‘You lie.’
A moment later, the mongrel grinned as he grew assured. He let out a long chuckle. He seemed to think Athreya was bluffing. He leaned back and laced his fingers.
‘I know your type,’ he said. ‘You have come to negotiate. You will first bluff. Then you will act as if nothing matters to Fernandez. And finally, you will threaten.’
‘You seem to be very sure of yourself,’ Athreya chuckled. ‘For a man who holds no trump cards, you are overly confident and brash. You are playing from a poor hand, my friend. You hold no high cards—no aces or kings. Only small, useless cards.’
‘Ah! This is the first scene where you bluff.’ The little man smirked. ‘Go on, go on. I’ll play along.’
‘Excellent.’ Athreya nodded. ‘Since we understand each other, let me tell you a little story. I’m talking about what you did three months ago.
‘After dinner, when it was dark and misty, you skulked over to Greybrooke Manor from the Misty Valley Resort. You walked alone with the only companion you trusted—a narrow dagger with a wooden handle bound in leather.
‘On reaching the mansion, you waited. You saw Sebastian and the younger Fernandez go about the house, locking the doors and windows. But you were not concerned. You knew that you would have a way in when the time came. You waited for the sign from the window of the middle room on the ground floor, the room I am now staying in. It was then occupied by Phillip.’
The mongrel’s smirk faded a little at the mention of the name and the identification of the window.
‘At length, the window opened and the sign came. All you had to do was to climb up six or seven feet to the windowsill. You did that, and entered the room. You then opened the door and entered the dark corridor, where you turned right. Old man Fernandez must be asleep by now, you thought. In any case, he was a cripple.
‘But you were mistaken. Mr. Fernandez was not asleep. Nor was he as helpless as you supposed. You entered and went towards his bed, only to find him rising with a gun in his hand. Did you know that he chose not to kill you?
‘You dropped your dagger when the bullet hit your leg. You had a choice to make, as you were already halfway into his room. You could go back the way you came, but Phillip’s door might be closed. Alternatively, there was a set of unbarred French windows in front of you. You chose the latter.
‘Somehow, you limped your way to the Misty Valley Resort where Ismail hid you. The same night, a vehicle took you to Coimbatore, were a crooked doctor dressed your bullet wound.’
Athreya paused and waited for the mongrel to assimilate what he had said.
‘Now,’ he continued, ‘you have heard me name two people who helped you: Phillip and Ismail. But neither of them was the one who commissioned you. Ismail was an agent, and Phillip was a helper. The boss was someone else.
‘I will give you two more names. Then, you tell me if I am bluffing. The names are Abbas and Murthy.’
At the beginning of Athreya’s monologue, the mongrel’s expression had been of one who had bet everything on a single card, which he believed was a winner. He now looked like someone whose hand had turned out to be a dud. The smirk had been wiped off, and his assurance shattered. He had just realized that he had no more cards to play.
‘So you see,’ Athreya continued softly, ‘there is no bargain to be made. Mr. Fernandez has rejected your offer out of hand. He will have no truck with you. At this point, let me let you in on a secret…Mr. Fernandez doesn’t know I am here. He doesn’t know that I have come to see you.’
‘Then why are you here?’ the mongrel croaked.
‘I will tell you, but before that, I am going to make out another case against you. One that Inspector Muthu is convinced about. What happened three months ago was attempted murder. The case against you now is for murder; the murder of Phillip.’
‘I did not kill Phillip,’ the mongrel snarled.
‘No?’ Athreya mocked. ‘Inspector Muthu thinks you did. He can’t be convinced otherwise. Permit me to lay out the case against you.’
The mongrel was staring at him with wide, fearful eyes.
‘You were at the Misty Valley Resort on Friday night,’ Athreya began. ‘That too was a foggy, murky night like the one three months ago. Abbas and Phillip were already at Greybrooke Manor. Murthy went there at 11 p.m. You followed him.
‘You lurked for a long time as the residents of the mansion wandered about the lawns and gardens. Hidden by the thick fog, you crept about, keeping out of people’s way, but overhearing their conversations. You overheard a very interesting discussion between Abbas and Murthy at the rock garden; one that gave you material for blackmail in the future.’
The mongrel’s face had turned ashen by now.
‘After they retired,’ Athreya went on, ‘you stayed. It was an ideal night for you to complete your unfinished business from three months ago. They had foolishly left doors open, and the thick mist had always been your ally.
‘You went to the back door of the mansion. Before doing anything else, you bolted the door of the staff quarters from the outside. If you had to leave in a hurry, you didn’t want Murugan, Gopal or any of the others cutting off your retreat.’
The little man’s eyes almost popped out of his head.
‘But just then,’ Athreya continued, ‘you saw a figure come out in the wheelchair. He had grizzled hair, a greying beard and powerful shoulders. You had no doubt in your mind that it was Bhaskar Fernandez, the man you had been hired to kill.
‘He drove the wheelchair along the walkway to the chapel and entered it. Your target was now alone, far away
