The police sirens wailed in distance, Mr. and Mrs. Lalit were sitting on a couch stuck to their TV with their eyes widened and heart beating faster, next second Mr. Lalit turned and started checking every corner of the house as much as he could scan by sitting on that couch, that was placed at the corner of their living room. When he couldn’t find Saloni anywhere he shouted, ‘Saloni’. Mrs. Lalit shivered with the thunder of his voice, ‘She is not at home, she went out with Rohan’. He ordered; ‘Call her’ and then he stood to call her himself.
‘Mr. Saluja, your daughter is dead’ Ayesha’s father and secretory of Galaxy Apartments fell in shock. Police officer Anjali Mehra continued, ‘She drowned in the pool that’s all we know as of now’
‘But she was a swimmer’ Rohan cried. ‘What?’ Anjali turned to see a boy who looked like 16-17 years old was standing in front of her. ‘I am Rohan, Ma’am and Ayesha was a national level swimmer, how could she drown?’ Anjali approached him. ‘Come to the Zirarkpur station tomorrow sharp at 11 am’. ‘We need CCTV footage of the society’ Anjali whispered to her teammate. Saloni was standing in the corner, all stunned but not scared, Anjali saw her and asked; ‘Did you know her?’ Saloni moved her eyes from Rohan to Anjali and said, ‘huh…. No.’ Anjali gazed her for a while and asked her name, she replied; ‘Saloni Lalit’ and Anjali went outside.
Interrogation of Rohan:
Rohan was looking at the ceiling fan when Anjali walked inside the room, she saw him and then she saw the fan; ‘Shall we begin?’ Rohan was not at all surprised to hear her, he was not thinking about anything, he didn’t want to look casual, so he was pretending to be gazing into the fan, these teenagers.
‘What do you know about Ayesha, how you met? what was your relationship with her? Tell me everything in a go’
‘Ayesha and I were in the same class, also we live… lived in the same building. She was smart and beautiful; she was the best swimmer. Three years ago, we were paired for a science project and I asked her out. She agreed and we started dating’ Anjali raised her eyebrows at that, she was stunned to hear the sentence “we started dating”; they were what 13? But she didn’t interrupt, and he continued; ‘We had a lot of understanding like she was always busy with her swimming classes in school and even at home, she barely played or spent time with anyone, that’s why she didn’t have any friends, it was just me. And we used to hang out at society swimming pool’
‘The one in which we found her body?’ Anjali said it like that and from the look on his face, she realized that she should not have. He continued; ‘We three had so much fun’
Anjali interrupted ‘Who was the third person?’
‘oh, I forgot to mention that, Saloni. She is my best friend and two years younger than me, but we live on the same floor. When Ayesha broke up with me about a year ago, Saloni was so angry with her, they even had two or three fights, catfights with a lot of swearing and poking. Then somebody leaked Saloni’s personal chat with a guy and she thought it was Ayesha, she went to her house and told her father about her relationship with me. It became dirty, really dirty.’ Rohan started nodding like an adult.
‘Did Ayesha actually do that?’
‘How would I know? But she didn’t deny.’
‘Saloni Lalit, right?’ Anjali wanted to confirm.
‘Yeah, that’s her.’
Interrogation of Saloni:
‘Why did you say you didn’t know Ayesha?’
‘I was scared, and I thought you might bring me here. Which you eventually did…… I didn’t know how to react in the moment I was all caught up. But it doesn’t mean I killed her.’ Saloni was calm.
‘How old are you?’
‘I will turn fifteen in two weeks’
‘How did you know Ayesha?’
‘I knew her because of Rohan, and I didn’t really like her. I just hung out with her for the sake of Rohan. And I never showed any interest knowing her either. I wanted to hang out with Rohan and he wanted to hang out with her…..’ Saloni rolled her eyes and pulled her hands closer, Anjali noticed everything quietly.
‘We know everything that she did to you and that you both did to each other, but Saloni she is dead now, you understand the seriousness here right? It’s not one of your catfights, I want to know anything that you know about her, any guy other than Rohan or friend? Or anybody? Or anything that could help us.’ Anjali tried to break her wall of insecurity.
