The Vacation(Shreyanshu) The Vacation


I am a detective, I need to be aware and agile at every moment. This is not very easy and with time, it starts taking a toll on you. I needed some rest, some free time. So, I called the office and told them that I’d be taking a holiday. My life was complete in every sense. I had money, time and power. But more importantly, I had a reason to live. I was deeply in love with a girl named, Rachel. We had been in a relationship for the past 6 years and I had planned, planned for something big.

I had met Rachel, while solving a case. I was instantaneously attracted to her, afterall, it’s once in a blue moon that I find a girl with beauty and brains. I was planning to invite her on the vacation. Luckily, she had just finished her case and was free to accompany me. I booked our tickets and in a two days we were in Hawaii. “John!”, she called out, “I think we should stop by a hotel which is near to the sea, I love the scenery there”. I agreed and we stayed in a hotel named ‘Sea Shell.’ Somehow, the name was really not, comforting.

We had so much fun for the next 4 days, we shopped, we visited an amusement park, paragliding and so much more. Remember the ‘big thing’ I was talking about? I was planning on proposing to her. After a lot of thinking I had come to the conclusion that Rachel was perfect for me. I just hoped, that she thought the same. On the 6th day, I made us a reservation in a restaurant by the beach. I didn't want it to be grand, I wanted it to be simple and honest, just how Rachel likes it. We had eaten our dinner and were talking. I saw this as the perfect opportunity. I stood up. “What are you doing, John?” she said with some hesitancy. I was about to speak, when her cell phone rang. She excused herself and went out. I waited. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 17 minutes later, she returned with a smile on her face, the type which she always had while solving a case. She said, “We have a case and we are partners!” I faked enthusiasm and congratulated ‘us’. She said, “Now, what were you saying?” I thought, 'The moment has been ruined, no advantage in confessing now.' She prompted again -“What happened, John?” I replied, “Nothing, I just wanted to dance with you.” She smiled and we danced for the next 30 minutes. Reaching home I asked her what is the assignment we’d been given, still faking the enthusiasm. Rachel spoke - “There is this girl, named Silva, she was found dead near the harbor”. I replied – “The case doesn’t sound interesting.” “Wait for the twist, Dear John”. I smiled. “The girl has no wound on her body, except one, she has this open wound on her belly, but on checking it, no bullet was found inside of it. It was empty.” I replied, “But if the wound was small, and she is dead, then it has to be a bullet, a wound that small can’t kill a person”. She nodded and asked- “Now, the case is interesting enough?”. “Yes, Rachael, it is.” I replied. This time I was not faking it, the case did sound really interesting. But I still wanted a relaxing holiday, under the sun, with the cool wind, not a bloody case involving something I had never heard of.

The next day, we went to the crime scene, the body was taken for postmortem. We started looking for hints or anything that our criminal had done wrong. After searching for a hour, all we found was a leather case with initial, “LI” on it. We had no idea what it meant. The situation worsened when we found out that there were no witnesses or anyone that had seen or heard them that night. The postmortem reports came in, we found out that the flesh was a little burned and had traces of pig fat in it. The burnt flesh was a sure hint towards the theory that Silva was killed by a bullet. But the pig fat made no sense. Not to us at least.

We had the best organizations looking for some hints while we were trying to crack the initials written on the leather case. 2 days in vain, and we could not find anything. I was realizing that this case was turning out to be one of the most complicated case I had worked on. One of the organizations called and said that they had found a connection of the pig fat with the killing.

We hurried to them and were shocked. Shocked of how intricate the weapons are becoming nowadays, of how crime is spawning machines of death that are getting perfect as the time is passing. It is scary. So what we were told is that the bullet was somehow chemically combined with the fat, and the bullet’s metallic casing was then removed. So when the bullet penetrated the skin of Silva, it started to immediately melt. I don’t know how, but they proved it by some chemical equations and test. So, the bullets impact was enough to kill her, then the bullet started melting, taking away with it all the evidences. I was surprised of how perfect the plan was.

Well, this in one way made the job easier for us, there can't be many people in Hawaii that can provide you bullets this advanced. So we got the names narrowed down, and started hunting for each of them. 10 people were on our watch. We caught each of them and interrogated them. 9 came out clean, the last one, himself admitted that he had done the killing. We were surprised by his response but were also relieved as it made the case a little easier to handle. We asked him, as to why he killed the poor girl. He replied - “I did what I was told to.” ”but WHY?” we asked. “Money, detective, money”. We asked him who was the one who paid him to do the killing. He would not tell. 3 days of torture and he spoke - “Henry—Henry Watson”. We immediately ran a scan for him in the database and found his home.

Me and Rachel broke in his house. “Wherever you are, come out!” - I shouted. “You are under arrest for murder!”, Rachel yelled. 2 minutes later, we heard laughter, the creepy kind, and suddenly the lights were shut off, everything pitch black. I shouted- “RACHEL!!!” She shouted back – “John, OVER HERE!!” I started waving my hand, randomly, hoping I could catch her. Suddenly I heard noises, noises of struggle. I went cold. I knew she had been taken as a hostage by the killer. I yelled - “LEAVE her! The killer spoke- “Surrender your weapon and I will!” He switched the lights back on. I could see Rachel, in the clutches of the killer. I could see the killer, it was Henry Watson indeed. I surrendered my weapons.

He spoke- “You all had no business, you interfered with my killing”. I said- “But you killed an innocent girl”. He grinned, ”innocent? only if you’d known her. She was everything but innocent.” I asked- “What do you mean?” He grasped Rachel more tightly and replied- “We were a couple. We broke up due to differences and then she’d been blackmailing me, for money” he stopped, and then continued- “I had to finish her once and for all”. I sighed. The case may be new, but the core motive was the same.

Suddenly, Rachel winked. We held our eyesight at each other for a moment, and I knew. “NOW!!” I shouted. Henry, astonished, spoke- “Whaa—“! Rachel knelt down, and kicked him in his guts. He cried out in pain. I took my gun from the ground and pointed it towards him. “It's over, Henry, give up.” He grinned, again, “You think it is?” I was about to speak when he took off his shirt- and I saw some 2 kilos of explosives strapped to his chest. “Shit.”- I murmured. He took out the detonator, said- “You will NEVER catch me, ever”. I shouted- “Rachel!” She ran towards me and we made a run for it. We jumped out of the window and behind us the whole house exploded, along with Henry.

We couldn’t do anything. The fire fighters came and so did the police. They understood the situation and thanked us for the help. Although, we knew, we were not of much help.

The vacation was over. We booked our tickets to leave. Last night of our stay, we were walking down the beach, and I did not want to wait for another moment. I wanted to spend every other second of my life with her. I proposed. A tear ran through her left cheek, and she said- “Yes.”
I was ecstatic. I had got what I desired the most, the love of my life. We kissed and walked down the beach for some more time and then left the next day.

It was not the vacation I had planned for, but was not disappointing as well!

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