Murder in Bollywood (19 page)

At this question, Rohan stared at Hoshiyar, like a tiger spotted through the foliage by a keen-eyed shikari, then smiled at his hunter and spoke unfazed.

‘They considered me as their grandson, Inspector saheb, ever since I came into their lives as a one-year-old boy. They would have never turned me in. Not after what their precious Chandni did to my father. For some strange reason, they always felt guilty for their daughter's recklessness, you know. May God have mercy on their souls. And as far as my name goes, you can call me Rohan or Manjeet, whatever you feel like, as I am fond of both names. Now tell me, how did you figure out the whole story?' he asked with a slight tilt of his head.

‘It was something my wife said to me yesterday evening. She said that she found the idea of the killer planning two perfect murders, making them look like accidents and executing them on the same night as silly, because by doing so the killer automatically aroused suspicion, which defeated the purpose of all that planning. And that's when it hit me that the reason why the killer committed this blunder was because there wasn't one, but two killers, who planned two near-perfect murders, and coincidentally executed them on the same night, as neither was aware of the other's plan. Once this fact was understood, it was a matter of chasing down each and every lead associated with this extremely complex case. Unknown to you, Tiwari had spoken to me the night he died and revealed to me a few important facts, even telling me that he had hired Mule to investigate Nikhil's and Mallika's death. But when both he and Mule turned up dead, I had Mule's cellphone records examined which showed that he had spoken to an Inspector Phogat in Padiabeda, who had disappeared immediately after Mule's murder and remained untraceable ever since. Fortunately for us, my associate officer, Zagde, found this mysterious Inspector Phogat last night who turned out to be not so mysterious after all. It appears that Phogat absconded because he got a tip-off that he was going to be arrested by the CBI in a land-grabbing case, of which he was obviously guilty, and the timing of him going underground coincided with Mule's murder, making him a suspect for a while. But last night, with the case resting on a knife's edge, officer Zagde, in a moment of brilliance, got hold of Phogat's colleagues over the telephone and threatened them with a departmental inquiry if the absconding officer wasn't made available to our investigation in the next one hour, for he suspected them of shielding him and concealing information regarding his whereabouts. It was this line of approach that did the trick, for precisely twenty-five minutes later, Phogat telephoned and gave us the information we needed. According to him, Mule had visited Padiabeda just a couple of days before his murder and met Phogat at the police station regarding a two-decade-old case, about a couple of teenagers who had run away together from that village and were never found. He gave their names as Sakshi and Ravindra Phogat, and assured us they were not related to him in any way. He then revealed that Mule had called him from Shimla and asked if it was possible for him to arrange a photograph of the couple, after which Phogat never heard from him again. Since Phogat had the photograph in question, we asked him to email it to us for our reference. The moment I saw that picture, I recognized the couple as the same teenagers who had been killed in a car accident in Goa, which involved Bimal's and Rushali's daughter, Chandni, whose case I had familiarized myself with just the previous day. After this, I contacted my old batchmate, Dilip Salgaokar, who is with the Goa CID, and requested him to pay a visit to the King Edward Hospital and get right to the bottom of the Chandni Seth accident case. It was then that the doctor couple's deception unravelled and we discovered that Sakshi and Ravindra were still alive. As I was staring at the photograph of Sakshi with Chandni's picture right next to it, I suddenly remembered what Rushali had said to me the morning I paid you a visit in the ICU. She said something about Mallika having her daughter's eyes and the moment that memory came to mind, I realized that she meant it literally. So our computer expert, Professor Kulkarni, gave Sakshi's photograph Chandni's hazel eyes, and with a few clicks here and there reduced the excess weight around her face, chiselling it out completely, after which he aged her by fifteen years, and voila, Mallika Kapoor appeared magically! Earlier that day itself, we had received a record of all the calls made by Bimal and Rushali before they disappeared. This led us to the farmhouse where they were holed up and to Saint Mary's Hospital where we discovered Ravindra Phogat admitted there since 1998, who, according to the hospital staff, had two regular visitors, a tall, slender woman in a burqa, accompanied by a teenager who matched your description. The other interesting thing the nurses told us was that early last December, the celebrated film director Nikhil Kapoor had also paid them a visit to take a look at the place, as he planned to shoot a part of his new film in their hospital, and requested them to keep his visit a secret until all the details were finalized. But what the nurses found odd was that Nikhil was asking a whole lot of questions about the patients, particularly Ravindra Phogat. Once these facts were known, the rest was easy to piece together. But to tell you the truth, I knew you were the killer long before last night,' Hoshiyar revealed.

