Keeping Secrets

Chapter 6

Raghav was all but five feet tall. He was fair with striking, light coloured eyes, and had a bristly, unkempt beard that made him look scruffy despite his crisp, formal clothing. He was filling in for his father, the actual owner and manager of Barnette Villa, who had fractured his knee in a minor accident, and was on leave. Raghav was around 26, with a raucous voice and an arrogant, impatient demeanour that made him hard to like. He was the one who had called the police to report the murder.

Gaurav cut right to the chase, "Why did you murder Nikki?"

"Sir, why would I hurt a guest on my own property? I did not even know that girl. I did not murder anyone." Raghav's response sounded modest, assertive and a little oversmart for someone who had, in the least, undoubtedly tampered with the crime scene.

"Then why did you hide her phone?"

"Sir... I... actually... sir."

"Don't you dare try to cook up a story now." Gaurav pounded his fist on the table aggressively, and Raghav shuddered.

"Sir, I did steal her phone, but I swear I had nothing to do with the murder. I never hurt anyone. I just snuck her phone away because it looked expensive."

"Raghav, I'm not fucking dumb. A girl is dead. There's no way you thought nobody would look for her phone. I know you had taken photos of Maya drinking to blackmail her. I have no reason to believe a jerk like you."

"Sir, I did blackmail the other two girls, but it wasn't because they were drinking. They were hiding from their friends and doing something else in the gazebo. I even have pictures. They are lying."

Gaurav had to stop his mind from registering what he had just heard. His head wandered back to Maya's apparent reluctance that made her look dishonest, but any indulgence from him right now could take the heat off Raghav, the only suspect they had any incriminating evidence against at this point.

"That's great, but it's not important to the case. Now, why did you take the phone?"

"Sir, actually... I... "

"If you're thinking of a way to explain stealing a dead girl's phone that doesn't make you look like a killer, give up."

"Sir, I... I... I do drugs, so I'm always in need of cash. I cannot afford to draw any more suspicion from my father. He will disown me and throw me onto the streets. I just... just saw an expensive phone and got tempted to make some money. I'm sorry I did that. When I called to report the body, Dad had called and told me to get everyone in one place outside the villa. I was the last one to check all the rooms and leave, and I just... got tempted. I was not thinking straight. By the time I reached downstairs, I heard your cars pull into the gates. I panicked, and without thinking, switched it off and left it there in the statue that was right in front of me," Raghav seemed to be putting on his most remorseful face from the way he kept looking towards Gaurav for validation.

Gaurav grabbed Raghav's collar, towering over the stout man and further reducing him in structure and in standing.

"You must really have a head full of shit if you think I'll buy any of that nonsense. Why should I even believe you did not murder her for the phone then, you fucking dope head?" Gaurav's teeth were gritted in anger and his voice had turned into a growl. He could see the residue of the drug still sitting around Raghav's nostrils from up close.

"Sir, I really don't know anything else. Please believe me." Raghav's entire body was trembling in Gaurav's grasp. The fear in his striking amber eyes seemed far more genuine than the remorse in his words and Gaurav was still not ready to believe him. Nikki's battered face flashed before Gaurav's eyes fuelling his rage.

"You fucking swine, if I find out one lie in your whole story, this will be the kindest that I have ever been to you."

With that, he called one of the officers and asked them to get a warrant issued for Raghav's arrest with charges of drug abuse and destruction of evidence. He also immediately asked another officer for Raghav's phone and searched with Nikki's number. There was just one chat that showed up, where Nikki had messaged him asking for directions on the day that they reached the villa. There was nothing else out of place, but he still sent Raghav's number to the phone company to get his call records.

Next, he spoke to Ahmen, Neil and Asad. They were drinking and playing card games in their room on the ground floor until the bonfire started. Then, they had gone out to drink and play some music. Their gazebo was further away from the other two so they were not aware of the incident between Raghav and the girls. Later at night, however, Ruby had joined them. She was flirting with Ahmen, and he invited her to join them for a smoke. He was not prepared for her to announce it to all her friends, and for everyone to join in. Then, after all of them left, it was just Debbie who was left with the band. She was already quite upset and Neil's attempts to flirt with her were not looking very helpful, so when Neil followed Debbie out of the balcony, Ahmen and Asad had gone too, but when they stopped to get a jacket from their room, Asad had conked out and was impossible to even budge, so Ahmen gave up and went to find Debbie. She and Anushka were a couple and Anushka was clearly hooking up with Maya right in front of Debbie's eyes. When Anu had finally gone to bed with Maya, it was the last nail in the coffin.

Anushka revealed that nobody in Maya's group seemed to know that Maya was a lesbian. They just assumed that she was too studious and conscientious to date anyone. She hesitantly admitted that she too had lied to Maya about being single because she wanted to have a shot with her. Before going, she also mentioned to Gaurav that she had felt some sort of chemistry between Nikki and Kevin during the dance.

Debbie told Gaurav that it was not uncharacteristic of Anushka to become quite the philanderess anytime she got drunk. Their situationship had been toxic from the start. Anushka was a narcissist, and Debbie herself a mess of insecurities, that was drawn to Anu's big ego and personality like a moth to a flame. Debbie claimed that she usually played it cool, afraid of scaring Anushka away with her intense feelings, but this was a trip Anu had planned. Debbie was trying to move on with her life without Anu, but she had pleaded with Debbie for a last chance. This was the trip where she wanted to show Debbie how much she means to her. She also confirmed that Neil and Ahmen were with her in the dining hall, and talking for what seemed like half an hour, Neil quickly lost interest and went back to sleep but Ahmen had stayed, and they had spent some more time talking before going for a walk near the pool, where he kept telling her to ditch Anushka for her own good. He was "sweet but a little overbearing" in her words. Debbie, being an introvert, was a little relieved to see Anu and found her moment to escape the pressure of making a promise to a stranger.

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Gaurav only realized that his cigarette was over when it burnt his lips, startling him. If Nikki really was everything her friends said she was, why would anyone want her dead? Perhaps she had seen or heard something she should not have. He had hardly ever heard of such a violent attack where the perpetrator was a stranger, or where the motive was not extremely personal.

Strangling and stabbing are both crimes that require intimacy, and in Gaurav's books, needed a personal vendetta, and the robbery angle had been ruled out with everyone confirming that nothing expensive was missing. Wanting to wipe someone off the face of this world requires hatred to start with, but he believed that it took something more than that for a person to want to witness the helplessness of a dying person as up-close as possible. That was not a job for just hatred. It needed something more, something that bred and festered in a dark corner of the human psyche where other feelings get pushed to make room for love against reason. In this case, however, it was a bunch of fiesty, reckless and drunk young adults, so it could just have been a conversation gone wrong, but his gut told him that Nikki had been betrayed by someone, whether it was someone from the wolfpack or not. He also wondered at the complexity of human relationships and the irony of it. He remembered Ryan mention that this was Nikki's safe space, the place where she had learnt to trust despite whatever else life had shown her. For someone to have breached that hard-earned trust and unleash an act of such colossal treachery, under the noses of at least 4 other people who were a part of her fortress made every relationship look like a joke.

It was these instances that had made Gaurav lose his own faith in such surreal, worldly bonds and the many sacrifices they demanded: the price people pay to feel loved. He wondered if Nikki had gotten a chance to see her attacker's face, and if so, how the bitter reality of her life would have plagued her final moments!