Doosra (21 page)

Kitty Varghese was another story. The file did not contain anything on her, which surprised Rita. Kitty was a model, a public figure. As such gen on her should have been a lot easier to gather than her boyfriend. Why had Vikram not put anything in the dossier?

***

The caucus of four sat at the table in the Operations Room.

The case file — Ron Jogani's murder file was already over two-inches thick — investigator reports, charts, witness statements, map, photographs, evidence collected, or received as in this case, was all in front of them now. Nothing gave.

'Brilliant work on Honey Singh, Vikram, but I didn't find anything in your report on Kitty Varghese? She being a public figure of sorts, I would have imagined data on her would be easier to get...' Rita questioned.

'You're correct, ma'am. It was a lot easier to get and far too interesting to sum up in a report so I thought I'd present to you all so we could evaluate it together.'

Rita could sense that Vikram had some proverbial ace up his sleeve. He had definitely stumbled upon something that could lead them somewhere. She glanced at the other two. Jatin and Nene had similar expressions of heightened expectation: eyebrows hiked up, pupils dilated, body involuntarily attentive.

'Go on then, give it to us.'

'During the Belgium escapade, Miss Kitty Varghese was in Germany, in Köln to be precise. She was part of a fashion show group who travelled there. The entire team was hosted in the Hilton Köln that was close to the famous Dom Cathedral. She flew out of India with the group on March 29th and returned with them on April 7th. I haven't dug up further to check if she went missing any night or nights because asking around will definitely get back to her. I thought it best to discuss among ourselves before going ahead.' Vikram paused.

'Go on… I can see you have more to tell us.' Rita could tell Vikram had a further update.

'Miss Kitty Varghese was in Mumbai when the burglary at Pedder Road occurred, but that, of course, isn't of much significance considering that she is a Mumbai domicile, but—'

'But she was in New Delhi when the heist at Zaveri happened,' Rita completed his line.

'How did you know?'

'I didn't know that, I just interpreted that. Am I correct?'

'Yes. She went for a fashion show to Delhi four days before the larceny and returned two days after that.'

'Couldn't it be a genuine coincidence?' said Jatin.

'Equally, it could be orchestrated.' Vikram opened the folder he was carrying and passed around Kitty Varghese's pictures.

Kitty Varghese was a model and she looked every bit like one. Sharp features, high cheekbones, light camel-coloured eyes, thick wavy shoulder-length hair with crimson highlights cut in layers. Her body was fit and in great shape, and could give some of the cheerleaders at IPL matches a run for their money; her face, too, could shame some hot starlets in Bollywood. A head turner surely. She was definitely younger and taller than Rita. Maybe five-nine in sneakers. Together Kitty and Honey made a gorgeous couple. If only they could do something about their collective names, Rita mused. Kitty-Honey.

Could she be the second person at the Brussels hotel?
Rita made a mental note. She couldn't envisage why not. Likewise, she couldn't picture how she could have escaped to Belgium while she was on a tour with others in Germany without being conspicuous by her absence.

'Vikram — follow it up with Victor in Belgium. They need to tell us if there is any way one could get from Köln to Brussels and back in a night?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

'What else?'

'Kitty and Honey were introduced to each other at a party four years ago, which was hosted by Honey Singh's engineering college friend, Veer Singh. He was some kind of an IT guru who migrated to the United States a year later. And then he disappeared.'

'Disappeared?'

'From all the friends' radars. There is no known forwarding address for him; none of his supposed friends have any idea where he is now. It's like once Veer Singh went to the US he just disappeared from the face of the earth. Various stories — mostly homemade— still circulate in the friend circle: some believe he took to drugs and was no more, some are convinced he made it big in Silicon Valley and is no longer interested in keeping in touch with old friends out of fear of being pestered to call them to the US too, still others believe he got married to some
gori
and has become a man of leisure.'

Rita figured that such tales rarely had any real foundation. It was actually lack of info that prompted friends to conclude some plausible explanation. The truth was that they might never know the truth.

