Beautiful corpse - Episode 8
Posted by மாயா | | Posted On Tuesday at 1:27 AM
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Today would be the end of this, he thought.
He was going to make it.
No more taking chances.
Today or never.
If he didn’t get his wish today he would never have it in his lifetime, and that would be a life sentence for him..
“priya..priya..priya” he was chanting feverishly..
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Day 3: 10.30 AM
“Saar, he is here “, writer shanmugam gave a half salute as he announced his visitor. Muthu looked up from his table.
“Hm, Let him in.”
“Paval, your boy friend is coming. Do you need to freshen up?”.Paval threw a crunched ball of paper at him. Muthu ducked and then straightened up.
“Yes, come in”
“Hello Mr. Rajesh come in, please take your seat. So how is your day?”He leaned back on his chair relaxed.
“So far good” Rajesh looked deranged but smiled at Muthu nevertheless.
“May I know the reason, I am called here for?”
Muthu scanned the man before him with his laser eyes for a few seconds before he asked“Tell me Rajesh. where were you on those two nights?. Come on, no more hide and seek.”
Rajesh was silent.
“O…k, I take that as a pass, so next question. Why did you lie to us, that you rented an artist to do the painting?. You really thought we would be mislead if you gave an imaginary artist with a floating life story.?”
Rajesh dropped his eyes.
“next. Where is Nandhan?”
Rajesh bolted up at this one.”Sir, how do I know..?”
“So you now ready to answer the first two questions, right?”Rajesh was still silent.
Muthu took a deep breath ”Listen Rajesh, we know you are an amateur artist. The painting of a girl bathing in the pond which is hanging in your hall carries an intial. R.V. Isn’t that you?. You are an artist with an anonymous digital gallery floating in the internet. You thought we are all fools with no up to date technical knowledge to trace that out. didn’t you?”
“It’s not like that Mr.Muthu. I never thought you would take me into serious consideration.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t do anything”
“Oh! for god’s sake, please stop it and come to sense Rajesh. You liked priya, proposed her and got rejected. Only then you knew from Nandhan that they both were in love. So what did you do? You planned the operation and executed it.
You were supposed to go for the seminar in Bangalore but you didn’t go, neither did nandhan. His friends claim that you took him to the airport that night and that was the last time anybody saw him. We haven’t got news on him yet.
Your colony sentry personal had registered your number plates twice last two nights. Out: 1.30 AM and In: 6.30 AM on both nights. And… You are a huge fan of medical fiction novels. Do you want more?”
Rajesh started sobbing.
Muthu signaled paval and she went out. When she came back she had two disposable cups of water.
“ we don’t have strawberry juice” he gestured towards the water filled cup.
Rajesh took it with both hands and drank it obediently. He wiped his mouth and eyes with the back of his hands and stared at Muthu. He looked very different now, paval thought.
“sir, I never thought my activities would put me into such trouble. Swear on my mother, I didn’t do it sir. But I will tell about my ..little secret. That will help you understand me better”
“I..I have a thing for women. I go out and bring them home sometimes. I also go out partying very often. I am in a very decent circle of very highly thought of surgeons and doctors, where strip clubs and partying is not a normal behavior of a neuro surgeon. My job is my life and I love it. Everyone thinks very high of me and I don’t want anything to destroy my name or reputation.
So I had to keep my interests discreet.
Even my parents who are in the US right now don’t know about it. That’s also the reason I haven’t married yet. I asked priya in hand with all my heart, believing that I could change myself after marriage. But I really didn’t bother when she rejected me.
Actually I was happy to learn that Nandhan and priya were in love. In fact I pestered him to give me a treat. All four of us went out to eat last weekend in “dindikul venu biriyani”. You can check on that. Yes I dropped nandhan at the airport the other day but that’s all I know. I don’t know why you are interested about my reading habits. If you are thinking of illegal sexual activities and books, sorry I am not a maniac.
My literature stops with novels. Those nights I had been to *****, the five star hotel where I usually go. I try to keep it in closed circuit. Sir I might be a womanizer but not a pshycopath certainly not a murderer. That’s all. I have nothing more to hide.”He said it in a flow without looking up. He looked and sounded terribly embarrased.
Muthu was silent for a long moment and then exhaled deeply. “Ok, Rajesh you may go for the moment. But don’t go out of station ok?”
“You..you are leaving me?”
“for now yes. Please ..”
“Thank you officer” he stammered for some time and started out.
