Whodunit - Chapter 13 - Meeting the Mistress

I tried to comprehend what Shammi was telling me. He was suggesting that Rajat Sinha had driven to the church himself. Which implied that he was meeting someone there. Someone he probably knew..

I decided to pay Smruti Sharma a visit. It seemed to me that the only person Rajat Sinha would want to meet in an isolated place would be his mistress.

 Prerna offered to drop me to her place.

“Why don’t you come with me?” I wasn’t too good at handling women who were emotionally upset and I had seen Prerna control the agitated woman earlier on.

“I can’t,” She said apologetically. “Have a lot of work to do.”

I nodded and stared out of the window when Prerna spoke again.

“Is Shammi going to join you?” She tried to ask casually. I looked away, suppressing a smile.

“Yes, he is.” I pulled out my cell phone and sent a text message to Shammi, asking him to meet me near Smruti Sharma’s residence.

“I can spare an hour.” Prerna smiled to herself.

I nodded. I felt great, like cupid..

Shammi was already waiting for us when we got there. I stepped out of the car and approached him.

“Great work with the witness.” I said warmly. I knew this was Shammi’s first murder case. I wanted to be supportive.

Shammi beamed at me, “I know you told me to meet the detective, but I thought this was more important… The detective ..” His voice trailed off. He was staring right past me. I turned around.

Prerna was walking towards us. She looked a little different. She had retouched her makeup!

Prerna saw me smile and looked at me nervously. I shook my head slightly. She relaxed. She understood that even though I knew what was going on, I was not going to comment on it.

Prerna and Shammi faced each other and smiled shyly. I rolled my eyes, exasperated.

“Let’s go you two!” I had no problems helping out with their blossoming romance, but I wasn’t going to wait around when there was work to be done.

Smruti Sharma lived in luxury apartments in a very posh area of the city. I had checked up on her on our way here. Smruti Sharma was a school teacher. She made a decent enough living but not the kind which would allow her to afford that flat.

If Rajat Sinha had bought a flat for this girl in this locality, she was not some passing fancy. Their affair was serious.

 

Prerna rang the bell.

Smruti answered after a while. She saw me and her face creased into a smile.

“You came after all.. Come in.”

The apartment was decorated tastefully. The walls were adorned with pictures of Smruti Sharma’s past. You can tell a lot from someone’s photographs. Like looking at the pictures I could tell Smruti had a comfortable childhood. Her clothes seemed clean and ironed, her hair always brushed. I could also tell she was particularly close to her sister, more than half of the pictures had her in it.

“So who told you about Mr. Sinha’s murder?” I asked scanning through the pictures.

“It’s her Tara, his wife.” She replied simply.

“Didn’t look like that.. She didn’t seem too happy to see you there.” I struggled to understand why Mrs. Sinha would want to inform Rajat’s mistress.

Smruti smiled, “How little you know about her. She told her maid servant. I used to pay her maid servant to give me news about her. You know, things like when she goes out, when she comes back. So that Rajat knows when it’s safe for him to go back. So she fed her servant with some information.”

“But why tell you about his murder?”

“Inspector! Who do you think called the press?? In tomorrow’s paper’s you will have a weeping widow and an angry mistress. Who would you root for?”

“So she called you and the press to create a scene?” I said incredulously.

“She hates me. She hates me even more now that she knew Rajat was going to change his will!”

My ears pricked.. Did she say Rajat Sinha was planning to change his will?? The word motive flashed in front of my eyes.

Whodunit - Chapter 12 - Handling the media

I swore under my breath! Media invariably ends up poking its nose into an ongoing investigation. In my experience, severe media criticism had forced the police department to get results but I had my doubts about how accurate the results were. Under pressure to deliver even the best of cops overlook clues. I was not going to let that happen to me.

I stepped outside and found Krupa Mitwe talking to the reporters. I guess I knew now, who Krupa Mitwe was calling as she was walking out of the morgue room.

She was telling the reporters what a great misfortune it was that a great man like Rajat Mitra  Sinha had been brutally murdered. She turned around and smiled at me.

“And that’s the inspector who’s investigating Rajat’s death.”

The reporters turned to me with all their questions.

I raised my hands to silence the horde of journalists, “The investigation is on. We will issue a statement only after we have something substantial to report.”

Prerna and Supriya stood behind me watching the press with awe. It was going to be their first high profile case.

I had just stepped back inside, leaving Krupa to handle the reporters when Shammi called.

“Chetan, things are getting complicated.” He sounded excited.

“What do you mean?”

“The person who made the call about the stench? I tracked him down.”

“That’s great! Anything new he can tell us?” I wasn’t expecting anything much from him, but maybe, just maybe he had seen something.

“Yes," He paused, "Are you ready for this?" He asked.

"What is it Shammi?" He had piqued my curiosity now.

"He saw Mrs. Sinha’s car near the church around 10 days before he reported the smell.”

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! He described a black color Scorpio with blue seating, just like Mrs. Sinha’s car.”

“That’s great! Bring him in; I have a few questions for him.” My mind was thinking furiously, now we had a witness who could place Mrs. Sinha in the area where we found her husband’s body.

“Chetan, that’s not it. He identified the person who was driving the car!”

I could barely contain myself.“Who?” I asked softly.

“Rajat Sinha.”

Whodunit - Chapter 11 - Discussion with Dr. Mahajan

Seems like everyone wanted him dead.   Krupa’s statement did not bother me, Mrs. Sinha had expressed more or less the same views. Prerna though, was shocked. She passed me a quick glance so as to say, Did you hear that?

I nodded and turned to Krupa, “Yes he is. Very much so.”

Krupa smiled softly, “Thank you Inspector.” She looked positively delighted with the news. As she walked out, she pulled out her cell phone, probably to share the good news.

