Margaret’s murderer, as if she would have been possessive.’

‘Come on Kujan,’ she says getting irritated, ‘please leave this mystery at the office, we are talking about ourselves today.’

He shuts his eyes and holds them with his hands. He speaks vaguely:

‘I can’t, I’m sorry I just can’t. I can’t concentrate on anything and besides that I just keep thinking about the murders. I see the gore pictures every moment I close my eyes. Maybe, March is not a good month for me, every year I find myself disturbed this time around.’

‘No Kujan, you are really tired, your mind is disturbed. I suggest you to go home and leave this case to me.’

They remain silent for a moment and then they order their lunch.

As the lunch was pending on order, Kujan sees a familiar face staring him. It was the assailant with a tattoo on his forehead. However, the assailant turns away his eyes and begins to walk outside, intending to leave. Kujan remembers the face as he was the suspicious person outside James’ house.

to be continued...