Killer in the Shadows! (5 page)

“Naina, my dear, this is Uncle Chauhan. How are you?”

Naina relaxed, grateful for the familiar voice. She’d missed talking with him lately. “Uncle Chauhan, how nice it is to hear from you! I’m fine. I just got rid of a nasty client, but tell me how you are.”

Pradeep Chauhan laughed. His voice sounded shaky, and Naina realized that age had crept up on him while she had been away. “I am good, now that you’re back. Well,
tomorrow night, we’re having a reception in honour of my son Girish, and I want you to be there.”

“What’s the occasion?” Naina asked. Although she didn’t remember Girish very well, Uncle Chauhan had kept her abreast of his son’s political activities through his mails and phone calls.

What the mails didn’t say was that Girish Chauhan was trouble. Big trouble. He was the son of Pradeep Chauhan, who had been the member of Parliament for the longest time. He had money and he had influence, owning businesses as diverse as security organisations, newspapers, and commercial radio stations. He constantly criticised the police in his newspapers, and was known to be a permanent alcoholic. A rich spoiled brat.

“It’s a kickoff for his campaign,” Uncle Chauhan said, the pride evident in his voice.

“Like father like son, huh?” Naina quickly prompted.

Uncle Chauhan laughed. “Yes, yes, quite like that! He is filed for candidature for the next Lok Sabha elections.”

“Wow,” said Naina. “What time is the party?”

“Seven o’clock.”

“Sounds great! I’ll be there,” Naina said. She was tempted to tell her uncle about the incident, but she didn’t want to ruin his moment.

Later that afternoon, there was a light knock on Naina’s door and Ria poked her head in. She was like the cuckoo bird hiding in a clock. At scheduled intervals, she would peep out and then go back inside the clock. “There’s a package for you.”

Naina squinted in confusion at the brightly wrapped package. “For me?” Who could be sending her a present, she mused.

“Maybe it’s from a secret admirer,” Ria said with a wink before slipping out of the door.

Naina removed the small card and read it silently. “Something to remember me by. See you soon.”

It had to be from Ashish. But what did he mean he would see her soon? She’d told him she wanted her time and space.
Chaep kahin ka!
For heaven’s sake, she’d moved to Allahabad to get away from him. Gingerly, she fingered the delicate baby pink bow and pulled it open. The pale red paper came away easily. A small tape recorder lay in the box.

She pulled it out and pressed the Play button. “
So ja rajkumari, so ja
.” A familiar song started to play. A song that took Naina back to her past. Her mother used to sing a lullaby to this tune when she was a child. A chill slithered up her spine. Her hands shook so violently that the tape recorder fell onto the desk with a thud. The song droned on. Naina covered her ears to drown out the sound. She could almost imagine her mother’s soft voice singing the words.

Inspector Abhay Pandey stood in the open doorway of Naina’s office, one hand gripping the shiny doorknob, the other fiddling with his red scarf, stupefied as he watched what was going on in front of him. He closed the distance between himself and Naina in a few quick strides.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Naina spoke so quietly that Abhay had to lean forward to take in what she was saying.
He didn’t have a clue what she meant or even if she knew what she was saying, but he needed to snap her out of this delusional state.

“Ms Sinha,” he said, gently nudging her shoulder, “Ms Sinha, can you hear me?”

A childlike cry escaped her. Although he told himself this was strictly business, that this woman might be psychotic, his heart wrenched seeing her like this. All he could see was a sad little girl who was lost and alone.

Ria also heard Naina’s cry and came into the room. She was shocked to see the otherwise composed Naina in this state. “I’ll get some water,” she said and scurried off.

“What…how long have you been standing there?” Naina said. Her voice was weak and distant.

“Not long,” Abhay replayed the details of her file in his head. The lack of evidence from the night before complicated things even more. The knife had shown only one blood type and that too of Naina. He needed more information from Naina. “We need to talk.”

Ria rushed in and bent down to hand over the glass to Naina, she gave him a bird’s-eye view of a deep, inviting cleavage.

“Who sent you this box?” Abhay paid attention to Naina instead.

“I don’t know,” Naina said in a listless voice.

Abhay turned to Ria. “What did the messenger look like? Was it a courier service?”

Ria bit her lip. “I…I didn’t see who it was. I went to the restroom and found it on my desk when I returned.”

“
Kya baat karti ho Ria
. You should take your work more seriously.” Abhay shook his head observing Ria’s small legs. He preferred long-legged women, but could
definitely try new genres in life. After all, she had other body parts than just her legs. She had dark, shiny, well-brushed hair, a scrubbed, glowing face, a snub nose, and a broad grin, and yes, nicely shaped breasts.

“I take good care of my work and I can actually take care of anyone really well.” She smiled at him. The sort of smile that crept under his pants and gently stroked him.

“Why don’t you go home, Naina?” Ria suggested.

Naina nodded.

“Can we go someplace to talk?” Abhay asked.

