Chapter 14

BrhannadaArmour

@BrhannadaArmour

Chapter Fourteen

"Anna, Inspector Swami is here with an update about the hit-and-run case." Farhad's cheerful voice came through Raghav's phone.

"Good, bring him up to the den, Farhad." Raghav stroked Damayanti's back as he spoke. Damayanti's howling had forced Raghav to end his conversation with Kirti, open the door to his den, and take his affectionate dog into his lap. The bottles of whisky remained untouched; Raghav craved to be drunk, but he couldn't give in after the tongue-lashing Kirti had just given him about drinking and driving. Raghav had some driving to do, as soon as Damayanti was reassured, and Kirti would be in the car with him.

"I'll go," Kirti said, pushing back her chair and standing up.

"No, stay, Celli," Raghav nodded his head to indicate that Kirti should sit. "I want you to hear what Inspector Swami has to say about your case."

Inspector Swami and Farhad entered the den.

"Raghav, this isn't right," Kirti said. "The police shouldn't report to you." Seeing the defiant, stubborn expression on Raghav's face, Kirti continued, "You won't listen to me. I didn't expect you to do the right thing. But I will." Kirti left the den, shutting the door behind her.

"All right, Inspector Swami. What is it?" Raghav barked.

"Anna, our forensics team was able to extract DNA from the bloodstains on the hit-and-run car." Inspector Swami watched Raghav's face carefully; he did not know whether this was what the boss who had handed over the evidence to incriminate himself wanted to hear. "Today or tomorrow, the journalists will find out that Mandar Deshmukh is alive, and they will ask whether we did a DNA comparison between him and the bloodstains. Would you like our case files to show that we were not able to recover DNA from the bloodstains?"

Raghav wanted to say yes, of course he wanted the case against Kirti to be weak. He wanted Celli to be free to live her life without shame, like the child who had waved to him happily from their tree-house after he had lifted her up to the first foothold to start her climb. Yet, Raghav's thoughts went back to Mandar forgiving Kirti that morning, saying, your brother did what you should have done. Raghav hadn't forgotten the warmth of Mandar's blood on his hands, washing away in the cold December rain. Raghav couldn't deny that the bloodstains on the car belonged to Mandar, the man who had brought him blood to save his life, the man who had taken Pallavi from him and promised to protect her from him, the man who had talked him through a panic attack, the man who had twisted his arm to make him say sorry, the man who had saved him from harming Damayanti, who now occupied his lap. No one was important when Kirti's future was at risk, and yet Raghav could not dismiss Mandar as unimportant.

Seeing Raghav's hesitation, and feeling a rush of warmth to defend Mandar, Farhad spoke up. "Anna, I know that you want to decide for Kirti, but Kirti may feel differently." Farhad hoped that Kirti, if she truly meant what she said a few minutes ago, would convince Raghav to allow justice for Mandar.

"Wait," Raghav got up, setting Damayanti on the floor, and opened the door. He went to Kirti's room and said, "Celli, DNA was recovered from the bloodstains on the hit-and-run car. Do you want the police to compare it to Mandar's DNA? Even if it gets you and Sunny in trouble?"

Kirti took a deep breath. She hated that Raghav put her in this position. "Yes. Let the police do their work honestly."

Raghav remembered Amma's words: it may be your turn to do the right thing for Mandar at the right time. "All right," he said. "I'll tell Inspector Swami, and meet you downstairs. Let's not waste any more time."

Not even fifteen minutes later, Kirti was saying, "I can take care of this alone, Raghav," as Raghav drove them through the streets of Hyderabad to the address that she had given him. "You should wait in the car."

"No, you should wait in the car, Celli." Raghav thought it was obvious. "For your safety."

"You mean, so I won't get upset, watching you beating up my friend!" Kirti retorted. "Again." Watching Raghav's surprised face, she sighed. "Of course I know that you punched Akshay's face when you visited him to buy his car after the hit-and-run! You imagine that every friend of mine who happens to be male is looking to get into trouble with me, and you imagine that when you scare a friend away from me, I won't ask him why he's avoiding me. I saw Akshay's bruises when I went to tell him that I couldn't get a loan to pay for the repairs to the car. He didn't name you - obviously, you paid him well, but I didn't believe his story that he got plenty of money from selling the car to be stripped for parts, and he just happened to get attacked for his wallet around the same time. When you confessed to the hit-and-run and handed over the car to the police, it all made sense: the bruises and Akshay's refusal to let me pay for damage to the car. The same Raghav Rao who wouldn't let me borrow money from any lender in Hyderabad also forced my friend Akshay to lie to me."

