2 - The Crime

Back to 1 - Monologue:: Killer to Reader

Inspector Jangid seemed to have the habit of talking to himself. You can’t tell when he is addressing you or himself. And he must have walked miles in his career because he never sits in one place. This time too, he was strolling in our drawing room and speaking ‘Look at you Pawan. Your grandma warns you a month ago to mind your ways and you comply immediately.’

‘Who would like to lose family fortune just like that?’ I said.

‘Right. And you immediately join a security guard’s job. Imagine! A boy of such a good family background joins a security guard’s job?’

‘Inspector, it’s not just a job, it is Marshall Securities run by ex-army chief and national level professionals. It’s a number one CMM Level……’

‘Agreed.’ – Jangid cut in – ‘But your brother had offered you an impressive job in his company then why….’

‘You should be worthy of the job’ I interrupted ‘Piyush tried to help me but I didn’t want to cut a sorry figure later due to my incompetence. I know which job is right for me.’

‘Hmm. So the night of your grandma’s death, you left for your duty pretty earlier. Your job mate Rakesh had to take his girlfriend for an evening caper and he asked for your help. You, as you had promised him, reached to the duty spot at 6 PM, two hours earlier than your duty which is from 8 PM till 4 AM, thus giving Rakesh two hours window to enjoy with his girlfriend.’

He paused to look at my face flushed with surprise ‘The building that you watch is an office with a lot of furniture and papers. Thinking of no big risk you left your duty spot and quietly returned back home, stealthily entered the house like a thief, replaced your grandma’s medicines and went back to your duty. This all took you not more than one and a half hour roughly. Nice plan.
Rakesh would never have revealed to anyone what he contrived with you but in his interrogation he suddenly realized and told us that it was you who tactfully sowed this idea in his head to take his girlfriend away skipping the duty. Then you replaced the medicine at the first chance you got. By this time you must have destroyed the killer medicine too. Isn’t it Pawan?’

Right Inspector! This was how it went exactly. But you cannot prove anything. Can you?    

Apparently I said ‘So, helping my friend Rakesh has gone against me. But Inspector, I tell you, I loved my grandma very much. For her sake only I dropped all my drinking, gambling and womenising. I did not kill my grandma. I still do not know how she died. I wonder why you are investigating this all when no one has reported this case as a foul play, when……’

‘I am working in response to an FIR lodged by Mr. Piyush. But we would have anyway initiated the investigation’ Jangid dropped the bombshell.

‘What?’ the bombshell hit me like a juggernaut ‘Piyush did that? Why?’

‘Because a day before your grandma’s death her medicine had been changed by the doctor and she could not have taken the medicine that killed her at all. The only one who didn’t know this is you Pawan.’

Bloody hell! How could I goof up? There was no new medicine on her side table when I had changed it. But can they prove this all? No. Not at all!

‘Now what I fail to understand is that when you were sure your grandma will die of eating wrong medicine then why did you strangle her to death?’

‘Strangle? No I…….’ quickly I controlled the slip of tongue and made over ‘what did you say? Strangle her? That means someone…..’

‘That someone is you Pawan. You strangled her with your gloves on, just to complicate the case and confuse the police. But why didn’t you destroy your gloves like you did the medicine?’

‘My gloves?’

Jangid retrieved  a pair of red gloves – my gloves – in the plastic bag from his pocket.

‘The tiny traces of old red rexene particles were found on your grandma’s neck and the microscopic examination matches these particles with your gloves.’

‘These are not my gloves’ I blurted out the white lie.

‘Oh Pawan, how naïve you are! We have already recorded the fingerprints from inside the gloves and they all are crystal clear. They are yours!’ with that lie now Jangid was sure I am the man he is looking for.

Finding me short of words he proceeded ‘Your grandma had taken the high dose of wrong medicine but she died of strangulation. You could not wait for her silent death. You killed the poor old lady instantly. This happens out of uncontrolled greed, unbound hatred and loss of sanity.’

‘Do I look like an insane fellow inspector?’ I argued in a voice that belied all the confidence ‘Why would I spoil my own plan as you say and give myself away like a buffoon? And on top of everything, I had ever left from my duty which I was doing as proxy for Rakesh.’

‘Did anyone see you?’

‘Did anyone see me absent from there?’ I argued with a faint trace of confidence now.

No eye witnesses. A good criminal attorney in court. Benefit of doubt by the judge. Good.

Jangid smiled and said ‘Pawan your grandma died – now I should say, she was murdered - four days before, that is November 20^th. Did you read the local news on November 21^st?’

‘I don’t read news papers. I don’t watch news.’

‘Have you reported to your job since then?’

‘How could I? I am still in mourning and not in a mental state….’

‘The office you had been guarding had been robbed the day your grandma died.’

‘Robbed? Of what? Furniture? Papers?’

‘That is not important. What is important is time. The thieves broke in exactly at 6:45 PM.’ Jangid paused to have me calculate the situation now.

Theft at that time meant I was not present at the duty because if I were there such a theft was impossible. I was losing my mind slowly.

‘How could you exact the time? How……’

‘Yesterday only, my men have caught the thieves and they have confessed. An adversary company had paid them to steal some very important policy papers from your client’s office building and they could easily break in at that time because there was no guard – that is you – around. That time you were busy breaking in your own house to kill your grandma.’

But I did not strangulate my grandma.

Someone had framed me. Someone knew my plan. Who else other than Piyush?

My own brother had fixed me for good.

I was not the hunter but the hunted.

‘Do you have any alibi of the time period between 6 PM to 8 PM on the date November 20^th, the day your grandma was murdered?’

Alibi? My iron clad alibi had already been diffused. How could Piyush know my plan which was only in my head!? How could he know that I had such a fix up with Rakesh? How was he sure that I shall stealthily come back to the house to kill grandma? He waited for me to change the medicine and let grandma take it. Then he strangulated grandma with different set of but identical gloves and probably rubbed my gloves over her neck later to let some rexene particles be found there later.

Seeing me silent, Jangid continued ‘Your past lowly life of a boozer, gambler and womeniser, this huge property of several crores and hefty cash in bank as your motive, sudden change in your behavior to pretend as a good boy, your joining a job that includes shift based duty so that you could execute your plan, your suggesting Rakesh to take a disapproved off with his girl friend, Rakesh’s statement, your inability to prove that you were really not at the crime scene killing your grandma, testimony of those thieves regarding the time, your gloves’ rexene particles on your grandma’s neck and such a brutal murder of a poor old lady who had taken your care since you had lost your parents. My dear Pawan Ji, I even don’t need a lawyer to get you hanged until dead. Now may I arrest you for killing your grandma in cold blood?’ Jangid said in such a way that if I say no, he wouldn’t even touch me. Apparently, I sat there speechless waiting for him to hand cuff me.

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THE ENDING. Read on>>