The next day, Wednesday morning, Inspector Reddy again rang Vikram on his cell, ‘I have important news. Bilas was found stabbed to death in his home.’
Vikram, who had been shaving, cut himself and swore.
‘What happened?’ Reddy asked.
Dabbing a piece of cotton on the cut, Vikram responded, ‘Nothing. Yesterday night, my assistant found out that Bilas used to know about all the girls that Krishna used to meet. I warned that idiot Bilas that it would be dangerous to withhold information from us. But he did not listen. Did anyone notice any visitors in his home?’
‘No. But we are still enquiring. The doctor said that he had been dead for less than a day. I suspect he was killed on Tuesday night. There was an empty bottle of country liquor near his body. Looks like he had drunk a lot on that evening and had been then stabbed by a person or persons unknown. I am sure that the autopsy report will show a lot of alcohol content in his blood. Looks like Janaki was murdered first, and then Bilas was killed. Bilas could probably have given information on Sonia Sinha. I think he knew the man or the woman behind the fake profile.’
‘True,’ Vikram responded, ‘This is a big setback. Did you find out where Kamini was last evening?’
Inspector Reddy said, ‘I have verified that she was at home all of Tuesday. In fact she has not stepped out of the house till now.’
‘Well, that lets Kamini out of this murder at least. Before he or she commits any more murders, let us do our best to find the culprit. I am more and more sure that our minister is the guilty party. Bilas knew about all the shady details of the various transactions that Krishna used to do for the minister. Bilas was living well beyond his means. Where he was getting so much money? Maybe the minister was funding him? So Bilas had to be removed.’
Inspector Reddy said cautiously, ‘Well, to accuse the minister, we would need some solid proof, though your arguments sound logical. But let us not be too hasty. Let us both think very hard before we proceed further.’
‘By the way,’ Inspector Reddy added. ‘The cybercrime department was able to open Krishna’s email account today. It seems that there was mail exchanged between himself and Janaki. He says in one of the messages that he is besotted with Khushi and wants to marry her. This happened around three months back, a month before he was killed. They have also confirmed that Janaki’s laptop was used to create Sonia Sinha’s profile in Facebook.’
‘So did Janaki agree to the marriage?’
‘Janaki was absolutely against the marriage and told him so in no uncertain terms. She also mentions in the mail that she will go to police if Krishna does not stop pursuing Khushi. But it looks like he was really besotted with Khushi.’
‘So maybe he did not listen to Janaki and continued to stalk Khushi. As we know, Janaki loved her daughter and would go to any extent to protect her. So is it possible that she killed Krishna out of desperation by pretending to be Sonia Sinha and luring him to Necklace Road? Things are really getting complicated. I need to reflect a lot.’
Vikram disconnected the call and sat brooding for a long time. He then decided to visit the scene of Bilas’s murder again. He called Inspector Reddy, who told him there was a police guard outside Bilas’s apartment, but he would instruct the constable to unlock the door and let Vikram visit the crime scene.
Vikram drove down to Kamalapuri colony and went into Bilas’s apartment. The apartment was as dirty as before with the police adding to the mess while searching for fingerprints and evidence. Bilas had been murdered in the same way as Krishna, but instead of being stabbed in his car, he was stabbed in his drawing room. There was blood spatter remaining to show that a murder had been committed there. As Vikram looked around the room searching for clues of any kind, his eyes fell on the framed photo of Lord Venkateswara. Something suddenly struck him. The photo seemed cleaner than the last time he had seen it. He called up Gopi Reddy to check if the photo had been checked for fingerprints. It had not. Apparently, the police investigating Bilas’s murder did not think the photo was an item of any importance. With mounting excitement in his voice, Vikram asked Inspector Reddy to come fingerprint the photo. Soon, Gopi Reddy himself arrived with the fingerprint expert.
Just as Vikram has suspected, they found a fresh set of fingerprints on the photo. Vikram and Gopi Reddy then knew who had killed Bilas without even validating the fingerprints. They looked at each other. Then Vikram said, ‘I think that a visit to the Raju household is due right now. But before that we need to go and meet the temple priest once more. And before that, get someone from the police team to show the security guard a picture of Pavel and confirm if he came to meet Bilas.’
