“I'm sure it's not.” Sonia smiled. Then she turned to Vivek. “And you, Vivek, you believe in Astrology and practice it. At first I thought you were an amateur, unaware of the powerful tool in your hands. But then I checked all your horoscopes and realized that you were a professional. Your predictions about Kamini were accurate, about her pregnancy, her bad patch. However, no Astrologer in his right mind would predict death—but you did, for a reason.”
“I only wanted to warn Ravi,” Vivek told her.
“Yes, warn him from time to time, in this very room, so that Kamini would hear every word you spoke. Kamini would believe your predictions so blindly, she would sink and die. And she would be generously helped, minute by minute, by your deliberate manipulations and discussions on her approaching demise—a surefire method of killing a woman who trusted in you. It was a unique plan—you poisoned her mind and then throttled the life out of her, little by little!”
“You're kidding! Why would I go to such lengths?” Vivek asked, almost jocularly.
“For the inheritance, of course. I'll grant you this much—you're not a professional criminal. You didn't really wish to go into a messy murder scene. But that didn't mean you didn't want your inheritance badly. So badly that you thought of a most subtle and clever plan, one which would use Kamini's trust to your advantage. You knew her better than she knows herself. You were aware of her faults, her good points, because you've known her all your life. You knew how much she relied on your word. How weak-willed she was. You were positive that if you kept brainwashing her into believing that she was going to die, you would play to her psychology and destroy her mentally and physically. If it worked, no one would ever know you'd played any role in the whole sordid affair. After all, you hadn't done a thing, physically, to injure her. There was minimal chance of anyone ever discovering any foul play. If it didn't work, you would've eventually thought of another bad astrological concoction to reach your goal.
“You even deliberately spoke of the will, cashing in on Ravi's ignorance, and knowing quite well that Kamini could not make a will. On her death, everything she owned would go automatically to you. But you did talk about it, asking Ravi to get Kamini's half of the property transferred to his name. You needed to chip away at her confidence and make her psychologically weaker by discolouring her image of her husband.”
“What crap!” Vivek exclaimed. “You're insane! Why would I do something like that to my cousin, who is like a real sister to me?”
“Because you were simply not satisfied with your half of the bequest, you were greedy and lusted for the whole inheritance. What an insidious plan it was. Slow, mental torturing, till Kamini weakened, guttered out, and died her own death!”
“I won't sit and listen to your accusations!” Vivek stood up, his face red with rage.
At that moment, the door of the study opened and Rita and Kamini stood at the entrance. Kamini's crumpled sari was trailing and tears were coursing down her cheeks, as they slowly entered the study. Vivek turned wildly to her.
“Kamini, let me explain. You've got to listen to me! These are all lies!”
“I did listen to you—every word, from the other room,” the weeping woman replied. “I believed in you, I trusted you. . . . Would you be happy if I really were to die?”
“That's it! I'm leaving,” Vivek stated emphatically.
“Before you do, listen to this.” Sonia's voice was ominously low. She held out two horoscopes. “You predicted Kamini's bad patch, didn't you, but you didn't notice one thing in it. Neither did you go through your own horoscope. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here today plotting someone else's death. You would be more concerned about
your life
! Uranus is in the eighth house, afflicted by Saturn and a whole lot of negative influences. It's a similar combination to Kamini's horoscope. Don't you know what your horoscopes read? Kamini's horoscope says that her brother—or even a close cousin—will soon go through the worst patch of his life. Anything could happen to him—
anything!
Her brother could die before her. . . . And as for your horoscope—you've got to be careful. . . . Just a few days left . . .”
Vivek froze, his face white. He snatched the horoscopes from Sonia's hands, rapidly scrutinizing them. “No . . . !” His voice was a low croak.
“Yes,” she repeated.
Suddenly discarding the horoscopes, he dashed through the door, out into the night. Jatin made as if to go after him, but Sonia shook her head.
“Let him go,” she said sadly.
