by RV Raman
Dora shook her head. ‘Both of us hate cigarette smoke. Sebastian doesn’t smoke either. I don’t know about Mr. Varadan.’
‘Phillip?’
Dora looked up sharply. ‘Funny that I didn’t think of him…now that he is dead. I haven’t seen him smoke, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t.’
‘Ganesh? Jilsy?’
‘Oh, Ganesh smokes like a chimney. Especially when he drinks. You would have seen him puffing away last evening. But I wonder if he was in a position to walk all the way here in his drunken state.’
‘Yes…provided he was truly drunk. What about his wife?’
‘She doesn’t, as far as I know. She hates it when he blows smoke in her face. That leaves Father Tobias. I wouldn’t expect priests to smoke.’
‘The priest told me to give you his thanks,’ Bahadur interrupted on hearing the cleric’s name. ‘He left early in the morning, when it was still dark. About 5 a.m.’
‘Father Tobias has left?’ Athreya asked, surprised.
‘He has a morning service to conduct,’ Dora explained.
‘It’ll take him a couple of hours to reach his church if he has to go around the landslide. He had said last night that he would be leaving very early.’
‘Did he say anything to you, Bahadur?’ Athreya asked in Hindi.
‘He talked to me for two minutes as I opened the gate for him, sir. He asked me how my family back home was, and asked me to pray for them. He also asked me to pray for my employers, who have given me food, shelter and money.’
‘Was he carrying anything when he left?’
‘No, sir. Nothing.’
‘Okay. Did you see anyone else during the night or in the morning?’
Bahadur shook his head. ‘Only Sebastian Sir. He’s gone out on his motorcycle.’
‘Did you hear anything or anybody in the night? Anything unusual?’
Bahadur shook his head again. ‘The gate was locked all night. Nobody came in or went out.’
‘Thanks, Bahadur.’ Athreya turned to his cycle. ‘Come, Dora, let us go indoors. People must be up and about by now.’
They were. When Athreya and Dora entered the hall, they were confronted by a group of six anxious people.
‘Where have you been?’ Michelle demanded. ‘What happened?’
‘Why?’ Dora asked.
‘Manu and Uncle are nowhere to be seen. Sebastian has gone off on his bike. You two were missing. Gopal and Murugan gave some yarn about them being locked in, and avoided questions thereafter. What’s happening here?’
Dora didn’t answer, and instead looked at Athreya for guidance. Six other faces—Michelle, Richie, Abbas, Varadan, Jilsy and Ganesh—turned towards him. Athreya stepped forward.
‘I have bad news,’ he said softly. ‘There has been a murder.’
The six people reacted very differently. Michelle gasped loudly, while Jilsy cringed and grabbed her husband’s arm. As Ganesh gaped stupidly at Athreya, Varadan’s intelligent eyes narrowed a trifle. Next to a poker-faced Abbas, Richie flared up angrily.
‘Is this a joke?’ he demanded. ‘Or a game for a weekend party? If so, it is in very poor taste.’
‘I’m afraid not, Richie,’ Athreya replied calmly. ‘There is a dead man in the chapel right now…slumped in a wheelchair. Killed during the night.’
‘Uncle!’ Michelle cried.
Her eyes snapped to Abbas, who, seeing her gaze, paled and stepped back. His poker face crumbled as a look of horror took over it. Varadan’s piercing gaze was on Michelle’s face. Ganesh’s mouth fell open and his wife closed her eyes tightly. Her lovely face was marred by lines of terror. Richie was glaring at Athreya, his anger mounting.
‘Mr. Fernandez has been killed?’ Varadan asked sharply, swinging his gaze around to Athreya.
For a moment, Athreya didn’t answer. He looked around at the ring of faces twice. Then he responded.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not Mr. Fernandez. But in his wheelchair.’
‘Who?’
Athreya was about to answer when Richie cut in.
‘Phillip!’ he said. ‘He is the only one missing other than the priest, who must have returned to his church.’
‘Is that right, Mr. Athreya?’ Michelle asked, almost imploring him to agree. Relief seemed to be flooding her face.
