The Case of the Mysterious Messages - Part 11

Note: This is serial fiction. Please read the previous parts before starting with this one:

Link to previous part : http://ashrafchoudhury.blogspot.in/2013/08/the-case-of-mysterious-messages-part-10.html

She was looking at me, judging me, trying to decide what to play next.

“It was here when I came. I collected it and put it in my bag” Anju finally replied, fishing through her bag.

Finally she came out with a Samsung charger, and showed it to us.

“But he had a Nokia phone, right?” I asked.

“How…How do you know that?” she stuttered, and her voice was now quivering.

“After you left last night, I went to visit a friend who is an ethical hacker. We went through the mail that you and Ravi had been exchanging, and his signature on all his mails was ‘Sent from my Nokia phone’” I finally brought her house down.

“You hacked into my inbox?” she said it more with anger than with surprise.

“Let’s say I did a lot more than that, Anju,” I said. “And I know a lot more than you think.”

 Her head was bowed. And I continued to rub it in.

 “When I went through all the mails you and Ravi had been exchanging, I found something very curious. 

There was a detailed description of the kidnap drama you two would enact, of how his company’s HR department would pay the money, how you would negotiate and how you would collect the money. But there was one thing missing. You know what I mean don’t you?”

She looked up. Her eyes were boring into me, yet at the same time they were a thousand miles away.

 “There was no mention of approaching Ravi’s parents and asking them to fund the ransom. That was your own little scheme- a little bonus you had planned for yourself, right, Anju? Ravi had no clue you were trying to con his parents as well, did he?”

At this, tears started flowing out of her eyes. She didn’t even try to hide them.

“But…they deserved it, didn’t they?” she stuttered, in between sobs.

“I am sure they did. But this kind of a revenge scheme, with a double cross thrown into a fake kidnap plot, is too complicated to work, don’t you see, Anju?”

She didn’t say anything, and went on sobbing.

“Ravi must have found out somehow that you were trying to squeeze his own parents with his own plan. He was a devout son, and never had any ill felling for his parents. That is why he walked out of your plan. And walked out of here. Out of his own free will. And that is when his messages on Facebook started getting nasty, didn’t they Anju?” I finally elaborated everything for everyone’s benefit.

She was crying loudly now, having no more cards to play. Both Sunil and Lola were equally stunned, at Anju’s evil designs and my newly discovered detective play to say anything.

“But there is one thing that I don’t understand” I finally asked. “After playing your double game with Ravi’s parents, how on earth did you plan to stay happily with Ravi and your child anymore?”

And the answer she gave sent shivers down the spine of everyone present there, and sent us scurrying out of the door.

***

Sunil had finally got off the phone, and I and Lola were eagerly waiting for him to give us the news.

The rain had stopped, and we were sitting in K.C.Das restaurant on M.G.Road.

“That was Inspector Mirza, my good friend from Banjara Hills Police station. They had checked in at Ravi’s parents’ house at Banjara Hills. But it seems the house was already empty by the time they reached there. 

The neighbors too had no idea where the family could have gone. But the local travel agent who runs a travel agency just below the apartment, has confirmed that Ravi had come to his office yesterday, and had booked three tickets to London for last night.” Sunil finally informed the two of us.

“So did they safely check out?” Lola asked excitedly.

“Yes. Mirza checked with the airport authorities, and found out that Ravi Rao and his parents had infact boarded the flight to London at 10pm last night.” Sunil replied, and we heaved a sigh of relief.

“So the goons that Anju had hired to enact the robbery cum murder at Ravis’s parents’ house must have failed” I asked.

“Yes. She must have thought that with Ravi’s parents out of the way, there was no way Ravi could have found out that she had asked his parents to pay fifty lakh rupees for his ransom. And with no one else in this world to go to, she had thought that she would have Ravi all to herself” Sunil added.

“It was the perfect plan. Too bad Ravi found out about her evil plan. But how did he get to know?” Lola asked.

“It seems he got an email intimation from the Bank when his father withdrew thirty lakh rupees from their joint account. Then he must have got in touch with his father, who was surprised that his son was still in India, and that too in good health. Ravi then would have told his father about the plan that he along with Anju had made to collect some money for their soon to be born child. Surely his father would then tell him that they too had received a call asking for his ransom. And then Ravi could clearly read through Anju’s double game”, Sunil explained.

“All said and done, I want to know why did you let that bitch walk free after all this?” Lola asked me.

“Isn’t it a fair punishment to her that the love of her life, for whom she had hatched all this conspiracy, has left him for good? Didn’t you see the way she had cried and moaned when he sent her the last message on facebooktoday from London? Plus the pain of bearing his child, without him beside her, won’t that itself kill her?” I asked, putting one hand on Lola’s shoulder.

“True. And moreover, come to think of it, she didn’t really commit a real crime. Ofcourse she could be booked for conspiring against Ravi’s parents ‘with intent to kill’ charges and ‘fraud’, but remember Ravi himself staged his own kidnap. He was also involved. So Anju had planned a kidnap that didn’t happen, asked for ransom money that she never got, and hired goons to execute a murder of an old couple who had already left the country for good. So tell me, what were you going to charge her with?”Sunil added, supporting my judgment.

Lola could see reason now. She was smiling. And then she put her arms around me and kissed me on my cheeks.

It was my turn to blush now.

“So Anuj, I have a proposal for you? I am old now and its time I retire. How about carrying on my legacy and joining me at my office as a private investigator?” Sunil smiled and asked me, taking another bite from one more famous Bengali rasgulla.

“Oh come on Sunil, I am not cut out for all this dangerous cloak and dagger stuff. I am just the guy who loves to poke his nose in other’ peoples’ affairs, once in a while” I smiled, taking another puff from my cigarette, and blowing up smoke into the clear sky.

The clouds had parted, and the sun had come out after a long time. Bangalore weather, as predictable as ever, I thought, wondering about the beautiful city that I lived in, with all its unpredictability and unpredictable people.

I so loved this city.

(Concluded)