Where Has Love Gone

My name is John Anderson. I had just celebrated my 30th birthday in May. It was summer of 1999 in a not so sleepy beach town. I had been living with my parents until they decided to move to Australia. I had a handyman services business which was doing well, especially booming in the holiday season. The jobs were coming and I was contemplating with the idea of expanding my business.

Sitting behind the mahogany table in my office room, going over job details of previous months, the shrill sound of the phone bell broke through the quietness of that sultry morning. It was a call from the manager of a hotel in the vicinity, about four to five km away. They wanted someone to come and repair the water leakage in the bathrooms on the second floor of the hotel. All my staff was out on other jobs, so I decided to take a look myself. The neighborhood was network of four-lane roads lined with many trees. In fall, nature would light a colorful roof under the sky. The drive to the hotel must not have taken more than fifteen minutes, as the traffic wasn't heavy at this time of the day. On reaching the hotel I parked my SUV in the parking lot. The parking lot had neat lines of palm trees decorating it on both sides. I picked up my tool box and strode towards the main door of the hotel.

The hotel's metal and glass cladding was gleaming under the early morning sunlight. It was a favorite among local pub hoppers as well as from bordering towns too. However, the usual bustling activity of tourists checking in and out, etc., was missing that morning.

Once in, I walked to the front desk where I saw Roxanne for the first time. 'Roxanne'. I could never imagine anyone could look as fragile as she did. Trying not to stare at her, I showed off my company ID. She dialed an extension on the phone to inform the housekeeping supervisor. Pointing toward the lounger nearby, she asked me to seat myself and said the supervisor would shortly come and guide me.

I didn't realize at that time but it must have been love at first sight. Later I would remember thinking that her porcelain beauty, accentuated by blue eyes and blond hair, made her look younger than her twenty-eight years. Roxanne wasn't a local (which I had guessed or I would have definitely recollected having seen her before). She must've also been attracted to me as she walked up and sat down beside me and we got talking. She asked me whether I was doing a part-time job. I said 'No'. I told her that I ran an agency that did odd-jobs like the one called for by the hotel. Roxanne had hitch-hiked to town about a month back. She said, she was working at the hotel to make ends meet, but eventually had decided to stay on.

We must've been sitting for a while, when the supervisor came looking for me and I excused myself and went off after him. The repair job didn't take long and I was back in the foyer within fifteen minutes. I walked up to Roxanne to say good-bye. Before I realized I was asking her out on a date. She agreed.

Our first date was an enjoyable evening and I wanted to repeat it again. We met a couple of times again and got to know each other better. Roxanne had been married but the marriage had ended in divorce. An extramarital affair between her husband (Shaun) and his ex girlfriend had been the reason. Getting to know about the affair was bad enough but that it was conducted right under her nose had shaken her up. I couldn't imagine, how any man could ever even think of behaving the way her ex-husband had done with her. All along our relationship, this was always hovering in the back of my mind and the reason for concern for her. I wanted her to forget the unpleasantness of her past relationship and begin life afresh.

A month had passed since our first meeting. I found Roxanne as beautiful as I did when I had seen her that first instance. One day while dropping Roxanne at her rented apartment, I realized I had to do something fast so I wouldn't lose her. I knew I loved her and had to tell her that. I mustered some courage and did tell her, anxiously waiting for her response. I knew she liked me, but I was scared I might be rushing her. She was silent for some time; it seemed to me like hours. I wondered whether she would refuse to have anything to do with me. When she said she loved me too, I was overwhelmed; however, she added, she wasn't ready for another relationship. I suggested that she could move to my place as that would give us more time to be together. Initially, she wasn't sure but finally agreed and over the weekend, we moved her belongings from her apartment to my place.

Life couldn't have been better. I was deeply in love with the most beautiful woman I had ever seen or known. It was three months since she had moved in with me, we often spend weekends at the beach. Wading through the waters, on the second weekend in September, I got down on my knee and proposed to her. To my amazement, she did say 'Yes'. My joy knew no bounds. She was startled when I pulled her by her arm and pushed her into the car. I chuckled and informed her that we were going to drive down to the jewelry shop in town to buy a ring of her. The jewelry shop was the biggest in town and was famous for its handcrafted jewelry. At the store, Roxanne selected a platinum band with a cluster of five diamonds. As I slipped the ring into her finger, I remember thinking how well it suited her.

We decided to announce our engagement by throwing a party for our friends. Initially, Roxanne wasn't sure that we should announce the engagement or tell my parents just yet. Her parents had died in a car crash when she was three years old, an only child. Her mother's aunt who had looked after her was long since dead. So she had no one to call her own, she had said. I told her that it was no big deal - that my parents would welcome her and she could look upon them as her parents, so would my friends, I had said to coax her. She was finally convinced and we set the date for the party a fortnight later and got down to making a list of friends.

The engagement party went off well. All our friends wished us well and asked us to get married soon, so they could all celebrate at our reception once again.

After the engagement party, life settled in as usual. We had decided not to rush into marriage and wanted to enjoy this phase of our relationship. I went ahead with the expansion of my business and set up two new offices in neighboring suburb. I often had to go out of town to supervise the new offices but would return as soon as was possible, as I didn't want to leave Roxanne alone for long. Occasionally, I did have to stay overnight and would then be back by sunset, the next day.

