— CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE —

The Revelation

 

After a couple of weeks Nikki got a call from Mrs Taneja.

‘Hello Nikki, how are you?’ Her voice was gentle.

‘I am fine. When did you return, Aunty?’

‘I came last week. I must thank you for what you have done for us. The way we were hounded, I never dreamt that we would ever return to India.’ Mrs Taneja’s voice was thick with emotion.

‘Don’t worry, Aunty. Things change and sometimes for the better.’

Mrs Taneja asked, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’

‘Nothing in particular, Aunty.’

‘We would both be very happy if you could spend the weekend with us.’

‘I would love to do that. Where are you staying?’

‘In the Taneja Mansion.’

‘Taneja Mansion?’ asked a surprised Nikki. ‘What happened to the Khanna family?’ ‘Mrs Khanna and her daughters have shifted back to their old house near the Central Park. And you know where Mr Khanna lives these days.’

Nikki laughed, ‘Yes I know,’ and added, ‘I will be with you on Saturday afternoon.’

When Nikki went to the Taneja Mansion, she received a warm welcome from both Mr and Mrs Taneja. They spent some time catching up on all the events that had followed Mrs Taneja’s kidnapping and how they were forced to leave the country.

Mrs Taneja said, ‘Khanna was the real traitor. He was a measly stenographer. Your uncle made him a manager. We also bought him a house and helped him with money from time to time. But look what he has done! There is no limit to one’s greed. And now his poor wife and daughters…,’ she trailed off.

At dinner time Nikki noticed that dinner was being served by a male servant. She asked, ‘What happened to Savitri?’

Mrs Taneja replied, ‘We wanted to have her back but could not locate her. Someone said that she has gone back to her native place.’

Nikki said, ‘That is a pity. She was such a devoted person. She really loved Jyoti.’

Mrs Taneja said, ‘I know. I am hoping that when the news about our return reaches her she will come back.’

The next morning when Nikki came down from her room she found Mrs Taneja busy in household chores. Mr Taneja was reading a newspaper in his study. Nikki went to him. He saw Nikki and said, ‘Hello, my child. I hope you are comfortable here.’

Nikki replied, ‘I am fine Uncle, thanks.’ After a pause she added, ‘Now that everything is settled on your business front, we should turn our attention to finding Jyoti’s killer and bringing him to book.’

Mr Taneja said, ‘Yes, in fact, I have also been thinking about it. You see the matter is over four years old. Everybody would have forgotten about it. I don’t know how to proceed.’ Nikki thought for a while and said, ‘Perhaps we could try one thing.’

‘Yes?’ asked Mr Taneja curiously.

‘You could announce a handsome reward for anyone who would give information about the killer. We could publish the pictures of both Jyoti and Asha Sayal and briefly state the facts and the place of murder. There is a likelihood that the killer, emboldened by the passage of time, might have confided his act to someone who may come forward.’ Mr Taneja thought about Nikki’s suggestion, ‘It is a long shot, but yes we could try. I will check tomorrow with ACP Rajan and also get a photograph of Asha Sayal from his office.’

After a few days, Nikki saw a prominent ad in the newspaper with a smiling photograph of Jyoti and the picture of Asha Sayal’s dead body:

The young girl and the lady in the photographs were brutally murdered by someone four years back at Crescent Point in Sangalina Hills. The murderer is still absconding. Anyone giving information which will lead the police to the killer, will be rewarded a sum of 20 lakhs. The name of the informer will be kept confidential.

The prize money of 20 lakhs was indeed fabulous. It evoked a lot of interest among the public. Mr Taneja started getting a large number of mail but most of it turned out to be fake. One evening Nikki got a call from Mr Taneja, ‘Nikki in response to our advertisement, today I have received a drawing. Someone has tried to convey a message through it which I cannot fathom. Will you please look at it?’

‘Tomorrow is Friday. I finish my classes early. On my way back I will drop in at your office.’

