Killer in the Shadows! (11 page)

They were sitting in the living room and Abhay’s eyes were drawn to the old cartons once again. He couldn’t help but ask her. “What do you have in those cartons?” Abhay said, pointing to the unopened cartons tucked away in the corner of the living room.

“I’ve never opened them but I know these boxes have my grandmother’s stuff.”

“There might be something in there,
dekho toh sahi
,” Abhay said.

Naina had come to Allahabad to deal with her past. The odd circumstances surrounding her had frightened her, but she was tired of being scared and alone. It was time for her to take control of her life. Abhay seemed like a man she could trust, at least with her past. But with her future, she wasn’t sure. She would have to be careful not to fall for him, to guard her heart as she always had. He was a man who played with danger every day, a man who was too experienced for her, a man who would move on when her case was over.

Naina lifted the sheets of newspaper covering the contents and looked inside. The first box had a family picture on top. She pulled it out and examined the faces. Her mother had been a beautiful woman. Naina had her dark hair, slender build, porcelain skin and the same black eyes. Her father was handsome too, with black hair, a moustache and grey eyes that held a commanding look in them. His nose was prominent and his jaw wide. He’d been a tall man, overshadowing her mother’s small frame. In the picture, Naina was wearing a frilly red dress and was sitting on her father’s lap with sunflowers in her hand. She loved sunflowers. It amazed her that she could see the whole family together, but she had no recollection of posing for the picture.

“You’re beautiful, just like your mother,” Abhay said, his voice rich with playfulness.

Naina nodded solemnly. She’d almost forgotten he was there.

Abhay gave her an encouraging look and she pulled out a scrapbook. It had dozens of pictures of her and her parents. Some were of her as a baby, then a toddler at a birthday party they’d planned for her. A few pages had blank, faded spots as if photos had been removed. Naina wondered who had taken the pictures out and why.

As she studied the photographs, something struck her. “That’s odd.”

“What?”

“My parents were so close to Uncle Chauhan, I wonder why there aren’t any pictures of him in here.”

“Hmm. He was a Member of Parliament back then, wasn’t he? He probably was busy in his political affairs.

Naina closed the book. “Maybe you’re right.”

Abhay picked up a diary. “What’s this?”

“Looks like my father’s appointment diary.”

Abhay studied her father’s diary and made a note of all the appointments Mr Sinha had the weeks prior to his death. Interestingly enough, Suchitra Devi Chauhan, Uncle Chauhan’s mother, had scheduled a meeting with him only two days before he had died.
Had the woman been soliciting campaign contributions for her son or did she have some other business in mind?

He also made a note of the fact that Mr Sinha was one of the few attorneys in town twenty years back, so most of the people probably consulted him on legal matters. It was likely half the town had made appointments with him that month.

While Abhay was lost in his thoughts, Naina extracted a sealed envelope and opened it. It contained her parent’s marriage certificate and her birth certificate. She’d been born on first May at Allahabad Community Hospital, weighed four kilos and had been twenty inches long. She traced her finger along her parents’ marriage certificate, pausing when she noticed the date of their marriage. Her parents hadn’t been married until first October, just seven months before her birth. That meant her mother was already pregnant when they got married! Swallowing her surprise, she quickly stuffed the certificate back in the envelope before Abhay could see it. She had enough of her past to be ashamed about. She didn’t want him to know that on top of everything else, she’d been conceived even before her parents got married.

He motioned to the envelope. “What’s in there?”

“It’s just my birth certificate,” she said softly. “Well, I guess that’s it,” Naina said, getting up from the floor.

Just then, the phone came to life. Naina picked it up to hear a man’s agitated voice. “Naina, this is Ashish. I don’t know why you haven’t returned any of my calls, but I want to talk to you. It’s been two months now.”

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m sorry, Ashish, I haven’t called, but my schedule’s been crazy and I had to get settled and…” She rattled out excuse after excuse, while Abhay lifted up a banana from the fruit basket on the table and started enjoying it. He wondered what Ashish was saying on the other end of the line.

“No, please don’t come here,” she said. “Listen, Ashish, I really can’t talk now.” A long pause followed. Naina lowered her voice. “Yes, it’s business. Can I call you back?” She said and hung up.

Business, huh?
Abhay thought. Junior definitely wanted to do some more business with her.

“So, is Ashish coming here?” he asked, hiding the banana skin behind the flower vase.

Naina shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Abhay nodded, wondering if Naina would be interested in some more ‘business’ right now.

T
he station lobby looked as tired as Abhay. The flowers which had been placed on his order in the lobby were making it look more like a dreary tomb. Only two men were on duty, Head Constable Mishra behind his typewriter and Constable Shukla.

Abhay dropped his cigarette end to the ground and crushed it under his heel as he lumbered into the police station. Head Constable Mishra, sad-faced and balding, raised his head to the ceiling and then back to his typewriter.

Shukla unaware of the inspector’s arrival was busy fiddling with his beard.

“Don’t just sit there plaiting your beard, Shuklaji. Do something useful for a change,” Abhay snapped.

“Couldn’t agree with you more, sirji,” replied Shukla, ignorant of what Abhay had said.

“So what’s the update on the case?” asked Abhay.

“Sirji, with great difficulty we have been able to solve the case completely.” Shukla spoke in an excited tone.

“What, how…!” Abhay was baffled.

