Shayak turned to me. ‘Reema?’
It was my turn to do the questioning. I felt more flustered than I liked, having never had an audience watch me work before.
‘How do you know Kimaaya?’ I began.
‘We actually don’t know her very well; we met her just a week ago,’ said Sandhya, ‘at my best friend’s house, who was also supposed to come to this do. Then she got sick, but Kimaaya is so sweet, na, that she said we should come anyway, and even made arrangements for us to get here.’
Shiv nodded his head, silly smile stuck to his face. It looked like we had another fanboy on our hands.
‘What do you do?’
‘We are hoteliers,’ said Shiv.
‘Both of you?’
‘It’s a family business,’ said Sandhya. ‘Shiv looks after the marketing and finance side of things, along with our father, and I manage the properties.’
‘Did you know Mr Dhingre?’
Brother and sister shook their heads. No.
‘Tell us what you remember about last night.’
Sandhya giggled. ‘I think I was the only one who would remember anything! Everyone else was so wasted!’
‘You were not?’
‘I am on meds, such a bummer. So I only had two, maybe three drinks over the evening. I would have stopped at one, but when Viraat brought out that insane bottle of wine, I had to try it!’
‘Around what time was that?’
‘It was late – must have been after 1 am. He came back drenched to the bone – said he decided to take a quick dip in the sea. Didn’t seem to have sobered him up any.’
‘What prompted him to get the wine?’
Shiv rolled his eyes. ‘He was trying to impress Kimaaya all evening. First, he went on about that watch of his. And then he decided to get the Scotch, and came back with what he said would be the wine experience of a lifetime.’
‘Did he mention how much it was worth?’
Sandhya giggled again. ‘Yeah, like, only about five times.’
‘Did everyone drink it?’
‘Yup. Viraat uncorked it himself and poured it out for us all.’
‘Did he decant it?’
‘Yes. I helped,’ said Sandhya.
‘Do you know what happened to the bottle afterwards?’
‘I think we just left it on the poolside bar.’
‘How was it?’ I had to ask.
‘I’ve never had a wine like that, you know? It really set me thinking about our wine cellars at the hotels. It’s like, I suddenly realized why some wines can be so frickin’ expensive. It’s because they are worth it. Not that anyone else noticed by that time. What a waste!’
‘Hey, that’s not true. I enjoyed that glass to the hilt,’ said Shiv.
‘Don’t know how after you cleaned out the whisky.’
‘Anything else that struck you as unusual through the evening?’
‘Not really. But we didn’t really know anyone there, so wouldn’t be able to say what “usual” is.’
‘Any tensions or arguments?’
‘Not that I noticed,’ said Sandhya.
‘As I mentioned, Viraat was a loudmouth showoff,’ said Shiv, ‘but I’m pretty sure that is standard operating procedure for him. He and Pratap seemed to be having a bit of a pissing competition.’
‘Did you hear or see anything after you went up to your rooms?’
‘We are downstairs, so we don’t have much of a view. And I, for one, was out like a light as soon as my head touched that pillow,’ said Shiv.
‘I may have heard something, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the murder,’ Sandhya said with a smirk.
‘What did you hear?’
‘It was nothing.’
‘Why don’t you let us be judge of that,’ said Shayak.
Sandhya did not look pleased at being told off. ‘Sex,’ she declared. ‘I heard someone having some pretty loud sex.’
‘Where?’
‘It sounded like it was coming from upstairs, but who knows?’
‘Anything else?’
‘No. With all the grunting and moaning, I got up to close my window.’
‘I have one last question for you both,’ continued Shayak. ‘Before you came here, did you know that a hotel was being built on the island?’
Shiv and Sandhya exchanged a look. ‘No,’ said Shiv. ‘No we didn’t.’
But their expressions told a different story altogether.
After they left, I turned to Shayak. ‘You think Shiv and Sandhya have designs on the hotel here?’
