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 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 2 - The First Clue?

We covered our noses with handkerchiefs and followed the rotten smell. We were heading straight into a thicket of shrubs. We moved through the shrubs carefully. We didn’t know what we would find there. And then suddenly, without warning, we found it, the body. And contrary to what I had thought, it wasn’t an animal.

“Call the station. Get some people here.”I ordered. Shammi was staring at the body, paralyzed.

“GO!!” My voice spurred him into action and he turned and ran towards our jeep.

“Get a camera when you are coming back!” I shouted after him but he was already out of my sight. I could only hope that he had enough sense to get one on him way back. I tightened the handkerchief around my nose and leaned in closer, careful not to disturb anything.

There was no point checking for a pulse, the man lying in front of me was already decomposing. He was lying on his stomach, his hands tucked in under him. Though I couldn’t see any obvious signs of violence, I suspected foul play. The position of the body seemed too neat for it to be a natural death.   

I scouted the area around the body for anything suspicious, I didn’t find anything.

It had rained a couple of days back and the ground was soft. But there were no prints around. Whatever had happened to the victim, it had happened before the rains. The rain would have also washed the evidence, if any, downhill. Once the backup team arrived, the area would be combed for anything unusual.

I sat around, waiting for Shammi to show up. I wondered who the victim was, how he got here. He looked to be around 30-35, from a fairly good background. His shoes, his blazer, his belt, they all looked expensive. He didn’t seem the kinds who would come to the abandoned church to dope. Probably got robbed for money? I wanted to turn him over and check his pockets but I restrained myself.

Eventually, after what seemed like eternity, I heard Shammi coming my way.. I could hear him huffing and puffing from a distance.

“Chetan?!?” he called.

“Yeah?”

“They are coming.. They’ll be here in fifteen minutes..” Shammi reached the site and tried not to look at the body..

“Here’s your camera..” He said, handing it over to me.

I took it wordlessly and clicked some pictures of the body and the area surrounding it. More often than not, we end up missing something obvious the first time we stumble upon a crime. And no matter how careful we are, the crime scene is rarely undisturbed when a lot of people start working in it.

“Who do you think he is?” Shammi asked nervously. I could tell this was his first murder victim.

“I don’t know..”. Why was he asking me that?

“How do you think he got here?”

“Just keep quiet ok.. And don’t move around too much..” I wished Shammi hadn’t come with me.

After that Shammi stood rooted on the spot, he seemed to understand that I was going to lead this one. I was almost at the end of my photo shoot when Shammi called out..

“What do you suppose that is??” I turned to look at him. He was staring at a shrub. I couldn’t see anything.. I inched closer to the shrub and still I couldn’t see anything..

“Where?” I was practically next to the shrub.. What had Shammi seen!

“To your left.. Can’t you see it?”

“No!!”

“It’s right there! How can you not see it?”

Frustrated, I walked over to the exact spot where Shammi was standing and then I saw it.

The sunlight was gleaming right off it..