Dreamy Red

Episode 19 - Justice Served

"R-Ravi, R-Ravi, p-please come asap to the location I'm sending you", I stuttered to Ravi on the phone and sent him the location of Joseph's home. Dad was petrified. So was I. I had never ever encountered a death right in front of my eyes. Joseph's body was lying on the floor with blood oozing out of his head. There were smears of blood on my face too. I wiped them using my handkerchief.

Looking at his body, I realised the fact that it was not the beads that made him do the wrong things, but he was indeed a wrong person at heart. Once a criminal is always a criminal. He had killed my innocent mom and separated us kids from our dad. I was blaming dad unnecessarily all those years. Life would have been very different and wonderful if I had left my ego years ago.

Dad having learnt that his best friend was responsible for his misery, he knelt down beside the dead Joseph, pulled him up with the collar of his shirt and shouted to him, "If Bhairavi was like a sister to you, was my Vaishu not like a sister to you? I need answers, Joseph, get up!" "Dad, please be calm. Leave him", I told him and pulled him away from the body. "He shouldn't have done so, I should have been the one to kill him!", said dad angrily to me also shedding a few tears. I hugged him and said, "It's ok. Whatever happened has happened. Let's forget it." He was the wise man who put sense in me in the first place. So instead of being mature, he was behaving like a child. I commanded him to sit in the car outside.

Ravi reached the location within 10 minutes. He was thunderstruck seeing what he saw. "Bibbi, how did this happen?", Ravi asked. "He shot himself in the head with a gun while he was talking with us", I replied sadly. "He was dad's best friend", I claimed. "Dad?", Ravi asked astonished. I forgot that no one knew about my reunion with dad.

I explained to Ravi whatever happened. He smiled and told me, "Sometimes, some things are not in our control, Bibbi. We shouldn't lose a relationship because of self-esteem. But anyway, now that things are sorted, I'm happy for you. And Joseph deserved to die. So don't feel bad about it." And he marked the case as suicide and handed the case to the local Jagatpura police station. I took photographs of the scene for documentation purposes even though the case didn't fall in my area of jurisdiction.

*****

I drove dad home. Mrs Bhairavi was waiting for us on the sofa. Dad walked hurriedly towards his room. He didn't even look at her. "What happened, Ji?", she asked while blocking him on his way. Dad looked at Mrs Bhairavi angrily and said with fury, "Your so-called dear brother Joseph killed the love of my life and made my life miserable!! Don't act as if you didn't know any of this! I know you had hands in all of this too!" And he stormed off to his room.

Bhairavi sat down in shock. I was shocked too. Why was he blaming poor Mrs Bhairavi for Joseph's mistake? She started crying silently. I sat down beside her. "Maa, can I call you maa?", I asked her softly. She nodded while tears were rolling down her cheeks continuously. I comforted her by saying, "Maa, Dad needs some time. He is just angry right now. He just got to know some bitter truths. I'm sure he will realise soon that you had nothing to do with it." She stopped me midway and asked, "Wait. What happened?" And I told her the entire story.

"Oh my god. I believed Jospeh so much. I didn't think he would do such a thing for his best friends. I never even knew Vaishnavi. One day, she suddenly pooped out of nowhere and asked me to marry her husband. She had a knife in her hand and threatened to die if we didn't get married. We had no other go. Poor Kamal Ji. I had no idea Joseph was behind all these", she said sadly. "If he hadn't killed himself, I would have!", she said angrily. She then stood up and washed her face in the sink nearby. She looked like she didn't have any remorse for the death of Joseph. She walked to me and said softly, "Thank you for believing me". I smiled back and hugged her.