The Spider, the Fly and the Scorpion

Police arrived in half an hour.

Inspector Mahipal rushed in, halted momentarily to take in the scene around, walked up and stood before me with his hands resting on his waist and exasperation written all over his face.

He stared at the Rubic’s cube which my fingers were busy solving. I shifted my focus from the cube to him.

‘You sure?’ He whispered as if the dead man would get disturbed.

His question made me note that it wasn’t exasperation but worry.

I shook my head in affirmative.

‘Mooh se kuchch uchro yaar!’ (Move the tongue pal.)

‘Yes.’ I complied. ‘I am sure Mahi.’

‘I am a policeman yaar. Mahi sounds too much of a lover boy.’

His team was still outside presumably complying with his order not to come in until called but, still, we were conversing in undertones.

I raised my voice this time. ‘Yes Inspector. I have killed Gagan Kukreja and I surrender for I have no regrets whatsoever for this.’

Mahipal almost shouted. ‘Kalra! Get the team in and keep an eye on Sharad sahib.’

Sub Inspector Kalra, with a few policemen in tow, moved in to stand beside me. The photographer didn’t wait to get on to the work. Mahipal turned his attention to the crime scene.

‘I can save you a lot of time.’ I said. ‘I can tell you how I did it.…’

Mahipal barked in the typical tone of his trade, without looking at me. ‘Speak when spoken to.’

I clamped my lips together and drifted my attention back to the cube.

[][][][][]

‘I am his wife. Let me go.’ We all heard the shaken female voice outside and next moment Mira rushed in. She halted in the doorway, face white, trembling with shock.

She clasped the threshold, leaning over it. Her face contorted in the failing effort of suppressing the cry. Tears betrayed the beautiful eyes fixated upon the dead man behind the table and her lips trembled. Everyone, but the police photographer, turned towards her but didn’t say anything.

Then her attention diverted towards me. The pain left her face for surprise. She released her grip over the threshold and straightened up. ‘Sharad! You…you?....’

‘Mrs. Kukreja?’ Mahipal intervened.

Mira Kukreja – wife of the deceased – turned towards Mahipal. ‘Yes officer.’ Her voice was still laced with gloom. ‘Who could have killed Gagan? He is….was…’

‘Ma’am,’ Mahipal said, ‘I would like to speak to you after finishing with this.’

‘I’ll wait here.’ She declared and addressed me. ‘Sharad, come with me.’

‘Mr. Sharad Shandilya is under arrest ma’am.’ SI Kalra informed.

‘Under arrest? What for?’ Her tone reflected her fear.

‘He has confessed having killed your husband. He himself called us here and…’

‘No! No! No!’ She lashed hysterically. ‘This can’t be true. Sharad! Sharad!’

I chose to keep quiet.

Then she argued in general. ‘Officer! I can’t believe this. Sharad can never do that. Sharad can’t….can… can I talk to him for a while please? Here, now?’

SI Kalra’s head was already moving in negative when Mahipal spoke. ‘Ma’am. Police will talk to him first. He is the prime suspect. You will be allowed to speak to Mr. Sharad later. Now if you please…’

Mira stood still for a moment before throwing me a stare which, despite great deal of effort, I couldn’t interpret. Then she turned at her dead husband behind the chair. The occasional police camera flash reflected off her wet cheeks.

Gagan Kukreja, my business partner, 45, had no qualms with the messy pool of blood over his face and neck and blinding camera flash hitting his face since he was lying dead in his office chair. His head was hanging backwards over the back of the chair. His back hair, head and neck were soaked in still drying blood. His once white shirt was dirty with blood over the collar and most of the chest. The killer bullet had crossed the head in a successful attempt of, what seemed like, a suicide. The 10 rounds, Ruger SR9c semi automatic, as I knew, was lying on the floor at the back of the chair on which the dead body was resting. The handgun could not be seen from where Mira was standing. The table in front of the deceased was covered with common paraphernalia which one finds on the desktop of every business office along with his laptop still switched on.

Mira suppressed another fit of cry, threw a long stare at me again and turned around and slowly drifted outside.

I found Mahipal looking at me unblinkingly. He stared at me as if looking through me then turned his attention back to dead Kukreja.

I focused back to finish the Rubik’s cube challenge.

[][][][][]

I had to spend the night in police lockup. Mira visited me there.

