Write India (TOI) - Submission date missed

“She sat on the Starbucks cafe sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag covered with her blue silk scarf”

(The above line had to be present in the story)

Wolf Wolf

 She sat on the Starbucks cafe sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag covered with her blue silk scarf. The parking lot was what she was intently looking at, out of the window. She saw the white company car pull into the curb; the familiar figure of her husband stepped out. He had a high post in his company. Hence, the company car, and how he used it, even for small distances. This Starbucks was in the same premises as his office and yet he had troubled his driver.

He came up to her and said, “You called.”

“Here take a seat”, she said.

“Is it so urgent that it couldn’t wait till I got off work”, he said.

She slid the metal object wrapped in her blue scarf towards him. It made a bass sound on the wooden table. He began to unwrap the scarf and stopped halfway.

“What is the meaning of this?” he said

“I killed the maid”, she said.

“You what….?” he said, subconsciously moving the chair backwards, half standing up, then sat back down.

“You are joking right?” he looked around the room.

“You can no longer sleep around with her”, she said.

He was not denying it. Her doubts were now confirmed.

“So you were sleeping with her,” she continued.

“But you don’t kill first and then ask,” he said.

He was controlling his racing thoughts. It was as if he were in a meeting room with a stubborn client.

“Did you sleep with her or not?” she continued, “You are not answering my question”.

“Will that bring our maid back to life? Tell me you didn’t kill her, God.” He exclaimed.

“I will kill her,” she had become loud and now the knife was in her hand. The blue blood stained scarf, falling to the floor.

“Did you or did you not sleep with her?” she stood, her chair scrapping on the floor. The person who sat next to their table stood up.

 “Freeze, please put the knife down,” he continued, “Police, mam, please be calm and put the knife down,”

The husband had seen plainclothes policemen around campus. This was the cop’s daily route before entering his local beat. The husband stepped in front of the cop.

 “There’s no need for the gun,” he said. “She’s my wife. I work here.”

He showed his ID card to the cop.

“Whose blood is on the knife?” the cop asked,

He sidestepped the husband, the gun pointed at the knife wielding wife.

“It’s the maid’s, I killed her,” she said.

“No, she didn’t,” the husband said. He faced his wife arms spread, “Calm down, honey.”

“He was going behind my back, sleeping around,” she said. She was now addressing café staff, the knife in her hand moving in the air wildly.

“No, I was not sleeping with her”, the husband said.

“You lying bastard,” she said.

She lunged towards him; the knife entered his suit which was openly flailing under his arms. The knife hand stuck in his coat, he closed his arms around her, not letting go. The policeman entered the fray. The lone woman was overpowered and handcuffed. The bloody knife picked up as evidence.

“I did not sleep with our maid,” the husband told his wife in the back of the police van.

“I did not kill the maid,” she said.

The police constable was not interested in the husband-wife matter.

“Then whose blood is it?” the husband asked, “And why make such a scene? You know I have a reputation at work. I have teams who look up to me as a mentor. And now I will be the talk of the town for weeks.”

“You have to let my wife go,” the husband told the duty officer at the police desk, “She’s innocent.”

“Okay, we will see about that. They are searching your house right now,” the three-star superintendent replied.

He was led to the waiting room. He made a few calls to excuse himself from work. His phone rang.

“Hello, this is the police,” the voice on the other side said.

“Yes,” the husband replied.

“Can you come to your apartment now,” the monotonic voice said.

He entered his apartment building and saw the police van. A photographer passed him on the way up. The door had been broken open. Police tape was laid around his couch area. Somebody handed him a paper.

“Search Warrant”, it read.

It fell through his hands. The body of the maid lay in the centre of the living room. Glass pieces were all over the body, which was cut at multiple places. The blood marks on the floor were stretched showing the poor soul’s last minute struggles.

“Looks like the lamp shade fell on her cutting her jugular. See how the vacuum cleaner’s wire is entangled in the bottom of the lamp shade”, the cop continued, “It looks like an open and shut case, but we know better.”

He started to smile but saw the stern look on the husband’s face and stopped.

“But my wife said she did not kill the maid,” the husband managed to say

“We will check it out, but it looks like a bad cover-up”, the cop said.

“What was the blood on the knife?” the husband asked his wife at the private cell meeting. It was a week of formalities with the police. He had explained the situation with his wife. She was being charged with murder. He had somehow kept his wits about him and had waited patiently for this meeting.

“Did you kill her and let the lamp fall on her to cover up?” he said.

“Did you sleep with her?” she said.

“You are in for murder and you are asking me worthless questions. No, is the answer to your question.”

“Lair,” she said.

“You get out of work to meet me, you always have an alibi,” she continued. “You could easily have killed her as easily as you could slip away from work to empty your lust bucket.”

“Jail has rotten your mind,” he said.

“On the contrary, it has given me time to think,” she said. “How many women have you been going around behind my back?”

“I thought this was behind us. I have a good job. I am a CTO for chrissakes,” he said. “You think I would jeopardize all this for a piece of ass? I love you, I have been telling you this since the last time you opened this topic in front of my relatives at our anniversary last year,” he continued. “I think I want a divorce, especially since you cannot get the fact that I am as loyal as can be.”

He left the booth. “It was futile talking to this woman,” he thought, “He had given her enough time to understand him, but this is what it had led to.”

“The test results are in,” the top cop in-charge told the husband. “The blood on the knife is the maid's,” he continued, “Interestingly, it says remnants of menstruation blood.”

The husband reeled backwards.

“What does that mean?” the husband asked.

“I dunno, beats me”, the cop continued, “But if you say your wife’s innocent, and she used a remnant tampon from the trash to haggle you…..she got the wrong blood on it. She cried wolf and got herself here. Hope her luck holds up in a court of law."

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 Its 1300 words, and was supposed to be a 2000 words submission for the competition; anyhoo hope you understood the gist of the story. Do give me your feedback...:-)