Bankerupt (Ravi Subramanian) (26 page)

‘Mr Raisinghania,’ the one in the centre began, ‘Mr Chairman was lavish in showering his praise on your candidature to join this fund.’

‘Thank you. He is being kind.’

‘We know that.’ The reply was curt and unexpected. It wiped the smile from Aditya’s face. ‘We believe your wife works at MIT?’

‘Yes, she is an assistant professor there.’

‘Social Psychology. We have also heard that she is showing undue interest in investigating the incongruities or rather the alleged inconsistencies in the research conducted by a colleague. Quite unnecessary, I must confess, Mr Raisinghania.’

‘How is that relevant to this conversation? The chairman never mentioned anything about his interest in my wife’s career.’

‘Let me explain. As you might be aware, a hedge fund invests its patrons’ money in various industries and papers that give high returns. Most of these investments are not made public.’

The look on Aditya’s face showed that he didn’t understand the context. ‘So?’

‘We have investments in various gun-manufacturing units. To be precise, 22 per cent of our investments are in such firms. So we wouldn’t want any of our employees’ families to sabotage our investments. If your wife does not give up the tirade against
Staring Down the Barrel
, which is such a wonderful piece of research, the controversy it is going to stir up will hurt us. And we can’t have someone like you in the team, especially at a time when your wife is hell-bent on harming us.’

‘I have no control over that. It’s her life. She does what she pleases.’

‘Maybe then you should try talking to her. Else she might end up harming herself.’

‘What the hell? Are you threatening me?’

‘Mr Raisinghania, you seem to be an intelligent man. It would be tragic if we were to lose you on account of something so frivolous. And mind you, Mr Raisinghania, the gun manufacturers are known to be extremely ruthless.’ They turned and walked out, leaving him alone in the room shell-shocked. Aditya picked up his bag a worried man. This was becoming bigger and scarier than what he had imagined it to be. He walked out of the room, with none of the fanfare with which he had been ushered in.

‘Thank you,’ he heard someone say. He turned just in time to see the chairman shake the burly man’s hand. ‘You are welcome, Lucier. Anything for you.’

When he mentioned this conversation to Nalin, the latter had no idea of how and why the conversation had taken the turn that it had. ‘But Aditya, it’s better to be careful and not get into a conflict with these people,’ Nalin told him. Aditya didn’t say anything, he just hung up. He was worried because Cirisha would not listen to him. She always acted on instinct. However, this time, he was worried it had gone too far.

‘You are making too many enemies, Cirisha. I am getting worried. Your safety was the first thing that crossed my mind when these guys at Cambridge Partners spoke to me. They are rich guys with connections. And rich guys don’t like to get hurt. This is the first time someone has threatened me. I was too shocked to even respond.’ When Aditya said this, much to his annoyance, Cirisha smiled.

‘You know, Aditya. This only strengthens my resolve. It proves that there is something there which they don’t want me to go digging for. Don’t you think so?’

‘I don’t know about that. All I know is that these Americans will do anything to protect their turf.’

48

31st May 2008

MIT, Boston

The search committee had come up with four names as possible replacements for Meier. Of the four, two were from the Social Psychology department: Deahl and Cardoza. The two others were renowned professors who had served MIT for over a decade and a half. Deahl’s name, however, came with a rider. The executive committee had to first clear him of his partial suspension.

Meier was furious when he saw Deahl’s name on the list. However, he let the process take its course.

The university executive committee met that Saturday to discuss Deahl’s suspension from faculty and research duties. In a strange turn of events, the suspension was overruled. The executive committee was of the view that Deahl was well within his rights to publish his work outside the university, as long as he did not claim academic credit for the published piece of work and the sponsor didn’t have an issue with it. The university rules did not prohibit such an act. And once published outside, the OSP or the dean did not have any jurisdiction over it.

It was also agreed that the appointment of the provost would be taken up at the next meeting. The committee also requested Meier to continue in his position as the provost till such time that it decided on his successor.

49

2nd June 2008

Boston

‘What time will you be back?’ Aditya asked Cirisha as she was about to get into her car.

‘What happened?’ Cirisha glanced at her watch. She had a couple of minutes to indulge Aditya. He had been really stressed over the weekend, particularly on account of the Cambridge Partners discussion.

‘Can you pick me up on the way back? I will be at the Fencing Centre. I don’t feel like taking out the new car.’

‘Why? It’s not a new car that you are getting so protective about it!’ Cirisha chided him. She was referring to the used car they had bought for Aditya about a month back.

‘Protective? Rubbish. I don’t feel like going alone. Gavin will pick me up while going. He has to go somewhere after the session. So he can’t drop me back. If you can’t come, I will take my car.’

‘No problem, Adi. I will pick you up. Second floor, duPont Center?’

‘Yes, yes. Same place.’

‘You seem to be enjoying it.’

