by Amit Khan
Brinda was gone, Kartar Singh was dead, and now the dangerous doctor too had left this world. Every murder had been almost flawless and there were no ghosts of past to haunt me.
Brinda’s body had spoken after death Kartar Singh never got a chance to threaten me, and Dr. Maalpani had created a fuss. Now with his death, our life was back to normal.
Newspapers were still reporting the disappearance of Dr. Maalpani. Police was concluding kidnapping.
Then they wondered when the kidnappers would send their demands?
The murder was something they had not speculated upon.
During all this mess, I forgot completely about Sawant Bhai problem. It was my mistake. I should have known that it was a matter of priority.
Anyway, soon one incident unfolded and in one stroke all my effort was undone. All the scheming and planning went down the drain. After this event, my one-way journey to my current destination began.
The dark cell of prison became my temporary home before I reached my final destination.
The Hanging Rope was to be that final destination.
●
It was a Monday.
Tilak had fever and headache. He chose not to go downstairs to his office. He was receiving all his calls in the bedroom and there were many calls since morning.
I was in the hall. There was a parallel phone in the hall.
Around mid-day telephone rang again. I received it on a parallel line. I was not supposed to but I just did it. It made the difference.
That moment, calamity came crashing down on me.
“Sir!”
One word was enough to identify the person. That was the manager of our hotel.
“Hmm, it’s me,” Tilak answered. “What is it?”
“Really bad news, sir.”
“Tell me.”
“Sawant Bhai’s men came to me again.”
I felt as if the name made Tilak hold his breath. Maybe he was shocked.
“What were they saying?”
“They were putting lot of pressure, sir,” manager reported. “They want to take over the hotel and penthouse as soon as possible.”
“They are crazy,” Tilak hissed. “I told them thousand times that I am not giving it away. I won’t let them seize it. That’s my final decision.”
“Then they want their money back,” Manager said. “Please understand sir. This is taking a serious turn. You will have to repay Sawant Bhai or surrender hotel and penthouse. One of these two options is a step you must take. He is a gangster. He can do anything.”
“Listen, manager, nothing is hidden from you,” Tilak said. “I don’t have anything to give him.”
“We won’t be able to send back his men everytime, sir. One day they will show their true colour.”
I heard footsteps behind me. I was scared. I hurriedly replaced receiver on the cradle and turned.
It was just a cat. As soon as I turned, she jumped and ran away.
When I realized what had happened, I started sweating badly. Tilak must have realized that I was listening.
●
That’s what happened.
In less than a minute, my fear came true.
Tilak arrived in drawing hall fuming with anger. His eyes were spitting fire and he looked at me with absolute disgust.
“Were you listening to my conversation on the parallel line?” he shouted.
I kept quiet.
My mind was numb with fear.
Tilak stepped ahead and slapped me so hard that I screamed and swerved towards the sofa.
“Bloody shit!” he roared. “I didn’t know you would do such a filthy thing.”
He left the room fuming, just like he had entered.
I was struck physically and mentally.
Tilak had just slapped me. I could not believe it. A man assaulting me? I felt it was the biggest insult and humiliation that I had endured in all my life.
I was going mad with confusion. With surprise!
Sprawled on the sofa, I thought about my life in Nightclub and how I had struggled to make it through to this day.
Was it for this humiliation that I had pushed so hard?
For this insult?
That club was better than this wealthy life. At least I never faced disgrace over there. Yes, I was an object of passion and toy for intimacy. Men used to linger around me for my body. But I had always dominated them. Today a man had shown his strength by dominating me.
All because of me!
My endless greed for wealth!
Otherwise, how would he have dared slap me?
That day I understood that Tilak had changed and our marriage may not last long.
I also started feeling strongly that I may have to return to that dazzling world of the nightclub.
That hell!
Where I was born!
Where I belonged!
●
Tilak stormed out of penthouse after slapping me. He returned late at night in a badly drunken state. A guard brought him upstairs.
He stopped at the door of the bedroom.
“Y…you can go now,” Tilak was blabbering due to too much drink.
“I will take you inside saab ji.”
“No. Go back, I say,” Tilak yelled at him.
“Ok saab ji.”
The guard went downstairs. Even walking properly was a tough task tonight. He was completely drunk and his steps were uneven.
When he was about to fall, he grabbed the door and looked at me.
I was on the bed.
His hair was a mess. The coat was hanging on the shoulder. A knot of his tie was loosened and the shirt was half in half out. I had never seen him in such a di shelved manner.
I turned and looked the other way.
“Why are you here?”
Tilak said nothing.
May be he didn’t hear me.
I was listening to his footsteps coming closer and closer to my bed.
I hated him. The only thing that I felt for him at that time was repulsion.
He stood beside my bed.
I could sense his presence now.
