42

“Rahul let me handle the interrogation today. I know somewhere you feel Arjun cannot commit the murder, and now I know he has.”

“Ok Susan.” I had no choice but to agree. “But before we go ahead, you understand that the work that you are doing will not be admissible in the court of law as you are not part of the system. We had discussed this earlier as well. The records will show that the investigation has been carried out by me.”

“Yes Rahul, I do understand. Don’t worry!” Susan was mature about it.

Arjun walked in.

“Arjun, thanks for coming to our office today.”

“Always a pleasure Rahul and Susan,” Arjun looked a bit circumspect today.

“Arjun, we need to get straight to the point. When we met last, everything pointed towards suicide, but things have changed since then. Now we think Karishma was murdered.”

Arjun was dumbstruck. “Murdered?”

“Yes Arjun, murder. And we now have sufficient evidence to prove it. We need you to cooperate with us to put things together.”

Arjun seemed nervous for sure. His face showed he had been hiding something. My faith in him seemed to go down after discovery of the evidence and with the facial expression he showed. I was very keen to see how he behaved from now on.

“What evidence do you have? I will fully cooperate,” said Arjun.

“Arjun, you are aware that Karishma died by consumption of poison.”

“Yes.”

“And they found a suicide note next to her.”

“Yes.”

“What do you know about the suicide note?”

“I have no idea; it’s never been shown to me.”

“Here you are,” said Susan and handed over the suicide note to him.

Arjun’s facial expression changed once again.

“Have you seen it before?” asked Susan.

“I must say it looks familiar.”

“Check the video out,” said Susan and played the tape.

Arjun was stunned to say the least. He was speechless.

“What do you have to say now?” continued Susan.

“I don’t know what to say. The words looked familiar and now I remember why. We used the note in a play. Now I recall Karishma was forgetting her dialogues and I asked her to write the note and we also kept it as a prop on the table so that she could read from it, if needed. But she did very well in the play; she didn’t have to refer to the prop.”

“And we found a soft copy of this letter in your computer.”

“Yes, because I had written the dialogues.”

“Then why did you ask Karishma to write it, you could have just given her the print out.”

“That’s my style as a director, if anyone forgets dialogues, I ask them to write.”

“So it was very convenient of you to make her write a suicide letter in her writing and then use it as the departing note.”

“Are you hinting that I murdered her?”

“What happened to the letter after the play?” Susan ignored Arjun’s question.

“I am not sure; maybe someone would have cleared it. Maybe Karishma kept it. We never staged that play again.”

“Do you recognize this bill?” Susan showed the grocer’s bill.

“No, I can’t seem to recall.” Arjun replied without paying too much attention.

“See carefully Arjun,” ordered Susan.

“I seem to have seen it.”

“Are you aware that the poison was mixed with the Pepsi that Karishma drank?”

“No, I didn’t know how the poison was given.”

“It was given through the Pepsi can,” said Susan and placed the can on the table.

Arjun was thinking.

“And what’s surprising, it has only one set of finger prints – only Karishma’s.”

“So?” Arjun was confused.

“The murderer wiped all the finger prints. It’s impossible to have only one set of finger prints specially considering the number of people through whom the can would have passed till it reached Karishma.”

“Yes you are right.”

“Arjun, did you ever visit a grocery store near Karishma’s house? Before you choose your answer let me inform you that the grocery store owner has already identified you.”

“Yes, to buy Pepsi for her…wait. Now I get it. You mean to say that because the suicide letter was drafted by me, and was written by Karishma and then placed next to her, Pepsi was bought by me for her, and you think I murdered her.”

“Home run, well summarized,” said Susan.

“But I did not deliver the can to her; I didn’t even go to her house. How will I inject the poison?” Arjun was thinking. He clearly seemed distraught and was not able to understand the situation.

Just as he said this, Kishore walked in and whispered something in Susan’s ears.

“Guess what we found in your computer - research on the same chemical which was used to kill Karishma. What do you have to say about that?”

Arjun looked at the paper, “but this was for the same play, it was a normal research.”

“Too much of a coincidence isn’t it?” Susan pressed her point.

Arjun closed his eyes and was thinking hard.

Susan continued. “And about your point of how the injection of the poison was made, you need to answer that question Arjun. If not you, who? You were the one who placed the order, only you could have done it.”