Minutes later, they heard a car screeching out of the drive. The rain began in full fury just then, crashing down upon the earth in torrents. The roads would be flooded in no time—slippery and dangerous, especially in the inky blackness. . . .
“Life has a strange way of doling out justice!” she reflected softly.
Kamini ran straight into Ravi's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. He flashed a grateful, weak smile at Sonia, then led his wife out, supporting her tenderly.
Rita hugged Sonia. “You're wonderful!” she remarked quietly. “You've saved Kamini's life!”
“I only hope she's learnt never to put blind faith in anything or anyone,” Sonia said thoughtfully. Then she glanced down at her sari and brightened. “Come on, let's get going! I'd like to get back home, change into something comfortable, and sit with some nice romantic book! And Jatin, you can take rest of the day off! Go enjoy Diwali with your cousins from Mumbai, and please don't burst crackers!”
The stormy afternoon continued its downpour, silver streaks of rain silhouetted against the street lamps. Kamini and Ravi poured drinks into their glasses, snuggling down on the sofa.
“Cheers!” Kamini laughed, clinking the glass with Ravi. “Happy Diwali to both of us! And to my lucky little one.” She patted her stomach.
Her husband raised his glass and blew her a kiss. “That was some drama, sweetheart. The world's best plan! You're a brilliant actress! But you always were, weren't you?”
“Yes, I always won in intercollegiate competitions. I never thought our acting skills would prove so useful in life!”
“Vivek's gone. And even if he were to return, not a soul would trust him, let alone take his word seriously. We're safe!” Ravi laughed, giddy with success.
“For a while, I was really worried that Vivek would squeal to the police and put a stop to our well-established business. Poor fellow had no idea how he walked straight into our trap. Me and my bad patch! At least Sonia was right about
that
prediction—it has turned out to be
his
bad patch!” Kamini pealed into more laughter.
“Fool! He thought he could threaten us. He'd no idea what he was up against,” laughed Ravi. “At least our next consignment will be a smooth affair.”
“Yes, thanks to Vivek and Sonia and my best friend, Rita,” Kamini replied gaily. “Sonia—her Astrology and all her goody-goody advises. So insufferable, so pompous. I felt so angry—I was almost tempted to ask her to stop meddling and get lost! But that's not fair, is it? She was the one who really gave momentum and spirit to our plan. Sonia turned out to be our biggest asset. Right, hubby dear?”
“You bet, sweetheart,” a voice answered from the door. Both Ravi and Kamini jerked up, startled. Kamini screamed.
“Cut out those histrionics, Kamini, I'm afraid you're quite an established flop.” Sonia leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded, smiling sweetly. Behind her stood Rita, Vivek, Jatin, and Inspector Divekar.
“Inspector, please arrest Ravi and Kamini Rane for drug trafficking!” Sonia commanded calmly.
Two Constables hastened forward and snapped cuffs on the wrists of the bewildered couple.
“What's happening here? I'm an ill woman just out of bed . . .” Kamini began.
“The drama's over, Kamini dear. Learn to exit gracefully,” Vivek responded sarcastically.
“You! What're you doing here? Inspector, if you've been listening to this rat—” Ravi shouted.
“You can have your say in the court. Take them away, Constables,” Inspector Divekar commanded.
The others watched as the couple struggled but were led away by firm hands.
Inspector Divekar turned to Sonia. “You've got to explain—I'm thoroughly confused.”
“So am I,” Jatin remarked.
Sonia glanced at Vivek and smiled. “Thanks to Vivek, it's been a most remarkable case.”
“If you hadn't believed me, we wouldn't have been able to pull off our plan with such finesse,” Vivek reminded her.
“I had your horoscope, remember? I know whom to trust and whom not to.”
“You two just stop it and start right at the beginning,” Rita ordered. “I can't believe what I just saw. Where did this drug-trafficking business pop up from? I thought we were helping Kamini out of her depression.”
