Seduced by Murder (22 page)

I had a million broken bones, but my legs were still working. I began to stagger towards the car, but heard a sound behind me. I turned, and watched in disbelief as Abhijit sprinted past me to the vehicle. I promised myself that I would quit drinking and go on a protein-shake diet if I made it through this ordeal. I dived at his feet just as he was entering the car. I missed him by a few inches and fell down, staring at the open sky.

Abhijit pushed the door open and stuck his head out. The white sky was replaced by his bloody face. He had the gun in his hand. Everything unfolded in slow motion. He pointed the gun at my face. A few drops of his blood fell into my eye, blinding me. I felt the passenger door, and swung it shut with all my strength. I heard a scream as it slammed against him. The door swung back and, once again, I banged it hard. I continued the operation till he stopped screaming. Finally, I got up and picked up the gun he had dropped.

He was groaning miserably.

“Here, let me have a look,” I said, helping him up.

As soon as he stood up, I rammed the butt of the gun against his knee. He screamed like a madman. His pupils dilated, and he slumped against me. I dragged him to the edge of the ditch and looked down. There was water and slime that ran at least six feet deep. I dumped him there with his gun.

Fifteen minutes and half a flask of whisky later, I walked into a department store. The lady at the counter opened her mouth wider than a crocodile’s yawn when she saw me. I smiled and told her I had been in an accident. I went to the restroom and took stock of the damage. My stomach had developed blue welts that burnt each time I breathed. A deep gash on my chin was bleeding profusely.

I cleaned myself as well as I could, bought some new clothes, and changed. I dumped the old clothes in a bin and walked out. I continued with my original itinerary, and proceeded to the office of Asrani Infrastructure. I looked at the address of the buyer on the agreement. The signatory was Akshay Asrani, MD, Asrani Infrastructure. On the seller’ side, Anil and Sunil had signed. The witness was a Mr Thapa.

Twenty minutes later I was parked in front of a thirty-storey swanky building. I walked in and took the elevator to the second floor. I entered the lobby of Asrani Infrasructure. The receptionist was on a phone call. She saw me walking towards her, hung up, and stood up flashing an inviting smile. She was the voluptuous kind, wearing a tight white top that must have fitted her perfectly when she was in the third grade. I felt claustrophobic just looking at her breasts.

“Good morning,” she said, widening her already exaggerated smile. Whatever they paid her was too little. She was the kind of receptionist that made men aspire to become her boss.

“Morning. I am here to meet Mr Asrani.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No.”

Her condescending eyes looked me over. She asked with cold politeness, “What is this regarding?”

“Official.”

“Oh my! Your face! Your chin is bleeding.”

“Excuse me.” I took out a handkerchief and clamped it under my chin.

I saw a copy of
Crime Busters
on her desk.

“Have you read the article on the Anil Kapoor case?”

She looked confused. “Yes, I have. Why?”

“I am the detective working on it. I am here to meet Mr Asrani, regarding a transaction between him and Anil a few weeks ago. A building sale.”

She looked down at the paper and her eyes gauged me anew. “Detective?”

“Yes.”

The interest was replaced with respect. Maybe she was the kind of girl I could lay after a few drinks, just by telling her that I was a detective. I made a note to get her number later.

“Please wait.”

She dialled a number and whispered something softly. There was a pause, and she whispered again.

“Mr Asrani would like to speak to you,” she said handing over the receiver.

I took the phone and heard the muffled voices of two men. One of them was very angry.

“Hello?” I spoke into the receiver.

“Yes, this is Akshay. You are—?”

“I am Vishal, a private detective hired by Mr Paras Kapoor to investigate his son’s murder. I wanted to meet you regarding the last transaction between Anil and you – a building sale. Anil was the signatory.”

“What about it?”

“I think Anil Kapoor forged the other signature to expedite the deal. Wanted to see if I could get some leads about that.”

His voice was muffled again, as if he had kept his hand over the mouthpiece, and was conferring with someone else.

“What the fuck have you got me into, Thapa? The private dick says that Anil Kapoor bloody forged the signature! What do you know about it?”

