Whodunit - Chapter 8 - Clue in the grooves?

Mrs. Sinha smiled at our discomfort. The ease with which she had spoken about her husband’s infidelity was making us feel uncomfortable.

“Surprised?” She asked us. “It doesn’t bother me anymore.”

I wondered what she meant by “anymore”. “Any more” now that her husband was dead?

“Mrs. Sinha..” I hesitated, “How can you be so sure that Mr. Sinha was having an affair?”

Her reply was a matter-of-fact one.“I hired a detective to follow him.”  As though, all wives hire a detective to spy on their husband.

“Can we see his reports?”  Shammi asked. Both of us were hoping that his report would give us some leads.

“Sure..” She left to get the reports. So far, she had been very co-operative.

“So what do you think?” I asked Shammi in a low voice.

“I don’t know,”  He said thoughtfully, “She has the motive but, as of now, we have no way of linking her with the murder. It could be a complete stranger too.”

I nodded, “Yes.. But did you notice.. ” I stopped midway. Mrs. Sinha was coming down the steps with some files in her hand.

“You can keep them, I have no use of them.” She said as she thrust them in my hands. I flipped through them before I put them inside. A name caught my attention. Smruti Sharma. I put them aside, there would be plenty of time to study these back at the station.

“Mrs. Sinha, when was the last time you took your car out?”

She looked surprised at my question, “Me? Lets see.. I took it out yesterday for shopping.”

“Been up in the mountains lately?” I asked casually.

“Not really. Why?” She was on her guard again.

“Nothing, just asked.” I got up to leave, Shammi followed suit.

“One last thing Mrs. Sinha, you can claim the body at the hospital. If you need any help with that, please call me.” I handed her my card.

Her face changed. I guess, she realized, that as a wife, society would expect her to organize her husband’s funeral and mourn his death. It didn’t look like the idea appealed to her.

We heard the door slam as we walked towards the gate with the reports.

Shammi had started the jeep when I jumped back and ran back inside. I peeped in from the gates at the windows. I couldn’t see anyone. I sneaked inside.

“What are you doing???” Shammi hissed from the gate. I didn’t reply. I made my way to the car and crouched near the tyre. I quickly put on my gloves and pulled out what I had seen when I was helping Mrs. Sinha with the bags.

A thin strand of pine needle was jutting from the tyre. I also scrapped some mud from the tyre grooves and bagged it.

“What were you doing!!” Shammi heaved a sigh of relief as he saw me come unscathed.

I held up the evidence bag proudly.

“And what is that?”

“It’s a pine needle.” Shammi looked at me as though I had lost my senses.

“So??” He asked.

“So.. Pine trees don’t grow in these parts, but they do in the mountains. And the area where the body was found was littered with fallen pine needles.”

“Oh my god, so she lied! She did go up to the mountains.” Shammi was finally understanding what i was getting at.

I smiled at him, “I don’t know whether she went, but the car most certainly did.”

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.

Whodunit - Chapter 6 - The Victim's identity

My cell phone’s persistent ringing woke me up the next morning. I glanced sleepily at the screen. Some unknown number was flashing on it.

“Hello?” I answered sleepily.

“Chetan? Shammi here..” I stared at the phone utterly confused.

“Shammi, why are you calling me from your room?”

I could hear Shammi laughing at the other end.

“I’m not at home Chetan. I couldn’t sleep, so I came down to the station to wrap up a couple of things. Anyway, I just got a call from Prerna. She wants us to bring her a sample of the soil where the body was found. Her own sample got misplaced. So I’m just going over to the site. I’ll pick you up on my way back?”

I was amazed. Shammi was actually volunteering to do some work.

“Sure.. I’ll be ready.”

“Okay.. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

I could have timed my watch by Shammi that day. I watched him zoom into view just as my half an hour time ran out.

“What’s gotten into you?” I wasn’t used to such a proactive Shammi. Shammi just smiled and drove on. I stared out of the window, watching the hills go by. We didin’t fell the need to make any conversation in our one hour drive.

Prerna was waiting for us when we got there. She grabbed the sample.

“I’ll call you when I have some results for you.” She said as she rushed back inside.

Shammi and I set out to the bank to see if we could get any leads on our credit card user. The bank branch manager was most helpful once we flashed our credentials and within minutes we had a name, a picture and an address.

One look at the picture and we knew we had found our victim. His name was Rajat Sinha, an industrialist in the city. His family had made a small fortune manufacturing bearings for cars and Rajat had inherited it all. The manager, desperate for some inside dirt, tried to weasel information out of us. I guess his assumption was that Rajat Sinha was involved in some financial scam. Politely but firmly, I declined to offer anything.