‘It’s possible. We are looking at a managing partner with experience in hospitality. Perhaps they heard that.’
‘As for the sex, do you know whose room is above Sandhya’s?’
‘Yup,’ he said. ‘Kimaaya’s.’
As I let this sink in, Shayak didn’t miss a beat.
‘That leaves Pratap,’ he continued. ‘We’ll approach that a little differently – I know him quite well, and we may learn more by keeping the chat a friendly one.’
I really didn’t want to face Pratap – not in front of Shayak – and this seemed the best escape route. ‘In that case, wouldn’t it go better if you were alone?’
‘No need.’
‘It’s just that …’ I began.
‘What?’
But it was too late. Pratap had already found us. I turned away and began to inspect a potted geranium as though my life depended on it.
‘Shayak,’ he said warmly, following it up with one of those one-armed hugs men specialize in.
‘How have you been?’
‘Frantic, man. I have to get to work and the cops have all but ordered us to stay here. I can’t afford to lose any more time.’
‘I’ve been hearing whispers about some deal you’ve been working on.’
‘We hope to be announcing a big project sometime soon.’
‘The power solution?’
‘Yup, a much more ambitious version of the one we’re setting up here. We’ve got a lot riding on it.’
‘I’m sure it’ll just be a little longer.’
‘Can’t you do something? Aren’t you in charge here?’
‘I am in charge of security, but the police have their own way of doing things, and I can’t interfere with that. This is a murder investigation, after all.’
‘Isn’t it obvious that Viraat did it?’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘He was found under the shrubbery, for crying out loud, within shouting distance of where the guy was killed.’
‘I’m afraid more than that is needed to make an arrest,’ Shayak said. ‘Why don’t we go in and get a cup of tea or something. Reema?’
I was forced to turn to face them. My eyes went from a quizzical Shayak to a confused Pratap.
‘Pratap, this is my newest recruit, Reema. She’s an investigator.’
‘Haven’t we met before?’ he said.
I could feel Shayak’s gaze on me, but I stayed focused on Pratap. There was no avoiding it now. ‘At the club the other night.’
‘That’s right! You didn’t mention you were working with Titanium.’
‘It’s not the sort of thing we are supposed to advertise.’ Logic I knew Shayak could not fault.
‘A detective, eh?’ he said with a smile. It didn’t seem as though he suspected anything. But as we walked towards the house, Shayak shot me a look that warned me I hadn’t heard the last of it.
‘So why are you so convinced it was Viraat?’ asked Shayak as we seated ourselves. As always, someone was at hand to take our order right on cue. Beer for Pratap, nimbu paani for Shayak and me.
‘He was acting strange all evening, man. He arrived with this chick Afreen, but didn’t seem to be interested in keeping her company at all. Poor thing didn’t know anyone else there, and was obviously feeling like a fish out of water. Then he kept talking about money, and that stupid watch. Guess I can’t blame him; he’s from Delhi, right?’ He laughed
. ‘But if he was trying to get into Kimaaya’s pants, it didn’t look like he was making much progress.’
‘She wasn’t impressed?’
‘By that clown? Please. When he pulled out that bottle of wine, I was like, dude, it’s your funeral. But now that I think of it, he disappeared for quite a while before reappearing with it. Couldn’t he have bumped Dhingre off then?’
I knew the timeline was off on that one, but Shayak wasn’t about to reveal more than necessary. ‘We aren’t ruling out any scenario at this point,’ he said evasively. ‘Do you remember anything else that might be useful?’
‘For the most part, it was a pretty chilled out evening. I grilled some meat, Carol helped. Great girl, that Carol. We had dinner and probably a few too many drinks, but what’s new about that?’
‘Your wife had to leave early.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah. Not that she wanted to come in the first place.’
‘Do you know where she went?’
‘You’ll have to ask her that, man. She told me it was an emergency at one of her charities the next morning. She had to get there by 9 am, and she knew it wouldn’t have happened if she stayed the night.’
