Detective Joseph sat in his armchair
with his usual nightcap, a glass of scotch filled with ice. He was sifting
through the box sent over to him after the death of Detective Kureshi. A murder
was committed at the property of Mrs. and Mr. Brattis. One Mr. Munna Rao, was
killed with a barbecue skewer in the staff quarters of the Brattis mansion. The
Late Mr. Rao worked as domestic help in the maintenance and upkeep of the large
property which had one one-storey mansion, a vegetable garden at the back with
a large open field adjacent to it and a 3-room structure at the end of the
field which housed the victim, a cook, Mr. Musheed Khan and a maid, Ms. Lata
Kurien. The house also employed a driver, Mr. Mahesh Yadav, who did not stay at
the property and reported for duty every day at 9 AM till 6 PM. The couple had
a sixteen-year-old son, Ritvik Brattis. On the morning of the murder there was
one other person at the property delivering manure for the fields and garden,
Mr. Peru Halder.
Detective Joseph flipped through the
file and found a few photos of the mansion clicked on the day of the crime.
There was no cordoning-off of the crime scene and he could see at least ten
policemen in the small room where the murder happened. He knew he could not
rely on the forensics or the lack thereof, solely, to find the perpetrator.
Detective Kureshi had spent almost 14 months on this case but he could never
pin point with certainty who would have the motive and the means to carry out
this crime. The father of the victim was very close to Detective Kureshi and he
had made it his absolute mission to provide the victim’s family with the
closure they deserved. Now that Detective Kureshi was no more, Detective Joseph
had made it his absolute mission to solve the case as a goodbye gift to one of
his most revered seniors.
The file also contained some
handwritten notes of Detective Kureshi and Detective Joseph pushed everything
on his desk aside and opened the file with a renewed sense of urgency. Mrs.
Samantha Brattis (nee Samson) was the only daughter of the pharma giant Dr.
Albert Samson. After Dr. Samson’s death, all his property and businesses were
passed down to Mrs. Brattis who was already managing everything ever since her
father had taken ill. She was married to Mr. Kevin Brattis, whom she met on one
of her company retreats. Mr. Brattis was a new entrant in the pharmaceutical
line at the time and had started buying licenses for production of generic
medicines, which Dr. Samson along with his entire fraternity felt would be
detrimental to the big companies’ profit margins. After a few months, the
Samson group had bought all of Mr. Brattis’ licenses and a grand wedding
ceremony had been planned of Ms. Samson and Mr. Brattis. Detective Kureshi had
made a small note on the side, Mr. Brattis – opportunistic sly bastard. Hates
wife. Affair? Maid? Strong alibi. Mr. Brattis never worked a day after
he got married. He completely left the everyday running and management to his
wife. They had moved-in with Mr. Samson soon after their wedding since Mrs. Brattis
wanted to be close to her ailing father. Mr. Brattis would often invest money
in new ideas, especially if there was an attractive face which thought of the
idea. He had lost money in almost all of these ventures but he kept doing it.
He was also great at hosting parties and Mrs. Brattis found that quite useful
for networking and meeting the people in the high echelons of the power circle,
further accelerating the pace of her ever-growing business.
Mrs. Brattis was the head of the
family and everyone was scared of her. She had a panache for being in all
places at once. She would take care of the business, keep her home beautiful
and find time to indulge herself in the lavish parties her husband would throw.
She knew everyone and she knew everything about everyone. She would never
hesitate to blackmail bureaucrats, contractors and even the ministers in order
to get what she wanted. Overambitious. Egoistic. Motive? Mrs.
Brattis loved only two things in life, her father’s legacy and her son, Ritvik.
The fact that she and Mr. Brattis had marital troubles was known to one and
all. They slept in separate rooms and tried to avoid each other as much as
possible. At the time of the murder, she was out in the garden with the cook.
The cook confirmed this. Their neighbour, Retd. Col. A. Anthony was in his
garden, which is adjacent to the Brattis’ gardens, also confirmed that she was
there for almost ninety minutes and they had chatted with each other for quite
some time as well.
The neighbour was an ex-colonel in
the Indian Army, who was widely decorated, and had been a close friend of Dr.
