Bankerupt (Ravi Subramanian)

by Ravi Subramanian

  31st May 2008

  MIT, Boston

  The search committee had come up with four names as possible replacements for Meier. Of the four, two were from the Social Psychology department: Deahl and Cardoza. The two others were renowned professors who had served MIT for over a decade and a half. Deahl’s name, however, came with a rider. The executive committee had to first clear him of his partial suspension.

  Meier was furious when he saw Deahl’s name on the list. However, he let the process take its course.

  The university executive committee met that Saturday to discuss Deahl’s suspension from faculty and research duties. In a strange turn of events, the suspension was overruled. The executive committee was of the view that Deahl was well within his rights to publish his work outside the university, as long as he did not claim academic credit for the published piece of work and the sponsor didn’t have an issue with it. The university rules did not prohibit such an act. And once published outside, the OSP or the dean did not have any jurisdiction over it.

  It was also agreed that the appointment of the provost would be taken up at the next meeting. The committee also requested Meier to continue in his position as the provost till such time that it decided on his successor.

  49

  2nd June 2008

  Boston

  ‘What time will you be back?’ Aditya asked Cirisha as she was about to get into her car.

  ‘What happened?’ Cirisha glanced at her watch. She had a couple of minutes to indulge Aditya. He had been really stressed over the weekend, particularly on account of the Cambridge Partners discussion.

  ‘Can you pick me up on the way back? I will be at the Fencing Centre. I don’t feel like taking out the new car.’

  ‘Why? It’s not a new car that you are getting so protective about it!’ Cirisha chided him. She was referring to the used car they had bought for Aditya about a month back.

  ‘Protective? Rubbish. I don’t feel like going alone. Gavin will pick me up while going. He has to go somewhere after the session. So he can’t drop me back. If you can’t come, I will take my car.’

  ‘No problem, Adi. I will pick you up. Second floor, duPont Center?’

  ‘Yes, yes. Same place.’

  ‘You seem to be enjoying it.’

  ‘It’s an awesome place. You must come and see.’ Fencing had become a new passion for Aditya. When he had joined fencing, it was more to keep himself occupied and learn a new sport in the bargain, but now he had begun to enjoy it. It helped to take his mind off his frustrations.

  ‘I’ve been there in the past. Richard was the faculty support for fencing.’

  ‘Yes, I know. Some people were talking about him yesterday.’

  Cirisha smiled. ‘By the way, who is the academic support these days? Have they nominated anyone to replace Richard?’

  ‘Jung Hoon Chun.’

  ‘Who? The one in the physics department?’

  ‘No clue. Why do they even have faculty as academic support? This fellow is an ass. Fat guy, must be over 250 pounds. Just comes and sits there doing nothing. I doubt if his hand would even get into the sabre guard,’ Aditya said.

  ‘Sabre?’

  ‘The sword. The handle of the fencing blade is called sabre.’

  ‘Oh, OK. Don’t know about Chun, but Richard was an absolutely fabulous sport. He could take on champion student fencers and beat them. I hadn’t seen him miss fencing even for a day.’

  ‘You haven’t seen me. Once you see me, you will forget Richard.’

  ‘In such a short time? Hahaha,’ she laughed. ‘Give me a break, Aditya. In any case I have no interest in these gory games. You have fun. Just make sure you don’t injure yourself.’ She glanced at her watch again.

  ‘The equipment they have is fabulous. Very unlikely that anyone will get injured. Anyway, are you sure you will be able to pick me from there this evening?’

  ‘Yes, yes. Absolutely no problem,’ said Cirisha as she got into her car and drove out of the garage. The black pick-up van was still there. It hadn’t moved for two days. She lowered her window and slowed down as she approached the van. As she passed the parked vehicle, she heard a faint hum. Which meant that the engine was on. It worried her. Was there someone inside the van? Was someone keeping a watch on them? The moment she passed the van, she pressed her foot on the pedal and accelerated. She did not want to get into trouble.

  As she was crossing her block, she dialled 911. ‘I believe there is an unmarked black van parked in the exit carriageway of Glen Evelyn Drive. It’s been there intermittently for the last few days and there is someone in the car. I don’t think the car belongs to the place.’

