The Cryptic Clue

by Jisha Rajesh

  THE CRYPTIC CLUE

  THE CRYPTIC CLUE

  By –

  JISHA RAJESH

  Copyright © Jisha Rajesh, 2019

  All rights reserved.

  The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design – Canva

  Edited by – Nikita Jhanglani

  DEDICATED TO –

  The STORY SPIRIT

  OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR –

  We Shall Meet Again

  Blurb – While going through a tough time in life, Sanjana used to find solace in the memories of her childhood sweetheart Akshay. She meets him again after a long interlude of time but is rendered heartbroken when she learns that he is a married man now. She decides to bid him a final goodbye. But destiny makes them cross each other’s way till she unveils the tears behind his smile. Join hands with Akki and Sanju in their odyssey on a path where love and friendship play hide and seek with them.

  Link – mybook.to/wsma

  The Relics

  Blurb – A freak accident leads two old flames to bump into each other, years after a cruel twist of destiny had separated them. Both of them are well- aware that they are still madly in love with each other. But they don’t dare to confess it openly as they are entangled in the cobwebs that life has been weaving around them all these years. Will their love crumble under the pressure of circumstances making them walk away like strangers? Will they fight for a life together?

  Link – mybook.to/trjr

  You Are The One

  Blurb - After losing his wife in a freak accident, the veteran cricketer Sagar Taneja found solace in nurturing new talents. During that dark phase of his life, a prodigious young cricketer Vihaan Arora walks into his life and Sagar instantly cuddles him under his wings. Sagar meets Vihaan’s mother Anika at a party and is dazed by a mysterious craving pain floating in her eyes. And then he encounters a blackmailer who threatens to reveal a secret to the world that will leave Vihaan’s life and career devastated. Sagar is caught in a whirlwind of mystery as trains of thoughts crisscross through his mind. What was the devastating secret? Does Anika know more than she has cared to say?

  Link – mybook.to/yrto

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  Chapter – 1- A Midnight Message

  Chapter – 2. The Cocky Cop

  Chapter – 3- The Manuscript

  Chapter – 4- The Stalker

  Chapter – 5. Ambushed

  Chapter – 6- Her Confession

  Chapter – 7- Pieces Of The Puzzle

  Chapter – 8 - Behind the Mask

  Chapter – 9 - Add an Epilogue

  EXCERPT

  She cautiously stepped into the parlor and found a few books that were placed on the table lying scattered on the floor. Ayana decided to run a check in her apartment for windows that she may have left open as an invitation for Suzie to sneak in. But as she took a step forward she heard footsteps in the balcony attached to her bedroom. Her heart raced and her limbs turned numb. She turned her eyes towards the bedroom and tried to see through the darkness that filled it. The veil of clouds moved slowly apart with each passing second and the moon began shedding its silvery beams over the balcony. Ayana let out a petrified scream as she saw it as clear as a crystal. The silhouette of a human form was lurking in her balcony. She stood rooted to the ground for a few seconds but then came to her senses and ran to her phone lying in the parlor. She immediately punched Varun’s number and panted heavily as she waited for him to pick it up.

  “Off…,” she gasped, “Officer, there is somebody in my house. Please come over here…please save me.”

  “Don’t worry, Ms Sharma,” Varun’s shrilling voice said, “I am quite close to your place. I will be there at your apartment within a few minutes.”

  Ayana hung up and was struggling to catch her breath through a widely parted mouth when the lights of her apartment went off. She panicked and looked around only to see a shroud of darkness hanging all around her. Suddenly, she felt a robust hand crawl around her slender waist and press her against a hard chest. Before she could understand anything, another gigantic hand covered her nose and mouth. She screamed desperately but her screams were instantly muffled by the devious hands. She swayed her head and struggled to break free from the sturdy hands that were choking her but was helpless against his strength. The darkness that filled her apartment seemed to enter her eyes. But before it completely took over her she wanted to see who it was. She tilted her head upwards but could only see a part of a mask of a lion and a hood drawn over it. Her vision blurred and her body turned numb the next moment.

  PROLOGUE

  Jan – 12, Monday, 11.35 p.m.

  A coal - black SUV halted on a desolate road that was bathed in the murky darkness on a foggy, moonless night. The man was seated behind the steering wheel slid a jacket over his broad shoulders and pulled the zipper on the front up to his neck. He picked up a mask with a lion’s face printed on it and shielded his face with it. He drew the hood of his jacket over his head and pulled it down on his face. He turned the engine on and drove the vehicle on the muddy road covered with weeds. He halted when he approached the backyard of a bungalow. He brought down the window of his vehicle a little and peeped out. Almost all the lights in the bungalow were switched off, except for two - the one in the hall on the ground floor and one in a bedroom upstairs.

  “She is still awake!” he muttered under his breath as he rolled the glass up.

  “Why?” he furiously thumped his fist on the steering. “She ought to be asleep by now.”

