He went up the dais and opened the long cupboard at one end of it. There, he turned on two switches and returned to Bhaskar. Both of them stared at the altar.
‘The mechanism to open the altar is operated wirelessly,’ Athreya continued. ‘It is operated from the console of the wheelchair. It is indeed a good piece of work–well designed and well executed. I did not have the heart to force it open.’
Athreya turned to Bhaskar and spoke softly.
‘The chapel door is locked,’ he said. ‘Please open the altar.’
Bhaskar stared at the mural of Jesus for a full minute, his face etched in tragic lines. At length, he moved his hands and operated the console on his wheelchair. Half a minute later, a soft click sounded from the altar and the middle portion of the altar slab rose by about four inches.
‘Rotate the stone clockwise by ninety degrees,’ Bhaskar said softly. ‘That will expose the tubes.’
Athreya pulled out a pair of gloves from his jacket and put them on. He rotated the altar slab clockwise. As the stone turned, the openings of the four tubes became visible, and Athreya shone a torch into them.
‘There is something here,’ he said.
‘Can’t be!’ Bhaskar said in alarm. ‘The paintings were removed after Phillip died.’
‘These are not paintings,’ Athreya replied quietly as he dipped his gloved fingers into one of the tubes. They contain something I have been looking for … blood-soaked floor mats. The ones that were under Phillip when he was killed.’
One by one, he pulled out the contents of the tubes. The two missing mats, each cut into two pieces so that they could fit into the tubes, came out. Four pieces in all. And in one of the tubes was a pair of gloves.
‘These are Phillip’s gloves,’ Athreya continued. ‘The ones he used so that he left no fingerprints. He had somehow figured out how to operate the console and open the altar. That’s why he had to bring the wheelchair to the altar that night. Without it, the altar could not be opened.’
Athreya rotated the altar slab anticlockwise, and when it was aligned with the tubes below, he pressed it down. It didn’t move.
‘I’ll have to do it from the console,’ Bhaskar said and touched the screen a few times.
The slab sank smoothly and clicked into place. The altar now looked as it always had–smooth and even. On the floor lay the bloodied mats and a pair of gloves.
‘So, Phillip opened the altar that night,’ Athreya concluded. ‘But, unfortunately for him, the rest didn’t work out as he had intended, and he ended up paying the ultimate price.
‘Now, Mr Fernandez, tell me the rest of the story. The story that Sebastian told you early Friday morning.’
‘Okay … I will tell you. As I said, I probably owe you this. Besides, there may be no getting away from it as far as you are concerned. I will narrate what Sebastian told me, but I reserve the right to say nothing to the police. If you repeat what I will now say, I might deny it altogether.’
‘I understand. The choice will be yours.’
‘At about 2 a.m. on Friday night, I woke up to find Sebastian shaking me awake. This is what happened …’
‘What is it?’ Bhaskar asked Sebastian, waking up with a start. ‘Some problem?’
‘Jacob Lopez is here,’ Sebastian said. His face was suffused with alarm and anger. ‘The swine has found the Balsano landscapes.’
Sebastian held up the four rolled canvases to support his claim.
‘Jacob?’ Bhaskar sat up in shock. ‘How do you know? Neither of us know how he looks. We’ve never seen him.’
‘We do now,’ Sebastian growled. ‘We know him by a different name.’
‘What name?’
‘Phillip!’
‘Can’t be! There must be some mistake, Sebastian. Phillip is a good man.’
‘Remember how much interest he has been showing in your wheelchair lately? Especially the console. Your wheelchair is missing. It’s been taken from the charging point to the chapel.’
‘Good Lord!’ Bhaskar struggled out of his bed and stood up unsteadily. He tottered to a nearby chair and lowered himself into it. ‘Tell me from the beginning. What happened?’
‘After settling you in, I was in my room, reading. I heard a click that sounded like the back door, but I didn’t give it much thought. There were so many people about; any one of them could be going out. Or Murugan could be coming in. I dismissed it from my mind and continued reading.
‘A minute later, I heard the whir of the wheelchair. That is a distinct sound, one which I can’t mistake for anything else. The funny thing was that it seemed to be coming from the window, and not the corridor. It was as if you were on the walkway outside.
‘I went to my window and peered out. It was murky and dark, and I could see nothing. But the whirring continued, although softly. It seemed to be fading away towards the chapel.
‘I came out of my room and went to the charging point. The wheelchair was missing and the back door was open a crack. I opened the door to your room and peered in. I was shocked to see that you were in bed, sleeping. I came in and peered at you closely. You were snoring softly.
‘So, someone else was using the wheelchair. I stood there undecided for a long while. Could it have been Manu or Dora who had borrowed the wheelchair? Perhaps they were pulling a prank on someone. If that was so, I didn’t want to spoil their fun.
‘Slowly, another thought dawned on me. Whoever had taken the wheelchair had taken it to the chapel. If it was not Manu or Dora, and if the intent was more serious than playing a prank,
