The Tainted Chalice

Kensington, an observant fellow, had walked by the big building twice at night on two different occasions but he always notices the strange quietness and lack of any sign of life.



^Source


Court Lane is no stranger to quietness, but ever since Sky High Towers constructed a building there, peace and quiet fled like the air trapped inside an over-inflated balloon that was pricked by a needle.

The building was named The Everest Suites. The building was aptly named. The building was a humongous piece of work which stood out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood filled with bungalows by residents made up of retired and active civil servants.

Court Lane was a place where everyone knows each other by the first name. It was a cordial secluded community until one greedy developer ( Sky House Towers) acquired some number of houses and there were talks of redesigning the houses acquired to suit a "more younger generation" who are "hip" and sometimes annoyingly referred to as millennials. It was a decision kicked against and vehemently refused by residents of Courts Lane. But at the end, the big money won and The Everest Suites were born.

True to their fears, Court Lane was changed forever as there was the never-ending stream of people, mostly young men and women, who the residents believe all led "questionable lifestyles". But with time they grudgingly have to accept their lot and learned to live with it.

Kensington was surprised to see The Everest Suite dark, deserted and the most disconcerting of all; quiet. He instinctively knew something was off or at the very least wrong. He walked on and soon was on the lighted part of the road. Facing the only Bank in the area was a big sign announcing Flo Pharmacy. He walked into the drug store and Florence Matt, the proprietress, was sitting alone with no customers.

"Hi, good evening Mrs. Matt, it's been a while I have been here and today is just a quiet night good for walks."

"Good evening to you too, but I doubt the evening is good for the residents of Everest." At the mention of Everest, Kensington knew his hunch was right after all. He tried to hide his apprehension as he quietly asked.

"I noticed everywhere is quiet as I just crossed there and at first I thought everyone left due to an ongoing maintenance or something."

"You really do not know?" Florence asked in surprise.

"No. I do not." came the calm reply.

"Well, that is surprising since the news is all over the town, and with the many arrests and the scandal. I am just surprised that you never heard."

"The thing is I have been inundated with work, and if not for this headache I won't even be out this night. I leave early and return late." She nodded sympathetical to this explanation.

"Three people died there."

"What?" Kensington shouted, his cool veneer discarded by the piece of information.

"I know it is just a matter of time someone shoots someone with the number of rough looking characters hanging around that place." He added.

"Who said anything about them getting shot? The three that died was not from a gunshot." She replied like a child that came to school with a bag full of ice creams; everyone would just have to wait to get a share of the goodies.

Kensington waited.

She continued as he hoped she would.

"The police are asking the same questions too. The bodies were discovered later after three days." She said.

"What do you mean by discovered? Where did they die?" He asked.

"They died in the same house, but due to the wild parties and the way everyone goes about their businesses no one noticed that one of the tenants were missing.''

Her nose wrinkled in disapproval. Kensington wondered if there was anyone in the Court Lane who liked the people of the Everest.

"You said three people died, what do you mean by no one noticed one of the tenants missing?"

"The other two, a lady and a man came to her house. So far, the police have identified the man. It turned out that the lady was the deceased girlfriend. But the man was a married man who was having an affair with one of the two ladies."

"Wow. That was quite some mix ain't that?" Kensington said.

"The man, whose wife was pregnant took a six hours flight to come for this little fatal rendezvous. Can you imagine such a betrayal?"

"I couldn't imagine that." He nodded in agreement.

"But the bodies were all bloated and disfigured making identifying them almost impossible if not for the identity cards found on them."

"That's a terrible thing to happen." He sighed.

"It was even more terrible for other fellow neighbors who wanted to break down the door when the awful smell coming from the room couldn't allow them to sleep at night. The caretaker later brought the spare keys which they used to access the room and they discovered the three bodies and called the police."

"You do have a lot of details about the case. So what killed them?"

"Have you forgotten my younger brother is a police officer? He gave me the information. There was no sign of forced entry; the door was locked with keys on the table. As of now, the police are investigating the triple deaths."

"Any suspects?" He queried.

"No suspects yet. Right now, there were no talks about it being murder as there was no mark on the bodies. The investigation is still in progress. Residents left their apartments out of fear; until the cause of deaths is ascertained."

Kensington decided he is now up to date with the affairs of the Everest triple deaths, and bought some drugs for his headache and went home. Life continued and he never gave much thought to it. Today was twenty-eight days after the incident occurred. Police are confident they have the suspect. When it was announced many could not believe it. It was the pregnant wife of the man having an affair.

How did she kill three people and escape without anyone spotting a seven-month pregnant woman around the building?
It was simple. She discovered of her husband's plan to dump her for the girl he traveled to see. In a fit of murderous rage, she planned to kill him. She poisoned the husband's drug (a habit she recently discovered) hoping to make it look like he overdosed on the drug. She never contemplated that the husband would share the drugs with the girlfriend and her friend. A sad case of infidelity ending in a disastrous manner.

Her lawyer argued for diminished responsibility on the account of her pregnancy and the hormonal changes which make mood swing very probable.

The case is ongoing.

The End

Authored by: @greenrun