Once out of the bank, I called the City’s Station to check if a missing person’s report had been filed for Rajat Sinha. I was pretty sure it hadn’t, it would have made an appearance in the local newspaper.

The constable, who answered the phone, confirmed that there was no report for Rajat Sinha.

“Is he missing Sir??” the constable asked. I hung up without bothering to reply. He would know soon enough. Gruesome murder, no suspects, lots of money involved. It was the stuff journalists dreamt of. I was sure there would be a hue and cry once the story was out.

We were quiet as we drove to Rajat Sinha’s house. This was the toughest part every time. To face the family and tell them that their loved one had been brutally murdered.

We stood outside the gates of Rajat Sinha’s huge mansion and flipped a coin to decide who would break the news to the family. As luck would have it, I lost. I pushed the gates wide open. No security guard, I made a mental note. Why would Rajat Sinha not keep a security guard for his huge property? We walked inside, unchecked.

“Who are you people!” A voice called out from behind us. A woman was driving in through the gates. She looked at us suspiciously.

“Police..” we flipped out our id cards. The expression on her face changed from suspicion to concern.

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

“Are you Mrs. Sinha?”

“Yes, what’s this about?” She stepped out of the car. She looked far too young to be Rajat Sinha’s wife.

“When was the last time you saw Mr. Rajat Sinha?” These first few questions were always important to gauge the suspects. And in a murder case, we could not exclude anyone, not even his wife. Her answer sent tingles down my spine.

 “Alive??” She asked.

Whodunit - Chapter 5 - The Unlikely Couple

It was almost midnight by the time we trooped out of the morgue. Prerna said a quick good bye and disappeared into the night, promising to get started on the evidence we had collected.

Shammi and I trudged back to our jeep. We had a long drive ahead of us.  For the umpteenth time I wished that I was posted to a bigger city rather than the little town where I actually was.

To reach the morgue, which was in a bigger city situated at the base of the hills, we had had to drive two hours at neck breaking speed.

There was an uncomfortable silence between us as we drove back. I concentrated on driving, avoiding Shammi’s eye. I could tell he wanted to talk, but I wasn’t his counselor, I wasn’t interested in his personal problems.

“So..” Shammi started, I groaned inwardly. “You must have noticed the vibes between Prerna and me..”

“Honestly Shammi, I don’t want to know..” I reassured him.

“There’s nothing to tell really..” I didn’t interrupt. Shammi wasn’t going to stop regardless of what I said. I drove on, carefully navigating the bends and the curves.

“We have a long history..” Shammi said wistfully. When I didn’t comment, Shammi continued, “We were college sweethearts, we joined the police force together.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. What had a girl like Prerna seen in Shammi!

“Say something dammit!” My silence and disinterest had begun to annoy Shammi.

“Shit happens Shammi, move on.” I tried to be as concise as possible.

“No. You don’t understand, she excelled at her work. She rapidly progressed and I didn’t. I couldn’t bear to be with her anymore. She stopped respecting me Chetan! So, we called it off..”

“We??? It was mutual?” Despite my initial apprehensiveness,  I wanted to know more.

“No, I left her.”  Another awkward silence ensued.

“And then today, I saw her for the first time after the whole thing..What rotten luck that her team was the first to respond to our call..”

“Lucky for us they were close by..” I was trying to change the topic. Shammi was noncommittal. He was deep in thought.. 

“We should find out who made the call about the smell.. Maybe they saw or heard something. Unlikely, but still..” Shammi nodded.

“Also, contact the bank, get the billing address for the card used. Once we have a picture of the victim, we can check out the restaurant. Maybe someone will remember him.” My mind was racing and my to-do list was becoming lengthy.

At long last, I pulled over outside Shammi’s house.

“Take care buddy..” From his face, I could tell, he was heading for a night of heavy drinking. I made to pull away, but something stopped me.

“Hey Shammi, you mind if I crash at your place tonight?” Shammi looked at me, surprised.

“It’s late, I don’t want to drive any further..” I tried offering a lame explanation. Truth be told, I didn’t think he would be okay alone.

“Sure.. That would be cool..” Shammi started to go in, he stopped on the steps and turned around, “Chetan?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” Shammi knew why I had offered to stay. I was glad he didn’t try and make it uncomfortable by wanting to talk about it. Maybe he wasn’t all bad, I thought as I walked into his house.