by Sana Shetty
“I think Jay and Ved promised each other never to talk about it. That must be the reason they did not keep in contact and why Tarun never contacted the police ever again. He thought his brother had killed a police officer and was protecting him.”
“And that is why Ved is not talking about it now. He feels some sort of a loyalty to his dead friend,” Misha concluded.
Misha bit her lip. Finally she knew what had happened all those years ago. At least something about what had happened. Now she wished she hadn’t. It was much better not knowing your dead brother could be a murderer. What a mess! And now because of that, Jay was dead and Tarun…she dreaded to think what might have happened to him. Since he had not turned up dead as yet maybe…just maybe there was a chance he could be alive.
“Misha, there is something else,” Namita hesitated. “I don’t know how much Ved knows but Raunak found Jay’s phone near the river. It was smashed but we managed to retrieve some of the messages. But there is something on it…” she stopped looking down at her hands.
Misha sat up looking at her. “Tell me Namita. What was there on it?”
“For some reason Jay recorded the calls on his mobile and we couldn’t recover most of the messages. But the last message that was recorded was Tarun’s call to him. We analysed the voice and we think it is definitely Tarun’s. In the message, he begs Jay to come back to the hotel and give him the ‘evidence’. He tells him his life is in danger.”
“Oh hell! Does it mean Tarun was killed too?” Misha had known that it was a strong possibility but for Vedant’s sake she had hoped that Tarun was alive.
“I don’t know,” Namita shook her head. “And frankly I don’t know where to go from here.”
She picked up the file Vedant had left for them and started to look through it. She had a deep frown on her face as she leafed through it.
“What is it?”
“It says here the real reason for Jay’s death is a deep cut on his neck and excessive bleeding. All the bruises on his body were premortem, except the broken back bone. Dr Pankaj concluded that Jay was tortured, killed and then thrown from a height. This vindicates your belief that he did not commit suicide.” She said looking up at her.
“I don’t know whether to be relieved that he did not commit suicide or guilty that he may have been responsible for the death of your fiancé.” Misha said sadly.
“Hey, it is not your fault. And from what Ved told me they were not the ones that killed Hriday. I promise we will figure this out.”
“But they did kill someone, didn’t they? As you said, somebody died that day.”
“I also told you, there are different versions of that day floating around,” Namita said.
Somehow that failed to make Misha feel better.
“Tell me, who else do you think Jay could have confided in? Was he close to anyone else?”
“I don’t know. He was only ever close to Ved and then lately to Tarun.”
“What about anyone from his Bhagwad Gita group?”
“I guess that could be Ishan.”
“Ishan?” Namita asked.
“Yes, Ishan is the one who introduced him to the group and convinced him to join them.”
“So then let’s go see this Ishan. Maybe he knows something. We have to get to the bottom of this before we have more bodies floating around,” Namita said wryly.
₪ ₪ ₪
Chapter 11
“Ishan is Adinath, the fisherman’s son.” Misha explained to Namita as they sped through the rough muddy path. They had piled on to Jay’s old jeep and were racing towards the riverfront. The sun had set and there was barely any light other than the headlights of the jeep. A little after the temple, the small muddy path led into a densely wooded patch of about 30 metres. “I don’t know if Ishan is still into fishing, Adinath died years ago. I know Ishan introduced Jay into these Gita reading sessions and they used to attend them together.” Misha steered the jeep carefully. The wet mud was a little slippery and it was getting difficult to drive.
“Let’s hope this Ishan knows something,” Namita said fervently. They had hit upon a clearing, just beyond the woods. There was no well-defined road, just a huge clearing. Misha continued to steer the jeep forward and stopped at the edge of the clearing. In front of them, were huge boulders like the ones on the riverbank.
“We will have to walk from here. The house is just around there,” Misha said, pointing ahead.