“Oh rajesh one more question. You said all four of us went out. Who was the fourth?”
“Dr.Anu, priya’s friend. She is the only other person who knew about them.”
“I heard that anu was in love with Nandhan, is it true?”Muthu asked.
“Is it? I didn’t know?”Rajesh was genuinely surprised.
“Ok..you may go” Muthu turned towards paval.
“I pity you my dear”he chuckled. Paval was tired of glaring and giving angry looks at him. She just sniffed and ignored his comment.
"You sure we can leave him out of the list boss.?"Paval asked doubtfully.
"Who said anything about that? I just left him to vent out. We cannot and should not rule him out. Not yet. We will have him in hold. But personally, i don't see any harm in this guy. What say Miss. Marple?"
"I told you that the very first day, Boss"
Muthu smiled and continued“We are yet to check the library thing. And I need to contact R3 inspector if he got anything on nandhan.”
“Boss, Did they check whether he missed the flight?”paval asked him.
“Thats the next thing i would do.But, we can't hope they have a SI as bright as mine." He winked at her and continued "I have already suggested that to the inspector he said he will look into it."he assured her smilingly.
"He might have questioned the auto drivers and taxi drivers.”he added.
“What if he took a cab to Bangalore and met with some accident”.
“What a good thought. If in that case the taxi company would have been informed and through the registration they would have traced him” He said
"Ok boss. But what if he didn't take one of those prepaid taxis but instead took a cab which came in to drop someone? The ones owned by a single person, driver/owner sorts and went straight to bangalore.?"
Muthu stared at her."Or what if he took such normal cabs and went to the bus station or train station to catch the next thing to bangalore?"
"Wow..Paval. You are good. I have asked to check the train and bus stops. But the private vehicle..good thing you got there."with that he pressed the intercom and asked veerayya to come in.
Anu was waiting in the cafeteria for whole ten minutes now. She was irritated, angry, frustrated, sad and frightened.
She saw them coming in a distance. They were walking close like a couple, laughing at each other. Anu slammed on the metal table. Few people looked at her uninterestedly.
“Hi, Anu” paval smiled at her. Anu didn’t say anything.
“What is this anu? Why such long face?. We have come to see you, won’t you even offer to buy us some drink?”muthu asked rightfully.
She swore under her breath and went to the counter. She had three diet coke tins in her hand, when she came back. She tried to open one when Muthu stopped her.
“Give that to me. You can’t drink it like that. Haven’t you heard the story of a lady who died of rat urine poisoning?” He teased and wiped the tin and the mouth of it with a tissue paper. “Here you go.”
She plucked it out of his hands spilling a little coke on the table and made a few quick gulps.
“what more do you want from me?”she asked.
“You in love?” Muthu asked softly.
Anu looked startled now.”What? N..no.who..who said that?”
“You look scared. There is nothing wrong to be in love. Is it paval?”Muthu asked without a glance.
“No, boss. Not that I know of, unless if it is a wrong kind of love”
“What is a wrong kind of love paval?”Muthu looked like he was confused.
“It’s a love you have on someone you shouldn’t love.”
“Like your friend’s lover?”
“Yeah, something like that”
“Hmm. Did you hear that anu?”Muthu asked her playfully.
“Just stop it.."She closed her ears and shut her eyes tightly. "Just stop it ok.."she repeated "It was her ok..it was her and not me.”
“She loved him even after I confided in her about my love. "
"She read all..all my unposted mails for him and she fell in love with him after knowing the good things I said about him."
"Can you imagine? She just accused me that i was the reason she fell in love with him. By talking about him all the time I made her fall in love with him. That was ridiculous.”Anu gave a shaky laugh .She was panting now. She took another long gulp from her coke tin.
“So..You killed her.?”Muthu asked in that same soft voice.
She looked at him flatly. ” You think I killed her, right?. You think I called her to the terrace early in the morning, asked her to jump into the tank with me, sliced her with a tiny blade and left her there bleeding. You think i did that, don’t you?”
“Nice details. But, What about kanagavel?” muthu sat with his chin rested on his palm.
“Oh yeah him?. I killed him because he saw me going into priya’s block in the morning. He asked me later on that. I waited for him in the motor room and sliced him too.”Anu was flaring up, paval could see that. She signaled Muthu to be cautious.
“You and your incredible imaginations.” Another gulp.
“Do you have any operations to do today?”Muthu asked her suddenly.
“what? Why?”she asked confused.