“Sirji we have retrieved the lost buffalo! The case file is on your table. The owner was very happy and has given us four litres of milk as a gift.” Mishra spoke in one go.

“What milk…what buffalo?” snorted Abhay. “I am asking you about the Naina Sinha case, any update on that?”

“Oh that! Yes sir, yes sir. You had asked me to check about Ashish.” Was Shukla’s unhelpful reply.

“And what did you find?” Abhay took off his scarf and placed it on the table.

“Ashish! Sirji, he is pretty boring. I could fall asleep just talking about him.”

Seeing Inspector Pandey smile, he continued, “Ashish goes to work at eight, has lunch in the office cafeteria every day, he works late, goes to a local gym once or twice a week, orders dinner in every day from some local restaurant. And that’s his life in a nutshell.
Ek number ka fuddu aadmi hai woh sirji
,” Shukla said pulling a fake yawn.

“Any women in his life?”

Shukla chuckled. “No Sirji! I told you he’s
fuddu
. Nothing interesting in his life.”

“And he’s been in Mumbai all week?”

“Until three days ago. After that he has left for some business in Fatehpur.”

Hmm. Fatehpur was just two hours away from Allahabad for Ashish to drive down
, thought Abhay. He had also contacted Naina. What if he had been right here in Allahabad? It now seemed like a possibility.

“
Ek baat toh bataana bhul hee gya
. Lucknow police have found Devender Singh,” Shukla said, leaning against his desk, “in some motel. Holed up with a
chhamiya
.”

Abhay blushed remembering his hot night with Rani. “How the hell did they trace him there?” Abhay asked.

“His wife. She is a very nosy woman. She had a private investigator on him the whole time as she was going through the divorce and wanted some solid evidence to get freedom from that ass.”

“Hmm, very good job Shuklaji! So he’s been there since the day he has been missing?”

Shukla nodded. “That’s correct, which means he’s probably not responsible for the incidents happening with Naina.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He could have orchestrated the whole thing from the hotel.”

Naina glanced at her watch. She had a little over half-an-hour before she’d have to meet Tara Chauhan, Uncle Chauhan’s daughter, for lunch. She still hadn’t understood the woman’s phone call this morning and her insistence on the meeting. She seriously couldn’t understand what she wanted to discuss.

After wading through her morning paperwork, a slight headache started to nag her. She was ready for a nap, not lunch with Tara Chauhan. She didn’t know what she was possibly going to talk to her about all through lunch.

“I’m taking the afternoon off,” Ria said, poking her head into Naina’s office. “I made some fresh tea if you want some.”

“Thanks, Ria. You are ever so kind,” said Naina, grateful for Ria’s thoughtfulness. She filled another cup and sipped, the hot brew calming her.

“And Tara Chauhan called and said she’ll see you at that Coco Brown Café around the corner,” Ria said and left.

Meeting Tara was intimidating and she wanted to look her best. Naina finished her tea, ran a brush through her hair, retouched her makeup and headed out to meet Tara. When she got to the café, she found her waiting at a corner table.

Tara beamed as Naina walked over to greet her. She was wearing a stunning green silk sari. Her diamond bracelets jangled as she shook Naina’s hand.

“Hi. Great café,” Naina said.

“I love this place,” Tara said, settling down in her seat again. “The coffee is fabulous and some of their dishes are just divine.” She nodded toward an already-filled mug. “I took the liberty to order us coffee.”

Naina had just finished her tea in office but she didn’t want to offend Tara, so she smiled and sipped the coffee. After they ordered the food, Tara unfolded her napkin and toyed with the long diamond studded loop dangling from her ear. “I thought we should get to know each other.”

“Really?” Naina couldn’t hide her surprise.

“Yes. Daddy’s talked about you for years, and Girish mentioned he took you to lunch the other day.”

Oh boy, here it comes
, Naina thought.

Instead, Tara flashed her a sugary smile. “I remember Daddy telling me about this one time when you were little… Your parents brought you to one of his parties and you followed me around all day.”

“I did?”

“Yes, isn’t that cute!”

“I…I suppose so.” Naina did a quick mental count. When she was six, Tara would have been eighteen. She could see how she must have been drawn to her.

“Anyway, I’d forgotten all about that,” Tara said.

Naina laughed softly. “I must have been a pest.”

“Not really. So, after the campaign party the other night, Daddy told me what a tough time you had after your parents died, when you went to live with your grandmother,” Tara said sympathetically.

Naina couldn’t help but feel she was being sincere. She swallowed several sips of coffee, hoping to dislodge the lump forming in her throat.

Tara gave her a sympathetic look. “What made you decide to move back after all these years?”

Naina had expected subtlety. But this woman had no qualms about asking what she wanted to know. “I wanted to work for myself instead of a large firm,” Naina said, sipping her coffee.

“Yes, but you could have done that anywhere. Why come back to this town? You must have bad memories.” Tara brought her hand to her cheek in a dramatic gesture. “I just can’t imagine it.”

“That’s just it,” Naina said, meeting Tara’s curious gaze head-on. “I don’t have any memories of this town at all.”

“None?” Tara asked sympathetically.

“None at all,” Naina said matter-of-factly.

“So when those doctors said you suffered from amnesia, it was true. I thought they were just making it up.”

“It’s true,” Naina said, suddenly losing her appetite. “I’ve tried everything to remember but nothing has worked.” Naina’s head was starting to throb even more, and she began to feel nauseous.