A Grim Reaper's Job

‘There have been deaths all around the city, there is something similar in all of them.’

‘And that is?’

‘They all have their eyes wide open and their mouths in a gasp, sir. All of them. It’s as if they saw death just before they died!’

The Inspector blew out his cigarette and picked up the case file.

‘Sir, I feel as if this somehow related to the missing case about 10 years ago.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘There was a girl named, Phoenix, she was about 9, in all her pictures she always had her eyes wide open, just like the mysterious murder victims, and she seldom smiled. I haven’t seen her, but it was at the age nine that she had gone missing, sir.’

‘Tell me more, Edward.’

‘Yes, sire.’

Edward, the assistant sub-inspector, went to the other room and brought in a case file and handed it over to the inspector who stubbed out his cigarette.

‘Here, sire, this is her case file.’

‘Briefs.’

‘Of course, sir. She was from the Reaper family. She was last seen on 13/7/94. Her butler was about to wake her up, when he entered her room, he found her missing. She was never seen again, sir.’

‘Any evidence?’

‘No, sir, it was as if her very existence was wiped out from the face of the earth.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘Sir, I worked as the sub-investigator years before you joined, sire.’

‘Relatives?’ he asked as he looked at the girl’s picture and her wide-open eyes in the file.

‘None alive, sir’

’You can leave for the night, Edward, it’s too late, go get some rest and report at 7 am sharp.

‘Yes, sire’

‘We need to do some dusting on these two cases, dismissed.’ said the Investigator as he lit another cigarette and got up from his seat.

‘Have a great night, sire.’ said Edward as he bowed and turned to leave.