Murder of a Judge

Murder of a Judge - Short story - Prashant V Shrivastavaby Prashant V Shrivastava
"Arrange 50K else you are dead," Lia read as she opened her eyes to check her phone. It was 7 ’o’ in the morning and she sprung up as soon her eyes read these words. She rubbed her eyes, drank some water, and pinched herself to ensure she was not dreaming. 
She tried to search the phone but there was no such other message. She took time but finally left the bed and rushed to the washroom. While taking shower, she recalled that she used to receive such prank messages from her old boyfriend. She got her brain nerves relaxed as she turned the shower off. 
"I will not spare him if he does it again," She took the last bite of her favorite breakfast cake and left her apartment.  
Days passed and she never received any such message again. After almost one month, she got a similar message. This time she was very drunk in the bar with her boyfriend so she did not bother giving it any attention. 
As she woke up the next morning, she recalled the message. It read, 'I was away and this gave you extended life in which you earned a lot of interest on your money. Now give me 110k as I multiplied the last amount by 2.' 
'How funny!' She said to herself. '50 multiplied by 2 does not make 110.' 
She moved on and almost forgot about the message. 
She had a boyfriend who was a writer of scary plays. Three years ago, he used to send scary messages to Lia to test if they would create an impact on his audience. Lia was brave and somewhat habitual to deal with such creepy messages. 
Another message then caught her attention. It read 'Mr. JJ, you have insulted me by ignoring my messages. Tonight shall be your last night. Goodbye!' 
Next morning when she woke up, she dropped her coffee mug almost on her foot as she read the headlines--'Former Apex Court Judge JJ murdered' 
'All these messages were real. I could have saved the judge. That means the new phone number I got belonged to him previously. This is going to be a case of conspiracy and I will be framed as an accomplice to the killer,' a series of questions flashed her mind. All weird thoughts of being arrested to rape in Jail to be killed eventually filled her mind. 
She spent entire day indoor but by the evening, she had decided to tell the cops the entire story.  
'My story is credible of course as it is plain and the whole truth,' She prepared answers to the questions she thought would surely be asked. 
She dressed decently and reached the police station. As soon as she saw a police officer beating a criminal, she was frightened and rushed back to her car. 
She made several attempts in next 3 days but her fear never allowed her to touch the steps of the police station. 
She finally gathered all her courage and reached the police station the following weekend. Before she could brave herself to step into the office, a felt a heavy touch on her soft shoulder. She cried as loud as she could. People around noticed that. The man who had touched her sprung back a couple of feet. 
'Did you kill Mr. JJ?' The man asked her calmly.  
'No. I have no connection with any murder,' she broke down. 
'Now tell me,' the young man offered her a glass of water. 
'But who are you?' 
'I am the police inspector of this police station.' 
'Then why are we sitting here in the garden and not inside the police station? 
'I saw you were extremely frightened. I also have been noticing that you have been struggling since last 3 days to enter the station,' he said. 
'So nice of you,' she took a pause and then narrated him her story. 
'So, you are innocent Lia,' he delivered a verdict. Lia had not thought that it would be that easy to convince the police. 
'Is he playing a game or looking for some sexual favors or simply looking for money or he is just nice,' another set of suspicions crossed her mind in a flash. 
 'Had I acted in time, I could have saved him,' she said. 
'You are not at fault. Such pranks keep irritating us and we are not supposed to trust all of them,' the inspector consoled her. 
'You should go home and do not talk about this with anyone,' he said. 
She nodded in agreement and drove back to home. 
He stared at her car until it disappeared. 
She was sad about the Judge JJ but she knew she could have not done anything. She decided to have a couple of drinks before retiring to bed. 
She removed her jeans and suddenly something touched her feet. She bent to pick the visiting card. It was of the officer whom she had met that afternoon. 
It had his phone number.  She thought for some time before writing a message to the officer.  'Need to share something with you.' 
'I am really stupid and very coward,' she said to the officer in the same police station garden bench where she had met her a day before. 
'Explain,' he was in rush. 
'Well, the morning I came to know that these messages were about Mr. JJ, I went to his house to warn him.' 'You met him?' Asked the officer. 
  'No' 
'Then?' 
'Actually, wasted the whole day in deciding whether I should go to police or him' 
'Then' 
'I went to his place around 11 PM. 
By that time, he had been murdered as police were there. 
'How did you know he was murdered by 11 PM,' asked the officer. 
'Initially, I saw police and thought it was security. So, I got frightened and ran back to my home.' 
'Next morning when I read about his murder, I recalled that there was an ambulance as well the last night.' 
She began to cry. 
"If I could have used some sense, I could have saved him for sure" 
'Why? 'the officer asked. 
'Because I blocked the communication between killer and victim,' she began to cry again. 
The officer was now little upset. 
'Listen, you wasted my time. This information does not help me in solving the case. If you know anything else, do just share with me.' 
'Goodbye for now,' he tapped her shoulder and left. 
Days passed and now Lia had forgotten about that incidence. 
One month later, she saw the same police officer in a resort where she had come to stay. She was working on some commercial shooting project. She met him and he too recognized her easily. 
The two interacted several times before they fell in love with each other. Their romance had reached the threshold of marriage and the two decided to celebrate their singlehood one last time an evening before marriage. 
They drank, danced, and made love. 
Next morning as the officer opened his eyes, he lost all the senses. He was surrounded by at least 10 police officers. Lia was in the other room. She signed her last affidavit and left without speaking to him. The police arrested him. He was getting mad.  
‘What the hell I told her last night?’ he spoke to himself. 
Two days later, Lia read in the newspaper that the killer had confessed his crime and the Judge JJ's soul would now rest in peace. 
'How did you know that he was the culprit?' 
Asked Jane, her friend. 
Well, he told me the entire story when he was drunk. 
'And how you realized that he could be the killer' 
'I had no clue. I just asked him about his job and he revealed that his fortune turned and now he was a billionaire,' she said. 
'What was the story then' Jane asked. 
'Well, 25 years ago, the judge had asked an intern to come to his place in the evening to take some law lessons. The judge raped her and threatened to put behind bars if she opened her mouth. The poor girl left the city. After one year, she delivered a baby boy and soon after, she died.' 
‘There was no one who knew who the father of the kid was.’ 
‘One fine day, the kid, who had become a police officer, was matching some blood samples for the DNA test and accidentally discovered that the judge was his father.’ 
'He met the judge who refused to accept him.' 
‘Then this officer investigated the story end-to-end and found out the truth.’ 
‘That is when he conspired to kill him. After the death of the judge, all his fortune would be inherited to him, because of DNA match.’ 
‘And to make it look like a money-killing, he orchestrated entire drama. Call it my misfortune that I got the sim card which the officer had earlier stolen from judge's one of the phones but had lost it. It got deactivated and it was allotted to me by the telecom company. Officer knew this, so he decided to make me scapegoat and sent those messages to me. If I had informed the police, he could have handled it as he was there only. But to his luck, I did not do so. And he easily executed the judge and closed the file. I was already frightened of being framed so I kept mum.’ 
This is how I got to know the story. I wrote it down after he had slept and then called the police. Until he confessed this morning before police, I was hoping to be wrong. But, now, the sky is clear. The murderer got convicted for his crime. 
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