Dreamy Red

Episode 7 - The Treasure Chest

All of us were at the Villa. Armaan's and Nishanthi's families were informed of the death. Ravi and Armaan were inside the Villa waiting for the body to arrive while I and Karan were investigating the spot where the red car was said to be parked. As it was a tar road and it had rained the previous day, we couldn't spot any tyre marks. But we found stains of blood and a small blue shirt button after scrutinising thoroughly. It was the second piece of evidence after the fingerprints from the attic. But it wasn't much of help though. Everyone wore blue shirts, particularly that shade. How could that help us find the killer, I wondered. Moreover, the killer wouldn't roam around wearing that shirt nor could we ransack all the almirahs in Jaipur.

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Rajesh Ghosh, stout and timid, appeared contrasting to his image developed in the town. He wore a black coat suit with a white shirt and brown leather shoes. Manyavathi, his wife and Armaan's mother, on the contrary, looked like a queen with pompous attire. She wore a dark pink silk saree with a thick golden border. She accessorised herself as though she was attending a wedding and not a funeral.

The depression of having lost his daughter was clear on Naveen Ghosh's crooked face. He wore a plain blue shirt and grey cotton pants with blue slippers. Nishanthi's mother, Shilpa wore an everyday simple green georgette saree with an unembellished border. She appeared tense although she was sad. I felt like she must know something related to the murder. So I called her aside and asked her courteously, "What is the matter, Mrs Ghosh? You look tensed."

She refused initially, but after second thoughts, she whispered to my ears, "Nishu called me yesterday around midnight." She heaved a sigh and shook her head while rubbing her eyebrows with her hands as though she didn't want to talk more about it. "Please feel free to tell me. There won't be any trouble", I reassured her. She nodded and spoke in a dull voice, "She told me that she was pregnant and that she was in some kind of danger." Tears rolled down Shilpa's eyes as she spoke. "I asked her to stay calm and sleep. I tried calling her in the morning but it was switched off. It's all my fault that she is dead now", she asserted and started to cry terribly. So Nishanthi had known that she was in danger.

"Was she really pregnant?", Shilpa asked in an emaciated voice. "Yes", I told her gently. Her face turned red. In spite of my persistent asking, she didn't reveal any more. I was sure she was concealing some other important information as well.

According to the families, Armaan and Nishanthi were a happy couple. They used to fight, but only over petty issues like every other couple. They would attend every function together and be socially interactive with all their relatives. It was rare to find them separate. "People envied their love. So someone must have wanted to wreck it. But killing Nishu? Not possible!! None of our family people would take such a risk", said Rajesh shaking his head. "This could be the work of some of her friends!!" he said, stressing on the last word. So there goes one more person complaining about her friends. People must have envied her friendship more than her beauty or love or wealth.

The body arrived a while later. We prepared a guest list for the funeral. It was the best occasion to interrogate related people and also to keep an eye out for suspicious visitors. While the family was busy with the preparations, I told Karan and Ravi about the treasure chest which I found in the attic. They were excited too and accompanied me to the attic. The precious stones were still sparkling. The strengths of Ravi and Karan combined could not pull the chest aside. Then how come the killer moved it?? Was my theory wrong? How else did he manage to get into the villa?

After watching the chest closely for some time, I observed that the design was not ordinary. It had markings like a map. I finally found a use for the charcoal in my bag. Karan put out his tongue and said with a hint of mockery, "Yes, I knew that the charcoal would be useful someday!" I ignored him and rubbed the charcoal along the surface of the chest. The map became clearer when I dusted it using a brush. It looked like Shipra path with a cross mark somewhere in the middle of the forest behind the villa. I quickly made a replica of the map on a piece of paper and kept it inside my bag.

"Should we take an adventure?", Karan asked enthusiastically. I was intrigued by the map and wanted to explore the forest too. But Ravi was totally against the idea. After a long argument, we decided not to decide anything unless we find a link between the treasure and the murder. So we all got down from the attic and got back to work. Karan and Ravi were to interrogate people while I was supposed to check emails. Before doing that, I collected the chain from the red curtain of the Dreamy Red painting. It was indeed loosely attached. So it was definitely the murder weapon. I asked Sashwath to take it to the agency and place it on my desk.

I pulled out my laptop from my backpack from the boot of my scooty and sat down in the garden on the very same bench where Ravi and I were sitting a few hours ago discussing the murder. I use my laptop to make notes of my findings, upload photographs, prepare reports, and check emails. Before opening the laptop, I rang up Dr Vidhwaan to know the result of the DNA test. Mamu confirmed that Armaan was the father of the child in Nishanthi's womb and Armaan was right about the vase cutting his fingers. This information in fact induced new thoughts in me. What if Armaan murdered Nishanthi because he did not want a child and created all the scenes? In one of my previous cases, the man who filed the FIR was indeed the culprit. This made me put Armaan back on the suspect list. Mamu also told me that the blood on the photo frame belonged to Armaan and the blood from under the sofa belonged to Nishanthi.

"Bibbi, the fingerprints you collected from the cupboard did match a fingerprint. But it belongs to Nishanthi herself", he said in a bewildered tone. Huh?! I was surprised too. So she must have dressed up fancy on her own. Why would she dress up that late at night? Did she try to run away? She must have been in a hurry which could be the only explanation for the rampage in the cupboard. It was a new turn of events. She knew that she was in danger and yet she dressed up to welcome the danger.

"And the hound fur you collected belongs to a Bavarian Mountain Hound. I didn't do much research on it but can assure you that it has got nothing to do with the killing", said mamu with confidence. I thought the same. It had not hurt me when it fled. But I had to be sure. I cut the call and opened my laptop. I opened the browser and typed "Bavarian Mountain Hound" in the search engine and opened an article on it. It read:

The Bavarian mountain hound is one breed that is renowned for forming very strong bonds with their families and being highly devoted to the human members of their pack. They very much like being around people and suffer from separation anxiety if left alone for too long, and they are very quick to show affection with cuddles, wagging tails and lots of licking! They are not considered to be at all aggressive, and make for poor guard dogs, although they can potentially be shy around strangers.

Therefore it was totally confirmed that the hound was innocent and it was not coming back as it had lost its dear master. But there must be some explanation for the bloodstain on its mouth, I wondered. Probably it hurt the killer. So I alerted our team to check if anyone present at the funeral had a wound from a dog bite or if someone is limping. Some lines in the article flashed to my eyes.

As a scent hound breed, they do have something of a tendency to take off after a trail and can be hard to train for reliable recall.

It must have taken off on a trail on the forest path! Something was not quite right about that path. So I opened the map using the Internet. There did exist a forest of trees along Shipra Path. But it wasn't quite dense. The Kartarpura Ganda Naala river ran parallel to the Shipra Path road exactly as shown on the map of the chest. But there wasn't any mountain range to have a cave. Perhaps the cave was hidden within the ground. 

The Aravalli mountain range was at least 10km away from the forest line and the famous Ghat Ki Guni tunnel ran in between those mountains. I did travel through it once in my life when I was happy and contented. It was the best and the worst day of my life. Many things happened that day that changed my life entirely. All the memories came back to me though I tried to push them away.

Just then, a small tree branch fell on me. I immediately looked up. My sight fell on something glittering amidst the branches. I called Karan and he straight away climbed the tree and managed to get the thing. It was a small, antique golden key. I knew exactly where it would fit.