Naina’s dark eyebrows arched in surprise.

“About your case,” Abhay clarified. “We need to discuss what we found at your house.”

Naina nodded and grabbed her purse. “Okay. Let’s go to the cafe around the corner.”

Ria opened the door and moved back slightly for them to squeeze past. It was a tight squeeze and she didn’t seem to want to make it any easier. Abhay winked at her kind gesture. He could have had a quickie with Ria behind the same door if he had the time to play his cards right.

Abhay followed Naina out. He couldn’t help but notice the way Naina’s curvaceous backside swayed in her tight black trousers as she disappeared out of the door. The woman definitely had a figure and gorgeous long legs. She pretended like she had all the confidence in the world. But he knew her bravado was a sham. When he’d witnessed her fear only moments earlier, he’d had to order himself not to wrap her in his arms and comfort her. Just the thought made him excited. But a personal entanglement with this woman would be a mistake. Business, buddy, strictly business, he reminded himself as he followed her. Maybe if he told himself that often enough, he would believe it.
Damn!

D
id he know who’d broken into her house? Had he come here to ask her to go to the police station to identify her attacker? A part of her desperately wanted that to happen, while another part of her wasn’t quite ready to face the truth. She couldn’t remember who’d killed her parents because she couldn’t face the truth. That was what the psychiatrist had told her grandmother. Was the truth that horrible for her to accept even now that she was all grown up?

Her stomach turned as the waiter placed cups of tea in front of them. Naina fiddled with the brooch that was pinned on her jacket merely to have something to do with her hands. Taking a deep breath, she looked the inspector square in the eye.

Abhay lit a cigarette. “Ms. Sinha, I think I will call you Naina. Ms Sinha is too formal for me.”

Naina nodded.

Abhay stretched out his long legs, brushing his knee against hers. Naina felt a thrill run up her entire body with his touch. She’d been too frightened the night before to notice this man’s powerful masculinity. His broad shoulders and muscular body filled out his uniform shirt to perfection. He had a hard, chiselled face with high cheekbones and a red scarf hugging his neck, and dark black hair that looked so thick that she wanted to run her fingers through it.

“You look better now,” he said with a slight smile. He wanted to say, “
Mast lag rahi ho
” but he figured that comment would be better understood by Rani, not Naina.

“Thanks. I feel a little better.” Naina shifted uneasily in her seat. The way his deep, husky voice murmured her name…it was too personal. And his dark eyes gazed at her in such a way that she wanted to confide in him, to tell him the whole, sordid truth. But if she did, would he still help her?

“Okay, Inspector Abhay Pandey, what did you want to discuss?” Always get to the point, Naina had learned. Take charge of the meeting. Don’t let the other person intimidate you.

The inspector was watching puffs of cigarette smoke drift like clouds across the ceiling. His mouth curved into a smile as if he knew exactly what she was doing. She shifted again, this time accidently brushing her leg against his. The soft fabric of his khakis felt warm against her thigh. He smiled again. He wanted to feel her body without the khaki coming in between. Junior felt uncomfortable at the thought.

“Inspector?” She raised her cup for another sip of her tea.

His gaze followed the movement, then suddenly, as if he realized what he was doing, he straightened up in his chair and assumed a more business-like pose. His smile faded, and a serious expression darkened his eyes. “Like I said, the police finished combing your place.”

“And?” Naina’s pulse jumped.

“They didn’t find anything to indicate an intruder.”

Naina’s hands tightened around the cup. “What about the blood on the knife?”

The inspector hurled out his cigarette, then leaned forward and sipped his tea, and set his cup down with a thud. There was no way of tarting up the facts in fancy clothes. “The tests aren’t finished yet but there weren’t any other fingerprints except yours, of course.” He paused, waiting for her reaction. “If someone was there, they wiped their prints and blood off the knife after you passed out.”

Naina leaned back and closed her eyes momentarily. Could she have imagined the whole thing? As a child, she had such vivid nightmares that she swore were real. Could it be happening all over again?

“You want to tell me about the tape recorder? Why did it set you off like that?”

Naina decided that she might as well tell him as much of the truth as possible. “My mother used to sing me that song before she died.”

Abhay rubbed his thumb over his scarf. “I can understand how that would upset you. But you don’t know who sent it?”

Naina shook her head. “How would I know! You are the police, you should know.”

“Maybe someone in the family?”

“I don’t have any family. I’m sure you’ve discovered that by now,” she said, her hands tightening around the cup.

Abhay’s brief nod told her all she needed to know. Of course he’d read her history. Was he here just to satisfy his curiosity or did he really want to help her?

“No one knew about it except my grandmother.” Naina sighed. “And my grandmother is dead now.”

“Did she leave you anything valuable? Money, property, jewellery?”

“Why do you ask?” Naina wrinkled her forehead in thought.

“I’m looking for a motive. If she did, then perhaps there’s another family member out there who wants the inheritance too. It might explain the attack. Has anything like this happened before?”