‘Why, you crafty old devil, you played me all along! What put you on to me?' Rohan asked, puzzled.

‘It was that attempt on your life. When I investigated the crime scene, I found a deep indentation on the kitchen door, in the gap between the hinges and the door itself, which could only have been caused if someone stuck a foreign object in that space, possibly even a knife, and closed the door. The next morning before I visited you, I took the knife that the hospital pulled out of your back and compared its handle to the contours of the dent on the kitchen door. They matched perfectly. In other words, you stuck that knife in the door, then leant back on it with some force, stabbing yourself quite badly to give the impression of an attack. But you were not entirely worried, as you had chosen the location for the assault on your life with great care, making sure that it was very close to one of the best hospitals in the city so that you could stumble across to it without passing out. The other mistake you made was the clumsy scheme you hatched to frame Kiki Fernandez, the moment the SCS was called in to investigate Tiwari's murder. You were, no doubt, keeping an eye on Tiwari's house the following morning and when you saw us there, you panicked and decided to create for yourself the perfect fall guy, just in case Tiwari's death was ruled as murder and not an accident. You had heard Nikhil imitate Monty Singh when you had once answered Kiki's phone in his voice, and you saw the effect that call had on Kiki's fragile disposition, not to mention the fear that name evoked on the faces of each and every one of Nikhil's friends at Ishan's house that night. So the day Tiwari's body was found, you called up Kiki pretending to be Monty Singh and frightened him out of his mind, knowing fully well that he would abandon his apartment and go into hiding. Then later that same evening, after I met you at Billimoria House, you disguised yourself as a pizza delivery man and entered Kiki's apartment with a duplicate key, where you planted the drugs, along with the stun gun, dumped the empty pizza box in the kitchen and left. But unfortunately for you, the frame-up was so clumsy and ill-conceived that I saw through it immediately, and the moment I discovered that the French windows of the apartment were bolted from the inside, it became clear that the killer had come in through the front door. Then, as I looked inside the kitchen, I saw the empty pizza box, but when I took a peep into Kiki's refrigerator, I found it stacked with nothing but fruits, vegetables and health foods, meaning he wasn't the type to order pizza, so it became obvious that the killer used that empty box as a prop to get inside the building. And since you were the one who pointed me in Kiki's direction by telling me about his threat to kill Nikhil, and since your proximity to him would have made it easy for you to steal his house key and make a duplicate, which is probably how you entered Tiwari's house as well, your status as the prime suspect was cemented even further. But your biggest blunder came when in the ICU you requested for a beach-facing room with a balcony. And that's when I understood what was going through your mind and the real reason behind that fake attempt on your life. You asked for a room overlooking the solitude of the beach, as opposed to one facing the hustle and bustle of the main road, because you wanted to sneak out through the window in the dead of night undetected and kill someone else. And the following morning when the body would be found, you would be considered above suspicion, since you would have been recovering in a hospital at that time. That's why I had a couple of officers stationed outside your room, with strict instructions to check on you from time to time. This wasn't done because I believed your life was in danger. I did this only to prevent you from sneaking out at night and killing another innocent. Sure, I could have allowed you to leave your room and had my men follow you to catch you in the act, but it's never a good idea to tail a dangerous predator when you don't know where he is headed, for if he catches on to your scent, he will give you the slip and disappear, and you will never catch him again. But the biggest clue of your guilt was given by detective Mule himself when he asked Tiwari to look out for you, because he felt you were not safe. When he said ‘not safe', he didn't mean that your life was in danger. He was subtly trying to warn Tiwari that you were the danger itself. Now, I have a question for you, son. Tell me, when you wanted to sneak out of here and kill again, who was it going to be?' Hoshiyar asked.