As they got out, Misha was thankful she was wearing her sneakers. The path ahead was tricky as you could easily slip and get your feet caught in-between the sharp rocks. They carefully picked their way through it. The soft breeze that stirred from the riverside was quite cool. She took a deep breath, breathing in the familiar smell of the sand, intermingled with the smell of drying fish. These rocks used to be so easy to navigate as children, she thought as she concentrated on staying upright. Just a skip here and hop there and they would be on the other side. Even if you fell it was okay. Then, falling and skinning your knees was cool, a sort of a trophy that you showed off.
They had reached the small mud house, with a thatched roof, standing amidst rows of drying fish. The house was the only one for miles around here. They could hear soft voices inside and could see light filter out from the cracks in the walls. Misha gently tapped on the rough wooden door. The voices died down and after a moment’s hesitation, a gruff voice asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s me Misha Varma. Jay’s sister.” Misha called out loudly. Her voice bounced off the rocks around them creating an eerie echo.
The door opened with a creaking sound and a tall, well-built man stood in the doorway. He beamed at her as he opened his arms in welcome.
“Well I’ll be damned, Misha Varma! It really is you!” he appeared genuinely delighted to see her as he gave her a warm hug, almost picking her off her feet. “And who might you be?” he bent down to look at Namita and Misha almost giggled. He looked like a giant, looking down at Namita.
“This is Namita Patil….a friend of mine… she is staying with me. Namita this is Ishan.” Misha said.
“Come in…come on in,” almost pulling Misha inside, “Amma, we have guests.” He announced as they stepped inside.
The house was sparse with hardly any furniture. There was a rope cot at one corner and a small wooden chair stood propped against the wall. A storage unit separated the room from a small rough kitchen space. Bamboos crisscrossed overhead, below the thatched roof, serving as storage space. The place though sparse was clean and tidy.
A woman in her late fifties, who had been sitting on the low rope cot, stood up to welcome them. Her face was wrinkled and her hands and feet were gnarled and rough. Years of toil in the sun had tanned her skin to a dark chocolate brown and her hair was peppered with grey. This was Ishan’s mom, whom the whole village called Amma. Ishan was actually Amma’s sister-in-law’s son, who had been orphaned as a kid and was adopted by the childless couple. It was rumoured that Adinath and his wife had lost their birth son to some disease. Ishan had been one of the many kids, from the village they had played with as kids.
The old woman came towards them with open arms and gave Misha a warm hug saying, “It’s been so long. You were always beautiful as a kid, but you have blossomed into a really beautiful woman now, dear. How are you doing child? I’m really sorry dear, about Jay. He was such a darling. He used to come here so frequently and then suddenly ….” She stopped as she noticed Namita standing a little away from them. “And who is this young lady?”
“She is my friend, Namita.”
“Hello dear. Please make yourself at home. I hope you like our village,” she said, as she went back to whatever she was doing. “I was about to start making dinner. Please join us.”
“No, we need to…” Namita began, when Amma cut her, “And don’t you dare refuse. This isn’t the city, young lady. Here we feed whoever comes to our door. Besides, I make one hell of a fish curry. You can ask your friend.” She chuckled as
she bustled around the small kerosene stove. A delicious smell wafted up from the pot that was placed on it. She was not joking. Her fish curry was the most famous in that small village.
Misha grinned at her. “Yes, that’s true. Amma’s fish curry is the best in the world. And nobody ever leaves here without having food.”
Amma had truly been generous all her life. No one ever left her house without being fed. Also her food was so delicious, they had often told her, she could make a career out of it. But she was of the view that you should feed people for free. Adinath, her husband used to fish in the river and was the official fisherman of the village. They had been a gentle couple, leading a hand to mouth existence but never complaining. Ishan had imbibed their gentleness and generosity. Though physically he was big, he was the gentlest of men.
They talked about various things and Amma told Namita about their childhood escapades. “Did you know Ved was in town, dear” Amma asked suddenly. Misha stole a glance at Namita and Namita shook her head, subtly.
“Is he? I haven’t seen him for quite some time,” Misha said, hating that she was lying to this gentle old woman.
