The Mystery

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 17; the seventeenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

ACP Brijender Singh was lying in his bed with one hand constantly flickering the night lamp. Shalini, his wife, noticed this for some time and chose to ignore it. She knew he had a lot on his mind currently. They had made it a rule in their marriage not to interfere in each other’s work. But after watching this go on for 15 minutes, she said, “ Whats the matter Brij? Still thinking about the case? Let it rest for some time and go to sleep. You have not slept properly for 5 days now.”

Brijender was lost in his own thoughts and did not respond. Shalini touched his face and said, “ Are you Ok?” Brijender was startled but said,” Ya ya I am fine.” 

But Shalini knew that he wasn’t. Brijender had not slept properly for the last 5 days. She knew the reason, the entire world knew by now.

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It all started on the 1^st of May when Atul Malhotra, a well known journalist was found dead in his office late in the night. Later it was found out that he was strangled to death at 8 PM. The media had soon got hold of the story and it was immediately flashing as the headline on most of the top news channels. All the national and regional newspapers had the story running on the front page next day. 

Rajat & Amita Aggarwal had come in late on the previous night from a foreign trip and had had no time to catch on with the news. When Amita read the news of Atul’s death, who was a close friend of Rajat, she was shocked and went running towards Rajat to inform him of this incident but she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her husband lying on the ground,dead. Amita let out a huge cry and all the servants came running. Amita had got up 8:55 AM and had been out of the room for only 10 minutes. Rajat was the head of a Delhi based publishing house.

The primary evidence showed the murders to have taken place in an identical way. There was no straightforward logic that related the two murders and that is when the case was handed over to Brijender who had developed an image of seeing what was hidden in the one year he had been an IPS officer. The murders seemed to have been done in a perfect manner. No one had seen anyone enter or leave the victims’ house near the time of the murders. Brijender spend the whole day trying to figure out a connection between the two murders but no matter how deeply he dug into both victim’s work or life he couldn’t find something that would tell him who did this or why?  

It had been more than 60 hours since the first murder had taken place but still Brijender was no close to finding who did it. Brijender was about to leave for home when his phone rang at 6:45 PM on the 4^th of May. His heart sank when he heard the news that another murder had taken place in exactly the same manner. The victim in this case was Meera Gulabchand, another giant from the publishing world . He rushed to the spot and to his horror, the press was there before him. He was bombarded with questions about who this serial killer was, Why were all the targets publishers or media persons and what he was doing to stop him? This was when Brijender finally realised that his major worry is not to find the killer but to save people who might be his next targets. 

It was 6^th May now and this news was all over the news and Brijender was in the line of fire but it was not the press that bothered him. He was worried if there could be someone else as well and if yes, Who? And When?

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Brijender tried to divert the topic and asked Shalini, “what are you reading?” Shalini was herself in the publishing industry but she was very new into the world so Brij was more or less certain that she could not be a target all the targets till now were bigwigs. Shalini replied, “ Just a manuscript I picked up today in the office. I read a couple of pages and found them interesting. Some guy wrote it a few years back but it was rejected. Don’t know why?”

Brij- What is the title?

Shalini-THE MYSTERY, written by some Akash Mehra

Brijender had come across this name somewhere in his investigation. He thought for a couple of minutes and suddenly a spark appeared in his eyes. He asked Shalini for a pen and paper.

Shalini-Why?

Brij didn’t answer

Shalini was confused.

After scribbling for sometime, Brijender asked Shalini to call her boss.

The call went through.

Shalini: Hi Sir. Sorry for calling so late. My husband wants to talk to you.

After about 15 minutes, and a lot of Questions, Brijender cut the line.

Brij-I think you just solved the case for me.

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As Akash Mehra entered the house of Ajay Pratap Singh at 1:58 PM on 7^th May, he thought his revenge is soon going to be complete and completely according to the script. First Atul Malhotra, who called himself a friend, but still hadn't helped him one bit in getting his book published. Then it was Rajat Aggarwal and Meera Gulabchand’s turn who had told him that he should stop writing as his writing “simply not upto the mark” & “Just not good enough.” Their words still echoed in his ears. He had saved Ajay for the last as Ajay, CEO of Penguin India, had humiliated him the most. He still couldn’t forget the day when Ajay, in front of his entire top management team, had told him to try writing for a children's magazine or rather teach maths in a school like his protagonist in the so called novel. He couldn’t ever forget the torture he had gone through. 

Suddenly a person in a white shirt and brown trousers came running towards Akash and pinned him to the ground. As Akash frantically tried to release himself, Brijender took a sigh of relief.

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Brijender jotted down the words THE MYSTERY on a piece of paper. And started writing numbers underneath.

T=20

H=8

E=5

M=13

Y=25

S=19

T=20

E=5

R=18

Y=25

T=20  

THE=33,24+9

THE MYS=90,24+24+24+18

THE MYSTERY=158,24+24+24+24+24+14

1/5/8  - 8 PM

2/5/8 – 9 AM

4/5/8 – 6 PM

7/5/8 – 2 PM

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Luckily for Ajay Pratap Singh, ACP Brijender Singh’s wife worked under him.

Brijender and Shalini decided they should infact discuss work at home.

Akash Mehra has been in prison for the last two years. He was been given Death Sentence for multiple murders.

P.S.-I have used the concept of EJOTY. For details visit http://www.ludism.org/mentat/AlphabetFeats 
       24+9 means one full day plus 9 hours & so on for others

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