Whodunit - Chapter 3 - The Murder Weapon

Before I could get a closer look, the rest of the team arrived with sirens blaring loudly. A lady was leading the group. We didn’t have to tell them where we were. Like it had for us, the stench had led them straight to the body.

She stepped forward and held out her hand to introduce herself, “Prerna Batra. Forensics.”

She was far too attractive and too petite to be in this job.

“Inspector Chetan Gupta,” I shook her hand and turned towards Shammi, “And my partner, Sub Inspector Shammi Singh..”

Prerna passed a cool look over Shammi, “Ah yes.. Shammi Singh, We’ve..” A scornful smile appeared on her face, “worked together.”

Shammi looked away. Prerna turned her attention to the body. I turned to Shammi with a questioning look in my eyes. What was all that about.  Shammi shrugged his shoulders.

“So what do we have here Inspector?” Prerna called out to me. She had put on a mask and gloves and was on her knees next to the body. She handed me a pair of gloves as I stepped in beside her.

“Help me turn him over..” She ordered.

Now that her team had taken all the necessary pictures, we could move the body. We turned the man over and suddenly the cause of death was apparent to us..

The man had been stabbed, a number of times. The front of his shirt was smeared in blood. I was perplexed, there had been no blood stains on his back.. The multiple stabbing reflected the killer’s rage and I was surprised that not one of those cuts had pierced through his back.

Prerna preliminary inspection was over.

“Okay.. Let’s move him..” Some of her team members carefully lifted the corpse and took it out of the crime site. By the time we got through with the surrounding, a post mortem would have been done.

“Split up, bag anything suspicious, anything that looks out of ordinary, anything that doesn’t belong in the forest.” I took charge of the team now. Everyone nodded and went about their way.

With everyone out of my way, I turned my attention back to the shiny object. I put my hand inside the shrub and tried to blindly locate it.

“Find something?” Prerna said from behind me. She leaned over to peek. 

I was about to reply when my hand touched something.. I pulled it out.. Prerna saw it before I did.

We both stared at it speechlessly. I believe, we had found the murder weapon.