Mrs. Sinha dropped all her pretenses of being the widow and asked impatiently, “Now can I see the body?”

Prerna, who had barely recovered from Krupa Mitwe’s behavior, stared at Mrs. Sinha’s with her eyes open wide.  The change in Mrs. Sinha’s demeanor was dramatic.

“Mrs. Sinha, how did those two get to know about Mr. Sinha’s death?” I was sure nobody from my team had told them.

She smiled coyly, “How am I supposed to know that?”

I didn’t believe her, but I had no choice. I led her into the morgue and showed her the body. We needed a family member to confirm the identity.

Most people are nervous and apprehensive about what they might get to see in a morgue. Not Mrs. Sinha. She looked comfortable in the morbid surroundings.

She took one long look at the corpse in front of her. “That’s him.” She said softly. She reached out to touch him, but checked herself midway.

Maybe there was some attachment in the relationship after all, I thought. She turned around suddenly, “What next?” Her cool composure had taken over again.

I sent her outside, to fill up some forms before she could claim the body. Prerna followed her. She too had noticed the sudden glimpse of emotion on Mrs. Sinha’s face.

I turned to leave when Dr. Mahajan walked in.

“Didn’t expect to see you here.” She said.

“I came with Prerna.”

“Oh!” An awkward silence ensued.

“So..” She was trying to cover the silence in the morgue. “Did you read the report I sent to your office?”

“No..” I looked at her confused. “What reports?”

“The complete autopsy report..” She saw the expression on my face. “Okay.. don’t think you have read it. Call me if you have any queries.” She turned to leave. She took one last look at Rajat Sinha and said “You know, I feel sorry for him.”

“Because he was murdered?” I asked.

“Partly, but mostly because of how he died.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s obvious that first he was drugged with something. He died because of that.”

I nodded. This part I already knew.

“Then, someone stabbed him, in a vertical motion. To do that, someone would practically be sitting on him!”

I wasn’t following her. “I don’t understand Supriya.”

“Okay, see..” She pulled out a pen from her pocket. “Suppose this was a knife, and I was to attack you while you were standing,” She drew a rough diagram for me.“The blade would leave a gash, going either from left to right or from right to left, depending on the murderer’s dexterity. But the wounds on Rajat’s body, they are like a..” She struggled to find the right word, “pin pricks, only bigger in size. The blade has just pierced his body, no trails. Understood?”

I nodded. I didn’t know what to do with that piece of information though.

“Also,” she was in full flow now, in her element. “I think after he was dead for some time, he was turned over. Or maybe he rolled over. Was he found somewhere near an inclined surface?”

I shook my head. There was no way Rajat Sinha could have rolled over to where we had found him.

“Why do you think he was rolled over after some time?” it was obvious someone had rolled him over because of the way we had found him, arms tucked in neatly under the body. What interested me was that Supriya was suggesting the killer had come back!

“His liver,” She said thoughtfully. “It was ruptured by the stabbing. If he was turned over immediately, most of the bile would have trickled outside his body. But the amount of bile we found coagulated inside his body was significant. I am guessing he was turned over after 3-4 hours.”

I tried to digest that piece of information when a frantic Prerna rushed in interrupting our discussion. “You better come quick!”

“What’s wrong?” Supriya reacted before I did.

“The media..” Prerna said panting heavily, “they are here!”

Whodunit - Chapter 10 - Back at the morgue

Contrary to what Supriya had told Prerna, there were three women waiting for us at the morgue.

I could only assume that they were the women in Rajat Sinha’s life.

Mrs. Sinha smiled as she recognized me. Her demeanor had changed completely. Her eyes were red and swollen as though she had cried before coming. I raised my brow questioningly as she approached me.

“Appearances.” She whispered as she stepped closer.

“Inspector! My husband! You said I could come here and claim the body. Why are these women here?” She cried playing her part perfectly.

Smruti Sharma, who I recognized from the pictures in the report, came forward. She too had tears in her eyes, but I couldn’t tell whether they were genuine or fake. “Rajat and I were planning to get married! Please, please tell me he is not dead!!”

Both women were looking at me to take a decision. I turned towards Prerna for help. She shook her head. This is not my problem, she indicated by raising her palms.

I turned towards the bickering women, “Please. Calm down.” That only seemed to get them more agitated. My voice drowned as the women turned towards each other, each asking the other to leave. Strangely, the third woman did not involve herself. She had covered her mouth with her hand. She was trying not to laugh!

I dragged my eyes away from the third woman and focused on the other two. After watching me struggle for a while, Prerna stepped in. She physically separated both of them and said, “Only the legal wife of Mr. Rajat Sinha has claim over his body. Miss..?” She turned towards Smruti.

“Smruti.” Mrs. Sinha provided spitefully.

“Miss Smruti, I’m afraid, you have to leave now.”

Smruti turned to me for support, I looked away. There was nothing I could do for her.

“But he hated her! I’m sure she murdered him!” I called some deputies to escort her out. She shrugged their hands off her shoulders. “Fine! I’ll leave,” she turned towards me, “You come see me later on and I will tell you why she murdered him!”

She walked out of the room, her head held high

. Prerna turned towards the third woman, “And you are?”

“I’m Rajat’s ex-wife, Krupa Mitwe. We got divorced a year back when he married..” Her voice trailed off and her eyes rested on Mrs. Sinha.

“I’m sorry Krupa,” Prerna said gently. I was sure she hadn’t seen Krupa laughing. “But you too, have no claim over the body.”

Krupa laughed, “You misunderstand me. I didn’t come here for the body!” She seemed to find it extremely funny that anyone would think that.

Prerna stared at her, surprised. “Oh. Then you are here for?”

Krupa smiled, “I came to make sure he’s really dead.”