‘Did any woman come into the building?’ he asked the guard.
‘No, sahib. Nobody.’
There was silence. Then the guard gave him a note, saying, ‘It was stuck here on the latch.’
Kanav read it. It was an address. He asked the guard to leave. One look at the neighbour’s door told him it was locked from the outside like it had been since more than a week now.
The next day he called to tell Anahita that he had fever and would be resting the whole day but promised her he would be at her clinic the following day without fail.
He went to the address mentioned in the note. It was a small colony in Baner. As he reached the floor and looked at the door of the flat mentioned in the note, he couldn’t help but smile. The name plate read: Namit Bajaj. Between him and the mystery behind Kashika was a locked door. He thought for some time and then decided to try a fluke. He pressed the neighbor’s doorbell. An uncle-type person opened the door.
‘Oh, Namit babu. How are you?’
‘Hello, I’m good. I just forgot my keys. Was wondering…’
‘Of course, we have kept the spare keys safe with us. Give me a moment.’
The man gave him the keys. For the first time Kanav felt good that he was using his lookalike’s alias the way Namit had probably used his. Kanav entered the flat, locked it from the inside and started searching the place for clues. He didn’t have to work hard. The Meenakshi he had met after he came back from Chandigarh and Namit’s picture was framed by the bed. He picked it up. There was a ring on the landline. The next second it went onto the answering machine. A girl spoke: Hi! Missing you baby. Your mobile is out of reach. Hope you remember our date tonight at ten at Hoppipola in Aundh. See you my love.
This voice Kanav knew. This was the Meenakshi whom he’d met at the speed dating event.
Yes, Ashmeet, we are meeting tonight, Kanav thought.
CHAPTER 8
Kanav reached Hoppipola a little before 11 p.m. He took a beer and sat in a corner. It was a Saturday night. People were drinking, smoking and dancing like crazy. At sharp eleven, Meenakshi—or Ashmeet—put her hands on his shoulder and gave him a peck. It made Kanav uncomfortable but he reminded himself he was Namit. And he couldn’t afford to give her any hint about who he really was.
‘Did I tell you that idiot Kanav was put into lock up,’ she said, taking a sip of his beer.
‘I know,’ he said.
‘How come?’
‘I have my sources.’
‘Soon I think we will be able to substitute him and take over his identity and money, and we shall travel all over and have fun.’ She gave him another peck.
They stayed in Hoppipola for an hour. Kanav remained mostly quiet and responded only when it was needed. He had understood their plan. Namit was taking advantage of being his lookalike and was about to get rid of him and take over his identity. The one thing he didn’t understand was how Kashika fitted into their plan. When Ashmeet asked him to take her to his place in a naughty tone, Kanav didn’t say no.
Once they reached Namit’s place, Ashmeet said she would be back after freshening up. She went to the washroom. Kanav messaged Anahita the address and asked her to bring in the police. He told her he would explain everything once they met at the given address. Kanav lay on the bed. As Ashmeet came out, Kanav saw she was wearing a sexy negligee. She came close to him on the bed and started to kiss him when he held her hands and tied them behind her.
‘Oh, kinky!’ she quipped. Next, she saw Kanav take out a dagger. Her eyes broadened.
‘Now you will do what I say else, Ashmeet, I will chop off your hair first and then your fingers.’
Ashmeet started screaming but Kanav was quick to cover her face.
‘I’m calling Namit from your phone. If he picks up, tell him to come here. Quick!’
Ashmeet, frozen with fear now, nodded. Kanav took her phone, unlocked it after she gave him the password and dialled Namit, putting the phone on speaker. A few rings later Namit picked up.
‘Hey, baby.’
‘Namit, come home soon. Soon!’ The last word from Ashmeet came out as a helpless cry. Kanav cut the call, thrusted a cloth inside Ashmeet’s mouth and waited. Half an hour later the doorbell rang.
Kanav took Ashmeet and walked up to the main door holding the dagger against her throat. He opened the door.
‘Welcome, lookalike,’ Kanav said with a smirk.
