Dreamy Red

Episode 9 - Suspecting the Angel

Alas, the person for whom I waited arrived. Or so I thought. The man who I mistook to be Karthik happened to be Naman Ghosh, Nishanthi's elder brother. Since he was not that close with his sister, he did not have any profitable information. After some time, an extremely handsome man entered through the gates wearing a black shirt with two of the top buttons open, blue jeans and black denim sneakers. He was like an angel from the skies. Fit and ravishing. Cupids were hovering around with their arrows of love in my imagination. His eyes were just like my Vi... Never mind. What was I thinking? I was there to solve a case, not to flirt. But he was alluring. I couldn't just take my eyes off him.

Just then, his eyes met mine. I blushed inadvertently. 'Oh, my god! Stop it, Bibbi! Behave!', I scolded myself in a very low voice. I thought of turning away, but he seemed to look straight at me and seemed to approach me. Before I could even react, he was right in front of me and asked me in a euphonious voice, "Are you the lady detective I spoke to?" Huh?! When did I speak to him? Oh, he must be Karthik, I thought. I banged my head with my palm in exasperation and started sweating profusely. I was behaving weirdly.

Karthik brought his fingers in front of my face and snapped them twice. "Heyy!", I reacted. I got irritated. What was he thinking? He could be handsome, but he shouldn't be so much of an attitude freak! And yet, he did it again. I got even more frustrated and at once asked him with arrogance, "What is it?"

His eyes enlarged in an egoistic way and he commanded, "Woah! I asked you a question!" He paused in between sentences. "Didn't get a reply yet!" He frowned. "If you are not the detective, just say it. Why the different expressions on the face?!" He put his hands up and shrugged. Then he turned to walk away. He had crossed his limits. I was boiling in anger. I snapped my fingers too, but the sound was faint and inaudible as they were weak snaps. So I thought not to snap again in front of him, or else it will be insulting to me.

I shouted at him angrily, "Heyy!! I am Bibbitha Chatterjee!" I mocked as I spoke, "The lady detective to whom you spoke with!!" He turned around and smiled ingeniously. Then my voice changed and I sounded melodious, "I was quite surprised to see you that..." Shit. I was supposed to be angry! "Um. I am sorry. I was in deep thought. Shall we sit somewhere, so we could be comfortable?", I spoke foolishly. Comfortable for what? Was I crazy? I was creating a bad impression. It was awkward. He might not even like to talk to me. I was so miserable.

There was an unexpectedly sudden change in his attitude after I talked. He rubbed his fingers on his eyes, shook his head and said reluctantly, "I am sorry too. I shouldn't have spoken that way! Arg... I am an idiot!" He placed his palms on his forehead in guilt. Then softening his tone, he spoke, "I am quite stressed about losing both my friends. On top of that, Naveen's mom is shouting at me as though I kidnapped Naveen. I want to leave right away. Shall we meet tomorrow at the local cafe around 2 PM?" He was asking me on a date and how could I reject the angel? "Ok", I said avoiding any edgy moments and he left. 'It is not a date, Bibbi, it is an interrogation', I reminded myself.

As he was leaving, I noticed that he was staring at a woman who was talking with Karan a few yards away. She was gorgeous. She wore a white buttoned shirt and a mini black office skirt with black stilettos. She must have come directly from the workplace. I pictured Karthik and her together. Wow. They looked like a picture-perfect couple just like Armaan and Nishanthi. I wanted to see Naveen's girlfriend! I bet she was beautiful too. But I felt a little jealous as all those thoughts reminded me of my love. 'I should stop thinking too much, I told myself.

Karan still hadn't found out about Naveen's girlfriend or about the Gupta family. Even from the distance, I could make out that Karan was being such a flirt. The woman unexpectedly gave a sideways glance at Karthik. Karthik scuffled and left without another look. The lady scowled and turned away too. It was clear that they were a couple who had a fight.

