‘Uncle wants us in the library now,’ she said. ‘The family and you, Mr Athreya.’
Michelle and Athreya were the last to enter the library. Bhaskar and Varadan sat together against a wall, and facing them was a semicircle of five chairs. Manu, Dora and Richie had taken three, leaving two for Michelle and Athreya. Sebastian sat a just behind the semicircle.
Athreya pulled the last chair a little away from the rest and sat down. He had a sense of what Bhaskar might have in mind, and wanted to have a clear view of all the faces in the room.
‘You already know the contents of the first will,’ Bhaskar began. ‘I called you all here to tell you about my second will. This is the one that takes effect if I die of unnatural causes. There will be a few changes of course, due to Phillip’s death. The paintings, which were to go to him, now stay with the mansion.
‘I’ve asked Mr Athreya here for obvious reasons. If I do die of unnatural causes, Mr Athreya will be commissioned to get to the bottom of the death. It is therefore best that he sits in on this short meeting.
‘The reason I have chosen to disclose the contents of my second will now is this. There has been a development last evening that shows that someone has indeed been trying to kill me. The intruder who broke in three months ago and tried to kill me is back in the valley.’
Gasps escaped from Dora and Michelle.
‘Where?’ Dora demanded.
‘Later, Dora. It’s not relevant right now. The police are working on it. But coming back to the will, why am I disclosing the contents of the second will now? Because it is obvious that my ploy of keeping the second will a secret is not working. Why else would the intruder have returned to complete his aborted job?’
‘But Uncle–’ Dora began.
‘Later, girl!’ Bhaskar snapped. ‘Later. Let me first get to the provisions of the second will.’
Athreya looked around. Michelle and Dora seemed stunned. Richie was listening intently. Manu seemed calm. It was clear that he already knew what was going to be said. Bhaskar would have shared the contents of the will with his son before sharing it with the others. Varadan might have been a wooden statue.
‘If I die of unnatural causes,’ Bhaskar went on, ‘all bequests, except those earmarked for Manu, go into a trust for five years. That means that none of you will be able to access your bequests for five years. The trust will be managed jointly by Manu and Varadan.
‘At the end of the five years, each bequest will go to the concerned beneficiary only if there is positive and indisputable proof that the beneficiary did not play a part in my death. Both Manu and Varadan must be convinced of this beyond any doubt. The mere absence of incriminating evidence is not sufficient.
‘Alternatively, if the person behind my death is identified and apprehended, and both Manu and Varadan are convinced that the right person has been apprehended, the bequests, other than those earmarked for the perpetrator, will be released.
‘In the interim, your allowances will continue unchanged, as will a salary to Sebastian, even if Manu chooses not to have him at the mansion. Your bequests, you already know. They are the same as in the first will.’
‘Is mine still an annuity for twenty years?’ Richie asked.
‘Yes, Richie. That will ensure that you will have a steady income for twenty years. After that, when you are older and wiser, the corpus–which is a sizable amount–will come to you.’
‘Can’t you reconsider this, Uncle? After all, I could do so much with the corpus. I could make it grow faster than what an annuity investment would yield.’
‘You could, Richie. But, on the other hand, you could deplete it too. My pledge would remain unfulfilled if that were to happen, and my soul wouldn’t rest in peace.
‘But, Uncle, you are treating Dora differently.’
‘That is because she is different from you.’ Bhaskar’s tone sharpened. ‘Now isn’t the time for this discussion, Richie. Cut it out.’
Silence descended on the group. A full minute passed without sound.
‘Well?’ Bhaskar asked. ‘Any comments?’
When nobody responded, Bhaskar turned to Dora.
‘Speak, girl. Say what’s on your mind.’
‘I don’t know how to say this, Uncle, but it seems like … like the three of us are being treated as potential murderers. That’s not a nice feeling.’
‘Not just you three, Dora. All beneficiaries except Manu. That includes Sebastian, Father Tobias, Murugan, Bhuvana, Bahadur, Gopal, and a bunch of others in Coonoor and Ooty.’
‘Still … we are your blood relatives.’ There were tears in her eyes. She looked deeply hurt.
‘I know it’s unfair on the rest of you. But the fact remains that someone is trying to get rid of me.’
‘And how do you expect this little speech of yours to change that?’ Dora shot back.
‘I’m hoping that whoever sent the intruder will now see in black and white that he or she will not benefit from killing me.’
‘Exactly!’ Dora fumed, her eyes afire with fury. ‘The person trying to kill you is going to hear what you have said to the three of us. Then that person is either among us three, or someone who is close to one of us! Is that what you think of me, Uncle?’
‘Dora–’ Bhaskar tried to reason with her, but she cut him off and rose angrily to her feet.
‘Isn’t the shadow of suspicion hanging over our heads enough?’ she demanded, her voice cracking with emotion. ‘Should you pile it on too, Uncle? I am at a total loss. I don’t know what I have done to deserve this!’
She turned and stormed out of the library.
Athreya entered the chapel and locked the door behind him. The police had finished with the building and, after removing the body and doing a full forensic examination of the crime scene, had returned the keys to him. If Athreya was to find