“I know Shinaya,” he mumbled. “You are upset with me because I hit you. You are very angry.”
I didn’t say a word.
I was seething inside with anger.
“I made a mistake,” Tilak continued, “actually my mind is really disturbed. Last few days have been terrible. Let me confess to you that I am completely broke. I am ruined financially. I don’t have anything left.”
I was shocked to hear that.
“This penthouse…office,” Tilak stuttered and said, “all this wealth…nothing. I have nothing left now. I am broke, completely bankrupt. I am worried about the day I will have absolutely nothing.”
I turned towards him with shock.
What I was hearing was unbelievable.
A business tycoon like Tilak talking like that!
No way! That can’t be possible.
“What are you talking about?” I responded spontaneously.
“It is true.”
“But…”
“And it’s not my fault,” he threw his coat on the bed and somehow found a chair to sit. “I just had series of bad luck. It was a downfall; a joke that destiny played on me.”
“Joke? Destiny?” I almost forgot that I was angry with him because of the slapping.
“One after another I faced failures in business. I had three big construction projects going on. They got stalled. It was a loss in many crores. I was broke. I had to keep going. Raising money from the market was an option. I also had to take loans from people. For that something had to be mortgaged. This hotel, penthouse…everything I had, I used for guarantee. Sawant Bhai was one of the guys I took loans from. I took 50 crores from him.”
There were explosions in my head.
“A loan of 50 crores?”
“Yes.”
“What did you mortgage for that 50 crore amount?” I asked.
“N
othing,” Tilak answered. “That time we were on good terms. Sawant Bhai gave me the money just like that. A man like him does not keep anything as guarantee anyway because he knows how to recover his money. I also raised finance from the market and started two ambitious projects. I was quite confident that they will yield me a heavy profit. But alas! Those two projects also flopped. I was staring at an unimaginable loss. That broke me. Today I am left with nothing. This hotel and penthouse are mortgaged. The party who have got papers of this property are not worried. It is Sawant Bhai who is worried about his money.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows that I have no money to give him. Even if he threatens me physically, how can I repay? And he has kept nothing with him as a guarantee.”
“Oh!”
It was a deadlock.
●
I understood the situation completely. Even for Sawant Bhai, it was a twisted problem. Even he was helpless.
Tilak was still under influence of alcohol. He sat in the chair for a long time narrating the story of his misfortune.
“What does Sawant Bhai want?” I asked.
“He wants me to hand over this penthouse and hotel to him.”
“What good will that be?” I asked. “You just said that these two premises are already under mortgage with some other party.”
“That’s…that’s right. He still wants to take over this property so that he can collaborate with that other party and then sell this place at a higher cost. He wants to recover whatever he can, that way. He would at least recover 30 crores. This is the best option he can think of. He is adamant about this plan and now forcing me to hand it over.”
No doubt, Sawant Bhai had worked out a good plan to recover his loss.
“Why can’t you hand this over to him?”
“The day I do that, I will be finished. I have to maintain my market position. If hotel and penthouse are taken away from me, I will be on streets. I cannot afford to lose my status.”
I just stared at Tilak’s lost demeanor and sad face.
“I did not want you to know all this. That’s why I was hiding it,” Tilak took a deep breath and said, “But I have to. How much more would I have hidden it anyway? Sooner or later you had to know this story of my disaster.”
●
I lost all sense of understanding or responding.
The wealth that I had desired… the fortune for which I had committed three murders…nice people like my friend Brinda and Sardar Kartar Singh…that wealth was a myth, a mirage. It was simply not there!
I was back to square one, right where I started, in a sense life had come full circle for me.
Can you imagine how I felt after hearing Tilak’s story that night?
Everything I had done was for money.
Marriage with Tilak was for no other purpose.
I vowed to become his wife just for the prospect of a secure & wealthy future.
It was a cruel joke that the wealth had deluded me.
I was still the pauper-girl that I always was.
Destiny had always been cruel to me.
●
I did not sleep that night.
I kept turning in bed. Restlessness did not allow me to close eyes peacefully even for a few minutes.
Tilak too was awake.
We did not speak though we were both awake.
I have to accept that a rift was growing between us. The love that we shared so far had gone out of the window. Things change, so do situations and people.
Next morning four strangers arrived in the penthouse. They were rogue-looking. Even though they were wearing expensive suits.
Gaudy golden rings in their fingers looked odd.
No matter how much disguised, their inherent low character showed on their very faces.
They were street-thugs or hardened criminals.
I could make out that one of them had a gun in his pocket.
“Good morning Tilak sahib!”
“Good morning!”
Tilak frowned looking at the four.
“Who are you?” he asked as he walked towards them.
“Sawant Bhai has sent us here.”
Sawant Bhai!
That name startled me.
One of the goons was looking obscenely at me. It did not affect me.