'The story I got from a source is that three or four months before Veer disappeared, he and Mr Honey Singh had a scrap over something. About what? No one knows. But it was unquestionably something significant. As these two were the main anchors, the whole coterie kind of disintegrated after the misunderstanding or fight — no one actually witnessed what happened, they just know that the friendship ended acrimoniously and the two broke all ties with each other. The parties ended, the clique split because, perhaps, no one wanted to take sides, And later, by the time Veer migrated everyone had moved on, I guess, so it was never the same again. They still meet once in a while, but are not so close to each other anymore.'

Vikram passed an old photograph of the original group he had wangled out of a friend to Rita who looked at it closely. There were nine people in the picture: five men and four women including Honey Singh, Kitty Varghese and Veer Singh. She noticed that Veer Singh was only marginally shorter than Honey Singh, nothing that a good pair of shoes with some heels could not make up for. And since the photograph wasn't full-length who could argue that Honey Singh wasn't wearing heels in the photograph and that Veer Singh wasn't in flat shoes?

'Any more information on Mr Veer Singh?'

'Veer Singh was a
mona-Sikh
too: another tall
cut-surd
but besides that, nothing. His parents passed away in quick succession before he finished college. No siblings. Never married. No ex-girlfriend. He lived in a
barsaati
near Dadar station, but that was obviously vacated over three years ago, so as I said, I drew a complete blank.'

'So there was unquestionably bad blood between Honey and Veer?'

'As per my findings, yes.'

Rita's brain churned. Some clash between friends leading to animosity, vengeance? Or just plain lust, for money and good life, that couldn't care less for old friendship or friends especially after they split up? After all, betrayal wasn't a new word added to the English dictionary: it had been there since the 13th century. Betrayal had been a part of human history since the Advent, hadn't it?

Another variable had got instated in the already insolvable equation. It seemed like a litany of Singhs.

Sishir Singh.

Honey Singh.

Veer Singh.

'What do you think?' asked Rita, her gaze flitting from Jatin to Nene and back.

'Could it be that Veer Singh is the one getting Honey Singh followed?' Jatin spoke first.

'That does not any make sense to me. Veer Singh should already know more about Honey Singh than our dear Mr Handlebar Raja could ever dig out, don't you think?'

'And, as we discussed earlier, if he
were
involved in the robbery and murder why does he need to follow Honey Singh anymore.'

'Yes, but…' Rita collected her thoughts. '…If he — or whoever — is planning another heist, it would make sense to keep tabs on the guy they're planning to pin it on, wouldn't it?'

'You think they could be planning another one?' Nene.

'They might be, depending on what their endgame is. The pattern shows it has been one robbery a year for the last three years, which means they do some elaborate preparations. Of course, things did not go according to plan in Brussels or maybe it was always agreed upon that in case anyone disrupted their plan that someone would have to be eliminated to continue with the scheme. Indeed, killing is vastly different from robbing, but these guys don't seem the ordinary souls to me who would go to church for a confession before robbing again. My prognosis though is that they might need time to plan better to avoid a situation where they need to kill. But, never say never.'

'You make a good point, ma'am.' Vikram.

'We need to find Veer Singh. Let's talk to Interpol to see if they can dig up airline or immigration records in the US. They'll surely have them. Since 9/11 the US is more conscious of security and records than they ever were. The question is how much will the US be willing to share if it shares at all? I'll speak to Victor in Belgium, and also check if our Commissioner has any personal contacts.' The moment the word personal contacts slipped out of Rita's tongue she realised, maybe Ash Mattel had some contacts through his work with Scotland Yard who might in turn know someone in the Federal Government in the States? It was a long shot, but still worth a try. 'Anyone have anything else?'

'Mr Raja — Mr Handlebar Raja — called to request if we could ask our guys not to tail him…' Jatin conveyed the private investigator's request. 'He promised that in case of any unusual incident or any change in pattern in Honey Singh's life, he will report the irregularity to us immediately.'