  Within minutes, three cars with blaring sirens drove into Glen Evelyn Drive. And in five minutes, Cirisha got a call.

  ‘Madam, there is no black pick-up van in Glen Evelyn Drive. You sure you saw it there?’

  ‘Yes. I was worried because the car had been parked there for the last two days and had been in idling state.’

  ‘It’s not there, madam.’

  ‘OK. I’ll call again if I see it. Thank you for taking care of it promptly.’

  ‘Not a problem, madam.’

  That evening, Cirisha picked up Aditya from the duPont Center. After a quick stopover at the International House of Pancakes, from where they picked up a takeaway dinner for Narayanan, they drove back home.

  50

  3rd June 2008, morning

  MIT, Boston

  Cirisha’s class got over at eleven. She was walking back to her room, when a few men in uniform crossed her and moved towards the exit. They seemed to be coming out of Cardoza’s room. Dumping her papers on the table, she walked down the corridor, straight into Cardoza’s room.

  ‘Hi Cirisha.’

  ‘Morning, Michael. Were these guys here in connection with Richard’s death?’

  ‘Yes, Cirisha. The coroner and the chief of Boston Police were here. They had a meeting with Juan. Juan requested me and Gordon to join in.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘Hmm,’ Michael nodded. ‘Juan wanted to be discreet and didn’t want the meeting in his office. He asked me to host it. The chief left some time back. The coroner too just left.’

  ‘Oh. What did they say?’

  ‘Nothing that we did not know of. It’s been sixty days since Richard and the others died. They wanted closure on the case. The coroner has certified the reason for the deaths of the dean, Henry Liddell and Frederick Lobo as homicide. As death caused by firing from a close range. Richard’s death has been put down as suicide using his own gun. They have concluded the investigation and have named Richard Avendon as the first and only accused.’ He handed her a piece of paper. Cirisha read through it. The coroner had waived the need for an inquest given the open-and-shut nature of the case. The weapon used in the homicide was owned by Richard. They had done a preliminary investigation, which included things like a sweep of his workstation, talking to a number of faculty members about Richard’s mental health and so on. Cirisha was surprised that they hadn’t spoken to her.

  Amongst the other papers left with Cardoza was the forensic report of Richard’s iMac. Cirisha started reading through it. ‘For your eyes only. I have to bundle all this up and dump them in Juan’s office.’ Cirisha nodded without moving her eyes from the papers.

  ‘According to this, the data on Richard’s iMac had been wiped clean on the morning of his death. There is one school of thought which believes that Richard destroyed all the data before he came for the tenure discussion,’ Cardoza summarized for Cirisha.

  ‘That’s not correct, Michael. I saw him coming in that morning. He was late for the interview. He was rushing in. Seeing me, he threw his card at me and asked me to swipe him in. He was to collect the card from me later in the day, after the interview. But that never happened. He didn’t even go to his room that morning.’

  ‘According to this report, Richard’s death happened around the same time that his iMac was wiped clean
. Hence the presumption that he cleared it or timed the wipe on his iMac.’ And then she paused and said, ‘Unless someone who was aware of what Richard was planning to do quickly cleared it out. Who could it be?’ She answered the question herself, ‘Could it be James?’

  ‘Rubbish! You are hallucinating. Do you mean to say that James knew that Richard was going to die?’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘Unlikely.’

  51

  3rd June 2008, evening

  Boston

  Cirisha reached the duPont Center well in time. Like the previous evening, she was there to pick up Aditya. One look at the clock on the dashboard told her that she was half an hour ahead of time. Thirty minutes was too long a time to wait in the car. She locked the car, entered the building and walked up to the second floor. Maybe it was time to test Aditya’s claim of being nimble-footed. When Cirisha saw him practise, she was quite surprised by his agility and the speed at which he moved. When Aditya turned and looked at her, she gave him a thumbs up. ‘You look handsome in this gear, Mr Raisinghania.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Well, you shouldn’t have become an investment banker. You should have become a fencer. Maybe India would have won a few medals at the Olympics.’

