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“I have an idea, Miss Tasha. It’s unorthodox, and my DGP might just transfer me to that naxal state you mentioned, Mr Singh, but I think it might frustrate the killer enough to provoke their next move.”
“What do you mean?” asked DV, wrapping his arm around my shoulder protectively.
“What is the one thing that has been constant throughout this case?”
“Me,” I replied slowly. “I have been involved in this case from the very beginning, without so much as lifting a finger.”
“Exactly,” beamed the Inspector, like a proud teacher praising his favourite student. “This has never been about Vishal Agarwal. It has only been about you. I have a feeling he was merely an instrument to torment you. I have questioned the child in detail. According to her, Vishal Agarwal’s exact words were -I would never have done it if it wasn’t for you. You made me do it. It is all your fault.”
“You mean he wasn’t obsessed with me?”
I was a little confused now.
“Maybe he wasn’t. Your team noticed something very interesting, Mr Singh. I was very upset that they went over my crime scene without my permission, but now, I’m glad they did. My constables aren’t very experienced in examining a crime scene, and if we had waited for the special branch to send a team, we would have lost out on this very important clue.”
“What is it?”
“There were no fingerprints on photographs that covered a large part of the wall in Vishal’s house. They were your photographs, Miss Tasha. And there were no prints on any of them. Not even Vishal’s. Isn’t that surprising?”
“Did he wipe them off after he stuck them up there?” I asked doubtfully.
“Considering that the whole house was dirty and dusty, except that little area, I’d suppose it is safe to say that the deceased did not believe in cleaning his house. But, there wasn’t so much as a speck of dust on his shrine to you. What does that tell us?”
“That the killer wanted to make it look like he was obsessed with you. They stuck those photographs on his wall after he died,” said DV grimly.
“Exactly,” said the Inspector happily. “There’s no way to confirm that, though. Vishal was a loner. None of the staff from the commune had ever visited his flat. But I think we can safely assume that it is the killer who is obsessed with you, for some reason, instead of the deceased.”
“And they want me to suffer. That’s what this is all about, especially the leaks to the media. They want me to be humiliated in public, and punished for a crime I haven’t committed,” I said slowly. “So, do you think PrincessBride007 is our killer?”
“Yes. I think they got a little impatient with the pace of our investigation, and decided to make your life even more difficult. Which is why they created that profile on the gossip forum and leaked the bit about Sia.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
Who would hate me so much? I could think only of one person.
I turned to DV desperately.
“Do you think it’s her?”
“I don’t know, Tasha. I haven’t heard anything from Tihar jail yet.”
“Who?” asked Inspector Sawant sharply.
“My mother,” I replied. “She is the only person who has cause to hate me so much. I’m the reason she is in prison for the rest of her life. DV recently made her life in prison very uncomfortable to punish her for the way she’s always treated me, and she’s had all her special privileges taken away. I bet she’s furious about that. And you should know one thing about my mother, Inspector. She does not back away from a fight.”
“I have some contacts in Tihar. I’ll call them right now,” said the Inspector. “This situation is getting out of hand. If your mother is behind all this, we can find out very easily.”
He was back twenty minutes later, looking very grim.
“I don’t understand this at all,” he said. “Your mother has been in solitary confinement for the past few days. Since the night of the murder, in fact. Long before Vishal was killed. And they confiscated her phone the same day. The only person she has been calling is her lawyer. Not Vishal Agarwal, or any other number. She has had no access to the internet, either. It is highly unlikely that she is behind any of this. She couldn’t have ordered a hit on Vishal or leaked the news about Sia.”
“Wow! So now, there’s another person who hates my guts as much as she does. But I haven’t done anything to anyone,” I cried.
“Inspector, is there anything we can do about this situation?” asked DV.
The Inspector nodded.
“As I was saying earlier, the person behind this wants to destroy Miss Tasha’s reputation, to humiliate her in such a way that she can never recover. What if we give them the opposite of that?”
