What Happened That Night- A Murder Mystery In Two Parts- Part I

The ringing of the phone woke Pritika up. She looked at the clock on her bedside table and cursed to herself. “Why the hell is someone calling me at freaking 1am.” She said, getting herself to sit upright and blindly grabbing for her phone. “Oh Inspector Narayan! G-g-good morning Sir.”

“I’ve texted you an address Pritika. Be there as soon as you can.”

“Yes Sir.”

She got up, combed her hair, quickly changed out of her pjs and rushed to the address the Inspector had sent. It was a huge bungalow and the constable standing outside greeted her and guided her in. Everything about the house shouted fancy and rich. Pritika climbed up the stairs and followed the constable into a room. It was a huge bedroom, and it reminded her of a five star hotel room. Everything about the room was perfect, well, except the dead man lying on the bed with a gun shot wound on his chest. His sobbing wife being comforted by a lady constable, and Inspector Narayan was looking at me with a grim expression on his face.

“The victim is Rahul Sharma, partner at Synthesis Trading. His wife Nikita came home from a party at 12:30 and called us immediately. He seems to have been shot. Forensics are on the way. This has to be someone who knew that Madam would be out. Why risk it otherwise?” Inspector Narayan said.

Pritika nodded and went over to Nikita. “Ma’am who can confirm your whereabouts for tonight?”

Nikita’s eyes widened in anger. “Excuse me? My husband just died and you think I have something to do with it?  What kind of insensitivity is this?” she said, looking from Pritika to the Inspector and back.

“This is just protocol ma’am. Calm down and answer the question.” Pritika said curtly.

“Well if you must know I was with my friends Shilpa and Taara at Hunter’s Bar. They had a disco night and tonight’s special cocktail was Pina Colada. My friends as well as the bartender will surely be able to confirm.” She said, with a meaner expression on her already mean face. Nikita seemed like the snooty rich ladies you often see standing in groups judging anyone and everyone, always dressed in the latest trends.

“I noticed many pictures of exotic places on my way up. You both travelled frequently?” Pritika asked.

“Yes. He used to take me everywhere I wanted to go.” She said, with tears making their way down her ageless face.

“He earned a lot I see. Being part owner of the company. That must mean he had enemies right? And what about his partner. How were relations with him?” Pritika questioned further.

“I don’t know much about enemies. He was really busy all the time. We spent free time talking about things other than business. As for his business partner, Ajay Sen, there was quite a bit of friction between them, but in the end both of them were very necessary for the firm so they did not split up. As a man Ajay is disgusting and supremely arrogant. I wouldn’t be surprised if he killed Rahul just out of pure spite.” Nikita said, her face contorting into one of pure hate.

“Oh. Okay. So we do have one suspect as of now. I will go talk to him first thing in the morning.” Pritika said, and got up to talk to the Inspector.

“Sir she thinks the business partner could have done it. I’ll be paying him a visit first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Ok. I have asked for the security camera tapes for the night to be checked. The back door has been tampered with so that is probably where he came in from. If you’re done talking to the wife go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.” Inspector Narayan said. He was a bald man with a bushy greying moustache, always with a smile on his jolly face. But today you could see his age in his tired eyes. Murder was not very common here.

Pritika was usually called in for robberies or domestic violence allegations. She was sharp and very intelligent for her age, and loved puzzles. Aside from that she was a major klutz.

As soon as she reached the landing she stumbled and lost her footing, and in the sorry attempt of trying to grab something, a big bowl full of those fancy showpiece glass pebbles fell with her. She started apologizing profusely while getting up, her cheeks flaming as she started gathering the pebbles and putting them back. In the process she found a couple of odd looking ones- not even pebbles probably, and slipped them stealthily into the pocket of her jeans- to be examined later. She put the bowl back on the side, brushed herself and got up, all the time feeling Nikita’s judgemental stare on her back and left for home.

*

The next morning Pritika woke up, got ready, made herself some coffee, spilled some coffee, cleaned it and slipped on the cleaned floor and steadied herself. “Today is a bad bad day. Please don’t embarrass yourself in public Pritika.” She said to herself in the mirror and left for Synthesis Trading.