  He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm himself down. As he regained his composure, he slid back on his seat and decided to wait for a little longer. His eyes were glued on the light still burning brightly in the bedroom upstairs.

  “But what if,” he jumped forward as he had a brainwave, “she has fallen asleep without switching the lights off.”

  Without wasting another second, he sprang into action and slid his hands into a pair of enormous rubbery gloves. He pushed the door open and stepped down, careful enough not to make any sound. He looked around and found the streets lonely and veiled under thick sheets of darkness. The man looked up towards the lamp post outside the boundary wall of the bungalow and flashed a wicked smile. He had fixed it yesterday and with no light from it, the backyard donned a heavy sheet of darkness thus allowing him a secure entry into the bungalow. He ran his eyes through the high boundary wall till they fell on a small gate by the end of it. The man walked towards the gate with hurried steps. He jumped over it and landed in the backyard which was also deserted and dark. The watchman and the dog were sleeping soundly in front of the bungalow. He smirked remembering how easy it was to drug them both. He had gone to lengths to procure a drug that vanished from the blood within hours. No blood test could ever reveal that the man and the beast were drugged that night.

  He moved ahead in the backyard with stealthy steps being as cautious as he could because of the dry leaves scattered all around. The leaves made a creaky noise on being crushed under his weight. A few furtive steps took him to the back door of the kitchen. He knew it was locked and the key was under the doormat where the maid kept it before leaving, so that she could open the
door early next morning without waking her mistress up. As he bent down to retrieve the key, the moon appeared from behind the clouds and the key flashed a silvery glow as the rays of full-moon fell on it. He picked it up and opened the door, stepping into the kitchen that was drenched in darkness except for the moonlight creeping in through the closed windows. He walked carefully ahead till reached the central hall. One of the lights by the foot of the stairs that led up to her bedroom was left on. The light coming from it dimly lit the central hall.

  He deliberated if he should switch of the light or not

  ‘If she isn’t asleep,’ he thought as he looked at the light from her bedroom, ‘won’t she become suspicious and raise an alarm if I switch the light off.’

  He shook his head and decided not to turn off the switch and started walking up the stairs. The door of her bedroom was closed but he could see the light sneaking out of her room from below the door. It was bathing the dark corridors in a golden hue. He walked towards her room and stood right outside it as he was not sure what to expect. His next plan of action would depend on whether she was asleep or not. He had mixed the drug in her coffee powder too but he was not sure if she had had the coffee or not. She would often fall asleep while reading a book, leaving her coffee untouched by the side of her bed. If she was asleep he could easily get his job done. But if not, he was prepared for a little struggle.

  He drew a deep breath and decided to step in and face the music. He slowly turned the knob of her door and walked in. She was lying on the bed with her back turned towards him, clad in a gaunt pink, frilly nightgown. He closed the door behind him and bolted it quietly. He stood near the door and took his time to observe her. She was lying still except for her shallow breathing. He took a few light steps towards her as he ensured that she was asleep. As he approached, his gaze fell on a cup full of coffee placed on the table by the side of her bed.

  “She hadn’t had even a sip from it,” the man muttered, grinding his teeth in a fit of rage.

  He pulled out a rope from the pocket of the leather jacket he was wearing, held it in his left hand and walked towards her. He climbed upon the bed and turned her around slowly. She was still sleeping, absolutely oblivious of his presence in the room. He was careful that she could wake up any time given that she wasn’t drugged. He rummaged in the pockets of his jacket and fished out a cloth. Slowly and carefully he straddled her. She woke up abruptly by his touch and was dazed to see the stranger. She opened her mouth to scream but before her voice could come out, he gagged her so her screams were muffled. When she struggled to break free he wound the rope around her neck and strangled her with all his might. She squeezed her fingers between the coils of the rope and tried to loosen the pressure building on her throat that was about to choke her. He pulled the rope even harder as he wanted the job to be done as quickly as was possible.

  One of her hands reached the side of the bed where her husband’s walking stick was kept. She felt a wave of relief surge within her when she was able to finally grasp it between her frail fingers. She pulled it up and hit him with the immense strength that comes out of desperation. The stick hit him really hard on his left leg and he groaned in pain. His grip loosened on her neck and she made use of the opportunity to suck in some much needed air in her almost collapsed lungs and so was her courage as she succeeded in outwitting her assailant. She watched his enormous eyes as they peeped out from the mask, writhing in pain. She immediately pulled on the mask with both her hands and tore it off his face.

  “You!” Her voice was a whisper as her face became pale out of a shock, that made her abandon even her struggles.

  ‘She has seen me,’ he thought as his face flushed within the half- torn mask. ‘I must get rid of her right now. Otherwise….. No, I can’t let that happen to me!’

