“Rajesh was just a good friend of hers. Anju wrote to me just as she wrote to him! You killed an innocent woman, you monster!” Sheetal cried.
“That’s in the past. But you are my present. And now you will die, too. You know too much and you introduced Jeetu into our lives. And even though now I know that no such person exists, I also know that I can never trust you again. Goodbye Sheetal. I did love you, you know.”
He gave her a long sad look. Then he pulled the trigger. Sheetal closed her eyes. Nothing happened! Startled, Pankaj began examining the pistol, as Sheetal burst into tears.
“Pankaj, you are arrested for the murder of your first wife, Anju, and for the attempted murder of your present wife, Sheetal!” The booming voice of Inspector Divekar rang out.
With a gasp, Pankaj stared at the imposing figure of the Inspector. Sonia, Jatin, and Ganesh Pandit stood behind him. Sonia shot him a look of contempt, before she bent towards Sheetal to comfort her.
“It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was a terrible risk,” Sonia confessed.
Nidhi opened her eyes and flashed a bored look at the usual group gathered in the office, before curling up in her Mistress’s lap again. Something told her that she wouldn’t have a very peaceful nap.
“You have to take risks in our line, beti,” Inspector Divekar admitted.
“But, Boss, we were called to Kelshi to hunt out stolen antiques! What happened to them?” Jatin appeared bewildered.
“Nothing happened to them, Jatin. There were never any statues stolen. That was just a story concocted by Pankaj to lure us to Kelshi,” Sonia remarked.
“But why?”
“Pankaj was extremely jealous of Jeetu and he wanted to find out all he could about the guy -”
“He could’ve hired any detective for that,” Jatin interrupted.
“Who would’ve told him only the bare facts of Jeetu’s life. Nothing of his psychology. Nor of his innermost desires. And certainly nothing about his feelings for Pankaj’s wife!”
“Which you could,” Inspector Divekar interposed.
“Exactly. In the role of an Astrologer, I certainly could. But Pankaj knew that he had to create a reason to get me to Kelshi and, more important, a reason for Sheetal to produce Jeetu’s horoscope. She was obviously reluctant, but didn’t you see how insistent he was? When we did go to Kelshi, I sensed immediately that Pankaj lacked the drive and the worry for the loss of his antiques. And that instead he was most keen in reading Jeetu’s horoscope. At that point, of course, I didn’t allow my observations to sway my judgement. But when I examined the statues in the cupboard, I noticed that they hadn’t been removed in a long time. And more interestingly, there were only five marks of five statues. Where were the marks of the two statues he claimed had been stolen? That really set me thinking. What if there were no marks, because there were no statues? And if that was true, why had Pankaj really called us to Kelshi?
“Matters were further complicated when I read the horoscopes. I saw some complexities in Sheetal’s horoscope. Sagittarius as the zodiac as well as the ascendant showed her to be a dynamic person. But Sun and Harshal were in opposition, indicating dramatic developments in relation to her spouse. Saturn in the eighth house aspected the Sun, showing that Sheetal’s marriage would give her no happiness. On the other hand, Pankaj’s horoscope revealed definite criminal traits. Ketu in Gemini is the first house, Mars aspecting the ascendant by the fourth house and Moon by the eighth house clearly revealed him to be possessive, a jealous man with an imbalanced mind. And most important, Rahu, Harshal, and Neptune in the seventh house showed the strange, sudden death of his wife. Both their horoscopes really set me thinking.
“But it was Jeetu’s horoscope which really clinched the matter. I realised at once that his horoscope was a fake. As per the natal chart given by Sheetal, Harshal, Sun, and Saturn were in Scorpio in the first house. It doesn’t take a veteran to notice that the planets were all placed in odd houses. As per Jeetu’s birth year, Harshal ought to have been in the twelfth house with Libra; and the Sun and Saturn in Leo in the fifth house, in conjunction with Jupiter, Mercury, and Rahu. That was enough for me to grasp the significance of the whole issue. There were three reasons why Sheetal would provide such a horoscope. One, that Jeetu had deliberately given her a false horoscope; two, that Sheetal had deliberately given me the wrong one; and three, that she gave me a concocted horoscope because Jeetu too, was concocted! Of course, I had to go back to the office, look up almanacs for verification, and do some research work. And two more incidents occurred. By mistake Tina showed me Anju’s old photo album. There I discovered Sheetal’s photo with Pankaj’s first wife. And Ganesh Pandit insisted on showing us the Mahalaxmi Temple.”
“What did he tell you when he took you on a tour of the temple?” Jatin asked.
“When Ganesh Pandit narrated his suspicions that Pankaj had murdered his first wife, I wasn’t too surprised. And I couldn’t disregard his suspicions, because for some reason I had begun to suspect something much bigger than a theft had happened at Kelshi. It was clear that Jeetu was a figment of Sheetal’s imagination.
