Evidence: Veil of Secrets

By Faeza Farooqui

"The Veil of Secrets" marks her debut venture into the world of writing, showcasing her exceptional talent for weaving suspenseful murder mysteries. Faeza's work is celebrated for its ability to immerse readers into thrilling narratives, inviting them to explore the intricacies of human nature and the suspenseful world of crime and mystery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Jan 5, 2024

Book preview

Chapter - 1

Iwoke up still feeling dizzy and nauseous; my head was throbbing with pain. What happened last night? Did I drink too much again? Is this some sort of hangover? I thought to myself. I was not able to walk properly; my legs were weak, yet I managed to stroll myself to the kitchen and drink a glass of water.

I was feeling some sort of agonizing pain, and then I looked at my leg; it was shot, and there were bandages around it. What is even happening? I have no idea how all this happened.

I heard the police siren going on outside my house, and then I heard a knock on my door. I was struggling to walk, but I opened the door. There were two policemen at my door.

Y-yes? I was confused and not able to make sense of this situation.

Mr. Green, you are under arrest for murder.

Murder?? I didn’t commit any murders. What the hell are you talking about? My leg is deeply wounded. I’m the only victim here, and you say I murdered someone. Have you lost your mind?

Well, say that to the court." By doing this, they put handcuffs on my hand and took me into their car.

All this is a mistake; you caught the wrong guy. Please just listen to me once. I cried

We’ll listen to you in the police station; for now, remain silent, or I can take action to shut your damn mouth up.

What the hell is this officer’s problem? First he’s catching the wrong guy, and now he has the audacity to be rude with me? With me? Do you even know who I am?

I’m very well aware of that and your whole family background. Now, please, I’m asking you one last time to keep quiet. I’m losing my patience with you. He sounded really irritated.

My head is still spinning in circles, and now that I know this, I’ll for sure sue these people; they are accusing me of something I never even did. Who’s murdered? What murder? And how the hell am I even involved? These are the questions that circle my mind continuously.

I was trying to remember the events that occurred yesterday night and thinking about the so-called ‘murder’ I committed. In conclusion, I still couldn’t get a hint, and that is because I didn’t DO ANY MURDER!

My leg was still feeble from all the pain, and I groaned because it was hurting me.

What is it now? The police jerk asked in an irritated tone.

My leg is shot; it hurts a lot. I sounded weak.

You should’ve thought about it before killing someone; face your consequences now.

How many times do I tell you I didn’t kill anyone? Even I was irritated.

Oh yeah? Save it for later.

The police station arrived shortly after that, and by that time I had grown more curious than ever. I need answers. No, I want answers now! They’ll soon pay for what they did to me; my father will make them suffer.

They took me to a room; it was gray from inside with dim lights, and it had one table with two chairs, both opposite the ends of the table. I was made to sit on one of the chairs. There was a big glass window, but it was tinted so dark that I couldn’t even make out what was behind the window. But if I’m not wrong, I assume there are FBI agents there. I watch a lot of movies, so maybe my guess is right.

An old man walked in; if my guess is not wrong, he seems to be in his 50s. He came and sat down in front of me.

Hello, Mr. Cain Green, I’m Detective Greg Foster." He sounded calm but still firm.

Behind him, another officer entered. Unlike Detective Foster, he looked young—actually very young—almost around his 20s, and for some reason he looked familiar, but I couldn’t recollect. He came in with another chair and was seated next to Foster.

"He’s my partner, a new recruit, said Foster with calmness in his voice.

We’re finally meeting Mr. Green; I’m Detective Trevor Heller, and we’re both going to handle your case. He said it with a bright smile.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Chapter - 2

Yesterday night was a blast! It was fun, and I’m still in euphoria. I woke up all happy and satisfied in the morning, had a lovely breakfast, did some house chores that my mom assigned me to do, and then I sat down and switched on the TV. Scrolling through channels, all of them weren’t interesting. Until one news channel caught my attention.

The brutal killer of Linda May finally got caught. What a sadist man he was; he didn’t even grant a bit of mercy on the poor girl. The reporter was going on and on.

