36

“Who’s next?” I asked after we stopped laughing.

“Let me give you a choice – Arjun or Reshma?”

“For a moment I thought you are going to give me a choice between a hug or a kiss.”

“You wish,” said Susan with a twinkle in her eye.

“Of course I do,” I said looking directly in her eyes.

“Well, keep wishing then, and till your wish comes true, lets solve the case.”

“Do you mean you will kiss me when we solve the case?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, my choice is Reshma.”

“Oh, for a moment I thought, you are going to choose a kiss,” teased Susan.

“You wish,” said I and we laughed again.

I loved our flirtatious discussions; we both were so mature when we did that.

Susan then dug back into her encylopedia-like file and pulled out the interview with Reshma.

“Hi Reshma, thanks for coming,” I started the interview. I looked at Reshma when she walked in and I was mesmerized already by her looks. She was surely a very sexy lady and attracted me immediately towards her.

Susan saw me looking at her with my mouth slightly open and she hit her boot on my leg below the table, which instantaneously resulted in an ‘ouch’ from me.

“Thanks sir, are you okay?” asked Reshma very confidently.

“Yes, everything is fine. Have a seat. My name is Rahul and this is my colleague Susan, we are investigating Karishma’s death.”

“Yes sir, it is such a tragic incident. We are completely devastated by what happened.”

“You can call me Rahul,” I took a leaf out of Susan’s book resulting in a glare from her. “What would you like to have, tea or coffee?” Susan stared at me again when I asked that.

“No, I am fine, thank you.”

“Are you sure? Detective Rahul can make some really good coffee,” Susan asked, sarcastically.

“I am good, thanks for taking care of me.”

“Well, we are taking good care of you, why did you not take good care of your friend,” there was Susan, her aggressive best in making the respondent nervous.

“What do you mean?” asked a slightly taken aback Reshma.

“Well she died, didn’t she, and you were the closest friend to her.”

“I was, and I supported her till the end. I never knew the end would come and in this way. What could I have done?”

“How did she die Reshma?”

“Don’t you already know, it’s in the medical report,” Reshma knew how to be aggressive.

“It is, but I would like to hear from you.”

“I am not an expert, Detective Susan, you are. I was hoping you would tell me what happened.”

“We are investigating you, you are not investigating me.”

Wow, I loved this conversation between two fire brands sexy women. But Reshma was smart enough not to get swayed by Susan’s aggression.

“What I have heard is that she died of some poison that she consumed to commit suicide.”

“Reshma, we have a strong belief that it wasn’t a suicide.”

“Then what was it?” Reshma asked puzzled.

“It was a murder,” said Susan and stared directly into Reshma’s eyes to look for some clues from her reaction.

“It can’t be, why would someone murder Karishma?” asked Reshma, a bit perplexed.

“You are here to answer that question, why..?” Susan just stopped at why waiting for Reshma to take the bait.

“You…you…you…mean to say I murdered her?” she took the bait.

“May be, you tell us what happened.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Why would I murder her, she was my best friend.”

“That’s what we want to know why would you murder her? She was your best friend.”

“I did not murder her,” said Reshma with a bit of stammer, “I don’t know what you are thinking. I had been Karishma’s best friend, I supported her. Even after the fight over Arjun, I was with her, handling the situation at her house and between Arjun and her. I always wanted them to unite again.”

“You visited their house the evening before the murder,” I asked.

“Yes, I did and Karishma’s parents and I were together. She was completely normal at that time.”

“What time did you leave?” I continued.

“Immediately after dinner. You can ask her parents.”

“Arjun is a very handsome man, isn’t he?” Susan changed the topic.

“Yes he is, and she and Karishma made a wonderful pair.”

“Did you like Arjun?” Susan was trying to find an opening.

“Everyone liked him, he is so likable.”

“I meant in a special way, did you love him or lust for him?”

“Let me tell you, boys lust for me, I don’t need to lust for them.” That was some reply from Reshma, and it was not difficult to see why.

“I agree,” came out of me from nowhere, only to be kicked hard under the table by Susan. “I agree that you and Karishma were close, but that’s no reason that you would not murder her,” I tried to get a way out of what I said earlier. This statement was also greeted by a stare from Susan.

“Tell us something about Karishma,” Susan changed the topic again.

