Whodunit - Chapter 17 - The Phone Records

“Was anyone with him?”

“Not that I could tell, but it was dark. I could be wrong. Can I go now?” Jagdish asked impatiently.

I nodded, “Come down to the station tomorrow and sign on your statement.”

Jagdish rolled his eyes.

“Don’t make me come down here looking for you,” I said sharply, “Get it?”

Jagdish walked away. I knew he would come, he was too scared to disobey.

“One thing I don’t understand Chetan.” Shammu Shammi had been standing in the background quietly listening to our talk.

I looked at him questioningly.

“Do you really think the killer drove back in Rajat’s car?”

“Yes, everything points to that. He knew where Smruti stayed, he knew where Rajat Sinha stayed. He knew him. This was no random murder.”

“Could be a she..” Shammi interjected.

I nodded. “Could be. We should ask Prerna’s team to take a look at the car too.”  

Shammi was on the phone before the sentence left my mouth.

We got in touch with Rajat’s Sinha’s service provider. They were very forthcoming with his phone records. News had already reached them that Rajat Sinha had been murdered. The manager even recognized me from my picture in the local newspaper.

We decided to head back home after that. It was already dark and I hadn’t read a single report completely. Before I spoke to more people, I wanted to get my basic facts right. Shammi drove that night, while I studied the phone records.

The records showed no incoming and outgoing activity for the past week. No calls were answered. Switched off maybe? But Smruti had called a couple of times and the phone went unanswered. I made a mental note to get her phone records too to check when was the last time she called.

I browsed the week before that. Till Thursday, heavy activity. Calls mostly, as expected from a business man. And on Thursday night, everything stopped.

Rajat had received a call from someone around 9.  Just like Smruti had said.

I thought for a moment and the pulled out my cellphone and dialed the number. The phone rang twice and then I heard a woman’s voice:

“Hi, you’ve reached the Mitwe's. We’re not in right now. Please leave a message…”

Whodunit - Chapter 16 - The Anonymous Caller

I shook my head. Things were not looking good for Smruti. After the blood soaked t-shirt we found the wallet, also under the bed.

“I don’t know how..” Smruti pleaded with us.

Prerna pulled out her phone and called her team “On the double!” she ordered over the phone.

“What does this mean for me?” Smruti was visibly scared now.

“What did you do after your dinner with Rajat Sinha?” I was praying she had a rock solid alibi.

“I came home and slept.” I sighed.

“It’s time you get yourself a lawyer.” I wanted to help her. I knew someone was setting her up. She didn’t seem like a fool. She could have easily disposed off Rajat’s things in the ten days period. Someone, on the other hand, had saved it. For this very purpose.

“Oh my god!” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“Is there anyone who might want to hurt you? Financially or otherwise?” I already knew the answer.

“Tara.”

I nodded. We would have to do a thorough check of Mrs. Sinha’s whereabouts that night.

Prerna’s team arrived and took over. Smruti, was extremely cooperative and signed all the documents that would permit us to search through her house.

“The key is still missing.” I suddenly remembered. “Its better you stay somewhere safer tonight.”

Smruti nodded and rushed to the phone.

“You really think the killer will come back?” Shammi asked me.

“No, but who knows. As long as the key is with him, she’s in potential danger.”

There was nothing more for us to do there. Shammi and I decided to meet the guy who had called about the stench. He was a college student who was very very reluctant to talk to us.

I was not surprised. He reeked of alcohol and substance. He seemed to be sober though. He grimaced when he saw Shammi.

“Oh man! I already told you everything!” he started walking away.

“Not quite, I have a few questions, uh..” I looked at Shammi.

“Jagdish..” Shammi helped out.

Jagdish didn’t bother. He kept walking, “I don’t have to talk to you, I know my rights.”

I sighed. “Then I’ll have to arrest you and ask you questions.” I called out after him.

That stopped him. “Oh yeah, arrest me for what?” He turned around, and started walking towards me meaningfully.

“Peddling drugs.” I said calmly. His eyes shifted towards his bag.

“That’s right, I know what’s in your bag. Now we can do this my way, and get over with the questioning or we can wait till Shammi gets an arrest warrant for you and question you at the station. What would you prefer?”

All steam went out of him. His shoulders slumped. I had dealt with drug users before.

“Make it quick.” Jagdish was trying salvage his pride. He put his arm around his bag protectively. I didn’t care. That was someone else’s problem.

“You got to the church often?”

“Yep.” Jagdish pulled out a cigarette. I frowned. Jagdish gulped and put it back inside.

“What were you doing there? The night you reported the stench?” Jagdish smiled and pointed at the bag.

“And when did you see the Scorpio?”

“Look, I don’t know.. a week ago, two weeks ago, who keeps track of these things?” He answered casually.

“This is important Jagdish.” I said seriously. He thought for a while. “I think it was last Thursday. Yep.. it was.. I remember because I had a exam the next day, so I left early.”

I calculated mentally. Exactly ten days ago.

“And you’re confident that Rajat Sinha was driving?”

“Who??” I looked at Shammi.. he shook his head and took out a picture of Rajat Sinha and showed it to Jagdish. He barely glanced at the photo.

“Yep. That’s him.”

