eFiction India eFiction India Vol.02 Issue.09 | Page 39

STORIES

away from a worried Keshav, she sat up.
Her eyebrows were raised and she moved
her eyeballs round and round. “Keshav, I
had those chocolates. The ones that Uma
had in her cupboard,” she caught onto his
shoulder and shook it.
Keshav turned his serious visage away from
her. “Listen, it’s enough! We work for them,
we can’t…” he said, much to her chagrin.
“Don’t you get it,” Rati said in a clear voice
as the hazy dust in her head began to settle.
“Uma was framed. Sujay fed her these drugs
so that she would go out of control and he
would be able to get rid of her. She instead
killed her brother in a fit of rage. She isn’t
a murderer, she was provoked and I can
vouch for that. Let’s rush to the police
station.”
***
“Mr Sujay, tell me the truth, why did you
give your wife those drugged chocolates?”
asked the inspector as the light above them
oscillated to and fro between the men at
the table.
“I didn’t. I would never buy chocolates for
either her or myself. You see, I’m diabetic.
I don’t even know how and where from she
got those chocolates. All I know was that
Uma was upset about her brother handling
her inheritance in secrecy. She wouldn’t tell
me anything because neither she nor her
brother ever trusted me when it came to
money. I have no part to play in the murder;
in fact, she is my wife, why would I give
her drugs?” Sujay said firmly. “I do remember that on the night before the murder
Uma said something like she had begun to
doubt her brother’s intentions and his attitude towards the property. She wouldn’t tell
me more if I asked.” There was no pulsation
in his larynx as he spoke. The inspector ran
his index finger over his chin as he looked
Sujay straight in the eye. “Alright, you can
leave for now.”
***
Uma lay in her cell with watery eyes often
looking at her hands with a wrinkled
look on her face. Her smile had left her
far behind and her action that brewed a

storm in the little tea cup like heart of hers
translated into self-contempt. As the police
woman entered her cell, she sat up adjusting
the drapes across her shoulder. An investigator entered the cell. “Mrs. Uma, do
you remember these chocolates?” she said
showing Uma one of the chocolates in the
purple wrap. Uma stood up and fidgeted
with her hands. “My favourite chocolates,”
she sighed. “Dinesh loved me so much and
got these for me from someone who went
abroad just because I liked them; and I
killed him with these hands,” she wailed as
she looked at her hands. Then she beat her
chest and howled; her eyes were dry. The
tears had probably frozen along the path
to her eyes. “Calm down, we will leave you
alone,” said the investigator as he left the
cell.
“Had Dinesh been alive, he would have
been a hard nut to crack,” he said to the
police woman.
***
Sujay’s eyes skimmed through the headlines
of the newspaper:
Murder case busted: Brother drugs sibling
to acquire property with not-so-sweet
chocolates!

38

The High Court has sentenced Uma to two
years’ imprisonment, taking into consideration that she was a victim of the dark web
woven by her sibling and did not plan to
murder him.
As Keshav entered the room where Sujay
was seated, Sujay told him, “We could have
never thought that Dinesh would do that
to Uma. It would have been impossible to
connect the dots if Rati hadn’t eaten those
chocolates.” Keshav nodded his head and
gave him a plastic smile. He then walked
into the room where Dinesh had heaved
his last breath. The only sign of Dinesh’s
presence was his photograph with a garland
hung on it. Keshav could visualise him with
a boomerang in his hands.
“The only piece of the puzzle they missed
out was the trunk of money, Kumarji. You
are always my God, Kumarji. Karma is such
a nightmare, I cannot even use the money
you gave me for helping you chalk out our
plan all through your saga and today you
are no more. The fire we started charred you
and I am the only Trojan horse left in your
land. I wish you could rise like a phoenix
from your ashes,” Keshav said to himself.

It is finally time to say omega to the suspense in the sibling rivalry case of Dinesh
Kumar which was opened once again this
Monday. In a bizarre twist of the unfolding drama during the investigation, it has
been brought to light that a week prior to
the murder, the victim – Dinesh gave Uma
chocolates that contained methamphetamines and psilocybin. His plan was that
if she were proven to be mentally unstable, she wouldn’t be entitled to her share of
their forefathers’ property as per the will of
their parents. The act proved fatal to him
when they got into a tiff, the bone of contention being the division of finances, and
Uma, whose temperament was drastically
affected by the drugs she had unwittingly
consumed, drove a knife through Dinesh in
a fit of rage. Uma’s husband, Sujay Kumar,
confirmed that Uma had been hyperactive
for over a week before the murder and experienced extreme mood swings which could
be possibly attributed to the drugs.
eFiction India | June 2014