Bankerupt (Ravi Subramanian) (39 page)

75

12th June 2008

MIT, Boston

Antonio was not in his office when Chief Nelius and Lieutenant Windle walked in. The two of them made themselves comfortable in the conference room adjoining the president’s cabin. They began discussing the forensic report. ‘It’s very clear, chief. The gun from which shots were fired was bought in Richard’s name. It’s a licensed weapon bought from a gun store in Riverdale.’

‘So the weapon is his, the fingerprints on it are his. The DNA traces all point to Richard as the perpetrator of the crime.’

‘Yes. But as you saw in the forensic report, he was not the one who fired the gun. The gun was placed in his hand. Had he fired the shots, there would have been residue under his fingernails. Residual explosive waste.’

‘The blood on the scene and on his fingers had muddied the fingernails and we couldn’t make that out on visual examination. So all of you, including the coroner, were quick to assume the sequence of events,’ Nelius argued.

‘The more critical point to be noted is that the panellists were seated on the podium and Richard was sitting in front of them. The bullets too seem to have come from the front. From the point where Richard was seated.’

‘Yes. Richard’s gun, bullets fired from the point where Richard was sitting … Everything points to the fact that Richard killed everyone.’

‘True. The last piece of evidence that the forensic report now lays out clears the air. Doesn’t it?’

‘I saw that. It’s too damning.’

‘Chief, Richard had been shot from close quarters. The gun had been held to his head and fired. So everyone assumed suicide.’ Windle pulled out his gun and held it to his head. ‘Look. If I were to shoot myself in the temple, the bullet would enter here’—and he pointed to the right temple. ‘And would normally exit here’—he moved his right hand to his left temple. ‘When you have a gun in your hand and shoot yourself, the gun normally has a small tilt upwards and hence the trajectory of the bullet would either be horizontal or marginally upwards. The exit point of the bullet would always be at a level higher than the entry point. At best at the same level.’

‘That’s obvious.’

‘Strangely, in the case of Richard, the bullet entered through his right temple and exited below the ear on his left. The difference in height at the bullet’s entry and exit points is two and a half inches. And this can only happen if someone else fired the bullet at the seated victim.’

‘Or if Richard was standing and the person who fired the bullet was much taller than him,’ Nelius interrupted.

‘Yes. That’s right. Michael Cardoza is six foot three, while Richard was a little over five feet. Michael most likely fired at a seated Richard. Standing or sitting … it doesn’t matter. What’s of importance is the fact that Richard did not kill himself. Someone else did. And that someone else can only be Michael Cardoza. We of course have to figure out why he did that. What was the motive? This, to me, defies all logic. The trajectory of the lone bullet which missed its mark and hit the board points to the fact that the gun was held by someone standing and the gun level was over five feet above the floor, at the barest minimum. It is most likely that the gun was fired by someone more than six feet tall.’

‘We should not have waived the forensic investigation at that time. We took them at their face value. And since Michael Cardoza too was injured, we assumed he was speaking the truth. What a game he played!’ Nelius lamented.

And at that very instant, Windle’s phone rang.

‘Lieutenant, it’s me. Aditya.’

‘I’m very busy, Aditya. Can this wait?’

‘It can’t. It’s crucial. I called to tell you that Michael Cardoza and James Deahl have a role to play in the killing of Richard and the three other faculty members, and may have a hand in the killings of Cirisha and Shivinder, and the assault on Narayanan.’ Aditya then told him the entire story that he had uncovered in the emails.

‘Where are you now? I’m coming to get you.’

‘No, don’t. I will head to the institute. You come there if possible. I don’t want to be out in the open.’

‘I am already there. In Antonio’s cabin. You want me to send a police car to pick you up?’

‘No. I will be there in an hour.’ And he hung up.

76

12th June 2008, evening

Boston

It was at 6 p.m. that the president returned from his meetings. He walked into his room only to be told by his secretary that he had visitors. He didn’t know Windle well, but he knew enough to understand that if the chief of MIT Police had been waiting for him that long, it had to be serious.

‘Good evening, gentlemen. What can I do for you?’ Obviously something was wrong.

‘We have come here to take your permission,’ said the chief.

‘Permission for what?’

Finding the chief hesitant, Windle took the initiative.

‘To detain Michael Cardoza.’

Antonio didn’t react. Windle assumed that he hadn’t really understood what was happening.

‘You might want to take a look at this. There could be another big name involved too. But we will wait till we have enough evidence against him.’ Windle handed over the forensic report to Antonio, who looked at it and handed it back. ‘It might be better if you explain it to me.’

After the chief narrated the sequence of events, Antonio, in a feeble voice asked, ‘Who else is involved?’ It was as if someone had pulled the carpet from under his feet.

‘We believe James Deahl was the mastermind of the entire act and had a motive to kill Cirisha and the others,’ Aditya said as he walked in. The president recognized him and Windle offered to explain, ‘I knew he was coming. I requested your secretary to allow him to come in.’

Aditya continued from where he had left off. ‘James was as much involved in the conspiracy as Michael was. They were partners in crime. Two of your most fierce and competitive members of the academia came together to silence someone who had them by the scruff of their necks. They proved to the world that if two academic powerhouses come together, their combined ambition and intellect make them unstoppable.’

‘Aditya,’ Antonio began. ‘I understand your grief at losing someone close to you. But we cannot put down a senior member of our faculty just because you strongly feel so.’

‘It’s not about what I feel, sir. Let me show you what I have. May I request you for access to a computer? I can show you what I mean.’

