FF:Murder Mystery-'The Hidden Cat';Ch6;Pg:14;8/9 - Page 7

@ swetha :

sorry friends. will be updating this only after 20th april. 😒

Learning the basic details of Little Villa from Ayush, Anand Walia rang the front-door bell. After a long wait the door was opened by a good-looking young woman with a bored expression.

"ACP Anand Walia," he said.

The young woman gave him a cool stare out of very attractive eyes and said: "Come in. Aunt Pia is expecting you."

The hall, ACP noted, was long and narrow and seemed almost incredibly full of doors. The young woman threw open a door on the left, and said: "ACP Anand Walia, Aunt Pia. Maya wouldn't go to the door. She's shut herself up in the kitchen and she's making the most marvellous moaning noises. I shouldn't think we'd get any lunch."

She added in an explanatory manner to ACP: "She doesn't like the police," and withdrew, shutting the door behind her.

Anand Walia advanced to meet the owner of Little Villa. He saw an active-looking woman of late 50's with small hair and resolute face. She had keen black eyes and a determined chin. There was a surgical dressing on her left ear. She wore no make-up and was plainly dressed in a saree. Round the neck she wore, rather unexpectedly, a set of old fashioned Pearls. Close beside her, with an eager round face and untidy hair, was a woman of about the same age whom Anand Walia had no difficulty in recognizing as 'Mrs. Bharti!"

Miss Pia spoke in a pleasant voice. "Good morning, ACP Anand Walia. This is my friend, Mrs. Bharti, who helps me run the house. Won't you sit down? You won't smoke, I suppose?"

"Not on duty, I'm afraid, Miss Pia."

Anand Walia's eyes took in the room with a quick, practised glance. Typical double drawing-room. Two long windows in this room, built out window in the other... chairs... sofa... centre table with a Vase of flowers - another vase in window - all fresh and pleasant without much originality. The only odd thing was a small silver vase with dead flowers in it on a table near the archway into the further room. Since he could not imagine Miss Pia tolerating dead flowers in a room, he imagined it to be the only indication that something out of the way had occurred to distract the routine of a well run household.

He said: "I take it, Miss Pia, that this is the room in which the incident occurred?"

"Yes."

"And you should have seen it last night," Mrs. Bharti exclaimed. "Such a mess. -" Miss Pia interrupted gently but firmly: "Bunny, it will be best, I think, if we just answer ACP's questions."

"Thank you, Miss Pia. I shall come to what happened last night, presently. First of all I want you to tell me when you first saw the dead man - Subash."

"Subash?" Miss Pia looked slightly surprised. "Is that his name? Somehow, I thought... Oh, well, it doesn't matter. My first encounter with him was when I went to Hotel Royal Spa on a day's shopping about - let me see, about three weeks ago. We - Mrs. Bharti and I - were having lunch at the Royal Spa Hotel. As we were just leaving after lunch, I heard my name spoken. It was this young man. He said: 'It is Miss Pia, is it not?' And went on to say that perhaps I did not remember him, but that he was the son of the proprietor of the Hotel where my sister and I had stayed for a week during her treatment in Calcutta."

"The Hotel Destiny," noted Anand Walia. "And did you remember him, Miss Pia?"

"No, I didn't. Actually I had no recollection of ever having seen him before. These boys at hotel reception desks all look exactly alike. So I tried to be as civil as possible. It all seemed quite natural."

"And your next encounter?"

"About - yes, it must have been ten days ago, he suddenly turned up here. I was very surprised to see him. He apologized for troubling me, but said I was the only person he knew here. He told me that he urgently needed money to return to Calcutta and as his mother was dangerously ill."

"But Pia didn't give it to him," Mrs. Bharti put in breathlessly.

