And did she even have a boyfriend anymore?
But that wasn’t why she had jumped. His gesture had been unexpected. He hadn’t sought permission; he had assumed she would be okay. Darya had sensed early on that Roshan was interested in her and would make a move if only Darya gave him a signal. So, had she been leading him on? Had she dropped the signs?
They had known each other quite well when they were younger, Darya told herself, and it wasn’t totally unusual for him to do what he did. And she was obviously distraught. He was merely trying to comfort her.
At long last, she said, ‘I overreacted. Sorry.’
He shrugged and flashed a smile. ‘You’re in a bad mood. I get it,’ he said. ‘Listen, you’re not alone. I’m here with you. Tell me anything. Ask anything of me.’
Darya’s heart lifted. He was a sweet guy. She was letting her qualms take over her rational thought.
Her phone rang. She saw who was calling.
‘I have to take this,’ she said.
‘Police?’ Roshan asked. Darya nodded. ‘Take it here,’ he said.
‘Too noisy,’ Darya said, getting up quickly and nearly toppling over her chair. ‘Need to go outside.’ She looked up at the ceiling and uttered a small mental prayer. ‘I hope they’re calling with some information.’
She clicked the green button and walked outside with brisk steps.
Three hours later Darya dialled her father from outside the Hill Road police station as she simultaneously signalled Roshan to wait in the car. She updated her father on what Senior Superintendent of Police Makrand Desai, or Mak, as he’d introduced himself, had told her.
Mak had phoned Darya at the café, asking her to come to the police station. When she’d arrived, he’d spent a good ten minutes chastising Darya for clearing up Veda’s things from the room. ‘We don’t know yet if she’s missing or simply took off. Her belongings might have given us a clue,’ he’d said.
‘I doubt it,’ Darya had told him. ‘We had very little clothes with us, only two months’ worth. She had even less than I did. And both her purse and her phone are missing.’
‘No laptop or other electronics? Like an iPad?’
Darya had said no. Veda hadn’t owned either. And before she’d broken up with Rishabh, she’d used his laptop.
The police had some information about Veda’s phone. It was being operated selectively, switched on for an hour every day, at a different location each time. Darya had shown Mak the messages she’d received. He’d scowled as he read through them but had not volunteered a theory. ‘This Jasmine…’ he’d murmured thoughtfully. ‘She’s the D’Mello girl, isn’t she? Could she have something to do with Veda going missing?’
Darya had barely had the energy to shrug. She’d wished she had an answer.
‘No, I don’t think so. Too young,’ the SSP had replied in her stead, ‘but we’ll try to get in touch with her for questioning in any case. Maybe she is in trouble too, like Veda.’
‘Maybe,’ Darya had replied despondently. ‘I hope not.’ After a pause, she’d asked, ‘Who are your main suspects at present?’
‘As you hinted earlier, we’re looking at your landlords, the Mascarenhas,’ he’d replied slowly. ‘Any reason they might have harmed her?’
Darya had taken a deep breath and told the SSP about Veda’s encounters with Viktor and the video she’d found. Also, about the recording equipment Darya had seen in the closet room. His eyebrows had risen a couple of notches.
‘Where’s the video now?’ he’d asked.
‘I don’t have it,’ she’d answered, wishing she’d made a copy of the picture Veda had shown her. ‘Veda told me she was going to try and get the DVR as proof. She looked for it once in the reception but didn’t find it. When she went missing, I worried she might have tried again—that Viktor found out and did something to her.’
‘And that’s possible?’
Darya had shrugged.
‘So, it is,’ he’d said, looking sombre. ‘We’ve been hearing some things about the duo. There have been many complaints. Is it possible they were involved in the other disappearances?’
Darya had looked up, startled.
‘Kyra, the Polish national who’s missing, she was at the villa. Eileen D’Mello, she lived right next door. Then the missing women from the last few years. It can’t be a coincidence that the Mascarenhas arrived on Chapel Road around the time this all started,’ Mak had said. ‘Everything is pointing towards them.’