CHAPTER 9
Kanav was smiling, sitting on the bed in Namit’s flat. He’d imagined the entire plan and how he would nab his nefarious lookalike. Just like his imagination, Ashmeet came out of the washroom. But she wasn’t wearing a negligee. She was in shorts and a tank top.
It doesn’t matter , Kanav thought. She came to him sucking her cheeks in. Kanav swallowed a lump in his throat. With wet hair and the fresh out-of-a-quick-bath look, she looked like a sex goddess. She climbed the bed and slowly crawled to him on all fours. She kissed his cheeks and his forehead and was about to kiss him on the lips when her phone rang. Both Ashmeet and Kanav turned towards the phone kept on the bedside table. The screen flashed the name: Namit. They took a second glance at each other. Ashmeet understood it wasn’t Namit in front of her while Kanav realized she had understood. She leaped towards the phone but Kanav stopped her from reaching it.
‘You bastard,’ Ashmeet exclaimed, as she fought to reach her phone. Kanav used all his strength to make sure he could get control over her rather quickly. But in the process her tank top tore and there were red marks on her wrist and thighs wherever Kanav had held her tight. Ashmeet fought as much as she could and then gave up when her hands were finally tied with the pillow cover. She tried to scream but Kanav half-stuffed another pillow cover into her mouth. He then went and brought a knife from the kitchen. Almost like I planned, he thought, smiling at Ashmeet.
‘Now I’ll dial your love, Namit’s number. Ask him to come home ASAP. Act smart and I’ll cut your face,’ Kanav said. He dialled Namit’s number, putting it on speaker. The moment Namit picked up, Ashmeet asked him to come home.
Kanav cut the call. They waited for Namit. After around twenty minutes the door bell rang. Kanav caught hold of Ashmeet and pushed her from the bedroom to the hall with the knife against her throat. There were two more rings by the time he reached the main door.
Kanav opened the door with a smirk—and then was taken aback at seeing Anahita with the police.
‘What’s happening, Kanav?’ Anahita said , shocked by what she was witnessing.
The police took their revolvers out seeing Kanav armed and holding onto a supposed hostage. Kanav dropped the knife, leaving Ashmeet on the floor. But before he could say anything, Ashmeet scampered towards the police.
‘This man … this man was trying to rape me,’ she said, in a whimpering voice.
The police wasted no time in taking Kanav under arrest. Anahita was dumbfounded.
‘I wasn’t raping her. This girl and her lover are trying to take over my identity. I’m sure they know about Kashika as well,’ Kanav said, which fell on deaf ears. The police still gave the benefit of doubt to Kanav when he pleaded them to call Namit from Ashmeet’s number. They called. The phone was unavailable.
The police dragged Kanav to the police station. Ashmeet pressed charges immediately along with issuing an FIR. Following Kanav’s further pleads, a man hunt for Namit was started but nobody was traced by that name or the look Kanav described. It was Anahita who at the end of two weeks was able to convince the court that Kanav was a mental patient and whatever he had done was not with the intention of raping Ashmeet but under the influence of ill-mental health. The court allowed Kanav to be kept in a mental asylum till he was alright to be tried in a court of law thereafter.
‘I’m not mad! I saw Kashika. I saw Ashmeet talk to Namit. I met Ashmeet as Meenakshi,’ Kanav kept repeating.
‘You have to understand, Kanav, this is your best chance to get off with the lightest punishment. You sign the papers, you’ll be tr
ansferred to a government mental asylum. I shall be your doctor. Till then, I will convince Ashmeet you never wanted to rape her so that when you leave the asylum you are free.’ Anahita was at her best at persuading him.
After a couple of minutes, Kanav agreed. After all, it all made sense. He was badly cornered. And what Anahita told him was his best chance to be free.
Arrangements were made and within two days Kanav was shifted from the lock-up to a government mental asylum under Anahita’s care.
It was on the fifth night there that Kashika visited him.
CHAPTER 10
Kanav, for once, believed he was actually hallucinating Kashika’s appearance. It was only when Anahita appeared behind her, along with Parminder and Ashmeet, that he stood up from his small, single bed in the room and ambled towards the door. His face had bewilderment written all over it.
‘What’s happening? Kashika? Anahita?’ Kanav murmured.
