A Season for Dying: A Vikram Rana Mystery (Vikram Rana Series Book 2)

by Sharmishtha Shenoy

  ‘The killings show a methodical mind where the killer is tracking his victims and killing them in cold blood and sending emails to the press along with the photographs he had taken.

  ‘In short the killings indicate a logical, subtle, intelligent, and a highly educated mind. But Satya Prakash in his drug induced state or otherwise does not appear to be a very logical or intelligent person. He is a retiring, low profile kind of person.

  ‘In fact, the random killer appears to be a mass of contradictions – intelligent yet stupid, overconfident yet shy and retiring, highly educated yet intellectually mediocre. Then I thought what if two men were involved instead of one man? What if someone was trying to incriminate Satya Prakash?

  ‘That is when I asked ACP Reddy to check the cell phone records of Satya and also check if another cell phone was consistently present in the areas where the murder happened. By tracing the phone records we find that along with Satya’s number one more number was always present in the same tower locations at the time of the murders. And we found that the cell phone belonged to a male nurse in the Asha Foundation. When we questioned him, he admitted that though the sim-card was in his name it was being used by Raja. If you remember, Raja gave Satya’s description to the police after Dr. Amit was murdered. A huge lead, which eventually led to his arrest.’

  Vikram now looked at the commissioner and said, ‘Sir do you remember in another meeting I had asked myself three questions which according to me held the key to the solution of this case. For the benefit of the rest of the audience here, I would repeat them:

  1.Why did Raja, go out of his way to help a loser like Satya?

  2.Why did Raja ask him to cover Charminar on 1st April when Padma was killed?

  3. Why was the killer so desperate that he brazenly attacked Dr. Chanchu in a public place like KBR Park?

  ‘The answer to the first two questions is that Raja had planned to set Satya Prakash as the fall guy. How did he ensure that? Raja was Satya’s cousin. Satya did not have too many friends and Raja, who had been meeting him regularly in family reunions, since childhood, was his only support. Satya trusted Raja implicitly and did whatever he asked him to do. So he had ensured that Satya Prakash was present to all the locations where the murders took place. The third question, I will answer presently.

  ‘So now it becomes evident that Raja could have committed the murders. It would have been easy for him to poison Dr. Amit’s drink. Ms. Barkha and Ms. Mallika from two different nursing homes confirmed that a large number of deaths occurred in all cases wherever Raja worked as a nurse. Though Raja was overconfident and cocky, and fit the profile of a random killer, he did not fit my mental image of the person who would write challenging letters to the press. Also, what was his motive for killing Padma or Dr. Renuka?

  Vikram paused to take another sip of water. He turned to Dr. Priya and said, ‘Then I started looking at the motive. I found out that you, Dr. Priya, were once engaged to Dr. Amit Pancholi. But when Dr. Renuka found out, she was disappointed. Though she loved you, she did not want you to marry a second time. She felt that by marrying a second time you would betray the memories of her son. But you craved for a man in your life and knew that as long as Dr. Renuka was alive, you would not be able to marry. Dr. Amit had been your classmate in medical college. Maybe you had some weakness for him at that time. Now you were alone and lonely and fell for Dr. Amit.

  ‘Dr. Renuka disapproved of this relationship. You were in a dilemma about what to do. Then you came to know that Dr. Amit, who could not leave any young woman alone, had been having an affair with Padma and she was pregnant with his child. Finally, as the last straw, you found out that Dr. Renuka was about to change her will and you would lose your inheritance, a considerable sum of money , for which you have tolerated her idiosyncrasies and put up with her demanding ways since the time you were widowed. Something snapped inside you and you decided on a perfect plan that would let you have your revenge on Padma and Amit, and get Dr. Renuka out of your way forever.’

  Two angry red spots appeared on Dr. Priya’s cheeks, ‘This is all a figment of your imagination. I am innocent.’

  Ignoring her comment, Vikram continued, ‘You and Raja wanted to kill Dr. Kiran as he had come to know that Raja was a drug dealer and wanted to take action against him. But once Prakash was caught, he would have exposed Raja who in turn, would have exposed you. So Raja had to be silenced. So you gave Satya a sedative and then killed Raja by hitting him in the head with a paperweight.’