‘Well, I suppose I can tell you since it doesn't matter any more, considering that they're both dead. It was Bimal and Rushali Seth,' Rohan shrugged and said.

‘But why? They treated you like their grandson. They could have turned you over to the police any time, but they didn't. What possible reason could you have had to want them dead?' Hoshiyar was nonplussed.

‘I had every reason,' Rohan screamed in rage. ‘It's because of them that my mother is dead, Inspector saheb. It's all because of them. They knew fully well that Nikhil had burnt down Green Manor. He had confessed to them as a seventeen-year-old boy. But they kept that confession a secret instead of taking it to the police, because they feared that that would lead to the arrest of the other six children as well, who would be labelled as Nikhil's accomplices. It was only after the incident at the card game that they revealed this to my mother, begging her to stay away from him, but by then, it was too late. Had they done the right thing all those years ago, Nikhil would have been in jail and my mother would still be alive,' Rohan turned sombre and said.

‘Did your mother know about your plan to murder Nikhil?' Hoshiyar inquired.

‘Yes. I told her it was for her own good. I convinced her that Nikhil was a grave threat to her life. I told her that after he succeeded in killing her, he would definitely come after me as well, for I, too, was a part of her elaborate charade. This made her stay out of my way. But why do you want to know all of this, Inspector saheb? The only two people who knew of my guilt have died in a car crash and you can hardly convict me for murder because of a dent in some door, now can you?' Rohan smiled.

‘No, Rohan. You will not be arrested for a dent in some door, but for whatever you've said to me just now, as our entire conversation has been heard and recorded by a team of police officers outside,' Hoshiyar informed him.

‘You're wearing a wire?' Rohan laughed out loud. ‘Come on, Inspector saheb, this isn't some Bollywood B-grader, where the hero walks up to the villain and casually gets him to confess to his most heinous crimes, then smiles and informs him that his confession has been recorded as he reveals the tiniest of microphones, while 200 police officers swoop in from everywhere and arrest the dumbfounded baddie. In real life, Inspector saheb, words such as entrapment, probable cause and high-priced lawyers exist, so I think you and I both know that this sting operation of yours will not even pass the first hearing in court. So why don't you take the confession that you've just recorded and dump it in the trash can?' Rohan smirked.

‘Confession? Who said anything about a confession? I wanted only your admittance.' Hoshiyar smiled and then spoke on the microphone attached to the collar of his shirt, and asked his team to send ‘them' in. As Hoshiyar said these words, the door to Rohan's room swung open and in walked Sub-inspector Zagde, accompanied by two familiar faces, Bimal and Rushali, looking very much alive.

‘What the hell is this?' Rohan exclaimed, visibly jolted by that sight.

‘Come now, Rohan. You must not believe everything you see on television. That little piece of breaking news was aired specifically for your benefit so that you were convinced that your adopted grandparents were really dead. And I must add that it was very sporting of the news channel to give in to our request when we told them that we needed their help in smoking out a killer. In fact, they even put in file footage from some other accident, just to make our story seem more authentic,' Hoshiyar revealed.

‘I don't understand. What's the game you are trying to play?' Rohan was in total disarray.

‘No game, I assure you, Rohan. Like I said earlier, from their telephone records, we knew that Mr and Mrs Seth were hiding at a farmhouse in Karjat and this information we received yesterday evening itself. Yet, we waited till nightfall to move in on them, by which time all the aspects of this case were known to us. But to put you away for murder, we needed their testimony, which they were unwilling to give, because in spite of everything, they still considered you their grandchild. So the only way I could convince them to testify against you in court was to prove to them, without doubt, that you hated them with all your heart and you were planning to kill them. And this they had to hear from your mouth,' Hoshiyar said. He then turned to Dr Bimal and asked, ‘Now, will you testify?'