Murder in Retrospect.Last Chp P139,140 Feb13 - Page 69

Originally posted by: lost_in_love

yaa...but am loving this story n the way you write!!! 😉 inspite of knowing the story am enjoying this SS as much as i enjoyed reading the book!!!! 😊

Chapter 11

Abhay and Pia went out to meet the gardener and Pia started the conversation asking the gardener if he used to work for Dr. Roy earlier.

Gardener: Indeed Miss. I used to work with the doctor. What a fine fellow he has been. Truly a gentle man. But that was long time back.

Pia: Actually he is a relative of mine. Not directly, but indirectly. Well his ward Maya was my step mom.

Gardener: Oh, then you must be the daughter of that Major who came here for a short while and married Maya madam before she ran away dumping him. Your father made a mistake marrying her in a hurry like this. She was always boy crazy. Would never stick to one man. Gave so much trouble to the poor doctor.

Pia: really, how do you know all this?

Gardener: Madam, I used to work for the doctor since she was a child and have seen her growing up. She was fine as a kid, but I guess she fell into bad company in hostel. Why when she returned in summer holidays she started going around with a local road side Romeo and gave the doctor the excuse of playing tennis with him. My foot, I said to the doctor. She was never into sports. She was just making a fool out of the doctor. She was 15 then. And that boy, he was bad news. Was thoroughly spoilt and used to go out with so many girls. God knows how many lives he ruined. When doctor objected to it and stopped Maya from going out with him, he cut down the tennis net into shreds just out of spite. And that was not all, he even placed a sharp trap just outside Maya's room one evening and cut off the electricity so that Maya madam injured her leg with that trap in darkness. What a nasty cut it was. It took the poor doctor the entire vacations to treat the cut. It kept getting infected again and again. Wonder what that scoundrel had placed on that trap.

Abhay, Pia and T gave meaningful glances to each other and they all wondered the same thing. Could it be that guy who murdered Maya. They decided to ask further and so Abhay asked him:

That's really terrible. What was that boy's name and how did Dr. Roy handle that boy then? He should surely have reported to Police.

The gardener: His name was Bijoy Das and nay Sir, involving Police would only have brought more bad name to Maya. And so doctor decided to teach him his own lesson. He used to be a small part-time trainee in advocate Kumar's office and he was a regular patient of the doctor. So doctor requested him to help him in this matter and he fired the boy and gave him a bad character certificate thus blacklisting him from seeking employment elsewhere. Served the fella right!! He was forced to leave the city as no one would give him any job.

They returned back to their hall and sat with solemn faces. Each was wondering the same thing. Getting black-listed for employment at the start of one's career must surely have been a big blow to the chap. What if he went on holding a grudge for it? And what if in a twisted way, he blamed Maya for his woes and thus decided to take revenge from her and that's why killed her. Maybe he was in Mumbai when Maya married Danish and the news of her marriage might have brought back the memories of insult he had to suffer and so he killed her as a revenge!!

Pia the spoke up: This Bijoy is surely one of our suspects.

Abhay gave her a incredulous look and asked: one of the suspects, do you suspect anyone else also? Who is it?

Pia: I don't know as yet, but didn't the gardener say that Maya was always boy crazy, then surely there must be more men in her life apart from this Bijoy and my Dad. We need to find about them too. Any one of them could have murdered her.

T: yes you have a point. But how do we find if she had any other men in her life.

Pia: Maybe the gardener would be knowing that too.

T: ya maybe, but let's not ask him more today lest he become suspicious. We will postpone our questioning of him after meeting Shamta.

After a few days of anxious waiting, Tuesday evening came and the trio set out for Worli to meet Shamta. Shamta greeted them in a very friendly manner and her excitement to see Pia all grown up was made them feel welcome and somewhat at ease to discuss the things with her.

Pia began asking her if she remembered anything about her and her father and step mother and Shamta launched into details:

Of course Madam. You were such an adorable kid and you used to love raisins and would often come to the kitchen to get them. Your father was a gentle but a serious man, but soon after his arrival, his health had been falling. He had never been on sea side earlier, so maybe it was the weather which was taking its toll on him. But your mom, she was such a sweet heart. Pardon me for calling her your mom, but at first I could never imagine that she was not your real mom. She adored you so much and always used to play with you. You also bonded really well with her and so I always used to think that she must have married before age. It was once when I asked her out of curiosity, that she told me that she was actually your step-mom. I could not believe it. Noone could considering the bond you both shared. But still it gave some food for gossip to that other girl Ruhi. She just started observing everything too minutely after that. And every time some man would drop in, she would start gossiping that Madam is having an affair with that man and that's why Sir's health is falling. Utter rubbish I would say. I had never seen a happier and more content couple in my life than those two were. I often used to scold her that all this is the result of all the stupid movies she goes out to. So you can imagine my shock when the news came about her actually having run away.