"I know how to get what I want, Celli," Raghav said, ignoring the sadness in Kirti's voice. "That's why I should be the one to talk to Akshay."

"No, Raghav." Kirti's tone was firm. "This recording isn't like a car that you can physically take away from Akshay. No matter what you do to Akshay, even if you kill him, you'll never know if every last copy was erased. When Akshay helped me to preserve the recording and send it to you from a hidden phone number, he probably stored a copy on his computer, and made backups to the cloud."

"You just had to trust someone like that!" Raghav snapped.

"Someone as treacherous as you, Raghav?" Kirti shot back. "You had a chance to destroy the car, but you kept it in a shed for years. Why? So that you could blackmail me someday?"

"Kirti!" Raghav angrily slammed on the brakes, provoking the next three drivers behind him to honk their horns. "I would never blackmail you! Think - for these past ten years, you had what I wanted more than anything." Raghav controlled himself and resumed driving, speaking as softly as he could. "I wanted you and Amma to let me take care of you. If I had given you the choice, Celli, between my house and prison, what would you have chosen? But I couldn't talk to you like that. Even when you wouldn't let me see Amma in the hospital, I didn't want you to be afraid of me. Your secret was my secret."

Kirti had to admit that Raghav was telling the truth. "So, why did you keep the car, Raghav? It wasn't to get rid of Sunny, because you didn't know about him."

"I kept it to protect you, Kirti," Raghav said. "I couldn't trust Akshay. He knew that you got into a car accident; he probably guessed that it was a hit-and-run; and if he ever thought that I hadn't paid him enough, he could turn against you. Rumours would hurt you, even if no one found the car. So, I told Akshay that if he ever opened his mouth about you, I would turn in the car to the police, and he would be arrested as the owner of the car. Akshay had no proof that you borrowed his car, and the police would do what I tell them."

"Well, now we have no choice but to trust Akshay," Kirti said. "Don't beat him up, Raghav; that would make anyone want to keep his leverage and hurt you back. If I ask him to erase the recording, he'll do it for me. Akshay is afraid of you; he knew that you could come after him, but he helped me to blackmail you anyway, because he's my friend. We have to get Akshay on our side, for Pallavi's sake."

Raghav's face went slack as he heard Pallavi's name. Kirti shook her head. "Even without the kalāvā on your wrist for Pallavi, I would have guessed that Pallavi is the innocent person that you won't name. If you're hiding how your widow-remarriage surprised you, but not to protect yourself, you must be doing it to protect Pallavi. You want everyone to believe the story that Pallavi told the reporters, that you rescued her from widowhood. But the truth is that Pallavi was Mandar's faithful widow until you took her against her will."

Raghav felt hurt by Kirti's words. "Kirti, I've never forced myself on any woman. As my sister, you have to believe that much about me."

"This is India, Raghav, where marriage gives a man the legal right not to listen when his wife pushes him away. As an Indian man, you knew that marrying Pallavi against her will was like threatening her that you could violate her anytime, and the law would look the other way." Kirti paused for Raghav to think about her accusation. "It doesn't matter that you love Pallavi, Raghav; anyone who knows how you married her imagines that you forced yourself on her. Mandar, Krishna, Milind Uncle, Sharada Aunty, Nikhil, Manasi and Vijay Uncle, even Sulochana Deshmukh and Amruta - all of them think that Pallavi is your victim."

Raghav realized that what Kirti was saying was true. He had tried to show the Deshmukhs how much Pallavi meant to him, but they could see how uncomfortable Pallavi was with him. Everyone must have thought that he was still hurting Pallavi and she was still pretending that nothing was wrong.

