Chapter 18
The Other Woman
When they reached Spandan, while he recalled his earlier visit there, she led him in to give a free rein to scan her dwelling, but as he entered the master bedroom, unable to take his eyes off from the wedding photograph on the wall, he said that she looked divine in her bridal attire. Then, as she flung herself onto the bed while sobbing, he apologized for his indiscretion, and affected by his empathy, she was impelled to confide in him tearfully.
Ranjit was mean and selfish besides being secretive and so she could never bring herself to love him, but just the same, she remained faithful to him until Pravar came into her orderly life to lead her astray. It all began in the wake of her kidnapping when she started pitting the mean core of her partner’s soft manner against the sublime inner of her captor’s savage nature. So, when the inspector foisted the fake-notes case on the hapless boy, her empathy for him prompted her to take up the cudgels on his behalf, which he mistook as a sign of her weakness for him, and after his suicide attempts, she shamefully yielded to him to save his life. Oh, how her life began pushing her to the precipice of vice thereafter she only knew, but surely her husband could have got wind of her affair, and to spite her, he might have got into a liaison with some woman, strangely to his own undoing, which, besides adding to her guilt, has made her even more vulnerable than ever.
At that, overwhelmed by empathy for her, he made her privy to the psychics of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, and helped her grasp the aberrations that led her into that messy affair. So, shocked and relieved in the same vein after seeing her dark past in a fresh light, she involuntarily clutched at his hand. Then holding her hand, he said how come her husband, whom he had apprised about it, failed to share the same with her, and surprised at that, she asked him when it was, but realizing his slip and wanting to avoid any premature disclosure; he said that it was when he came to seek his counseling on account of her disturbing affair. After pondering for a while, when she sought his psychiatric help to put her odd past behind her, he assured her that he would help her to bring her life back to normality. Thanking him, as she said that she would count on him, moved by her faith in him, he said that he would never let her down, and gratified no end; she said that she believed she met the right man at long last. At that, as if to augment her belief, he hugged her tentatively, and asked her, given Pravar’s motive for the gainful murder, what she thought about his possible role in her husband’s death, she said that he had an alibi in her. But when he said what if Pravar had induced Natya, or involved some other woman, to do the job for him; looking at him adoringly, she said mischievously that it was for him to probe the matter and nab the murderess.
When he wanted to know who was the other woman in her husband’s life, she said that though she knew that, of late in her absence, he was receiving some woman at home, who took care not to leave any clues about her secret visits; but the neighbors had told her that she always came in a burka. However, from the smell of the things in the house, she was certain that woman was with him before he was poisoned. When he asked her why she didn’t catch her man red-handed with her, bowing her head, she said that she thought she had no moral right to do so. Then he took her hand, as if to convey his admiration for her sensitivity and she clasped it as though to convey her gratitude for his understanding.
In time, as he got up to leave, she offered to drive him home, but he said that though that would enable him more of her company, yet he wouldn’t want her to drive an extra meter in Hyderabad’s maddening traffic. Thanking him for his consideration and seeing him off at the gate and mulling over his gestures of interest and his words of concern for her, she espied him as he walked down the lane as if in reluctance. What with her self-worth getting a boost with his enamored attentions, she craved to have more of the same, and soon, as he looked back at her, pleased with herself, she waved at him all the way.
Hiring an auto and reaching home in Kavya’s thoughts, while briefing Radha about his visit to Spandan, he discerned a perceptible change of color in her demeanor, which he attributed to the human proclivity for sexual insecurity. So, when she sought to probe his mind, he put the ball in her court with her ‘Pravar might have used Natya to poison Ranjit’ theory, but she said that on second thoughts, she was more inclined to view that as the handiwork of Pravar-Kavya combine for they had a shared motive as well as the common means to commit the crime. Wanting to have something concrete rather than her conjecture, as he said that they better waited for Shakeel’s report about Ranjit’s past, she asked him to caution the cop for he could be high on Pravar’s hit-list, and added that Kavya can be expected to aid and abet the brat for she too bore a grudge against him.
What with Radha bringing him back to square one, Dhruva wondered whether Kavya’s confession was but a red herring, but reckoning that when the ill motives of the natural suspects to commit a crime are an open secret, someone with a hidden agenda might be tempted to use that as a camouflage for his subterfuge, he saw the need to enlarge the scope of the investigation well beyond the apparent suspects.