“I admit that I was taken in by her, too, initially. But somehow, this niggling doubt seemed to lodge in my mind—not about either Vivek or Ravi, but about Kamini. I remembered meeting her on M.G.Road. She seemed quick-witted, generous, and quite sensible. How could a levelheaded person like her believe that she would die—and then
begin
dying? And she made it a point to inform us, quite categorically, about these conversations that she kept overhearing. She was very cautious not to point a finger at anyone, of course, couching her sentences in martyr-soft expressions. Then I met Vivek and he hinted at some goings on at Elegant Furnitures. I didn't catch on then, of course. But when he slipped a little packet inside the Astrology bag with a brief note, I began to think I needed to see the whole picture in a different light. I sent the packet to the Lab and they confirmed that the powder in the packet was cocaine. Even then, I double-checked with the horoscopes and they indeed revealed startling features. Ravi and Kamini's horoscopes were unequivocal indicators of criminal tendencies. These two were cunning, shrewd, manipulative, and vindictive. When Vivek innocently warned Ravi to take care of Kamini, they decided to trap Vivek in his own goodwill. Weave a web for Vivek—
by Vivek
—and then jettison him to be ensnared. They were manipulating him so smoothly that it took him several days to realize that he was being used, am I right?”
“Yes,” Vivek agreed. “I began to think it very strange that Ravi would constantly discuss Kamini in the study, especially since I was aware that sound tended to travel to the room in which she was sleeping. It also seemed a great coincidence that Kamini should sink into a shadow at the same time as my predictions, which she was not supposed to be aware of. I found it all fishy. But I would've sounded like a cold, unfeeling, selfish person had I said that Kamini was pretending to be unwell.”
“You're right. No one would've believed you, either,” Sonia agreed. “And that was their plan—to deliberately malign you, by gradually revealing that you had as good as killed Kamini by your predictions—all for the inheritance.”
“But why?” Jatin asked, still looking confused.
“The inheritance was just a façade. The truth was that they wanted Vivek out of the way, because he knew too much. He had discovered that they were using Elegant Furnitures to import and export cocaine, and they wanted to entangle him in an attempted-murder case, discredit his name, so that nobody would believe him if he decided to expose them.”
“They'd no idea that I'd retained a sample of the cocaine packet, which I had by chance discovered in Ravi's car,” Vivek added. “It was the same packet I passed on to you, Sonia. Somehow I had this feeling that you were the right person.”
“Vivek, could you please explain how this whole thing started?” Sonia asked.
Vivek nodded. “When I first discovered that some shady business was going on under the cover of Elegant Furnitures, my impulsive reaction was to confront the two of them. I accused them of becoming a link in the chain of smuggling drugs into India. They put on an excellent act, begging for forgiveness, promising that they would immediately end all these activities. They were so genuine in their repentance that, like a gullible fool, I believed them and decided against going to the law. It was then that they began using my predictions to prove that I was deliberately weakening Kamini's will and slowly and surely killing her.”
“Why didn't you go to the police?” Inspector Divekar asked Vivek.
“I did consider it, but it was my word against theirs.”
“Right,” Sonia added. “Ravi had established a good name for himself by donating large sums to Meena Sajane for ‘Aajol.' Not only did he help her secure her position, but he also created a respectable image for himself!”
“But, it was not only your word. You had the cocaine packet as proof,” Rita pointed out to Vivek.
“Which I could've obtained from anyplace—or which could be mine, for all the police knew. While I was wondering how to disentangle myself from their clever trap, Sonia arrived and I realized that she was my one chance. With her belief in Astrology, she was the right person to deal with my problem. So I slipped the cocaine packet into the Astrology bag and wrote a note saying what I knew. I also mentioned Meena Sajane, though I had no idea what her connection to Ravi was. And I'm glad I trusted my instinct. But for Sonia, their plan would've worked!”
“It was a piece of luck that Rita asked me to get involved,” Sonia remarked. “Kamini found me a great hindrance at first, but then she decided to use me, too, expending all her histrionics on me! She was so engrossed in her role of the dying woman, so busy flaunting her acting skills, that she never suspected for an atom of a moment that I was playing along with her tricks.