‘What happened to the dagger after Murugan picked it up?’
‘That’s the annoying part…I don’t know. I think the attention was on the intruder and not the weapon. I don’t remember seeing it again.’
‘Someone would know, I guess?’
‘I’ll ask Murugan, if you wish.’
‘No. Don’t mention this to anyone, yet. I’ll speak to your father alone and take it further. Meanwhile, I have a question for you about last night. Did you notice anyone or anything in the art gallery when you returned to the mansion through the front door after your stroll?’
‘No.’ Manu shook his head firmly. ‘As you know, I have to go through the gallery to reach my room. Also, I walked almost up to my father’s door to see if his room’s light was on. I saw nothing in the gallery.’
‘Would you have seen if someone was there?’
‘I think so…unless he or she heard me coming and hid behind the totem pole or the suit of armour.’
‘Ah, of course! Another question: Was the wheelchair in its place when you returned?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t say, Mr Athreya. The totem pole and the suit of armour are placed just in front of it. They stand between Dad’s door and the wheelchair’s charging point. I wouldn’t have noticed it, one way or the other.’
‘I see…all right, the final question: Was the back door shut?’
‘Yes,’ Manu said with certainty. ‘I remember glancing at it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to run. Sebastian called to say that the police are coming shortly. He is bringing an inspector and a police doctor. I need to take a car to our side of the landslide and wait there. He’ll bring the police around the on his motorcycle.’
As Manu hurried away, Athreya spoke to Dora in an undertone.
‘I want you to help me with the investigation,’ he said.
‘There are things that you can do without attracting attention that I can’t. Will you help me?’
‘But I am a suspect, Mr. Athreya.’
‘That may be so, but I know that you did not slit Phillip’s throat.’
‘At the risk of putting my neck in the noose as Uncle said, let me ask this: How can you be so sure? I thought we established that Michelle and I have the strength to do the job.’
‘You do have the strength…but you are left-handed.’
‘So?’ Dora stopped and swung around to face him.
‘Phillip’s throat was slit from behind. It was a very deep wound—too deep to have been inflicted from the front. Frontal slashes tend to be shallower as the victim reflexively rocks back when the blade bites. Especially where the slash ends, the wound are almost always shallow; they start deep and end shallow. But in this case, it is the opposite; the wound gets deeper as it progresses to the side of the neck.
‘In this case, we can make out the direction of the knife because the weapon was a crude dagger, which wasn’t as sharp as more professional weapons. Torn skin bordering the wound shows the direction the blade was pulled.
‘The wound starts very low on the left side of his neck and ends high on his right. As I said, it gets deeper as it progresses. That suggests that the killer pulled the dagger towards himself as he cut. The nature and the direction of the slash could mean only one thing: the killer cut Phillip’s throat with his right hand.’
Athreya reached out to lift Dora’s right hand.
‘Not only are you left-handed, but your right hand is still raw from the injury. Cutting with a dagger exerts a lot of pressure on the palm. Had you used your right hand, your wound surely would have bled.’
‘Wow.’ Dora gasped. ‘You mean it? You don’t suspect me?’
‘Well, at any rate, you didn’t commit the fatal act.’
‘Thanks,’ Dora shot back with a mock bow. ‘That’s a comfort…however small it may be. But what if I am an accomplice?’
‘That’s possible, but I have taken that into account.’
‘Really, Mr Athreya.’
‘So will you help me?’ he repeated.
‘If I can, I would love to. What do you have in mind?’
‘Laundry.’
Chapter 12
Inspector Muthu turned out to be an intimidating hulk of a man, over six-and-a-half feet tall, with powerful limbs and shoulders. His uniform stretched tight over his body and seemed to be a size too small for him. When he walked, it was with a swagger born of an unshakable confidence in one’s physical prowess. His hair was close-cropped and jet black. His mobile phone looked like a toy in his hand.
Watching him from the far end of the drawing room as he came in, Jilsy took an involuntary step back, half-hiding herself behind her husband. Dora eyed him warily and Michelle grew visibly nervous.
Sebastian made the introductions quickly and with minimum words. He had been brought up to speed with whatever had transpired in his absence, and had, in turn, updated the inspector and the police doctor. Bhaskar asked everyone to gather in the drawing room, so the two officials could meet all of them in one go.
Muthu glowered at each one of them in turn, trying to intimidate them into conceding the upper hand to him. But he met with little success, except with Richie, who had suddenly gone sullen and shifty-eyed.
When Muthu’s eyes fell on Ganesh, his back straightened and he threw the major a quick salute, which Ganesh returned. Uniform, it appeared, admired uniform. With Varadan, Muthu remained cautious, limiting himself to a quick nod. When Abbas’s turn came, the inspector’s scowl deepened, but Abbas remained placid and polite.
Bhaskar seemed to take an instant dislike to the inspector, though it was not clear to Athreya if it was something he carried over from the past, perhaps from when the break-in was investigated. Muthu had already met Manu and Sebastian before reaching