Ignoring the constable on the watch, she hugged me tight. More emotionally than passionately, she ran her hands all over me. Slowly, then, she released me and looking at the constable, enquired. ‘Can we talk somewhere in private where nobody is watching over?’

I sent that request to Mahipal via the constable and was not surprised that it was granted. Now we were in the backyard of the police station under a tree way beyond everybody’s earshot. None of us spoke on the way to backyard. I kept myself to caressing the Rubic’s cube.

‘Why?’ finally, she whispered with emotion and pain, ‘why did you do this Sharad? Your fingerprints are all over the place…including the murder weapon: the handgun.’

I didn’t break my focus from the caressing the cube.

‘Can you keep this irritating thing aside for a while?’ Mira looked at the cube.

I gripped the cube in one hand and looked at her. ‘Because I love you Mira and you know that.’

‘Then why did you get yourself caught so foolishly?’

‘I didn’t do it to get you Mira. I have you ridden from Kukreja. Now you can enjoy the life of a princess….queen.’

‘You know in your heart that you haven’t killed Gagan...’

My heart skipped a beat in anticipation.

Her beautiful face reflected a smile of a witch as she continued, ‘how did you know that I did it?’

I sighed noisily, took a long pause and finally explained. ‘Several indicators. Then I understood why you reported your gun stolen from home a few weeks back. A woman’s hand was written all over the murder scene. Who else but you Mira? The gun, Ruger SR9c is women’s favourite. In this case, gun is yours. You didn’t know that your husband kept his own gun in the side drawer. When I had entered the room, the first thing that flared my nostrils was the strong whiff of your signature perfume. You had spent whole day with your husband in his office discussing the contract related to Sigma Builders and left late in the evening in front of the watchman. Then you entered the office from the back door. A surprised Gagan might have asked you why and you might have given a convincing excuse…’

‘Yeah.’ She smiled. ‘I told him that I forgot to pick up an important file in the cabinet right behind Gagan’s chair.’

‘Hmm. Police didn’t notice the importance of the document that was kept open on Gagan’s laptop.’

She frowned a little.

‘It was Sigma Builders’s contract - the only one which you and Gagan were working on together. It was Gagan’s habit to highlight the part of text in the document which he used to discuss. As you picked up the fake file from the cabinet right behind Gagan, he asked you something on a point and habitually highlighted it in the document. You, right behind him, over his head, pulled out your gun and shot him dead. That’s why that text was still highlighted when I had entered the room.’

‘But these all being just circumstantial evidences.’ She interrupted in mockery, ‘you thought that you will implicate yourself in this case and seeing your sacrifice I will confess my crime since I loved you so much. No? My God Sharad, what a damn fool you have been? Don’t you know if a woman has a choice between a diamond and a man what would she pick up?’

‘Mira!’ I choked on my voice, ‘You don’t love me? You can live with the fact that I am getting myself killed for your sake?’

‘Oh! Drop these histrionics. I once loved you, yes, but you were never man enough to kill that bastard so I did it…’

‘…he was my best friend you bitch!’

‘I just feel sorry for your foolishness. May your soul rest in peace Sharad.’

‘Mira, that was the only way.’

‘Only way what?’

‘To get you confess your crime. I was convinced that you have killed Gagan. I conjured the trap for you, thinking that you love me and seeing me in trouble for your crime, you will surrender but you are a deadly Black Widow Spider who ate her mate. We were wrong.’

‘We?’

‘Yeah. Me and my friend Inspector Mahipal.’

Suddenly her eyes shone in wicked pleasure. She laughed in a husky voice, laced with poison. ‘You men! My God! How foolish you all are! Yeah, Sharad, I am the spider and you are the fly who got itself stuck in the web that I spun around.’

‘Spider mistook the Scorpion for a fly.’ I smirked.

‘What?’

‘Inside, there, you felt me around to check if I was wired. Then, to be doubly sure you came outside to ensure nobody overhears us. Mira, you didn’t notice that today I was not twisting and turning this Rubic’s cube.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Vianda SUPER-600. Chinese make but excellent. Audio transmission distance 3000 meters. Twisting and turning this cube will break the highly sensitive microphone hidden inside it.’ As a signal, I tossed the cube in the air and caught it back.

It was a delight to see her face ashen. She stood still like a lifeless statue. Over her shoulder, I could see, getting the signal, Mahipal was approaching us with a broad smile on his face.

**********