Sneha nodded. ‘I can’t promise anything. He’s a busy man,’ She stopped and looked at the detective. ‘I suppose you know that he needs those properties to complete the hotel.’
‘Without them –’
‘Without them, he’ll lose money, a lot of money. Every day the hotel is delayed… Let’s just say that his stress levels were very high the last time I saw him.’
‘Why doesn’t he buy the yoga retreat? Expand his hotel that way?’
Sneha smiled. ‘I would never sell. Women of the Sun is all I have.’
‘And he hasn’t pushed you to sell? Offered you a good price?’
‘Of course he’s tried, but he knows I’m determined and I’m no pushover.’
They started walking again, and as they strolled through the gardens, Sneha kept her eyes fixed on the ground, her posture so different from when he had first seen her, sitting regally under the betel tree.
Was this why Sneha was so interested in healing people, looking after the underdog and being strong from the inside? He knew from his experience as a detective that recovering from domestic violence was a long and slow process. But he couldn’t rule her out as a suspect. She knew some dangerous and powerful people, and she owed them. She had told him about her past just as a sweetener, to gain his trust. She had only admitted to drug peddling and her relationship with the developer because he had raised it. What else was she hiding? Who else did she owe? He eyed her with caution as they walked.
‘Before you go,’ he said, ‘can you tell me about Kumar?’
‘What about Kumar?’
‘How well do you know him?’
‘Hardly. Patel knows him. He knows him very well, and for that reason he’s stayed out of my business.’
‘I see.’
‘Anything else?’ she asked, turning away from him.
‘The writer fellow, Arjun. Keeps himself to himself. Seems to be the model neighbour. Have you ever had any relations with him?’
‘The writer?’ Sneha asked. ‘No, never. I couldn’t.’
‘Couldn’t?’
She hesitated. ‘I wouldn’t. If you’re looking for his lover, maybe you should visit Jackpot’s house,’ she said.
His date with Roshni. It seemed the whole village knew about that.
Sneha turned back towards Chupplejeep. She placed her hand on his arm. ‘I don’t know what to do with this information you have given me on Tim’s death. I wonder if I will ever be able to sleep again. But I’m glad you told me.’
Chupplejeep nodded.
‘So you’ve solved one case; now it’s just the mystery of Jackpot’s death left for you to crack.’
‘I thought you wanted me to leave that alone,’ he said, eyeing her carefully.
‘I didn’t know anything about you when you first appeared. You just arrived and wanted to look into everyone’s business.’
‘I’m sure you didn’t want me looking into your business.’
‘Maybe there was a little of that,’ Sneha said. ‘I did know him well,’ she added softly. ‘Better than most people around here. He confided in me.’
‘He was your lover,’ Chupplejeep said, repeating what Dilip and Sofia had both told him.
Sneha laughed. ‘People here are quick to judge, to make up stories where there are none. It’s because there is so little to do here.’ Sneha looked at the detective. ‘I was hostile before. I wasn’t sure how you would react to some of the goings-on here. The hash –’
Chupplejeep put his hand out to stop her from saying anything further. ‘Don’t,’ he said, wondering why he had suddenly lowered his moral standards. Having some time out at Toem Place had done something to him. ‘It’s chilled you out,’ Christabel had said to him only yesterday, and perhaps that was what it was. For too long he had rigidly stuck to a high standard of morals that had been increasingly hard to uphold. You had to pick your battles.
‘So now can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Jackpot?’
‘The rose quartz pendant had nothing to do with Tim’s death.’
‘Although it’s strange both Tim and Jackpot had a crystal with them when they died.’
‘I was only trying to help, Detective.’
‘Tell me how you were trying to help Jackpot, then. But first answer this – I asked you before where you were the night Jackpot died; you never answered.’
‘Because I didn’t want you to know where I was.’
‘And where were you?’
