A Night to make a Candle bright

Chapter 1

Mr. Ketkar studied the man opposite him through hooded eyes. The man, his client was charged with a most brutal murder. Mr. Ketkar, an eminent criminal lawyer with an impressive career graph, was a shrewd man; he took pride in his ability of discerning the innocent from the guilty amongst his clients almost immediately. But today he had to ruefully admit himself baffled. The circumstances were against his client and the probability of his innocence was bleak. The man himself seemed yet to be in a state of stupor where he seemed not to have fully grasped the gravity of his situation. Mr. Ketkar cleared his throat and cleaned his glasses. When he spoke to his client his voice was firm though sympathetic.

"Mr. Anand, I must make it very clear from this instant that we must maintain the utmost frankness between us. I must admit your chances of acquittal are very slim and hence you must tell me everything within your capacity that can help or guide me."

At his words Anand seemed to raise himself from his stupor and look at him with wondering eyes. He shook his head as if to wake himself from a bad dream.

He said, "I still do not believe that I am charged with the murder of Mrs. Seth. It seems impossible." He seemed dazed. Mr. Ketkar looked at him straight in his eyes as was his predilection, but Anand looked back with hopeless despair in his eyes and Mr. Ketkar gave a silent nod to himself as if asserting an idea to. He decided that unless Anand was a superb actor he had to be innocent. He spoke again, more gentlely this time.
"Mr. Anand, do not despair. I want you to tell me everything. How and where did you meet Mrs. Seth for the first time?"

"It was a very common place incident. We were descending the stairs in a building when she stumbled and had a nasty fall. She was carrying a few things and she dropped them about. I stepped forward to help her and collect her packages. As she seemed flustered, I naturally helped her to carry them to her
car and sawher safely off. She seemed very grateful by this simple service and thanked me profusely and said that it was now rare that people bothered about others. She repeatedly thanked me till I was embarrassed. I moved on having instantly forgotten her and never giving a thought to ever seeing her again. But just shortly, I had to attend my uncle's wedding anniversary party and I met her once more. She recognized me instantly and showered praises on me to my acute mortification. She then kept on singling me throughout the evening on some pretext or the other right until she left."

"Did you not find it cumbersome to attend to the wills of an old woman while you were in a party? You are after all a good looking young man and you must have had your own pleasures to pursue." asked Mr.Ketkar.

"Well to be honest it was irritating but I was not in a very happy financial situation at that time and I wanted to request my uncle for some financial help. As Mrs. Seth seemed to be an important guest, it was in my interests to try and create a good impression on my uncle, besides it was a party of mostly elderly
people and Mrs. Seth seemed quite affable."

The lawyer listened with utmost interest to this account. He asked, "When did you meet her next?"

"That evening Mrs. Seth seemed very much interested in my activities and asked me a lot of personal questions, as to what I did for my living, my hobbies, where I lived etc. and when she found out that I lived quite close to her residence, she immediately invited me for dinner to her place. I vaguely agreed but she insisted on giving her a fixed date and decided that I should dine with her on the next Sunday. For the lack of better engagement, I agreed."

"Did you know at that time that Mrs. Seth was a very rich widow, with nobody to call her own? Take care, answer me truthfully, did you at anytime go out of your way and force your attentions on her or was it always her who approached you?"