‘Yes, Michelle.’ Athreya swept over the six faces with his eyes once again. ‘Phillip was found dead in your Uncle’s wheelchair. In the chapel, as I said.’
Abbas had a look of utter confusion on his still-ashen face. Ganesh’s witless face might have been that of a stone ogre. Jilsy’s frightened eyes had snapped open. Varadan was not amused–he seemed to have taken exception to Athreya’s chicanery in leading them to think that Bhaskar had been killed. Richie too had seen through the trickery and his face was flushed with anger.
Shifting his gaze, Athreya saw Murugan and Gopal standing halfway up the staircase leading to the first floor, listening intently. Gopal’s mouth was half open in morbid fascination. Murugan seemed stricken. As if he had just realized that the person who had locked him in was, in all probability, the murderer. Athreya wondered how much he suspected. His thoughts were interrupted by Varadan’s hard voice.
‘If you knew it all the while,’ he asked drily, ‘why this drama, Mr Athreya? Why didn’t you tell us straight away that Phillip has been killed?’
‘I know.’ Richie snarled. ‘He thinks one of us killed Phillip.’
‘And he is probably right,’ rumbled a voice from the mouth of the art gallery. Bhaskar had emerged from his room, propelling his unmotorized wheelchair with his arms. His pallid face was deeply lined. Manu came behind him. ‘Sebastian has gone to fetch the police.’
Chapter 10
‘We don’t know when the police will come,’ Athreya said, smoothly taking charge. ‘Meanwhile, every hour that passes takes us farther away from the time the murder was committed. We must find out as much as we can before time and the killer erase the evidence.’ He turned to Michelle. ‘Can you examine the body and estimate the time of death? Only a doctor can do that.’
‘I know…but I am just a general practitioner, not a coroner or a forensic pathologist. I don’t have much experience in this kind of a thing.’
‘I understand that, but with each passing hour, a coroner’s ability to accurately determine the time of death also reduces. We must do what we can with what we have. Your estimate will be better than mine or anyone else’s here.’
Michelle hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
‘Give me a moment to get my medical bag from my room.’
As she went away, up the staircase, Athreya turned to Manu.
‘We must search for the murder weapon,’ he said. ‘I have an inkling where it could be, but I am in no position to reach the place.’
‘Are you sure he would have thrown away the weapon?’ Manu asked.
‘Well, a sensible murderer wouldn’t run the risk of keeping it in his or her possession. He or she would do one of two things as soon as possible: get rid of it in a way that doesn’t lead back to them, or plant it on someone else.’
‘Plant it!’ Richie exclaimed brusquely. ‘You are not a very trusting soul, are you?’
‘Perhaps not.’ Athreya turned and looked Richie full in the face. ‘I see no reason to take the murderer at his or her word. Before you ask, let me also say this: I will not automatically believe what you or anyone else tells me. I will listen, but not necessarily believe. My friend, I may not be very trusting. But you will find me trustworthy, if you know what I mean.’
‘So,’ Richie sneered, ‘you hope to solve this murder, do you?’
‘Like to lay a wager, Richie? I hope to not only solve the murder, but I also intend to suss out smaller crimes and transgressions along the way.’
He turned away, seeming to dismiss Richie. He looked up the staircase impatiently. Michelle had not yet come down. Athreya turned to Manu.<
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‘You may want to bring along a couple of boys to help us,’ he said. ‘We need to search the stream. It is an ideal place to dispose a murder weapon. It’s right next to the crime scene, and the running water would erase fingerprints and any other telltale signs. I’ll join you as soon as Michelle finishes her bit.’
Fifteen minutes later, Athreya and Michelle stood inside the chapel, speaking softly. Michelle had examined the body and done the usual things as Athreya watched. She now looked calm and collected, having performed her professional chore.
‘Before I give you my estimate, I want to reiterate that I have very little experience in this sort of thing. I might be wrong.’
‘I understand,’ Athreya nodded. ‘What’s your best estimate?’
‘Death occurred between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., give or take a little bit. If I had to pick a time, I’d say 2:30 a.m.’