They quickly drove down to Bowenpally. By the time they reached the temple, it was 8 pm, but the priest was still in the temple. Vikram said, ‘Namaskar Pujariji. One important question. What time did Pavel come to the Mandir on the 15th of June?”
The pujari thought for sometime and said, ‘Normally he comes around 7:30 pm. But that day he came around 6 pm. He said that he wanted to finish the puja early so that he could go back and study without interruption. It seemed that he had some important exam the next Monday.’
10
A Confrontation
Vikram and Inspector Reddy went to Mrs Devaki Raju’s house. Though it was only around 8:30 pm, the house was in darkness. Only one light came from a room upstairs.They stealthily entered the garage on the side of the house. As Vikram had suspected, there was a black Alto standing inside the garage. Switching on his flashlight, he first sprayed Luminol, a chemical that reacts to the iron present in blood. Then he switched off his flashlight to check for the blue glow that would indicate the presence of any blood stains on the car’s exterior. The front and rear wheels showed blue spatters. Even though the car had been thoroughly washed, Luminol could still detect the blood caught in the tire treads. There was no doubt that this was the car that had been used to run over Janaki.
They searched some more, but did not find anything else. The door of the garage leading inside the house was closed, but not locked. They stealthily opened the door and went up the flight of stairs to the first floor where the bedrooms were located. Pavel was working on his laptop in his bedroom, his back turned away from the stairs towards the window, overlooking the garden. Vikram wondered why he was not in college.
He suddenly stopped typing in his laptop and picked up his cell phone. He called someone.
‘Hello, Khushi. Look, do not jump to conclusions and do not do anything drastic. I will come over right now and explain.’ He spoke in a cold, sharp voice. There was no trace of a stutter.
Vikram and Reddy moved further back into the shadows as Pavel got up from his chair. Pavel ran down the stairs, opened the front door, softly shut it. Vikram heard the click of the lock fall in place. Then he heard the sound of a motorcycle starting. They ran down softly, looked out to the front of the house and saw Pavel disappearing toward the gate on his motorcycle.
Vikram and Reddy hurriedly moved out of the house to where they had parked their car. By this time Pavel had disappeared, but they knew that he was going towards Uppal. They started for Uppal, towards Khushi’s house. They found Constable Venkat Thummala sleeping in a chair near the gate of Khushi’s house. They quickly woke him up. Together they silently moved towards the drawing room window where a light was shining. They could hear two people talking. Looking cautiously though the window, Vikram found Khushi and Pavel arguing furiously in low voices. Asking Constable Thummala to stay in the background, Vikram and Reddy moved closer.
Khushi was saying, ‘Why did you have to kill Mother? I helped you to kill Krishna, and I would have convinced mother to not to expose you.’
Pavel was saying, ‘So you say. But she was determined to turn me over to the police. She never did want you to marry me! It is all your fault. Why did you allow her to catch you while you were chatting with Krishna on Facebook? That is why she followed you down to Necklace Road and saw both of us get into Krishna’s SUV. Nex
t day when she read the news about Krishna’s death, she put two and two together, did she not? It was due to your carelessness that she realised that I killed him. Anyway, I swear that I did not kill her.’
Khushi said furiously, ‘Then who killed her? Police have found out that a black Alto ran over her. So do not lie to me! Do you really think I will sit back now and do nothing? I will inform the police tomorrow, whatever I know.’
Pavel’s expression had changed. He no longer looked like a typical studious boy. He looked like a ferocious animal about to kill. He said, ‘I knew that one day you and your stupid mother might betray me like this. I had already prepared a plan for this. I created a Facebook account in the name of Sonia Sinha from your mother’s laptop. That way, if the police ever traced the computer from which the profile was created, Kamini would be incriminated as she also had access to the laptop when she was sharing the room with your mother. I would have planted some more evidence so that Bilas would also have been incriminated along with her. That way I could have proved that he was the murderer and thus stopped him from blackmailing us. But you and your precious mother had to come in between my plans. Now I will have to kill you and show that you killed Bilas and then took your own life.’
He moved swiftly towards Khushi and covered her mouth with his hand before she realised what was happening. Vikram kicked the French window open and rushed in along with Reddy and Constable Thummala. A revolver had jumped into Reddy’s hand. Reddy and Thummala got hold of Pavel and dragged him away from Khushi. Reddy pointed the revolver at Pavel and said, ‘Sit down and do not try to act smart.’ He looked at Constable Thummala and said, ‘Please call the police and ask them to come over immediately. Khushi, where is the phone?’