Sneha cautiously looked around. ‘I’ll tell you,’ she said.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
‘And sir, that’s how I knew how the crime had been committed,’ Pankaj said, adjusting his collar as he spoke. He had successfully solved the case; even Manju was in awe of him. He felt good. As Chupplejeep congratulated him, he imagined his boss telling him he had decided to stay at Toem Place. That he would take over as the detective in charge at the lake, leaving a nice promotion for Pankaj. He beamed. Shwetty would be so proud of him.
‘Pankaj,’ he heard through the receiver, shattering his daydream.
‘Sir,’ he said, remembering that he was in the middle of explaining how he solved the case when his mind had started to wander. ‘It was the red dust from the tiles and the nesting birds that gave it away. Nature is always helping us out, sir. Manju was a great help too. Sir, I think he will make a great detective one day.’
‘Steady on, Pankaj. Right now he’s just helping out in the office. Don’t give him any ideas.’
‘No, of course not, sir,’ Pankaj said, thinking he would wait to tell Chupplejeep of the unofficial promotion he had given their office assistant. There was no need to upset him while he was away. There was no need to tell Chupplejeep about the petty theft that had just been reported either. Pankaj was confident he could deal with it without having to trouble his boss.
‘Mr Da Costa must be happy you solved the case. You’re a credit to the police force of Goa,’ Chupplejeep said. ‘You really are.’
‘Hmm,’ Pankaj said, thinking of Mr Da Costa’s reaction. He wasn’t best pleased that he was found to be cheating on his wife. He probably regretted reporting the crime in the first place. Mr Da Costa could no longer pretend that he was perfect. He had a flaw and would not be too happy that other people knew about it. It wouldn’t surprise him if Mr Da Costa followed his wife to England to get away from his sins in Goa. Pankaj decided not to share his thoughts with Chupplejeep at this moment. He was about to ask how Christabel was but he stopped himself. If he did, Chupplejeep would ask about Shwetika, and he definitely did not want to talk about that. His so-called girlfriend still hadn’t been in touch. After her quick exit at the mini-mart yesterday, just as he had entered the store, he was certain that she no longer wanted him in her life. What really stung was that she wasn’t even willing to meet him and tell him in person, or give him an explanation as to why.
Last night he had gone over everything he had said to her in the short span of their relationship. Was it something he did? Was it something he said? Had he repulsed her so much that she felt she had no other option but to turn and run out of the shop like that, dropping the packet of chicken sausages she was holding? No, he certainly did not want to talk to his boss about that disaster of a situation. Wedging the green telephone receiver between his ear and his shoulder, he quickly checked his phone to see if she had messaged him.
Nothing.
He asked Chupplejeep for an update on his case, hoping it would distract him. He had found out some information he was sure his boss would find useful.
Chupplejeep filled him in, and Pankaj listened carefully forgetting that he had called his boss for a reason. ‘Vadish seems like a slippery character. I’d have put my money on him being the killer. But he has an alibi. Unless he intimidated the women at the brothel into lying for him – to give him a cover.’
‘And the bartenders at the surrounding bars.’
‘When you have power, sir, and contacts, anything is possib
le. You know what these goons are like. You don’t lie for them and you’ll find your business or home burnt down the next day. And let me tell you, they won’t bother to check if there are people in the house when they pour kerosene on a rag, set fire to it and throw it through an open window.’
Chupplejeep agreed. ‘I did think of that. But Vadish isn’t a killer. He’s a thug. He wants to be like his notorious uncle, but actually he doesn’t have it in him. Also, you know what the brothels are like. They are protected. They won’t be intimidated by a lone wolf like Vadish. Vadish knows something though. He knows who the killer is. He would have made it his business to find out who copied his uncle’s trademark. So he’s either waiting to make his move, planning to use this as blackmail at a later date, or he’s letting this go.’
‘Is blackmail likely?’
‘It’s good business sense in his line of work, and remember, he’s already in hot water because of his drug dealing, so he knows all eyes are on him. Sneha’s sure to have warned him after our conversation. He’s worried about that right now, and he should be, because I have his address.’
