Dreamy Red

Episode 12 - The Mysterious Red Volvo

"Past love? She had a past love?!", I asked quickly with interest. It was a new twist in the tale. So there was a possibility that Nishanthi could have planned to flee with her ex-boyfriend which was why she could have gotten dressed up. But I could not jump to conclusions. Karan spoke breaking the suspense, "Nishu's past love was none other than Chaitanya Gupta." Whoah. That was really a vital and spicy piece of information. "They studied together in college. She fell in love with him, not knowing his true motives. He was actually a flirtatious bad guy ruining the lives of young and pretty girls." Oh. Some really whacky truths were coming out.

"She later broke up with him when she got to know that. At around the same time, Armaan proposed to her and she readily accepted. Manyavathi says that Nishanthi loved Armaan very much and would never even think of betraying him. But as she was talking about Chaitanya trying to stop their marriage, Rajesh returned." Karan turned despondent. He spoke in a low voice, "Manyavathi was scared of seeing her husband and you should have seen the look on her face! The pompous lady became like a mouse and hid me immediately under the staircase. I even saw Rajesh slap her from the distance! He was completely drunk. I couldn't do anything about that. I felt so bad for her. She did not even protest. Then she signalled me to leave and I silently sneaked out." We all sighed. As the old saying goes, 'Do not judge a book by its cover', though Manyavathi looked bossy, she wasn't one.

It was almost 10 AM. I had to get ready. There were lots to do. We had to check on Sid, then Arpitha, then Kamal and then Karthik at the local cafe around lunchtime. Arfaaz had already confirmed that Naveen did meet Sid and Sid hadn't really gone to London. He had faked it and after meeting him, Naveen went missing. So it was obvious that Sid was involved in some or the other way.

Somehow the thought of Armaan being alone in that terrifying bungalow made me feel uneasy. So I gave him a call. He said that he was on the way to the airport to drop off Nishanthi's family who lived in Ahmedabad. So he was safe and there was nothing to worry about. However, I asked Ravi to send Arush to protect Armaan and give him company at the villa.

After taking a shower and having breakfast, I and Karan left for Chirathu Vilas which was in Model Town that was about 8km away. On the way near Jawahar circle, I bought Sashwath a wireless headphones which he had a craving for from a big digital shop. It was worth 5k. Karan gaped at the rate. "What? A gift needs to be worthy", I told him. It was a gift of both gratitude and love. "I haven't given him anything ever since he came home. He has helped me and mamu a lot in the case", I told Karan.

*****

'Chirathu Vilas' was engraved on the enormous compound wall. It was 11:15 AM. The gates were locked. Before we could think of a way to get in, a man in a checked shirt from the nearby house shouted from inside his compound wall which was short enough for him to see us, "Sid and Christy just left for the airport. Whom do you wish to meet?" He was leaning from his compound wall. Karan asked, "Were they here all these days? They were supposed to be in London. Isn't it?" The man seemed confused and started scratching his head.

Suddenly, his gate opened and a pretty lady aged around 30 walked elegantly towards us. She looked at Karan with raised eyebrows and asked him with resentment in her eyes, "Do you still remember me??" Karan was getting palpitations on her seeing her. He stammered, "Tri.. tri... tri... Trisha. What, what ... are you... doing here?!" Trisha? Was she really Trisha Trivedi?! I interrupted, "Trisha, how come?" Her gaze switched to me. "You must be Bibbitha. So you do know about me then. Are people even talking about me?", she said with satire.

Of course, I knew her. She was Ravi's younger sister and Karan's once love interest. They broke up because Karan had not trusted her well. She left him and asked him never to show his face. Ravi never mentioned her after that and stayed the same with Karan. I was not a detective at that time nor was friends with them. Karan's and Ravi's history of friendship began even before I was involved. But because of this bitterness, they lost their closeness.

"But Ravi said you were at Chennai doing your degree", I stated. With the same acrimony, she replied, "Yes, but that was years ago. I'm now married and that man scratching his head..." she looked at him with disgust while she spoke, "...is my husband! I wish one could do a degree for more than four years", she added with sarcasm. She looked angry as well as disappointed.

I was taken aback. So was Karan. Why would Ravi not inform us of his sister's marriage? He surely was a complicated man. I did not know how to deal with the situation. I noticed Karan's face getting redder and his eyes had started to fill up. He at once turned about and walked away. Trisha also left with a sigh. They were heartbroken. They would have looked cute together. Men and their leeriness always cause them harm. I walked after Karan and reminded him of our obligation. He then sort of calmed himself but was still sad.

We barged into the compound by climbing on the gate. The Chirathu Vilas did not look as massive as Nishanthi Villa but was still larger than any ordinary home. It was a single-storey elegant stone building spanning about 3000 square feet painted grey and white. It had a grassy green garden with many colourful flowering plants. The place would have been great to look at night as there were several designer lights here and there. However exciting the place was, Karan was still lost in his own thoughts. And there weren't any booby traps as Karan had said.

I spotted a large red-coloured wooden garage with an iron shutter on the right side of the house. The road to the garage was made of red and grey interlock bricks. I walked to the garage. It was locked from the outside with a traditional padlock. I thought for a while and then took a spade lying near the garage and hit the lock with full force. Karan was astonished. "What are you doing, Bibbi?", he asked. "I'm just doing my duty", I replied winking at him. "We for sure know that Sid is involved in this crime someway, so it's not wrong to break open a lock", I told guilefully.

The shackle of the lock broke open. I kept the lock aside and pulled the shutter up. Inside was a beautiful red-coloured sports luxury car and exactly like the one in my dream! "Wow. It's a Volvo car. I think it's S60", said Karan excitedly. Its lines were curvy yet muscular with a louvred bonnet and a sculpted front bumper. It had twin-barrel headlamps and fog lamps mounted on the bumper-like eyes.

I circled around the car looking for dents. But there weren't any. Soon Karan lost his enthusiasm and sat down dolefully in a corner. He was not himself after seeing Trisha. So I let him be on his own and I started checking the garage for clues. On one side of the garage were all kinds of essentials for garden grooming like a watering can, bags of fertilisers and compost, pruning shears, etcetera. The other side of the garage had stuff for car grooming and cleaning like scrubbers, bottles of washing liquid, water hose, etcetera.

I finally found what I was looking for. Under a bottle of detergent was a visiting card of a car mechanic. Karan came closer and saw the card. He told that he knew the mechanic and gave him a phone call. They spoke for a while. Karan cut the call and said, "Sid had repainted the car and fixed some dents on the front, it seems." "Did you ask when?", I questioned. "Yesterday", Karan replied. "So we do know who the culprit is. We have to nab him. You inform the police", said Karan thoughtfully. It was obvious that, by police, he meant Ravi. He was not going to talk to Ravi for god knows how long.