”Please don’t do it. You are not fit. Take a day off and go home.”Muthu said.
Anu stared at him and asked “can I..can I go now then?”
“Absolutely.”
Anu hesitated for a moment and then left the place. Muthu stared at her for some time and stretched an open palm towards paval. She took a clear plastic bag from her pocket and placed it on his palm.
Muthu carefully picked up the empty tin which anu had used and put it inside the bag.
”Specimen collected."
"And you prepared it fairly well boss."
"You mean, wiping it off the old prints with rat poison story?"he shrugged.
"We have to keep an eye on her though. It's too dangerous to leave her like that.. We need some solide evidence."
He looked at that plastic bag and felt confident and said " Hope we will get it soon. Shall we move?”
Day 3: 3.20 PM.
Paval wiped her mouth. Still relishing the taste of her mom’s special ‘thakkaali saatham and urulai masial’, she put herself in her seat. Muthu chose exactly that moment to enter the room, hurriedly.
"We have to go to that ******* minister’s house. Security measures.”
“You haven't had your lunch yet boss. what happened? Has there been an attack or something?”
“I'll grab something on the way and No, no attacks or anything. Just that ******* minister’s dog is missing. It seems we are needed in person. Come on hurry up”
“What about the homicide case” Paval showed the bulletin board filled with various stuff.
“We will be back in few hours.”Muthu assured her and they left together.
When they came back after two hours, the two plastic pouches and a brown cover were waiting on his table. Muthu opened the cover hungrily.
Fingerprint reports from kamal.
They had sent the disposable cup used by rajesh and the coke tin from the GH cafeteria for comparing the prints with the prints found on the paper.
And the report said, one print matched exactly.
Day 4: 6.30 AM
Priya was so dead..
Her locks of permed curls slicking to the side of her head like rolls of wet spring. The pajama suit looked clean like she just wore it from the dryer. Her body had been laid down carefully on the willowing aerial prop roots of the banyan tree.
With hands kept folded gracefully in front, she looked like a paling ‘sleeping beauty’- sliced below her ear.
The cool morning breeze slithered through the branches making a lazy noise and few dry leaves were pushed off from the branches.
They flew down in a graceful dancing motion like a rope puppet in slow motion and fell on that "beautiful corpse" like a mourning funeral flower arrangement.
Today would be the end of this, he thought.
He was going to make it.
No more taking chances.
Today or never.
If he didn’t get his wish today he would never have it in his lifetime, and that would be a life sentence for him..
“priya..priya..priya” he was chanting feverishly..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 3: 10.30 AM
“Saar, he is here “, writer shanmugam gave a half salute as he announced his visitor. Muthu looked up from his table.
“Hm, Let him in.”
“Paval, your boy friend is coming. Do you need to freshen up?”.Paval threw a crunched ball of paper at him. Muthu ducked and then straightened up.
“Yes, come in”
“Hello Mr. Rajesh come in, please take your seat. So how is your day?”He leaned back on his chair relaxed.
“So far good” Rajesh looked deranged but smiled at Muthu nevertheless.
“May I know the reason, I am called here for?”
Muthu scanned the man before him with his laser eyes for a few seconds before he asked“Tell me Rajesh. where were you on those two nights?. Come on, no more hide and seek.”
Rajesh was silent.
“O…k, I take that as a pass, so next question. Why did you lie to us, that you rented an artist to do the painting?. You really thought we would be mislead if you gave an imaginary artist with a floating life story.?”
Rajesh dropped his eyes.
“next. Where is Nandhan?”
Rajesh bolted up at this one.”Sir, how do I know..?”
“So you now ready to answer the first two questions, right?”Rajesh was still silent.
Muthu took a deep breath ”Listen Rajesh, we know you are an amateur artist. The painting of a girl bathing in the pond which is hanging in your hall carries an intial. R.V. Isn’t that you?. You are an artist with an anonymous digital gallery floating in the internet. You thought we are all fools with no up to date technical knowledge to trace that out. didn’t you?”
“It’s not like that Mr.Muthu. I never thought you would take me into serious consideration.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t do anything”
“Oh! for god’s sake, please stop it and come to sense Rajesh. You liked priya, proposed her and got rejected. Only then you knew from Nandhan that they both were in love. So what did you do? You planned the operation and executed it.
You were supposed to go for the seminar in Bangalore but you didn’t go, neither did nandhan. His friends claim that you took him to the airport that night and that was the last time anybody saw him. We haven’t got news on him yet.