"It was a thoroughly fishy story," said Miss Pia, with vigour. "I made up my mind that he was definitely a wrong one. That story about wanting the money to return to Calcutta was nonsense. His father could easily have made arrangements." She paused and said dryly: "In case you think I'm hardhearted, I was secretary for many years to a big financier and one becomes wary about appeals for money. I know simply all the hard luck stories there are. The only thing that did surprise me," she added thoughtfully, "was that he gave in so easily. He went away at once without any more argument. It's as though he had never expected to get the money."

"Do you think now, looking back on it, that his coming was really by way of a pretext to spy out the land?"

Miss Pia nodded her head vigorously. "That's exactly what I do think - now. He made certain remarks as I let him out - about the rooms. He said, 'You have a very nice dining-room just as an excuse to look inside. And then he sprang forward and unfastened the front door. Actually, like most people round here, we never lock the front door until it gets dark. Anyone could walk in."

"And the side door? There is a side door to the garden, I understand?"

"Yes. I went out through it not long before the people arrived."

"Was it locked when you went out?"

Miss Pia frowned. "I can't remember... I think so. I certainly locked it when I came in."

"That would be around quarter-past six?"

"Somewhere about then."

"And the front door?"

"That's not usually locked until later."

"Then Subash could have walked in quite easily that way. Or he could have slipped in whilst you were out. He'd already spied out the lie of the land and had probably noted various places. Yes, that all seems quite clear."

"I beg your pardon, it isn't at all clear," said Miss Pia. "Why on earth should anyone take all that elaborate trouble to come and burgle this house and stage that silly sort of holdup?"

"Do you keep much money in the house, Miss Pia?"

"Only a little amount. That's it."

"Jewellery?"

"A couple of rings and the pearls I'm wearing. You must agree with me, Mr. Anand, that the whole thing's absurd."

"It wasn't burglary at all," cried Mrs. Bharti. "I've told you so, Pia, all along. It was revenge! Because you wouldn't give him that money! He deliberately shot at you - twice."

"Ah," said Anand Walia. "We'll come now to last night. What happened exactly, Miss Pia? Tell me in your own words as nearly as you can remember."

Miss Pia reflected a moment.

"The clock struck," she said. "The one over there. I remember saying that if anything were going to happen it would have to happen soon. And then the clock struck. We all listened to it without saying anything. And then, quite suddenly, the lights went out."

"Was there a flash first, or a noise when the lights went out?"

"I don't think so."

"I'm sure there was a flash," said Bunny. "And a crackling noise. Dangerous!"

"And then, Miss Pia?"

"The door opened"

"Which door? There are two in the room."

"Oh, this door in here. The one in the other room doesn't open. It's a dummy. The door opened and there he was - a masked man with a revolver. It just seemed too fantastic for words, but of course at the time I just thought it was a silly joke. He said something - I forget what"

"Hands up or I shoot!" supplied Mrs. Bharti, dramatically.

"Something like that," said Miss Pia, rather doubtfully.

"And you all put your hands up?"

"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Bharti. "We all did. I mean, it was part of it."

"I didn't," said Miss Pia, crisply. "It seemed so utterly silly. And I was annoyed by the whole thing."

"And then?"

"The flashlight was right in my eyes. It dazzled me. And then, quite incredibly, I heard a bullet whizz past me and hit the wall by my head. Somebody shrieked and then I felt a burning pain in my ear and heard the second report."

"It was terrifying," put in Mrs. Bharti.

"And what happened next, Miss Pia?"

"It's difficult to say - I was so staggered by the pain and the surprise. The figure turned away and seemed to stumble and then there was another shot and his torch went out and everybody began pushing and calling out. All banging into each other."

"Where were you standing, Miss Pia?"

"She was over by the table. She'd got that vase of violets in her hand," said Mrs. Bharti breathlessly.

"I was over here," Miss Pia went over to the small table by the archway.

ACP Anand Walia examined the wall behind her. The two bullet holes showed plainly. The bullets themselves had been extracted and had been sent for comparison with the revolver.

He said quietly: "You had a very near escape, Miss Pia."

