The Murder Investigation
‘Well Mrs. Lalvani, what am I looking at here?’ said Detective Kumar as he looked into a large, garishly decorated hall with a small smattering of people gathered around, what looked disturbingly like a coffin.
‘You tell me Detective’ replied Mrs Lalvani. ‘You are a detective, aren’t you?’ she added rather pointedly after a pause.
Detective Kumar turned to look at her, exasperated, barely managing to mask his irritation at being pulled all the way from HQ at ITO to the palatial Lalvani bungalow in Vasant Kunj. ‘Give me a minute’ he said, and turned back to the scene at hand.
The Lalvani’s were a highly influential family who counted amongst its members, a former Governor, three high court justices, a smattering of MLAs and bureaucrats, and even a couple of high profile journalists. Mrs Lalvani was the uncontested crown matriarch of the family. A short, plump, obnoxious middle aged woman born into power and privilege. She was in the news every other day. Last week she had slapped a random stranger on the road who had the misfortune of stepping on her dog’s tail. A month before that she had suddenly stopped her car in the middle of the AIIMS flyover to admire the ‘view’, completely oblivious of the minor traffic snarl she caused behind her. While the rest of the family had a professional PR firm to maintain its image of a powerful, but benevolent family, rumour had it that even they had washed their hands off Mrs Lalvani, driven away by her peerless toxicity and sheer mulishness to follow directions.
Oh how he hated the Commissioner for doing this to him. There had been 3 other detectives on the bench when they had received an SOS call from Mrs Lalvani. Hell that fool Singh was in the vicinity too, following up a lead on a gang of young men who had taken a taste to expensive cars that they didn’t own. But no, the Commissioner panicked when he realized who he was talking to and, setting personal grudges aside, had promptly dispatched his best immediately to the scene, howls, curses, and threats notwithstanding.
‘Who died Mrs Lalvani?’ Said detective Kumar, with growing interest.
‘Thomas.’ She said with a slight quiver in her voice.
Detective Kumar frantically racked his brains trying to figure out who Thomas Lalvani was, and turned up a blank. Afraid to ask her exactly who Thomas was, he played along.
‘Oh that’s terrible to hear. I am sorry to hear about your loss.’ Kumar said sombrely. ‘What happened if I may ask?’ he added gently.
‘He was murdered, Detective! And I want you to deploy your full resources to get to the bottom of this. Now!’ she thundered with tears streaming unabashedly down her face.
Detective Kumar stood there, staring at her dumbly before his brains kicked in. Fantastic, he thought. This was his moment! Solving a high profile case like this would do wonders for his career as his mind went into overdrive. The patronage of the Lalvani’s would ensure that.
He immediately turned to the scene at hand. The murder scene had obviously been disturbed, a lot, but there was still a chance for forensics to salvage whatever was possible. He immediately got onto the phone and started making a series of phone calls. Having duly made calls to the press, forensics and medical (in that order), and ensuring that he wouldn’t be removed from the case by one of the Commissioner’s cronies, he gleefully called up his boss to update him.
His was a little discomfited when the Commissioner began laughing uncontrollably on the phone.
‘You are finished Kumar.’
‘Ha! You can’t remove me from the case Commissioner. I’ve already begun the paperwork, with my name as the case officer on it. Besides, the press already knows about this sensational piece of news and is enroute even as we speak.’ Said Kumar defensively, feeling a small flutter begin in his stomach.
The Commissioner started howling even louder on the phone. ‘Did you, did you ask who Thomas was?’ he managed to ask in between his guffaws as he disconnected the phone.
Kumar, his heart hammering, immediately turned to Mrs Lalvani who was now sitting on her chair and reading the newspaper calmly, with her beloved dog sitting on her feet.
‘Who was Thomas Mrs Lalvani?’ He asked.
Mrs Lalvani calmly folded the newspaper and looked up at him. ‘Are you a dunce detective? What, not who. Thomas was my pet rabbit of course. I had bought him at a charity auction last month. Do you not read the news at all?’ She asked, looking genuinely surprised.
Kumar felt a massive headache coming on even as he heard the distant noise of sirens closing in on his location.