Ishan brought in some cut banana leaves and they squatted on the floor with their legs crossed as he laid the leaves in front of them. As they settled down to eat a simple meal of boiled rice and fish, Ishan asked them curiously, “So what brings you here so late, Misha? Was there something I could do?”
“We wanted to talk about…Jay,” Misha said. “Just wanted to know….if….if he told you anything about what was going on with him, in the days before his death.”
Ishan looked at her sympathetically. “I am sorry, Misha. He was a good friend, always ready to help. I don’t know what went wrong. He seemed pretty happy to me, especially after you came back this time. He was a little distracted, though. Whatever it was, he never spoke about it. I did speak to him once or twice but he would just brush it off. True we spent a lot of time together at the Bhagwad Gita readings but…” he paused and said thoughtfully. “He also spent a lot of time with Tarun lately. It was like he was drawn to the Heritage Palace. I mean they had become close during the last two years, but curiously in the last month or so he spent an incredible amount of time there at the hotel. He even stopped coming to the Gita readings, lately. He would always excuse himself saying Tarun needed his help. I believe Tarun is missing too.” He looked at them as something struck him, “Do you think there is a connection?”
Namita looked at him thoughtfully and said, “Misha thinks Jay may have been murdered and perhaps Tarun’s disappearance is somehow connected. What do you think?” she watched him carefully.
Ishan almost choked on the rice, “Murdered?”
“Yes,” Misha said. “Ishan, if you know something, anything, please tell me.”
Ishan looked worried, almost as if he wasn’t sure, he should be saying anything and just when Misha thought he wasn’t going to, he said, “I don’t know what was going on with him, Misha truly. All I know is he was doing some work for Tarun. And I don’t know if it counts for anything but he once told me there were some suspicious activities going on at the hotel and that it was upsetting to see something he loved so much being destroyed.”
“Did he say what was going on that was upsetting him?” Namita asked.
Again, Ishan paused a little before he said, “He wouldn’t say much. Just that he did not want me involved but….well it is only hearsay and I don’t know if I should be telling you this…”
“You can tell us Ishan. Even if you think it is something trivial,” Misha pleaded.
“I am surprised he didn’t talk to you. I mean you should have been the first person he should have talked to.” He mused.
“Ishan, what did he tell you about what was going on at the hotel?” Namita prodded.
“No wait, he did not tell me. I told you it is hearsay. Just what some people talk about in the village.”
“What do they say?”
“Something…something about fake drugs…” he trailed off, uncomfortably.
“Fake drugs?” Namita threw a glance at Misha.
“Yes, medicinal drugs. They say Tarun has somehow got himself in a soup with a group that is involved in the packing and transporting of fake medicines. Costly medicines, that are being used to treat serious ailments such as cancer and heart problems were being duplicated, illegally. That is what Dr Pankaj Goud was allegedly doing for them.”
Amma folded her leaf and stood up. “They are all rumours, my dear. You shouldn’t pay attention to such nonsense.”
“Yeah, like I told you, they are just rumours. It is hard to believe Tarun of all the people would get mixed up in such stuff. I mean, we have known him all our lives, right? He was perhaps the most decent kid ever in this village. Never got into trouble, ever.” He added quickly.
Later, as they were saying their good-byes, Amma, hugged Misha and said, “Please be careful. Take care of yourself and don’t pay heed to all this nonsense about Tarun. They are just rumours, nothing else.”
“Of course, Amma, I know that,” Misha laughed.
“Misha, I know I should have done more. Maybe we could have saved Jay. But if there is anything I can do, I am here for you.” Ishan told her.
Misha was touched. “Thank you Ishan. It means a lot to me. And if you remember anything else, please let me know.”
As they drove back to the house, Namita said, “It just doesn’t make sense, you know. If Jay knew about something shady going on at the hotel, why didn’t he approach Raunak? I mean it makes more sense, isn’t it? I know people here were hesitant about approaching the police but Raunak was to be his future brother-in-law and instead of approaching him, why did he get in touch with Ved, whom he had no contact with since the past eight years?”