‘I’m not surprised that you are surprised,’ Kashika said.
‘You are not who you are, Kanav,’ Anahita said.
‘What do you mean? And you are alive, Kashika?’
‘I am. Thank god. But you wanted me dead.’
‘What are you saying? Why would I …?’
‘Just shut up now,’ Anahita said and continued. ‘And listen to what you can’t recollect any more. You aren’t Kanav Raghuwanshi. You are a lot of people. You are Namit Bajaj as well. But your real name is Shiv Tiwary. You are a professional con man who puts on aliases after aliases, makes girls fall for him with his charms and then gets married to them. And once a year passes you take money from the girls’ fathers with the excuse of opening a new business, kill the girl in a way that nobody can prove it’s anything but an accident and then abscond, smoothly, to another place with another identity.’
‘You must be kidding. If I was a con man, why don’t I know it? I never killed Kashika. It was an accident. I know it was,’ Kanav said.
‘The tryst of fate is such that you, after the car accident with Kashika, now remember—thanks to your amnesia—only what you’d planned to tell everyone but not what had happened,’ Anahita said.
‘Amnesia? And how do you know what happened that day?’
‘I intentionally never told you about your amnesia, that after the accident you only remember Kashika and your story. Not what you did to the others. And how do I know? I was there. I was right behind your car. I saw what happened. And of course, Kashika as well.’ Anahita glanced at Kashika.
‘I had my doubts when you asked me to remove my seat belt even though the roads were treacherous. I still trusted you and removed it. You unlocked the door. I still didn’t budge. But when you tried to push me suddenly I realized every moment with you had been a lie. I will never forget that face of yours. You had no love for me. You only wanted to push me into the abyss. But I fought back. I fought back so much that your head banged onto the steering. Our car crashed into the mountain. Anahita pulled me out. She managed to pull you out as well, and managed to put the car into engine and allowed it to auto drive off the mountain.’ Kashika’s eyes were moist.
‘We could have killed you then, along with the car, but we wanted to keep you alive. Before Kashika, it was my childhood best friend and Ashmeet’s elder sister, Bani, whose life you took. We met you as Namit then but thankfully you didn’t remember anything. By the way, it was a foolproof accident you subjected Bani to. Gas cylinder leak at home. But I had my doubts. I followed you without letting you know and found you changed cities from Chandigarh to Mumbai to date Kashika. And that’s when I realized who you really are. The fact that I took on your case after the accident was no coincidence. Any guesses why you weren’t able to get through any software companies after Kashika’s death? That’s because your degrees were as fake as you are. The handwritten note you got at the café was not by Kashika but what you’d once given to Kashika. The “K” stands for Kashika, not Kanav. I always knew it was your handwriting. We wanted to make you crazy, hence we played the lookalike game. And now the world, the police and even the court knows you are crazy. There’s no running away from it. A man like you shouldn’t die all at once but each day at a time. A lot of parents, siblings and friends have shed tears for their loved ones a day at a time only because of you.’ Anahita’s voice was choked.
‘You wanted to leave me in a pool of blood. And now Anahita will make sure you turn totally insane here and till you don’t kill yourself, there’s no freedom,’ Kashika said and turned around to leave. The others followed her except Anahita.
‘Red … the colour of passion, love, and you used it to betray women. Now when you will bang your head on the wall and blood will ooze from it, be rest assured that this red—only this red—really suits you,’ Anahita said and left. Shiv screamed after them.
‘I know you are all lying. You are all in it together. Just because I don’t remember anything, you are penalizing me. I won’t spare any of you.’
A few male nurses came and took him back to his bed. This time his hands were chained to the bed. It was when he was sapped of all energy that he stopped screaming. An injection put him to sleep.
Days later, when Anahita visited him, she saw him scribbling, ‘I’m sorry,’ on the wall.
‘How is he doing, Nurse?’ Anahita asked.
‘Deteriorating every day,’ the nurse said.
This is only the beginning, Anahita thought, and walked off with a smile.
THE BEGINNING
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Copyright © Novoneel Chakraborty
The moral right of the author has been asserted
This digital edition published in 2018.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05312-3
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Red Suits You Page 3