Beauty, Beast and a murder—Part 2
The mere thought of having Steve back made her comfortable. She had definitely had a very tiring, frustrating and scary night because of the many things going on around her. Emma being murdered, then Steve being locked up and then all these reporters!
She would give anything in the world to just get away from the numerous phone calls and interview requests. Everyone just wanted to know about the relationship between Emma and Steve. How did it matter to her? She did not care about the happiness in their relationship or the lack of it. All that she cared about was being able to spend a few minutes with Steve everyday and not being constantly interrupted by his neurotic wife. That was what happened everyday and she, Dawn, had to put up with it.
She heard a knock on her door. She had never expected to see his face first thing in the morning.
“They let me go.”
She wanted to ask “Why?”, but she corrected herself and said,
“Great news! Of course I knew they had to, Steve. I have already called our attorney Roger Arnold. He is on his way.”
“That is probably not required, Dawn.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed.
“Emma was poisoned it seems,” said Steve with a tone that had no conviction in it.
She wanted to ask a thousand things, “How was She thought about things for a couple of hours. Then she made it straight to the police station to hand over the syringe. As she had suspected and what the police had suspected, it contained faint traces of digitalin, a poison that goes straight to the heart and yet takes time to cause death. Since the scene in the play was that of her sleeping, it probably made things look more natural. And moreover, the syringe had Steve’s fingerprints on it.
“I did not do it! I swear I did not,” cried out Steve.
“You can explain it to the jury, sir. I have evidence of poisoning and your fingerprints on the instrument that administered it.”that possible? I saw your hands around her neck? She had seemed alive until then.” She thought it was probably better to leave the questions to the lieutenant currently taking charge of the case.
Steve looked so lost. So distant.
She had to do something. Someone had to do something. She went backstage just to poke around. Maybe she will find something that the police had missed. She heard footsteps. She turned around. Her heart almost skipped a beat.
“Steve!”
“What are you doing here? I thought my efficient secretarial machine would be at the office,” said Steve.
“I couldn’t concentrate. Just somehow felt like coming back,” replied Dawn.
“It looked like you were searching for something there Dawn. Do you need any help?” Steve questioned, with a suspicious glance around.
“Nothing. I just feel a little disoriented from all the events over the past two days. It has all been too stressful.”
“I understand,” He took her hand into his and gave her a reassuring hug. She put her hand into her pockets. It was still there. Steve had not seen what she had picked up.
That night
Steve had been arrested. Emma was dead. Dawn couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t think she was strong enough to do what she had wanted to do. She had looked up to Steve for almost all her life. All she expected was love in return. She had hated Emma from day one. She, Dawn was more than decade younger, more beautiful and absolutely crazy about Steve, but somehow he kept putting up with his neurotic wife. The more she tried to get closer, the more he pushed her away from his world.
And one day she found out the truth about him. He was leading a double life; he had never been faithful. Her world seemed to be crumbling all around her. Her hero-worship turned into maddening, obsessive jealousy, not to mention the sheer anger she felt. She had wanted to do something. She had wanted to end it all. She had wanted a life where neither Emma nor Steve existed. And thus she came up with this plan. She had taken Steve’s fingerprint on the syringe in the pretext of a stage prop for another story that was being written. All that she needed to do was administer the poison and let someone find the syringe. When the police had missed picking up this crucial piece of evidence, she had to take it upon herself to return it to them. A plan crafted so beautifully, a plan that succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. But she couldn’t go on…. Maybe she was just not strong enough.
Sometimes Love can go beyond simply being Love…. Dawn slept peacefully never to wake up again…There were no clues at all to this one.
– Anuradha Chandrasekaran
Comments
Leave a Reply