‘So Sneha has been some help and that German woman too.’
‘Sneha’s told me what she wants me to hear. Much of what she said I imagine to be true. But I’m wary of her. She is, after all, having an affair with my number one suspect, Mr Patel.’
‘The developer.’
‘I still can’t get hold of the man.’
‘Sounds like she’s sleeping with everyone,’ Pankaj said. ‘What about Jackpot?’
‘She confessed to meeting him several times but swears she wasn’t sleeping with the boatwalla. She was helping him, or so she says.’
‘Helping, how?’
‘He started seeing her because he thought Talika no longer loved him.’
‘That would make sense. Didn’t you say you overheard some villagers saying that there was no love between them?’
‘Something like that. That’s why he had the rose quartz. The stone brings the wearer love; it heals relationships. Jackpot was worried that Talika was seeing someone else.’
‘Who?’ Pankaj asked, wondering if he should invest in some rose quartz for himself. He would do anything to bring Shwetika back into his life. Just thinking about her brought back the lump in his throat.
‘No idea. Dilip talked about Talika’s change in behaviour. But he didn’t know of any affair.’
‘He seemed to know everyone else’s business. Sir, you don’t think Dilip was the one having the affair with her? It seems odd he wouldn’t know this one thing.’
‘Dilip’s a friend from a long time ago. He wouldn’t…’ Chupplejeep stopped himself. He knew Dilip twenty-odd years ago, not now. Now he didn’t know him at all.
Had Dilip purposefully concealed that Talika was having an affair or had he just not known? He couldn’t expect his friend to know everything. But then Dilip had also laughed when Chupplejeep asked him if Jackpot ever wore jewellery. From his enquiries, Chupplejeep now knew that Jackpot had worn the necklace frequently in the run-up to his death. Did Dilip really not know that when most of the villagers did? His friend had been quick to tell him that he didn’t have an alibi the night Jackpot had died. What was he hiding? And Vadish too had referred to him as a friend. Why was Dilip friends with someone like Vadish?
Talika too had denied that Jackpot wore the necklace. Were Dilip and Talika conspiring together? Dilip hadn’t spoken of Talika in the best light, but that could have been an easy guise to fool an old friend, and he had admitted that Talika was good-looking. It was only yesterday that Christabel asked him if his friend was happily married. At the time, he thought she was having another dig at him about her marital status, but perhaps she had seen Dilip with another woman. A possibility, especially if he was having an affair.
If the pair had plotted to kill Jackpot then they would need to consider Dilip’s wife as well. Shilpa was a fiery lady, a force to be reckoned with. Would another dead body turn up in Toem Place?
‘If Talika was having an affair then she had an added motive for wanting her husband dead; that and the potential inheritance,’ Pankaj said.
‘Talika lied to me,’ Chupplejeep said, putting his thoughts about Dilip Mendonca to one side. ‘She may not have lied about the break-in, but she’s definitely lying about her jewellery being taken. Sneha confirmed that she had given Jackpot the rose quartz pendant, the same one Talika claimed had been stolen from her. The break-in had something to do with the inheritance. Roshni said that Jackpot received a letter informing him of his inheritance, which the solicitor told her about. I think this letter was at Jackpot’s house and whoever broke in was looking for it. But why?’
Pankaj was silent.
‘Roshni has her father’s inheritance, an inheritance she knew about before her father died. Jackpot told Sneha he had confided in his daughter about it, but Roshni told me that she found out after her father’s passing. She also lied about meeting a mystery man by the lake the day after her father’s body was found. I heard her, and yet she is so bold as to deny it. She doesn’t want me to know that she wasn’t keen on the investigation into her father’s death. And why would she not be keen on an investigation? Only if it unearthed something untoward about her.’
‘So Roshni or Talika could have done it. Both women definitely had the means, motive and opportunity,’ Pankaj said.