  Dr. Priya suddenly lost control. The mask of the cool and composed woman was off. ‘Yes, yes I thought of killing Renuka – the bitch! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to live with a woman like her? All she would do is work and rest of the time she would worship or donate money to the poor. She never considered me. My feelings! She was always grieving for her son and she wanted me to sacrifice my happiness at the altar of her grief and mourning. It became intolerable after some time. I met Amit Pancholi and started going out with him. She disapproved of the relationship and then threatened to disown me if I did not listen to her. She was this smugly devout woman who was always the saviour of the poor. Only I knew how difficult it was to live with her.’ Dr. Priya was panting.

  Drawing a deep breath she tried to compose herself. Then in a calmer voice she said, ‘But I did not kill Raja. And I did not kill any of the other victims. I was at work in the hospital at the time of Raja’s murder. My colleagues will confirm that.’

  Vikram nodded, ‘Yes, I know that you are innocent. Murali checked out your movements during the time Raja was killed. You were in your hospital during that time and there are at least five witnesses who have confirmed the same. Also, though you had reasons to kill Renuka, I did not think that you would hold a strong enough grudge against Amit and Padma to kill them more than two years after you broke off the engagement. Particularly when Amit had already dumped Padma and she was married to someone else now. But initially, I did think that you were guilty for the reasons I mentioned before.’

  ‘That brought into focus, Padma’s husband Ashok Manepally. His wife had inherited a house which would fetch him 50-60 lakhs. He was probably aware that his wife Padma was rekindling her relationship with her former lover Dr. Amit. He had enough reason to kill Amit. But why try to kill Dr. Chanchu? I also thought why should he kill Dr. Renuka? Okay, I thought that Dr. Renuka was killed by him to establish that a random killer was at large. But he had absolutely no reason to kill Dr. Chanchu. Only a daredevil risk taker would attempt to kill Dr. Chanchu in a public park. I could not imagine Ashok doing such a thing. It did not simply match his personality. I showed Mr. Ashok’s photo to the regular walkers in KBR Park as well as the security guards there. Nobody could recognise him. So I eliminated Ashok as a possible killer.

  Ashok folded his hand and said, ‘Thank you for exonerating me Mr. Rana. It has brought me great relief. Although I was never charged, I was a suspect. Even my neighbours and acquaintances believed that I was the murderer and it just destroyed my life. Finally I can grieve in peace.’ Tears were running down his face.

  Vikram said, ‘I am only doing my job. No need to thank me. Anyway, as I was saying, I admit that I was totally flummoxed at this point of time regarding who could be the possible killer. Then I thought, could Amit’s brother Saurav be the killer? Again I thought Saurav would gain only by Amit’s death. He had no interest in anybody else’s death. And to kill all the other victims just to establish a random killer motif, seemed to me a bit farfetched.

  ‘Then I reshuffled my thought process. Suppose there were no random murderers. Somebody very cleverly was just creating an illusion that a random murderer was at large. Then who had the opportunity to add poison to Dr. Amit’s glass? It could be Raja, Dr. Nitin or Dr. Chanchu. Remember, he was playing cards and drinking with these three people in a small room next to the main function hall.’

  Dr. Nitin now said hysterically, ‘Don’t blame me. When I got the invite to join today’s meetin
g, I knew that I would be made a scapegoat.’ He looked at the Commissioner and howled, ‘I swear I did not kill Dr. Amit. Please help me, I beg of you.’

  ‘Calm down Dr. Nitin. Nobody has blamed you yet,’ Vikram said sharply.

  He then continued, ‘I got my assistant Murali to check out Dr. Nitin’s whereabouts on the days that the murders happened. We found that Dr. Nitin could not possibly have killed the other victims as he had gone to attend a training program in the US at the time of the other murders. Also, he had no motive to kill Dr. Amit. So I ruled out his involvement.

  ‘Then it was suggested to me that Dr. Amit was engaged to Dr. Priya on whom he cheated with Padma. Dr. Chanchu mentioned this in his narrative. Subtly it was being highlighted that Dr. Priya had enough motive not only to kill Dr. Renuka, but also Dr. Amit and Padma. Who was playing this subtle game? Obviously, Dr. Chanchu but then I thought, what did he gain by doing this? And who tried to kill him in KBR Park? Once I got the answer to this question, I knew that the identity of the killer would be revealed to me.

  Dr. Chanchu smiled disdainfully and said, ‘This is all theory. You have no proof.’

