Dreamy Red

Episode 8 - Call from the Dead

I climbed into the attic for the fourth time to open the chest with the key we found. Both Karan and Ravi were busy with their work and so could not accompany me. The key was a perfect fit. The chest made a screeching noise when I opened it. Its inside was not at all dusty and was velvety red. It had nothing other than crumpled paper crumbs. I opened each paper bit and used my torch, lighter and even magnifying glass to see if there were any secretive codes. But the effort was futile. They were only plain empty white papers. The owner would have placed them to fool the person who opens the chest or perhaps there was something fragile kept in between. I pondered over how the key ended up on the tree. My assumption was that the killer must have opened the chest, taken whatever was in it and thrown the keys out, which had landed on the tree.

I closed the chest and went down back to the couple's bedroom. I had kept my laptop on their bed. I sat on their bed and opened the laptop, then the browser and then clicked on the inbox icon. Arjun's message was at the top of the mailbox. Before opening it, I mailed him the IMEI number of Naveen's phone which I got from Mrs Kannan.

In his email, the details of all the phones with their call records on that particular day were listed in reverse order of time with a special footnote. It read:-

Nishanthi Villa's Landline (141 7335 6889):

Received— 12:20 AM— +91 4545037890— Chaitanya Gupta— 2 sec

Dialled— 12:01 AM— +91 2823451235— Shilpa Ghosh— 4 min

Nishanthi's Cell Phone (+91 6564837345):

Received— 6:32 PM— +91 8893422119— Naveen Kannan— 15 min

Armaan's Cell Phone (+91 7878560143):

Null

Naveen's Cell Phone (+91 8893422119):

Dialled— 06:45 PM— +91 4545088890— Sidhanshu Gupta— 10 min

Dialled— 06:30 PM— +91 6564837345— Nishanthi Ghosh— 15 min

Received— 05:11 PM— +91 4545088890— Sidhanshu Gupta— 5 min

Received— 03:36 PM— +91 4890032456— Sankalp Srivatsav— 7 min

!! Found nothing suspicious on Nishanthi's phone. So sent it back to Armaan via Arush.

Naveen and Nishanthi had spoken for about 15 minutes. They might have discussed their problem. If only I had a recorded copy of that call, I would have solved the case in a jiffy.

Sidhanshu Gupta must have been the unknown Sid who Mrs Kannan recalled to have called Naveen out. I had heard of the Gupta family. They were also an immense business group in the town like the Ghosh family. Perhaps the Ghosh and the Gupta were rivals. The revenge must have been taken through Nishanthi or there could have been a personal enmity between Chaitanya and Nishanthi. Or else, why would he call at that time and hang up immediately? The brothers could have planned and killed Nishanthi and kidnapped Naveen who could have found some secret. I thought that he could be dead too if we did not act sooner.

After a bit of research on the internet and social media, I found out that Chaitanya was Chirathu Gupta's eldest son and Sidhanshu the younger one. The most surprising fact was that Chaitanya was dead long ago. Exactly after three days, it would be his third death anniversary. I also did find out that it was the same day when Nishanthi and Armaan got married. So it was the couple's wedding anniversary too. I felt sad about the fact that instead of a celebration, there were going to be condolences.

Chaitanya had died in a car accident. It was evident in the news article that his body was burnt to ashes along with his car. To confirm it, I asked Ravi who was passing by because the article read that he was the police in charge and he was actually on the spot during the gruesome event. "Yeah. I witnessed the scene myself. I was also passing on the same highway. His car was at high speed, it hit the median and skidded. Swish!" Ravi said with sound effects and actions. "The car flew into the forest, shattered into pieces and burned up. It was too late for any of us to go help and we could not find any remains."

If there were no remains, what if he had escaped?! What if he was alive and killed Nishanthi?! I thanked Ravi and immediately sent another email to Arjun to trace Chaitanya's phone. The next email in my inbox was also from Arjun, in it he had sent a small map showing the location of Naveen's phone. It was beside the highway. Almost near the same location where Chaitanya had died. I informed Ravi and he at once took off to the spot with his team.

When I was asking Mrs Kannan about Sankalp, my phone rang. "Hi Arjun", I said when I picked up the call. "Bibbi, there is a complexity!" Why should he put his words so seriously and polished all the time, I thought. "The number which you sent me now is an unregistered one", Arjun said hurriedly. "Then why did you use Chaitanya's name?", I questioned avidly. "Is it?", he questioned. "Yes", I replied. "Probably because the number belonged to him when he was alive. Someone must be using it illegally!" "So, isn't there a chance that he could still use the number if he had the sim?", I asked sulkily. "No way. Don't be ridiculous, Bibbi. No calls can be made on or to an unregistered number. I don't know how they managed to use that number. Do try and see if you want." And he quit the call.

I dialled the number and gave it a call as Arjun had said. It was ringing. What was Arjun talking about? I could call. I was not ridiculous! But then, the call was cut. I redialled. But this time I could hear the message of the customer service! I got goosebumps. I could hear a blood-curdling scream within me. Again, I gave it a trial. No, it was the same service message. My hands turned numb in fear. It was a ghost call. I panicked. Karan saw me from a distance and laughed. I got back to my senses. There were no such things as ghosts in the world. I scowled at him and continued looking at my laptop.

I entered Sankalp's phone number and gave him a call. Mrs Kannan had told me that she knew him well. Sankalp told me that he had called casually and that he did not know of any Sidhanshu Gupta. The same was the reply by other friends of Naveen. I asked about Naveen's girlfriend. Nope, none of them knew her too. Either they were all lying or Sid must have befriended Naveen inconspicuously for some unknown motive. And the same applied to his girlfriend whose name I didn't know yet which was such a shame for a detective. So, I asked Karan to find out about the Guptas and Naveen's girlfriend.

Sid could have been behind the murder and the kidnap. He could have illegally used his brother's phone number. A theory that I thought of was that Sidhanshu must have killed Nishanthi to avenge his brother's death as there could have been a connection between Chaitanya's death and Nishanthi's marriage. Anyhow he was already at the top of my Suspect list. We had to find Naveen before it was too late or was it already too late, we did not know.

Slowly, the guests started to arrive. It was almost 4 PM. I was anxiously waiting for just one person who would be a great help in both cases and also a prime suspect. Just then Ravi called. "Bibbi, I found Naveen's phone! It was in a municipal dustbin covered in a light orange transparent cover. We are still conducting the search for Naveen. We have also found some broken car parts beside a tree here. A car must have hit the tree or perhaps something in between." I could sense the ambiguity. He might have meant that the car must have hit a person. "The car should be red and probably a sports car", said Ravi adding more details.

Red car? Was it the car that stood in front of Kundra's house? Was it the one that came in my recent dream? Was Naveen murdered too? Was he the one who was shot from behind me? There were incessantly several questions in my mind. And a point to be noted was that Naveen's phone was also sealed in a cover just like Nishanthi's. Something valuable must have been in their cell phones, which could have been taken off their phones and wrapped up in coloured packets before disposing of them.