Kirti continued, "I felt betrayed by Pallavi at first, because I don't want to go to jail, but I miss being her friend. I don't want everyone gossipping about how she should have behaved more like a widow, or how you defeated her when she didn't want to betray Mandar's memory. After all, scandal is worse for women. Raghav, you don't care how many people see those photos of you having sex with that woman. You even showed the photos to the Deshmukhs when you wanted them to believe that Pallavi let you have her. But in my case, although you ordered Photogram to keep deleting the photos of me changing my saree, and there's nothing suggestive about my underwear, somewhere there's always a dirty-minded man who saves the photos and reuploads them, tagging me as a prostitute. I don't want Pallavi to suffer because you recorded a private conversation on CCTV. Akshay is a decent man. He won't want to embarrass Pallavi. Just let me talk to him nicely, Raghav."

"All right, Celli." Raghav gave in. "I won't beat up your friend Akshay. And by the way, I don't kill people. And I shouldn't have used those photographs against Pallavi, but I didn't consent to be in them either. I was sedated when that woman simulated what you saw us doing."

"Raghav, you were ..." Kirti had thought that Raghav's sex scandal was his fault, because he had not been able to explain to Amma. Now, remembering how violated she felt by being spied upon, and thinking that unwanted touching was a worse experience for Annayya, Kirti felt sorry for him.

"Don't worry about me. I don't remember any of it, and Farhad convinced me to get tested for diseases, so it's over." Raghav spoke gruffly. Kirti didn't need to know that Raghav's men had followed Anjali to Delhi, kidnapped her and held her hostage for two months, and extorted a hefty ransom that left her family broke.

"What were you doing with Akash this morning?" Kirti changed the subject.

"I was just saying to him, don't go without meeting Pallavi, and inviting him to sit with you. You are friends, right?" Raghav made an effort to smile.

"Raghav, if you're trying to make Sunny jealous, or you've decided that Akash isn't so bad after all, in comparison to Sunny, it won't work. Akash and I are just friends," Kirti declared.

"I didn't have either of those ideas," Raghav lied. "I just wanted to make friends with Akash myself. I need a friend who is Pallavi's friend, so that I can stay in her life after she goes to live with Mandar." In truth, Raghav was hopeful that if Sunny got jealous and slipped up, Kirti might see that he didn't deserve her love. And if Kirti ever wanted to be more than friends with Akash, well, Raghav Rao's sister could afford to choose any man. Akash was harmless, and Pallavi liked him, so Raghav was willing to encourage his interest in Kirti if that would convince Pallavi that Raghav was no longer the man who frightened her. And knowing how to intimidate Akash, Raghav thought that he might be useful in case Raghav ever needed information about either Pallavi or Kirti.

"I don't believe that. You already have Farhad - he's your only friend, as you said earlier today, and he's close to Pallavi. You also have me in your life, and I'm trying to be friends with Pallavi, Krishna, and Manasi again," Kirti reminded Raghav. "If you won't beat up Akash any more, that's as it should be, but since when do you try to make friends?"

"Farhad is different. He's closer to me, and Akash is closer to Pallavi," Raghav argued. "I need them both. And you - since I'm the reason that Mandar forgave you, which makes it easier for Pallavi and Manasi and Krishna to be friends with you again, can I count on you to put in a good word for me with Pallavi? No more blackmail?"

"Mandar forgave me because he's an extraordinary person," Kirti said. "Don't imagine that he did it for your sake, Raghav. Mandar acknowledged that you saved his life, but he must know about at least some of the pain that you caused his family. He calls you a Rākṣasa. There's no way that Mandar thinks of you as a friend."

Raghav did not know why he felt dismayed, hearing Kirti's words. He didn't want middle-class Mandar for a friend, did he? Even Milind Deshmukh, who treated Raghav like family and made him think that contentment was possible, wasn't someone that Raghav would call a friend. Raghav wanted to eliminate Mandar from Pallavi's life; that meant that he hated Mandar, right? Raghav didn't want to be like the man who could laugh with Pallavi! And yet, Raghav thought, does Mandar hate anyone else, or only me? Did I make Mandar smile when I pretended that Carnatic music didn't borrow Rāgam Hamīra Kalyāṇī from Hindustani music's Rāga Kedāra?

When they reached their destination, Kirti went inside to talk with Akshay, and Raghav waited outside. Meanwhile, his loyal secretary was at the office, working busily through his schedule and anticipating a pleasant distraction.

