Prey on the Prowl - A Crime Novel, BS Murthy [best contemporary novels .txt] 📗

Mithya’s hidden hand behind all that? Why not take her finger prints?’

The next day as Mithya reached the mortuary, Dhruva obliged her to leave her finger prints, having which, he was lost in the elegance of her slender fingers that was not lost on her either; so, pleased with herself she turned coquettish and said how she wished that he would let her put them for better use in time. Distracted though by her seductive manner, yet he was able to discern that her demeanor turned cold as she saw Dilip’s body, and that she looked contemptuously at Ashok’s corpse, which made him think that she had no love lost for either of them. Moreover, when he noticed the steadiness of her hand as she recorded her statement and the coolness in her face as she was all set to take away Ashok’s body in the ambulance, he felt that she had the nerve of a killer. If anything, when she told enticingly that she knew he would visit her again in vardi but he was welcome even in mufti, he was amazed as well as irritated by her audacity. But while getting into her sedan that followed the ambulance as she winked at him invitingly, seeing in her a femme fatale of the first order, he waved her off wondering whether she was the murderess after all; and as if to chase his thoughts, leaving the chores of handling Dilip’s body to Appa Rao his deputy, he headed straight to the forensic laboratory.

The post-mortem report confirmed the instantaneous deaths of both men and Mithya’s fingerprints were found all over the place and that put Dhruva in the contemplative mode.

‘Stabbed in the abdomen by Dilip if Ashok died instantaneously, how he could have pushed away Dilip with such a force that his medulla oblongata took the hit?’ he began to analyze. ‘Even if Ashok had extraordinary reflexes to push away Dilip upon being attacked, the latter’s grip on the knife would have ensured that it was pulled out of his frame, which was not the case. So, as Dilip couldn’t have died being pushed by Ashok for he died instantaneously after being stabbed; were it possible that Mithya murdered Dilip in cold blood after abetting him to stab Ashok to death? Was not the informer too an anonymous woman! Was it all Mithya’s handiwork then?’ 

Soon after Ashok’s obsequies were over, Dhruva called on Mithya at 9, Castle Hills.

“What brings you here dear?” she greeted him heartily.

“Why can’t you guess?”

“Where the need as your urgency shows?” she said winking at him.

“You are mistaken,” he said, hiding his embarrassment.

“Oh! I thought you are a game,” she said, feigning disappointment. 

“You may know that custodial interrogation is a different ball game,” he said assuming a grave demeanor.

“Then you have to go to hell to interrogate both of them?” she said smilingly, ushering him into her house.

“Not a bad idea if a femme fatale can lead me there.”

“If you think I’m one, I would lead you to heaven instead,” she said enticingly.

“Tempting though…,”

“What’s the hesitation then?” she said moving closer.

“Thanks to your finger prints on the murder weapon, I have to lead you to the lock-up,” he said dramatically taking her hand.

“What a discovery!” she said without taking her hand out of his. “Well, it was I who prepared the salad besides mixing drinks for Dilip and me. Wonder how you had missed my finger prints on the Bagpiper bottle and those two glasses.”

“Whither gone the third glass?” he said releasing her hand.

“I haven’t heard of two drinking out of three glasses, have you?” she said smilingly.

“But Ashok’s viscera showed that he too drank.”

“Don’t you see that scoring for me as it clearly indicates that they quarreled to death after drinking to the dregs,” she said triumphantly.

“When Ashok died readily, who could’ve killed Dilip?” he said with a probing look.

“I know Ashok has quick reflexes, possibly he might’ve pushed away Dilip before he died,” she said with a poker face.

“Why wouldn’t have Dilip pulled out the knife when pushed?” 

“It’s puzzling isn’t it?” she said smilingly. 

“What if someone was there to ensure that both died?”

“Eminently possible, but don’t you think it’s too thin a thread to hang me with?” she said mockingly.

“Could the criminal and the informer be the same?”

“We could discuss all that and more if you stay on for dinner,” she said invitingly, taking his hand.

“Not now, maybe some other time,” he said making a move.

“You may know that you’re always welcome,” she said pressing his hand.

“Looks like you’re a tough nut to crack,” he said pressing her hand.

“Oh!’ she feigned pain.

“I’m sorry,” he said releasing her hand.

“Why, isn’t it precious to hold?” she said extending her hand enticingly.

“That’s what is disturbing,” he said waving her goodbye. 

“That’s the charm of life,” she said, blowing a kiss at him.                       

Bowled though by her charms, as her daredevilry affronted his professional ego, hell-bent on pinning her down, he reviewed the case for possible loopholes, and finding none, he thought that he should play ball with her in her own court.

That evening when Dhruva reached 9, Castle Hills in mufti, Mithya in light pink voile sari, was in the lawns with Dicey, her new acquisition, and having greeted him heartily, she warmly led him into the drawing room to flirt with him openly. Soon, as they had a binge of booze sitting together in that wide sofa, finding her at her evocative best, he realized how vulnerable he was to her peculiar persona. But as he remained tentative, teasing him at his unease, before cozying up to him by drawing closer to him, she revealed her riveting allures by degrees, and unable to resist her charms, as he conceded his erotic ground to her, she induced him to lay the foundations for an amorous edifice through necking and petting.

