Whodunit - Chapter 7 - The ex-wife, the wife and the mistress!

“What do you mean?” I asked sharply.

She smiled; concern had all but disappeared from her face. “So he is dead?”

“Mrs. Sinha, where has your husband been for the past one week?” I tried to hide my shock at her casual response to the news of her husband’s death.

She went around the car, opened the boot and started removing bags, “Can you help me with this?” She handed me one bag.

I stared after her. Clearly, there was no love lost between Rajat Sinha and his wife.

“Mrs. Sinha, your husband was murdered!” I attempted to shock her.

She didn’t stop, “Yes, I guessed that much..” after some thought she continued, “So, who did it?”

Shammi and I didn’t reply. This conversation wasn’t going the way we had planned.

Her glance swept over Shammi and then me. “Surely..” she started, “Surely, you don’t think I did it!”

“Mrs. Sinha, we are in the early stages of our investigation. We do not want to speculate at this moment. ” I was lying to her; she was already topping my list as a suspect.

“Look, just because my husband and I didn’t get along doesn’t mean I killed him okay?!” She didn’t buy my lie for a minute.

“Mrs. Sinha, maybe we should take this inside. There are a couple of questions we’d like to ask you.” Shammi entered the conversation now.

She nodded, “Yes, I guess it’s best if you do.” She led us inside the house. As far as I could see, there was no elaborate security system, no dogs nothing. Rajat Sinha didn’t look like a man who expected to be murdered.

I took in some time to absorb the interiors. Rajat Sinha must have spent a bomb to decorate his place. It was beautiful.

Mrs. Sinha, let us admire her house. She was used to it, more aptly, she expected it. I quickly recovered my wits.

“So when was the last time you saw your husband? Alive.” She glared at me as I uttered the last word.

“About ten days ago.” Her answer was to the point. She wasn’t offering any extra information.

“Did you know he was dead?” I didn’t know why I asked her that question, probably just to see her reaction.

“No.” She was looking at me coldly.

“Did he say where he was going?” Shammi frowned at me. Take it easy, his look said. I don’t know why he wanted to be sympathetic towards her.

“No.. He used to come and please as he went. You see Inspector,” She called him inspector, Shammi, “We were married but we were living our lives separately.”

I wanted to question her further on her relationship with Rajat Sinha but Shammi stopped me.

“Is there anyone you suspect? Who might deliberately want to hurt your husband?”

She smiled at Shammi, that cold smile which could freeze out the sun.

“There is something you should know about Rajat. He wasn’t a very well liked man. I can think of many people who would want to hurt him. But to the extent of killing him?? That I cannot comment upon.”

“Many people in his business dealings??” This was getting even more interesting.

“Oh no! Not at all..” we waited with baited breath for her to finish her sentence. “Maybe you can start with his ex-wife and his mistress.”

Shammi and I looked at each other. It was clear to us then, that we were now in the middle of a very messy case.