by UD Yasha
Bhalerao broke step for Rathod. He said, ‘Sonia said her preliminary examination suggests that the woman was raped.’
Rathod noticed the woman's body was not stiff from rigour mortis, which told him she had been dead for over twelve hours because that's how long it takes for muscles to stiffen and then relax again from lack of oxygen after dying.
‘What do we have?’ Rathod said, looking around the room.
‘Victim's name is Supriya Kelkar. She's thirty-four years old. Married with two children. The husband and kids are visiting the grandparents in Mumbai. They'll be here tomorrow morning. The wife could not go with them because she had some important stuff happening at work.'
‘Who found her?’
Bhalerao paused. ‘Hold that thought. You’d first want to see this. Come with me,’ he said and beckoned Rathod towards the bathroom.
Rathod followed him.
The bathroom was a slaughterhouse. The walls had been splashed red with blood. In some areas, the blood had trickled down, painting streams on its way. It was also all over the floor. Something about the bathroom sparked Rathod’s lizard mind. He found himself grimacing on seeing blood everywhere, but his mind was thinking about something else. The bathroom, despite being horrific, seemed familiar. Why? What was it? The answer came to him and the hair on his body stood up.
Suddenly, Rathod had to step out for a moment. The coppery, ironically almost inhuman smell of blood made him nauseous. Even the most experienced murder detectives felt funny in the stomach at times. He counted to ten. The moment passed.
He went back in.
Rathod stared at the bathroom wall. It all came back to him. Another crime scene from sixteen years bore a chilling resemblance to bathroom he was looking at. Back then, a woman named Naina Rajput had disappeared. She was still missing and presumed dead by most. The bathroom of her house looked similar the day she disappeared. The person accused of taking her, a killer named Kishore Zakkal, was caught five years back and was in jail, serving his sentence. In fact, Naina’s daughter, Siya Rajput, a lawyer and private detective, had played a big role in capturing him. Rathod had worked unofficially with Siya for several years until she had stopped working three years ago.
Because of the rumbling in his mind, Rathod only noticed what was bang in the middle of the bathroom when Bhalerao pointed it out to him. A circle was drawn with blood on the floor. Something was placed in the middle of the circle.
‘Wait…,’ Rathod said. ‘That can’t be right.’ He stepped forward, going as close as he could without disrupting the splatter on the ground. ‘Is that a…a lock of hair?’ he said.
The lock of hair was thick. Some strands had been pulled out from the root. For something associated with beauty, Rathod had not felt more petrified and number as he looked at it.
The shock of the sight slowed Rathod for a beat. He pictured the dead woman on the bed. He peeped out and double checked.
Bhalerao read his partner’s mind. He said, ‘I checked our victim’s hair and it doesn’t look like it was cut.’
The horrific implication of that hit Rathod. He said, ‘What the hell? That means it is someone else’s hair.’
‘I can only confirm if that hair came from Supriya Kelkar—our victim—after testing it,’ a woman’s voice said.
Rathod turned around. It was Dr. Sonia Joshi.
‘When are you performing the autopsy?’ he asked.
Sonia referred to her watch. ‘It’s ten thirty right now. I’ve got more autopsies to do but because of the gruesome nature of this murder, I will put this on the top of my list. I’ll try to get it done by tomorrow noon,’ she said. ‘I’ve finished taking samples from the bedroom. My team has swept everything. I’m almost done with the bathroom as well. My team might take more time to get all the samples. I’ll give you their analysis by tomorrow noon as well,’ she said and put her bag down to get to work.
Rathod and Bhalerao went out again. They examined the woman’s body. Rathod could not help but think about Siya Rajput’s mother—Naina. He knew that Kishore Zakkal’s mercy plea was rejected by the President of India earlier in the day. The timing of this murder told Rathod that this was going to be anything but a straightforward case.
One thought kept getting louder in his mind: Is there a connection between Naina Rajput’s disappearance and this murder?