Samson. Retd. Col. A. Anthony knew Mrs. Brattis since she was a child and was a
big pillar of support towards the last days of Dr. Samson. He was Ritvik’s
godfather and Ritvik would spend a lot of time helping the colonel in the
upkeep of his library and his award cabinet. Mrs. and Mr. Brattis’ wedding was done
in the colonel’s garden and he had strong reservations about the choice of
groom. He still didn’t see eye-to-eye with Mr. Brattis. He was a very jovial
man who would always talk to the staff politely and courteously. A true
gentleman.
The victim, Late Munna Rao, had been
employed with the family for some three months. He took care of the vast
garden, the driveways and the terrace nursery. He would spend most of his time
outside the mansion on the grounds. He was a very reserved boy and kept to
himself mostly. Even on a few occasions when Retd. Col. Anthony tried to spark
a conversation with him, he would always find an excuse of finishing some
pending work and leave. He was a very alert boy, hardworking and always wanted
to impress Mrs. Brattis, often following her like a puppy, around the kitchen
garden, and into the kitchen. Affair with maid? Cook killed?
Mr. Musheed Khan, the cook, was with
the family the longest. He started working here some 12 years back and was
having an affair with the maid, Ms. Lata Kurien, which the staff knew about. Ms.
Kurien had joined work a few years back and was a widow. She had no children
and lived with the Brattis family. Mr. Musheed Khan was a man in his early
forties with a very calm demeanour. He was a simpleton who loved cooking and
worshipped his kitchen. Fit of rage? Crime of passion? Was the maid
involved?
The driver, Mr. Mahesh Yadav, was
with Mr. Brattis in his study when the crime happened. He was also a newer
employee in the family and was removed a few months after the murder. Detective
Kureshi had tracked him to his new place of work but did not find anything
worth pursuing further. Motive?
Ritvik Brattis was a spoilt child
who was not used to hearing no for a response. He worshipped his mother and his
best friend was Retd. Col. Anthony. He shared with him things he wouldn’t talk
to his mom about. He studied in a boarding school and was home for vacations
when the crime was committed.
Apart from all the usual residents
of the house, there was one Mr. Peru Halder present in the property premises at
the time of the murder. He worked as a day labourer and would often do odd jobs
in and around the town. On the day of the murder, he was delivering manure and
soil for the kitchen garden. He had drove inside in a rickshaw and was storing
the gunny bags in the shed by the back of the house all morning.
Mr. Brattis was in his study with
the driver, Mr. Yadav, all morning on a very important phone call with the
Health Secretary. Detective Kureshi had applied for the call records at the Swastha
Bhavan and it confirmed that indeed, Mr. Brattis was on a telephonic
meeting for over two hours that morning. As for Mr. Yadav, Mr. Brattis vows
that he never left the room since it was a very important meeting and the
driver was there helping him out in fetching the correct papers from the files,
handing out the coloured pens to take down notes, et cetera.
Mrs. Brattis was in the kitchen
garden with the cook, Mr. Khan, who says he did not leave Mrs. Brattis’ side
even for a moment. They were earmarking the field where new kitchen garden was
to be added. The delivery for the manure and soil was for the same. They were
talking and moving about just outside the kitchen on the fields for quite some
time. The neighbour, Retd. Col. Anthony also confirmed the same as he was
sitting in his garden the entire morning having his tea, breakfast and lunch,
all in the garden. He even had a chat with Mrs. Brattis and the cook about the
vegetables best suited for the coming weather and the choice of manure. All
three of them denied seeing Munna that morning in the garden as he had informed
through Mr. Khan that he was feeling a little under the weather that morning
and wanted some time to rest before joining duty. The last man to see Munna Rao
alive was Mr. Khan when he went in the staff quarter to give him some food and
medicine before joining Mrs. Brattis in the kitchen and then the garden.