“Namita, you do not know the level of connection between them. They were like two sides of a coin. And in retrospect, I think, maybe he didn’t want to create trouble for Tarun and hence was unwilling to approach the police,” Misha reasoned. Subconsciously, she had also been grappling with the same questions. She didn’t not want to admit, even to herself that Jay had trusted Ved more than Raunak. Raunak cannot help me, Pankaj’s words haunted her. Even Pankaj hadn’t trusted Raunak.
“Possibly,” Namita was looking ahead, frowning. “Then there is the message Jay had left for Ved on his answering machine. A silent voice speaks a thousand words. All you have to do is listen please, just listen to what he is saying. May Krishna guide you.” She quoted from memory.
Surprised, Misha looked at her. “How did you know what message Jay left Ved?”
Namita looked back at her then. “What did you think I was doing, when I told you we kept an eye on Ved in Mumbai? Misha we looked at everything Ved did in those years he was in the city. We knew where he went, who he talked to, what he talked about, who he met everything.”
“We?”
“Yes, Raunak knew. I updated him when he came aboard this case.”
So Raunak knew. He knew about Vedant’s whereabouts all this while and yet he chose not to say a word to her. What else was Raunak hiding from her?
Something must have shown on her face because Namita said, “Misha, he was instructed not to tell anyone, anything. Don’t doubt him. He was only doing his duty. We knew nothing about what went on here. I am now definitely sure that what happened that night Ved went away is connected to Jay’s murder. That is why Jay contacted him and no one else. He was protecting someone and my bet is, it was Tarun.”
“Protecting Tarun from what? If you think Tarun would have got himself involved in something as shady as all this I think you are wrong. You don’t know Tarun like we do.”
“After what Ishan told us, I think Tarun must have got involved in the gang Hriday was investigating. When Hriday got killed, allegedly by Vedant and Jay, Tarun must have stepped in to protect them. That would explain why he refused to help the police. Also why Jay felt the need to protect Tarun and reach out to Ved, instead of Raunak. Al
so on the day Jay died, Tarun had called him back to the Heritage, begging him to hand over the evidence to him. So Jay had something incriminating that he was hiding. Something he had taken away from Heritage which Tarun wanted him to return. The question is what was it? Did he manage to hide it or did he return it? My bet is he has hidden it somewhere and that is what these goons are looking for. It could also explain the intruder in your barn and why you two were attacked earlier in the evening. They believe it is in the house somewhere.” They parked the jeep and walked towards the house which was in complete darkness.
“Wait here,” Namita cautioned her as she slid out her revolver from under her jacket and slowly pushed open the door. She entered first and cautiously looked around, peeking behind every door. Once she was sure there was no one around, she flicked on the lights and called to Misha, “It’s alright. Come on in.”
“Was that necessary?” Misha asked, looking at her in amusement.
“You still think it is not?” she countered, throwing her a challenging look.
Misha did not answer her. Maybe Namita was being overcautious but she couldn’t argue with the fact that she had been attacked in her own house, not to mention some prowler had come looking for something here. Namita was putting away her gun and going through some papers in her sling bag.
“I wish I could figure out those final messages that Jay left on Ved’s machine. What do you think he was talking about? I am beginning to think he wasn’t talking about the Bhagwad Gita,” she mused.
“I wish I could tell you. If it wasn’t about the Bhagwad Gita, what do those markings in his book mean?”
“Let’s have a look at that,” Namita ran up the stairs and came down with it.
She had made more drawings and some notes. She laid open the book and fanned out the papers. They both began to peer over it.
“Misha, you know the Heritage more than anyone besides Ved. Tell me are there dungeons there?”
Misha laughed. “When we were kids, there used to be all sorts of rumours that the palace was haunted by the ghosts of the people who were killed in the dungeons. And believe me, we have searched every nook and corner of that place, trying to find the dungeons and got into a lot of trouble with the elders. There were no dungeons there.”