Chapter Four
‘We’ve got your favourite cake,’ Radha declared and ran towards me. She opened the box to show the cake to me. It was my favourite pineapple flavour. ‘Happy birthday to the best ever sister, Siya,' Radha read the message on it out loud. ‘I couldn’t stop myself from being cheesy.’
I could not help but marvel at my little sister. At twenty-six, she had already turned into a magnificent young woman. Rahul followed her in, holding paper bags in both his hands. ‘And I’ve got some Chinese food as well,’ he said with a grin.
I felt ecstatic. I was grateful to have Radha and Rahul in my life. Things were finally getting better and falling into place. It had all started two weeks back. I had accidentally picked up Rahul's phone, thinking it was mine and had seen that he had been looking at wedding rings. I had put the phone away very quickly, feeling bad about invading his privacy while at the same time bursting inside with happiness. Later that day, he had asked me on his own, in confidence, if he could marry Radha. I had not been happier at any point in my life than I was then. In fact, that day marked a new phase in my recovery. I gave Radha's ring size to Rahul. I told Shama about the planned proposal after getting Rahul’s permission. Then, the three of us went out several times to look for a ring for Radha. We had finally found one we all loved. Rahul was going to buy it once he got his month's salary in a few days.
Radha set up the table while Rahul got the plates. Just as I went to the small bar cabinet, Radha said, ‘Tell us what you want. You’re going to be treated like a queen today.’
I laughed and said, ‘But my birthday is yet to start.’
‘Sit back and enjoy,' Radha said, setting the burnt garlic noodles, chicken manchurian, hot and sour gravy and schezwan rice on the table.
Over-ordering ran in our family. We never thought of it is ordering extra food though. It was more like planning for the next day’s dinner that we would enjoy while watching a movie.
Radha clicked her fingers and Shadow ran towards her. She set one bone on the ground. Shadow grabbed it with his teeth and sat at his usual spot – on a rug near the dining table.
By the time we were done, it was a minute to midnight. Radha and Rahul scampered to the kitchen. They came out a minute later, singing happy birthday with a cake in hand, complete with three candles on top. Radha placed it in front of me.
She hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear, ‘I love you the most.’
I closed my eyes to make a wish. I knew I was too old to make birthday wishes but it was a compulsory tradition in the Rajput house, put in place by our mother and encouraged by our father. We kept doing such seemingly childish things to honour their memory. We had remembered them every day for the past sixteen years. On occasions like these, we missed them even more. Our life had changed completely sixteen years ago when both of them had disappeared within a span of three months. First, our mother was taken by a serial killer and then our father had vanished without a trace.
I opened my eyes and hugged Radha tightly. It was a good time, I thought. With Zakkal’s mercy plea rejected by the President, we were finally going to get justice for our mother. Radha and I hadn’t talked about it much while Zakkal’s case was being heard in the courts. We didn’t want to because while Zakkal’s death sentence meant justice for maa and seven other women, no one knew what had happened to them after Zakkal had taken them.
Chapter Five
Kapil Rathod returned to the bedroom and stood next to the bed.
He stood next to the bed. Sonia had told them her team had finished photographing the bedroom. Samples from everywhere had been taken. He could move the body now. He could verify h
is hypothesis. He bent down and lifted the woman's body by the shoulder. Her skin was pale but bruised dark purple under her neck, a result of livor mortis – a process in which blood settles to the lowest point in the body due to gravity. It was useful to determine if a body had been moved post-death. He then lifted the woman's back. It had the same pigmentation across the surface of the back. He moved further lower and lifted her pelvis. The pigmentation was darker there, suggesting more blood had settled behind her pelvis and she was probably sitting when she had died.
Rathod suspected the killer moved the woman’s body after she died to make the bed. He did not know why. His small test proved that her body had been moved after she had died. The luminol test could probably reveal a bloody area somewhere in the room.