  ‘I have proof and I will give the proof shortly. Now don’t interrupt,’ Vikram said sternly as Dr. Chanchu opened his mouth to argue.

  Vikram then continued, ‘As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, what could be Dr. Chanchu’s motive for killing Dr. Amit or Dr. Renuka? I asked ACP Reddy to find out if there had been any internal financial audit recently in Asha Foundation. He found that an audit had been conducted recently. Financial irregularities were noted by the audit team. Rs 10 crores were missing. Dr. Renuka was in the advisory board of Asha Foundation. Due to this position, she was invited to be part of the financial audit team along with Dr. Amit. They had asked Dr. Chanchu about this irregularity. We have read emails available in Amit’s laptop and find that Dr. Chanchu had asked for two months’ time to explain the discrepancy, which had been granted to him as he was such good friends with Amit. Dr. Chanchu’s lifestyle was lavish. Such a lifestyle could not be maintained with the salary that he earned as a doctor in Asha Foundation.

  ‘What I guess is that Dr. Chanchu knew that Raja was a drug dealer and a murderer who liked to kill his patients occasionally, but had turned a blind eye towards this. That is because he planned to use Raja sometime or other for his benefit. Raja helped Chanchu when he promised to share some of his ill gotten money.

  Dr. Chanchu blustered, ‘Mr. Rana, I will sue you. You are making false allegations. Just because I had asked for two months to explain the discrepancy, does not mean I will go and murder them.’

  ‘But you must admit that this gives you a huge motive for killing Dr. Renuka and Dr. Amit. But why kill Padma? I had requested you, to draw a character sketch of Dr. Amit. What I found from your narrative was that you had suffered from a latent jealousy of Amit.’

  ‘These are all circumstantial evidence,’ Dr. Chanchu said dismissively.

  Reddy now looked at Dr. Chanchu and sternly said, ‘Let Vikram finish. You have already been told not to interrupt.’

  Vikram said, ‘Thank you, Reddy sir.’

  Then looking at the Commissioner, he continued, ‘Dr. Chanchu had a soft spot for Padma. This has been confirmed not only by my assistant Murali, who had spoken to a number of employees in Asha Foundation, but also by Ms. Mallika, Dr. Chanchu’s ex-secretary and Padma’s best friend. Padma however was repulsed by Dr. Chanchu’s ugliness and nature. She was more attracted to Dr. Amit. So Dr. Chanchu was unhappy with Padma.

  ‘Further, I think he was an extra cautious person. He knew that if the police did not buy the random killer motif, he should have another scapegoat ready. Dr. Priya had a grudge against Padma and Amit. She also profited a lot from Dr. Renuka’s death. So it was easy for Dr. Chanchu to point the needle of suspicion to Dr. Priya.

  ‘Now let us look at the emails supposedly written by the random killer. People either use both positive and negative contractions or none at all. To test this I asked both Dr. Chanchu and Dr. Priya to record notes on Dr. Amit’s and Dr. Renuka’s character sketch respectively. I was really interested in their narratives for two reasons. I not only wanted to see how truthfully they wrote the accounts but also wanted to check the writing style. I found the letters written by Prakash had a writing style that matched with Dr. Chanchu’s style. In his style of writing he uses a lot of negative contractions but does not use positive contractions. But Dr. Priya does not use either negative or positive contractions.

  ‘Let me give you an example. The second email to Kinshuk says ‘I think I will wipe out an old lady next. It will happen on 15th April. I’m not joking.’ If a person uses both positive and negative contractions then he would write, ‘I think I’ll wipe out an old lady next. It’ll happen on 15th April. I’m not joking.’ I’ll and It’ll would be the positive contractions for I will and It will while I’m would have been the negative contraction for I am not joking .

  ‘Dr. Priya who didn’t use any contraction, would have written the lines as, ‘I think I will wipe out an old lady next. It will happen on 15th April. I am not joking

  ‘Only Dr. Kiran Chanchu had this peculiar habit of not using positive contractions but using negative contractions. This is also pretty evident in the account he wrote about Dr. Amit. Hence I concluded that Dr. Chanchu had written those emails. I have absolutely no doubt about that. This is hard-core forensic evidence.