  ‘Thanks for the compliment. Give me a couple of minutes. I will change and come,’ he said and disappeared into the washroom.

  Five minutes later, he emerged in his regular jeans and T-shirt. ‘What’s for dinner?’ The workout had made him hungry.

  ‘Let’s stop at the International House of Pancakes again. I am in no mood to cook. For Dad I will make some parathas. There are two frozen ones left in the freezer. What do you say?’

  Aditya made a face. ‘Again?’ But then realizing that Cirisha was also getting back home after a long day at work, he agreed. ‘Come, let’s go,’ he said and smiled at her.

  They reached the parking lot, got into the Honda and drove to the closest International House of Pancakes. ‘You wait here. I will get it.’ Aditya got off the car and ran inside. He ordered banana caramel pancakes for Cirisha and a plate of crunchy battered shrimps for himself. It was their standard order.

  ‘Twenty-four dollars, please.’ The girl at the counter had keyed in the order.

  ‘Sure.’ Aditya felt the back pocket of his jeans. His wallet was missing. ‘Oh shit! I think I dropped my wallet. Can you wait for a minute? I will check in my car and be back. I am so sorry.’ And he turned and ran.

  ‘Next, please,’ the girl called out to the next person in the queue as Aditya ran out of the door. He ran straight to the parking lot. The car was missing. He looked around. Cirisha was nowhere to be seen. He panicked. He ran to the other end of the parking lot. He still couldn’t see the car. He felt his pockets. He had left the phone in the car. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Morbid thoughts crossed his mind. He did not know what to do. He decided to call the cops and turned when a car drove into the parking lot.

  ‘Where the hell did you go?’

  ‘Chill, Aditya. What happened? I needed some stuff for the house, so I picked it up from 7-Eleven there.’ She pointed in the direction of a 7-Eleven departmental store. Aditya turned and saw the logo glowing brightly. ‘Couldn’t you have waited for me? I was worried sick.’

  ‘I am fine, Adi. I am fine. Nothing can happen to me.’ And she smiled. He bent down and hugged her through the window. ‘Come, let’s go,’ she said, but noticed that the food was missing. ‘Where is the food?’

  ‘Oh, yes. I need cash to pay. Hand me my wallet.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘It would have slipped from my back pocket and fallen on my seat.’

  Cirisha switched on the light inside the car and looked around. In ten seconds she turned back towards Aditya. ‘Not here.’

  ‘Oh shit!’ After a moment’s pause he added, ‘I think I didn’t pull it out from my locker. Completely forgot.’

  ‘Locker?’

  ‘At duPont. I left in a hurry because you were waiting. So I might have left it there. It’s OK. Give me some cash and I’ll get the food. I’ll collect the wallet tomorrow.’

  ‘Hold on. You left the wallet in the locker?’

  ‘Yes. Not to worry, though. It’s my other wallet. Would at best have about a hundred dollars in it. I don’t take the one with my credit cards when I go fencing. I play it safe.’ He said it with a great deal of pride, as if his decision of not taking his regular wallet had been vindicated.

  ‘How many lockers are there?’

  ‘Quite a few, in fact. Almost everyone has one.’

  ‘Really?’ And then her eyebrows shot up. She looked up at the sky as if she was thinking about something. Almost instantly, she looked back at him and whispered, ‘Get in. Quick.’

  ‘What happened?’ He looked at her and pointed towards the pancake outlet just a few metres away. ‘Food?’

  ‘Just get in. Now!’ she whispered a scream.

  Aditya got in. ‘I am hungry.’ But Cirisha was not listening. She reversed the car like a maniac. It made a screeching noise as she left the parking lot. A few passers-by were stunned at the way she drove. Aditya hurriedly put on the seat belt trying his best not to slam into the windscreen. ‘Cirisha!’ he screamed. ‘Are you OK?’ No response.

  Cirisha was driving at over 100 mph on a road with a speed limit of 65 mph. ‘Cirisha, will you please tell me what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you driving like this?’ He could barely hear himself over the noise of the revving car. Cirisha did not speak a word. She was completely focused on the road ahead. The traffic on the Cambridge Turnpike was thin. She took the 94th exit and turned towards MIT. About half an hour ago they had driven on the same stretch, albeit in the reverse direction. In another five minutes, she was back in the parking lot of the duPont Center.