Rathod’s mind went back to the hair in the bathroom. The way it was arranged, it was almost as if the purpose of murdering the woman outside was to showcase the hair. He went back to the bathroom where Sonia was collecting samples from the blood inside. He waited for her to finish. In the meantime, he looked up Naina Rajput’s old case file in the central registry of all cases in the state of Maharashtra.
Sonia walked out eventually.
Rathod said, ‘Can you run tests on the hair and see who it belonged to? I can’t help but feel that’s crucial to this case. Also run everything you find against all the evidence from Naina Rajput’s case from sixteen years ago. I’ve sent you the case number.’
‘Do you think there’s a connection?’
‘The bathroom of her bedroom looked exactly this on the day she had disappeared,’ Rathod said, flicking his head towards the bathroom while showing Sonia a picture from the case file.
‘I’ll do that on priority,’ Sonia said. ‘I’ll partially test the DNA on both so you can have the test results in the next hour.’ She turned around and went back in.
‘One more thing,’ Rathod said. ‘When are you going to conduct the luminol test?’
‘We’re almost done with the bathroom. So, let’s say five to ten more minutes.’
Rathod returned to the bedroom. He looked around to get a feel of the dead woman’s life. Like the house, the bedroom was decorated with a lavish taste. The bedroom, itself, was huge with two distinct sections. The first had a bed while the other had a dressing table, a study table, a book rack and two armchairs. A glass chandelier hung over the second section. There were abstract paintings on the walls. Every corner had a lamp. Large French windows lay in both sections.
Except for the dead woman and the blood in the bathroom, the house was clean. Rathod was even more curious to know which areas would light up blue in the luminol test.
‘What sort of security is in place here?’ Rathod said to Bhalerao.
‘Nothing too sophisticated; what you’d find in most houses in this neighbourhood. There’s a simple push and self-locking mechanism on the main door. The husband confirmed that they also put a padlock on the door from inside.’
‘What about the windows?’
‘All were closed barring the ones in this room.’
‘Ask the husband if it was normal for his wife to keep the windows open at night. It has gotten pretty cold over the last week.’
‘I will do that. I know the husband will be in shock, but I’ve told him we’ll have to interrogate him tomorrow morning.’
Rathod knew that murder investigations were brutal. But they could not afford to waste time, for if the husband was guilty, he was a threat to the society. Every murder tested the courage of police officers who were investigating it. Their first duty was towards the safety and well-being of the public. Everything else was secondary. So, he held back his tongue regarding the matter. ‘He was with his parents. He would’ve had an alibi, right?’ he said instead.
‘He does. Both his parents and kids vouched for his presence the entire day yesterday and today.'
Rathod walked out of the room. ‘Who found her?’ he said.
‘A friend from work. They were heading out for dinner. She’s downstairs right now. Her name is Sanjana Suman.’
Bhalerao guided him to a smaller living room apart from the main one. Inside, a woman, visibly shaken with smudged mascara and puffy eyes, was sitting on a large armchair. She was dressed well in an expensive looking floral dress.
Rathod went to the kitchen and got a glass of water. ‘Senior Inspector Kapil Rathod,’ he said, offering her the glass.
He sat on the armchair next to her. She nodded her head once and sipped the water. Rathod could make out her face relax a tad.
‘I know this is hard, Sanjana. But it’s important we talk to you as soon as possible,’ Rathod said. ‘Can you tell us about what happened earlier in the evening?’
Sanjana set the glass on the side table. Her voice shivered when she spoke. ‘I was supposed to meet Supriya for dinner today. I came to her house to pick her up at eight thirty. I rang the bell and called her phone several times. She did not answer either. We were really looking forward to the night out. We had booked a table at our favourite restaurant. When she didn’t respond initially, I thought she might have stepped out to get something. But then I got worried. I knew her husband was away. I had met him a few times as well because everyone at work is like family. I called him. He was surprised when I told him that I wasn’t able to reach Supriya. He tried her number as well but could not connect with her. He was not afraid initially but after twenty minutes or so of trying, he panicked. He told me to get keys from their neighbours and go inside the house. I went in, called out to Supriya. But she still did not answer. Eventually, I went to her bedroom and found her on the bed. I thought she was sleeping but then I saw all the…’ her voice trailed off and she pressed her mouth with her hand to avoid breaking down.
