I asked the cab driver to stop a block away from Aryana’s apartment. The police would be there any moment and I needed to be cautious. I reached her front door. I had come prepared with a hairpin and had googled how to pick locks with hairpins. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult and the door opened easily. No wonder the intruder could enter my apartment—it was so simple!
I entered the house which was in semi darkness. There was an eeriness to it that unnerved me. I opened the blinds and let some light into the rooms. Then I made a careful survey. Mr Mooches was nowhere to be seen.
Nothing seemed out of place. I rummaged through her drawers and wardrobe, I turned the mattresses upside down, I looked under the carpet even. I was looking for that one clue that would help me solve the puzzle, but I did not know what it was. Then I found it: a photograph tucked away into one of the drawers: a photograph of Jay and Aryana together. The caption read: ‘Dear Ma, a very happy birthday. Jay.’ The date was 12 February 2013.
I was stunned.
My head reeling I continued the search, emptying the contents of her wardrobe on the floor. What I was doing was probably not ethical but I had been suffering for long and this was my best bet. I found a folder with ‘Medical Records’ written on the top and I opened it. There were prescriptions from various psychiatrists for Jay Malhotra. On one the name of the ailment was clearly written: schizophrenia.
My thoughts immediately went to the snakes and then to Riya. Was she aware of this? I was doubting everything now. Even if I believed Jay was behind my stalking, which he clearly was, did he have the requisite intent or was someone else manipulating him?
I took the folder and the photograph with me, then hurriedly cleaning up the apartment as best as I could, I left before the police arrived.
47
I REACHED THE airport. I had a splitting headache so I took an Advil. I completed security check and immigration then went over to a café and sat down. I tried Riya’s number—I wondered if she had heard about Jay. But her phone was switched off.
There was a sudden tap on my shoulder. I leapt in fright and turned around. It was Sailesh.
‘Tara! You here? When is your flight? I suppose we are on the same one.’
‘Sailesh! I thought you guys are in SFO!’
‘No, we couldn’t make it. I emailed you about it—didn’t you see it?’
‘Oh, I must have missed it. But what luck that we are on the same flight.’ I groaned inside.
‘Yes, Mr Kapoor is here too.’
‘Listen, Sailesh, there is something important I have to tell you. Last night . . .’
‘Yes, we know. We just heard about it about half an hour back. The boss received a call from the police before we left for the airport. They found Riya’s business card in Jay’s wallet with her photograph and they tried reaching her but couldn’t get through. So the NYPD officer investigating the case called our office in Delhi and Suzy directed him to Mr Kapoor. Luckily, death was due to snake bite, otherwise we would have been stuck here.’
‘Yes. So does Riya know? I tried her number but it was switched off.’
‘Probably, because she is in New York.’
‘What! Why would she be here? Was she here with Jay?’
‘Dunno, the boss wouldn’t say. I met Riya briefly. She was leaving his room while I was entering and she left without saying a hello even. When I asked AK, he was tight-lipped and said she was here for personal reasons.’
This was news to me. Quickly saying, ‘I need to go to the restroom,’ I walked away to digest this new bit of news and to gather my thoughts.
When our flight landed in Delhi, I knew the first thing I had to do was to go to office. The matter couldn’t wait.
Good thing my family chauffeur had come to pick me up. It was after one at night. I instructed him to take me to the office instead of going home directly.
When I reached the office, I went straight to AK’s room. I riffled through the Project Emerald files. When I reached the minutes of the various board meetings across the past few months, things started falling in place. Mystic Corp. again cropped up. Every time a board meeting took place, and especially in the last couple of weeks, Mystic Corp. had sold a reasonable chunk of shares which also happened to be just before the proposed acquisition. This could not be a coincidence. Unless the shareholder had been tipped off that Project Emerald could be in jeopardy. Who was passing on this information to Mystic Corp.? Who was this insider? More importantly, who was running this mysterious company?
Even though I had seen all this on the online system, it was now confirmed. There was more to this. I went to AK’s back room which was out of bounds but for some reason I felt I should look in there. The key to discovering what was happening in Project Emerald lay in finding out who this shareholder was. The back room was predictably done up in an ultra-luxurious fashion—there was a lazy boy massage chair, a smaller desk where I think AK liked to handle his personal stuff and probably got lunch too, a small bar with a fridge, and book shelves lining the walls. I frantically started looking everywhere.
I opened his desk drawers. There was nothing. I looked through his papers. Nothing. I stood in the middle of the room not knowing what to do next. Then, suddenly, my eyes fell on the bookshelf. I noticed it was lined with volumes of law books. Among them was an unusual title. I walked over and pulled out The Encyclopedia of Snakes. I shuddered remembering what had happened to Aryana and Jay. I was about to place the book back when I noticed a switch at the back of the book shelf. I pressed it and the shelf snapped back, revealing a small cavity in the back of the wall. The space was the size of a closet. It was lined with shelves full of files.
Then I noticed a chest of drawers. I went over and unlocked the drawers one by one. I had become an expert at this. The clue must be somewhere here.
