Doosra (27 page)

'Of course, that's what everyone calls me. Could I get you two something to drink? Tea, coffee or a Coke?'

'Only if you're having one,' Rita responded looking at Vikram in case he had any objections. None showed. His face revealed that he would happily consume potassium cyanide if Kitty offered him that.

'I was about to have a coffee. The kettle has just boiled. Give me a minute.' She got up and almost cat walked out of the living room. Feline grace. Years of walking the ramp had inured to make it second nature, Rita figured. She looked around. The apartment was luxurious. Italian marble flooring in the living room; the walls were covered with Kitty's blown up pictures from her various modelling assignments. You didn't need Mona Lisa to adorn your walls if you were Kitty Varghese. There was a credenza in one corner that had a framed picture of Kitty with Honey. They would produce startling kids indeed.

The coffee was really good. Hot and dark. Only Vikram added milk and sugar.

'How may I be of help?' Kitty asked again.

Rita took out and presented the candid-shot from the elevator and passed it to Kitty who looked at it for barely a minute.

'What about it?'

'Do you recognise the man in the photograph?'

'It's Honey.'

'Sure?'

'Of course, a million percent. How can
I
make a mistake?'

'Could you identify where it was taken?'

Kitty glanced at the picture again, but shook her head. 'Not sure.'

'Have a look at it again, Kitty. Is there any chance this could be your old friend, Veer Singh?

The mention of Veer Singh caused an ever so slight quiver in Kitty's pupils: a sign of fear or uneasiness. Again that could be because Kitty reckoned Rita knew something or it could just a simple concern as Honey Singh must have told her about the police's questions the day before. There was no exact science of comprehending. But it was there and it was noted. From the corner of her eye she stole a glance at Vikram who scribbled the incident too. Kitty looked shifty.

'Is there anything you would like to tell us Kitty?'

'What are you looking for from me?'

'Anything. We need to find Veer Singh to eliminate him from our investigation.'

'Murder investigation?'

It was evident Honey Singh had spoken to her. And why wouldn't he? Maybe he expected the police to quiz Kitty or maybe it was a simple conversation with his girlfriend: police did not come around asking questions every day. And Veer Singh having been a common friend it would have been suspicious if he hadn't actually. Moreover, Rita and Vikram hadn't told Honey Singh not to talk to his girlfriend or anyone.

'Yes,' Rita replied. 'Would you know where could we find Veer Singh?'

'As far as I am aware he moved to America years back.'

'How well did you know him?'

'What do you mean?'

Something wasn't what it seemed at the surface.

Kitty looked and sounded guilty, like a kitten caught with milk in her whiskers.

'Well, weren't Veer Singh and you friends before he introduced you and Honey, am I right?'

'You're correct. I got to know Veer through an advertising agency I was working with at the time. He was around for something about the website — he was extremely good, probably as good as Honey when it came to computers and software. Yes, Veer introduced me to Honey a few months later.'

'And then the guys, Honey and Veer had a misunderstanding and for obvious reasons you sided with Honey, and in time all of your friends lost track of Veer after he moved abroad,' Rita filled in.

'Precisely.'

'So what are you not telling me, Kitty?' Rita was now getting frustrated with going around in circles with the same story she had, now, heard initially in the investigation by Vikram and then rephrased by Mrs Lucky Singh and Honey Singh before Kitty.

'What does that mean?'

'There is something more to it that you're not telling me. What's that?'

'I had a short fling with Veer. Is that what you're after? But we quickly realised we weren't compatible and we agreed to stay friends. As I told you he was the one who introduced me to Honey…'

So this wasn't purely a tangential relationship. Kitty Varghese had actually had a fling with a person who was supposedly missing.

They certainly needed to speak to Veer Singh now, if only to clear him.

'What was the incompatibility, if you don't mind telling me.'

'He wasn't comfortable with my career choice. He didn't think modelling was a “decent” enough line with all the travel and skimpy outfits for audience and camera. And I didn't want to give up. Especially as I don't think I can do anything else.'

Fair enough. Easy to infer why they broke up quickly. Though, with Veer Singh missing from the picture, there was no way of checking her story. And if they located him there seemed to be a pile of questions before asking him about his opinions on women's career choices. Typical chauvinist male. Bastions of women's moralities. No issues with seeing other girls flash skin but want to keep their women in covers. Veer's loss indeed. Kitty Varghese was an iPhone: there wasn't any dearth of admirers.

'Did Honey Singh know you had a fling with Veer?'

'No.'

'Does he know that now?'

'No. Will you be telling him?' Kitty asked with a straight face.

'Where were you in the first week of April this year?' Rita ignored the question. She wasn't wont to promising anything to anyone and certainly not before she knew the whole truth.

'That's easy. I was abroad, in Köln for a fashion show.

Why?'

'Just for our records.'

'Now what are
you
not telling me?'

'Lots. Kitty, you have to understand that I have no personal agenda to know about your life. I'm running an investigation into more than one offence at the moment and I cannot — even if I wanted to — tell you everything. So it's better if you answer my questions. I promise to answer yours to the extent I can. Do we have a deal?'

'OK.'

'Do you travel quite a bit for work?' Rita knew the answer to that.

'Quite a bit.'

'Is it always abroad to exotic locations?' Rita knew the answer to this one too.

'No. Mostly within India actually.'

'So, would you have travel records of all official travels in the last, say, one or two years?' Rita wanted the Delhi travel details from Kitty specifically, but she didn't want to ask for it.'

'What's that for?'

'As I said we are investigating more than one incident at the moment, so this is just for a routine enquiry.'

'Should I be concerned?'

