Murder at Crescent Point (2 page)

As soon as they reached the hospital, Nikki dashed out of the van and ran inside the hospital building shouting, ‘Bring a stretcher! There is an accident victim in the van!’ Soon two attendants brought a stretcher and took Jyoti inside. Dr Ajit Shetty who was on duty in the OPD looked at Jyoti and said, ‘Oh my god! How did this happen?’ Nikki tearfully replied, ‘She climbed a hill adjacent to the waterfall. I saw her reaching the top of the hill. She probably met with some accident and fell in the pond below the waterfall.’

Dr Shetty said urgently, ‘All of you wait here while I examine her.’

Nikki ran outside to find Ramu Kaka. He was waiting at the entrance. She requested, ‘Ramu Kaka, please go to the hostel and ask Malati Ma’am to come here immediately.’ She ran back and stood outside the examination room with the other anxious girls. Dr Shetty came out after a few minutes. His face was ashen. Removing his gloves he said softly, ‘I am sorry, your friend is no more. She was already dead when you brought her in. Someone had strangled her to death before throwing her into the water.’

Nikki was shell-shocked. ‘Strangled her! How could that be? There was no one there except us.’

‘What about the hilltop? You said she went up the hill,’ the doctor asked.

‘But who would strangle her on top of a hill?’

‘Come with me,’ Dr Shetty said in a determined voice.

The girls went with him inside the examination room. The doctor had closed Jyoti’s eyes and now she looked calm and serene. He pointed towards her neck. Deep grooves of strangulation marks were visible around her neck. ‘Someone strangled her with a fine rope or a wire. Now this is a police case, I will have to call the police station. Sit outside in the reception area. The police may have some questions for all of you. I also need to talk to your warden.’

The realisation that someone had actually killed Jyoti and thrown her into the river, started to dawn upon the girls and horrified them. They sat silently with blank faces and watery eyes. Ms Malati and Ramu Kaka rushed into the hospital. The girls jumped to their feet as soon as they saw Ms Malati. Breathless, she asked, ‘What happened? Where is Jyoti? I told you girls to be careful…say something!’ With tears in her eyes, Nikki responded, ‘Ma’am, she is no more.’

‘What do you mean no more! Where is the doctor? Let me talk to him.’

The girls took Ms Malati to the doctor’s room. She went in, the girls remained outside. After five minutes, she returned looking pale and shocked. She quietly went and sat on one of the chairs in the reception area with her head in her hands.

After about half an hour, a police officer came to the hospital. He went straight to the examination room with the doctor. After a few minutes, he came out. The doctor introduced him to Ms Malati. ‘I am Inspector Rajan. This is a clear case of murder. Were you with the girls when this happened?’

‘No, the girls had gone by themselves. Our driver had gone with them.’

Turning to the girls, he asked, ‘Tell me, why did she climb the hill?’

‘It is not the first time that she has climbed a hill. She was a trained rock climber. She used to take part in several hiking and rock climbing expeditions.’

The inspector probed further, ‘Where did she live?’

‘In the hostel,’ Ms Malati said.

‘She was my roommate,’ Nikki added.

‘It is already dark. I cannot do anything today. I will come to your hostel tomorrow morning. You may please notify her parents,’ said the inspector.

They all started moving towards the gate. Nikki whispered to Ms Malati, ‘Before I go I want to see Jyoti one last time. I will come in a minute.’ Ms Malati nodded her approval. Nikki ran to the doctor who was entering the examination room, ‘Sir, can I see my friend please?’

The doctor permitted her, ‘Sure. Go in.’

Nikki went in. She stood close to Jyoti and tearfully murmured, ‘What happened to you? Who killed you? Talk to me. Why don’t you talk to me?’ She caressed her face fondly. When her hand went to the side she found that the earring was missing. She turned Jyoti’s face to the other side. The other earring was also not there. Nikki could clearly recollect that she had seen Jyoti wearing the zircon earrings in the morning. Nikki had gifted those earrings to her best friend on her birthday. Perhaps the earrings fell when the murderer pushed her down the hill, Nikki thought.

It was only then that the horror and enormity of what had happened to Jyoti struck Nikki. She began to sob and was moving her hand through Jyoti’s lovely silky hair when suddenly, her hand felt a bristle. She looked carefully. Someone had cut a tuft of her hair. The stub was at the back of her head and was covered by the adjacent plaits. This was a stunning discovery.
Why would anyone cut her hair?
Nikki was mystified. She quietly came out of the room and joined the other girls. She was too shocked to tell anybody about the missing hair and the earrings.

That night Nikki could hardly sleep. Jyoti’s face haunted her. What did she see on top of the hill? Who killed her? There were a few other things which puzzled Nikki. She recalled that in the last couple of days, Jyoti

had become very edgy and spent most of the time alone in the room. In the past, whenever she had planned an expedition, she would always insist that Nikki should accompany her.
Is it that she wanted to go up the hill alone?
She couldn’t fathom the mystery of the missing tuft of hair. Then she suddenly remembered that Jyoti’s backpack was not there when her body was found in the pond. Maybe it was still lying on the hill. She got up and started pacing the room. She decided she had to go herself and see what was there on that ill-fated hilltop.