Athreya nodded and led the way out of the chapel. He locked the door, and the two of them went behind the building. There they stood watching the brook from above. About a hundred feet to their left, Gopal and another boy had let down a ladder under Murugan’s directions. A small knot of people stood behind Murugan, watching the activity.
‘That’s where the stream bed is closest to us,’ Michelle explained. ‘There is a depression on the bank that is about five feet deep. It is the best place to climb down into the stream. Dora and I used to do that as kids. We loved collecting pebbles.’
They watched as, having changed into shorts and slippers, Manu followed Gopal and the other boy down the ladder. Starting from the spot they had climbed down to, they began walking slowly up the stream, scrutinizing every inch of the rock bed, acting on suggestions from the people above, who had a bird’s-eye view.
Initially, anything slender caused excitement, be it a stick or sliver of stone. But gradually, they learnt to distinguish between stones, sticks and foreign objects. Manu repeated Athreya’s instruction time and again, reminding the searchers not to touch anything with their hands. If they found the weapon, Athreya had said, they were to pick it up with a pair of tongs and drop it into a transparent Ziploc bag.
The searchers reached the chapel and passed the point where Athreya and Michelle stood, slowly making their way towards Sunset Deck. Dora joined the two watchers on the bank. Halfway between the chapel and Sunset Deck, Manu suddenly called out, ‘I think I’ve found it!’
Athreya hurried along the bank and peered down when he reached Manu, who was pointing into the water with a stick. Wedged between two rocks, half buried under blackish-brown sand, was the handle of what looked like a dagger. The blade was already under the coarse sand that was being swept along by the water, which was about two or three feet deep.
‘Use the tongs, Manu,’ Athreya reminded him.
Clutching the tongs firmly in his right hand, Manu dipped it into the water and closed its arms around the dagger’s handle. When he was sure that he had secured a firm grip, he held the tongs tightly with both hands and pulled it out. Gopal was waiting beside him with an open bag.
The keen metal glinted menacingly in the morning light as Manu pulled it out of the water and dropped it into the bag. It turned out be a crude, country-made dagger, with a slim blade that was an inch wide at the base and about six inches long. The short handle comprised two wood pieces, bound together by what looked like leather.
There was no hope of retrieving any fingerprints from the weapon. Athreya doubted if DNA information could be retrieved either. All he could do now was to try and find out if someone could identify it.
* * *
Back in the drawing room, Athreya showed the dagger—still in its protective bag—first to Bhaskar. The older man studied it for a long while, then silently shook his head.
‘It seems vaguely familiar, but I can’t place it,’ he said as he handed the bag to Manu. ‘It’s certainly not from my collection of antiques, nor does it seem like it belongs to the kitchen. It’s a rough, crude weapon. Can you place it, Manu?’
Manu had been frowning at the dagger just as his father had, and he too, after long thought, shook his head.
Athreya then asked all the others to look at the weapon and recall if they had seen it anywhere. Everyone drew a blank.
‘The next thing I need to do is to talk to each of you–’ Athreya began when Bhaskar cut him off.
‘Let me spare you the unpleasantness, Mr Athreya. I know where you are heading. Allow me to say it instead of you.’
Bhaskar looked enquiringly at Athreya. After a moment’s thought, the latter nodded.
‘Now listen, everyone. There has been a murder, and each one of us here is a potential suspect. In addition, there may be, by my reckoning, at least three other potential suspects who are not in this room. That makes it a dozen of us in all.
‘Of these, eleven are innocent. One is not. Justice demands that the cloud be lifted from these eleven. To my mind, that is far more important than finding the one who killed Phillip. But to clear the eleven, we must find the one. Unless we do so, the cloud will hang over us forever.
‘Most of you are young, and have too much of your lives ahead of you to allow that to happen. There is nothing worse than to have a shadow of suspicion hang over you. Take this advice from a man who knows, one who has suffered because of it.
‘I was once suspected of being a fence, of having passed off a stolen antique sculpture. The shadow of suspicion dogged me for two years, and it ruined my business and reputation. People looked askance at me wherever I went. They whispered behind my back. Invitations to parties and weddings stopped coming.