‘Both women are physically strong, and if Jackpot had a heart condition, they could have both overpowered him. You’re right: they both had the means. And motive, well, they each wanted the inheritance, and in Talika’s case she may have seen it as a way of being with Dilip, if we go with that theory. I don’t think Talika knew her husband’s will had been changed. She splashed out on a new haircut and clothes before the reading of the will, and spending was rare for her by her own admission. If you ask me, Talika knew about the inheritance before Jackpot’s death too. Sneha said that Jackpot didn’t mention that he had told his wife about it, but if there was a letter sent to the house explaining the inheritance then we can assume that Talika knew about it before her husband was murdered.’
‘But it’s Roshni who’s now sitting on a goldmine. If she knew about the properties, and it sounds like she was her father’s confidante, then maybe she knew he had changed his will to leave everything to her. There’s her motive,’ Pankaj said.
‘We can assume that both of them would know that Jackpot would be out on his boat if he wasn’t in the local tavern or at home, so both had opportunity. And Talika was alone at home, waiting for him to return. She could’ve easily slipped out that night and asked her husband to take her for a trip around the lake. It would have been quite romantic.’
‘But didn’t Roshni arrive at Toem Place after her father died?’
‘She did,’ Chupplejeep said. ‘I’ve been looking into her story. We know that she arrived at Toem Place after Jackpot’s body was found, after her mother called her. Her mother said that she took the bus from Belgaum as soon as she heard the news. The bus she took takes about four and a half hours from Karnataka to Panaji in Goa. But what if she didn’t take that bus? What if she arrived a day earlier, checked into a hotel and, well, you can imagine the rest. I doubt she would be able to produce a ticket if I asked her for one.’
Pankaj thought about what Chupplejeep had said. Both women could have killed Jackpot. If they weren’t so hostile to one another, he would have wondered if they had acted together. ‘What about that developer?’
‘Mr Patel is losing money every day that the completion of the hotel is delayed. That’s big money, and Sneha confirmed it. She didn’t need to tell me all this, given that he loaned her the money to start the retreat.’
‘She could be lying, sir. Giving you some information to send you in one direction and divert you from what is really going on.’
‘Sneha later told me that she had paid Patel back in full, with interest also. Her side business with Vadish helped her repay her debts. It’s why Pate
l can’t push her out to complete his hotel. That and the fact he has a soft spot for her. Sneha emphasised that she never wanted to be in debt to a man. I pointed out that she had owed Vadish, but she assured me that after her last favour to Vadish, the one that got Tim killed, her debt to him had been cleared. I asked her what she thought of Mr Patel, whether he was the kind of man with a vicious streak. She turned to me and said, “Do you think I would leave one monster just to turn around and date another?”’
‘She has a point.’
‘But some men can be very good at concealing their violent nature. Patel may not be violent with women, but he may be violent with men when they get in his way. He isn’t answering my calls, and I think it’s because he is scared. He must have bargained on his friend Kumar leading this investigation, or in fact, not investigating anything at all.’
‘How are things with Kumar?’ Pankaj said, checking his phone again.
‘I certainly haven’t seen him in the last week. I thought he had already retired, but Inspector General Gosht put me right when I had to call him about Vadish.’
‘Oh, what did he say?’
‘That Kumar has been making complaints against me. Telling his superiors that I am unsettling the villagers in Toem Place.’
‘Gosht wants you to back off then?’
‘Yes and no.’
‘Meaning?’ Pankaj asked.
‘Officially, he’s told me to back off. He reiterated that if I screw this up for him and his promotion, I’ll be left doing admin work for the rest of my career. However, he did say that if something good comes of it, then no harm will be done.’
‘Is Sneha still a suspect?’ Pankaj asked.
‘She’s petite but not someone to be underestimated. She has strength, not just physically, but mentally as well. She therefore has the means. She has the motive because she spent so much time with Jackpot. He might have known something about her that she didn’t want getting out – her hashish business for one, or her past. Her alibi is dubious, as she claims she was with Mr Patel, who we conveniently can’t get hold of. So yes, she’s still a suspect.’
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