‘Why are you asking all this to me? Rohan knew her better than me. He would have told you.’
‘He blindly trusted her, but you didn’t, and we all know our enemies know more about us than our friends. Spit anything you know’
‘She had differences with her father, the first time I heard them fight I didn’t intend to do so. They were in the park, it was after the sunset, all the children had returned to their homes and no one was there. I was lying on the grass, I heard two people arguing and slowly they walked towards me, at first I thought they would pass me, but they sat on a chair near me, they couldn’t see me because it was dark there. But I could recognize their voices, it was Ayesha and her father, Mr. Saluja. They were arguing about her future.’ Saloni sighed.
She continued; ‘he was forcing her to pursue her swimming career, but she didn’t want to, and she said, “I feel alone, I have no friends because of this swimming. I don’t want to do it anymore”. I felt bad for her.’
‘And the next day I went to the pool, at first we ignored each other, but after a week we talked. And we became good friends, I told her about a guy I was dating those days and she told me about her father, he always hated her’
‘But one day….. I was working on my school project and my phone started beeping, there were tons of messages…… somebody leaked my chats with that boy. I called Ayesha and she admitted it, she said; “Chill man, it’s no big deal. This will make you famous and I know you always envied me, welcome to the club” that day I wanted to destroy her, and I knew what she feared the most, her father. So, I went to her house and told him about Rohan and showed him the pictures, it felt so good.’
‘She wasn’t alone because of swimming; she was alone because she pushed everyone away.’ Saloni said this with a cold look.
Interrogation of Mr. Saluja:
‘Why were you always so angry with your daughter?’ Anjali didn’t waste any time.
‘She was so immature she knew her mother’s only dying wish was to make her a swimmer, an Olympic swimmer. And she made me beg for her every year, to keep this dream alive. She killed her that’s the least she could do for her mother.’
‘What? Ayesha killed her mother?’
‘She left geyser on.’ Mr. Saluja had anger in his eyes.
Anjali nodded
The Verdict:
Anjali stood from her seat and said; ‘Ayesha died, it looked like she drowned in the water, but how could a swimmer drown? What if the national swimmer was unconscious?’
‘All three of you had the motive to kill her, but only one of you killed her. Rohan, what are you pursuing for college?’
‘Me…. I am going for computer science engineering.’
‘You love coding, right?’
‘Yes, I do’
‘Saloni, did you know the guy with whom you had some personal chats?’
‘No, that app is made to keep your identity hidden’
Anjali nodded ‘But still everybody knew about your chats’
‘I put my profile picture there. It was my fault.’ Saloni looked guilty and confused, ‘Ma’am why are you asking all these questions?’
‘hmmm……. It all started with Rohan and Ayesha’s breakup; Ayesha broke up with Rohan because she caught him chatting with multiple girls on multiple platforms.’ Saloni got shocked. Anjali continued; ‘But before breaking up with him, she took screenshots of his chats and leaked them. He was upset so he created an app on which you can keep your identity hidden and can chat with anyone. Then he shared the link with some of his female classmates and with you too Saloni.’ Saloni shouted, ‘What the …..’ Anjali ignored her and continued; ‘He was the only person talking to all the girls, huh naughty Rohan. Then he leaked your chats and made you believe that it was indeed Ayesha who did all this. He forced you to destroy her and you did exactly what he asked for. He got his revenge through you.’
‘But he didn’t stop there, he called Ayesha, but he couldn’t use his mobile, so he went to the supermarket and asked a stranger for his mobile. Rohan, you knew that the camera of the whole society was not working due to wiring issues, but supermarket had a separate wiring system which you didn’t know.’
‘We also found sleeping pills in Ayesha’s body and we got to know that Rohan has Restless legs syndrome which is a sleeping disorder and he takes sleeping medicines.’
Mr. Saluja stood from his seat and he walked towards Rohan while shouting, ‘Why you did this to my little girl? Why? She was going to be a big personality.’ Constable Prabhu took him away from Rohan.
‘I didn’t know she would go for a swim, I just thought she would sleep and would miss her practice, then Mr. Saluja and she would fight…. I never thought.. she would’ Rohan broke down.
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