‘It’s an awesome place. You must come and see.’ Fencing had become a new passion for Aditya. When he had joined fencing, it was more to keep himself occupied and learn a new sport in the bargain, but now he had begun to enjoy it. It helped to take his mind off his frustrations.

‘I’ve been there in the past. Richard was the faculty support for fencing.’

‘Yes, I know. Some people were talking about him yesterday.’

Cirisha smiled. ‘By the way, who is the academic support these days? Have they nominated anyone to replace Richard?’

‘Jung Hoon Chun.’

‘Who? The one in the physics department?’

‘No clue. Why do they even have faculty as academic support? This fellow is an ass. Fat guy, must be over 250 pounds. Just comes and sits there doing nothing. I doubt if his hand would even get into the sabre guard,’ Aditya said.

‘Sabre?’

‘The sword. The handle of the fencing blade is called sabre.’

‘Oh, OK. Don’t know about Chun, but Richard was an absolutely fabulous sport. He could take on champion student fencers and beat them. I hadn’t seen him miss fencing even for a day.’

‘You haven’t seen me. Once you see me, you will forget Richard.’

‘In such a short time? Hahaha,’ she laughed. ‘Give me a break, Aditya. In any case I have no interest in these gory games. You have fun. Just make sure you don’t injure yourself.’ She glanced at her watch again.

‘The equipment they have is fabulous. Very unlikely that anyone will get injured. Anyway, are you sure you will be able to pick me from there this evening?’

‘Yes, yes. Absolutely no problem,’ said Cirisha as she got into her car and drove out of the garage. The black pick-up van was still there. It hadn’t moved for two days. She lowered her window and slowed down as she approached the van. As she passed the parked vehicle, she heard a faint hum. Which meant that the engine was on. It worried her. Was there someone inside the van? Was someone keeping a watch on them? The moment she passed the van, she pressed her foot on the pedal and accelerated. She did not want to get into trouble.

As she was crossing her block, she dialled 911. ‘I believe there is an unmarked black van parked in the exit carriageway of Glen Evelyn Drive. It’s been there intermittently for the last few days and there is someone in the car. I don’t think the car belongs to the place.’

Within minutes, three cars with blaring sirens drove into Glen Evelyn Drive. And in five minutes, Cirisha got a call.

‘Madam, there is no black pick-up van in Glen Evelyn Drive. You sure you saw it there?’

‘Yes. I was worried because the car had been parked there for the last two days and had been in idling state.’

‘It’s not there, madam.’

‘OK. I’ll call again if I see it. Thank you for taking care of it promptly.’

‘Not a problem, madam.’

That evening, Cirisha picked up Aditya from the duPont Center. After a quick stopover at the International House of Pancakes, from where they picked up a takeaway dinner for Narayanan, they drove back home.

50

3rd June 2008, morning

MIT, Boston

Cirisha’s class got over at eleven. She was walking back to her room, when a few men in uniform crossed her and moved towards the exit. They seemed to be coming out of Cardoza’s room. Dumping her papers on the table, she walked down the corridor, straight into Cardoza’s room.

‘Hi Cirisha.’

‘Morning, Michael. Were these guys here in connection with Richard’s death?’

‘Yes, Cirisha. The coroner and the chief of Boston Police were here. They had a meeting with Juan. Juan requested me and Gordon to join in.’

‘Here?’

‘Hmm,’ Michael nodded. ‘Juan wanted to be discreet and didn’t want the meeting in his office. He asked me to host it. The chief left some time back. The coroner too just left.’

‘Oh. What did they say?’

‘Nothing that we did not know of. It’s been sixty days since Richard and the others died. They wanted closure on the case. The coroner has certified the reason for the deaths of the dean, Henry Liddell and Frederick Lobo as homicide. As death caused by firing from a close range. Richard’s death has been put down as suicide using his own gun. They have concluded the investigation and have named Richard Avendon as the first and only accused.’ He handed her a piece of paper. Cirisha read through it. The coroner had waived the need for an inquest given the open-and-shut nature of the case. The weapon used in the homicide was owned by Richard. They had done a preliminary investigation, which included things like a sweep of his workstation, talking to a number of faculty members about Richard’s mental health and so on. Cirisha was surprised that they hadn’t spoken to her.

Amongst the other papers left with Cardoza was the forensic report of Richard’s iMac. Cirisha started reading through it. ‘For your eyes only. I have to bundle all this up and dump them in Juan’s office.’ Cirisha nodded without moving her eyes from the papers.

‘According to this, the data on Richard’s iMac had been wiped clean on the morning of his death. There is one school of thought which believes that Richard destroyed all the data before he came for the tenure discussion,’ Cardoza summarized for Cirisha.

‘That’s not correct, Michael. I saw him coming in that morning. He was late for the interview. He was rushing in. Seeing me, he threw his card at me and asked me to swipe him in. He was to collect the card from me later in the day, after the interview. But that never happened. He didn’t even go to his room that morning.’