A Half-Baked Love Story

PROLOGUE

~A Night under the Rain~

The blue and red lights are little more than smudgy illuminations in the slanting overpowering rain. But beneath their glow is the white bodywork of a police car. It's yellow-white headlights spot the dense heavy mass lying  to the side of the lane where the tail-lights sit unusually high off the ground and tipping upwards into the rainy sky. The tense atmosphere peppered the suspense that had gripped the people along the street as they saw the body dropping dead from the building right onto the pedestrian walk washing the rain-puddles with its blood. 

A dozen police cars had circled the dead body, isolating the crime spot and the over peering public with strangled barricades and a thousand more warning boards. The sky was grey today, overcast by thundering clouds and mysterious raindrops. And the presence of a dead man along the street only added to darkness of the weather. Rain collapsed in crazy chaotic drops, the  wind gusting through the fall carrying them in wild vertices one moment and in diagonal sheets the next. The investigator officials thronged around the pool of blood trying to make out the height from which the body had dropped. 

"Hand me a torch..fast!" yelled a Constable as he sprinted through the silver puddles approaching the body. "Isolate the spot..act fast" he shouted orders to his companions as he washed the overflowing rain from his forehead with the back of his hand. 

The rain was something that stopped the Constables from haste. The puddle around the body had hued red, washing his blood into the gutters within seconds. Apart from the ever-dropping rain around the body, no muscle moved. The water around him reflected the red-blue lights of the vehicles around. His body lay cold, his eyes wide open and a look of shock and exasperation murdered deep into his pupils. The constable flashed his torch onto the dead man's clothes. No sign of wound or any attack. Absolutely zero signs of struggle, only the extreme horror in his eyes conveyed that this was not a suicide, but a murder! His outstretched hand lay clutched and his shoulder damaged. A thick scarlet pool spread from under his head that lay merged with sticky pavement.

 The Constable heard a slight ringing of a cellphone nearby, the ring beeped only for seconds, before being subdued under the sound of thunders. The light from the Constable's torch fell upon the dead's right clutched fist hiding a ringing device. 

The phone, their clue! It had their next message! Two murders had took place within the same day. Both of them, so sweepingly; without any proof the criminal. Both murders carried message informing them about his next target. The criminal had chose a very fine rainy day for his crime...no signs, no hand-prints, nothing! All proofs washed away!

"Get the cell..quick!"

The cell was passed with quick succession to the Constable. It's message read:

'Two more down, before I surrender. Meet you at the Corporate Party, Hotel Trident.' 

A shock of terror washed across the Constable's face. He gave one final look at the single raindrop sliding down the blurred, wet screen of the cracked cell-phone as he gave orders to his companions...

"Fast...HOTEL TRIDENT!'

All the engines roared in unison, as the sirens went off again. All police-cars heading towards Hotel Trident. The body was left for a group of surgeons. 

...

A fleet of sirens passed the traffic, heading through the blinding rain. Weaving dangerously in and out of traffic, half blinded by glare of headlights, the cars raced through the muddy highway with, bullet sized rain drops thundering onto the windshield, wipers frantically moving over the never ending sheet of water, blurring the street, chasing the smudged red tail lights ahead. back With frequent tires squeal, engine pushed to the limit, splashing the water puddles, exhilarating, as these vehicles jostled over the streets!