Khushi pointed to the corner of the room. Her hands were shaking and tears were welling out of her eyes. She said, ‘Please arrest him. He killed my mother.’
Pavel said, ‘Shut up, you fool!’
But Khushi ignored him and continued, ‘I was in love with Pavel and he took full advantage of this. He wanted to take revenge on Krishna for killing his father. Then Krishna wanted to marry me. My mother was opposed to the marriage. But still Krishna persisted with her and stalked me as well. When Pavel came to know about this, he felt even more angry with Krishna and convinced me that we should meet Krishna and threaten him with murder so that he would stop pestering me. So I pretended to be Sonia Sinha and lured Krishna to the Necklace Road MMTS station. Pavel was nearby, and while I was in the car talking to Krishna, he also got into the car and killed him. It was only then I realised that he had planned to murder Krishna all along. I was shocked, but had become an accessory to murder by then. Bilas was loitering nearby and saw both of us. He started blackmailing Pavel. To stop Bilas’s blackmail, Pavel stabbed him to death.’
‘Don’t lie. I did not kill Bilas. She stabbed him because Bilas had started blackmailing both of us. Now she is trying to put the entire blame on me. We were both equally guilty. Janaki had also followed her because she thought that Khushi was meeting Krishna on the sly,’ Pavel shouted.
Vikram said, ‘That is not true. You alone went to meet Bilas. The security guard remembered seeing you when we showed him your photo and he has confirmed that you came alone. Bilas was blackmailing you and bleeding you dry. You killed him but you could not bear to see so much dust on Lord Venkateswara’s photo frame. You had to clean the photo and then you touched the feet of Lord Venkateswara, thus leaving a clear set of fingerprints. You did not think that police would check for fingerprints on the photo of a God and that was extremely stupid of you. And you were almost correct. We initially overlooked checking the photo for fingerprints, but we have now rectified that error. Reddy Sir, I am perfectly sure that the fingerprints on the photo frame will match those of Pavel.’
Khushi looked at Pavel with loathing, ‘I did not support these murders but there was very little I could do to stop you. You forced me to do your bidding.’ Then Khushi turned back towards Inspector Reddy, ‘But finally when he killed my mother, I had to stop him. That is why I called him to my home to make him see sense and surrender, but he tried to kill me instead. Oh, how I rue the day I met him.’
Vikram said, ‘You could have informed the police. But anyway how did you meet Pavel?’
Khushi said, ‘Krishna Mohan Dhavala and Kamini Aunty used to stay next door to us in Uppal. Then they built their house in Banjara Hills and moved there. Pavel often used to come with his parents to meet Krishna when they were staying in Uppal. We met face-to-face many times and fell in love. He was a really good and studious boy. His father’s murder changed him into a monster. I thought foolishly that I could stop him, but now I know that was impossible. Regarding informing the police, I had become an accessory to murder. I was scared to go to the police. I was just drawn into this web of deceit, lies and murder through no fault of mine. I have now become an orphan, and my only fault was that I loved unwisely,’ – she started sobbing helplessly.
For a moment Vikram and Inspector Reddy had been thrown off their guard. Then they realised that Pavel had moved quite close to Inspector Reddy to try and take the gun away from him. Inspector Reddy barked, ‘Stay right where you are,’ and lifted his gun.
But Pavel was already tackling Reddy trying to take the gun away from him. Vikram tried to drag Pavel away from Reddy. Snarling, Pavel turned towards Vikram. A knife had jumped into his hands. He struck Vikram as Reddy shot him.
11
TLC for Vikram
A day later Reddy sneaked into a luxurious private room in Apollo Hospital where Vikram, feeling sorry for himself, lay in a bewildered state.
‘How are you feeling, Vikram?’ Reddy asked as he walked towards the bed.
‘What is going on? What am I doing in this hospital? This will cost a lot of money.’
‘Do not worry, Vikram. Vamsi Rao is picking up the tab. He is highly relieved that the murderer has been found and the negative publicity that he had been receiving will stop now. You are a hero now, Vikram.’ Reddy grinned.
‘I’ll survive,’ Vikram said. ‘What happened to Pavel?’