Thapa said something I couldn’t hear. Akshay said gruffly, “Bullshit. Get it over with.” He came back on the phone.

“Our CEO, Mr Thapa, will meet you. He takes care of our real-estate investments. Ask the receptionist to seat you in Conference Room number one. Thapa will join you shortly. Please make it your first and last visit.”

I gave the receiver back to the receptionist. “Your boss says you should lead me to Conference Room number one.”

“Please follow me, sir.”

“Call me Vishal.”

“Okay, Vishal.”

“What’s your name?”

“Rita. How did you cut your chin, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind anything cute girls ask me. I got into a scuffle with a man with a gun.”

She laughed nervously, and then saw I was serious.

“Is that common?”

“All the time,” I lied.

“Wow. That is exciting and dangerous. I have never met a detective in real life. Is it just like in the movies? Action and adventure?”

To me they sounded like synonyms for dysentery, and trying to make ends meet.

I nodded. “You said it.”

She dumped me in the conference room and left. A five foot four baby face walked in. He was wearing a white suit and white shoes. He gave me a phony smile, and walked towards me with his arms open wide, as if we were old friends.

He patted my shoulder and said, “Hi, I am Manoj Thapa.”

I shook his hand. It was soft, pudgy, and sweaty.

“I am Vishal Bajaj.”

“What will you have? Tea or coffee?” he asked in a too-eager-to-please voice.

“Coffee. Black. Thanks.”

He called for the coffee.

“So, how is the investigation going on? I read in a daily today that a family member may be involved. Shocking!”

I shrugged, “Still investigating.”

He made an apologetic face. “I must apologise on behalf of my MD. He must have seemed rude.”

This guy was too sweet. His smile read bullshit, and he had his palms open in a friendly gesture.

“Oh, that’s okay. Given this short notice, I thought he was exceedingly warm on the phone.”

His smile drooped a bit, and he eyed me with caution now. “How can I help you?”

“Mr Asrani mentioned that you take care of real estate investments.”

“Yes, I head that division.”

I gave him the copy of the agreement. “So you were dealing with Anil Kapoor?”

“Yes, I was. I was part of this deal. The MD is only the signatory. I decide whether we should go ahead with the deal or not.”

“Are you aware that Anil forged the signature?”

His hand flew to his mouth. He looked away from me and focused on the ceiling instead.

“Not until you told us right now,” he replied. “Well, we were suspicious when Paras Kapoor called Mr Asrani, and took down lots of details about the transaction. However, he acknowledged the transaction, and that’s all that matters.”

“So what happens now?”

“Nothing. We have already paid a certain amount of money. The property has been transferred in our name. And the Kapoors have acknowledged it.”

“The money you paid Anil was to the tune of thirty crores?”

“I cannot divulge that. It is, in a layman’s terms, called goodwill.”

“That’s very nice. I have already been told that you got a good discount, and gave a huge component as cash.”

“Yes, that is common practice. Only, in this case, it has been a very attractive deal for us; plus we save on the stamp duty, if the registered value of the actual transaction is less. So we don’t mind.”

“What do you mean by
attractive
?”

“One of the best investments we have made this year! Or, for that matter, so far in any of our real-estate transactions. We bought the property at half the valuation in the market.”

“I am sure Mr Asrani is happy.”

He replied coldly, “The entire board is very happy.”

“Who was in touch with you during this deal?”

“Anil Kapoor.”

“So you met him. And Sunil was never in the picture?”

“No. I only interacted with Anil Kapoor during the transaction. For us, there was no reason to get suspicious. It was, after all, in the family.” He pulled at his collar for some air. I wondered what was making Thapa nervous.

“Okay. So Anil Kapoor met you and concluded the deal?”

The coffee came. I noticed he was sweating in the cold room.

“Uh … yes. In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“In a manner of speaking?”

“Yes. Actually, I spoke to Anil on the phone.”

“On the phone? What about in person? Face-to-face?”

“Uh … unfortunately, I couldn’t meet him.”

I pushed the agreement towards him. “While handing over the cash? While getting his signature?”

More beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead. He fiddled with his tie.