In the bottom drawer, tucked away under some birthday and new year greeting cards, were print outs of bank statements. My heart racing, I skimmed over them one after another. Large sums of money were being transferred from AK’s Indian account to the one in New York. The account holder’s name read: Aryana Malhotra.
At last everything made sense.
48
I HURRIEDLY DRESSED, and leaving a quick goodbye kiss on my mother’s cheek, flew out of the house and into the car. I was in a joyous mood. The worst was over.
I reached office and easily found an empty parking spot. I went to my desk and noticed that none of the partners or associates were around.
‘Where is everyone, Suzy?’ I called out.
‘They have all headed to the main conference room for a meeting. I have been told they are not to be disturbed at any cost and since you have come in late I suggest you don’t attend it.’
There was no way in hell I would miss this meeting.
But before that there was one last thing I had to do. I hurried across to Riya’s desk. No one was around. I was about to use my hairpin once again when to my relief I noticed the key on the desk.
I quickly rummaged through them trying to make as little noise as possible. After about a minute I noticed a green file tucked away at the bottom of the middle drawer. I lifted it out carefully and leafed through the pages quickly. In it were the xerox copies of the documents I had found in Jay’s apartment!
I quickly put back everything in the drawers keeping only those pages with me. I strode over to my desk and hid them under my files and walked towards the conference room.
Mr Kapoor wiped the sweat off his forehead and addressed all the partners sitting around him.
‘Good morning, everyone. As you all are aware, this meeting was set up to go over a few things and also share some good news with all you. I would like to start on a high note and share the good news first. Project Emerald is all set to go underway and hopefully the parties should sign in the coming week. It was a very difficult and intensive negotiation process but finally all parties have come to an agreement. We should all get bigger bonuses this year!’
/> Mr Kapoor continued talking. Even though the AC was on at full blast, he was sweating profusely. He looked over and saw the unconvinced look in Banner’s eyes. He looked away.
Just then the conference room’s door opened and Tara walked in.
‘Hello, Tara. So you are back. Take a seat.’ Then turning to the others he continued, ‘So as I was saying . . .’
‘But Sir,’ Tara said firmly, ‘your speech will have to wait. I have to say something first.’
Mr Kapoor looked at her in surprise. She had never before spoken to him like this. Before he could react Sailesh came forward and said, ‘Ok, Tara, let’s hear what you have to say.’
49
I LOOKED AROUND the room and saw everyone looking expectantly at me. I cleared my throat and began, ‘For a while things have been happening in this have office—papers have been missing, copies of important files have been made.’
There were a few starts from the audience and Mr Kapoor stood up.
‘Tara, what nonsense is this! Leave the room now. We can discuss whatever is on your mind after the meeting.’
‘No, sir,’ I replied firmly. ‘It’s time people know the truth.’
Then turning to the rest I continued, ‘Do you watch thrillers? Do you know what a double agent is? I introduce one to you right now: Mr Kapoor, the man himself. And that’s not all—the story gets even better from here on.’
‘What nonsense are you talking about?’ roared Mr Kapoor. His eyes had gone very red.
‘I have proof that your game is up, sir. I know that you are responsible for all the little mishaps that have been going on with Project Emerald. All this while I trusted you. Only recently did I realize the truth.
‘Initially I thought that classified information about Project Emerald was being leaked to another party. I was wrong. There was no other party. This was all happening within the office. As you all know, as a law firm we sign a non-disclosure agreement in every project that we take up, which expressly states that any confidential information received during the course of the transaction is never to be leaked out. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I noticed copies were being made of original documents except the person in their haste took the originals leaving the copies behind. Somebody got a whiff that I knew and that’s when things took a sinister turn. The person started intimidating me by stalking me.
‘I couldn’t somehow wrap my head around why somebody would be this interested in me. Then I started going over the Project Emerald documents and in particular the shareholding pattern and that’s when it started making sense. Maybe someone was keeping an eye on me because I was getting to know too much. I found that before any major board meeting or decision-making there was one particular shareholder who would buy or sell shares. This person was based in New York. Before I reveal the identity of the person, what was even more interesting was that this person did not only have access to insider information but was also somehow accumulating large sums of money to purchase these shares.’
‘That shareholder was Aryana, who also happened to be the owner of a company called Mystic Corp.,’ I concluded, looking directly at Mr Kapoor.
It seemed the name did not ring a bell with any of the others, but I saw Mr Bannerji giving Mr Kapoor a fleeting look. It seemed he knew something and had been protecting Mr Kapoor.
‘I have no idea what you are talking about. You are out of your mind. You cannot just come in and say what you please. Get out of the room now.’ Mr Kapoor’s voice was ice cold.
In the past that is what I would have done—meekly obeyed with my head hanging down. But too many things had happened over the last month for me to be afraid any more. I held on to my ground.
‘Mr Kapoor, here is my proof.’ And I showed everyone the bank documents I had collected from his secret closet the night before.
‘And here is my other evidence,’ I went on. ‘Can you all see what’s written on this document?’ I asked holding up another sheet of paper I had discovered in Mr Kapoor’s closet. ‘An email from a father to a disturbed son—Jay Kapoor.’
It read:
Jay, son, give me back the papers of Project Emerald that you have taken or else I will have to hand you over to the police.
