by UD Yasha
‘You still haven’t told me where you were.’
‘I was home.’
‘Were your kids here?’
Sheila shook her head. ‘My daughter was at karate class and my son was at football practice.’
‘So, you don’t have an alibi? A neighbour or someone else didn’t drop by or see you?’
‘No. I was alone. I didn’t speak to anyone.’
I narrowed my eyes. Old memories that were crystal clear flashed in front of my eyes. There was just one thought in my mind—Kunal Shastri killed with his wife. My hands became sweaty. I wanted to get away from there and scream out the pain and agony. Instead, I sat silently with memories that had made demons start screaming in my head. Kunal Shastri’s red eyes…that grin…the excitement in his voice when he said my name and thanked me for setting him free…it all came rushing back.
‘Siya?’ Sheila said.
I was shaken out from my stagger down that dark alley. ‘What is it?’
‘You asked me if Shaunak was friends with a man called Daksh Sinha. Am I getting the name right? Were they close friends?’
‘Yes, go ahead,’ I said, leaning forward.
‘Shaunak knows him. Even I know him. At least I think we do.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Is he Dr. Malini Sinha’s husband?’
A trepidation rose within me. ‘That’s right,’ I said.
‘I know Malini Sinha. Though I’ve no idea why Shaunak would’ve wanted to meet her husband.’
‘How do you know her?’
‘She was my doctor. Shaunak and I had a hard time conceiving so we went in for a consultation with her at the time of my second pregnancy. That’s when I last saw Dr. Malini. Eight years back when Kalindi, my daughter, was born. Her husband is a financial advisor so he had suggested a child plan to us. That’s how I remember him.’
‘Has Daksh Sinha been your financial advisor since then?’
‘No, we didn’t take the plan. Shaunak didn’t like it. Also, we like to invest our money on our own. We do a decent job with it as well.’
‘Do you know if Shaunak ever met or spoke to Daksh since then?’
‘I’m sure he hasn’t. He would’ve told me otherwise.’
‘Can you think of any reason why he would have wanted to meet Daksh?’
Sheila thought for a spell and then shook her head. ‘I can’t think of anything.’
‘Shaunak Manohar himself told me he wanted to meet Daksh. He said it was going to be a social evening. Food and drinks.’
‘I don’t know why he would say that. It doesn’t make sense. He lied to both of us,’ Sheila said and started crying again. ‘I know all this lying doesn’t make him look good. I don’t know why he is behaving like this.’ She paused. ‘He must have had a reason.’
‘Are you sure you didn’t hear of the Sinhas any time after your daughter was born?’
‘I’m convinced.’
Silence.
I downed the last two sips of water. ‘In which school does Manohar teach?’
‘Ad Astra International.’
I had seen ads of the school on billboards all across Pune. It was an international school on the outskirts of the city. They had branches in four cities across India.
‘Is there anything else you would like to share with me that could help me prove your husband’s innocence? It could be anything. Something that didn’t feel right. Or the way he was behaving. Or a phone call he got. It could be anything.’
Sheila thought about it once again. The past few weeks would have flashed by in her mind. ‘I don't think anything was wrong. I would've known otherwise. We shared everything.'
I realized I was not going to get anything more from Sheila. ‘Can I speak to your kids?’
Sheila’s face went white.
‘Don’t worry. I won’t tell them anything. I just want to ask them a simple question.’
Why was Sheila hesitating? Was she just scared or was it something else?
Silence.
I said, ‘Children have a strange ability to be more observant than adults. It’s as if age starts chipping away at a person’s curiosity.’
She gulped once and nodded her head. ‘I’ll ask them to come out,’ she said and walked to the room into which her son had gone. She came out with him a few seconds later. Her daughter walked behind them.
I dropped a knee to the ground to be level with the daughter. I pulled out a bar of KitKat from my tote bag, thanking Radha in my mind for offering it to me two days back. She absolutely loved them. I broke the bar in half and handed one piece to Kalindi.
She grinned right away. ‘Thank you,’ she said just before she blushed and looked away.
The son took a step towards me. ‘I’m Soumitra,’ he said. I offered him the second piece of KitKat.
His eyes lit up.
‘I wanted to ask you something,’ I said.
Soumitra nodded. ‘Is it about dad? Will he come back soon?’
I could see Sheila turn sharply towards me. She had thought her kids would not have known that something was wrong. Like most adults, she had underestimated how much kids understand. I had only realized to what extent it happened when my mentor Santosh Hegde had pointed it out during a case. A child’s curiosity is your best friend in domestic cases, he had told me.
‘Yes, it’s about your father,’ I said. ‘I’m doing my best to make sure he comes back soon.’
‘Then I’ll answer your question.’
‘Did you notice anything different about your dad in the past few weeks?’ I said. ‘Maybe he got angrier or more irritable than usual, or he said something he normally doesn’t.’
Soumitra looked away as he thought. He even bit his fingernails. ‘No,’ he said. ‘He did the same things he has always done.’
I hid my disappointment and turned to Kalindi to ask the same question, just as she said, ‘Something happened yesterday.’
Chapter Eight
All three of us leaned forward towards Kalindi. I have finally got something.
