Bankerupt (Ravi Subramanian)

by Ravi Subramanian

  ‘Dad? Are you home?’ No response. He felt he saw a fleeting shadow move across the room. Maybe he was hallucinating. ‘Dad!’ he called out again. He had reached the kitchen. It was pitch dark. Holding on to the kitchen counter with one hand for support, he started walking towards the living room. The kitchen counter kept him company for twelve feet and then deserted him. He tapped his pocket for his mobile, but that was warming the car seat. He walked a few feet, something didn’t feel right. Something on the carpet was sticking to his shoes. He held on to a doorframe, bent down and touched the sole. It felt gooey. Maybe Narayanan had dropped something, he thought as he walked towards the steps leading to the basement, where the electric room was located.

  He rubbed his feet on the wooden flooring to get rid of the sticky substance. Maybe he could restore the electricity once he got to the power room. He took the first step, the second and then the third. On the fourth step, he tripped, fell and hurtled down the twenty-step staircase. And then, as suddenly as he tripped and fell, with almost the same abruptness, he stopped. His feet were in the air, his head was pointing towards the basement and his back was on an incline between two steps. And he hadn’t hit the lower floor. He was stuck midway. Something was blocking his free fall. He gathered himself, turned around and sat up on the stairway as he tried to see what had interrupted his fall. Hurriedly, he reached out and touched the object. First he felt hair, then the face and then the torso. He screamed. ‘Daaaaaad!’

  But the scream was lost in the deafening stillness all around. Aditya reached out to touch the near-lifeless body of Narayanan lying in front of him. He patted his way to the right hand and felt for the pulse. It was missing. Not knowing if he was doing it the right way, he moved his hand up swiftly and brought it close to Narayanan’s nostrils. He held it there for a couple of seconds. He couldn’t feel his breath. Devastated, he was about to take his hand away, when he felt something warm. A warm gust of air. Narayanan was alive. He was breathing. Feebly, but breathing nevertheless. Aditya stood up and ran. Ran out of the door. Straight to the car. His mobile phone was inside. He pulled it out and called 911.

  It took twenty-six minutes for the critically injured Narayanan to be wheeled into the emergency care section of MIT Medical, the medical centre dedicated to the needs of the MIT community. While Narayanan was bleeding profusely, greater damage had been caused by the blow of a blunt object to the right side of his head.

  The doctors were of the view that it would take a while for Narayanan to recover. It was their rider that worried Aditya: ‘If he recovers.’

  Whoever had done this to Narayanan had left the house in a mess. Everything was upside down. Mattresses had been ripped, sofas cut open, drawers pulled out, everything strewn on the floor. They were obviously looking for something. Narayanan must have come in the way and got hit.

  58

  8th June 2008

  Boston

  It was the second time that day that Lieutenant Windle had come to meet him. He had come once in the morning to take charge of the crime scene and make sure that his boys were in control of everything. This time, he had come to interrogate Aditya.

  ‘Hmm. So it’s Cambridge Partners that you think could be involved.’

  ‘I don’t know. They had categorically said that if Cirisha does not back off from poking her nose into the Staring Down the Barrel-related research, they will do what they have to. It was a clear threat. I had mentioned this to you a few days back. And then they called me yesterday to meet them. All this happened while I was in their office. Isn’t it too much of a coincidence?’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘They have everything to lose if the research gets retracted. The valuations of gun-manufacturing units will come down dramatically. This will have an impact on their investments. But more importantly, it will be a loss of face and credibility for them in this long battle. And more than any other battle, in this one, he who loses credibility loses everything. Cirisha had told me about Lucier, who had first spoken to Michael Cardoza, soliciting him for this research project. On being turned down, Lucier went to James Deahl. The same Lucier, who is from the NRA, met me at Cambridge Partners both times.’

  ‘What do you think they were looking for?’

  ‘I guess it’s the research data. The raw data that Cirisha had in her possession. Those papers could have seriously embarrassed them.’

  ‘Where are the papers now?’

