It was the coldest winter morning in McLeod Ganj, everything was covered in white snow. And just like every other morning, Mrs. Kaur started her day with a Newspaper, it didn’t take her much to notice the highlight and her next case.
** Two hours later**
‘Mrs. Kaur, I can’t give this case to you and you know the reason’
‘But you also know that I am going to investigate it whether you give it to me or not. So, it’s better I have it officially….. Mr. Khan, she was my best friend, I want to know what happened?’
‘Simran, I know and that’s why I am afraid you are going to get emotional, and you know emotions don’t go well with investigations. They will control you.’
‘Mr. Khan, somebody killed her, she was lying on the frozen lake in cold blood…... I am not going to let my emotions rule my judgment, I need that person behind bars.’
Mr. Arman Khan sighed and nodded because he knew he had to give that case to Mrs. Simran Kaur. She might get emotional because of her best friend’s murder, but she was the only person who could resolve it.
Simran took a team of investigators with her. She sat in the back seat and asked her driver to take her to the Vivan Bhawan. The rest of her team followed her in a separate car, she might be a feminist, but she was born in a royal family, and she might have married someone against her parent’s will, but she lived her life within the etiquettes she learned as a child and as a woman before she joined Law school and fell in love with a man of different religion and a non-Royal.
The Vivan Bhawan was located 35 km outside the main city. With a beautiful house in the center, surrounded by multiple gardens, with exotic flowers and large trees, it also had a farm with horses, chickens and some pigs, a big garage for their antique cars, a separate house for all the servants and their families, a movie theatre and an indoor games palace with swimming pool.
First, she went to the place where a security guard found Arya’s body, it was in the lake behind the Bhawan, surrounded by a 25 feet tall wall, there was only one gate to enter the lake from the main road and one from inside the Bhawan.
‘Did you find her body?’
‘Yes, Madam. She was lying there in the center and there was a lot of blood’
‘Anything else that you noticed?’
‘There were shoe marks on the snow from Bhawan to the body.’
Simran nodded, she knew it snowed all night and she would not be able to see any marks now.
'Were they large? or male shoe marks or a female's?'
The guard looked down all confused, and said; 'Definitely not female shoe marks'
'Was the main gate open?’
‘No, Madam. It was closed.’
‘Who moved the body from the lake?’
The guard pointed towards a man, a young man, aged around 22, he had a huge muscular body with a beard and a mustache. He had dark brown curly hair and dark brown eyes. Simran went to him.
‘What do you do here?’
‘I take care of their cars.’
Simran smiled. ‘Who told you about the body?’
‘The guard was running towards the house, I saw him and asked. We both went to check on her and I knew she was dead, but the snow wasn’t thick enough and could break any moment. So, I had to take her out from there.’
'When was it?'
'Around 9 in the evening'
‘Did you see any marks of ice breaking? Or anything that was suspicious?’
‘A woman died here, what else could be more suspicious?’
‘You found her at 9 pm and it snowed the whole night. You have to tell me if there was anything that you saw’ Simran shouted at the boy.
‘Yes, somebody tried to break the ice from a little distance, because clearly, they didn’t want to die with her.’
‘Why are you so upse…..’ Simran got interrupted as the Queen arrived.
‘Mrs. Kaur. Are you comfortable?’
‘Madam, this is a very uncomfortable situation for all of us.’
‘I hope my staff is cooperating with you’ queen smiled as she saw Simran.
‘Yes, Madam. Thank you’ Simran smiled back.
Queen invited Simran to the Bhawan after her investigation, which Simran had already planned to do.
As Simran’s car moved inside the gate of the Bhawan, it reminded her of the heated arguments she had there with her best friend, Arya before she left the Bhawan for better or for worse. She remembered the days when she was a little girl and played hide and seek in those gardens with Arya. When she picked vegetables from the farm, or rode those horses and shared secrets, she felt overwhelmed.
Simran entered the main house and gave her coat to the staff girl. Another girl helped her to the queen’s tea room. Simran remembered the times, she played tea serving with Arya in that room. She saw the queen without her coat and the queen saw Simran, they both looked quite similar. They both were wearing a white dress with gloves and white pumps, Simran was carrying a blush handbag and a matching Dakota hat, while queen didn’t have a bag or hat.
‘You look like a lady. I am happy to see that.’
‘Of course, Maa. You taught me better’ Simran winked at her mother or I say the queen of the Bhawan.
'How is Anurag handling it?'
'Your brother is a mess right now, he loved Arya..... What’s your plan?’ queen asked as she served the tea to her daughter.
‘I am going to interrogate a lot of people'
‘What do you have till now?’
‘Nobody from inside the Bhawan did it, but somebody who has access to all the keys did it…. I want a list of people who work here, but don’t live here.’
'Let's finish our tea and get to work'
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