Rathod let her take a moment.
‘Did you notice anything abnormal about the lock on the front door?’
Sanjana’s eyes wandered as she tried to remember. She shook her head.
‘How long have you known Supriya?’
‘It would have been five years in a week’s time. She was already working at Smart Tech when I joined.’
The name did not strike anything in Rathod’s mind. ‘What does Smart Tech do exactly?’
‘We're into the Internet of Things. We make smart devices and wearables. We're heavily into research and development. Our products and services are used by big multinationals across the world. They either build their products on our platforms or use our technology in some way. You wouldn't have heard of us as we don't directly sell to customers, in most cases at least.'
‘Where’s this company located?’
‘We have offices in Pune and Hyderabad. Pune is our research centre and Hyderabad is the corporate office. We also have a branch in San Francisco in Silicon Valley.’
‘What was Supriya’s role at Smart Tech?’
‘She was the Lead Engineer. She joined Smart Tech when it was still small. I am a neural network scientist. I worked under her. We were supposed to head out and relax. We had a big product launch yesterday and we deserved some time off because the work that had gone into it was crazy.’
‘Does the founder stay in Pune?’
‘Yes,’ Sanjana said. She rummaged in her purse and plucked out a card. ‘That’s him. Vivaan Deshpande.’
Rathod accepted the card. He made a mental note to meet Vivaan. He gauged Sanjana. She looked better as if speaking about the incident that had rattled her, had eased the burden of it. He held out his card and said, ‘Sanjana, thanks for your time right now. We'll be in touch. Please call me if there's anything you think that'll be useful to our investigation.'
Rathod and Bhalerao returned upstairs.
‘You’re back on time,’ Sonia said. ‘We’re prepping for the luminol test. We should start in two minutes.’
As promised, in the next two minutes, two crime scene analysts were drawing the curtains and closing the door to make the room as dark as possible. They hung darkening curtains on the two windows as well as th
e room and bathroom doors.
The room went pitch black. Sonia turned on a dim battery-operated light to guide her analysts as one began spraying luminol and the other was ready to photograph it using a long exposure camera. The concept of luminol was simple. Luminol reacted with the iron in the haemoglobin and the oxygen and iron-carrying protein in red blood cells. The moment it came in contact with anything containing iron, copper, cyanides or specific proteins, it glowed blue-green. It could detect one in a million part of trace blood.
The analysts began spraying the luminol. They started from the wall next to the bed and moved leftwards, inch by inch covering the area from floor to ceiling. The floor began to light up blue. The walls were clean. The floor lit blue uniformly. Not in patches and spurts, like the way it does usually with blood. Rathod was confused. They moved sideways, spraying the luminol. The entire floor turned blue.
There was only one explanation. The floor had been cleaned with bleach. The oxidizing agent in bleach was reacting with the luminol. Bleach was used to wipe away all DNA evidence.
Then it happened.
In the second section of the room, the tiles stopped turning blue. As the analysts moved further, everyone gasped in unison when we noticed that a circular area on the floor had no luminol. The analysts went inside the circle and sprayed luminol in it. A pattern appeared. It was not a splatter.
Instead, there were letters inside the circle. They lit up one by one, left to right. Sonia indicated to her technician to focus on that area. More luminol was sprayed. All the letters were visible now. Silence resounded in the bedroom. Everyone was shocked to see what they were reading. The killer had left behind a message.
It read:
Hello again. There will be more.
P.S. - Tell Siya Rajput I said hi.
Chapter Six
I was about to blow out the candles when my phone started ringing. It was on the table next to the cake. Its screen lit up. Was someone calling to wish me happy birthday?