It was then that Pia interrupted her: So were there a lot of men who used to come to our house and did they use to come in dad's absence.

Shamta replied:I wouldn't be knowing all the details madam, as I mostly used to stay in the kitchen and focussed on my work only unlike Ruhi, but yes, the youngest son of the advocate from Madam's home town often used to come here. I later on heard he was once engaged to her, but she called off the engagement for some reason. He also used to play with you a lot.

Abhay asked: would that be advocate Kumar's son? And why would he come here if Maya had broken her engagement with him?

Shamta: yes the same Sir. What was his name now, aah yes, Jeev Kumar. Nice fellow he was. Exceptionally quiet and well mannered. I don't know why he used to come. Maybe he still had some feelings for her, but he never showed them. He was always nice to all the three. Even Sir liked him a lot and would often consult him for his own legal matters.

Pia: was he there at our house that day, I mean do you think she could have run away with him?

Shamta: He did visit that afternoon, but no I don't think Madam ran away with him. He continued to be in Mumbai even after her disappearance. Why, I think, he still has his office at Nariman Point. And besides Madam disappeared in the late evening and by that time he had already left.

Abhay: did you see who was there at that time, with whom she could have ran away?

Shamta: I am afraid no Sir!

It was T who asked then: What about the other girl Ruhi, didn't she see anyone? She must have surely gossiped at least.

Shamta: Funny, that you should ask this Madam. She behaved very weirdly that day. While all throughout she had been gossiping that Madam was having an affair, that day, she kept saying that she hasn't ran away, but that Sir had murdered her and hidden the body in the basement. She even made me go and check in the basement, but of course there was no body.

Abhay, Pia and T looked at each other in excitement. Surely they were near some truth now. Abhay asked her: But what made Ruhi said such a thing in the first place?

Shamta: Well Ruhi had heard Madam talking to Sir in an aggravated tone and saying something like "I think I have always been afraid of you" just moments before she disappeared. And then she said that she went and checked the madam's cupboard when doctor broke the news of her disappearance and we saw Sir in an agitated state. And she said that the clothes were all wrong and so she didn't run away.

T: what about the clothes?

Shamta: Well she said that Madam had taken her black saree, but her matching blouse was still there. And she had taken her green blouse but her green and blue saree was still there. And she never wears green blouse with black saree as they just don't match. Besides she said, that she had not taken any footwear, though she was very fond of having multiple shoes and sandals. Also her other clothes too were a mismatch. Like one kurti was missing but matching leggings was not and one pink legging was missing, but the top she used to team it up with was still there. This made her believe that Sir has disappeared her clothes randomly and written that note to hide the murder.

Pia asked in a worried tone: But what makes you believe that my father could not have done it, even after Ruhi heard the conversation between him and Maya?

Shamta: Oh that's exactly why I believe it that Sir could not have done it. Because you see Ruhi mentioned the conversation just when she overheard it in the gateway towards hall, not later and I who was by then fed up of her gossips, went out to check if that indeed been so and I saw no one in the hall or gateway and then I saw Sir coming from through the main entrance from evening stroll just then. So he could not have been having that conversation with madam at all. It must have been some one else.

Yes, it was someone else. Someone else who Maya was afraid of. Someone else who murdered her in the hall, packed random clothes, left a note and placed her body in the bedroom upstairs. Abhay, Pia and T all knew that. But the question was who could this someone else be!!!

Itne saare sawaal par jawaab nahi, UFF Dishu I have been waiting for this update from a long time n I was abt to PM u as well n lo I get an update 😃 Hmmm so who could it be? Now its certain tat Pia's dad was not the one from Shamta's confirmation. So who could it be? Could it be Jeev or Bijoy? 😕 Or could it be Dr Roy? 😕 Dishu plz try to update soon dear. Ab intezar saha na jaye 😳 Brilliant update as always 👏