‘Daddy wasn’t home last night,’ Kalindi said.
I saw Sheila’s eyes bulge out of their eye sockets. She turned to her daughter. She put her hands on her shoulder and said, ‘What are you talking about?’
Kalindi began shivering. Her glances kept switching between me and Sheila.
‘Tell me. What are you talking about?’ Sheila said.
I did not want to meddle but Kalindi was clearly afraid of something. I stepped forward and put a hand on Sheila's arm. ‘Please, you're scaring her,' I said.
Sheila withdrew her arm. ‘I didn’t realize, beta,’ she said to Kalindi. ‘I’m so sorry.’
I turned to Kalindi. ‘It’s alright, don’t worry. Tell me what happened.’
‘I woke up in the middle of the night to use the toilet. I don't know what time it was. I was feeling scared so daddy said he would stay with me through the night. But then he wasn't there when I got up. It was dark as well so I got even more scared.' She turned to Sheila. ‘I peeped into your room as well. He wasn't there either.'
Sheila was confused and afraid. Her world had turned upside down. ‘He didn't come to the bedroom yesterday night.'
Kalindi said, ‘I was going to come to you but I heard a sound in the living room. I don’t know what it was. I…I got very scared and ran to my bed. I covered my head with a quilt and started crying. I don’t know when I slept. Then like…like every day, daddy woke me up. I asked him why he did not sleep with me last night and he said he had to go to his school for some work. He then promised me we would go out to have ice-cream later that night so I forgot about it. But then I realized he doesn’t go to school on Sunday and yesterday was a Sunday.’
‘Thanks a lot for telling us that. You are a superstar,' I said and held my hand up for a high five.
Kalindi eventually stopped shivering. But I could tell she was still afraid by the look she had in her eyes. She tapped my hand once.
‘It’s okay,’ S
heila said and hugged her daughter.
She pulled out of the hug. Sheila closed her eyes hard, trying desperately to not break down in front of her daughter.
‘Please bring daddy home soon,’ Kalindi said.
‘I will, especially after the information you gave me. Is there anything else you can remember?’
‘I don’t know if it’s anything. But daddy has been putting me to sleep a lot more lately.’
Sheila turned to me. ‘She’s been getting more afraid for the past few weeks. Shaunak sleeps in her room on such nights. She’s completely a daddy’s girl. He’s been sleeping there a lot more off late as Kalindi had a high fever last month and she insisted that daddy stayed with her.’
‘Do you remember when Kalindi had fallen ill?’
‘Actually, I do. It was the day after our anniversary. 16th April.'
That was six weeks back. I said, ‘In hindsight, did anything change since then?’
‘Nothing at all. But now I feel I had no idea what was happening in my husband’s life.’
‘I’ll try to find out. I’ll ask him directly when I meet him again tomorrow.’
I once again became level with Kalindi and said, ‘I don't know if you know this, but always remember that darkness is merely the absence or lack of photons. Photons are what make up light. You can never be afraid of a lack of photons because photons light up this world.'
I did not expect an eight-year-old to know about photons, but it put a smile on Kalindi's face.
‘Also remember another thing,’ I said. ‘Always grin widely when you give a high five.’ I raised my palm again.
Kalindi grinned, showing all her teeth, or the lack of the two central incisors, and then jumped in the air and gave me a high five.
I pulled out my old visiting card from my purse and handed it to Sheila. ‘Please call me if you want to talk to me about anything,’ I said and got up to leave.
As I got back to my car, two questions burned in my mind: Where had Manohar gone late last night? And why the hell was he lying so much?
Chapter Nine
Armed with new information, I did not want to wait to meet Manohar till the next morning. I wanted to talk to him right away. The clock on the dashboard told me it was ten minutes past one. Malini Sinha would have just reached Pune. Rathod and the ACP would be talking to her now.
I pulled out my phone and texted Atharva, asking how far he was.
Before anything else, I needed to eat. My growling stomach was a constant reminder that my last meal was an early lunch—two chapatis, potato sabji and the evergreen summer favourite aamras.
I thought of dropping by home to have dinner. I also realized that I would have to do a lot of research on the different people involved in the case. I could use some help. Radha had done research for me before. When I used to practice law, she was still in college and enjoyed the small research tasks I gave her. She had been terrific with computers even then. She knew how to keep her identity a secret while getting exactly what she wanted. Rahul would also be home. Apart from his vast knowledge of biology, he could handle pressure and think laterally. I was certain that a combination of their genes was going to create superhuman kids one day. I joked they would be cute as well as they had an aunt like me.
The light in the living room of our house was on when I pulled over outside. I guessed Radha would still be awake, waiting for me. She came to the door the moment I opened the gate.
‘How did it go?’ she said as I walked up the porch steps.
There was a genuine concern in her eyes. I knew where it was coming from. She had seen me at my absolute rock bottom in the past three years ever since I had wrongly defended Kunal Shastri. I could not imagine going through what I had without Radha. She was the reason I could fight it all.
