Whodunnit – The Reunion

This is the solution of the whodunnit, written by Ajay Nair, on Blogadda. It is my entry for the Mystery Fiction “Whodunnit” contest.

There has never been any love lost between the twins (Infact, hadn’t they even tried to drown each other once?). Both have gone their separate ways a long time ago and, as far as I can tell, they haven’t been in touch ever since.

Sia has never really loved her sister enough to weep after her death. Sure, there would have been some sadness (they had been twins after all) but they haven’t cared about each other enough to feel real pain – the strange arm-bands are proof for that.

Lila didn’t die. Sia did. And Lila killed her.

When Sia went into Lila’s room to say her last goodbyes, Lila probably tricked/bribed her into pretending to be Lila as a “prank” to lighten the mood of the “party” before slipping poison into her tea – which Lila must have offered to Sia the same way she offered tea to the narrator.(Hey, I can only guess!) Lila must have known the poison will take some time time to kick-in giving her ample time to settle in as Sia.

Lila has been planning this for a very long time. She is dying and before that happens she wants payback for all times these people have dared to try and kill her! She has ensured that everybody she hates is in the same place at the same time. I can only assume that Lila will lie and trick her way out of this, make her escape and never been seen again as “she’s very smart that way”.

I enjoyed this contest extremely and have tried my best to solve the whodunnit. Hope it does justice to the orignal story.

I was also tempted to extend Ajay’s story to incorporate the identification of the killer in it as well. Hope you like it!

I watched the woman weeping in front of me. There had never been any love lost between the twins (Infact, hadn’t they even tried to drown each other once?). Both went their separate ways a long time ago and, as far as I could tell, hadn’t been in touch ever since.

Sia had never really loved her sister enough to weep after her death. Sure, there would have been some sadness (they had been twins after all) but they hadn’t cared about each other enough to feel real pain – the strange arm-bands were proof for that. Sure enough, there was something off about the heaving sobs coming from Sia. It was little too loud, a little too drawn out, a little too…forced.

I frowned and turned towards the others, to see if they had noticed the same thing. I saw M, R and G standing like statues with their mouths open, unable to take in what had happened, horrified that someone had finally accomplished what they had once dreamed about. I turned back once again to Sia. She had stopped sobbing and, for an instant, looked directly at me…and smiled. I gasped! How well I knew that intense, calculating look! How well I knew that crooked, yet ravishing smile! I had lived with them for six years. Lila!

Thoughts came crashing down in my head as realization, disbelief, shock and repulsion crossed my face in rapid succession. Everything fell into place now. Lila hadn’t died – she was standing right here in front of me! Then, that must mean…Sia. I turned towards the room filled with cops and forensics now. Sia was in that room. Dead. Lila must have somehow killed her and exchanged appearances. But…how?

I looked back at Lila. She was watching me closely and smiled a small, sad smile when she saw I had figured it all out. Suddenly I realised the how and the why was unimportant. All that mattered was Lila was still alive and had played us all. She had probably planned her payback for a long time ensuring that we were all there at the right place, at the right time.

A cop walked up to Lila and asked her to come with him to the police station and sort out some paperwork regarding her sister’s murder. Too shocked to react, I saw her walk out with him, knowing that she would never been seen again; that by the time I told someone what had happened and it would be proved that the dead body was Sia’s, she would have escaped… She was smart that way. Very smart.

Months later, I got a letter from Lila. In it she had explained how she had tricked Sia into pretending to be her and poisoned her. It went into more details but only the last line caught my attention. “I have made arrangements for you to recieve this only after I’m dead. Among all of them, you were always my favourite. See you in hell.”