“Karishma was a wonderful girl, very honest and well brought up. Everyone liked her and she generally liked everyone as well. She was ever ready to help people and this quality of hers attracted everyone towards her and generated a lot of respect for her. She and Arjun made a very good pair and their love story in a way brought about a revolution in the college. So many couples fell in love after that.”

“When you were with her, did you ever feel she wanted to end her life?”

“Karishma was a very strong girl; she faced difficulties with a smile. She always looked for solutions. However, the Arjun episode with her father and then the restrictions that her father levied on her, were taking a toll on her patience. She missed Arjun a lot; however, they started having a lot of fights as well. In fact there was a break up between them and that’s when Karishma had something like a nervous breakdown. Her father was already talking about getting her married to someone in her own community. All this was very difficult for her to handle.”

“How did she take all of this?” I asked.

“Not very well. She infact told me once that life is not worth living without Arjun.”

“So do you think she would have taken her life?”

“Now that she has, it seems like she could have.”

“Did you ever see the suicide note before that day?”

“No, I discovered the letter from under her pillow when they lifted her. That was the first time I saw that letter and I was shocked to read it.”

“Did anyone see you pulling out the suicide letter?”

“I am sure; there were so many people there. I didn’t notice.”

“Do you suspect anyone of murdering Karishma?”

“No, I can’t think of anyone.”

“Ok Reshma, thanks for coming down to the Bureau, we will call you if we need you again,” Susan ended the discussion. We didn’t reach anywhere much with it.

“Can you please sign the declaration that you have just made?” said I and gave her the pen. She dropped the pen on the floor and bent down to take the pen giving a good view of her assets in the low cut loose top that she was wearing. I couldn’t help but look at them and Susan did not miss that. She signed the declaration and I said, “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Same here,” Reshma looked at me and smiled.

“Of course,” said Susan, possibly a bit jealous.

“I still remember the way you looked at Reshma when she walked in the Bureau that day. You did a 360 degrees appraisal on her.”

“Did I?”

“Yes you did, and when she dropped the pen down while signing her statement and bent to pick it, your mouth did widen a bit, I could have put a tennis ball into it.”

“Really, do you think a tennis ball can fit into my mouth?”

“Yeah, I presume so.”

“So were you jealous that my mouth opened for her?”

“Why should I be jealous?”

“I don’t know you tell me, you were the one measuring the circumference of my mouth and kicking me under the table.”

“Whatever. Tell me what you think about Reshma?” Susan changed the subject.

“She is sexy for sure and can make many mouths open.”

“So why didn’t you ask her to come to Coorg, she is single and surely would have been impressed by a detective. She had a lovely inviting smile when she left the office.”

“I can smell something burning for sure,” I teased Susan. Susan took the candle which was kept on the table and placed the flame under my palm.

“I am sure you can feel something burning as well now,” and she laughed as I withdrew my hand at the impact of the flame on my palm. We both ended up laughing.

“I think Reshma is as innocent as she is sexy. She has no reason whatsoever to be involved in the crime. There doesn’t seem to be any motive.”

“Well there doesn’t seem to be any motive as of now, but we can never stop suspecting anyone. But for sure her testimony has pushed the case towards suicide.”

“I agree, she was someone who knew Karishma the best and her testimony has a huge weight towards where this case will go. She did mention that Karishma wanted to end her life due to the pressures on her.”

“So that just leaves us with Arjun,” said Susan and opened her magic file to move her summary of discussion with Arjun.

“What do you think about Arjun?” asked Susan.

“I have no doubt that he is innocent, he loved Karishma and it shows in his eyes when he talks. Other than Karishma’s parents, if anyone has been affected by the tragedy, it has been Arjun. In fact I would say that the second most affected person is Arjun after Karishma’s mother.”

“Hmmmm,” said Susan.

“Now what does this hmmmm mean? I have seen different meanings associated with this hmmmm, and what’s worse is that different people have different meanings for different situations.”

“This hmmmm means I kind of agree with you.”

“And how would I know that?”

“Just go with the flow, and you will understand, in any case don’t try to understand women, it’s impossible for you mortal souls.” We both laughed at that, a good chemistry was developing between us. I was just hoping some biology also develops on this trip.

Our laugh was broken by an announcement that our flight was ready to board. We ended our discussion there and we were ready to board the chariot of our love story.