Your colony sentry personal had registered your number plates twice last two nights. Out: 1.30 AM and In: 6.30 AM on both nights. And… You are a huge fan of medical fiction novels. Do you want more?”
Rajesh started sobbing.
Muthu signaled paval and she went out. When she came back she had two disposable cups of water.
“ we don’t have strawberry juice” he gestured towards the water filled cup.
Rajesh took it with both hands and drank it obediently. He wiped his mouth and eyes with the back of his hands and stared at Muthu. He looked very different now, paval thought.
“sir, I never thought my activities would put me into such trouble. Swear on my mother, I didn’t do it sir. But I will tell about my ..little secret. That will help you understand me better”
“I..I have a thing for women. I go out and bring them home sometimes. I also go out partying very often. I am in a very decent circle of very highly thought of surgeons and doctors, where strip clubs and partying is not a normal behavior of a neuro surgeon. My job is my life and I love it. Everyone thinks very high of me and I don’t want anything to destroy my name or reputation.
So I had to keep my interests discreet.
Even my parents who are in the US right now don’t know about it. That’s also the reason I haven’t married yet. I asked priya in hand with all my heart, believing that I could change myself after marriage. But I really didn’t bother when she rejected me.
Actually I was happy to learn that Nandhan and priya were in love. In fact I pestered him to give me a treat. All four of us went out to eat last weekend in “dindikul venu biriyani”. You can check on that. Yes I dropped nandhan at the airport the other day but that’s all I know. I don’t know why you are interested about my reading habits. If you are thinking of illegal sexual activities and books, sorry I am not a maniac.
My literature stops with novels. Those nights I had been to *****, the five star hotel where I usually go. I try to keep it in closed circuit. Sir I might be a womanizer but not a pshycopath certainly not a murderer. That’s all. I have nothing more to hide.”He said it in a flow without looking up. He looked and sounded terribly embarrased.
Muthu was silent for a long moment and then exhaled deeply. “Ok, Rajesh you may go for the moment. But don’t go out of station ok?”
“You..you are leaving me?”
“for now yes. Please ..”
“Thank you officer” he stammered for some time and started out.
“Oh rajesh one more question. You said all four of us went out. Who was the fourth?”
“Dr.Anu, priya’s friend. She is the only other person who knew about them.”
“I heard that anu was in love with Nandhan, is it true?”Muthu asked.
“Is it? I didn’t know?”Rajesh was genuinely surprised.
“Ok..you may go” Muthu turned towards paval.
“I pity you my dear”he chuckled. Paval was tired of glaring and giving angry looks at him. She just sniffed and ignored his comment.
"You sure we can leave him out of the list boss.?"Paval asked doubtfully.
"Who said anything about that? I just left him to vent out. We cannot and should not rule him out. Not yet. We will have him in hold. But personally, i don't see any harm in this guy. What say Miss. Marple?"
"I told you that the very first day, Boss"
Muthu smiled and continued“We are yet to check the library thing. And I need to contact R3 inspector if he got anything on nandhan.”
“Boss, Did they check whether he missed the flight?”paval asked him.
“Thats the next thing i would do.But, we can't hope they have a SI as bright as mine." He winked at her and continued "I have already suggested that to the inspector he said he will look into it."he assured her smilingly.
"He might have questioned the auto drivers and taxi drivers.”he added.
“What if he took a cab to Bangalore and met with some accident”.
“What a good thought. If in that case the taxi company would have been informed and through the registration they would have traced him” He said
"Ok boss. But what if he didn't take one of those prepaid taxis but instead took a cab which came in to drop someone? The ones owned by a single person, driver/owner sorts and went straight to bangalore.?"
Muthu stared at her."Or what if he took such normal cabs and went to the bus station or train station to catch the next thing to bangalore?"
"Wow..Paval. You are good. I have asked to check the train and bus stops. But the private vehicle..good thing you got there."with that he pressed the intercom and asked veerayya to come in.
Anu was waiting in the cafeteria for whole ten minutes now. She was irritated, angry, frustrated, sad and frightened.
She saw them coming in a distance. They were walking close like a couple, laughing at each other. Anu slammed on the metal table. Few people looked at her uninterestedly.
“Hi, Anu” paval smiled at her. Anu didn’t say anything.
“What is this anu? Why such long face?. We have come to see you, won’t you even offer to buy us some drink?”muthu asked rightfully.