  ‘I don’t know. They were with Cirisha. I hunted for the papers whole of yesterday and the day before. They’re not here.’

  ‘That’s really strange. And by the way, what were you doing when she was on her jog?’

  ‘I was asleep.’

  ‘And you didn’t realize she was leaving?’

  ‘No. I was sleeping outside, on the living room couch. She was in the bedroom.’

  ‘On the couch? Was everything all right between the two of you?’

  ‘Yes, lieutenant.’

  ‘Then why on the couch?’ Windle asked him and turned towards the couch in the living room. ‘It doesn’t look particularly comfortable.’

  ‘We had an argument.’

  ‘Hmm … I’m listening.’

  ‘It was a regular husband–wife squabble. She was not happy with me losing my job in India,’ Aditya lied. He could not think of anything else.

  ‘You know, Mr Aditya Raisinghania …’ and then he stopped. ‘By any chance do you have a short and easy word for that?’

  ‘Adi.’

  ‘OK. By the way, Adi, the world thinks it was a cardiac arrest. An excited, overtired jogger, whose heart stopped pumping. I don’t believe it. And that’s why I had impressed on the coroner to do a toxicology test. Let’s see what it throws up.’ He had mentioned this to Aditya earlier. But it was what Windle followed it up with that stunned him. ‘She was killed by someone known to her.’ It was more the way he said it that surprised Aditya.

  ‘How can you say that?’ And suddenly he realized what Lieutenant Windle was implying. His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Are you saying that I am a suspect?’ It dawned on him that though Cirisha had died three days ago, Windle had stayed away from interrogating him purely on humanitarian grounds. He was always on the list of suspects.

  ‘That possibility has not been ruled out yet, Adi.’ And his face became stern. It scared Aditya to see the transformation. ‘Adi, you need to be in town till you are cleared. In case you need to travel either out of this county or even back to India, you need explicit permission. I am just communicating the coroner’s order to you.’

  ‘But how can you be so sure that she was killed by someone known to her?’ Aditya was beginning to get worried. The moment he asked the question though, he realized that it was a mistake. It would now appear to Windle as though he was trying to cover his tracks.

  ‘Because leading up to the place where we found her body, there were two sets of footprints. We were able to see them because the ground was wet on account of the drizzle. One of them was Cirisha’s. The other one we don’t know yet.’

  ‘It could have been anyone!’

  ‘That he,’ and he paused, ‘or she, was known to Cirisha Narayanan is clear, Adi. The footprints were right next to each other for a good half a mile. The span of the steps was large, which means that they were walking next to each other. If someone is jogging, the span is relatively smaller. People tend to take longer steps while walking. If she had any inkling of what was coming her way, she would have broken into a run. Which she didn’t. Tell me, Adi, under what circumstance would you walk half a mile with someone who was about to murder you? It can only be if you know the person and don’t have the faintest idea that he or she could harm you.’

  ‘But how does the question of my involvement come up?’

  ‘Simple. You had a fight the night before. She was vehemently against something you were doing. Depending on how important it was to you, you could have wanted her dead.’

  ‘Oh, come on.’

 
‘We will see, Adi. We will see.’ And he got up. He opened the door, looked outside and said, ‘Two officers from Boston Detective Corps will be in the area 24 × 7 for the next few days.’ He walked out, letting the door shut on its own.

  59

  9th June 2008

  Boston

  ‘Noooooooo!’ squawked Aditya as he crumpled and flung the morning newspaper with all his might. He was livid when he saw the headline on the front page. Red eyes marked his helpless fury.

  A little later, when the anger subsided, he picked up the newspaper from the floor, stretched it out and read it again. ‘James Deahl’s Staring Down the Barrel wins Bancroft Prize.’ Aditya’s sense of frustration and outrage was driving him insane.

  He sat down on the living room couch and held his head in his hands. There were tears in his eyes. The newspaper article had reminded him of Cirisha and her struggle. He was reasonably sure that she was murdered in connection with the research that had gone into Staring Down the Barrel. But what it was, he couldn’t say. His obsession with Cirisha’s death made him almost forget about Narayanan, who was still not out of danger. It could take days for him to come out of coma.

