He had fallen in love with her hard. And he didn’t even realize when it happened. Maybe it was the dream. He had dreamt of something silver slashing through the air and seen her blood gushing out. He had lost her, and the mere thought of it had jolted him awake. He looked at her face, peacefully sleeping, eyes slightly opened, mouth slightly parted, and took a breath of relief. Even in her sleep, she looked divine. Image source It had been two months since they had started dating, and she often managed to make excuses to come spend the nights with him. She would often curl up into a ball, just like she was now, and he would hold her. That was comfort for him… and her. Suddenly, she moved and instinctively he held open his arm where she found her perfect spot and was at ease at once. He held her tighter and went back to sleep again. 8:00 AM 8:15 AM 8:30 AM

He reached work, parked at his spot and proceeded to his desk.

She should have reached her work by now as well. Any minute now he would get her call. She had started working only a few months back. And her family had relocated to another city all of a sudden. She used to tell him it was because they wanted to be closer to her elder sister in Mumbai, but he wasn’t quite convinced. Whatever be the reason. At least, he got to spend time with her. He watched the TV in the office as he waited for her message.

Half an hour later, when he still didn’t get any text from her, he called. She was panting on the other end of the line. He got to know that there had been a huge traffic jam. The police had cordoned off a major road because they had found a dead body. It had floated up the river. Somebody who had gone down towards the Mula river had found it. For a minute, he couldn’t utter a word. He couldn’t think of anything except her. What if that had been her? But then he realized she was safe. She was talking to him on the phone and his love was alright.

They hung up and he finally got back to work, without giving much thought to the issue. 9 more hours of the same old at office and he would be back with her. Probably they would head out for ‘A Danish Girl’. They had been planning to watch that for quite a while now.

Dr. Isha was back in the lab. The body still lay in front of her, and the smell wasn’t helping. But putting the surgical mask and gloves on, she proceeded to prod and poke the body. It was a girl. There would have been a hole in her torso, but the silver knife was still intact. Again she thought about how much of a novice the killer had to be to leave the murder weapon behind. She couldn’t help but wonder what could the motive have been for the murder. She must have known her killer. The laceration on the wound looked like the killer had just stabbed her once and with good pressure. No more twisting of the knife had been required. The element of surprise must have done the rest of the job. She giggled over the thought for a bit, shook her head at her weird thinking and started to absent-mindedly stare at the body.

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Whatever beautiful hair she had had was all in a mess and all over her face.

Her face pale and drained of all color. The water had taken away all her features but yet there was something peaceful about her face. Like she was still sleeping. The clothes were ripped due to the currents of the river and the jagged rocks the body might have evaded but one thing caught her eye were the shoes that were intact. Must have been expensive and a perfect fit for her foot. There could be no other reason why they didn’t come off even after the river torrents. The shoes looked like they were made from good quality but genuine leather and were blotchy in places but not completely damaged.

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