‘Until, by happy chance, the real culprit was found. My business bounced back, and my friends returned. But I never forgot how I was treated during those two years. I don’t wish such a fate upon any of you. I want a resolution to the mystery of Phillip’s murder, and will seek it with all the energy and resources at my disposal. That is why I have commissioned Mr. Athreya to investigate.
‘For those of you who don’t know, there is nobody better in the country for the job. So please, do yourselves and your loved ones a favour. Do me a favour. Cooperate with him. Help him do his job.
‘Now, I suspect he wants to speak to each of us in turn, in private. He would want to know about our movements last night. Please do not consider it an insult. Please do not be affronted by his having dared to suspect you. The way it works is that everyone is a suspect until proved otherwise.’
Bhaskar turned to Athreya and asked, ‘Is that what you were going to say? That you’d like each one of us to tell you about his or her movements last night?’
‘Yes, Mr. Fernandez. That’s precisely what I wanted to do, although I lack your eloquence.’
‘It’s decided then. Use the study or the library for your discussions, whichever suits you. If there is anything else you need, tell Manu or me. Sebastian will be away for most of the day, I suspect.’
‘Thank you.’ Athreya swept the anxious faces with his gaze. ‘I would like to speak to each of you in the study. I have no preference for the order in which I speak to you. For now, I need you to tell me about your movements last night as accurately as you can. Take your time if you want to gather your thoughts. I’m happy to wait, but I’m now ready to start with the first person.’
A long, pregnant silence followed. People looked nervously at each other, but nobody spoke. After a few awkward moments, two people spoke up simultaneously.
‘I–’ Varadan began, but stopped since Dora also started to speak at the same time. He glanced at her and gestured to her to continue.
‘I don’t know about the others, but I want to speak in public,’ she said. Her usually affable face was puckered in unpleasant rumination. ‘I agree with what Uncle said. There is nothing worse than the suspicion of my being a murderess hanging over me. I’m on this side of thirty, and have a life to live. I still have to make my name in the world. I can do without a cloud hanging over me.
�
�I am therefore insisting—I repeat, insisting—that I speak in public. I have nothing to hide, and want to talk about my movements openly. Anyone—not just Mr. Athreya—is welcome to question me. I promise that I will take no offence.’
‘Now, girl,’ Bhaskar growled. ‘There is no call for–’
‘With respect, Uncle, allow me to interrupt you. Being the youngest, I have seldom claimed privileges. I mostly do as I am told. I fall in line; you know that. But this is a privilege I do wish to claim. I insist that I go first and tell everyone what I have already told Mr. Athreya. May I, sir?’ she asked, turning to Athreya.
‘Please,’ he said.
‘If I remember right, dinner finished at around 11 p.m. last night. We hung around till about 11:15 p.m., after which we split up into smaller groups. After exchanging small talk for a while, Manu and I went to the rose garden a little after 11:30 p.m. I don’t know the exact time, as I didn’t look at my watch.
‘We talked for close to an hour, and I returned to the mansion at 12:27 a.m. I remember the time because I looked at my watch. I met Mr. Varadan on the walkway outside the mansion’s front door. He had just come out, and I was going toward the front door. On entering, I went straight up to my room and went to bed a short while afterwards.
‘Some noise woke me up at about 7 a.m. this morning. I now realise that it was the thumping of the staff quarters’ door. I freshened up and came down at around 7:15 a.m. After speaking to a distressed Bhuvana, I went outside at 7:30 a.m., where I met Sebastian and you.
‘Some of the timings are approximate and some are precise. I’m sorry, I can’t make it more accurate than this. Do you want me to tell you what Manu and I talked about?’
‘Not now, Dora. Maybe later. This is consistent with what you had said earlier in the morning. Were you in your room from 12:30 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.? Did you leave your room at all?’
She shook her head firmly. ‘No. I was in my room the entire time. I didn’t step out even for a second.’
‘Did you hear anything unusual during the night?’
