The Heartless Man Pt.3
Adventures of Milli and Manav.
After meeting with Inspector Raghu, we walked to the end of the lane.
“That’s the park,” said Allana. “Rahul always came here.”
Inside the park, we walked along a trail, sat on a bench, and stopped to see the ducks in the pond.
As we were heading out, a figure emerged in front of us. Inspector Raghu appeared out of nowhere.
“You are here,” he said, panting. “I was looking for you, Manav.”
“What happened inspector?” asked Manav.
“An extraordinary event has taken place. We had duly arrested Rakesh on the evidence of the tyre mark but a lady sculptor, Mrs. Vrinda. Who lives in a rented house opposite Rakesh’s mansion, has declared that she never saw any vehicle go out of his home. She swears that she’s a night owl and if a car would have gone out, she’d have seen it.”
“Well, she must have gone to sleep and missed the vehicle?” Manav said.
“No, an attending maid who was with Mrs Vrinda, claims she too was awake the entire night and didn’t see any lights or vehicles outside. So, based on insufficient evidence, we let Rakesh go,” said Raghu, regretfully.
Inspector Raghu pulled out a cigarette from his pocket.
“I thought you quit,” Manav remarked.
“Oh, I did,” Raghu said. “But this damned case, it’s become a national sensation and we have orders to wrap it as soon as possible. Manav, I need your help. You are the only one who could help me.”
“No,” said Allana. “He’s here to find my fiancé.”
“You are Allana Mathews, aren’t you?” said Raghu.
“Yes,” replied Allana.
“Well, you should let Manav help us because the Church was constructed by your father. It’s still your property. That diamond was found in the Church’s backyard so Heart of Eternity actually belongs to you. How about this, huh? My men will look for your fiancé. We are the police, and we are the best at finding missing people and Manav will help me with the diamond case?” said Raghu.
“That’ll work,” Allana agreed. “But Manav will look for Rahul too.”
Manav nodded. “Well, I’m okay with it.”
“So, tell me when did your fiancé go missing?” asked Raghu.
“Rahul had dinner with us and around twelve pm he went out, when I woke up on Friday morning, he wasn’t back,” said Allana.
“You mean, Friday 7th April?”
“Yes, inspector,” said Allana.
“What! That’s the day the diamond was stolen and it was Good Friday! nothing good seemed to have happened,” Raghu scoffed.
In the afternoon, Manav and I went to the church with Raghu. There we met Father Jacob.
“This is the room where I kept the Heart of Eternity,” said Father. “See, this padlock. It was forced by some blunt instrument.”
“Or a huge strong man,” remarked Raghu.
“This is the shelf,” Father continued, pointing at a wooden drawer. “Where I kept the Heart of Eternity in a box.”
Manav examined the box and said, “It was locked?”
“Yes,” replied Father Jacob. “I finished all the work then locked the box and the room, after that, I went home. When I woke up in the morning, I saw my windows were open and that was strange because I always shut them. I wondered if I had forgotten to or if somebody opened them, so the first thing I did, was rush to my cabin where I kept the keys to the church and I found that the only key missing was of the room where I kept the diamond.”
“So, the key was stolen but the padlock was still forced,” Manav remarked. “How strange!”
“Father, do you suspect anyone?” Inspector Raghu asked.
“On the day before the diamond was stolen,” said Father Jacob. “Three people visited me and all of them had a peculiar interest in the diamond.
“The first was the lady sculptor, Mrs Vrinda. She was in the confession room when she asked me if she could look at the Heart of Eternity. I hesitated but she pleaded with me. So, I let her in the room. I was there too. She had a strange look in her eyes when she held the diamond in her hands. I know her financial situation isn’t very good so I wondered if she thought of stealing the gem.
“The next person is the maid, Surbai. She has been with our church for a month now. I really don’t like to say this but we have lost some of our silver altar vessels, metal relic holders and even fine-embroidered chasubles when that girl came in. I believe her husband is a drunkard and gambler and she needs money but stealing from the church is a sin.
“The last person who came to see me was Rakesh Rathore. We spent a lot of time in the confession room but just as he was leaving, he remarked, “Father, is that the room where you keep that diamond?”
“I knew it,” Inspector Raghu cried. “He asked about it so he could be sure about the room. In the night, he drove his car into the church, forced the lock, and stole the diamond. I wonder how he pulled it off without letting anyone see his car?”
© Shreya Sinha, 2023.
To read the complete story, head over to my substack — https://open.substack.com/pub/shreyasinha/p/the-heartless-man-pt3?r=g3gc2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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