“It could have been…” Arjun was about to say something as tears rolled down his eyes.

“I can’t believe I am the reason for Karishma’s death,” said Arjun crying.

“What? Are you admitting to the guilt?” Finally I spoke.

“I need some time alone, please,” lamented Arjun.

“And I want to make a call in private,” he requested.

“It’s not yet time to talk to your lawyer,” the usual blunt Susan said.

“It’s not my lawyer, it’s my liar,” smiled Arjun, sarcastically.

There wasn’t any reason for us not to allow him to do that. He still wasn’t charged for the murder. He was allowed his time off.

“Susan, what do you think?” I asked her.

“In my experience, we have driven him up the wall. He is about to break down and is going to confess.” She replied confidently. “What do you think?”

“I think I have been proven wrong. I feel Arjun is guilty, though I don’t like the thought of it. Even I feel he is going to confess.”

“Who has he gone to call?” asked Susan.

“May be his parents, to confess to them first. This is India; a bit of melodrama is needed.”

“Funny,” smiled Susan.

“But what we have is all circumstantial evidence till now. There is no direct evidence to implicate him. He will get out of the Indian courts in no time.”

“We need him to confess, that will close the case for us.”

Arjun came back; his eyes red – with tears or anger one wasn’t sure.

“Arjun, we have all the evidence against you. It would be better if you officially confess to the crime rather than going through the pains in the jail and the courts.” Susan tried her luck before Arjun could say anything.

“Susan, I am intelligent enough to know that what evidence you have is only circumstantial in nature. But certain circumstances have come up which I did not expect.”

“Arjun, let’s get to the point. Did you kill Karishma?” asked Susan.

What came next was sure a shock and not something we expected so soon for sure.

“I am guilty of betraying Karishma and I deserve the harshest punishment for the same. I am the reason for her death,” said a crying Arjun. He had confessed. We wondered who he had called which made him confess so soon.

“Are you sure what you are saying and in your full senses Arjun? This is being recorded for the courts as evidence,” I pushed.

“Yes, I am in my full senses, and admit to my crime for being responsible for Karishma’s death. It is only me who is responsible and no one else,” said a visibly upset Arjun.

“What was your motive?” asked Susan.

“She wanted to break up with me, and you know by now that I don’t like to lose. I told her ‘ki agar tu meri nahi hogi to aur kisi ki bhi nahi hogi’ (if you won’t become mine, then you wouldn’t become anyone else’s either). She left me with no other choice.”

This obviously was Nikhil’s line to Karishma which Arjun was borrowing now.

“Everything is clear now, except how you poisoned the can and planted the suicide letter,” Susan was curious.

“I had once made a copy of Karishma’s house key. She wasn’t aware of this; I wanted to surprise her when her parents were planning to travel. I knew the Patel family liked to visit the temple in the evening without fail. I sneaked in the house when there was no one, injected the poison in the can in Karishma’s room and also planted the suicide letter under her pillow. I was smart enough not to leave any finger prints behind.” It was a completely different Arjun, I started to dislike him.

“Who helped you?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Accomplices are equally responsible for the murder Arjun.”

“You have got your criminal; I have nothing more to say.”

“What suddenly made you change your mind and confess,” I still wanted to know.

“Mr Rahul, I never thought you will get your hands on all this evidence. Once you have, I see no way out. Kehte he na mujrim kitna hi shatir kyon na ho, koi na koi nishani to chod hi deta he (they say, no matter how much smart is the culprit, he leaves some mark behind).” He looked straight in my eyes and there was some connect, but he was guilty.

“I am sorry to say Arjun, but with all evidence that you have and the confession that you just made on tape, we have to arrest you for the murder of Karishma.” Susan cut out the melodrama. “Kishore, please arrest Arjun and take him away,” instructed Susan.

“Before I go, I just want to thank both of you for bringing the truth to me. And especially you Mr Rahul for believing in me, I know you did. I know my life is not going to be easy from now on, and I will pray to the courts that I be hanged for my crime and I reunite with my Karishma. Just for the record Susan, I love Karishma and I will continue to do so till my last breath and beyond that. Bye, have a good life both of you.” The ‘both of you’ was loaded with intent.

All this just happened so quickly.

Somewhere in the corner of my eye a tear started to form as I saw Arjun leave.