  ‘The emails also used the phrase “Catch me if you can”. This is the title of a Steven Spielberg movie. I had seen that CD when I visited Chanchu’s study. This is called “implicit memory”. He used this catchy phrase without conscious awareness that this was also the title of a much acclaimed Hollywood movie.

  ‘I know that Chanchu loved poetry and good English literature. I also knew that he was very crafty and cunning. In fact he appeared to be a polished man who reminded me somehow of extremely polished steel. Steel that would be used for making guillotines for killing rather than making utensils for eating food. He would certainly be a hard man to cross. But even cunning people make mistakes. We have looked at the metadata of the photos that were found in the laptop that Raja planted in Satya’s apartment as evidence. And the metadata shows that the photos were taken using a camera that was bought by Dr. Chanchu. That is the final nail in the coffin as far as Dr. Chanchu is concerned. This is another hard-core forensic evidence which cannot be explained away by crooks like you.

  ‘If you remember, the last of the set of three questions was “Why was the killer so desperate that he brazenly attacked Dr. Chanchu in a public place like the KBR Park?”

  ‘The answer was of course, absurdly simple. If Dr. Chanchu was getting murdered, then he himself could not be a murderer. So it was essential that he should be attacked, but not killed. He had been hit in the head. But it was a superficial head injury and I am sure he exaggerated the symptoms. When you consider that Chanchu and Raja were working together in this, every piece of this puzzling case fits perfectly. Chanchu had asked Raja to hit him in the head and then he pretended it was an attempted murder. Raja had the cockiness of a random killer and Chanchu had the brains to fool and challenge the police.

  ‘I had also clarified with the KBR Park security guard. He had seen a man fitting Raja’s description on the same date that an attempt to murder Dr. Chanchu was made. Raja was working hand in glove with Dr. Chanchu. It was Raja who had killed Dr. Renuka and sprinkled her blood on Satya after rendering him unconscious with spiked drinks. Raja supplied Satya with more drugs feeding his addiction. Satya had lost his job. Raja took an agency for kitchen supplies and made him a door to door sales man. Then Satya was sent to Padma’s house and later to Begumpet Station at the time of the murders. Raja and set him up as the fall guy with the active guidance of Dr. Chanchu.

  ‘But if Satya was caught, he would lead the police to Raja as they did by tracing the phone records of Satya and Raja. So for Dr. Chanchu, Raja had become a liability. It became essenti
al that he should be silenced.’

  Dr Chanchu suddenly got up. He said, ‘I refuse to listen to this rambling anymore. I am leaving.’

  Immediately Reddy restrained him. ‘Dr. Chanchu you cannot leave this room till I permit you to. Now shut up and let Vikram continue. I will handcuff you if you interrupt once more.’

  Vikram paused to take another sip of water. The room was silent as everybody waited for him to resume his narration with bated breath. Then he continued. ‘But how did Dr. Chanchu convince Raja that he will be safe once Satya was caught? I think the original plan was that they would kill Satya and make it look like a suicide with confession notes. Dr. Chanchu must have convinced Raja that he should also be present when Satya was murdered and he would help Raja to set up the suicide scene. However he simply injected a sedative to Satya and killed Raja who must have been taken unaware. Satya was so drug crazed that Dr. Chanchu was sure that he would not be able to identify him again. Anyway even if Satya identified him, it would be his words against Satya’s word – a respected pillar of society vs. a drug addict and a possible random killer. Police would definitely believe Dr. Chanchu.’

  ACP Reddy’s cell phone rang. He took the call, ‘So all fine?’ The answer must have been in the affirmative as his face broke into a smile. Then he asked, ‘Have the camera and the CD been found?’ Again it was clear from his facial expression that the answer was in the affirmative. He now looked at Vikram and gave a thumbs up sign.

  Vikram now said, ‘As we had been discussing this case, a special team had been sent to Dr. Chanchu’s house with a search warrant. They have found the camera and the CD of the Hollywood movie “Catch me if you can” by Steven Spielberg.’

  Dr. Chanchu suddenly got up and tried to rush out of the room. Swiftly Reddy pointed a gun at him and said, ‘If you try to run away Chanchu, I will be forced to shoot you. You have nowhere to run.’

  Chanchu groaned and stopped in his track. He looked at Vikram with loathing and said, ‘You are a devil Mr. Rana. But you win.’ Then he extended his hand as Reddy handcuffed him with grim satisfaction.