Dead in a Mumbai Minute (18 page)

She sipped her tea again, careful not to let the mask slip.

‘Not mentioning those calls – do you know how bad it looks?’

‘I’m not an idiot, Shayak!’

‘What was it about Kimaaya, and why didn’t you mention it earlier?’

‘I … I was embarrassed, okay? He kept calling to ask for money. It was so humiliating for us both!’

‘Blackmail?’

‘No! It wasn’t like that! A month ago, I finally spoke with him. He told me that he was in very bad shape financially, and needed work. I helped him out with some cash. And then I asked him not to call anymore because I didn’t have any work for him, and he said he didn’t want any more handouts.’

Shayak stood up and paced the room. ‘You gave him money. Can’t you see how that might look?’

‘No, Shayak, I can’t. Please enlighten me.’

‘Like you had succumbed to a blackmailer – and had a very good motive for murder.’

‘I had no idea then that he would die on my island, now did I! An old friend needed help and I stepped up. Most people would consider that a good thing!’

‘Then explain why he would have these dates on him that night.’

‘I don’t know!’ she screamed.

‘And that’s it?’

‘That’s it, Shayak, believe it or not! I am as shocked as you are.’

‘A secret marriage, a secret divorce,’ said Shayak softly. ‘My parents, your father, Auntie Clementine and a handful of others knew these two dates; none of them would reveal what they know to Dhingre. And even if they did remember our wedding anniversary, why would anyone remember the exact date of our divorce? The only way someone would know those specifics was if they had the documentation. Is there anyone else who could have accessed your papers?’

‘I’ll have to check my safe in the city, but don’t you have a copy? Couldn’t someone have gotten hold of those?’

‘No, but I’ll still check as well. And I have no clue about this third date, which is why I feel it could hold the answer. What does it mean?’

Kimaaya closed her eyes.

‘Whatever it is, it isn’t as bad as you think it is,’ said Shayak in a soothing tone.

She opened her eyes but avoided our gaze. When at last she spoke, the words were a whisper. ‘It’s the date I left rehab.’

I felt my pulse quicken.

‘Jesus Christ, Kimaaya,’ Shayak said, dragging his hand through his hair. ‘Don’t tell me you kept those papers lying around! You should have destroyed all evidence of that!’

Kimaaya’s moment of weakness had passed. ‘Not lying around, no. But it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done so you’re damn right I kept a reminder. It’s not like it was hanging on my wall or anything; it was in my safe which, by definition, is supposed to be safe!’

‘Dhingre knew this?’

‘Yes. But all I know is that he wouldn’t use this information against me; it was he who had pleaded with me to get help. Who knows, I may not even be standing here if it wasn’t for him.’

‘That is why you fired him, wasn’t it?’ I asked. This was the cause of the fights Mrs Pereira spoke of.

Kimaaya buried her face in her hands. ‘I shouldn’t have, but I did. And when I got back from the clinic, I called to thank him for saving my life. But too much had happened for me to hire him back.’

As my mind went into free fall, Shayak persisted. ‘Is there anyone else who knows this?’

‘I suppose the rehab clinic people do, but they are absolutely discreet.’

‘Anyone else?’

‘No! You were the only one I ever told about it. And even then, after the fact.’

‘You didn’t mention any dates to me. Where was that place again?’

‘Antigua.’

‘And you are sure there couldn’t be a leak at their end?’

‘Positive.’

‘Your basis for such trust?’

‘It’s how they get their business. It is owned by a celebrity who got himself cleaned up and now charges huge amounts to help others. Stars from all over the world go there; the paparazzi never gets to know anything. In fact, there was a Hollywood actor there when I checked in. No one heard a peep about that, even though the shit hit the fan for him with all sorts of scandals in the past few months. Why would they suddenly be any different with me?’

‘Anyone else who might know? What about other patients?’

‘I went incognito, and there weren’t any Indians there. No one seemed to know who I was.’ Kimaaya looked a little humbled by this admission.

‘Wait a minute,’ I said. I thought about the date again. That was about the time I was setting up my practice, when I was twiddling my thumbs waiting for clients. I had little to do but read the news, and everything else that passed for it. ‘Wasn’t that when your stalker situation went out of control?’ I remembered following the case with some interest.

‘Yeah, so?’ asked Kimaaya.

‘Could he have been tapping your phone? Hacking your e-mail?’

‘We hadn’t found anything to suggest it,’ said Shayak. ‘But an e-mail hack is difficult to catch.’

‘Did you correspond with the rehab clinic over e-mail?’

Kimaaya nodded almost imperceptibly.

‘That was before we stepped up your digital security,’ said Shayak.

‘But that bastard’s still in jail!’ said Kimaaya.

‘He was let out after only a few months,’ said Shayak quietly. ‘I had him watched for about six months after that. He didn’t seem a threat at the time, so I called off my men.’

‘How could you not have told me this?’ Kimaaya yelled.

‘Was there any point in alarming you for no reason?’

‘There is still no evidence that he is our guy,’ I pointed out. ‘But there are too many strands of this case that are no longer confined to this island. I need to get back to Mumbai.’

Shayak nodded grimly. ‘We’ll leave today.’

NINE

M
adhav Pande was a final-year student of computer engineering when, without precedent, he failed his mid-term exams. His parents and friends urged him to continue, saying that the result was an aberration in an otherwise consistent academic career. However, he found himself unable to stay on course. One Friday soon after, he left his college in Pune, never to return.