I had seen this since my childhood. I was familiar with that kind of looks! Ogling any decent woman, such men would immediately start picturing her naked and imagine having sex with her.
“If Sawant Bhai has sent you then you should talk to manager downstairs,” Tilak raised his voice.
“No,” the rascal ogling at me said, “We are done with talking to that manager of yours. Now Sawant Bhai has ordered us to straighten things out with you. He wants to solve this mess as soon as possible. Anyhow!”
“What do you mean ‘anyhow’?”
The thug laughed.
“You are a sensible man, Tilak saab. You have seen this world. Why do you want to hear it in ‘our’ language?”
Tilak’s throat went dry.
It was not an easy situation.
“Come with me inside,” Tilak said.
“Why inside?”
“Whatever you want to say…say it there.”
All four looked at each other.
“Ok,” one of them said. “No problem.”
Tilak led them to a room.
Whatever discussion went on between them, it was in that room.
I did not know what they decided.
I could guess what they may have talked about.
During the entire time that those four rascals were in the penthouse, I was ill-at-ease.
They left after some time.
●
In the afternoon, I received a call which gave me more information that I did not have.
That call also led to one more dangerous development.
It was around two in the afternoon when the phone rang.
Tilak was not in the penthouse. He was also not downstairs. He had gone to visit some site.
“Hello!” I heard a sweet female voice.
“Who is it?”
“Can I speak to Mr. Tilak Rajkotia?”
“Tilak is not here. May I know who this is?”
“Oh, are you his wife?” the girl asked.
“Yes.”
“I am LIC agent. It is about his life insurance. His insurance installment has not yet received by us. Kindly remind him to sent the cheque at the earliest.”
I was surprised.
Life insurance!
News!
“Has Tilak purchased LIC policy?”
“Oh, you are not aware of it?” the girl asked in equally sweet voice.
“No.”
“Strange,” the girl wondered and said, “Mr. Tilak is one of the biggest clients of LIC in Mumbai. Talking about personal life insurance he has opted for the highest insurance plan. He has ten insurance policies worth 5 crores each. Total worth 50 crores.”
“LIC policies worth 50 crores?”
“Yes, madam. He is the highest insured person in this city.”
I could hear whistles and music.
Tilak’s life insurance was itself a fortune.
“Madam, please remind Mr. Tilak to pay insurance installment.”
“Yes, of course,” I said earnestly.
“Thank you.”
The girl disconnected.
●
I searched Tilak’s cupboard. The one in which he used to keep important documents.
It was in the bedroom and I knew where to find keys. I opened the cupboard.
I was looking for paperwork.
Insurance document was easy to identify. I found them soon. Indeed he was insured for fifty crore rupees.
‘Money back policy’ worth 50 crores!
My mind started buzzing. I felt a chilling sensation in hands and legs. It was a different feeling. Tilak Rajkotia had 50 crore insurance on himself.
I knew what it m
eant. I was familiar with ‘Money Back policy’ terms. If the policyholder dies in an accident or is killed, the nominee gets double the money.
That would be 100 Crores!
‘Enough for a comfortable future!’ I thought.
My mind started working fast.
I was a murderer anyway. I had already killed three people.
Why not do it again for 100 crores?
Just once more! For last time!
Maybe this time I was about to get lucky.
●
18
Till Death do us Part
I spent next two days in planning Tilak Rajkotia’s murder. You must be wondering about my intentions and actions.
I was planning to murder my husband.
The husband whom I had won over after so much effort; the husband whom I loved till a few days back.
But there is nothing to be shocked about.
I can assure you of that. If you were in my place, you would have taken up the same step that I did.
Just think for a moment. Did I have any other choice?
There were two options.
One of them was going back to a nightclub. Every time I remembered the face of my dying mother, I hated and pledged never to go back.
The second option was to try making a fortune.
Somehow! Anyhow!
I chose the second option.
I made up my mind that I will get rid of Tilak Rajkotia from my life.
Now I needed to kill him in such a way that Sawant Bhai would be accused. That was my trump card. I decided to plan accordingly.
It did not take me long to come up with a foolproof plan.
I needed a gun which I already had.
Dr. Maalpani’s pistol which I had snatched from him.
●
I started my game the next day. I planned my first move very carefully.
Tilak used to get ready by ten and then go down in office using elevator. It took him two minutes to reach there.
The passage where lift stopped was a deserted area. Tilak used to walk the hallway and reach a lobby. Along the lobby there was another passage which led to his office.
That morning I got ready at quarter to ten.
I chose an attractive dress. Tight jeans with high neck pullover. A leather coat with a wide belt at waist with sparkling buckle.
“You are going somewhere?” Tilak asked.
“I have decided something Tilak.”
“What?”
“I am going to be with you all the time,” I said. “In office or wherever you go! I will be with you like your shadow.”