“How can you be so sure?” I pushed the photo in his face to make him take a second glance.

“Because! He was too old to be there! I thought he’s someone’s father busting in on them!”

Dhruv or Aarti.

Whodunit - Chapter 15 - Evidence? or a set-up?

 “Is that..” Smruti was pointing at the phone, “Is that blood???” She had turned a shade of green.  She turned around. “I swear! I swear I don’t know how that phone got here! It was not here yesterday. I cleaned this room yesterday!”

I believed her. It was so painfully obvious that the phone was placed here by someone. It was perfectly positioned to be the first thing someone would see when they walked into that room.

Prerna tried to relax Smruti, “It’s ok.. We believe you.” She soothed her. Prerna too didn’t believe that Smruti was involved in any way.

“Did Rajat have a key to your apartment?” Shammi asked Smruti. Smruti nodded, she suddenly looked afraid.

“You think the killer got Rajat’s key and came here????” She looked around nervously, as though the killer was still around.

“That’s what I’m thinking. Who knows what all he might have left. We should take a look.”  Shammi was already thinking like a good detective.

We split up and searched the house, carefully not to disturb anything. Later, Prerna’s team would descend upon Smruti’s house and look for fingerprints, fibers and more.

“Uhh.. Chetan? You might want to take a look at this..” I could hear Prerna’s voice calling me..

She was calling us from the bedroom.  She was standing near the bed. I looked around. I couldn’t see anything out of place.

Silently, she pointed under the bed.

I got down on my hands and knees and peeked under the bed.. I stretched my hand and touched it, some kind of a cloth. I pulled it out and gasped.

Blood.

Smruti was shivering, her voice barely audible, “That’s.. that’s mine..”  

She was looking at the blood soaked t-shirt I held in hand.

Whodunit - Chapter 14 - The bloody phone.

“Yes,” Smruti continued. “Rajat was going to change his will and leave most of his belongings to me. He wanted to keep a lot of money aside for his kids.. He didn’t want Tara getting anything.”

Kids??? I interrupted her,“We went to Rajat Sinha’s house Ms. Sharma, and we didn’t see any kids there.”  It was true. We hadn’t seen anything that suggested that there were children in the house. No toys, no children’s books, no pictures.

Smruti laughed. “Well, they are not really kids. And they are not really Rajat’s kid’s. ”

I frowned. This case was getting more and more messed up.

“Ummm.. What???”

“Ya.. They are Krupa Mitwe’s kid’s, from an earlier marriage. But Rajat adopted them and he loves..” She corrected herself, “Loved them. Legally, he was still their step-father. But they cut off all ties from him once he divorced Krupa.”

“How old are these kids?” Rajat Sinha had certainly led a very complicated life.

“The girl, Aarti is 17, just finishing school and the boy, Dhruv is 19, in college.”

“College in the city?” If he was studying in the city, there’s a chance he knew about the old church.

“Yes. Very smart boy. He got scholarships from universities abroad, but he wanted to stay with his mother. The girl, on the other hand, is completely out of control. Rajat was so proud of Dhruv..” She sighed. “Dhruv refused to touch even a penny of Rajat’s money. He worked after college to make up his tuition fee. The more Rajat tried to help, the more Dhruv would push him away. Dhruv always thought Rajat was trying to buy their love. Maybe it was partly true, but Rajat was desperate to get into their lives. He was incredibly possessive about them. He kept an eye on them at all times.”

“What about Aarti?” Prerna asked.

“Aarti just used Rajat. She contacted him whenever she needed money. She didn’t want anything to do with him otherwise.”

“Did they meet very often? Rajat and the kids?” I don’t know why Prerna was harping upon their relationship.

“Not if they could help it. In return for child support that Rajat was paying, Krupa let him meet the kids once a month. But once Dhruv became an adult, he refused to meet him.”

“Ms Sharma,” I decided to change the topic “When was the last time you saw Rajat Sinha?”

“About ten days ago.” She too looked glad to be off the topic of Dhruv and Aarti. “We went out for dinner.” After a pause, she continued, “But something strange happened there. Rajat got a call from someone, and he left. He said it was an emergency. He didn't call me after that.”

“And you didn’t get worried?” I found it strange that nobody had reported him missing.

“Well.. No. I thought it was a business emergency. I mean, i called him a couple of times but it went unanswered. It was normal for Rajat to be out of touch for ten fifteen days.”

Everybody we had spoken to so far had last seen Rajat Sinha ten days ago. A sudden thought occurred to me. “How did Mr. Sinha pay that night?”

“His card.”

“Ms. Sharma, when we found Mr. Sinha, we found nothing on him. No cell phone, no wallet, no cards. Is it possible, that he could have left it here?”

“No..” She was growing impatient with our questioning. “I told you, I haven’t seen him for ten days. He had his cell phone on him that night and he left after that.”  

I nodded. “Can you give us his number? We’ll check with the service provider.”

I dialed the number Smruti was calling and pressed the call button to save the number. Before I could cancel the call, a phone started ringing inside the house. 

Smruti looked stunned. "That's Rajat's ringtone!"

We followed the sound and found the phone in the store room. The phone was, covered in crusted blood.