‘She was right about that,’ said Shayak.
‘How did she get back?’ I asked.
‘We have a captain. He took her, though she can sail better than I can.’
‘Why didn’t the yacht come back for you?’
‘Didn’t seem to be much of a point. Someone would have given me a lift back. Besides, with the renovation work, the dock seemed a bit tight for her.’
It took me a second to realize that the ‘her’ Pratap was referring to was his boat.
‘She’s a beauty, but she can’t be easy,’ said Shayak.
‘And these bloody jokers just have to make it even more difficult and block every single effort to set up a private dock. You’d see the number of yachts in Mumbai double overnight with a half-decent facility. But I wouldn’t give her up for the world. Last year we sailed to the Mediterranean, and she was a dream.’
‘Cannes, right? Didn’t Kimaaya go on that trip?’
‘Yup, she, Deepak and Salman.’
‘What about later that night, after you all went to bed? Did you see or hear anything unusual?’
He shook his head. ‘I passed out. I’d been travelling non-stop and was dog-tired to begin with. Sorry I can’t be of more help, man.’
‘Not at all. Whatever you can tell us is important.’
Pratap took a sip of his drink. ‘How’s it going with the other investigation?’
Shayak looked at me. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on Mrs Puri for quite some time now, and I haven’t found anything suspicious,’ I said.
‘She’s up to something man, I just know it!’
‘Mr Puri – ’
‘Pratap, please.’
‘Could I ask you to reconsider your position on more in-depth surveillance strategies?’ I said.
‘I don’t know,’ Pratap said, shooting a glance at Shayak.
‘We could try a phone tap, or a bug in your home,’ he suggested.
‘Dude, no way!’
‘How about monitoring her financial transactions? Could you give us access to her records?’ I added.
‘Our joint ones, yes. But she has her own private accounts and that would be hard.’
‘We could look into her electronic communication.’
‘You mean hack her e-mail?’
‘Yes.’
‘Let me think about it.’
We left Pratap and, to make the most of the daylight hours, headed back to the crime scene.
‘You want to tell me why you were following Pratap?’ asked Shayak.
‘Who said I was following him?’
‘You are investigating his wife and you just happen to bump into him at a nightclub?’
‘I didn’t think it could hurt to find out more about them both,’ I said.
‘And what did you learn?’
‘That Pratap’s tabloid persona is an accurate reflection of his socializing style. He certainly is very happy approaching complete strangers in nightclubs.’
‘You mean he hit on you?’
‘Yes. While he is having us investigate his wife for supposed infidelity.’
Shayak didn’t seem overly surprised. ‘Even cheaters get cheated on.’
‘Are we helping him get a comfortable divorce?’
‘We are making an exception by helping one of our loyal customers on a personal matter. I don’t judge beyond that. Neither should you.’
‘Not judging. I’d like to know, that is all.’
‘Let Pratap decide how he wants to proceed. For the moment, that is on the backburner anyway.’
‘But maybe it is relevant here. Doesn’t it sound awfully like Pratap wishes Kimaaya was more than just a friend? Couldn’t he possibly be a person to watch?’
‘She usually has that effect on men.’
I rolled my eyes.
‘But at this point, we are watching everybody,’ he said. ‘Though I don’t see how killing Dhingre could help him win over Kimaaya. Unless you think Kimaaya wanted him dead and wouldn’t hesitate to use Pratap to get the job done.’
Shayak got behind the wheel of the golf cart, with me in charge of the field kit. We took another look around where the body had been found, and ensured all bases had been covered. When we got to where Viraat had been discovered, I lingered longer.
