Chapter 16:
"Mrs. Bhagat has given us permission to go back to the residence again but it will have to wait till evening. If that's late for you, we can go there early tomorrow morning." Maan said over the phone. Geet twirled a curl of her hair, a habit she had had since she was a child and came out in open when she was generally distracted.
"Geet, are you there?" Maan asked when there was no response from her.
"I am sorry Maan. Yes, I am here. I have weekly session with Dr. Vandana this afternoon so I guess evening is fine," she said.
"Is everything alright Geet?" Maan asked noting modulations in her voice.
"Everything is fine Maan. I will see you in evening." She replied and hung up the phone.
Instead of going to the university as scheduled, she took a cab back to her apartment. Maan had left her copies of three case files before he left her apartment previous night. She had stayed up for most part of the night reading through. She pulled all-nighters quite frequently but she wanted to get some rest so that her mind was fresh and alert when she visited Bhagats residence.
She sighed at the sight of her bed. It was messy but terribly inviting; forbidden pleasure, she thought wryly and started picking up empty water bottles, coffee mug and strewn papers. She wrote down everything that came to her mind when she read case files or watched interviews. It was her way of processing and it was something she had seen her father do and it was a practice she had picked from him. She remembered her father explaining that to her ten year old self when she had asked him if like her, even he got ample amount of homework from his clinic. Pratap Handa had told her bemusedly that it was his way of compartmentalizing necessary information and writing on paper had always gave him a better overview of the big picture.
Her hands stilled when she remembered his words. She dropped the papers she was sorting and walked briskly to her study. She had boxed her father's reports which she could find in his clinic and the ones that survived the fire in her house.
Three hours and six boxes later, she finally dug out the case files that were neatly wrapped in an old fashioned filing system – files packed and tied with a fairly thick string. She disentangled the knot with ease and flipped few pages to confirm if it was really what she was looking for. Once confirmed, without bothering to get up, she settled the stack of files on floor, sat in front of it and pulled the one on top. Along with complete case report, the file she had taken also contained few hand written and few typed out notes by her father. She flipped through them as they were the materials of her primary interest. Her father's hand written notes were much elaborate while compared to the typed ones.
As she continued to go through the stack of files, she was surprised to encounter a completely different penmanship in few of the reports. They bore no name as it wasn't really filed officially anywhere but were written during an interview or when the evidences were all placed together and looked as a whole. It could have been an intern or her father's colleague who would have made those notes but it bothered her.
The penmanship was vaguely familiar.
She jumped when her alarm clock rang and then chuckled. It was time for her to get some lunch and then meet Dr. Vandana.
"I am not calling you at a bad time, am I?" She asked on the phone as she hailed a cab.
"It's fine Geet. I just got off from phone. What is it?" Maan's voice drifted over.
"I found my father's notes on the three old cases. He has worked on all three of them. I haven't read them yet," she said.
"Are you going to read them now?" He asked.
"I would rather not. I would like to finish reading the files without any documentation influencing my rationale. I will sit on it for a couple of days and if we continue to hit dead ends, then we can refer to older notes," Geet replied.
"Are you sure that's how you want to do it Geet?" Maan asked. Geet frowned. She didn't like what Maan was insinuating.
"Look Maan. This one could be a case of copycat or a fan or someone who was part of these investigations or followed all of it very closely. If that's the case then there would certainly be some differential factors between the murders. Once we have covered all angles, we will build a profile and cross check that with what my father has written and see what overlaps."
"He has a profile?" Maan asked slowly.
"There is one, yes. I don't think he made it official because he was still working on it but I can see that he revisited these cases over the years." Geet said.
"It didn't let him go," there was an understanding in his voice.
"I guess you can say that." Maan could almost hear her shrug.
"David is at Guhas and he has found traces of blood in bathroom plumbing. Luminol sweep came positive for bathroom and outside master bedroom. Emily is still there with David who is making the sweep for rest of the house. And she found something else." Geet waited for him to continue. She heard him shuffle around his office and heard him give out instruction to head constable.
"Emily saw that the family had some pictures stuck on refrigerator. There was one taken in living room with boy making a face at the camera. The boy is sitting on the floor with his back to the wall where the Guhas have hung some pictures."
"Are any of the photos missing?" Geet asked.
"Not exactly. They have all been changed." Maan said.
"Maan, someone in family may have done it." Geet said. "It's natural to rearrange, reorder and even replace pictures since in the end they all represent a fragment of our past and by doing so we try to control our current situation when we see a part of it is displayed on the wall or exhibit plausible deniability by not seeing them on the wall."
"It is quite possible Geet but Emily wouldn't jump to conclusion without basis."
"I think she arrived at this conclusion based on her observations which she is yet to share. Once all of it is on table, we should be able to deduce the same." Geet replied. Maan agreed.
"I'll pick you up at four Geet," Maan said. She muttered a 'Thanks' and hung up the phone.
"Hello Dr. Vandana," Geet said walking inside the stipulated room. The orderly who was standing next to Dr. Vandana nodded at her and left the room for the two.
"How are you doing today, Geet?"
"I am doing fine Dr. Vandana," Geet answered.
"Isn't your father's death anniversary around the corner?" The older woman delved right in. Geet swallowed. She resigned to nodding instead of opening her mouth and getting the words out.
"How are you coping with it?" She asked.
Geet saw her making notes with an imaginary pen in an imaginary book. And then it clicked.
She finally remembered who the handwriting in case notes belonged to.
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