Now, it has been around three weeks after our engagement party, when I had gone to resolve a problem in one of my new offices. I tried my best to return as soon as I could, but it wasn't sorted until noontime, next day. That afternoon, driving along the coastal highway, enjoying the horizon, I was excited that I was going to be home earlier than I had anticipated. The drive back took about four hours. On reaching the vicinity of my home, I parked the SUV two lanes away, so Roxanne wouldn't know that I was back and I could surprise her.

As I walked up the driveway, I could see the lights on in the house. That meant Roxanne was at home. I wanted to tell her how much I had missed her, in the last few days. The master bedroom on the second floor had a large balcony. The balcony overlooked the driveway and standing there one could have a good view of the immediate neighborhood. Walking up the driveway, I noticed absentmindedly that the lawn sprinklers were swiveling. On reaching the main door at the end of the portico, I jabbed the keys to unlock it. Behind the door was a long passageway, which led to the sitting room and the rest of the house. This section of the house ensured visual privacy between the main entrance and within.

I entered, walked up the passage and went searching for Roxanne. She was not in the sitting room. I tread softly up the wooden steps, taking care not to alert her. The study was near the landing, but the door was closed. I opened it. I looked around the room before my eyes settled on the sofa. I could see someone was sitting on it. I thought, may be Roxanne was catching up on some reading. I walked up slowly hoping to catch her unawares. As I walked around the sofa, to my horror, I found a man sitting, his head supported by the backrest. Blood oozing from the side of his neck had drenched the shirt of his track suit. The sight terrified me. My first thought was about Roxanne: had she killed this intruder, and where and how was she? I nervously looked around the room; she wasn't there. I looked at the man again. He looked familiar. To my astonishment, I realized it was Shaun Davis, Roxanne's ex-husband - I remembered him from the picture she had shown me, couple of months back.

I ran out of the room and toward the master bedroom which was diagonally opposite. As I entered the room, apprehension enveloped me. All the lights near the balcony and the walk-in closet of the master bedroom were alight and bright; the light becoming softer drew shadows all the way, till the light from the bedside lamp created a halo on the bed next to it. I walked toward the bed and froze. Roxanne was lying motionless between the crumpled linen. My eyes took in the scene on the bed. Ironically, recapitulating what I saw that day, was a beautiful composition in a painting. The lilac linen, the lavender negligee that Roxanne was wearing and scarlet - blood from the wounds spoiling the fabric. I moved closer to get a closer look. There were stab wounds on the left side of her chest. I picked up her hand but it fell limp. If Roxanne was wearing a negligee, she had not expected the caller, I thought crazily. This could not be happening to me. To Roxanne. Dazed, I called the police and an ambulance. Unable to look for the assailant, a third person who might still be hiding somewhere in the house, I went to Roxanne hoping that she might still have survived the attack. Sometime later, I could hear the distant siren of the ambulance and the police become louder and finally stop in the driveway.

Anderson's narration ends abruptly. Some news reports about his death and the decade-old double murder published in the newspapers have been reproduced to complete the story.

The police identified the decomposed body found yesterday in a secluded area of the beach as that of John Anderson. According to the police, initial investigation indicates death by drowning. However, the final autopsy report is awaited.

Ten years back, John Anderson had been a prime suspect for the murder of his fiancee Roxanne and her ex-husband Shaun Davis. The double murder in the spring of 2000 was discovered by Anderson when he returned from a business tour. While Davis's neck was stabbed with a sharp object, Anderson's fiancee had stab wounds in the chest. It was Anderson who had called the police on discovering both victims in his home. When the police arrived, they found Anderson distraught cradling his fiancée's body.

According to the postmortem, time of death was between 6:00 and 6:30 pm. While Davis had been stabbed twice in the neck, there were multiple stab wounds on Roxanne's chest. Her body was found in the master bedroom and that of Davis in the study on the same floor. Both murders had been committed with the same kind of weapon. The police believe an ice pick, or probably two of them, could have been the murder weapons used to kill the victims. Nothing had been stolen or out of place in the house.

The murderer had entered the house through the window in the study. The police had found two sets of muddy footprints coming from and going toward the window. The window opened to the lawn. The lawn was damp because the sprinklers had not been switched off. This was presumably why the shoe prints were muddy, the police said. The shoe prints had not matched that of Anderson. Search for fingerprints along the window, either on the inside or outside wall had surprisingly drawn a blank.

No signs of scuffle. No finger marks were found on Davis's neck or shirt. The CCTV too had been switched off for 12 hours during which time the double murder had taken place. Anderson, who had been taken in for questioning, had said that he did not know why Davis was in his house.

The double murder had shocked the community and dominated headlines of local news channels and newspapers for many months. Inspector Smith, in charge of the investigations at the time, had pinned Anderson as the prime suspect for the murder, which he believed was premeditated. However, Anderson's strong alibi had made the case weak and no charges had been filed against him.

John Anderson's death brought back memories of the double murder in the community. When the police searched his home, they found an open MS file carrying the above story on his laptop. The police assume Anderson had been writing but had suddenly decided to drive down to the beach, where his body was eventually found. With the death of John Anderson, who was a witness as well as the main suspect of the double murder of his fiancee and her ex-husband, chances that the ten-year-old case will be reopened and solved don't look probable.