Darya had given a small nod and looked away, wondering if she should tell him about the note…
Not yet.
‘Yes?’ Mak had asked, as if privy to the voice in her head. He had been watching her reactions closely.
‘Do you know Rajesh?’ she’d asked abruptly.
‘Who?’
‘Rajesh…’ Darya had dug in her memory for a surname. ‘His surname was Chaturvedi, I think. He was boarding at the villa.’
Something dark had passed over Mak’s face. His gaze had been guarded when he’d replied, ‘I do.’
‘He could be involved,’ Darya had suggested.
The superintendent had shaken his head emphatically. Steepling his fingers in front of him, he’d leaned forward. ‘It can’t be.’
Darya had felt a surge of anger rise inside her. ‘He’s a dangerous man,’ she’d said.
‘He used to be a khabri,’ Mak had replied. ‘He used to work for us.’
‘What’s his regular job?’
‘Real-estate broker. Does the occasional errands for rich men,’ Mak had said. ‘Has connections in high places, so he’s a useful man, but he’ll not dare mess with us. You’re barking up the wrong tree.’
‘Because he was a police informer once, he can’t do anything wrong? He tried to hurt me, you know.’ She’d narrated her encounter with him and watched in satisfaction as the inspector’s jaw tightened.
‘Even so,’ he’d said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘He cannot be involved.’
‘Why?’
There had been a long pause, during which time the SSP had looked as if he was pondering how much he ought to reveal. Finally, he’d said, ‘We’ve known him a long time. He has powerful connections, both within the police and high society. Before we go accusing him, we need to be absolutely sure, that’s all I’m saying. And right now, we have no proof. Also’—he’d flipped a pen between his fingers—‘we talked to him briefly this morning. He claims he was at the villa all through the night Veda went missing. He said you had’—he’d coughed—‘well, passed out in your room.’ In response to Darya’s startled look, the SSP had hastily elaborated, ‘Raj said your room’s door was open, adding for good measure that Veda wasn’t inside, nor did she come back that night. And neither he nor the Mascarenhas left the villa.’
That he had abbreviated Rajesh’s name had not escaped Darya.
‘And you believe him?’ she’d asked, her words sharp with amazement. ‘He’s a thug, don’t you see? I won’t be surprised if all of them are in on it together. Viktor, Debbie, Rajesh. Bunch of thugs.’
Darya had thought she’d caught a cagey light flare up in Mak’s eye, a slight jerk of his face as if in warning. But his reply to her had been cool. ‘We’re still investigating. We will look into everyone.’
Darya was relaying all this to her father over the phone. She’d been called to the police station so that the SSP could question her on Veda’s state of mind and last movements. A constable was going to come over to the Tiwari house later to go through Veda’s things. The SSP had promised to call as soon as he had another update.
‘Hope she’s found soon,’ her father said worriedly.
They ended the call after murmuring reassurances to one another.
However, Darya hadn’t told her father what she’d seen on the noticeboard at the police station after her conversation was done. Amidst the notices of theft and challans, two tattered A4-size sheets were pinned on two opposite ends.
/> MISSING
Name: Kyra Kowalczyk
Age: 18
Height: 5 ft 9 in.
Description: Polish national, very fair, long blonde hair, slim. Last seen wearing a blue tank top, black tights and Adidas sneakers.
Occupation: Model
From: Łódź, Poland
Last seen: Chapel Road
If any information call Hill Road police station
022 2651 3716
MISSING
Name: Arohi Mansukhani
Age: 19
Height: 5 ft 4 in.
Description: Very fair, long hair, a small mole on her lip. Last seen wearing a red T-shirt with a picture of a large earring on it.
Occupation: Student of Dhyan Singh Polytechnic
From: Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad
Last seen: Dadar station
If any information call Gandhinagar City Police
079 2322 1021
Darya had baulked in shock.
Arohi was Sapna!