The maid, Ms. Kurien, said she
served breakfast that morning in the dining hall downstairs and then went
upstairs to clean the bedrooms. She had not seen Munna Rao that morning and did
not seem to be shaken by his death either. “I would never do such a thing in
Madam’s home” was her reply when asked if she had killed Munna Rao. The fact
that she did not like Munna was evident. “Yes, I did not like him. He was a
very suspicious guy, I told Madam the first day itself. He always stared at the
paintings in the hall, and the kitchen silverware; often picking them up in his
hands and minutely looking at the detailed carvings on them. He would always
keep a check on when Madam was leaving and coming back home. Ritvik sir also
had a fight with him one evening by the kitchen.”
The delivery man Mr. Halder said he
entered via the main door in his cycle rickshaw carrying the order of manure
and soil, some 45 gunny bags, with him in his rickshaw. The driver Mr. Yadav
also reached around the same time and was locking his bicycle by the back of
the house near the shed when Mr. Halder pulled in. Mr. Yadav went inside the
house to inform of the delivery and unlocked the shed door. “Keep all the bags
six inches away from the back wall in stacks. Come by the front door afterwards
and collect the money” Mr. Yadav said dismissively, leaving Mr. Halder there.
None of the other staff members saw him until he came out in front, the police
having already arrived by the time.
Ritvik Brattis was questioned when
he came back that evening in his friend’s car. He had no knowledge of the
murder till then. He said he went back to his room that morning after eating
breakfast with the family. He listened to some music in his room before going
for a shower. Got ready and left with his friend for the town where they saw a
movie and ate lunch afterwards. While coming down from his room after getting
dressed, he was seen by Ms. Kurien, who was cleaning Mr. and Mrs. Brattis’
bedroom across the hall. Ritvik had gone in the kitchen to look for his mother
and waved her through the window when he saw she was in the garden. The colonel
also corroborated the timeline. Ritvik then went out the front door and sat in
his friend’s car who was already waiting for him there.
All the alibis seemed watertight and
the questioning by Detective Kureshi had gone on till late in the night. Mrs.
and Mr. Brattis were physically shaken by what had transpired under their roof.
Retd. Col. Anthony was the one who kept the entire house up and functioning
through the night as the police collected evidence and forensics. The colonel
took the mantle of ensuring tea and snacks kept rolling out of the kitchen for
the members of the house and the police. He was unperturbed by death as the
case with military men usually was.
Detective Kureshi was heading out to
light a cigarette when he accidentally overheard a hushed conversation between
the cook and the maid. Ms. Kurien was afraid that the police might think they
killed Munna to hush up their affair. “After all,” Ms. Kurien was heard saying,
“he did say he was going to tell Madam about us. What if he did, and Madam
tells the police that we were being blackmailed and the police decide to blame
it on us?” Mr. Khan seemed lost for words. Just as he was about to say
something, he saw Detective Kureshi eavesdropping and said heartily, “Do you
need anything sir? Tea, coffee?” and went towards the detective, letting go of
Ms. Kurien’s hand abruptly. “Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost, Khan?
All ok with you two? Do you want to add something to your statements?”
Detective Kureshi asked while keeping his eyes trained on Ms. Kurien.
Ritvik Brattis was the last one to
be interrogated that evening. Retd. Col. Anthony kept pacing the hall as he was
being questioned in the study. As soon as Ritvik came out the colonel offered
him dinner and a glass of scotch to calm his nerves. Mrs. Brattis was tired and
exhausted by the time and was lying asleep on the couch. Mr. Brattis was simply
staring at the muted television set.
Detective Joseph took out some more
family pictures that were clipped inside the file. He looked at them carefully
and wrote down some notes on his pad and stood up to refill his drink.
Detective Joseph decided to call it a night after his drink as he kept staring
at the pictures he had put up on the board. He was trying to picture himself at
the scene of crime and in that mansion on the day of the murder.
The next day Detective Joseph got
ready to visit the Brattis’ home. Mr. Brattis was not pleased with a uniformed
personnel knocking at his door early in the morning. “I thought Detective
Kureshi was the officer-in-charge of the investigation.” Mr. Brattis asked
annoyed. “He has left.” Replied Detective Joseph, “I will be looking into the
case now.”
