Dreamy Red

Episode 1 - Devastated Beauty

It was a dark winding road amidst a thick forest. Though the path was desolated, I walked merrily on the cold stones barefooted. I had a mala (a chain made of beads) clutched in my left hand. It was made of clear beads with a pattern of red fluid flowing inside making it appear like balls of blood. There was nothing in sight other than the mysteriously tall pine trees that looked ghastly as they danced along the wind. The only sounds to be heard were that of the crickets chirping.

After walking about two feet, I heard some leaves rustle behind me. I stopped walking. So did the noise of the crickets. There was an eerie silence. I turned around slowly. I saw a dark figure lurking beneath the trees. And the next moment, everything was gone. The trees, the path, all of it was gone. I was in pitch-black darkness. I felt myself being sucked deeper and deeper into the darkness as if into a black hole. And then, I saw them. Tiny twinkling silver slits on bright golden circles. They were eyes. Hundreds of scary little eyes floating in the darkness. All a few feet away from me.

I heard my phone ringing aloud somewhere nearby, which was not pertinent at all. I didn't turn or move. Slowly shadowy figures with four legs and protruding ears appeared around the blood-thirsty eyes. As they were approaching closer, a blurry dim light emerged from nowhere and the appearance of the creatures became clearer. They were hundreds of fierce-looking brownish-coloured large wolves with humungous fangs.

The mighty beasts suddenly started to howl all at once. Aooooh. It sent a spine-chilling shiver. They also started closing in on me with hunger in their cold-blooded eyes. I swallowed in fear. One of the beasts in the front set in motion to pounce at me. I tried to run away, but couldn't move an inch. My legs were frozen on the spot. My body was turning blue. The beast which was swooping over to me gradually turned into a frightening old lady with sagging skin and scars all over her body but with the same wolf eyes. She was grey-haired and was wearing a white frilled dress which was torn here and there. She looked scary just like the wolf disguised as the old lady in the red riding hood tale. She got very very close to me, so close that her blood-drenched cold nose touched that of mine. A shiver of chill passed through me. My legs twitched.

I opened my eyes and saw the fluorescent glowing stars on my ceiling. Ah. It was a dream. I was in my room. Actually, it was more of a nightmare. My phone was still ringing loudly somewhere around. I turned and the phone was right next to me on my pillow. It was 12:59 AM. Who would call at this hour, I wondered. I took the phone and saw that it was Ravi, the police inspector of Shipra Path Police Station and a close friend of mine. "Hello, Ravi", I said when I attended the call. "Bibbi, we have got a case for you!", he told excitedly. "And it is a murder!!" he whispered. He sounded both delighted and frightened and he informed me of the location.

As Bibbitha Chatterjee, the only detective of Ajooba Detective Agency, the only such agency in the whole of Mansarovar, it was my obligation to handle cases that the police found difficult to solve or to say, cases that required smart work.

*****

I reached the crime scene around 01:20 AM wearing a red cotton tank top with a denim jacket, black and white polka dots pyjamas, and my always outgoing denim sneakers. I didn't have the time nor the mood to change into jeans or something more formal. It was damp due to the rains that had subsided by then. The moonlight shone on the massive bungalow. It was a marvel to one's eyes. The Nishanthi Villa was the largest bungalow not just in and around Shipra Path but also around Mansarovar. The building was symmetrical in structure and very artistic in view. It had an English touch to Bengali architecture. No wonder a crime would take place there, it was colossal and seemed horrendous like ancient deserted villas in horror movies.

I parked my white Vespa near the gates and walked toward the building. I was a little bit excited to get in, but I ostentatiously managed to maintain a normal face. Standing near the creepy big gates were Ravi, Karan and Arush.

Ravindra Trivedi became a close friend when he worked at the Mansarovar Police Station. He helped me with many cases until he was transferred to Shipra Path Station. In the silent town of Shipra Path, the crime count was very low. Even if there were any, they were pretty straightforward and needed no detective help. So it was after a very long time that we were working together again.

