Ten Days

by Leena Nandan

  Leila let out a cry of pain.

  ‘Enough of explanations,’ said Benoy. ‘Vikram, let go of that mad woman.’

  ‘I won’t fall in with your dastardly plans so easily,’ shouted Vikram, past caring about his own safety. ‘You can’t explain so many bodies. My God, you’ll burn in hell.’

  ‘Shut up!’ shouted Benoy. ‘I’ve had enough of all of you.’

  Taking careful aim, he fired at Vikram, who jumped at him, trying to snatch the gun out of his hand. The bullet hit the ceiling. They grappled, and eventually Vikram, who was fit and strong, managed to twist Benoy’s hand till the gun was pointing at the floor. Suddenly, Raghav rushed in. He tried to aim at Vikram’s heart, Vikram wrestled with him and the gun fired. Leila and Tina screamed in terror and dread. They were stunned to see Benoy slide down dead.

  Ajay Menon and Jeet rushed in. Before Raghav could slink way, Vikram caught hold of him. Ajay snapped the steel bracelet on his wrists. Jeet looked frantically around for Tina. She was standing utterly still, unable to comprehend Raghav’s betrayal. Vikram was comforting Leila, who was sobbing quietly. Shelly was crouched in a corner, her arms over her ears, rocking to and fro.

  TWENTY TWO

  6 February

  Tina and Leila stayed close together, afraid that someone else would barge in with murder on his mind.

  The police had arrested Raghav and taken away Shelly, who now looked blank and devoid of all expression. The dead bodies of Neil and Benoy had been removed. Tushar Sen, subdued and embarrassed for having arrived too late to do anything other than explain, started from the beginning.

  ‘Benoy has always been unsocial,’ said Tushar. ‘His angularities got accentuated with his marriage, as his wife was always ill. People generally avoided him, so he became very bitter over the years and devoted his considerable intelligence to destroying Future Insights.’

  ‘But why did Raghav betray the call centre like this?’ asked Tina.

  ‘Raghav was ambitious, so he tried to get a foothold in One Globe. Benoy needed money for his wife’s treatment, and Raghav found him a perfect co-conspirator. They had both been bleeding the company by selling software to rivals. It was sheer bad luck that a young researcher in the company, Harish Sinha, stumbled onto them and almost unmasked their nefarious activities. But Benoy got the man killed, using his shady contacts.’

  ‘And his link with Dad?’ asked Leila, her face shadowed with pain.

  ‘Benoy and Natasha were old partners in crime. He introduced her to Dr Maken, ostensibly as an assistant to help Dr Maken find out who the guilty fellows were. She was smart enough to play both ends against the middle and started an affair with Dr Maken,’ explained Tushar. ‘She didn’t want Leila to marry a sharp police officer like Vikram, so she worked on Dr Maken till Leila and Vikram broke up and Leila married Neil. Benoy knew Natasha was a greedy and ambitious person, and he had persuaded her to grab the report prepared by Dr Maken. They had already decided to finish him off, but their bad luck was that Dr Maken had hidden the report. And Natasha’s folder was useless, but once she started blackmailing them, she had outlived her usefulness.’

  ‘It beats me why you didn’t act on Harish’s information,’ said Vikram.

  ‘Benoy cleverly misinterpreted the information to mislead us, and I am ashamed to say that I realised it only by mistake when I went and analysed it again an hour ago,’ said Tushar shamefacedly.

  ‘How did Dad really die?’ asked Leila.

  ‘Benoy had been informed by Natasha that the report had been finalised, so he sent his thugs to finish off Dr Maken by injecting him with a drug that brought on a heart attack,’ said Tushar.

  He added, ‘Your Dad was on the right track. He was truly brilliant. The clincher was when Dr Maken saw Benoy’s cell phone number in Harish Sinha’s report; he understood immediately who the kingpin was. His only mistake was to trust Natasha with this secret.

  That really sealed his fate. Luckily, he had managed to hide the main report deleting all computer references. Natasha took the draft from his table but it was inconclusive. She didn’t tell Benoy she had it. Benoy thought she was double-crossing him. So he sent his thug to Mumbai to grab the report and finish her off. It was only pain-staking investigation by a constable in Juhu Police Station that helped track down the killer, a former security guard, ostensibly dismissed from service by Benoy. Benoy had kept him on contractual employment for any work of a sinister nature.’

  ‘But why did the police bungle the investigation into the murder of my steno? I can’t believe they had no better officer than Inspector Khanna,’ asked Vikram.

  Ajay Menon explained that it was due to the personal involvement of Naveen Kumar Bedi because Raghav, his younger brother, was implicated in the fraud.

  ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘both Tony and Raghav’s computers were used because they had been in league with Vijay and Aakash, but cleverly evaded being identified by creating a smokescreen to fool Vikram. Though you didn’t realise it, Vikram, all the evidence was there in the CDs. Raghav had killed Celia, so Naveen Kumar tried to save him by assigning the case to Khanna who, as expected, was led by the nose and happily pinned the murder on the caretaker. Deepti told Raghav that she knew he had obtained Vikram’s office address before his steno Celia got killed. Raghav knew that to leave Deepti alive would be dangerous, so he tried to strangle her and when she fainted, relaxed the pressure on her throat, thinking she was dead. Her escape was truly providential. Incidentally, Tony, who was trying to flee the country, has been nabbed at the airport.’

  ‘I feel such a fool,’ said Vikram ruefully. ‘I thought I’d been so clever in tracking down the culprits.’

  ‘No, it’s because you read the computer sheet again and put all the pieces together, that their ruse was unmasked,’ said Ajay. ‘I arrived in the nick of time only because you forced Khanna to inform me that both Tony and Raghav were involved. Jeet and I followed Tina to the research centre to warn her that she was in grave danger.’

  There was silence as they digested all this.

  ‘How does Neil fit into it?’ asked Leila, her voice soft.

  ‘He’s always been a slimy character—full of charm but rotten to the core. He was two-timing you but also secretly tracking you, to see whether you were still in touch with Vikram. The moment you telephoned Vikram, he started shadowing you. But he wasn’t involved in Raghav’s real plans.’

  Vikram thought he might as well also get enlightened. ‘Do you think Benoy had planned to kill us today?’

  ‘Well, he certainly didn’t bargain for Tina and Shelly turning up, but he had every intention of finishing off the two of you. He’d already dispatched the guard. He would have claimed you both were in league with Dr Maken and that you tried to kill him, so he had to shoot both of you dead. Being head of security, he would have been able to plant evidence very easily.’

  Tina shuddered to relive the horror but she had to know. ‘And the identity of my stalker—the rose, my sandals cut to pieces—was it Shelly all along?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ajay. ‘She’s mentally unhinged and she’s always blamed you for her professional problems. Vijay’s suicide sent her off into the deep end. But the phone calls were the contribution of your local fan following, who nurture a deep admiration for you.’

  ‘I can’t imagine why,’ said Jeet dryly, then added in a sudden burst of emotion, ‘You’d better marry me. I can’t bear the idea of almost having lost you.’

  Vikram said nothing, but the look in his eyes as he glanced at Leila conveyed the same sentiment. Leila turned away, her eyes shadowed, her face unreadable. Vikram felt a giant fist close around his heart…was she going to reject him once again? Then, like a flash, realisation dawned. She was maintaining her composure with great effort, trying hard to conceal her sense of utter vulnerability. Even her face was fragile and taut, as if stretched to breaking point. The onus was squarely on him, to make the first move and state his intentions in categorical, unequivocal terms. T
aking her ice-cold, trembling hands in his, he simply said, ‘I love you more than my life. Will you be my wife?’

  There was a peal of laughter behind him and he swung around to see Tina, hand on mouth, trying desperately to stifle her giggles.

  ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry. That was so very poetic, coming from someone so stern and…’ she said, shutting up abruptly as Jeet scowled at her.

  There was uncomfortable silence for a moment and then Leila laughed, her face coming alive with animation. The pent-up tension was released instantaneously, as everyone joined in the mirth.

  EPILOGUE

  The mood in Tina’s small apartment was exuberant. Not wanting to see anything that was a reminder of her hellish life with Neil, Leila had happily agreed to Tina’s suggestion of everyone going to her flat. Vikram sat close to Leila, his arm draped protectively around her. Their shared silence was eloquent.

  Tina was having a spirited argument with Jeet about the need for women to be cautious at all times.

  ‘I see no reason why we should behave like scalded cats and run up the nearest tree,’ she said heatedly.

  ‘Okay, Jhansi ki Rani, I surrender before your superior wisdom. Not to forget my healthy respect for your very sharp claws,’ he said with mock humility, and she threw a cushion at him.

  Rozy, flushed with excitement, brought in steaming cups of tea. True to form, the tea tasted like hot and very sweet water. Thrilled with their effusive praise, she graciously offered to sing a song that would capture the tumultuous events of the day. They were saved by a hair’s breadth, as Barun and Chintu walked in just then. To their eternal gratitude, Chintu’s face bore tell-tale signs of over indulgence in chocolate; Rozy shrieked with horror as she bore him off to wash up.

  With an exaggerated sigh of relief, Jeet muttered that disaster had once again been averted. He then proceeded to update Barun on all that had transpired, and wrapped it up with one phrase ‘All’s well that ends well—and now we’ll all live happily ever after.’

  ‘Keep dreaming, keep believing, keep a rainbow in your heart,’ said Tina, taking a deep breath, her face a picture of contentment.

  ‘Cheers to that,’ everyone chorused, tea mugs held aloft.