Linda May?? Our Linda was with us yesterday, all happy and chirping with excitement. No, it might be some other girl. A photo of Linda popped up on TV, and I was in shock. I was in utter shock at what I had just seen. Linda is dead.

Kate Weiner is a young girl full of life and joy. She is good friends with Cain; they are best friends, and when she heard the news, she wanted to rush to the police station. Why did they arrest Cain? He didn’t do anything. Her thoughts were still not processed properly, and this new information left her in shock. Her mother noticed her strange behavior and got concerned.

What happened, Kate, dear? She sounded really tense.

Mom, it’s Linda. She died; she’s dead; she’s no more."

What?? No, how is that even possible? She was right with you guys last night.

Yeah, and Cain is arrested for her murder." She stopped midway, took her bag, and headed straight to the police station. By the way, she called Megan and Leo; they were both good friends with Cain. This made them friends. Linda wasn’t exactly part of their gang; she was just a normal friend, not very close, especially after what happened last month.

Both Leo and Megan rushed to get there quickly when they heard the news from Kate. All of them were certain that Cain was innocent. He didn’t do any murders; he wasn’t even capable of doing one.

To describe Cain, it was not that hard; he is really tall and good-looking. His dark black hair was styled in a perfect way that suited him. He has big chocolate brown eyes and a perfect smile, making him even more attractive than other guys. All the girls were always behind him—a few for his looks and others for his money. He was really rich. His dad owned many companies and had the biggest business in Electronics in our town.

By nature, Cain was really friendly and chill; he was nice to everyone and a big party animal. His motto is more people, more fun’. He learned to drive at a very young age; yeah, he was a bit spoilt. He had ego and anger issues, sometimes even being selfish. Aside from all this, he was kind of a playboy on campus. He’s had five girlfriends, including the recent one. His recent love interest is Megan Fischer. He met Megan recently, about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Cain’s only hobby was to skate and flirt with girls. He was a good friend, almost friends with everyone. Like every other stereotype of the popular kid at school or college—yup, you name it—he was that. He wasn’t a bully or jerk, and he had only two people very close to him who knew most of the things about him, and they were none other than Kate Weiner and Leo Hoffman.

Kate and Leo weren’t exactly enemies, but they weren’t friends either. They argue most of the time and don’t seem to agree with each other at all, yet they still coexist. They weren’t friends with Cain because of his money. They both equally cared about Cain, and right now they were both really scared about the

Current situation.

Chapter - 3

Igot a call from Kate. I was working on my car engine at the time; it was a total mess. My car had my initials because it looked cool. ‘LH is written in a flame, and if you’re confused, then LH stands for Leo Hoffman.

I picked up the call, and with a panic tone, Kate said that Cain was arrested for Linda’s murder. I was really shocked by both the news that Cain was arrested and that Linda was murdered.

I dropped all my work and got ready. I had to reach the station as soon as possible.

I passed by Cain’s house; he didn’t live very far from me, just a few blocks away. There were police officers outside his house and maybe even inside. I wanted to stop and ask what was the matter, but there was no time for that. I tried my best to reach as fast as I could. Firstly, I was surprised to see that Kate called me. She rarely does that. The last time she called me was to inform me about some event that was around a year ago.

The main reason for this is that me and Kate don’t get along that well; we just tolerate each other because of Cain. I don’t really hate her; I consider her my friend, I guess. We could’ve been great friends; her personality is very jovial, but we both fight and argue a lot. At first, we were good friends, but after Dave broke up with her, she started acting really differently. She was losing patience, getting irritated easily, and most of it was her being really short-tempered. After their breakup, she didn’t really show much sadness, but maybe this anger was a way of releasing her frustration.

It was partially wrong from my side too; I never really asked her about it and rather fought with her when she got angry. It got really personal after a point, which resulted in our disconnect.

It’s been a year since all this happened. I really hate Dave for ruining our friendship like this. She was like my sister before. Let me see about Cain’s case first, and then I’ll