He knew the very second their eyes locked that she desired him. And that she was his type, the adventurous one. No, they had never met before, never knew of each other’s existence until now. He crossed the whole length of the sprawling lobby, looking at her, smiling his mischievous smile. She took it all in shamelessly imagining what lies beneath his well-tailored shirt.
‘Shall we?’, he said.
‘Sure’, she replied swinging her laptop into its bag and got up to led the way.
Her room, then. By leading, she had decided. Words were redundant when intention spoke louder.
She slid the card to light the room, dropped the bag on the floor but refused to let go of his lips that had stayed on hers from the time they alighted from the lift. His hands were where she wanted them to be feeling her up. She held him against the wall with her body while her hands searched for his zipper.
She knelt.
His moans egged her on.
He pulled her up, cleverly, not wanting to end too soon. His wet tongue played with her earlobes while his fingers efficiently unclasped her brassiere. She gasped in anticipation as his hands searched for more. Each clothing was discarded hurriedly.
They collapsed on the bed, she on top, when he let out a cry.
She unrolled away to find him clutching his chest, face contorted in pain. She ran to the bathroom and returned with a glass of water.
There he was! A stranger, in her bed, naked, dead.
She stood there beside the bed holding the glass of water with an animated face that expressed shock, fear and terror. And then in a second, her face straightened up, expressionless, as she walked towards the dead man. She checked the pulse on his neck. It felt cold. She blew a kiss and pulled out her panty from beneath the dead man’s head. She went on to pick her clothes one by one and got dressed. As she tied her hair into a bun, her smartphone hummed with vibration. Private number. She answered the call. “Is it done?”, the called asked. “yes”, she replied. “Send me the pictures”, the caller demanded. “In a few minutes”, she replied and the line went dead. After taking half a dozen close up pictures of the dead body, she pulled out her laptop, switched it on and punched a 12-digit passcode to boot it. The screen lit up in seconds with only one software shortcut icon on the desktop that read Bunny trap with spyglass as its logo. She connected her phone, transferred the pictures and mailed them to the caller. She poured a peg of Jack Daniels and dropped three tablets of magic pills as the delivery notification popped on the screen. The tablets dissolved in the whiskey almost instantly and she gulped it. Five minutes later, she started sweating profusely and her BP shot up at an alarming rate. She struggled her way to the telephone and called the reception.
“Help! Help! Someone, please help me. My friend is lying unconscious in bed and I am about to die. Please help us!”, she screamed on the phone mustering all her energy.
“Ma’am please calm down. I will send the hotel medic immediately. Your room number is 302 right?”, the receptionist tried to pacify but the line went dead.
Three minutes later, the hotel staff broke open the door and entered the room to find a young lady lying unconscious on the floor and a naked man on the bed. They hurried both of them to the nearest hospital where the man was pronounced dead upon arrival but managed to put the lady on ICU.
Dr. Anitha Arvind was one of the chief doctors and was mad at the police for bringing another body for post mortem to her hospital.
“How many times have I told you not to bring any more bodies to my hospital. Why don’t you understand? I am running out of staff and only two days back three of my doctors had resigned and you keep loading up bodies! It’s 5PM and I haven’t taken even my lunch yet! Only God should help me! “, she yelled at the sub-inspector.
“I do understand doctor but please, the dead man is a high-profile guy and we need someone with a good reputation to handle this. We could not think of anyone else but you!”, the sub-inspector reasoned with Anitha.
“well, this is more of a curse than compliment”, she accepted the body reluctantly. What other option did she have?
“Ms. Jenny, how are you doing?”, Anitha smiled at her patient recovering at the ICU. Jenny’s face was weak and expressionless.
“I need my phone”, she mumbled.
“Nurse, get her the phone,” Anitha instructed the nurse. “Please do call someone for assistance. Its been four hours and no one has turned up to look after you. Don’t you have any friends or family?”, she sounded concerned for her patient. “Oh, you poor girl. Don’t hesitate to call the nurse if you feel anything strange in your stomach, okay?