Her job was made easy by Ms Malati the next morning. She sent for her soon after breakfast. Inspector Rajan was sitting with her. ‘Inspector Rajan wants someone to go with him to show the place where Jyoti’s body was found. He also wants some information about Jyoti. Since you were her roommate and her best friend I thought it would be better if you went.’

Nikki nodded, and turning to Inspector Rajan, said quickly, ‘Give me a moment. I will put on my walking shoes and join you.’

— CHAPTER TWO —

A Baffling Discovery

Inspector Rajan stopped his jeep below the hill and both of them climbed the circuitous, dusty path to reach the picnic spot. The girls’ belongings still lay scattered by the side of the stream. Nikki pointed towards the hill which Jyoti had climbed. She then took him to the pond below the waterfall and said, ‘I will show you the place where we found her body.’

She entered the freezing water of the pond.

‘You need not go into water. Just point out the spot from here,’ said Inspector Rajan.

But Nikki didn’t stop and went ahead. She paused at a point, ‘We found her floating here with her face down.’ She looked carefully into clear water. She was searching for Jyoti’s missing pair of earrings. They weren’t there. When she came out, the inspector said, ‘Let us see what is up on the hill.’

Nikki asked, ‘Do we have to climb the hill?’

‘No, not from this side. This hill slopes gently on the other side. The road also ascends and reaches a place from where Crescent Point is only about a fifteen minute climb.’

‘What is Crescent Point?’ she asked.

‘You don’t know?’ exclaimed the surprised inspector. ‘Crescent Point is on top of this hill where the two rivers merge and flow down the hill creating a gigantic waterfall. During tourist season, a lot of people go up there to see how the water of the two rivers merges into one stream. This time of the year being off season, the place remains deserted.

They returned to the jeep and climbed up the hill. It was a difficult ascent and the inspector had to frequently change gears. After some time, the road widened and Nikki saw a little parking space and also an area for turning vehicles around. The inspector parked his jeep on the side of the road and said, ‘Let’s go up.’

Nikki noticed a muddy track zigzagging through tall trees. It took them almost twenty minutes to reach the top. The top of the hill had a narrow, flat surface. Nikki went across to the edge of the hill on the other side to check the section of the hill which Jyoti had climbed. She could see the stream but the picnic baskets looked very tiny from above. Taking the picnic baskets as the reference point, she showed Inspector Rajan the point at the top of the hill where she had last seen Jyoti.

Inspector Rajan looked determined, ‘Time to go to Crescent Point.’

They walked along a rugged surface abutting thick forest until the roar of the waterfall became almost deafening. Up ahead was the most picturesque sight Nikki had ever seen. There was a shelf between two tall hills through which a river was flowing. Further up in the distance, she could see two separate streams entering the river from two sides of the hill range and merging to form one big river. She noticed quite a few stumps of trees. Apparently, the place near the mouth of the waterfall had been widened to make a sitting area. A few wooden benches were also placed around. Lying on one such bench was the blue backpack that Jyoti had carried. Nikki quickly went there and got hold of it. When the inspector looked at her, she said, ‘This is Jyoti’s backpack.’

‘Please keep it carefully. We have to take it with us. I am going further up to see if there are any clues,’ said the inspector.

Nikki sat down and unzipped the bag. She was surprised to see a white envelope lying among the other items in the kit. She took it out and opened it. It was a letter. She quietly put the envelope in her pocket and fastened the zip of the bag. The inspector returned after a while and said, ‘I don’t see any evidence around. It appears the girl was sitting here when the killer came from behind and strangled her.’

Nikki shuddered. ‘How can you be sure of that?’

‘There is no other injury on the body of the girl. The only marks are those of strangulation. These marks are deeper on the back of her neck which shows that most probably the killer came from behind and took her by surprise. The expression of astonishment on the face also confirms that she was completely taken by surprise.’

Nikki asked, ‘Why strangulation? The killer could have used any other weapon.’

Inspector Rajan replied, ‘A gun shot would have made too much noise. And he probably did not want to make a mess by stabbing her. Thinking about it, I feel that the killer threw the body in the river so that it could look like an accident and he could gain enough time to get away.’

He added, ‘There has to be some clue. I think I will requisition sniffer dogs and come here again in the afternoon.’

He picked up Jyoti’s backpack and said, ‘I will keep this in the police station for the time being. Let us go, I will drop you back to your hostel.’

On the way down Nikki posed another question to the inspector, ‘You said that nobody comes here at this time of the year. The area on top of the hill has a lot of foliage but is it possible to pick up footmarks of the killer who probably came by the same route which we took to come up here?’

‘Yes, it is also possible to get a fairly good impression from the grassy surface by examining the difference in pressure of bigger and smaller footwear.’ Then turning towards Nikki he smiled, ‘You are smart.’

Nikki returned to her room. Now the mystery about the killer deepened. Why would anyone want to kill Jyoti? What about the earrings? She had looked in the pond and also looked around the bench on the hilltop. The earrings were nowhere to be found. Were they an important clue? Did the killer think that they were real diamond? Was that his motive in killing her? But then why did he cut off a tuft of hair? Nikki’s mind was restless with questions. She suddenly remembered the white envelope and took it out from her pocket. It was addressed to ‘Miss Jyoti Taneja’. She unfolded the letter and read: