Dreamy Red

Episode 3 - Hideous Hound

I saw two bright yellow and round twinkling eyes in the darkness. As I was looking, they started to rise. I closed my eyes in fear and turned my head the other way toward the topiaries. Suddenly, the horse's topiary came to life. It began prancing through the lawn elegantly and gave a mocking neigh at me. It was creepy. I turned my head back toward the banyan tree. The eyes beneath the tree were fitted on the very same frightening old lady from my nightmare. She floated in the air toward me and passed right through me and disappeared into thin air. Then I realised that I was hallucinating. Ravi shook me vigorously to bring me back to my senses. I opened my eyes, stood upright and took a deep breath. Arush brought water from inside the villa and offered it to me. I drank some and sat back on the bench.

I could hear a feeble growl from behind. I turned cautiously towards the tree. A fierce-looking hound was tied to the tree with a heavy metal chain. It was amber in colour with teeth as sharp as razors. It was neither fat nor thin, neither tall nor short. It was like a model dog, fit and beautiful. I had no idea what breed it belonged to. I observed the hound for a few minutes from where I stood. I realised that it wasn't as ferocious as it appeared to be. It was raising its front paw as though it wanted me to pet it.

Anyways, neither of us had the guts to get closer. Even from the distance, I could notice some stains of fresh blood in its mouth. It was clearly visible due to its light-coloured fur. Did the hound kill its own master? No, dogs are always loyal. Anyhow, I didn't want to take a chance. So, I rang up Pradeep, the dog tamer, or that's how we called him because he was passionate about dogs and knew everything about them. He was the Police Inspector of Sanganer Police Station who was yet another acquaintance of mine. He usually used to have night duty so I didn't have to put much thought into ringing him up. "I'll be there around ten in the morning, Bibbi. Currently, I have some other work to do", he promised.

*****

Ravi stood near the entrance keeping a watch on the gates while I and Arush were searching for clues inside the villa. Any evidence was not easy to find. The building was three-storied and had stuff in every nook and corner. We first began the investigation from the Hall. I found it unusual that everything was almost themed to match the most attractive colour. The vases, the wall, the curtains and even the telephone were all red in colour. Oh yes, the phone. I had to check with Arjun, our help with the telephone lines. He had contact with all the cell phone carrier operators and could get any information in a jiffy. Since it was late at night, I couldn't call him. So I dropped him a mail from my phone requesting to find out the details of all the phones registered in Nishanthi Villa including Armaan and Nishanthi's mobiles. I also requested him to trace Naveen's phone because I had an instinct that he could be involved in some way or the other.

We began with the red sofa where the body was found. There was nothing significant on the top. So I photographed it before we upturned it. The underneath was full of thick red blood. On the bottom side of the sofa, I noticed a fluffy mass of hair. It was the same colour as that of the hound outside. Amber. I pulled out a pair of tongs from my sling bag and collected the fur in an empty sachet and placed it back in my bag.

I always used to carry my sling bag and my camera bag wherever and whenever I went on business. It was specially made for me with denim cloth by a close friend of mine who owned a boutique. It was spacious with several compartments to fit all my stuff. The bag contained a magnifying glass, a gas lighter, a pack of empty transparent plastic sachets, a pack of tissues, a pair of pearl white handkerchiefs, a pair of surgical gloves, a blue-coloured surgical mask, an eye-protecting pair of plastic goggles, Lycopodium powder (fingerprint powder), two rolls of clear adhesive tape, a pack of latent lift cards, a few cotton swabs, a pair of tongs, forceps, tweezers, six glass vials with wooden corks in a plastic container with partitions for collecting liquid samples, a piece of charcoal, a small box of limestone chalks, a fibre dusting brush, a swiss knife, a small water bottle with water, my purse, a small notebook with an attached pen for notes and a mini torch. The mini torch was not ordinary as it could produce bright LED light along with UV light, laser beams and infrared waves, all with a click of a button. The charcoal was the only one which I never used. It could be used for visualising hidden codes or something like that. Karan usually mocks me for carrying it.

