“Good.” Mohnish flashed her a pleased smile.
A key turned in the lock and he entered the dark room. For a time he stood motionless, then he walked to the next room. The room which overlooked her window. There was no light there, either. She had gone, gone forever. He didn’t need to follow her anymore. It was all over. He couldn’t understand if he felt relief or anger. He felt empty. Had it all been worth it? he wondered. He stared at the dark window across the street and for an instant thought he saw a movement there. Somebody was in her room! He strained his eyes. A woman? Not her… He quickly lifted the binoculars and trained them on the window across the street. And that very instant, the lights were switched on in the room. He whirled around and stared in shock. Inspector Shinde, Sonia, and Jatin stood in the doorway.
“Mr Parmeet Sahay, you are under arrest for cold-bloodedly abetting the suicide of your wife and leaving her to die!” Shinde rasped.
At the same time, the room opposite the street was illuminated and Renuka stood in the window.
Jatin poured out hot cups of chai and handed them to Renuka and Sonia. Nidhi was cuddled on her Mistress’s lap.
“But, Boss, you said that Parmeet was innocent!”
“I didn’t say he was innocent!” Sonia corrected. “I said that Vidya did not want him to be involved in her plan. She was loyal to her husband and wanted to keep him blemishless!”
“But then, what exactly happened? Are you saying that it wasn’t Kartik following Vidya?” There was a confused look on Jatin’s face as he drew out a chair and settled down opposite his Boss.
“Kartik was following Vidya to ensure her safety, but he wasn’t aware that both he and Vidya were being followed by Parmeet. Parmeet had always suspected that his wife was involved with someone before marriage and he wasn’t convinced that it was completely over between them. Perhaps because he found the college photograph of Vidya and Kartik in her cupboard. And he grew more suspicious when Kartik began calling Vidya. That was when he decided to do a little bit of his own investigating. He followed his wife around whenever he could. He’d stay away from his night shifts and from his own vacant flat across the street, he often checked out her activities. Sometimes it was intentional spying and sometimes plain voyeurism!”
“But how did you know all this?” Renuka asked.
“It was Vidya’s horoscope which gave me the lead. In her horoscope, Moon, the planet which controls the mind, had been negatively influenced by Harshal and Neptune. Moreover they all co-existed in the eighth house, which is the house of death. I realised that this was indeed a horoscope of suicide, not murder. But there were references in Vidya’s diary which were confusing. For example, Kartik told us that Vidya was aware that he was following her. She had even asked him to stop following her around. But in her diary, in the last entry, which was written after her meeting with Kartik, she once again mentioned being followed. Which meant that it wasn’t Kartik she was hinting at this time. She also mentioned a glint of glass from across the street. I immediately thought of the apartment in the opposite building. Kartik had admitted that he had been following her, but he never mentioned that he had been observing her from an apartment. Besides, Kartik had a perfect alibi. He was at the Mula Retreat with friends when Vidya was on the verge of committing suicide. I even saw him there. Which meant that someone other than Kartik was keeping tabs on her.
“In Vidya’s horoscope, Sun - the planet of the spouse - was in conjunction with Saturn in the sixth house, clearly revealing that her husband would be useless for her in terms of companionship. Absolutely no marital happiness. Next, I checked out Parmeet’s horoscope. He had Scorpio as an ascendant with Neptune in the first house, which made him an irresponsible, detached, and eccentric character. Also, Libra in the twelfth house had Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, and Harshal in conjunction, which indicated him to be an innately suspicious person. Mars as well as Saturn aspected the same house. It was obvious that not only would his wife die in dramatic conditions, but that he would be provoked into a criminal situation and be punished for it. I wondered where all this reading was going to lead. Could Parmeet be in any way connected with Vidya’s death?
“We checked the list of apartment owners and I discovered that Parmeet owned the vacant flat opposite Vidya’s bedroom, I realised that it must be he who was following Vidya around. Vidya had mentioned Parmeet’s bird-watching hobby. I put two and two together and searched the house for binoculars, but didn’t find them. Which seemed really odd. If Parmeet bird- watched regularly, where were his binoculars? Were they being used for something else and therefore were not in the house at all? It was then that I knew what exactly had happened. While Vidya sat writing in her diary, minutes before she died, she was convinced that someone was watching her. If her instincts were right, then that someone had also witnessed how Vidya had died. The idea clung like glue to my mind. I decided to check out if Parmeet had reported for night shift at work at nine o’clock. I was told that he arrived a little after midnight. So where was he all this time? If he was keeping close watch on his wife, then he must have seen something to do with her death. Perhaps even seen her commit suicide. Which sat perfectly well with my reading of his horoscope.
“I deduced that Parmeet had watched Vidya drop the sleeping pills in the milk. He knew exactly