Darya remembered the mole on Sapna’s lower lip, the T-shirt she wore at nights in the villa—and when Darya spotted her at Dadar station.
So… Sapna had disappeared. Did Parthiv have something to do with her disappearance as Rajesh had claimed? But following that day, there had been no more fights. She had not seen much of Parthiv in the villa either—except that one time in her stuporous dream, but could she trust that memory? And why had neither Debbie nor Rajesh continued to raise a stink? Neither looked particularly concerned or unsettled; it was as if Sapna had not existed at all.
Another chilling thought came to her.
So, there were not two but three women who had gone missing from the villa. That meant Veda was in big trouble.
She thought to run back inside and tell Mak that Sapna had been staying at the villa, claiming to be Rajesh’s wife, but she remembered the man’s reluctance to accept her allegations about Rajesh. His precise last words came back to her, something else she had not cared to repeat to her father.
‘I heard from Gawde what you were up to in Goa. Nourahno told him,’ the SSP had said tightly. ‘We admire your guts, Ms. Nandkarni, but Mumbai is different. There are dangerous people here. Do not meddle in affairs you don’t understand.’
Roshan insisted Darya have dinner with him and she didn’t have the strength to refuse. Also, she realized she didn’t mind having him around. She needed the distraction.
She briefed him about the SSP’s account of the investigation without going into the details. He listened raptly, adding a helpful comment here and there.
She was exhausted when she finished but it felt good to have shared it with someone.
‘My dad knows the SSP. Do you want me to put in a word? Push the case along?’ Roshan asked.
‘Can you do that?’ she asked. Any help was welcome at this moment.
Between them, they’d already finished a bottle of red wine. Darya tried not to blush as she noted Roshan was staring at her, a reflective look on his face.
Feeling bold and buzzed with alcohol, Darya volunteered, ‘Veda told me once I have a penchant for dissipate men.’
‘Are you saying I am dissipate?’ he asked, his grin deepening.
Damn. She shouldn’t have said it.
‘What about Aaron?’ he asked. ‘He isn’t dissipate, is he?’
Darya’s eyes grew wide.
‘Your father told me about him,’ he said with a matter-of-fact shrug.
Darya was suddenly very upset with her father. He had no right to mention Aaron to Roshan. It was grossly unfair to Aaron.
Her mood dampened. Roshan seemed to sense it.
‘You never talk about him,’ Roshan said, his eyes sparkling with meaning, a ghost of a smile on his face.
‘I see no reason to,’ Darya answered emphatically.
Roshan leaned back in his chair, considering her carefully. After a moment’s silence, uncomfortable this time, he changed the topic.
The rest of the evening passed pleasantly enough, both making an effort to erase the discomfort that had passed between them. Soon they were laughing over their next bottle of red wine and stayed right until the pub closed.
They reached home drunk and giddy.
And when Roshan asked if he could hang out with her in her room, she didn’t say no.
New Evidence
The next morning Darya woke up alone in her bed. Not desiring to bump into either Roshan or his father, she picked up an energy bar from her backup food stash and rushed out. As she was getting into a taxi, her phone buzzed. She sat inside, groped around in her bag and after a few moments of cursing and rummaging, managed to pull the phone out.
Her breath caught in her throat.
A message from Veda’s number.
An attachment. No text.
Eagerly and not waiting to consider the consequences, Darya clicked on it, then sat back in disbelief.
How? Who?
She looked back down at the phone’s screen. Blinked hard.
It was the grainy photo of a man, lying dead on what looked like an autopsy table. She could make out a bloated face, its eyes deep purple and shut tight, its lips stretched in a grotesque thin-lipped smile. Puffy grooves marked the edges of the dead man’s eyes and throat. His hands lay limp beside his skeletal, naked torso.
Darya steadied her breath. This wasn’t possible, was it? And why would Veda send her this?
She dialled the number and held the phone to her ear, praying. Out of network area. Well, at least it wasn’t switched off. Veda was probably okay if her phone was still working. If Veda had sent her this message, that is.
