The murder made news all over Ramsar. Gossip mills at the tiny hill station brimmed with speculation. Meanwhile, at Rhodo Cottage, the four friends were engaged in a lively debate about the murder. Each one of them had a theory about the murder. For once the cards were forgotten.
‘I suspect the politician,’ said Doc. ‘Firstly, he paid the gardener to burn the diaries and then he was in a hurry to get away. Why would he do those things, if he was innocent?’
‘Now that the knife has been found, do you think you’ll be able to nail the culprit?’ the professor asked Acharya.
‘The knife proves nothing because no fingerprints were found on it. We’ll have to wait for the post mortem reports before we reach any conclusion.’
‘I’m intrigued about Tia’s sudden appearance at Ramsar,’ said the colonel. ‘Why did she come here? A little investigation of her background would set my mind at rest.’
‘She seems harmless, though,’ said the professor. ‘What possible motive could Tia have to murder a woman she had never met before?’
‘That remains to be seen but I won’t rule her off the suspect list.’
‘Poor Tim,’ said the judge. ‘I pity him. The chap is under a lot of pressure, both mentally and emotionally. In any case, working with JBS is not a very pleasant experience at the best of times. The DSP is one of the most pig-headed men I’ve ever known.’
‘He’ll be alright,’ remarked Acharya. ‘Ramola’s killing has jolted him. Also, the pressure from the boss to nail the culprit quickly is too much for the young man.’
‘I wonder what that bunch of ruffians are doing at the cottage,’ mused the professor. ‘I guess they are on their guard.’
‘Why would they be on their guard?’ asked the judge.
‘Isn’t it natural to be suspicious about each other when one among them is the murderer.’
‘I guess it isn’t comfortable to be in the company of a murderer.’
The discussion was put aside as Mrs Joshi brought a tray of coffee and snacks to calm their excited brain cells.
‘You guys aren’t playing today?’ she asked the quartet.
‘There is too much on our minds to concentrate on poker,’ sighed the professor, leafing through a magazine. ‘Everyone is obsessed with the murder.’
‘I guess it’ll remain so until the murderer is apprehended,’ she consoled. ‘It’s the talking point at the market, I’m told. Any ideas about which of the guests committed the crime?’
‘Oh, we have our theories, all right,’ chuckled Acharya. ‘But ideas have to be backed by proof. Until we find the evidence, it’ll be difficult to charge the criminal.’
The doorbell pealed.
‘We have a very agitated Dinesh clamouring to meet you,’ announced the professor’s wife who had answered the door.
‘Let him in, Uma.’
‘Saab, they’ve arrested Ganesh,’ Dinesh cried, rushing towards them. His face was creased with worry. ‘He’s not a murderer, saab. Please tell Tim saab to release him.’
Everyone was surprised at the news. ‘Why has he been arrested?’ asked the judge.
‘I don’t know, saab,’ the cook shook his head. ‘He’s not a murderer. Ganesh may drink and get into brawls, but he’ll never harm anyone, least of all a woman.’
‘There must be some reason for Tim to have arrested him,’ said the judge.
‘Tim saab was questioning Ganesh in the morning. Shirt- Pant came to the cottage an hour ago and took him to the police station.’
‘Has he been taken to the police station?’ asked Uma.
‘Yes, madam.’
‘This is exactly what I feared. Tim is behaving recklessly. The gardener is guilty of accepting money to burn the diaries, but he is not the murderer. I’m going to the police station to speak to Tim,’ declared the colonel, picking up his walking stick.
Tim, at his desk, was surprised to see the colonel at the police chowki. ‘What brings you here, Colonel?’ he asked, getting to his feet.
‘We were told that you have arrested the gardener.’
‘That’s right, Ganesh is in the lock-up.’
‘But why? I told you to wait for a while.’
‘I am sure he murdered Ramola. The DSP thinks so too. Two weeks ago he had stolen Ramola’s diamond ring. When she scolded him for the theft, Ganesh had threatened to teach her a lesson. Why would he do that?’ Tim looked challengingly at the older man.
‘So, you think Ganesh killed her with the knife, then wiped everything clean of fingerprints and hurled the murder weapon out of the window?’ the colonel countered.
‘No one else would have murdered Ramola. What would they gain by killing her?’
‘You’re forgetting that Sammy paid Ganesh to destroy the diaries,’ the colonel reminded Tim.
‘Sammy may have paid to destroy the diaries because he didn’t want the book to be published. That doesn’t prove that he murdered Ramola.’
‘Wait a minute, Tim. D’you think Ganesh formatted the hard disk of her laptop, too. Would he kill her just because she accused him of theft?’
A look of doubt crossed the young man’s face. He collapsed into the chair, raking his fingers through his hair agitatedly. ‘I don’t know what to think any more.’
‘You have been working too hard, Tim. You need rest,’ said Acharya gently. ‘A good night’s sleep will make things clearer. On second thought, maybe you should keep the fellow in the lock up for a couple of days. It might lull the killer into taking a false step.’