"Mandar!" Farhad could not hide the excitement in his voice as he answered his phone. "Thank you for calling me back."

"I should thank you, Farhad," Mandar replied, feeling more alert than he had just a moment ago. "I couldn't answer my phone because I was at the notary's office, swearing my affidavit, but I listened to your voicemail later. Already you found out from Raghav what happened after my accident. Thank you!"

"I want to help, Mandar. We're friends." Farhad remembered how Mandar had smiled at him that morning, and felt certain that they both desired more than friendship, even if Mandar would be ashamed to admit it. "The story of what happened is complicated. Could we meet somewhere to talk in private?"

"I wish we could," Mandar said honestly. Meeting Farhad, even to talk about being betrayed by the health care system and Sulochana Kākū, would have been much more pleasant than the way Mandar had spent his afternoon so far.

With the notarized affidavit in hand, Subhadra had taken Mandar and Pallavi straight to Alanka Institute of Medical Sciences, the hospital where Pallavi, with Mandar's Āī, Bābā, Kākā, and Kākū, had been called on the morning of 11th December, 2018, to view a decaying dead body that had been wrongly identified as Mandar. On the way there, Pallavi had remarked to Mandar that this was also the hospital where Bābā was treated after both of his heart attacks. Upon entering the hospital, Subhadra had asked for an application form to invalidate a death certificate, and the clerk had promptly replied that no such application form existed. Subhadra knew how to be assertive, as any good lawyer should, and she had dealt relentlessly with a series of clerks and superiors until the correct form, Application for Change of Medical Record, had been provided and filled out. Unhelpfully, the hospital's Mortuary Administrator had pointed out that the form did not include "Death Certificate" as an option, as if there could be no need to fix that document, and Mandar should just go away and live with his status of a dead person. Pallavi, as much as Mandar, had been ready to give the administrator an earful, but with Subhadra on their side, they had silently admired how she marked up the form and obtained the administrator's signature. Keeping a duplicate of the form for her own records, Subhadra had obtained a receipt of its submission to the Records Committee. However, upon being informed that the committee would not hold a meeting for at least three months more, Subhadra and Mandar and Pallavi had had to leave the hospital disappointed.

Returning to the shop with Pallavi, Mandar had found Inspector Swami waiting to tell him that his cooperation was required in the hit-and-run case. Mandar's DNA sample had been collected with a cheek swab, and then he and Nikhil had left Pallavi at the shop and walked home to meet Vishnu. Sulochana Kākū was out at the beauty parlour, so this would be Mandar's chance to confide in Farhad about Sulochana Kākū taking him to Dr. Ramya's clinic. Mandar also wanted to tell Farhad how difficult it was going to be to get his death certificate expunged. Farhad would listen to him and find a way to help, Mandar was sure of that. First, however, Mandar had to say why he couldn't meet Farhad in person. "But I'm going to Vikarabad for the rest of the day. Vishnu is going home, and I'm going with him to pick up my clothes and other belongings."

"Is anyone else going with you?" Mandar's plans should have been a trivial disappointment for Farhad, but he was already thinking of how he could meet Mandar anyway.

"Nikhil," Mandar replied. "My family didn't want me to be alone on the return trip."

"Doesn't Nikhil need to be at the shop? If I went with you instead, we could find time to talk, right?" Farhad realized, as he spoke, that he was supposed to be at the office all day. "Let me check with Raghav Anna and call you right back."

"You're right, Farhad. I have something more to tell you, and Vishnu knows all about it, so we could talk all the way to Vikarabad," Mandar said, and they ended the call.

"Anna, may I go to Vikarabad with Mandar for the rest of the day?" Farhad asked as soon as Raghav picked up his call. "He needs to pick up his belongings, and I want to tell him what you told me about his accident."

"Good idea!" Raghav replied. "You can find out how Mandar has been living for the past two years. If you learn anything that makes Mandar unworthy of Pallavi, I want to know right away."

"Jī, Anna." Farhad realized that he was already keeping Mandar's secret from Raghav. He had always been loyal to Raghav Anna before, and he was devoted to Pallavi Bhābhī, but his heart ached at the thought of hurting Mandar.