THE TENTH BODY
Rain hammered the city like angry fists.
The harbour was almost empty at this hour except for restless sea crashing against the rusted metal docks and flickering yellow lights hanging over fish market streets. Water rushed to gutters carrying cigarette butts, blood red fish scales and pieces of newspaper that struck to pavement like wet skin.
The dog barked somewhere in the darkness.
Then suddenly stopped.
Inspector Rakesh Naidu ducked his head under the police tape and cursed beneath his breath ANOTHER BODY.
“Male” one constable muttered nervously. Around 50, shot once in the chest.”
Rakesh stared at the corpse lying beside a stack of broken crates. The victim’s expensive suit was soaked black with rain water, but the silver watch on his wrist still gleamed beneath flashing police lights.
A rich man.
Like the others.
The constable swallowed hard. “That makes 10.”
Ten murders in Ten weeks.
Every victim’s wealthy. Every victim killed with a gun. Every victim’s wealthy. Every victim killed with a gun. Every killer’s trail is completely clean.
Every victim’s wealthy. Every killer’s trail is completely clean.
The newspaper have given him a name now.
THE GREEDY KILLER.
Rakesh hated the name. It made the murderer sound Clever. Powerful. Untouchable.
Maybe he was.
A forensic officer stepped carefully through the mud. “Sir….. you should see this.”
Rakesh walked toward the body. Near the dead man’s hand lay a ruler.
White with dark blue stripes.
Exactly twelve inches long.
"They found one at seventh murder too," the officer whispered.
Rakesh crouched slowly. There was something written on the ruler this time.
Not Ink.
Scratched carefully in Plastic.
TEN
A cold wind swept, through the harbour for the first time in weeks, fear crawled visibly cross the inspector’s face.
The killer was counting.
------
Three streets away, life continued like death did not exist.
Inside Meera Seafoods, Anika Meera Kapoor slammed a fish onto the counter hard enough to make a customer jump.
There, “She said. It is enough to scare your ancestors.”
The old women buying the fish stared at her.
Anika Grinned.
The women rolled her eyes and handed over the money.
At 24, Anika Kapoor was impossible to ignore. Sharp eyes, Sharp tongue, Sharp instincts. She tied her dark hair carelessly behind her head while balancing three customer orders at once.
Her father used to say she was born fighting the world.
Tonight, through something felt strange.
The market noise seemed distant. Uneasy
A television hanging in the corner suddenly flashed red.
BREAKING NEWS.
The vendors fall silent one by one.
A reporter appeared on the screen, rain dripping from her umbrella.
“POLICE HAVE CONFIRMED THE DISCOVERY OF TENTH VICTIM CONNECTED TO THE GREEDY KILLER INVESTIGATION.”
The stop erupted instantly.
“ANOTHER ONE?”
“Ten murders already?”
The city isn’t safe anymore!”
Anika leaned against the counter, watching the screen carefully.
The camera briefly showed the harbour crime scene before she noticed something strange A RULER.
Striped Blue & White.
For some reason the image stayed in her head
“ANIKA!”
She turned
Arav Malhotra stood outside the shop entrance, soaked in rain water and breathing heavily like he had run the entire way there.
And for the first time she had known him
HE LOOKED TERIFIED.
You need to come with me he said quietly.
“RIGHT NOW,” Anika frowned
“What happened?”
He looked over the dark street behind him before speaking.
“I found something,” He whispered something connected to the murders.
HIDDEN BEHIND A RAIN COVERED WINDOW SOMEONE WAS WATCHING THEM.