Madhav then headed for Mumbai. Kimaaya Kapoor’s biggest blockbuster till date had released the very day he arrived. The film was about a girl who chucks everything – an engagement, a family, a stable life – to live on the fringes of Mumbai and become a singer.

Over the next week, Madhav watched the film repeatedly, sometimes twice a day. He didn’t want to be a star himself. But in the reels of that film, he found his dream – Kimaaya Kapoor.

Madhav got lost in his fantasy. On the laptop that once held all of his course work, he watched film after film, all starring Kimaaya Kapoor. He started keeping tabs on her public events, going to as many as he possibly could, even coming within arm’s length of her once in a mall when she was promoting a new lipstick shade for a top cosmetics brand. He didn’t ask for an autograph.

And then, Kimaaya Kapoor disappeared. When her next film released, she was nowhere to be seen. She did not appear for a single promotional event; the producer and director claimed she was away at a remote location for a shoot though everyone in the industry knew it wasn’t so. When for three months there was no sign of her in the media, the gossip mill started working overtime. She had recently fired Dhingre and, with no publicist or agent to fill the gaps, talk of secret affairs gone wrong, suicide attempts and drastic weight gain grew everywhere like weeds.

But Madhav had been convinced that none of this was true. He waited day after day outside her house till she returned. He knew she would need his help to get by, and he made a promise to himself that he’d always be close at hand.

That was how Madhav Pande transformed from college boy to Bollywood’s most famous stalker.

‘Tell me how Madhav Pande was caught,’ I said to Shayak, as once again we were on our way back to Mumbai. Afreen and Carol had hitched a ride with us and were below deck in the salon, the last of Kimaaya’s guests to leave.

‘When Kimaaya came back from rehab, she threw herself into public life with a vengeance. She was shooting two to three films at a time, doing appearances all over the country and ensuring the spotlight was firmly back on her. She hired Nimisha and did as much press as she could bear. Creepy fan mail wasn’t anything new to her or any other star, but there was one guy whose letters began to concern her, so she brought them to me.’

But naturally, I thought, Shayak would be involved in this chapter too.

‘She was right to be worried, for this fan clearly knew exactly what she was doing, in far more detail than he could have from merely tracking the news. When she left the house, what time friends were arriving to meet her, her workout schedule. In addition, he seemed to have guessed her secret: Kimaaya had been struggling with drugs for some time, and the disappearance that had everyone speculating was when she went to get cleaned up. He mentioned it in more than one letter.’

‘Lucky guess?’

‘I thought so at the time. Now, I have to reconsider that theory.’

‘Someone must have known of her habit.’

‘She was very careful about it. She would never use at parties or talk about it.’

Once again, I was surprised that a man of Shayak’s experience trusted that secrets – especially such secrets – could be kept. ‘She must have had a dealer.’

‘We had checked him out – he is the least star-struck man I’ve met in Mumbai. Possibly owing to the fact he keeps most of Bollywood’s famous faces high. Doesn’t fit the profile of a stalker, and hardly one to risk his livelihood by blabbing to one.’

‘If he was watching her so closely, he could have seen something.’

Shayak nodded.

‘So what was Madhav after?’

‘A chance to meet Kimaaya. Just one meeting, he kept saying over and over again, to prove that he was the one for her, the only one who understood the real woman behind the façade, etc. etc.’

‘I am blurry on the details – what triggered the arrest?’

‘There was an explosion in Kimaaya’s building. In the chaos that ensued, Madhav Pande got inside, up to Kimaaya’s floor and waited in the stairwell till she left the flat. He tried to grab her but luckily she wasn’t alone – her friends who were following her out the door caught him before things got out of hand. He was arrested. That was when she hired us to look after her security.’

‘And now he is out of jail.’

‘Yes. He has appeared since on news shows, talking about the depression he suffered at that time, and how he needed the help of a mental health professional. He said he is being treated and is keen to go back to college and resume normal life. His family is fairly well off and has stood by him.’

‘So what is our strategy now?’

‘This is your case, Reema. You tell me.’

‘Checking out Madhav Pande, for sure. His whereabouts at the time of the murder; his association, if any, with Dhingre. And digging a little deeper into this Viraat business. He is still looking like the best suspect.’

‘True, though I am beginning to have doubts about that. We don’t know that Viraat has done anything worse than take some drugs, drink his own wine, lose a watch and pass out where he shouldn’t have. It is possible to see sinister intentions where there are none. Coincidence does exist – even in crime.’

The benefits of working for a company like Titanium were soon driven home to me. No more depending on hearsay or statements from unreliable sources; I went into office to find a file full of information on Dhingre and Kimaaya’s houseguests gleaned from sources official and unofficial. The research and communications team as well as the tech guys had pulled up whatever they could over the past few days on Shayak’s orders.

And now I needed more. The first thing I did on my return to office was to request the file on Madhav, updated for his activities since Titanium dropped the tail on him. Then I started with the sheaf on Dhingre.

Born in 1958, Dhingre grew up in a fisherman’s village not far from the city and then, when he was fifteen, ran away to Mumbai. Living with an uncle who was an odd-jobs man around the studios, he started going to a slum school and, in his free time, would pitch in where he could – tea boy, assistant to light boy, shoeshine boy. After a couple of years and not much progress on the academic front, young Dhingre’s enthusiasm and good temperament caught the eye of producer Buddy Mehta, who hired him to be at the beck and call of his stars. For over a decade he worked his way up through the ranks of the production unit till Savitri Sharma, a character actor, took him on as her personal assistant.