‘Now, I would like to speak to Ganesh, if you don’t mind,’ the colonel requested.
‘By all means, speak to him. Why should I object to that?’ Tim hesitated for a moment before continuing. ‘I have no doubt about Ganesh’s involvement in the crime.’
The determined look on Tim’s face convinced the colonel that Ganesh was likely to be locked up for a few more days. The gardener had committed the crime of destroying the diaries, but Acharya was sure that he had not killed Ramola.
‘My dear chap, a clever murderer will always try to confuse investigators by leaving confusing clues. Our job is to separate the wheat from the chaff.’
The subdued gardener was brought before the colonel, who spoke to him kindly, switching to Hindi for the chap’s benefit. ‘If you may tell me everything, I may be able to convince the DSP to let you off.’
‘Saab, I didn’t kill madam,’ Ganesh cried. ‘I would never harm her. She was a good lady. She paid me a good salary. Why would I dig my own grave by killing her? Please let me go.’
‘You’ll be allowed to go, but first we have to listen to your story.’
‘What can I tell you if I didn’t see or hear anything? Dinesh and I sleep in the outhouse, which is away from the main cottage.’
‘All right, you can’t tell us about the murder, but you stole her diamond ring, did you not?’
The gardener hung his head in shame.
‘Yes, I stole the ring to repay the moneylender. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have taken it.’
‘You also threatened madam with dire consequences when she accused you of the theft.’
‘I was angry at being accused. I didn’t mean what I said. It was an empty threat.’
‘Who do you think murdered Ramola madam?’
‘I don’t know saab, but it could be Arif saab. He’s not a nice man.’
‘How can you say that?’
‘I heard him threatening madam,’ confessed Ganesh. ‘He was asking her to stop writing the book.’
‘When was that?’
‘That was on the day of the party at the judge’s house. I was working on the flower bed at the back of the gazebo. They couldn’t see me but I could hear them clearly. The two of them were strolling in the lawn.’
‘I see,’ said the colonel. ‘Are you sure about this?’
‘Yes, saab.’
‘Can you remember anything else?’
‘No, saab. When will you let me go?’
‘We’ll let you go in a couple of days, as soon as we find the real culprit.’
‘I don’t think the man is a murderer,’ said Acharya, returning to Tim’s desk. ‘Can you send word for me if Ganesh decides to speak again?’
The colonel heard the gardener shouting just as he stepped out of the police station, ‘Saab, saab, I want to tell you something.’
‘What now,’ muttered Tim.
‘Saab, while dusting Arif saab’s room, I found a pair of blood stained gloves, the type doctors wear. It was under a newspaper in the bottom drawer.’
‘You mean surgical gloves?’
The gardener nodded his head in affirmation.
‘That’s interesting,’ Acharya rubbed his chin thoughtfully, switching to English so Ganesh could not understand the conversation. ‘Now why would Arif keep a pair of surgical gloves in his room?’
‘Why not? The murder weapon has no fingerprints on it. Perhaps the murderer wore a pair of gloves while stabbing her with the knife.’
‘We should send the bloodstained gloves to the forensic guys,’ said the colonel. ‘What puzzles me is the fact that the murderer was clever enough to dispose the knife, so why didn’t he get rid of the gloves, too?’
‘What you say makes sense,’ agreed Tim. ‘But I don’t trust Ganesh. Why was he in Arif’s room and what was he looking for in the drawer?’
‘Why don’t you ask him that question?’
Crouching on his haunches in a corner of the room, Ganesh was sobbing softy into the turban cloth that he wore draped across his shoulders.
‘Why did you enter Arif saab’s room?’ Tim asked him in Hindi. ‘You’re supposed to work outside the house.’
‘There was a lot of work that day, so Dinesh asked me to help him tidy the rooms on the upper floor that morning.’
‘Why did you open the drawer?’
‘Arif saab was going out of the room when I entered. Perhaps he killed madam, I told myself. So, I peeked into the drawers.’
‘You should’ve told the police about the gloves. Do you know that his gold-plated cigarette lighter is missing? Did you steal it, Ganesh?’
‘No, saab, I didn’t taken anything from his room. I swear, saab.’
Tim threw him a suspicious look, ‘We’ll find out soon enough, but it would be better for you to confess if you did it.’
The man, however, continued to swear that he hadn’t taken anything from Arif’s room.
‘He may or may not be telling the truth,’ said the colonel. ‘It is possible that he did not take the lighter. However, he has given us good reason to interrogate Arif once more. I want the gloves to be sent for forensic tests. The point is, why didn’t the police find it when they were searching all the rooms on the upper floor?’
‘We didn’t find it, either,’ added Tim. ‘We had looked into all the rooms as well.’
‘Exactly, we should have found it … Unless it was put there later.’
Am I missing something? The colonel was in a thoughtful mood as he walked home from the police station.