Read The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) Online
Authors: Ravi Subramanian
‘Jacqueline!’ called out Karan. He was logging into his laptop for the first time after coming back from the Asia Logistics office. ‘I am sending you something via email. Can you please print it out for me?’
‘What is it?’ asked Kavya, curiously.
‘The draft post-mortem report and the staff photographer’s pictures from the site.’
‘Post-mortem report? Whose?’
‘Raymond’s.’
‘So soon?’
‘This is the draft report which is first prepared and released after some bureaucratic procedures. The media has contacts, so we get stuff out before the formal report is published.’
‘Wow. Will print it out for you,’ and Jacqueline got busy with her computer.
‘Show me the pictures,’ Kavya butted in. ‘Can I see?’
‘Yes you can. But they are quite graphic. Extremely inhuman and repulsive.’
‘That’s fine. I will manage.’ And Kavya walked up to Karan, who brought the images on the screen for her to see.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline demonstrated why she was reputed to be the most efficient secretary. In a jiffy she had printed out the post-mortem report and the pictures and had handed them over to Karan, who was visibly impressed. ‘I work for the CEO you see,’ Jacqueline smiled at him and walked out.
Karan started reading the post-mortem report. Intermittently he would hold up the pictures and intensely scrutinize them and almost immediately revert to the post-mortem report. It was as if he was comparing the two. He even asked for his laptop for a few minutes and checked something before going back to the report. Kavya had by then seen the pictures and was waiting for the next round of instructions from Karan.
‘Rubbish,’ said Karan when he finally finished reading the report.
‘What happened?’
‘This post-mortem report is bullshit. Absolute crap. It’s been done by someone who just wanted to get it over with. Probably the cops didn’t want another case on their hands, so they were happy to call it a suicide. I can bet my ass on it, it’s not.’
‘Don’t do that sweetheart. Your ass is far too cute. In fact, it’s the only thing cute about you.’
‘Shut up Kavya.’
‘Fine, fine. Why do you say that the report is rubbish?’
‘It’s very simple,’ said Karan and fiddled with his laptop.
You saw the picture of Raymond hanging by a long rope right? He was hanging between the two pillars, right in the middle of the horizontal scaffolding. Right?’
‘Yes.’
Karan brought up the picture on his screen. ‘See this?’ He pointed to the rod on which the rope was hanging from and then to the scaffolding. ‘The entire underside of the bridge is covered by scaffolding.’
‘Hmm,’ Kavya nodded her head.
‘If you look carefully, there are two sections of the scaffolding. One which covers the piers. . .’
‘You mean the pillars which hold up the bridge.’
‘Yes idiot. That’s what a pier is. One section of the scaffolding covers the piers. Then there is a separate segment of the scaffolding that is underneath the bridgedeck and runs horizontally along the belly of the bridge covering the entire span between the two piers. It’s quite a long section—the piers are about twenty metres apart.’
‘Yes.’
‘And our friend was found hanging from the centre of this horizontal scaffolding, in other words, he was at least ten metres from each of the piers, irrespective of which side you look at.’
‘Correct.’
‘Now, if he has managed to tie the rope on the horizontal scaffolding, he couldn’t have done it standing on or taking support from the scaffolding on any of the pillars. Which means that the only way Raymond could have got to where the rope is tied to the scaffolding, is if he somehow got on the horizontal scaffolding—below the deck—from the bridge, and carefully walked like a trapeze artist, to the centre of the horizontal span, where he tied one end of the rope, put the noose on the other end around his neck and jumped.’
‘I’m listening. It’s so gross.’
‘And Kavya, the body is hanging from a long rope. From the looks of it, the rope is about three metres or so.’
‘Yes? The length of the rope looks like it’s twice his height atleast. But what does it prove?’
‘Hold on. Hold on. Let me complete. I am also thinking aloud. I’m not drawing conclusions. Assume for a minute that Raymond did commit suicide. He would have jumped from here. . .’ and he pointed to a place at the centre of the scaffolding on the underbelly of the bridge, between the two piers.
‘Okay?’ Kavya was getting more and more intrigued.
