The police arrived soon at the spot, the forensic team trailing behind officer Akai, one of the best in their department. While the forensics conducted their examination of the scene Denzin conveyed his theory to officer Akai who agreed to the same. Now it was for them to identify the culprit and check the exits if anyone entered. Though, any act committed by an outsider seemed impossible since they had to cross the main entrance to get to the other side where the bath was, or even if they thought of entering through the wall, there was a garden to cross, and the rain makes it impossible for anyone to not leave their footprints. The other possibility was that people from the family committed the crime, which was quite a puzzle as of now.

The police decided to investigate each person. Dr Amuro told that he was with Denzin and Althea the whole duration when the lights were out and as much as Denzin didn’t want to think about it, he had to agree since Althea was holding onto him the whole time, much to Denzin’s annoyance. Felis told that she had gone to fix the mains which had apparently tripped and when she fixed it the lights had come back on, while she came back Mrs Lucia was still talking on the phone and later hung it up when they decided to check on Dr Martin. Since the landline phone was just beside the door to the kitchen entrance everyone could hear Mrs Lucia talking. Mrs. Lucia also gave the police the contact to the friend whom she was talking to all that while. 

Denzin and the police deduced that somebody had clearly set a timer for the electric mains to go off but who it was was still a mystery, with everyone’s alibis being so strong. 

While Denzin was busy with his deductions, Dr Amuro noticed that Felis had hurt her foot with something since she wasn’t standing properly. “You have to endure everything, don’t you? You need to get your wound dressed” Dr Amuro said. Althea offered to help him dress Felis’s wand and they took permission to take her to the next room which was used by Dr Amuro as his clinic for the time being.

Meanwhile, Mrs Lucia was being questioned, she told them that Felis is like that only, she had hired Felis since it was getting difficult to maintain the house all by herself but Maggie used to do everything on her own. Maggie was Dr Martin’s first wife and Amuro’s mother who had died in a car accident 5 years back. They both were friends from the same nursing school.

To experiment, the police decided to re-enact the scene and they found that now it took Felis less time to come back after switching on the mains. Now they knew who did it but how did she cross Mrs Lucia who was in the middle corridor to go towards the bath on the right corridor. 

Denzin went towards the mains and found a piece of a broken dish on the floor, he went upstairs and in the room he found a broken china dish. He now knew what had happened. 

Dr. Amuro told everyone that the police left since nothing substantive was found. Althea showed her disappointment stating that Denzin knew who the culprit was and how they did it. He is going to show everyone after taking a bath since he got wet in the rain. 

Suddenly, the lights went out again. Mrs Lucia asked Felis to go fix the mains again. While Felis was on her way the lights came back on again. Amuro felt that it was some kind of trap. He ran towards the bath but was stopped by officer Akai. While Mrs. Lucia was inside the bath holding the electric shaver in her hand. Denzin had caught her red handed.

Denzin was sitting on the floor outside the bath, “So you came here to kill me so that I can’t prove who did this and then you’ll be the first one who found me dead” Denzin said, Mrs Lucia nervously said “No, the power was cut and I just wanted to check if you are safe. During that incident I was on the phone when the lights went out”, “Branch phone” Denzin said, “You used a branch phone, which is cordless and can be taken anywhere, while talking on the main phone hiding it would be easy, you used your pen light in the dark to come towards the bath while with your own cell phone you called on the main phone trying to show that another call had come in so you had cut the call with your friend for a few seconds and went on to put the electric shaver in the tub and put its plug on, so that when the lights comes back on Martin would be electrocuted, you put the light straight on your husband’s face so that he couldn’t see what you were doing. You went back and picked up the main phone and started talking again. When Felis put the breaker on it led to a short circuit break and then she switched it on again, the second circuit took Dr. Martin’s life.” “That doesn’t prove I did it,” Mrs Lucia said. “It doesn’t, but the fact that there was a miscalculation on your part made you a suspect. Felis took a longer time to fix the mains because she had broken the dish and she was scared of your husband so she had taken time to hide it in the room, Amuro was held by Althea the entire time so he couldn’t do it. The only person left were you.” Martin stated simply. 

“Silly girl, we would have just counted the number of dishes and would have known, my alibi would have been safe” Lucia sighed. “No, even without that it would have been known, you changed the hand you were holding the landline phone before and after the lights came on, you had left the phone in the middle, and if we search we’ll find the cordless phone on you and also your personal phone’s call record to prove that you had called the landline phone during the time of the blackout” Martin finished saying.

Lucia fell on the floor, “Before her accident, Maggie took a promise that I’ll take care of Amuro, won’t let him be like his father. I didn’t realise what she meant till I married Martin, I found Maggie’s diary and got to know that he was a pervert who would fool around with any women he saw, he used to treat Maggie so harshly, she had become so weak, marks on her hand due to excessive work. He had made Maggie intentionally get drunk knowing she couldn’t take it and made her a victim of the accident.”

“Give yourself in, not for yourself but Felis, because you see the one who planned the murder was you but the one who raised the breaker killed him. She being the fragile one, won’t be able to take the burden, without even her fault.” Denzin cleared.

The police took away Lucia and the other evidence, Denzin and Althea were on their way to the car when Althea ran back to Dr Amuro, apologized to him and simply asked him where she could find the sweater he was wearing so that she could give one to Denzin.

Denzin sighed at his stupidity for being jealous and the never ending circle of this game of crime and revenge.

Hello, everyone! If you liked this Short Story, do check out the related posts. Comment and like if you would like to read more similar works from the author. And don’t forget to share this on your social media channels.

I am a law student and a content writer here, who appreciates harmless sarcasm. I write about whatever my brainbox (or yours) fancies. Writing something other than research papers and assignments makes life a little less chaotic, for it gives a sense of unwinding your emotions. I like exploring and talking over ideas and thoughts (and an open political discussion).

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