500. The second entry was of a deposit of 
10 lakhs. ‘
10 lakhs in the name of Asha Sayal!’ Nikki said aloud. This was beyond her wildest imagination. She read it twice and checked the date. Both the deposits had been made on
— CHAPTER SIX —
Evergreen Hotel
The next morning, she took out the receipt of Evergreen Hotel. There was no telephone number on it. She looked through the telephone directory and found that under the ‘Hotel’ listing there were several hotels with the name starting or ending with ‘Green’, ‘Green light’, ‘Green ways’, etc., but the name ‘Evergreen’ was not there. After a lot of search she found it in the residential listing under ‘E’. The address was ‘20/II, Bus Stand Road, Somabad’.
It was not difficult for her to reach Bus Stand Road, but locating the hotel took considerably long. When finally someone guided her to it, she noted that she had crossed the hotel a couple of times just a while ago without having realised it. It hardly looked like a hotel, and resembled one of the smaller travel lodges which are usually set up near the bus stands or railway stations for transit passengers. The entrance was like a passage to a house. The signboard which was hung on a branch of a tree had not been painted for ages. Nikki went in and saw a narrow counter on one side. A man was standing behind the counter in what appeared to be the reception.
Nikki took out the key and the receipt and said, ‘I have been sent by Asha Sayal who is staying in your hotel.’
‘But she is not here these days,’ said the man.
‘Yes I know. She is currently in Sangalina Hills. Since I was coming to Somabad she gave me the key to her room and asked me to get some woollen clothes as it is quite cold over there.’
The man looked suspicious. ‘Are you related to her?’ Nikki hesitated for a fraction of a second and said, ‘Yes, I am her niece.’
The man asked, ‘What do you do in Sangalina Hills?’ Nikki took out her ID card and showed it to him, ‘I am a student. I have come here for a few days with a friend and shall be going back soon.’
The ID card put the man at ease. He said, ‘You can go up. Her room number is 9, on the first floor.’
Nikki climbed a narrow dingy staircase which was surrounded by dirty walls. The stairs opened into a corridor. The rooms were on one side of the corridor, while the other side was an open balcony. Room number 9 was at the end of the corridor. She opened the door and went in, closing and bolting it from within. She looked around. It was a bare room with a bed, a chair, a side table with a lamp on it which had a dirty shade.
There was a wooden cupboard which was locked. At one corner a suitcase was lying on a raised platform. The bed was neatly made and apart from a plastic bottle with water and an empty glass, there was nothing else in the room. The room had a window at the far end. When she opened it, the whole cacophony of a bustling bus terminal swept in. She quickly closed it. She checked the suitcase. It was locked. She desperately wanted to find some more information about the woman. Perhaps she could find something useful in the suitcase. But how could she open it? The purse had only the room key. The key for the suitcase must be somewhere in the room, she thought to herself. She suddenly remembered Jyoti’s habit of putting things in the pillow case whenever she wanted to hide something from her. Nikki came back to the bed and put her hand in the pillow case. Sure enough the key was there. She opened the suitcase, and found clothes and some other personal belongings but nothing of much interest. She put her hand in the upper pocket of the suitcase. Something came into her hand. It was a brown envelope. When she opened it she saw a bank statement. She went through the statement. It had Asha Sayal’s name on the top and contained two entries. The first entry was a deposit of 500. The second entry was of a deposit of 10 lakhs. ‘10 lakhs in the name of Asha Sayal!’ Nikki said aloud. This was beyond her wildest imagination. She read it twice and checked the date. Both the deposits had been made on
the same day two weeks back. She kept the passbook with her and closed the suitcase. As she came back and sat on the chair, she realised that she had stumbled upon something extraordinary. A poor woman living in a lodge like this, getting this kind of money. For what? The more she thought about it the more bewildered she was. From the letter, it appeared there was not a shred of doubt that she was Jyoti’s real mother. Then why should anybody pay her such a lot of money? She remembered Mr Taneja saying that he had not seen the woman or her husband at the time of the child swapping. Then what was the truth? Was this woman only used as a decsoy to lure Jyoti to a secluded place and after killing her, the killer also strangled the woman to remove all evidence of murdering Jyoti?
This assumption appeared somewhat far-fetched to Nikki. Why did the woman accept such a big amount just before going to Sangalina Hills? Nikki’s head was swimming. She needed to think the whole thing through. She put the passbook in her pocket and left the room.
