Annie was getting ready to meet her fiance at the art gallery. As she finished putting on the red lipstick she checked the time. She still had a good one hour to go.
The sky was pretty dark already.
“I better get a cab before it starts raining.” she thought.
***
Not wasting a minute Prakash fished out his phone and dialed Annie’s number. It was busy. For a moment he relaxed.
He cannot let anyone harm Annie.
His senses were on high alert. The line was still busy. He was beginning to get worried.
***
“Which route do you prefer madam?” she heard the driver ask.
“Oh you can take the fastest one. I don’t mind.”
She was a bit uncomfortable with the driver’s appearance. Something about him didn’t seem quite right apart from his shabby appearance. He sounded way too squeaky for a tall, dark guy.
Annie was thankful that he was not one of those chatterbox drivers who won’t shut up.
“Why are you turning here?”
“This is just a shortcut madam. Don’t worry.” He assured her.
Not trusting him she tried locating herself on GPS only to realize she wasn’t getting signal enough for internet.
She did the next best thing she could in such a situation.
She called up her best friend.
***
“Don’t tell me you are going to buy this one!” The little girl exclaimed bringing him back to earth.
He hadn’t realized that she was next to him till then.
“Oh not really. I am just waiting for someone.” He hoped she would leave him be.
“Is it your wife?” Catherine pried not caring if she was being impolite.
“Huh… No… She is my fiancé.” He then mentally smacked himself for answering her.
“Could you please stop bothering me miss?” he added. He was still trying to reach Annie.
To his horror now the number was not reachable. He was close to alerting the control room about his would-be.
Relief washed over him when he could hear the phone ring on the other side.
“Oh please pick up.” He muttered under his breathe.
***
Next day:
“Have you gotten any identification?” Prakash spoke as he inspected the body, or what was left of it.
The body was horribly mutilated and the face was distorted beyond recognition. Her heart and intestines were missing from the disemboweled abdomen.
“Yes sir. Her name is Mary Sagayam. She lives with one more girl in this apartment. Her flat-mate came back home from her night shift and couldn’t open the door. They opened the front door using the landlord’s master key.”
This was getting way too similar to Jack the Ripper case now.
As he was leaving the room he noticed something taped on the window.
Roses are red;
Violets are blue;
What’s red will be mine;
This is your next clue.
-Jack
With a sudden shiver Prakash flipped the paper to find a picture of himself from the previous evening holding hands with Annie who was wearing a bright red saree.
####
This post is a part of the “Tagged” Contest by writer Kaarthika and The Chennai Bloggers Club. Kaarthika’s book is being released on May 29. Do pre-order it on Amazon.
I now tag Jenny to continue to story here.
Category: Story Corner
Good stuff – let us see how this progresses!