Antonio led Aditya to his computer and logged in. Aditya sat down on Antonio’s seat, swung towards the computer and started working his way around. In forty-five seconds he was ready. ‘Here we go.’ Everyone looked at him and gathered around the computer. He clicked something on the screen and a hiss came up on the computer speakers. Aditya cranked up the audio.

The noise of a toilet flush could now be heard in the president’s room. It came from his computer speakers. Antonio looked at Windle, who shrugged his shoulders.

A door opened and closed in the distance. Antonio turned towards Aditya and the computer. That’s where the sound came from.

The hiss continued. Then someone spoke.

‘
I need to use the washroom. Will be back in a minute.
’

‘
Hmm
,’ someone responded.

And then the silence returned. There was no sound for a while until a whisper could be heard. Aditya increased the speaker volume a bit more.

‘
What happened? Why did you call now? This late at night?
’

A pause.

‘
Tell me quickly. Richard is here but is out of the room now
.’

A longer pause.

‘
I’m trying my best to get the research papers from him
.’

Silence.

‘
He is not telling me where they are. The bastard even has the photos
.’

No noise.

‘
What did he tell Cirisha?
’

Silence.

‘
Hmm … Richard will prove to be a pain, James
.’

A pause. The only noise audible was the hiss.

‘
It’s with me. Got it last month itself. Picked it up from Riverdale
.’

Silence.

‘
How? How did I get it? I told you. He had given a letter authorizing the gun to be handed over to me
.’

Silence.

‘
No, no. I don’t need any help from your NRA contacts to get it delivered. It’s done
.’

A long pause.

‘
I don’t understand
.’

Silence.

‘
You want me to do it during the interview?
’

Silence, interspersed with heavy breathing.

‘
I understand that’s our best chance of getting him out of the way. But what if it goes wrong?
’

Silence again.

‘
Bullshit
!’ The voice went up and, suddenly, realizing that it would be heard, dropped to a whisper. ‘
I don’t think I am ready to do it yet
.’

The sound of a door opening interrupted the pause.

‘
OK, I will talk later. He is coming out
.’

There was a lengthy pause. And then someone else’s voice came on the line.

‘
I’m going to get myself something to eat. What about you?
’

‘
Nothing. Tell me what you want. I will get it from the kitchen. You may not be able to find it, Richard.
’

‘
Cool.
’

And then the line went silent. It was the end of the conversation.

‘What the hell was that?’ The president was shocked at what he had just heard. He recognized the voice.

‘That’s the conversation between Michael Cardoza and James Deahl a few days before Richard’s tenure interview. That’s only Michael’s side of the conversation, though. You can make out that he was talking to James. The person who came in at the end was Richard.’

‘And how did you get it?’ Antonio didn’t know what to believe any more.

‘Richard was in a physical relationship with Michael. Emotional too? I can’t say. That night he was with Michael when Michael got a call from James. It was at 1 a.m. Richard heard Michael’s phone ring and was surprised to see that the call was from James at that time of the night. Michael and James wouldn’t speak to each other even if they were alone in a room. He suspected something fishy. When Michael went to the washroom to clean up after a session in bed, Richard dialled Xerxes’s telephone number, knowing very well that Xerxes was somewhere in eastern Africa at the time. The call went to Xerxes’s answering machine. Xerxes was a tech geek. His CallWave answering machine was wired to email the voice message to his preconfigured inbox. Richard left the call on and went to the washroom when Michael came out. The moment the bathroom door clicked shut, Michael returned James’s call. At 1.25 a.m., Michael’s side of the conversation got recorded on Xerxes’s answering machine, which Xerxes received as an email attachment in his inbox. He forwarded the message to Richard with a simple message from his side: “
WTF?”’

‘No. This can’t be true.’ It was Antonio. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

‘Why would Richard call from Michael’s line and that too to Xerxes, knowing fully well that Xerxes would freak out on hearing such a message? Though there was nothing which would suggest a relationship between Michael and Richard in that conversation, the timing of the message would be enough to get him concerned.’ Windle’s investigative mind was at work.

‘Richard suspected that he was under surveillance. Had he called Xerxes’s line from his mobile and left it on, he ran the risk of it being intercepted. He was scared. He probably wouldn’t have wanted them to know that he suspected Michael and James had joined hands. Since the call went from Michael’s landline, it didn’t get intercepted. If we check Michael’s call records for this date, we will be able to confirm both these calls—from the mobile to James and from the landline to Xerxes.’

‘How do you know all this?’

Aditya turned the screen towards them to show the two emails in Richard’s draft folder. The email from Xerxes with the attached conversation was in Richard’s inbox. ‘See the link at the bottom of the email connecting to the CallWave homepage. It gives you details of how this answering machine works. I read that up on my way here.’

He then narrated everything that Richard had mentioned in his emails. Everything from Siddiqui’s murder, to the details of Deahl’s misdeeds in the research, to Cardoza’s successful attempt at seducing him, to his confession of trying to arm-twist the two of them to give him his tenure.

‘So, when cornered, Cardoza and Deahl conspired to get rid of Richard. The day of his interview, Cardoza took advantage of the isolated section and shot Richard and the three panellists dead. The forensic report is very clear in this regard,’ Nelius added.

‘The three other faculty were excellent cover for Cardoza. Everything logically pointed towards Richard and everyone assumed that it was a frustrated Richard who was the perpetrator of the carnage. A detailed investigation at that time would have revealed more, but we got carried away,’ Windle admitted.