“With all due respect officer,
Detective Kureshi was unable to solve this case in the last fourteen months. We
do not think it is of any importance anymore.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Brattis,
I think the law decides what is important and what is not! If you would just
let me do my job, that’ll be very helpful.”
“I am calling the commissioner,
right now. Who do you think you are?” Mr. Brattis kept yelling and did nothing
as Detective Joseph took calculated steps, observing the table in Mr. Brattis’
study and pausing in front of every family portrait hung on the wall beside the
massive bookshelves.
“Is Mrs. Brattis home?” Detective
Joseph asked Ms. Lata Kurien as she entered the study holding a tray with a
glass of water and a small case of medicines for Mr. Brattis. “Yes, sir. She is
in the garden.” Ms. Kurien replied.
“Will you inform her about my
presence. I would like to talk to her in private.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Brattis. I am
Detective Joseph. I took over the case from Detective Kureshi after his
untimely passing. I want to clear a few doubts with you, if you have the time
right now” Detective Joseph said. “How did Munna Rao come to join your
employment?”
“Munna’s father had worked for a few
months for my father long back. He was my mother’s chauffer. Munna’s mother had
passed away a few years back and his father had hit the bottle after the death.
So, Munna came to the estate looking for my father, who also had passed away
recently. Munna wanted to take a loan from my father to send his own father to
rehab. When he was apprised of Dr. Samson’s death, he requested me to give him
a job at the estate.”
“You gave him a job where he had to
stay in the property without any letter of recommendation? That’s a bit odd,
Mrs. Brattis.”
“As I said, I remembered his father
driving my mum’s car when I was a kid. When he told me about his family
situation, I took pity of his situation. It is not very odd of us to help out a
poor family. You should ask around the town.”
“Yes, I did ask around. As it turns
out, your family fortunes have been dwindling in the recent years. Forcing you
to cut down on the servants, the cars, the properties.” Mrs. Brattis just gave
the detective a cold look and continued to stare outside the window. “Was Munna
good at his job? Did you have any complaints? Did you ever find him trying to
steal or eye any object?”
“No. Of course, not. I would have
fired him then and there if something of the sorts had happened.”
“The other staff members said in
their depositions that Munna would often follow you inside the house, talking
to you in careful whispers. What was that about, Mrs. Brattis?”
“It was nothing. He was trying to
get in my good books by telling me about the affair my cook was having with my
maid. Obviously, I already knew about it. Such things keep happening in big
estates. It is no big deal.”
“Did you confront Mr. Khan or Ms.
Kurien about it? That could have been a motive for them?”
“No. I did not bring it up. I do not
like to get involved in the staff’s personal lives.”
“Why did you remove your driver, Mr.
Yadav, from service soon after the incident?”
“It was nothing to do with the
incident. He was demanding a raise which I did not think he deserved so soon
into the service. That’s all.”
Detective Joseph made notes in his
pad. He was looking at Mrs. Brattis with accusing eyes. He was sure she was not
telling the entire story about what had happened between her and Munna Rao.
“Your staff also accused Munna of
eyeing the silverware and other valuables keenly. Did you find anything missing
during his tenure here?”
Mrs. Brattis shuffled uncomfortably
in her shoes, trying to avoid eye contact with Detective Joseph. “There was a
necklace missing from my dressing which I had worn the night before the murder.
But we could not find it anywhere in his belongings. I thought I probably misplaced
it somewhere and will find it eventually.”
“Why did you not reveal this during
the investigation?” Detective Joseph was angry at this revelation. He had
started doubting Mrs. Brattis with even more conviction than he had approached
her with.
“The case had become a local
sensation. We just wanted to get it over with. We did not want any more
attention on us. By the time I realised the necklace was missing, the police
had just started to leave us in peace. I did not want you guys to rummage
through the house again.”
Detective Joseph went out into the
garden heaving in anger. This was a crucial piece of information and he was
trying to make sense of it. As he was pacing the garden up and down, he saw the
cook, Mr. Khan, come out of the staff quarter and immediately go back inside on
seeing him there. He knocked on Mr. Khan’s door and heard hurried closing of briefcases.
He pushed the door open and saw Mr. Khan putting a briefcase under his bed. The
briefcase contained the stolen necklace of Mrs. Brattis.