‘And in case he did jump from there, he would have had to jump atleast three metres, because that’s the length of the rope. And assuming that one drops three metres while hanging themselves, the jerk would be intense, more so in the case of Raymond, because he is of a heavy frame. In such a case, getting away with all the cervical vertebrae intact is almost impossible.’
‘Cervical vertebrae?’
‘The human neck, Kavya, is comprised of seven cervical vertebrae that lie in front of the spinal cord and help provide support, structure and stability to the neck. In case of a big jerk, the cervical vertebra gets damaged.’ And he touched her neck to point out the part he was referring to.
‘Hmm.’
‘The post-mortem reports no other injury or in other words Raymond’s cervical vertebrae were intact. Simply put, it means that Raymond did not fall three metres while hanging. He was killed and later hung slowly from the scaffolding.’
‘Oh wow. How did you learn all this?’
‘I’m training to be a crime investigator Kavya. TOI is putting me through intense investigative training. You know that, why are you asking me?’
‘Alright, calm down. But what if, because of some weird reason—put it down to statistical inconsistencies—his cervical vertebrae stayed intact despite the fall?’
‘I know what you are saying. But this is not the only thing in favour of my hypothesis. Look at these.’ And Karan turned the screen of the laptop towards her.
‘What are these?’
‘Wait wait, before that, let’s go back to the point that I was making earlier.’ And he brought up the picture of Raymond hanging from the horizontal scaffolding. ‘The distance between the point where Raymond is hanging from and the two piers on either side is atleast ten to twelve metres. Right?’
Kavya nodded quietly. She was hooked, listening closely to what Karan was saying.
‘It means that the only way Raymond could have reached the point to tie the knot was by walking on the scaffolding underneath the deck.’
‘You told me this earlier too, remember?’
‘Yes. I remember. I am just reiterating my point. Now look at this,’ and he clicked on his laptop and brought up a few images on his screen. He zoomed in on one and turned the screen towards Kavya. She couldn’t make out what the picture was about. ‘What’s this?’
‘This is a picture of the scaffolding leading to the place where Raymond was found hanging from. Wait till I zoom in’. Karan clicked on a section of the picture and zoomed in further.
‘Pretty neat for a scaffolding, except for the dust that has settled on it. Clean by Mumbai standards. Probably because it’s new.’
‘Hmm. . .yes. Covered by dust though. If Raymond walked on these and reached the place where he tied the rope, there should be footprints, right? Can you see any footprints?’
Kavya looked at the picture again and said, ‘No. No footprints.’
‘See these?’ Karan brought up multiple pictures and zoomed in to all of them and looked at the close-ups one by one. ‘Our staff photographer has covered the scaffolding from all angles. If there are no footprints on the scaffolding, how did Raymond get to where he was hanging from?’
‘Oh yes! Obviously he couldn’t have floated there.’ Kavya was extremely intrigued by Karan’s disclosures.
‘He could have, Kavya.’
‘What?’
‘Yes Kavya, he could have. He could have floated there on a boat and could have been hung there by someone who killed him.’
‘You mean to say, someone brought him there by boat and killed him by hanging him there?’
‘No, I’m not saying that. I am saying he was already dead by the time he was brought there. He was just strung up, to make it look like a suicide.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Wait,’ said Karan, getting busy with his laptop again. He pulled up a website; from a distance it looked like the same website that he was looking at a little earlier when he was reading the post-mortem report. ‘Come here,’ he summoned Kavya, eyes focused on the picture on screen.
‘I’m right behind you.’ Kavya said.
‘Oh, right. Look at this picture. It was taken by our guy at 8.52 a.m.’ It was a close-up of a hanging Raymond. The time stamp on the picture was intact. Kavya felt nauseous. Involuntarily her hand went up and covered her mouth. Karan went on. ‘Look closely at the trousers. Don’t they look clean?’
‘Yes they do. So what? He was on his way back from office.’ Kavya looked at the picture. She felt sorry for Raymond. He looked so still, in stark contrast to the water that was flowing about two to three feet below his shoes.
No one should meet such an end,
she thought.