  ‘Why are we back here?’

  ‘Your wallet. Where is it?’

  ‘It could have waited till tomorrow. I was not in any hurry. And it’s safe there. It’s my personal locker.’

  ‘I know, I know. Come, let’s go.’ Aditya just followed her as she rushed into the building. It was late in the evening and the place was deserted. Aditya’s practice session was the last one for the day, and that had ended over an hour ago.

  ‘Where is the locker room?’ she asked him as they got off the lift on the second floor. ‘There,’ Aditya said, pointing to the right-hand corner. She made a dash for the locker room and entered. ‘It’s a men’s room, Cirisha.’

  ‘I know. But there will be no one here at this time.’ It was a room full of lockers. ‘Richard had a locker here. Which one is that?’

  ‘What? How would I know? And for God’s sake, why do we need to look for Richard’s locker?’

  ‘Help me look for it. It has to be here somewhere!’ Cirisha was in a world of her own.

  ‘There are hundreds of them here. How will we know which one is Richard’s?’

  ‘Do you guys tag your names on lockers?’

  ‘No. There is no place for that.’

  ‘Shit! How do we find his locker?’ She looked around. There were hundreds of them. All tiny 1-foot by 2-foot lockers. There were a few big ones towards the bottom. Aditya counted them. He was good with mental math. Six blocks of lockers, each having seven rows of eight lockers each. Close to three hundred and fifty of them.

  ‘Three hundred and thirty-six, to be precise.’

  Cirisha completely ignored Aditya’s calculation. ‘Adi, if you were to choose your locker, how would you? Which one would you prefer?’

  ‘It would depend on which ones were available. One may not always get the locker one wants.’

  ‘Yes. But Richard is the faculty support.’

  ‘Was.’

  ‘OK, OK. Richard was the faculty support. He had been here since the time this facility opened. He would have had the first go at selecting the locker he wanted. So availability would not have been a problem.’

  ‘Good point.’

  ‘So tell me, wh
ich lockers would you have preferred?’

  ‘Either the big ones at the bottom …’ Cirisha looked at them. Unlike the others which were a foot high, the ones at the bottom were two feet each. ‘Or this row.’ He touched the fifth row from the bottom. ‘This is at eye level. Easy to operate.’

  ‘Great. Richard was about six inches shorter than you. He would probably have taken the fourth row. Worst case, the fifth row. That brings our search down to the fourth or fifth row in six blocks, or ninety-six lockers to be precise. Down from three hundred and fifty.’

  ‘If you ignore the bigger ones at the bottom,’ Aditya confirmed her calculation.

  ‘Correct. We will look at the big ones if the fourth and fifth rows don’t work. And normally no one prefers the ones in front. You would rather choose the ones at the back. It gives you privacy.’

  ‘Absolutely right,’ Aditya agreed.

  Cirisha walked to the last block of lockers. ‘Let’s see if his locker was one of these.’ She pointed to the fourth and fifth rows in the last block. ‘Sixteen lockers. It has to be one of these.’

  ‘How will you open them? Unless of course …’

  ‘Yes.’ And she took out her mobile phone and flipped through a few screens. She memorized the code on her phone and keyed it in to open the locker.

  ‘Incorrect code.’ The message flashed with a beep. She tried again. Same result. She moved on to the second locker. Same result. She keyed in the number on the keypad of the third locker.

  ‘Are you sure we are in the right place?’ Aditya asked.

  ‘We will find out,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you begin from the other end? That will be faster.’

  ‘Code?’

  ‘Messaging it to you right now,’ and she sent the image of Richard’s email to Aditya’s phone. Aditya was a bit worried that they were breaking trespassing laws. He started from the opposite end with the fourth row from the bottom.

  By that time Cirisha was already keying in the code in the fifth locker. Nothing happened. She moved on to the sixth one. Silence. She waited for a beep that just wasn’t coming. Aditya held back whatever he was planning to say and looked at the locker. For a second there was pin-drop silence. And then there was a sound of something moving. As if some levers were shifting into place.