Just then, Shadow, our two-year-old rescue dog ran towards me, wagging his tail. I stroked his head as he licked my face. For a moment, I forgot about everything else. It was Radha’s idea to get a pet dog. She thought it would aid my recovery. Two years on, Shadow was so much more than that.
I got up after Shadow calmed down almost a minute later. I swept my gaze to see if anyone else was inside the house. I did not want to talk about anything in front of maa. My sister-in-law, Shama, had moved in with us almost two years back as Karan was posted in a conflict zone in Kashmir. The Army did not encourage families to move there because of security and safety reasons. I had come to know Shama really well since then. She was a quiet and reserved person who cared a lot for others. I did not mind speaking in front of her.
‘Maa and Shama are upstairs. Maa’s sleeping. I told Shama where you were so she kept maa occupied while you were gone,’ Radha said as we settled on the couch.
I said, ‘Rucha is still missing. The police don’t know what happened to her. But their priority is catching the killer instead of finding Rucha. Rathod will tell me if the missing person’s database and alert system throws any results.’
‘Are you okay?’ Radha said.
I nodded my head. I was not lying. I had been pulled into an investigation for the second time in four months. The first was when a serial killer had openly challenged me to play his nasty game in exchange to tell me the truth about maa. I had felt alive for the first time since I had quit law the moment I started working on that case. Even then, I was afraid. Just like I was scared right now. Like in maa's case as well as this one, I felt my involvement could not make the situation any worse than what it already was. I was not even going to attempt to prove Manohar’s innocence. I was going to step away the moment I found Rucha.
Just then, we heard a two-wheeler outside, followed by the sound of the opening of the main gate of the house. A small screen next to the door sparked to life. We had installed a security system four months back after the notorious serial killer Kishore Zakkal had returned to torment us. Along with his protegee, he had held maa and five other women captive for more than a decade. There was nothing like being too cautious while trying to protect ourselves against Zakkal. The cameras would automatically detect any movement and turn on large white lights that lit up the entire garden of our house.
We saw Rahul on the small screen as he walked towards the door. Radha opened the door for him. Shadow came running once again and gave Rahul a warm and wet welcome too.
‘I came here the moment I could get off work,’ Rahul said.
‘Radha gave me the broad highlights,’ he said to me. ‘Do you think the man they have in custody did it?’
I went to the kitchen and grabbed some dinner for Rahul and me. I told them about my meeting with Manohar and his wife and how we did not know his motive behind the murders and the kidnapping if at all Manohar was behind them.
‘The case seems odd. There’s definitely something more than what meets the eye,’ I said.
‘I know Dr. Malini Sinha. She is my boss' friend,’ Rahul said. ‘She is extremely active in the field of fertility awareness. She conducts many workshops for free in government schools and offices. She is famous for her fertility awareness drive in slums as well. I remember she had conducted more than a thousand such workshops for free when she came to our company last year.'
‘Wow, that’s something,’ Radha said.
Rahul nodded. ‘Until a few years ago, she had a thriving medical practice, specializing in various aspects of fertility. But she had a difficult pregnancy during the birth of her second child.’
‘That’s during Rucha’s birth,’ I thought out loud.
‘Yes. That incident changed her. It's not often that a fertility specialist has a complicated and life-threatening pregnancy. She was missing in action for three years after Rucha’s birth but came back with the single mission to make each and every pregnancy safe. She trimmed down on her practice and became an activist for women's health and fertility.'
My mobile phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out. A text from Atharva.
I just reached the CID building. I’m waiting for Malini to come out. I
missed her by a few minutes. An officer told me she could take an hour.
I typed out a reply. I knew how daunting it could get inside the office of a law enforcement agency.
Come home if she’s going to take an hour. I live 10 minutes away. Take care.
‘How do you know so much about Malini Sinha?’ Radha said.
‘She had been invited to speak about her journey by our CEO.’
Fertility was a tricky space in India. It provided a doctor with ample opportunity to grow and do good work, owing to the changing lifestyle habits and rapid urbanisation. But at the same time, like in almost all fields in India, there were segments of the population that still lived by hugging outdated and conservative thoughts, the most prominent among them being female feticide and infanticide. Such heinous and sickening acts still existed in India due to extreme poverty and the dowry system—an illegal practice where the groom’s family demands jewellery and money from the bride’s family before marriage. In order to avoid paying the dowry and not spend money on a daughter who would leave the family after marriage, thousands of female infants were killed within two years of being conceived. The number came down every year but a lot of work still needed to be done.
Making sex screening illegal was one of the measures taken by the Government to prevent such acts. But still a lot of doctors conducted them to make a few extra bucks. They turned a blind eye to the fact that such a seemingly ordinary test was the first stage in the killing of the female child. Had Malini gotten involved in illegal foetus screening? Or other crimes related to in-vitro fertilization? She could be the villain or she could have even stumbled upon something that made her a person of interest.
Radha looked up from her phone. ‘I looked her up on the Internet. She has a home clinic and a weekly two-hour slot at a hospital called Healing Grace.'
‘That reminds me. Can you get as much information as possible on Malini Sinha, her husband, Shaunak Manohar and his wife? Manohar's wife doesn't have an alibi.'
‘I will be on it.’