The next day, at Mr Taneja’s office, Nikki saw the painting. ‘This came in yesterday. But I don’t understand. There was no letter with it. The envelope bears the local postmark,’ said Mr Taneja.

Nikki looked at the painting. It was made by using crayons of different colours, each colour indicating different landmarks. Scattered on the map were also some coded symbols the significance of which was not clear. Nikki said, ‘This is quite unusual. I can’t make any sense of it except that it purports to convey something about some locations. Let me take it with me and study it in detail. If I find anything interesting I will get back to you.’

Nikki studied the drawing from various angles for the better part of that afternoon. Two or three things could be understood. One was a green undulating surface showing mountainous terrain. This she thought was a reference to Sangalina Hills. There was a path that seemed to link one place to another. This was shown with broken arrows. This path, on reaching the mountain area, took a turn and moved to some other direction but later ended close to the starting point but did not meet it. It looked like a loop. Nikki assumed that the path started from Somabad and went to Sangalina but where did it go from there? She noticed certain symbols at the end point of the second path. She could not decipher them. But viewing under a magnifying glass she found that these symbols resembled the minarets of a mosque. Nikki thought that the painting perhaps shows that the killer went from Somabad to Sangalina Hills but took a different route for return journey whose terminal point was a mosque not very far from Somabad. But this could just be her conjecture. Looking once again she found that on both the paths, leading to and coming from Sangalina Hills were some other symbols which perhaps denoted some structures or landmarks. She used the magnifying glass again but could not decipher the symbols properly.

Nikki decided to follow this lead. She called her friend Deepa in Sangalina Hills telling her that she was coming there on Saturday evening and would stay with her that night.

Early the next morning, she went to the Bus Stand Road and boarded a bus for Sangalina Hills. From time to time she would look at the map to check the symbols on it. Some turned out to be bridges while others were intervening bus stations. She felt perhaps she was on the right track. After getting down at Sangalina Hills she went to the bus office and spoke to the window clerk, ‘I have come from Somabad. This bus goes back through the same route or some other route?’

The clerk replied, ‘It returns by the same route.’

‘Is there any other route also for going to Somabad or close to Somabad?’

‘Yes, but that route is circuitous. It goes through Balisa Hills and some other towns and takes three hours extra.’

Nikki asked, ‘At what time does the first bus go via that route?’

‘Five in the morning.’

‘Please book one seat for me for tomorrow morning.’

Nikki went to Deepa’s place and told her that she had some urgent work in the old school which she had completed and would be leaving for Somabad early the next day.

When Nikki got into the bus the next morning, she found very few passengers. Nikki sat on the seat adjacent to the driver so that she could have a clear view of both sides of the road. One thing was certain. This mosque or whatever the structure, should be closer to Somabad and she would reach there late in the afternoon or perhaps in the evening. When the bus started, Nikki opened the map and kept it on her lap. Although the map was not to scale, she could see some structures corresponding to the symbols in the map. The person who had sent the drawing appeared to have actually travelled on this route and marked the various landmarks in the map by way of appropriate symbols. As the afternoon approached, Nikki became more and more intent on focussing on the objects on both sides of the road.

After about an hour, the bus stopped near a roundabout. There was a road going to the left and another to the right besides the straight road ahead. The driver announced, ‘The bus will stop here for ten minutes.’ Most of the passengers alighted from the bus. Nikki also followed them.

She asked the conductor, ‘Is there a mosque near this area?’

He replied, ‘Yes, the mosque is further up on this road on the right. You can see it from the other end of the roundabout.’

Nikki asked, ‘Will the bus also go on the straight road?’

‘No, we will be turning to the left for Somabad.’

Nikki crossed the roundabout. She could see the minarets of the mosque at some distance. Nikki went back to the bus and collected her handbag from the rack. She said to the conductor, ‘Thank you. I shall continue from here on my own.’