Karan Sharma was my partner on the job and a great companion. He was never directly involved in investigations, but would rather help me backstage with the paperwork, collecting pieces of evidence, interrogations, etcetera, etcetera. He was the fun bobby of Ajooba Detective Agency. But his face seemed dull. So it must have been a terrible murder.

Arush Walkande was the head constable at Shipra Path Police Station working directly under Ravi. He was a young and energetic guy who had good intuitions when it came to solving cases. We got acquainted when I met with Ravi a few times at Shipra Path police station.

"Bibbi, come inside. You have got to see this!", said Ravi pulling me excitedly towards the enormous building. As I walked on the perfectly paved pathway, I couldn't resist glancing at the spectacular garden. It had topiaries of different animals - turtle, crane, elephant and even a mesmerising horse. The topiaries were all cut neatly with no flaws. A freakishly large Banyan tree stood behind the topiary of a horse.

As we got closer to the building, I noticed that the building was made of half wood and half stone. That's why it was looking phenomenal. The entrance had a four-step stairway with two wooden pillars on each side. The first two pillars facing the garden had carvings of a woman in different postures which pretty much looked more like wooden statues fitted into the pillars. On the left, the woman was dressed in an elegant saree and holding a significantly large, old-fashioned pen. While on the right pillar, the same woman was wearing something similar to a saree which was draped completely over her body like a warrior. She was riding on a creature with a horse body, a serpent's tail and a warthog's face breathing fire. I recollected that in Greek mythology they call the fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail a chimaera. Generally, it could be any animal with parts of different animals.

I took a step back in surprise when we reached the entrance. It was not at all as I had imagined it to be. I turned about and looked at the garden. It seemed majestic and spotlessly clean. And then I turned around again. The inside of the villa looked as though it had been hit by a tornado. Most of the stuff lay scattered here and there on the floor. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 'We will be able to find clues here, Bibbi. Don't worry', I assured myself. Then I opened my eyes and my sight immediately fell on a beautiful figure lying on top of a red couch that stood disoriented at the centre of the hall. Ravi looked in revulsion while Karan's eyes filled with tears. It was the body of the victim.

I walked closer, my focus only on the corpse. The first thing to notice was the dress that the lady was wearing. It was a velvety red silk saree with a sequinned border along with tiny red beads stitched on the edges that were shimmering in the low light. Her blouse was made of shiny red sequin and beads. I had never seen such a royal outfit in my entire life.

She must have had a beautiful face just like her body. The ruthless person who killed her had tampered with her face. It was covered in thick and dark blood that was almost dry. Her nose was smashed and one of her eyes was plucked out. It was as if something had tried to eat her up just to destroy her beauty. However, her hair and the rest of her body remained unharmed. On taking a deeper look, I observed a thin purple bruise around her neck. The killer must have strangled her first before doing that to her face.

From the black camera bag that I had hung over my shoulder along with my sling bag, I took my DSLR camera and photographed the body from different angles and took close-ups. Then I marked the border of the body with chalk.

I saw a photo frame with smears of blood strewn a few feet away. It was the picture of an extremely beautiful woman wearing the same saree as that of the victim. That was, of course, Nishanthi Ghosh, the victim. Her beauty was worth admiring. She was hypnotic. She had everything people usually crave about, wealth and beauty, and that too in abundance. I snapped a photo of the photo frame as well.

A tall and handsome man was sitting silently at the bottom of the stairs thinking very hard. I guessed he might be Armaan Ghosh, Nishanthi's husband. But he seemed a bit emotionless though his wife lay dead. Probably he was in shock. But he seemed to be dubious. So I approached him for a statement. Ravi stopped me just in time and said, "It is better not to question him now." I frowned and turned away without even asking the reason because I was in a bad mood as my nightmare had been stopped midway and then my interrogation.