When she proposed dinner to let them satiate their palates as a prelude to satiating their libidos, following her to the dining table, as he took to bottom pinching, she said coyly that she wouldn’t be granting him an out-of-turn favor. Saying that he would wait for its turn, yet as he busied himself at her bottom, she said that he could have his way both ways but as per protocol. After a hearty meal followed by pan, she led her into the lawn to let him puff away at his cigar, as she enjoyed its aroma, and as he stubbed the butt, hugging him ardently and reaching for his lips, she kissed him fervently, inducing in him the urge to surge in. Thereby, leading him indoors, she stripped him in the drawing room and pulled him into the bedroom only to push him onto her sprawling mahogany bed for their erotic exertions.

At length, lying in his arms in satisfaction, she opened her secretive mind to him.

“I know what brought you into my bed, and as quid pro quo, I’ll satisfy your curiosity,” she said coyly. “It was Dilip’s idea to eliminate Ashok and I went along with it, not to acquire a rich widow tag, but to avoid the divorcee card. With inputs from Dilip, I worked out a plan to slow-poison Ashok, as and when he embarked on a journey by train and as I was all set, it dawned on me that in all suspicious deaths, the spouse would readily come under the scanner, so I realized that to save my skin, I should get rid of Dilip as well. Moreover, eager to step into Ashok’s shoes, Dilip was getting too big for his boots, and to give a spin to Ashok’s death, before arranging that fateful meeting to untangle the love triangle, I booked a berth for him on the Godavari Express. The rest as you know is mystery.”

“Isn’t it a loss to the crime history?” he said fondling her.

“Why not we together create history,” she said invitingly. “It’s my curiosity to measure up the cop who would turn up for my questioning that made me appraise you on the sly; even as your looks surged my sexual passion, your manner induced a sense of belonging in me. Believe me; my urge to make a new beginning with you fuelled my desire to be freed of both of them even more; that way, my man, you are an abettor of the crime. Whatever, in the wake of the murders, breathing down my neck, you’ve charmed me with your mind as well, and now with your lovemaking, you’ve increased my craving for being your wife. You know, all this is for your ears only and not for my trial for sure; try acting funny and you stand accused - of torture and rape - haven’t you left enough evidence behind – on both counts.”

“What to make of you?” he said in exasperated admiration. 

“Yours if you please,” she winked at him.

“What if I let you loose,” he said contemplatively.

“Why not enslave me.”

“That’s resisting the irresistible.”

“If you can ignore my past, I won’t let you regret making me your wife, it’s my promise,” she said pleadingly taking him in her embrace.

“I know your value to my life but let me think it over,” he said disarmingly.

“Won’t you come tomorrow?” she said reaching for his lips.

“You haven’t left me as yet,” he said.

When he reached for his dress after she released him, she pulled out the tape recorder from his pocket.  

“Let this be my keepsake of our first-time,” she said dangling it before him.

“Oh, you are impossible!” he said taking her into his arms.

However, after the dust has settled down, he led me into our marvelous wedlock.   

Amazed at what she read, Radha thought that Mithya could have been a temptress in the Cleopatra mold and wondered what would have happened had she poisoned her men. 

 

Chapter 16

Kavya’s Quagmire

 

When Radha took Dhruva to cloud nine, as if to bring him back to the mundane setting, Dicey got seriously indisposed; though he was gratified to see her tending the pet like her own child, when it succumbed to the mysterious ailment in a week’s time, he was truly downcast. While it took him quite a while to recover from his loss, courtesy Natya, Radha could cover a lot of Pravar’s ground into which Kavya had ventured deep that she mapped for Dhruva over drinks one evening.  

After securing his bail, Kavya was wont to spend long hours with Pravar to work out their defense strategy. In that process, even as he was charmed by her suaveness, she was discomfited by his outrageous manner, yet she put up with him so as to atone herself for Ranjit’s foul on him. However, she readily struck a chord with Natya, who was all empathy for her, for her sympathy for them, but her proximity made Pravar fantasize about the mature woman, and it was only time before he turned obsessive of possessing her, by means fair or foul. What with her misplaced samaritanism blinding her vision, Kavya mistook his advances as manifestations of his exaggerated gratitude for her, and Natya, though quick to sense his ill-intentions, yet failed to caution her, for the fear of losing her support, all the while pleading with him not to scandalize their benefactor. Yet, in time, he pressed her to pander to his whim by bringing around Kavya, and as she refused, he threatened to end his life, which made Natya see the merit in the adage of ‘yielding to the temptation as a way of avoiding it’. So, reckoning that he would get over his obsession for her rival only in her possession, willy-nilly, Natya became his accomplice to trick Kavya into his bed.

Thereafter, as per the script, Pravar faked suicide, ostensibly to save their benefactor from his passion for her, and Natya played upon Kavya’s sympathy for him to try to woo her for him. So, distressed at the development and embarrassed to the core, Kavya was at a loss as to know how to handle her unrequited love. Were she to shun