'Not if you haven't done anything wrong.'

'Are you... hold on a minute.' Kitty straightened up, became a bit animated. 'Are you trying to check if I'm still dating Veer Singh and travelling around only to see him and hiding my trysts with him?'

'It's none of my concern who you date. I want to meet Veer Singh but your travel records aren't required to check on your love life.'

'Do I need a lawyer?'

'You've been watching too many American legal dramas on television, Kitty. If I want to question you I can come up here with lights and siren and no lawyer can help you. This is Mumbai and I'm not a constable. I'm a DCP in the crime branch.' Rita didn't raise her voice but it was menacing enough to deliver the message.

'I have rights.'

'This meeting is over. Vikram let's go.'

Vikram closed his pad and got up immediately.

'Wait. What do you mean?'

'I'll send the police van to pick you up and we'll talk at the police station. Thanks for the coffee.'

'You don't really mean that.'

'Try me. I've been unusually patient and polite, but I want the truth without any further complications. You think you have rights, I'll show you what rights
I
have.'

'OK, OK… I'm sorry I overreacted. Please calm down, Rita. I'll dig out and send all the travel records over to you as soon as I can.' Kitty looked palled by the sudden eruption of Rita who, at first, had been extremely polite but now she was nothing short of a raging tigress. Not many people had the fortitude to challenge that.

'I want all the records on my desk on Monday morning. Please don't test my patience anymore.'

'But you have to promise you won't tell Honey I once had a fling with Veer.'

'As long as it isn't part of my investigation, and you don't know where Veer Singh is at present, then no, I'm not going to spill unnecessary beans.'

'I swear I haven't seen him since Honey and Veer broke up.' Kitty was almost pleading now.

'Don't tell me. I don't care. I only want to know where Veer Singh is now, and if you honestly don't know that you shouldn't be worried at all.'

'You really think Veer could be responsible for murder?'

'I didn't say that. As far as my suspect list goes, everyone is a suspect till this case isn't closed.'

'Why would Veer do anything like that?'

'To seek revenge? Or to implicate Honey to get back at him while pocketing millions on the way. Or maybe he doesn't care…'

'He wouldn't do that.'

'We'll exculpate him after we find him and speak to him. Much as I would like to take your word for it I'm not halting my search for Veer.'

Kitty was part scared, part restless, but Rita knew, with what hard treatment she had meted out, that Kitty's travel records would be available by Monday. Not desirous of spending any more time than required, Rita and Vikram said their byes and left.

Was Kitty complicit? How could she be involved? She might not be involved, at least not directly, but Rita's gut feel was she wasn't entirely innocent either.

Not finding the whereabouts of Veer Singh was a concern.

Maybe he went to the US and never looked back.

Maybe he never even visited the US embassy.

'We have approximate dates, Vikram,' Rita said as they drove to the HQ at Crawford Market. 'Could you ask the Commissioner's PA to make a call to the immigration officials please? There should be a record of Veer Singh flying out of the country.'

'Yes ma'am.'

J
atin tried his best, but could not unearth if anyone had followed Honey Singh before the previous two burglaries in Mumbai and Delhi. Handlebar certainly hadn't. How many private investigators could he contact? Asking around wasn't much help too; too much time had elapsed for any bystander to have any memory of anyone following someone. Honey Singh, of course, had denied it. There were no other avenues to check

Anyway, at the very best, Rita and team had an extrinsic line connecting the three incidents; they didn't have any circumstantial evidence, not even an oblique one. It was well within the scope of possibility that they were three disparate, unrelated capers. Or any two were related while the third one stood on its own legs. They knew Kitty Varghese was in Delhi at the time of the Delhi theft, and in Mumbai at the time of the Mumbai theft, which would be corroborated by her travel records that she would send on Monday. And she was 200 plus kilometres from Brussels — not in Brussels — when Ron Jogani was murdered. So even if
she
was complicit in some way how did it incriminate Honey Singh? If she was an accomplice, who was the master of ceremonies then?

'If Honey Singh has never been out of the country how did his picture get captured by the elevator in the hotel at Brussels?' Rita sounded frustrated.

The four — Rita, Vikram, Jatin and Nene — had weaved and hashed theories since Rita and Vikram returned from the morning meeting with Kitty. Nene could always be trusted for provisions — he knew the best local street-side food places. The
vada pau
with the red garlic chutney that he had brought in for the team was such comfort food, and ounce for ounce it could beat coffee in keeping the brain awake.

'We're missing something crucial here, guys,'

'Is it at all possible…?' Jatin stopped, like he was still contemplating.

'Out with it whatever it is.'

'I'm wondering if the whole
missing-the-camera-in-the-elevator-thing
was fake.'

Rita got it instantly. 'You mean the alleged Mr Sishir Singh knew about the obscured camera and planted the picture they wanted, and made it look like they missed it?'

'Yes. Think about it, ma'am. If they could freeze all other cameras, misdirect the entire hotel security to believe they were watching a live feed across the property while those schmucks watched the replay of the day before, how challenging would it be for that brain to feed a chosen picture into a still camera?'

'Brilliant. Bloody brilliant, Jatin,' Rita clapped.

'You mean this picture was taken in some elevator locally?' Nene asked.

Everyone looked at the XL candid-shot of Sishir Singh or Honey Singh plastered on one of the walls in the room. There was nothing that revealed where it was clicked. The angle from where it was shot warranted it had no background of any consequential value to determine where in the world it was. Not a chance.

'But why was Honey Singh's picture chosen?' Nene questioned after a few minutes.

'Maybe it was random…' Jatin hadn't thought of that.