She swore under her breath and went to the counter. She had three diet coke tins in her hand, when she came back. She tried to open one when Muthu stopped her.
“Give that to me. You can’t drink it like that. Haven’t you heard the story of a lady who died of rat urine poisoning?” He teased and wiped the tin and the mouth of it with a tissue paper. “Here you go.”
She plucked it out of his hands spilling a little coke on the table and made a few quick gulps.
“what more do you want from me?”she asked.
“You in love?” Muthu asked softly.
Anu looked startled now.”What? N..no.who..who said that?”
“You look scared. There is nothing wrong to be in love. Is it paval?”Muthu asked without a glance.
“No, boss. Not that I know of, unless if it is a wrong kind of love”
“What is a wrong kind of love paval?”Muthu looked like he was confused.
“It’s a love you have on someone you shouldn’t love.”
“Like your friend’s lover?”
“Yeah, something like that”
“Hmm. Did you hear that anu?”Muthu asked her playfully.
“Just stop it.."She closed her ears and shut her eyes tightly. "Just stop it ok.."she repeated "It was her ok..it was her and not me.”
“She loved him even after I confided in her about my love. "
"She read all..all my unposted mails for him and she fell in love with him after knowing the good things I said about him."
"Can you imagine? She just accused me that i was the reason she fell in love with him. By talking about him all the time I made her fall in love with him. That was ridiculous.”Anu gave a shaky laugh .She was panting now. She took another long gulp from her coke tin.
“So..You killed her.?”Muthu asked in that same soft voice.
She looked at him flatly. ” You think I killed her, right?. You think I called her to the terrace early in the morning, asked her to jump into the tank with me, sliced her with a tiny blade and left her there bleeding. You think i did that, don’t you?”
“Nice details. But, What about kanagavel?” muthu sat with his chin rested on his palm.
“Oh yeah him?. I killed him because he saw me going into priya’s block in the morning. He asked me later on that. I waited for him in the motor room and sliced him too.”Anu was flaring up, paval could see that. She signaled Muthu to be cautious.
“You and your incredible imaginations.” Another gulp.
“Do you have any operations to do today?”Muthu asked her suddenly.
“what? Why?”she asked confused.
”Please don’t do it. You are not fit. Take a day off and go home.”Muthu said.
Anu stared at him and asked “can I..can I go now then?”
“Absolutely.”
Anu hesitated for a moment and then left the place. Muthu stared at her for some time and stretched an open palm towards paval. She took a clear plastic bag from her pocket and placed it on his palm.
Muthu carefully picked up the empty tin which anu had used and put it inside the bag.
”Specimen collected."
"And you prepared it fairly well boss."
"You mean, wiping it off the old prints with rat poison story?"he shrugged.
"We have to keep an eye on her though. It's too dangerous to leave her like that.. We need some solide evidence."
He looked at that plastic bag and felt confident and said " Hope we will get it soon. Shall we move?”
Day 3: 3.20 PM.
Paval wiped her mouth. Still relishing the taste of her mom’s special ‘thakkaali saatham and urulai masial’, she put herself in her seat. Muthu chose exactly that moment to enter the room, hurriedly.
"We have to go to that ******* minister’s house. Security measures.”
“You haven't had your lunch yet boss. what happened? Has there been an attack or something?”
“I'll grab something on the way and No, no attacks or anything. Just that ******* minister’s dog is missing. It seems we are needed in person. Come on hurry up”
“What about the homicide case” Paval showed the bulletin board filled with various stuff.
“We will be back in few hours.”Muthu assured her and they left together.
When they came back after two hours, the two plastic pouches and a brown cover were waiting on his table. Muthu opened the cover hungrily.
Fingerprint reports from kamal.
They had sent the disposable cup used by rajesh and the coke tin from the GH cafeteria for comparing the prints with the prints found on the paper.
And the report said, one print matched exactly.
Day 4: 6.30 AM
Priya was so dead..
Her locks of permed curls slicking to the side of her head like rolls of wet spring. The pajama suit looked clean like she just wore it from the dryer. Her body had been laid down carefully on the willowing aerial prop roots of the banyan tree.
With hands kept folded gracefully in front, she looked like a paling ‘sleeping beauty’- sliced below her ear.
The cool morning breeze slithered through the branches making a lazy noise and few dry leaves were pushed off from the branches.
They flew down in a graceful dancing motion like a rope puppet in slow motion and fell on that "beautiful corpse" like a mourning funeral flower arrangement.