Dad
The handwriting was clearly Mr Kapoor’s.
There was a collective gasp followed by deathly silence in the room. Mr Kapoor’s face had paled. He gripped a chair and sat down. Sailesh was standing silently staring at me.
‘Yes, Jay is Mr Kapoor’s son—an illegitimate child he never wanted to acknowledge in public. Is that not correct?’ I asked, looking at Mr Kapoor.
He didn’t reply, so I went on. ‘Jay was also my colleague and friend Riya’s fiancée. Everyone thought Jay was an orphan but only when I went to New York this time did I realize that his mother lived there and her name was Aryana. The same person to whom Mr Kapoor was passing on insider information. Isn’t that so, Mr Kapoor?’
He looked at me silently for a few moments, then started speaking.
‘Let me explain things, Tara. Yes, I was responsible for transferring funds to Aryana so she could provide Jay a secure future. There was no other way I could have done it. Somebody, somebody you know closely, got her hands on the shareholding pattern a couple of months back and got wind of my relationship with Aryana and that’s when the blackmailing started. If I didn’t comply with her, she would have revealed certain things about my personal life that I never wanted anybody to know about.
‘You know my wife and I have never been able to have any children. We were going through a difficult time in our marriage when I met Aryana on a business trip. One thing led to another and Jay happened. At the same time my career started picking up here so I just couldn’t afford the scandal.’
‘You of course knew that Jay was mentally unbalanced?’ I saw most people in the conference room looking distressed and confused.
‘What do you mean by mentally unbalanced?’ Sailesh asked.
‘Mr Kapoor had given his son employment in our company though he hadn’t studied law. Everyone wondered at the time. He wanted to make amends for neglecting him when he was a child. But soon he realized Jay’s sadistic tendencies—he kept pet snakes, he talked to himself, he was not stable. Mr Kapoor could not employ a mad man in the firm. So when the affair with Riya happened, that was an excuse to ask Jay to leave. From then on Mr Kapoor began to send money to Aryana for Jay’s upkeep. Psychiatrists failed to cure him—he lived alone and wouldn’t take his pills and Mr Kapoor couldn’t openly take care of him.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Mr Kapoor asked.
‘Riya.’
‘You know about Riya?’
‘I do. It took me time to figure things out. Initially I thought my mind was playing games with me but then I started getting more and more convinced there was more to all this. The moment I got closer to finding something out in Project Emerald, something bad would happen to me. And this person knew my every movement in and out of office. I thought it all ended with Jay stalking me but the moment I found out about his mental condition I realized he was incapable of doing all that he did on his own. And that’s when Sailesh told me Riya was in New York. But why was I targeted, Mr Kapoor?’
‘You started uncovering facts, Tara. You were too nosy, you stayed back in office at all unearthly hours and you were discovering too much. I had asked Jay to keep an eye on you from the beginning, from the time you were assigned the project. He was taking his pills and he was better, good enough to be part of my plan and help me with my work. But soon things got out of hand. He started taking a pleasure in following you that I had not expected. I tried to dissuade him at first. You know, as a father I had to protect him but I did not want him to hurt you.
‘Then the blackmailing started. Initially I didn’t know that Riya had discovered my secret and was using it against me. She used a front called Senior, a crook who would contact me and get information out of me. I had thought he was the agent of a
rival law firm. But that Riya is a smart girl. One day when I overheard them talking to each other did I discover that Riya knew about Aryana and that’s when I realized that it was probably she who was behind Senior.
‘Then something unexpected happened in the middle of all this—Jay had a fall out with Riya, and he went out of control and unfortunately the demons that we had tried to suppress now came to surface and he unleased them on to you. He began to kill.’
Mr Kapoor’s voice choked and he stopped. ‘My son, I couldn’t believe what he had done when I found out about Bahadur . . .’
‘So I was right. Bahadur was doing your dirty work for you? He was keeping a look out and doing the photocopies.’
‘He wasn’t doing it for me, Tara. He was doing it for Jay. Bahadur was scared of Jay. But trust me, in my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine that my son actually killed Bahadur, or that woman of his.’
‘But you should have informed the police. Even if it was against your son. That was the right thing to do. And then he took another innocent life, the Sardarji’s. And he would have taken mine next. You unleashed all his mad, negative energies on me.’ I looked at him accusingly.
Mr Kapoor held his face in both his hands and looked down. ‘Yes, I know. I failed as a father and my son turned out to be a monster. But believe me, Tara, I would not have let him kill you.’
I didn’t know if he was lying or if he really meant what he said. Then turning to Sailesh I added, ‘And you knew about all this, didn’t you? You stumbled upon Mr Kapoor’s secret while working late nights in the office, trying to one-up me and having me removed from the project. And that’s why Mr Kapoor had to let you accompany him to the US—isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ he replied curtly. ‘Though you know I like you, Tara,’ he added as an afterthought.
I turned to Mr Kapoor again. ‘Jay didn’t give you back the papers, did he? And Mr Banerjee started asking you questions about the missing documents. That’s why you were so anxious about the deal and had to travel to San Francisco, isn’t it?’
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