‘Sweetheart, the post-mortem says that he died around 2.00 a.m., which means he jumped from the scaffolding with the noose around his neck around the same time.’
‘Hmm.’
Karan pressed a couple of buttons and toggled to a website showing the tide levels at various points in time. ‘See, this is the table which shows last night’s tide levels.’ Kavya looked at the screen. She didn’t understand anything.
Bombay, India
18.9167oN, 72.8333oE
Time | Height of Tide |
12.00 Midnight | 1.80 metres |
01.00 | 2.60 metres |
02.00 | 3.24 metres |
03.00 | 3.81 metres |
04.00 | 4.02 metres |
05.00 | 3.70 metres |
06.00 | 3.12 metres |
07.00 | 2.40 metres |
08.00 | 1.95 metres |
09.00 | 1.68 metres |
On seeing her bewildered expression, Karan volunteered, ‘Last night at 2.00 a.m., the tide was 3.24 metres high. That was the time when Raymond would have jumped and hanged himself, assuming for a minute that he committed suicide. This picture is taken closer to 9 a.m., when the tide is at its lowest, at 1.68 metres. This also means that the water level at the time Raymond died should be atleast a metre and a half higher than what our picture shows.’
‘Why?’
‘The difference in tide levels at these two times is 1.56 metres. The water level in the creek tracks quite close to the tide levels and so the difference in water levels in the Vashi creek at these two times would also be on similar lines.’
Kavya’s eyes widened. ‘Which means, Karan, that if he did hang at 2.00 a.m., and if the water at that time was indeed a metre and a half higher than what this picture shows us, then water would have been up to his neck level. . .if not his neck, then atleast somewhere between his hip and chest. Definitely not lower.’
‘Bang on Kavya, proud of you. But if you see this picture, it doesn’t look as if the water even touched him. His clothes seem so clean. And Kavya, that is just not possible if he had jumped at 2.00 a.m.’
‘That means that the post-mortem is wrong about the time of death.’ ‘Post-mortems are not often wrong about the time of death.
They often mess up the cause of death.’
‘Then what could it mean?’
‘It can only mean, sweetheart, that he was killed somewhere else at around 2.00 a.m., brought to the spot sometime in the morning, when it was still dark enough to camouflage the heinous act, and made to hang from a rope tied for this specific purpose on the scaffolding, making it look like a suicide. And in the morning, given that the tide would have been low, his feet stayed untouched by the dirty creek water. . .’
‘. . .which is why they are clean and not muddied.’
‘Yes. That’s what I can make out.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘Had he genuinely hung from that spot, his cervical vertebrae would have broken, and there would have been footprints on the scaffolding and some green dirty water and weed stains on his trousers—the Vashi creek is really, really muddy, mind you. In Raymond’s case none of the above has come into play. It can only mean dear, that he was killed and it was made to look like a suicide. Unfortunately no one is interested in finding out the truth, because there are no stakeholders for Raymond.’
‘Fabulous analysis.’ When they heard this, both of them turned around. Indrani was standing in the doorway; she had overheard every bit of the conversation. ‘Karan, this morning I was worried, wondering if I did the right thing by placing the reputation of the bank in your hands. But after hearing this conversation, I am convinced that I haven’t made any mistake here. Well done.’
‘Thanks Indrani.’
‘Just remember we are running short of time. We need to get to the bottom of this quickly. The more I listen to you guys, the more worried I get.’
‘Don’t worry Indrani. We will figure this out by tomorrow.’ Karan had no clue how he was going to crack this by the next day. But he was confident that something would show itself up.
‘Okay guys. Let me know if you want anything from me.’
‘Sure Indrani.’
‘And mind you Karan’, Indrani said just before she stepped out of the boardroom, back into her own terrain, ‘Raymond has stakeholders. Once we have put this behind us, I will take it up with whoever I have to, to make sure that Raymond’s killers, if what you are saying is right, don’t go unpunished.’
Karan looked up. He had a nervous smile on his face. ‘Thanks Indrani.’ The CEO of GB2 smiled back before shutting the door. It was now just the two of them in the room.