‘He is dead. The bullet struck him in his heart.The paparazzi is yelling to interview you. NDTV reporters are walking all over the ceiling to get you on TV’
Vikram brightened. Then his face become sad. ‘But what about Mrs Devaki Raju? She must be feeling so sad. I will go and meet her as soon as I am discharged.’
Veena swept in at that moment, starry-eyed, carrying a bouquet and an elaborate basket of fruit. On seeing her, Reddy smiled and got up to leave saying, ‘I will leave you two love birds alone.’
After he left, Vikram looked at Veena and groaned, ‘Did you have to spend so much money?’
‘Oh darling, do not worry about the money. You could have died!’
‘So what? I didn’t. Am I glad to see you! You look good enough to get into bed with me.’
‘Vikram, don’t be coarse.You are making the headlines! You will be on television! I am so proud of you.’
‘Fine!’ Vikram preened himself. ‘I will get out of this hospital and then we will celebrate.’
Two days later, Vikram was discharged. He had asked Reddy to pick him up and he went to Bowenpally to meet Mrs Raju before he went home.
Mrs Devaki Raju had lost a lot of weight and looked unkempt and grief-stricken.
She looked at Vikram and said, ‘Mr Rana, what can I say? My son tried to kill you.’
Vikram said, ‘Do not distress yourself, Mrs Raju. I am fine now. No real harm done.’
‘But I am to blame,’ she insisted. ‘I am only to blame. I should have realised that when his father died, Pavel snapped mentally. I should have taken better care of him. It was not his fault. I and I only am the one to blame. I was too immersed in my own grief to realise the changes in him. I am the murderess…. I … Mr Rana … not Pavel.’
‘Oh, Mrs Raju, how sorry I am for you.’
She rocked herself gently to and fro, ‘How will I live witho
ut my little boy? I was just getting over the grief of my husband’s death and was hoping to have grandchildren once Khushi and Pavel had married. Then once more we could have been a happy family. But man proposes, God disposes.’
Vikram could only murmur his sympathy. He could offer nothing else.
‘What will become of me and Khushi?’ she murmured. “Oh, what will become of us now?’
****
The next day, Inspector Reddy dropped by Vikram’s house before lunch. They were going to Mainland China to celebrate. Inspector Reddy said, ‘So another feather in the cap for us, Vikram? ’
Vikram said, ‘Sit down and have a soda lime while I summarise the story for Veena. She had allowed me to take rest yesterday. But now she will be upset if I leave without telling her the details. Correct me if needed.’
He then looked at Veena who was listening to all this with rapt attention, Kamala sitting on her lap.
‘Let me begin by analysing the character of Krishna Mohan Dhavala. He was a drunk, a wife beater, a womaniser and crook. Most of his friends and acquaintances had suffered at his hands for one reason or another, and all of them had sufficient motive for murdering him. To begin with, I suspected Mr Vamsi Rao as he had enough resources and motive to commit the murder. But then I thought that why should he murder Janaki? I was inclined to link Janaki’s murder with Krishna Mohan Dhavala’s death, the reason being that a Facebook account in the name of Sonia Sinha was created from her laptop and Krishna was chatting with Sonia and had organised a rendezvous with her on the day that he was murdered. So initially I had thought Janaki herself, as Sonia, had murdered Krishna. But then she herself was killed, so I knew I had to do a deeper analysis. I learned that Kamini Dhavala was sharing a room with Janaki. What if she accessed Janaki’s laptop and created the fake profile? Was it that Krishna had genuinely fallen in love with Khushi and was planning to marry her? Had he approached Janaki with his intention of divorcing Kamini and marrying Khushi? Yesterday we learned that he had indeed sent an email to Janaki saying that he wanted to marry Khushi a month before he was killed. Was Janaki of two minds about this proposal? After all Krishna was very rich and all their monetary issues could be resolved. Maybe Kamini had come to know about this either through Janaki herself or she might have overheard some conversation between Janaki and Krishna. If Krishna divorced her she would lose his property and his money. But then when I went to Bilas’s apartment, I realised that the Lord Venkateswara picture had been cleaned, whereas all the other artifacts were dusty as before. There is only one person we know in this case who was obsessed with idols and photos of God.’
Vikram Rana Investigates: Tales of Murder and Deception in Hyderabad Page 14