“I am sorry madam. I am extremely
sorry. Me and Lata were extremely worried that Munna had told you about us and
you would throw us out. So, I made a plan with Peru, the delivery boy, to steal
something valuable before we got fired. That morning, Lata stole the necklace
from your dressing and threw it out the back window where Peru was unloading
the bags. He kept it with him. The murder made us defer the plans of selling
the jewellery since we thought the police might already be on the lookout for
it. Please, please, forgive us madam. After you did not remove us from your
service, we thought we will sneak the necklace back in the house somewhere you
can find it. Hence, I got it back from Peru last week.”
“Did Munna know about this heist
plan?” Detective Joseph asked the cook.
“No, sir. We had not told him. But that
day he saw Peru wrapping the necklace in a cloth and shoving it under his
rickshaw seat. But we did not do anything, sir. In fact, I got to know about
this only after he was found murdered. You have to believe me, sir. I swear on
my mother.”
Detective Jospeh walked out of the
building again. He was walking along the fence, talking over the phone. “Go and
find Mr. Peru Halder and bring him to the station. I think I know what happened
to Munna.”
The next day, the Brattis family was
called to the police station along with all the staff members. When they
reached, they saw Retd. Col. Anthony was also there, sitting on the bench next
to the lockup. Inside the lockup, Peru was squatting in a corner. Detective
Joseph was not there in his office. As the family started to sit and discuss
what was going on, Detective Jospeh stepped out of the interrogation room with
Ritvik Brattis behind him, handcuffed. Everyone stood up in shock and Mrs.
Brattis stared at the detective in disbelief.
“Mrs. and Mr. Brattis, your son
Ritvik is under arrest on the charge of murdering Munna Rao. Colonel Anthony,
you are under arrest for abetting the murder and on the charge of falsifying
your statements given under oath.” Detective Jospeh announced. Mrs. Brattis
fell back on her chair and started crying. The Colonel simply stood up straight
and held his hands in front of him to get handcuffed.
Outside the police station, media
personnel had started arriving where the detective was to make the news of both
the arrests public. “It was a perfect crime not because of the way it was
planned, but because of the circumstances under which nobody could rat on each
other. The deceased, Munna Rao, was the step-brother of Mrs. Samantha Brattis. The
bastard child of Dr. Samson who had an affair with the wife of his chauffer. Before
the death of Munna’s mother, she told him the truth about his real father and
Munna saw this as an opportunity to alleviate himself from his life of poverty.
He came to the Brattis family looking for a job, and then started blackmailing
Mrs. Brattis that he would come out with the truth unless she paid him to keep
quiet.” Detective Joseph held up a family picture which had Dr. Samson in it
and a photo of Munna Rao. “As you can see, both Dr. Samson and the victim had
the exact same grey eyes and jawline which first led me to believe that they
were related. On one of the occasions when Munna was trying to blackmail Mrs.
Brattis, her son Ritvik overheard the entire conversation and took it upon
himself to solve this conundrum for his mother. He could think of only one
other person who would be willing to help him without asking any question, Retd.
Col. A. Anthony, who was also his godfather. The colonel and Ritvik plotted to
kill him when all the staff and family were in the house so the blame would not
come on Ritvik. The Colonel made sure that Mrs. Brattis had an alibi when the
crime was committed because he cared for her deeply. Ritvik was beyond any
suspicion because everyone saw him come out of the house and get into the car
of his friend who was waiting in the driveway. But it took Ritvik less than a
minute to quickly go into Munna’s room and stab him with a skewer right before
entering his friend’s car. Unluckily, Mr. Peru Halder had seen Ritvik coming
out of the staff quarter when he was going there to talk to Munna about giving
him a share if he kept his mouth shut. The colonel had ensured Munna would be
in the staff quarter by mixing sleeping pills in his food the night before by entering
through a loose slat in the fence between the two properties. We have arrested
both Mr. Ritvik Brattis and Retd. Col. A. Anthony after getting written
confessions by Ritvik Brattis. The case stands closed.” I hope you get peace,
Kureshi my friend, Detective Jospeh thought.