  Vulnerability turned him into an atrocious beast and he pulled the rope harder on her slender neck. The grip of the rope tightened over her throat again, even before she could recover from the shock. She struggled again but this time he didn’t allow her a chance to get away He continued strangling her in a furious frenzy till her courage started crumbling down like quick sand. She saw darkness entering her eyes and her limbs turned numb. She gasped for air once with a widely opened mouth before she fell insensible on the bed. He continued to strangle her for a while but then let out a sigh as he realized that she was not moving. He slowly pulled the rope away from her badly bruised neck. He jumped down and stared heinously at her limp body stretched upon the bed.

  “Yes!” he whispered even though he felt like screaming out loud, “Mission accomplished!”

  But then something caught his eyes and his smiled waned. There were a few drops of blood that had dribbled down on the bed from the wound on his leg.

  “Damn!” He groaned like a mad tusker.

  He pulled the cloth out of her mouth and limped towards the attached washroom.

  “Hmm…” she moaned as she slowly opened her eyes, a few minutes later.

  She looked all around though her vision was still blurred. He was not there in the room. But then she heard the sound of water running from the washroom.

  ‘He is in there,’ her sinking mind thought.

  She stretched out her hand towards the table by the side of her bed. Every object in the room seemed hazy to her and the darkness threatened to take over her senses. She saw a vague image of her phone lying on the table.

  ‘But how can I call anyone,’ she thought, ‘while he is still here?’

  She felt hopelessness creep into her as her out-stretched hand was too weak to reach the table.

  ‘But someone must know about what happened to me.’

  Sparks of vengeance burst within her and she raised her hand again with much determination. She reached out to the table, and this time, her hand touched the phone. But before she could grab it in her hand, it fell down on the floor.

  He came out of the washroom after a while with a cloth wrapped around his wound. He limped towards her cold body lying on the bed. He grabbed her wrist and checked her pulse. His eyes twinkled and his jaws parted atrociously to flash a triumphant smile. Now, he was eager to make an exit as he was done with her.

  ‘The sheet!’ his shrewd mind growled, ‘how can I be so careless? It has my blood. They can easily know it was me.’

  He jumped into action right away and pulled the sheet from beneath her lifeless body. He folded it and thrust it into his jacket. He checked the mattress and found it clean. He opened the cupboard and picked up a fresh sheet. He spread it on the bed and stared at her. She looked normal as if sleeping calmly on the bed, except for the bruises on her neck. He turned around and looked at the things in the room. Everything was in its place and there weren’t any signs of struggle in the room. He felt relieved as an overwhelming feeling of ecstasy inebriated him.

  Chapter – 1- A Midnight Message

  Jan – 12, Monday, 5.30 a.m.

  A melodious tune from a mobile phone floated through the stillness of wee hours of morning, in a three-bedroom flat located in a plush housing colony in Delhi. A slender hand with long, shapely fingers popped out from the comfort of the thick blankets and seized the phone placed on the table by the side of a cozy bed. The blankets were drawn down to reveal a head covered with soft unruly hair, as the phone made its way towards the ear.

  “Hello…” a sweet, sleepy feminine voice muttered into the phone.

  “Good morning Ayana,” an exuberant voice responded, “I hope I am not disturbing you from your beauty sleep.”

  “Oh! Shanaya ma’am,” Ayana’s sleepy eyes snapped open with a start and she sat upon the bed, tugging those long strands of unruly hair behind her ear, “Not at all ma’am! A very good morning to you too.”

  “Can we schedule a meeting for today?”

  “Sure ma’am,” Ayana’s beautiful face glowed as a smile formed on her luscious lips. “I will come to your place on my way to the office.”

  “No, not here….hmm…” The exuberan
ce in Shanaya’s voice gave was replaced by apprehension. “Is it okay if I come to your office by 10 in the morning?”

  “That’s absolutely fine, Ma’am.” The thought of meeting Shanaya lit up Ayana’s soft, hazel eyes with a mesmerizing charm.

  Ayana hung up with a dimpled smile and pulled a robe around her svelte frame as she stepped out of her bed. She splashed some water on her face and considered herself in the mirror of her bathroom for a while. She looked gorgeous even though she was devoid of all kinds of embellishments. She made her way to the kitchen for making her much craved early morning cup of black coffee, sweetened with extra sugar to it. She seated herself in the balcony with the coffee cup in her hand, enjoying the warmth of the rising sun as its splendid rays caressed the well carved contours of her face.

  Ayana was a copyeditor by profession and owned an editing and proofreading agency ‘The Magic Pen’. She had been living alone in her apartment for the past four years, enjoying her life like a free bird. Owing to her sheer determination, strong will power and tremendous hard work, she was able to evolve her agency into one among the best in the respective industry at a young age of 24. After passing her tenth standard examinations with flying colors, she was advised by her ambitious relatives and friends to study either medical science or accounting. But she preferred to listen to her heart and ignored all of them. She boldly opted for humanities just because of her ardent love for literature. Her father supported her decision wholeheartedly, just the way he backed all her decisions in life. He has always let her make her own decisions which paved the way for her to grow into an independent young woman.