  Aditya was convinced that the papers they had found in Richard’s locker at the duPont Center held the clue to Cirisha’s murder and, possibly, his own innocence. The documents were not in the house—he had scoured every nook and corner after Cirisha’s death—so the chances of Narayanan’s killers having got them were negligible. Where could they have gone? Did the people who killed her get their hands on them? If they did, then why did they ransack his home and attack Narayanan? The papers had to be somewhere out there. Safely tucked away from the men who were after them. Unless … it was not the documents they were after.

  Lieutenant Windle came calling again that afternoon. The two other detectives who had been patrolling the neighbourhood were with him. They grilled him for over two hours. By the end of it, Aditya was a nervous wreck. He had already told them about everything he knew, including the documents that they had picked up from the duPont Center.

  ‘Adi, our detectives went to Cambridge Partners.’

  ‘What do they have to say?’

  ‘I’ll skip the details. Most importantly, they said that they called you to offer a job. They had liked you when they met you the first time. However, they denied any suggestions that they threatened you.’

  ‘They have 22 per cent of their investments in gun-manufacturing units. Don’t they have reason to worry? If the anti-gun movement picks up speed, their investments will tank.’

  ‘They don’t have any investments in gun-manufacturing companies.’

  ‘Says who?’

  ‘We had someone verify their books.’

  ‘What the hell? This is ridiculous!’ screamed Aditya. ‘They told me categorically.’

  ‘Unproven,’ one of the detectives responded coolly.

  ‘Anyway, Adi, we have informed Mumbai Police through the Indian consulate. I’ve sought information from them on anything that could be relevant to this case. And just to check, Adi, do you suspect Mr Singh could have been involved?’ Windle asked Aditya as he got up from his chair.

  ‘He was baying for Cirisha’s blood. She was the cause of all his problems. But I always thought his bark was worse than his bite.’ Aditya knew that Shivinder was more worried about his money than taking revenge on Cirisha.

  ‘He was released a few days back.’

  ‘A big mistake.’

  ‘Well, Adi, we have as much reason to disbelieve you, as we have evidence to suspect him. So if he must be in custody, so should you.’ Aditya didn’t know what to say. He just stared vacantly out of the window.

  Windle walked towards the door. ‘I have kept the security cover intact for the time being.’ Just before he reached the door, in what had become his trademark style, he turned. ‘And Adi, one last thing. What would you say if someone were to ask you the motive for travelling to Mexico two weeks ago?’

  ‘Mr Narayanan had some work.’

  ‘At a bank? Greater Boston Global Bank, Adi? A bank whose global headquarters are less than a hundred miles from where you are.’

  ‘That’s where he wanted to go. He is old so I just accompanied him there. I don’t know what business he transacted there.’ Aditya was sweating. He was getting drawn deeper into this. If they got to know that he had gone to GB2 to launder money into the United States of America, they would haul him to federal prison.

  ‘We will find that out. Soon.’ And the door shut behind Windle.

  That’s when Aditya realized that the two officers patrolling the neighbourhood were not meant for his security—they were there for surveillance. He was their prime suspect now. His hands turned cold and he started shivering. Lying down on the stained carpet, he curled himself into a foetal position and clenched his fists. What had he got himself into? He didn’t even know when he passed out. Was it severe exhaustion from all the stress of the past few days? The only thing he realized, albeit much later, was that the doorbell was ringing. Repeatedly. He wasn’t expecting anyone. He got up. His head was still spinning. He stumbled to the door wondering who it could be.

  60

  9th June 2008

  Boston

  Windle’s next port of call was MIT. He met Antonio, who summarily dismissed Aditya’s suggestion that Cirisha was killed because she was poking her nose into activities related to Deahl’s book. ‘If what you are saying is true, lieutenant, more than half this country would have been dead by now.’

  ‘So what else could it be?’

  ‘I don’t know. But do you suspect anyone?’