It was a huge building with a glass facade, exactly what she had imagined it to look like. A tall young man with a sweet face approached her. “Good morning ma’am. You are with the police right? Inspector Narayan said to expect you. I’m Siddharth Negi. I was Mr Rahul’s secretary.” He said, looking down with genuine sorrow. He said he would take her up to Ajay Sen’s office.

Pritika’s phone rang. It was the inspector. She motioned Siddharth to wait and picked up. “I guess this is regarding the post mortem sir? ”she asked.

“Yes. You won’t believe this. Rahul Sharma must have been shot at around 11:45. We found a man dressed in black wearing a cap enter the house from the back, by jumping over the compound in the security footage. But, the curious thing is, he was already dead!!!” the Inspector exclaimed.

“I guessed as much since I noticed no blood around his wound last night,” Pritika said.

“Yes. According to the coroner he was already dead by 11:15 and from the tox report we came to know that he overdosed on his own medicine. We had found an empty bottle of sleep medication in his drawer and a glass of water on his bedside, but did not attach much importance to it. So this man wanted to die any way.” The Inspector couldn’t help himself and he let out a little chuckle. “This case gets more interesting by the minute. I wonder if we should consider it suicide or murder?”

“Let me speak with the partner and check if Rahul Sharma was the kind who would commit suicide,” said Pritika. There was a little part of this story she had already figured out, but it would be unwise to reveal anything before she was completely certain.

“So Siddharth tell me about your boss. Was he good to you? To be honest he looks like the kind of man who was a jerk.” Pritika said, the hint of a smile on Siddharth’s face telling her that she had been on point.

“Well, I mean he was a busy man so he didn’t have time for pleasantries. However he was with people, he was still a very good businessman and I was in awe of him. He is a self made man so these little things about him can be excused I’d think.” he smiled and shrugged.

“This one here right?” Pritika pointed to a big frosted glass door with Ajay Sen, Chairman printed out in neat words on it.

“Yes. I’ll be around if you have other questions.”

Pritika knocked on the door and heard a booming voice say “Come in!”

“I assume you’re with the police. Let me make your job easier.” Ajay started as Pritika walked into the room.

“Oh is that so. Please. Do tell me how is it you’re going to do that.” She said.

“Look.” Ajay started. “I hated the man. So much that I am happy he’s dead.”

“Is that a confession Mr Sen?” Pritika said, eyebrows raised.

Ajay laughed in his booming voice. “Just hear me out Ms..”

“Pritika”

“Okay Ms Pritika. I’m saying I’m happy he’s dead but you don’t need to waste your time on me. I didn’t kill that son of a bitch. He was a jerk to everyone around him. There was not one person in this world he loved or who loved him. Not even Nikita, his wife. He was always bickering about how she was always out, how she spent so much and shit like that. He was a big fake. He used to throw big parties to lure new investors, but not spend a penny anywhere where he would not benefit. Like when that poor guy Sid asked for a loan for his ill mother this guy just straight out refused him. Two months ago three employees came up to him asking for a pay raise and he kicked them out!!! Just like that!!! That man…”

“Ok Mr Sen. I get it. Now tell me where were you the night of the murder?” Pritika asked, cutting his rant short.

“At home.”

“Who can confirm this? Spouse?  Servant?”

“I’m separated so I live alone. And no, the servant did not come that day.” he shrugged.

“So what you are telling me is you had motive and the opportunity. Things are not looking very good for you right now Mr Sen. Anyhow I would like the details of everyone who worked directly under Mr Sharma and their time sheets for this week. Since you trade with other countries I’m sure these people must be staying here till late. So I’d like to know if anyone left unusually early that night. I’ll wait in the cafe” Pritika said, getting up, ready to leave.

Before leaving, she said, “You know he did not actually die because of the gunshot wound. He had already killed himself half an hour before that.” She looked at his surprised and questioning face, getting the effect she had thought she’d have, she left.

Do let me know who you think did it in the comments 🙂 I’ll give everyone who guesses right a shoutout in my next post!!