The car stopped, and Aria looked at the large, fancy building in front of them. She turned to Tanya, “Is this it?”
Tanya nodded, “Looks great, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, and expensive! How do you propose I am going to pay for this?”
Tanya rolled her eyes, “You have a house, and you were keeping up with your mortgage. I am sure your financial advisor will think of something.”
“I don’t have a job anymore.”
“… yet! You still have your savings and good credit. You will surely find a good job. You already have a job offer, woman!”
Aria sighed, “Tanya! I told you. I honestly don’t want to go back to that awful place.”
“Alright. Alright. We will keep looking for a job for you. Come on! Let’s go check out this place.”
An hour later, Aria couldn’t help but admit the apartment was amazing! It was a secure and modern building with a common swimming pool and gym for the residents. The apartment was so spacious and airy, it felt like a house. The dining area and kitchen had plenty of light. There were two bedrooms, a huge bathroom, and a small balcony overlooking the city.
“Didn’t I tell you? Isn’t this amazing?”
Aria grinned, “Yeah. I admit this place is great. I can actually picture myself living here.” She felt her hopes lifted. Her head was already filling with ideas about decorating the place. The guest bedroom could be converted into a study. She could fit in a comfy chair in the balcony and enjoy a warm cup of coffee there after work. The dining area was spacious enough to hold a small gathering. She was getting excited. Maybe there is hope for me after all, she thought to herself as Tanya bombarded the realtor with tons of questions. Aria chuckled and went to rescue the overwhelmed realtor from Tanya, the reporter’s voice long forgotten.
“Look who has finally arrived!” Sergeant Jake scoffed the moment he saw Detective Sanjay entering the sealed-off crime scene. They were at Whitney Fox’s house. Every time Sanjay came to this house, he couldn’t help but wonder how she could afford this place. She was a member of the board of a leading company, and you would expect her to live in a luxury house, but this… this house was extravagant… there was no other way to describe it. Sanjay thought. Of course, he knew that this was a clear sign that she was certainly a part of the mess Coons was forced to be a part of. What Sanjay wanted to find out was whether Whitney was threatened into it like Coons was or whether she was one of the people doing the threatening and who framed Aria.
“Yeah. Take more time roaming around while the rest of us work here.”
Sergeant Jake’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Sanjay sighed, “Sarge, I am actually early. My shift doesn’t start for another few…”
“Ohhhh? Then, why don’t you lie down on that couch and rest for a while until your shift starts, detective? Don’t mind the murder scene. Your rest is more important than solving a murder case. Please, go ahead.” Sergeant Jake glared at Sanjay.
Sanjay took a deep breath and decided to ignore him. He made his way to a police inspector taking fingerprints in another room. “He has gone full brutal, hasn’t he?” the inspector nodded his head towards Sergeant Jake. “A little too much, don’t you think?”
Sanjay simply shrugged. While he was well aware that Jake was being unreasonable, he was still his superior, and he didn’t want to say anything bad about him… no matter how much he wanted too. “Have you found anything yet?” he asked instead to change the subject.
The inspector shook his head, “This house is massive! Normally, we would just take the prints of the room the body was found or where there was a struggle, but he is making us take prints off everything in this house… everything!”
Sanjay chuckled, “Yeah, well… he is careful.”
“I don’t blame him. Rather embarrassing what happened with that case but sheesh! Give us a break! He has been barking orders at us like we were the ones who made a mistake. It’s going to take days to take all the prints and then get the results back.”
Sanjay nodded, “Of course! There weren’t any signs of a struggle?”
The inspector shook his head, “The place is clean. It’s like no one has even entered this place in weeks! But we’ll see. Hopefully, we will be able to find some prints.”
“The security footage…?”
“Yeah, the security company has been alerted, they are sending over the footage we requested.”
Sanjay nodded and made his way upstairs to the balcony, from where the body of Whitney was hanging. Even if the prints show us nothing, there is bound to be something in the footage. Even as he thought that his gut told him that wasn’t true. He knew the murderers were the same people behind Aria’s case. From what he knew, they weren’t going to find anything in that footage.
Chapter 2: The Investigation
Sanjay buried his face in his hands. He had an excruciating headache that refused to go away even after popping painkillers throughout the day. It was way past midnight, and he was still at the precinct working on the murder investigation. Lying before him was the report from the forensic expert, explaining the details of Whitney’s staged suicide.
“Suicide by hanging is commonly done by jumping from a ladder or chair, which then results in death due to choking. Unless the person jumped from a high place with a long rope, say a drop of about six feet, their neck breaks. The distance from the balcony to the hanging corpse and the short rope wasn’t sufficient to break the victim’s neck. However, the autopsy