At a distance, I spotted a familiar face. It was Nadhiya, Shamesh chachu's past love. Due to unwelcome circumstances, they both couldn't get married. Shamesh chachu lived unmarried with her memories. She looked the same as the last time I had seen her. I knew she wouldn't recognise me as she had seen me last when I was a kid. I introduced myself as an anonymous detective dealing with the case. She told me that she was Nishanthi's eldest sister. But, how was it possible? She would be almost the same age as my mother while Nishanthi was younger than me. However, she too didn't have any useful information regarding the case. With this chance, I asked her, "Where is your husband?" She turned blue. "I'm not married yet", she exclaimed. Perfect, I thought. I could help them get back together whenever I got the chance.

After she left, Karan walked to me and whispered, "Mrs Kannan was right about Karthik! You do remember Nats, right?!" Nats was Natasha Agarwal, Samantha's sister. Samantha was Karan's brother, Rahul's fiancee. Karan would talk of them very often. So I knew her name. "Yes, I do remember", I said with no interest. "She is hot, isn't she?", he said with sparkling eyes. Perhaps he hadn't known of her affair with Karthik. "But she is in a bad mood today because of that stupid Karthik! But I think they are soon gonna be exes and I'll become her boyfriend", said Karan enthusiastically. "So rude, Karan. They are still in love. It's visible in their eyes", I said dramatically. Karan got angry at this and said that Nats informed him that Karthik molested Nishanthi a week ago.

I was shocked! "Are you sure?", I questioned. "Yes! She was sure because Nishanthi had told her. Nishanthi had not complained of it to anyone but Nats", said Karan with a scowl. The angel seemed demonic. "I think Karthik is behind all this!!", Karan said quickly. "Then, what about Sidhanshu??", I asked. "Sid is out of town, you know. The call must have been made by Karthik himself. He is a technology geek after all. I don't know what Nats sees in him anyways?!" "Why not? He is handsome and angelic. Any girl would fall for him", I spoke quickly too. "You too, Bibbi!!", he said grumpily and stormed off, but put me into thought. Karthik could be the killer. He was reluctant to talk to me and was acting strangely. If he had really misbehaved with Nishanthi, then he could be behind all this. Or did Nishanthi make it up because she hadn't told anyone else? Anyways, I was going to meet him. I could make everything clear then.

A while later when I was standing near the banyan tree with my hands folded and looking at what everyone was doing, Armaan saw me from a distance and waved at me. I waved back. He came closer and said, "I saw you taking a red curtain from Nishu's favourite painting. But due to the guests, I couldn't talk to you then." I sighed and said, "I guess that the chain in the red curtain was used to strangle Nishanthi because it matched the specifications in the autopsy report." "Oh, but the curtain was not there yesterday", Armaan declared. "Nishu painted the Dreamy Red a month ago but didn't sell it as she wanted to keep it for herself. She didn't put any curtain or string in it. So, it's not ours", he told me with concern. The art was made a month ago when all this mess began. So it must be holding some secret which is why the killer had hidden it with a curtain. Or Nishanthi would have hidden it and the killer strangled her to death with its string. There were so many possibilities.

Before Armaan could leave, without further ado, I asked Armaan about the chest which I was longing to ask about. "That one was in there when Badde papa presented the Villa to us. We couldn't move it. So left it as such", he told me. Badde papa in Hindi means father's elder brother. "So, didn't you ask him about it?", I questioned him. "Yes, we did. He told us that it was a relic of a marvel and that it would be safe with us. So we didn't bother much about it." My curiosity was raising. "What kind of a marvel? And where is he now?", I asked urgently. "I don't know where he is now and what kind of a marvel he was speaking of. All I know is that he was an archaeologist and his friend was an architect who helped build this Villa. Dad couldn't tolerate him even a bit. So he was forced to move out with his family to god knows where." He sounded serious.

"Ok. What about the hound?", I asked. "Twinkle is a sweet doggy. It was given to Nishu by her mom. Though I had never been comfortable with it nearby, I know it would do no harm to Nishu. She loved it as her own child and would never let it go anywhere else. I wanted to keep the dog and take care of it just like how she did", he said sadly shedding a few tears.