'Do you trust him?'

'That he won't do anything stupid?'

They exchanged glances. A much-needed smile passed their faces; they had been engrossed in the case for a few hours now.

'No. That he won't conceal any info.'

'I don't think he'll do that. We can always run random checks.'

'Then we don't follow Honey Singh from now on, but we still approve anything that goes to his client. That's the deal — he can take it or leave it.' There seemed little point in expending time, money and resources on tailing Honey Singh if someone was already doing the grunt work. 'But Nene,' Rita turned to him, 'ask your guys to keep a check on Mr Raja every once in a while.'

After an hour more discussing what they had found so far they decided to focus on the next phase before splitting.

***

Rita was back in her office after the meeting.

When everything else failed you, they say, go back to the basics and start from the beginning. Nothing was unfathomable by the human mind. If you haven't caught it yet, it isn't because it wasn't there. It is most probably because you have missed some clue, some anomaly. Most cases are cracked open by anomalies. Someone, somewhere has seen an anomaly, but the thought might not have registered at the time. No anomaly was an anomaly in itself: it showed the genius of the group, their planning and meticulousness. She brewed a fresh cup of coffee and sat down to deconstruct all that she had so far.

She knew the
why:
diamonds, money. Maybe it was speculation, but it was still a sensible one. Reasonable.

She knew the
when:
precise dates, approximate times. Accurate times might or might not have mattered. Hence speculation was not required, at least for now.

She knew the three
where's
precisely: Mumbai, New Delhi, Brussels in that order.

She knew the
what:
burglary, and obviously, the murder of Ron Jogani.

She had constructed, from the files and her hypothesis, a loose
how
for all three robberies.

She needed to get to the
who.

Or if only some of the
who's
could be linked the chain would begin to come together. Like who bought the diamonds, who travelled to Belgium...

Then it was a question of intelligence and excavating the rest.

The pages were still far from coming together, but Rita could sense that the picture on the cover was starting to make some sense.

Veer Singh introduced Kitty Varghese to Honey Singh.

Veer Singh and Honey Singh had some conflict and split up.

Other friends didn't take sides, but Kitty Varghese stuck with Honey Singh.

Ruling out Mumbai, as she was a resident in the city, Kitty Varghese was evidently in the vicinity when the New Delhi robbery occurred. Travel to Brussels was still a question mark.

She pursed her lips. What was she missing here?

Did Veer Singh have a soft spot for Kitty? Then Honey Singh came along and they hit it off? Veer Singh withdrew, but maybe couldn't forget Kitty? Maybe the bitterness only got aggravated with time when he saw the two lovebirds together? Maybe Veer Singh never left India, never went to the US? Just sequestered himself and laid low and planned his moves?

A little
filmy,
she recognised but definitely possible, but everything that was possible wasn't likely.

A parallel thought hit her and she called Jatin.

'Why do you think someone only followed Honey Singh after the third robbery, and not after the first two?'

Jatin went quiet for a while. 'Maybe because someone got murdered?'

'Or maybe someone followed him after the previous two robberies and we do not know about it?'

'That is a possibility too, ma'am. But I'm sure if Mr Raja had done some tailing in the past he would have surely informed us.'

'How many licenced private investigators do we have in Mumbai?'

'I can check.'

'And ask Mr Raja too. He might not have been forthcoming, as we never asked. Best to check if he ever tailed Honey Singh before or has dealt with a similar stealth client on anything else?'

'Will do ma'am.'

Rita kept the phone down.

Then she had another flutter in her synapse.

Maybe the killer knew he had been captured on camera.
And that set the ball in motion. It wasn't impossible for someone to keep track of a murder and investigation in Belgium when they released the candid-shot from the concealed camera in the elevator.

She decided they needed to wait a few extra days to think and dig more before contacting Honey Singh.

But the media ruined her plan the next morning.