NOBODY LIGHTS A CANDLE
Anjali Deshpande
19
“Yaar, that slip of paper has arrived, of the enquiry,” he told Nitesh. He had been sitting here for half an hour but Nitesh was busy preparing his reports. Each item had to be given a number, then noted in registers, there were dozens of such papers to prepare in a murder case.
“It has! Well, it had to come. How long would they put it off. Take my advice, simply deny everything.”
“They are very clever people. It is not easy to make fools of them.”
“Who is doing it?”
“That Kashyap. He is a bastard of the first order. I have heard that ever since he has become a deputy police commissioner, he doesn’t care two hoots even for the commissioner himself.” For a while there was silence in the room.
“Yaar, if it was only a matter of losing the job it would not have mattered so much. I am afraid they may file a case against me.”
“Show me, show, what does the letter say?”
“Keep it. It is a photocopy,” said Adhir and took out three sheets of paper from his pocket. His hand brushed against the button.
Nitesh read the notice and began to shake his head lost in thought.
“I have a friend, in the legal department. Was in college with me. Let us meet him.”
“Will see,” said Adhirath and went silent.
“Did you get any more information in the case?” he said after a while. He was in an acute dilemma about the evidence he had found? Should he hand them over?
“We thrashed that chowkidar well and proper. But I don’t think he knows much. Just got the job. The old one is some Nachchatar Singh. Works at some farm close by. All of them were high. Says that day nobody came to the farm. He had seen the girl earlier, she came there four or five times. Kept visiting the place. That Nachchatar also said that the new chowkidar had been with him since noon. Nobody saw anything,” Nitesh said stressing each syllable of the last sentence.
Adhirath put his hand in his pocket again and behaving as though he had recalled something he took out the piece of the kangan and the button and placed it on the table.
The silence of Nitesh clearly indicated that the border line of the rights of friendship are drawn outside the boundaries of professional rights. Suddenly Adhirath felt that he should not have trespassed onto his friend’s turf. To go meet Udairaj with Nitesh and to go fishing for clues on his own these were two different things. Nitesh could put a brake on his efforts whenever he wished.
“Sorry, Yaar. I even went to meet her. The black and white woman. She says she does not know when the button was lost. It could not be found at home on the day of Holi.”
Nitesh stared at the button for a long while. There was an awkward silence in the room. At last Nitesh heaved a sigh.
“What would you have done had you been in my place?” nitesh asked him straight. “The answerability will remain mine, right?”
“That is true. Listen, I am handing over whatever I found. I am not going to say I found these things.”
“So? Now whatever I found that day has been entered into the records. The file is ready,” Nitesh said. He picked up the button and began to rotate it. Every time the stone caught the light from a different angle it gave out a blinding glint. “Is it a diamond?” he asked.
“Yaar please don’t get offended. I know I should not have done this, it is your job. But since I had gone that side I found this in the farm. I am under too much stress. This only helps me cope, that is all.”
“I found a lot of these pieces of glass,” said Nitesh suppressing his anger. “But I did not find the diamond. Is there a witness that you found it there?”
“No,” said Adhirath. “I worked rather secretly.” His face had fallen and his voice was low.
“There were many pieces of this bangle,” Nitesh said staring at the turquoise piece of bangle and noticing the sad face of Adhir he added, “Forget it yaar, it does not matter. When there is a case pending against you there is bound to be tension.”
“What was the name of that girl?” asked Adhirath.
“Basanti. That is what she told Udairaj. I say her mother may have truly liked Sholay, what! But here she was known as Renu. And later we found out that her mother had given her some other name. Something else it was. Can’t recall. Was very pretty, she was. Shall I show you her photo?”
Adhirath prevented himself from saying ‘Suryabala’. He no longer dared tell his friend that he had met her mother.
Nitesh opened a file and placed a picture before him. It was a close-up only of the face. Closed eyes. She did not look dead. She did not even look very pretty in the photograph. Adhirath knows that the faces of some very good looking people begin to look ordinary the moment they are printed on paper. Suryabala. Basanti. Mohini. Renu. Was she truly a prostitute? At least he had seen the face of the person for whom he had taken on such a headache. Was he truly doing it for her? Or for himself?
“Was she tall?”
“Smaller even than medium height. Very fair. You can’t tell from the photograph but she was very beautiful. Chowkidar said the pradhan had his eyes on her. Whenever a car came to the farm the pradhan would start hovering around. He and that former sarpanch. Seems both the oldies have nothing else to do. If you believe the chowkidar they are always strolling on the road. Or they sit on the roadside on a cot. Keeping an eye on girls and no girl dares come late from school.”
“They must definitely know something,” said Adhirath.
“That is true. I spoke to both of them. They denied everything. They knew the girl, only this much they admitted. The Pradhan said she was like his granddaughter, her character was bad, once he had even sent a man to her house to warn her mother and to tell he that he daughter had strayed onto a very bad path and she should make her correct her ways. Once both the old fogies had caught hold of her and asked her to come home the next day. They claim that they wanted their wives to talk to her and make her mend her ways. She did not go to meet them.” Nitesh laughed loudly.
“Wanted to give her advice? What itchy bastards!”
“Am going to the village again today. Come with me. Looks like your investigations is progressing better than mine.” Nitesh could not stay angry with his friend for long.
Adhirath shook his head to refuse the offer. “Yaar, if I go on my own, you will gain a lot. Do me a favour. Let me work on this case a bit. I have too much tension now. It will divert my attention. When the case is solved you get yourself photographed with the murderer.”
email: anjalides@gmail.com
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