I collected some blood samples from underneath the sofa and some from the photo frame using cotton swabs and put them in separate plastic sachets and into my bag. Arush exclaimed, "Bibbi madam, can it not be that the dog smashed out the lady's face and pulled her over to the sofa?" I laughed before he could even complete it. I don't know why I felt it was funny though it wasn't supposed to be. Maybe it was because of the way he said it. "Rather, is it not a possibility that the dog just sits under the sofa and some of its furs remain?" I raised my eyebrows as I spoke. Arush said in an intimidating voice dragging the words as he spoke, "Might be a possibility. But I doubt that dog. Did u look at its teeth? It had blood!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Arush. How do you think that it was tied up again to the fence?!", I commented. He frowned. The next moment, his face lit up as though he had been enlightened and he exclaimed, "You know what? Ridiculous people kill and ridiculous people like you and I get ridiculous thoughts to catch those ridiculous people!" Oh my gosh. Arush and his inexplicable amusement. However, the fact was appreciable. What if someone had used the hound as a weapon for the murder?

He didn't stop his silliness there. He remarked, "You should collect a sample of its saliva. Might come in handy." "Why don't you collect it yourself?" I snapped. He ignored me and yawned. "Bibbi madam, I am tired. I want to take a nap." He then turned and shouted to Ravi, "Sir, can I take a nap here?" He pointed to a divan beside the window. "Yeah, sure. I'll be going home in an hour. After that, I need you to guard the villa till morning. So take as much rest as you want until then", shouted back Ravi. Arush frowned, turned to look at me and said, "I won't be disturbing you. In case you need any help, do wake me up". I nodded. That would be best, I thought. With no one pestering me on every silly finding, I would be able to search peacefully. I was quite surprised at how he laid down and he went off to sleep at once.

I put on my gloves and began the hunt. I noticed a pair of massive Italian-style doors in the hallway, above which was written "Gallery" in big bold letters. I decided to scavenge it only after a good night's sleep because I sensed that it could be a massive room. After all, I was drowsy too.

After finishing with the Hall, the kitchen and the dining on the ground floor, I went upstairs. The time was almost 3 AM. All I found were some broken vase pieces with blood. I knew that the blood was Armaan's. But I had to make sure he hadn't lied about it. So I took a sample just in case. Even on the first floor, I found nothing suspicious. On the topmost floor, the first room was the couple's bedroom. I opened it and it was unscathed. Only a few more stuff to investigate, then I could go home and have some good sleep, I thought to myself. The dreadful scene of Nishanthi's body kept coming over and over into my mind. That is what made me work harder although I was pretty much exhausted.

My sight at once fell on a mala on the bedside table. It was made of bright red beads. I was shocked. I had never seen it before, but somehow it was exactly like the one from my dream. I pinched myself. Ouch. My pinch hurt. I wasn't hallucinating. The mala was right in front of my eyes shining brightly. First, the hound and then the mala. Was I gonna bump into the old frightening lady next, I wondered. Without any second thoughts, I photographed the mala and kept the mala inside my bag not realising what trouble it could cause.

I found nothing on, under, behind or beside the bed. There was a rustic wooden bookshelf with many books of different genres. I quickly ran my hands through the books but found nothing suspicious. Then I opened the wooden cupboard attached to the wall. Surprisingly, it was completely messed up. Perhaps the killer was not so smart enough to not let behind a clue. I clicked some photographs using my camera and collected the fingerprints from the handle of an inner drawer which was half-open. I messed it up even further trying to search for more clues though I didn't find any.

I could hear the sounds of dripping water from the attached bathroom. I went in and closed the tap. My eyes spotted something red behind the pipes. Concealed behind the pipes was a phone covered front and back in a transparent reddish silicon case. Why should everything be red in here, I wondered. I photographed the phone case, collected the fingerprints using the latent lift cards and then carefully kept the phone along with its cover inside my bag.

Arush had slept way too long. I could even hear his loud snores from up there. It was time to wake him up as I had spotted a hidden wooden trapdoor at the ceiling in a corner of their room. It was almost invisible because it was painted white just like the ceiling.