As the death crawled slowly ( Cont)

Chap 2 THE ESCAPE

Once Anika decided on her action, she looked around for the next move. ?The AC facing the dead man was already running. She turned down its temperature to the minimum, nearly to the shivering point. ?She found three other ACs and switched them all, to the minimum temperature. She knew that this chill temperature, will disturb the ‘Algor mortis’ of the dead body, and thus the Police cannot guess with certainty, the real-time of death.

She picked up her handbag and walked to the heavy front door. She opened it to a slit, and scanned outside with a squinted eye. The Guard, who always used to sit there, was conspicuously absent. In a quick move, she opened the door fully and walked out. Shutting the door behind her, she started to move a bit calmly, with a deliberate air of mock indifference.

Coming out of the gate, she looked around. ?Some auto-rickshaws were parked, waiting for customers on the opposite side of the road. No! If she picks up a rickshaw, in future, the auto driver could become a prime witness for the police, to prove that she was picked up from the Yoga site at 8.15 PM.

Luckily for her, the road lights were on the opposite side of the pavement. Several buildings on her side made the pavement a bit dark on her side. She carefully walked, sticking to the shadow.

Walking for 5 minutes, she spotted a mall, and she entered it.?She went to the women’s dress section. In a quick move she purchased a new set of dresses, at random, Her indifferent attitude of not caring or selecting its colour or design, surprised the salesgirl a bit. She bought a perfume bottle along with the dress.

Reaching the changing room, she changed into the just purchased new dress. She stuffed her previous dress inside the carry bag, given by the shop, and sprayed a liberal amount of perfume on the dress. Walking out, she reached the corner of the road and dumped the bag, with the dress and perfume bottle, inside the bin. She heaved a sigh of relief for the time being. She knew, that if by chance, the police brings in a sniffer dog to the murder spot, this perfume will confuse and stop the tracking process of the sniffer dog beyond this point.

After a few more minutes of the walk, she hailed a taxi and reached her home. She directly dashed under the shower and took a long hot shower. She still felt that there was that sticky blood on her fingers. She packed a small bag with her essentials. She called her friend Moksha in Mumbai and informed her that she was coming over to her house and asked her to message her residence address.

Taking a taxi she Reached the Bangalore State travel bus stand, she boarded a bus to Mumbai which was just leaving. Her new?journey started as she sadly slumped on a corner seat.