“You never met him face to face?”

He nodded. “We planned to meet during the actual signing of the agreement, but Anil and Sunil were busy on the days when Mr Asrani was free, and vice versa. I didn’t want to postpone the deal. The draft had been approved by both the lawyers. The signed agreement was sent to me by their CFO. In fact, he was the one who collected the cash. But it was okay. I was on the phone with Anil the whole time.”

“So Mr Asrani never met Anil Kapoor?”

Thapa fiddled with his collar again.

“Mr Asrani is a busy man. I collected the agreement on his behalf.”

“But does Mr Asrani know that none of the signatories ever met you?”

“I assure you that I have my MD’s complete confidence, and he would not like to be bothered with such trivial details.”

“I think he might, especially after he’s been told that the signature was forged.”

“But the family is going ahead with the deal,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Hmm … but even then I would want to inform Mr Asrani that while the deal was being processed, the man he had trusted with the deal did not meet any of the signatories, which is strange, especially since you signed as the witness.”

He leaned forward and pleaded, “Listen, this can get me into some trouble. Why don’t you forget this, and collect a little reward for whatever you have done so far?”

“What sort of reward?”

He whispered, “Money. Fifty thousand? A lakh? I am a reasonable man.”

I took my time to answer. “You would give me that kind of cash just to walk away?”

“Yes. My MD is paranoid. No sense in spoiling the good deal that has been done. As of now, it is a lucrative deal. Let it remain that way. Even if Anil did forge the signature, he is dead, and the family doesn’t want to press charges. How would it benefit either of us if you spill the beans now?”

In five minutes he had offered me a bribe. And it had all started when I threatened to speak to his MD.

“I don’t want your money. Just answer my questions truthfully, and you will never see me again. Okay?”

“Uh … okay.”

“Who contacted you? How did the deal start?”

“We had sent mailers, a month ago, to all prominent builders and brokers, inviting offers for tenanted buildings at a yield of thirteen per cent or more. Some of the brokers got back with a yield of ten per cent or so. I was surprised to receive a mail from Anil Kapoor, offering their prominent buildings at half the valuation. I still have the email if you want to see it. It came from his official email ID. I thought there had to be a typo, or some other error, so I called him. He reiterated the offer on the phone. I was excited. It was the mother of all distress sales!”

“And you never interacted with Sunil during this deal?”

“No. Everything happened so fast.”

“On the phone? Never face-to-face?”

“Well, the main exchange was via official email. He was not very eager to meet with me. In a week, we had formalised the draft, and agreed on the numbers.”

“When was that?”

“About two weeks ago.”

“And when did you pay the money?”

“Last week. Five days before Anil was murdered.”

“Hmm … to the CFO?”

“Yes.”

“How did he look?”

“Tall. Goatee. Grey eyes. What? You know him?”

“Yeah. Can you identify him?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Okay. You gave him the cash, and collected the agreement. Then you signed as the witness, went back to Asrani, and told him that you had personally met him.”

“Well, yes,” he said nervously. “But Anil had been on the phone all the time. Moreover, we hadn’t made the entire payment. The white component was pending, and they had already transferred the asset in our name. So you see, we had the upper hand.”

“When were you supposed to make the white component of the payment?”

“Well, that is the funny part. Anil insisted that his family was travelling abroad, and we would complete the rest of the proceedings on or after Thursday. That would have been tomorrow.”

Thursday was the day Anil had planned to elope with Leo. So he wanted the white component to be transferred after his departure. It made sense. He wouldn’t want people to become aware of the forgery until he had left the country with the cash. What didn’t make sense was why Thapa had been so eager to close the deal.

“All right, Thapa. One last question, that has no bearing on my investigations, but I will not sleep easy unless you
answer it truthfully. And if you do, I never walk into Asrani’s office again.”

“What?” he asked nervously.

“Anil was in a hurry to close the deal. And you helped him expedite a deal of around seventy crores. It took me more than a week to finalise the rental agreement for my apartment. And that deal was worth fifteen thousand. Without your help, Anil’s plan would have failed. So, tell me, did he offer you a cut?”