“How is Martin?”, Jenny asked.
“I am sorry dear. Your friend is no more”, Anitha sighed.
Jenny closed her eyes tight, teardrops rolled down from the side of her eyes.
Later that night, the duty nurses were in their room when Jenny pulled out her phone from under the pillow and called the private number.
“Have you made the arrangements?”, she asked.
“Yes, I will visit you at 2AM with an attender. The duty nurses will be sent away for half an hour. We will do it as planned”, explained the person on the phone.
“Okay, I am ready,” Jenny said.
Time was 1:30 AM when Dr. Anitha came for the night rounds. She was at the general ward when the duty nurse came running towards her.
“Doctor, the patient in bed number one is having fits. She is not responding to our treatment.”, the nurse sounded terrified.
“Shit! Did you give the anti-epileptic injection?”, Anitha spoke fast as she ran to the ICU. “Not yet, doctor. She is uncontrollable”, the nurse ran along with the doctor.
“Oh, you fool!”, Anitha was mad.
Jenny was having severe convolutions when Anitha arrived at her bed. She instructed the nurse to hold Jenny down but she was uncontrollable. She yelled at the nurse to find an attender. The nurse ran out and brought one but, in the meantime, Jenny was dead! Anitha couldn’t believe she lost her patient. Placing two hands on the bed, she hung her head down and shut her eyes tight, exhausted and frustrated from the physical and mental trauma. The nurse hadn’t seen Anitha getting so upset about losing a patient. She stood there shocked and dejected. Anitha wiped the sweat off the forehead with the back of her wrist and pulled the bedspread over Jenny’s motionless face. “Clear the bed”, she told the attender who was standing nearby and called the nurse to her cabin to brief on further proceedings. The attender pulled out Jenny’s bed and trolleyed it to the big elevator meant for shifting beds. As the elevator doors closed, Jenny sprang up to life and got down from the bed. The attender quickly shifted a dead body from another bed that was positioned there already. Jenny lied down in the bed and pulled the sheets over her face. The elevator stopped at minus two where a black color Swift was waiting for her with an open door. Jenny got down from the bed and run to the car which burst out of the parking lot within minutes.
Dr. Anitha hugged Jenny with her left hand even while driving the car and broke down into tears.
“You played this so close to your chest Abi”, she couldn’t contain her tears.
“You will be fine Ani. Everything is okay now.” Abi patted Anitha’s shoulder as she held her tight.
“It’s all my fault! I didn’t know that he was a devil. The moment I saw myself on that video I felt a mountain crushing my chest! Even if I had accepted to pay him the money, that monster would not have let us live in peace.” Anitha’s voice chocked.
“And that’s why he had to die, right?”, Abi said calmly. Her voice sounded therapeutic.
“I am sure his gang members will find out the truth and come for us. This isn’t over yet”, Anitha said worriedly.
“Don’t worry, according to them and everyone, the girl who slept with Martin is dead too. They are going to suspect their rivals, the Shark gang for the murder and the police will be more than happy to see two dangerous gangs killing each other. Your sister just made their job easy. By the way, whose dead body is it that is lying in the name of Jenny at the hospital?”, Abi sounded curious.
“Oh! it’s an orphan. She committed suicide a few days back. Good time in bad times, her physique and age were almost the same as yours. I will fabricate the report and delete the CCTV camera footage leaving the police no trail.“, Anitha explained.
“That tablet you gave me was perfect. Anything more would have really killed me”, Abi said worriedly, “How about that attender? What if he opens his mouth?”
“Don’t worry, he is a loyal soul. I am taking care of his daughter’s education and I promised him that I will make her a doctor.” Anitha said.
“That’s your weakness. You trust men so easily!”, Abi snubbed.
“Oh shut up! Your flight is at 5:30. I have packed all your things and kept them in the dicky. You go to the States and never come back!”, Anitha said sharply.
“Unless if I have to kill someone else for my sister!” Abi snubbed again. The sisters stared at each other for seconds and then burst into laughter!
The swift kept rolling on the highway under a dusky sky.
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