"He did shoot at her," said Mrs. Bharti. "Deliberately at her! I saw him. He turned the flash round on everybody until he found her and then he held it right at her and just fired at her. He meant to kill you, Pia."

"Bunny dear, you've just got that into your head from mulling the whole thing over and over."

"He shot at you," repeated Bunny stubbornly. "He meant to shoot you and when he'd missed, he shot himself. I'm certain that's the way it was!"

"I don't think he meant to shoot himself for a minute," said Miss Pia. "He wasn't the kind of man who shoots himself."

"You tell me, Miss Pia that until the revolver was fired you thought the whole business was a joke?"

"Naturally. What else could I think it was?"

"Who do you think was the author of this joke?"

"You thought Prateek had done it at first," Mrs. Bharti reminded her.

"Prateek?" asked the ACP sharply.

"My distant niece, Prateek ," Miss Pia continued sharply, annoyed with her friend. "It did occur to me when I saw this advertisement that it might be some attempt at humour on his part, but he denied it absolutely."

"And then you were worried, Pia," said Mrs. Bharti. "You were worried, although you pretended not to be. And you were quite right to be worried. It said a murder is announced - and it was announced ' your murder! And if the man hadn't missed, you would have been murdered. And then where should we all be?" Mrs. Bharti was trembling as she spoke. Her face was puckered up and she looked as though she were going to cry.

Miss Pia patted her on the shoulder. "It's all right, Bunny dear - don't get excited. It's so bad for you. Everything's quite all right. We've had a nasty experience, but it's over now." She added, "You must pull yourself together for my sake, Bunny. I rely on you, you know, to keep the house going." Pia reminded her of some work.

"Oh, dear me, Pia, how fortunate you reminded me! I'll go and see to it at once."

"And take those violets away," said Miss Pia. "There's nothing I hate more than dead flowers."

"What a pity. I picked them fresh yesterday. They haven't lasted at all - oh, dear, I must have forgotten to put any water in the vase. Fancy that! I'm always forgetting things. Now I must go and see to the work." She bustled away, looking quite happy again.

"She's not very strong," said Miss Pia, "and excitements are bad for her. Is there anything more you want to know, Mr. Anand?"

"I just want to know exactly how many people make up your household here and something about them."

"Yes, well in addition to myself and Bunny , I have two distant young nephew and niece' living here at present, Prateek and Pranavi."

"Have they always made their home with you?"

"Oh, dear no, only for the last one year. They lived in the South of Bihar. After their mother died, their father wrote me to take care of them and they will be as paying guests here. He was leaving to states on business. Both are pursuing their MBA. I was very glad to have them here. This house is really too large for me. They pay a small sum for board and lodging and it all works out very well." She added with a smile, "I like having somebody young about the place."

"Then there is a Mrs. Sameera, I believe?"

"Yes. She runs a boutique and takes care of her little kid. She's a very nice girl. Her husband was killed in accident."

Anand Walia nodded. Having fixed the word "scatty" to Bunny, and 'All right' to Pia, he had remembered Maya's record with the one word 'Liar.'

As though she had read his mind Miss Pia said: "Please don't be too prejudiced against the poor thing because she's a liar. I do really believe that, like so many liars, there is a truth behind her lies." She added: "Quite frankly, Maya is a maddening person. She infuriates us all, she is suspicious and sulky, is perpetually having 'feelings' and thinking herself insulted. But in spite of it all, I really am sorry for her." She smiled. "And also, when she wants to, she can cook very nicely."

"I'll try not to bother her more," said Anand Walia soothingly.

"Was that Miss Pranavi who opened the door to me?"

"Yes. Would you like to see her now? Prateek has gone out. You will find Sameera at boutique."

"Thank you, Miss Pia. I'd like to see Miss Pranavi now if I may."

wonderful swetha. this time it took u long to complete this part

still its very intriguing abt the murder

woww...it was fantastic,,..thnks for the pm..still reading the previous parts amazing...i loved it..!😊

hmm..interesting...

Nice part swetha...Waiting for next update

@ swetha :