"So, Mary what's your story?" I asked.
"Oh, I am just killing time and escaping a divorce, Nosey husband you know?" She was more than I could imagine.
Funny place she has found to "kill time" and escape the disaster. Crystal Lake's already brewing with mysteries ready to be solved by me.
Well, this is what I am made of and supposed to do. The bread crumbs attracts me like a moth gets drawn to flame.
I have solved cases of which I have missed counts. Corporate espionage to normal set ups to catch a criminal red handed, I did it all. But the lake, it was different, there's something both beautiful and scary about the Lake.
"Where are you so lost at?" Mary asked me.
I still couldn't process through the uncanny resemblance. It's like she is her but not her at the same time.
Was I dreaming or was it all so real?
[Flashback 2008, University ground]
SFX: -RANDOM LAUGHTER AND GIGGLES.
I was smoking a sutta with my friends at the local tapri with some chai and then I saw her. Meera, elegant and beautiful as ever. Time slowed down and I paused for a moment and flickered the cigarette butt to save myself the embarrassment and then I chewed up 5 chewing gums to mask my foul breath.
"Hey, so, you haven't stopped smoking huh?" She knew, but how?
"Oh, don't give me that look, your shirt still reeks of sutta smell." And then she sniffed the guilt out of me like a Hound.
She always had had a strong sense of smell and aroma and hence she always used to wear a special Lavender perfume.
"Sorry, I will quit I promise." Like I'd seriously do, a habit I need to let go of.
"Anuj….. Anuj..." and then I snap back to the present.
[Present day]
"Anuj…. Hey!" Meera snaped her fingers and then clapped to bring me back to my senses.
"You said before that you're looking for someone? May I know who? She asked with curiosity.
"It's, I am looking for my wife. She wrote a letter to me saying that she is here, somewhere, waiting for me to find her." There, I spoke the half truth without saying that she looked like Meera.
"Oh, married?" She sounded disappointed.
"It's like am still unsure if it's real or some prank, look, Meera, wife, she was dead a long time ago. Car crash." I revealed more like as if I am snapping.
I must not go further and reveal her the truth that she looked like Mary.
"So, where will you be staying?" She was more curious.
"Das babu made some arrangement at the Diver's Inn." An old rundown bar with a vintage look.
"That rust bucket? That's my domicile as well, Das Babu is a friend and I am paying him some rent to stay there." Something I wasn't expecting. Seems like we'll be stuck with each other for a long time.
[NEXT DAY, AT THE DIVER'S INN.]
They place looked dull and retro with pure vintage look with a rusted vinyl player playing RD BURMAN and KISHORE KUMAR.
Das Babu's heart belonged to the 70's and he made the place exactly like that with the aesthetics and posters of old Bollywood news paper strips, photos and posters.
"Anuj Dada, welcome." Das Babu greeted me.
"Hello Das Babu?" I shook hand.
"Room 401, your stay, I have cleaned it up and made it cozy enough." And with that it was time to lose some steam.
"What about her?" pointing toward Mary.
"Oh she, Buh, she is just a pain in the neck." Gets interrupted.
"Hey, I am doing my best to pay this month's rent, The job sucks, running errand for some shady punks isn't easy." Errands she said, for shady people? What was her game?
Well, I can't be overthinking as I needed to put together the pieces of the puzzles. I had everything put up on a board like a true detective.
"Man, why does none of these add up? The dates are misaligned? Townsfolks acting weird and the cryptic music in the cassettes that I have been receiving. What is she trying to tell me?" I was going through the clues that I gathered.
SFX: -PHONE RINGS.
"Subhas? Yes? No, I am confused since nothing ads up and everything seems abrupt." I gave up.
"You are chasing ghost bro; she isn't going to come back. Please return to Malda and get help." And with that Subhas got me furious.
"[SLAMS TABLE] Fuck you, I am this close..." and with that I hung up.
"Oi, the table is not your father's property to slam it." Pankaj, Das Babu's helper.
"Sorry. [sighs]" I was losing myself and then…..
"You got a parcel." Pankaj.
"Another one?" I muttered.
[VINYL RECORD BY "EMBER SCARS"]
"Hold me closer
Under the twilight sky
Pull me closer
And kiss me if I sigh
Let's get on the bed
While you caress my head
Touch me gently
And make this love feel eternal...."
This sounded familiar, a song which I played to her once on my prized piano, a stripped-down version of the original by "EMBER SCARS.", a local heavy metal band from Guwahati, a city where I once solve a major murder case and then met the band themselves. Aaron, was poetic as always.
"How is this linked to the case, did Aaron sent this to me?" I needed to call Aaron.
"[OVER THE PHONE] Hello? Aaron Kashyap? I received a vinyl of your new album ENIGMA; did you send that to me?"
"[On the other end] No, but I appreciate the concern, someone else might have shipped in over a wrong address. But if you intend to keep it, then keep it. Consider it to be a gift MR Sekhawat." And with that he hung up.
I replayed the verse again... and again...… and again...… to find a major clue. But I was blank.
"Tired?" Mary walked in.
"More like exhausted.
"What's your angle Mary? You look exactly like her, why and how?" I finally confronted her.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence." She tried shrugging it off.
"Mary, I need to trust you. So, no more bullshit."
"I am her estranged twin sister Mairah. She never spoke of me to you. I, was cast out from my own Bengali community for converting to Christianity to be with Richard, my ex-husband but he was an asshole and so, I filed for a divorce. Look, I am sorry." She revealed everything.
I pushed her further towards the wall, she didn't resist and she slowly pulled me towards her. And then it happened, I lost myself to the burning desire.