Darya replied to the message, making numerous typos, erasing and retyping the words several times.
Veda, how are you? Where are you? Pick up my call.
No response.
She messaged again.
How did you get this? Is he really dead?
No response.
Veda, call back. Please.
Darya leaned back on her seat; her eyes unseeing through the window.
Traffic streamed around her in a mad frenzy.
Where was Veda? What was going on?
And this! The picture in front of her. Was it really him? How hadn’t the media found out yet? Why was no one reporting it?
She glanced down at the photo again, her jaw tightening with tension. Fear curled like a cold snake in her heart.
Parthiv.
Dead on an autopsy table.
Could it be true?
All these things happening around her… she knew they were linked somehow, and in a horrible, horrible way.
But how?
Her father asked to meet at a café next to the airport. He told her he had come to Mumbai for work and was leaving soon.
‘What’s keeping you so busy?’ Darya asked tersely.
It was also to follow up on Veda’s case, he told her. Veda’s mother had been admitted into the ICU and wasn’t going to be able to travel to Mumbai any time soon. Darya’s mother was keeping her company at the hospital. So, it was all down to them now.
‘I haven’t told her yet,’ her father added.
‘Hope she feels better soon,’ Darya said, not wanting to add what popped in her head next. She needed to get well so she could be told her daughter had disappeared. The irony.
‘I went to the police station this morning,’ her father said. ‘All I got from SSP Makrand was that they were still investigating, gathering evidence. They had nothing new on Veda. But…’ He paused meaningfully.
‘What, Pa?’
‘I suspect Viktor’s being arrested today.’
Darya’s heart gave a lurch.
‘Mak told you?’
He shook his head. ‘I gathered something was up from the constables talking. They were leaving to go when I arrived at the thana. The SSP stayed for only about five minutes to talk to me. Said I needed to leave right after. They had to go somewhere.’
‘So, they think Viktor was involved
in the disappearances of the women from the lane?’ Darya asked.
‘What? No! And what do you mean “women”?’ her father asked, sounding baffled. ‘You mean that dead girl they found in the hotel? You think that Viktor kidnapped her a year ago and killed her now?’ His brows knotted. ‘But could he do it? He’s not sound of mind, is he? That’s what you told me.’
That had plagued Darya too, being wiser now of Viktor’s mental condition and circumstances. ‘So why are they arresting him?’ she asked. ‘If not for this?’
‘The police searched the villa from top to bottom after you met Makrand yesterday. He told me that it looked like the house had been thoroughly cleaned recently. Even the secret room you saw. No recording equipment were found. No DVR. Nothing suspicious. Nothing in the whole damn house. Except…’
‘Yes?’
‘A knife,’ her father said.
Darya was confused. ‘And…?’
‘They think Viktor killed a tenant with it,’ her father answered.
Realization dawned on her. She exhaled slowly. ‘Parthiv!’
Her father nodded.
‘The SSP didn’t tell me that though. I heard from the constables. What I understood was’—his words trailed off as he thought back to the conversation he’d overheard—‘that the dead man’s bag was found stowed under Viktor’s table. The murder weapon—a meat knife—was discovered under a mattress in the secret room. Viktor’s fingerprints were all over it.’
‘Only Viktor’s?’
‘That’s what I heard.’
Her mind in a haze, Darya considered this. She remembered the knife Debbie had found in the kitchen sink. Was it the same one? The blood she’d seen… was that Parthiv’s? But why had Debbie not discarded it, when she had cleaned everything else?
‘All this isn’t public knowledge yet, Darya, so keep it to yourself. SSP Makrand told me as much. He…’ Her father paused meaningfully. ‘He has a special interest in this case. He was the investigating officer in the earlier disappearances too. He is a missing person’s specialist. It’s important to him that he solves this case.’
Darya nodded, understanding now. ‘I wondered too why such a high-ranking police officer was looking personally into this case.’
The Darya Nandkarni Misadventures Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 44