‘Why would he be here in the first place?’ I asked myself, standing in the gazebo for a little elevation. From there, I could see Shayak’s yacht in the water; it wouldn’t have taken more than three minutes to walk to it at a reasonable pace, perhaps five minutes for a careening, drunk man. He had gone to his boat to get a bottle of wine once; could he have returned for more? In his stupor, did he decide to make himself comfy in a hedge? If the drugs had knocked him out, he couldn’t have taken them – inadvertently or otherwise – too long before. Maybe he went to the boat to dip into his secret stash. The yacht had been taken back to the mainland and the police had searched it. They hadn’t found anything yet, but they could have missed something. But why would he be self-administering the date rape drug?
I moved closer to where we had found Viraat, and I could not see the spot where Dhingre’s body had been. I crouched to the ground and spun around. From that vantage point, I could see the house. The ground floor was largely obstructed by trees, but a number of rooms on the upper level had windows looking on to this vista. Maybe someone apart from Carol had seen him?
A little further along the hedge from Viraat’s makeshift bed, I saw the earth had been dug up, and the cavity had a very distinct rectangular shape. I felt around with my gloved hands. There was nothing there but I was almost certain that there must have been quite recently.
Shayak came up to me. ‘Found something?’
‘Doesn’t it look like something was buried here? Something rectangular?’
Shayak pulled the camera from the kit and took some more photos. ‘You’re right. The team should have spotted this yesterday.’
I took the dimensions: it was about six by four inches, and three inches deep. I took a closer look with a flashlight and saw something glinting in the corner. I picked it up with a pair of tweezers. ‘It looks like a shard of wood with some paint on it. Gold and blue.’
‘We can send it to the lab,’ said Shayak.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but I think I know what this is.’
‘Really?’
There was the hint of a paisley in that gold paint. ‘I’ve seen this sort of thing before. It’s one of those Kashmiri boxes you get in every gift shop in New Market in Calcutta. I’ve lost count of how many times I have bought them for people.’
‘So it could have held anything?’
‘I suppose. Most women I know use them for jewellery, but that doesn’t mean anything.’
I bagged the fragment and labelled it. We then drove to the old pier, currently b
eing overhauled and in a rather precarious state. Shayak got off and led me to the muddy pathway. ‘There are footprints that start on the wooden planks that can be traced as far as the path running towards the house,’ he said. ‘The first ones were disturbed when the team made casts, but you can still see them here. It hasn’t been confirmed by forensics, but on superficial examination they seemed to belong to the victim.’
‘There are a number of other footprints as well.’
‘All of them older. The household staff hasn’t been here recently with the pier out of commission, and the construction crew was due to start work in this area only this week.’
‘Why would Dhingre use the old dock?’
‘He has been to the island before but not recently. Only someone who had been here in the past two weeks would know that it is not functioning at the moment.’
‘And with no other fresh prints here, that means the murderer knew which pier to use – unless he was already on the island when Dhingre got here.’
Shayak nodded his head. ‘Precisely.’
SEVEN
We continued to an annexe of the house, which had a line of rooms styled in a similar manner to the main building but enclosed.
‘This is the service wing. There are a number of rooms here. The housekeeper has her own, so do Raj and Nimisha when they are around. The others are dorm-style for the rest of the staff. The gardener and the boatman usually stay in a small one-roomed cottage near the old pier, which is currently being used by the police.’
‘Would you like me to interview the staff?’
‘For now, I want you to have a look around, get a sense of the space.’
The quarters were well concealed from the house. They were single-storeyed, with a thick fringe of trees between it and the main building, which was angled away from it. There were paths leading to the grounds.
‘Did the police search include the servant’s quarters?’
‘Yes.’
‘Anything turned up?’
‘Not that I know of. But the police tend to rely more on confessions than evidence, Reema. Don’t expect them to be thorough.’
‘Did the Titanium team search the premises? What about the other guests?’
‘That, unfortunately, we could not do. Kimaaya will not permit it unless we find specific evidence implicating one of them. She said the police search was inevitable, but she wouldn’t put her guests through further inconvenience.’
Dead in a Mumbai Minute Page 11