  ‘Aditya heads the list. There were some indications of trouble on the domestic front. There is one more angle which we are investigating. But we don’t have anything concrete.’

  ‘Hmm … That is really sad. She was a great talent.’

  ‘We will soon get to the bottom of this. I need your permission to speak to people who have worked closely with her, her colleagues, supervisors and students. People she could have been in conflict with.’

  ‘Sure, lieutenant. You don’t need my approval for that.’

  ‘Just following protocol, sir. Yours is an institute of repute. I’ll make sure that I’m accompanied by the chief of MIT Police, or anyone he deputes.’

  ‘Thank you, lieutenant. Please do use your discretion and advise me in case you notice anything which is not the way it should be.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’ Lieutenant Windle stepped out. On reaching his car, he pulled out his phone and dialled a number.

  ‘Can I speak with Simen Munter?’ He waited for a few seconds to be put through. ‘Hi Simen. Just called to check if there has been any progress.’ There was a moment’s silence. He was listening to Simen. ‘Tomorrow evening. Great, I’ll speak to you then. Thank you.’ And after a pause when he heard what Simen Munter had to say, he added, ‘Sure. The report can follow the day after.’

  On hearing the bell, Aditya groggily found his way to the door. He drew the curtain apart and looked out. At the door, in full uniform, were the two officers from the Boston Police Department. Aditya stepped back and unlatched the door. And then he saw why they were there.

  ‘This gentleman wants to meet with you.’ One of the officers had his hand on his gun, while the other was talking to Aditya.

  ‘Let him in.’ Aditya turned and walked into the living room. Shivinder followed him. ‘I hope you don’t think I murdered Cirisha. If I were involved, I wouldn’t be here, Aditya.’

  ‘I don’t know if you did. But you made some serious threats to kill her.’

  ‘It was something that I said in the heat of the moment. She was the cause of all my problems. That’s what I told Lieutenant Windle when he asked me.’

  So Windle had interrogated him. For a moment, Aditya was glad that Windle was pursuing the leads seriously. ‘Anyway, that’s for the cops to figure out. What brings you here?’

  ‘I may be a criminal, Aditya. I stole
from a well-off corporate. But I helped them make money. What is wrong if I made some money on the side too? Does that mean I am a murderer?’

  Aditya walked to the other corner of the room and looked out of the glass door into the woods that extended for a hundred feet from his backyard. He had no interest in talking to Shivinder.

  ‘Look at me, Aditya. Didn’t you make money in the deals that you struck? You took your cut, right? You were as much a part of what I did, but do you see yourself killing anyone? Can you slash someone’s throat in cold blood? You will have to trust me, Aditya. In any case, I am here for another week at best. It all depends on how soon the Mumbai Police files charges against me in response to the FIR. Once they do that, I will be put on the first flight back to Mumbai. Extradited. I came to tell you that. I did not murder Cirisha. My conscience is clear. At least in the case of Cirisha, it is.’ And he got up. Aditya continued looking out of the window. ‘If there is anything I can do for you, let me know. You know how to reach me. Take care.’ And he walked towards the door. The detectives were standing at a distance as a precautionary measure.

  He had covered half the distance to the door when Aditya spoke. ‘Stay.’ After a long pause, he turned around. ‘I believe you. Come back in.’ Many thoughts churned within his mind at the same time, but he had no option but to trust Shivinder. The only other choice was to fight the battle alone, which was going to be difficult, considering he was a prime suspect. He took a calculated punt.

  Cardoza was meeting some people in his room when Windle, accompanied by an officer from MIT Police, walked in. Antonio had already called and briefed him.

  ‘Good afternoon, Dr Cardoza. Sorry to have barged in like this. Would you prefer that I wait outside till you finish?’

  ‘It’s all right, lieutenant. Juan had just called to tell me that you might be coming. If you could wait, I will join you in a minute.’ He opened the door adjoining the small meeting room. ‘Please,’ he said, ushering Windle into the room and slowly shutting the door behind him.