“We have many,” commented Austin, “Firstly they had a discord. Secondly one of our friends bumped into a similar looking man…the peaches for brother.”

“But, how can we say it’s a murder, not just a medical condition,” Alexei’s voice was desperate now.

“We are sorry,” Michael began but was cut off by John who put a hand on his shoulder.

“I think I know there has been a murder. A very clever murder, and it can be committed by someone who is well versed with the knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, preferably a doctor or a nurse,” John said.

Alexei was opening his mouth to say something when John motioned him to stop.

“I was confused between that needle puncture wound and the thrombus formation. Suddenly I remembered. Why do you need poison when you have air?”

He was met by blank stares. But Alexei’s face turned pale and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The blank mask of emotions on the face of Alexei, didn’t go unnoticed by John.

“Come on,” he looked at the others, his face shining with excitement, “If someone injects air into your vein, blood clots immediately. So if the air is injected into the axial vein, it clots on its way. The clot breaks into small pieces and enters circulation, thereby blocking more than one coronary artery to cause death.”

John completed his speech and looked please, “These are concepts of human anatomy.”
Finally it was Alexei who broke the silence, “You boys are a genius.”

He gave a dry smile, his face still pale.

“But we need more clues, like motives for the murder,” said Linda.

“How about a precious jewel? Maybe a family legacy. She got it while he wanted that thing. So maybe he was threatening her. And with every step he got more bitter till he was forced by his crafty mind to take her out of the way completely,” said Alyssa.

“This is real life. Not a fairy tale, Alyssa,” interjected Nathan.

“Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction,” she said icily, and looking straight at Alexei continued, “Do you know anything about keys?”

Alexei’s face blanched.

The others looked at each other and at Alyssa. She had her hands thrust into her pocket and was standing in a challenging pose.

“Umm, she kept telling something about a key, before she collapsed,” replied Alexei.

“What did she say exactly,”
Alyssa’s hands tightened on the piece of paper in her pocket.
“It was something like ‘K-E-Y-S, K-E-Y-S,   K-E-Y-S   I-N   M-Y   N-A-M-E.’ she was repeating it over and over again. It makes no sense to me,” replied Alexei.

“Neither to us,” Linda looked thoughtful.

“Do you have any keys, old keys maybe, with her name engraved on it? It could be the key to her murder,” asked Austin.

“None that I know of,” Alexei was at a loss for explanations.

“Hey, I almost forgot,” Michael barged into the conversation, “Do you know this Nokia handset? This isn’t available these days anymore.”

“By heavens. This belongs to Takeshi. He’s a doctor, so it’s difficult to handle his smartphone. So he keeps this for emergency calls. Where did you get this,” Alexei almost jumped on the phone.

“In your courtyard,” Michael replied calmly, “so seeing all evidences. We can safely conclude that Takeshi is the killer, but the question still remains, why did he murder her?”

“Okay kids, it’s probably late already. I don’t want your moms to break my door down searching for you. So you could come and think again tomorrow. But the way you solved the mystery of the murder was unbelievable,” he said, staring out of the window at the mellow orange glows of the evening sun.

Nobody said a word as they left silently.

642 words.
TO be continued...

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Dedicated to EverSinceNever for supporting me in real life. My cute friend. Sweet and sassy....
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