— CHAPTER SIXTEEN —

Change of Priorities

 

Nikki rushed to Taneja Mansion in a taxi and reached there in half an hour. As soon as she entered, she saw Mrs Taneja sitting in the living room with her husband. On seeing Nikki he got up and asked, ‘What happened to you? Savitri said that you had gone to Khanna’s house. But Khanna told me that you just vanished the next evening leaving all your things in their house. Where were you? We were so worried! I wanted to call the police, but then I was worried the kidnappers would think I was calling to report them...’ Mr Taneja looked haggard. He probably hadn’t slept in days.

Nikki said, ‘I was walking on the road in front of Mr Khanna’s house when someone got hold of me and rushed me away in a red car. I think he was one of the men who had kidnapped Aunty. He said he had seen me coming out of this house.’

Mr Taneja kept quiet with his head in his hands. Mrs Taneja who still looked shaken, got up and hugged Nikki, ‘I am sorry, my child. You also got entangled in this mess.’

Mr Taneja asked, ‘Where did they take you?’

Nikki said, ‘It was a kind of private guest house in a lonely resort about an hour’s drive from the city.’ She turned to Mrs Taneja and asked, ‘How are you, Aunty? I was very worried about you. I hope they did not ill treat you.’

‘I have gone through hell. First, we lost Jyoti and now this horrifying experience. I had lost all hope. I thought they were the same men who murdered Jyoti and their purpose in taking me away was to kill me. But they turned out to be mafia thugs who were after money,’ Mrs Taneja said.

Mr Taneja clearly did not want this line of conversation to proceed. He said to Nikki, ‘You must be tired. Please go up to your room and take some rest. Your Aunty would also like to rest now.’

Nikki sat in her room and reviewed the situation. We seem to be nowhere near finding the killer of Jyoti and Asha Sayal, she thought. She had come to Somabad because the arrow of suspicion regarding the death of the woman pointed towards the Taneja family. But they would obviously not get their own daughter killed along with that woman. Initially, she had thought that Mohan Lal could be involved in the killing. But he also turned out to be a thug aiming at the money. The kidnapping of Mrs Taneja appeared to be a corporate heist. And that baldy John, whom she followed, was after all, not the bald moustached man whose sketch she had seen. It seems a ‘no go’ situation on all fronts.

Thinking of Inspector Rajan she rang up the police station. The man who came on the phone line told her that Inspector Rajan had gone back to Sangalina Hills two days ago. Nikki was wondering whether he had been able to get some lead on the bald man. She felt there was hardly any point now to stay on in Somabad. She could as well return to Sangalina Hills and check the status with him there.

That afternoon at lunch, she said to Mr Taneja, ‘My school will be re-opening soon. I would like to go back to Sangalina Hills.’

‘Tomorrow is Sunday. My driver will drop you to your hostel. You will need to start early in the morning,’ he said.

‘But my things are lying in Mr Khanna’s house. Can the driver go and fetch them? I am not up to it to do that myself,’ said Nikki.

Mr Taneja assured her, ‘Don’t worry, the driver will go and get your things.’

‘You were so close to Jyoti. She was always talking about you. Please consider this house as your own. Whenever you have holidays you must come and stay with us,’ said Mrs Taneja.

‘Thank you, Aunty. Whenever I have the opportunity I will do so. You have gone through a terrible time. Please take care of yourself.’ Mrs Taneja came forward and held Nikki’s hand, touched by her concern.

Nikki reached her hostel on Sunday evening. Only a few girls had come back from the vacation, while the others were due to return in the next few days. As soon as she dropped her bag in the room she went to the common room and dialled Inspector Rajan’s number, ‘Sir, I have come back to Sangalina Hills.’

‘Oh, hello. Where did you go from Taneja’s house? When I rang up, the maid said that you had gone to some friend’s house,’ said Inspector Rajan.

‘Yes, I am sorry I should have informed you,’ she said. Then changing the subject she added,‘I called up to enquire whether you could lay your hands on that bald moustached man whose sketch you had shown me in Somabad?’

‘Unfortunately, no. We checked all the known and suspected criminals in Somabad but none answered his description. In the meantime, there were some urgent matters here and I had to rush back.’

‘Does that mean that the murder case of Jyoti and the woman has gone into cold storage?’

‘Not exactly’, the inspector replied defensively, ‘But some new priorities have emerged which need immediate attention.’ Nikki was dismayed.

Back in her hostel room she wondered how new priorities could have overtaken the old one, like turning a fresh page of a book and getting onto a new episode. That is what seemed to have happened in the case of Inspector Rajan. And that also seemed to be true for Mr Taneja. The need to pursue the investigation of his daughter’s murder had been overtaken by the new priorities of saving his wife and his business. As for Asha Sayal, the poor woman had no one in the world to even mourn her death. Who would be interested to find her murderer?

Nikki felt sad and despondent.