Shot Dead – Episode 10

 

 

RECAP:

Industrialist Shravan Ram’s wife Sudha is dead. Detective Chatur Nath is given the case. As Shravan’s family is his prime suspect, he investigates his family members first. He finds a knife in Sudha’s house and an old photo of Sudha with a man. He then meets Chembian who reveals another side of Shravan and Sudha. Then, when he returns home, he finds his wife in his house. She, after hearing this case, tells him to talk to Sudha’s friend. By her, he gets to know the person in the photo is Sudha’s ex Srinivas and he went on to meet him in Bangalore. He gets new clues there.

Episode 10:

Madhavi was taken to a separate room in the hospital. A Couple of local policemen were also summoned. As the writer finished filling the pen with ink and screwed it tightly, Madhavi commenced her statement.

“I went…”

“Start from your introduction ma’am – from the beginning” Chatur said. He was standing beside the window of a room which was located on the top floor so as not to disturb anyone in the hospital. He was looking at Madhavi with his sharp eyes, noticing her expressions which, according to him, would give more answers and the truth.

“I am Madhavi Srinivas” she stopped, unsure what to tell next. She seemed to be holding a lot of emotions.
Chatur perhaps understood her, so he asked, “Since when do you know Srinivas?”

“He was my friend from college. I always liked him. But he loved Sudha” she seemed to be disgusted when she mentioned sudha’s name. “Since then I hated her. I knew her well. She was selfish. She dumped Srini for money. After her marriage with Shravan, Srini and I got married.”

Chatur guessed she wasn’t comfortable with sharing her love life.

“Srini was jobless then. I was the only working person. But my salary wasn’t enough to run our family. At that time, Shravan’s company had job vacancy. I only told him to apply. For his skills and talent, he got that job easily. But after a few months, when Shravan went abroad, Sudha took charge. She was surprised as well as shocked to see Srini there. Her dirty mind and guilty heart couldn’t face him. She was frightened that he would tell Shravan about their affair. So, she started filing false complaints regarding Srini’s behaviour and terminated him on disciplinary grounds. She even went to the extent of saying that he had misbehaved with her. He was depressed from that moment and the house lost its happiness. Due to the black mark in his profile, he couldn’t get job anywhere. Relatives and neighbours made him feel more distressed. And one day…” she paused and sobbed, “he… he attempted suicide . He intentionally collided with a lorry.” She wailed in her hands. “I… I was… pregnant then.” She cried louder. “I lost my child too.” She started shaking her head. “He doesn’t know…” She broke down.

Chatur showed his hand to others to stop them from questioning her for a while. Chatur felt sorry for her. She pulled herself and looked at them, then continued, “He slipped into coma. Then, the doctors suggested me to bring him here to get treatment from the specialists. In rage, I went to threaten Sudha. She didn’t care about him and tried to push me out. Just out of anger, I pulled out the knife in the kitchen and… and” Chatur could feel that she was careful with her words.

“You tried to stab her but she was lucky enough to escape with a cut on her arm?” Chatur asked. She nodded hesitantly.

“Then?”

“She pulled out a pistol in return and threatened me to get out. Then, the doorbell rang. I was really afraid. I pushed her away and fled through the backdoor. I threw the knife somewhere in the bushes in haste and tension. There was an auto turning around near the next street. I told him to take me to the airport and I bought a slipper on the way.”

“Couldn’t you see who that person at the door was?”

“No sir. All I could hear was Sudha’s voice saying ‘why are you here’” she said, feeling guilty that she hadn’t noticed the killer.

“How is he now?” Chatur asked about Srinivas. Madhavi found it consoling.

“There is an operation tomorrow. I know he will come back” she sighed.

 

 

“Sir, who killed Sudha?” a reporter asked. Chatur had to attend the press meet. Though the people wanted to know the truth, he disliked revealing the case and the clues he had got. But unfortunately, intervention of the local police brought in the reporters too.

“Straight to the important part? I like it” Chatur grinned making everyone laugh. “Still we haven’t found the killer. We are gathering clues which the killer forgot to leave.” Again, there was a pile of laughter.

“What about Madhavi?” another reporter asked.

“Madhavi didn’t kill Sudha. Out of rage, she tried to kill her but Sudha escaped. After Madhavi had left, someone should have come and killed her. We are trying to find that person soon. We will let you know as soon as we do.”

“Is Madhavi arrested?”

“No. She is not arrested yet. She has to take care of her husband. So, with special permission, we have let her be with her husband till the operation gets over. She will be accompanied by two policemen.”

“Sir, what are the clues you have got now? Who do you suspect?”

Now, Chatur had reached that part when he actually wanted to hang that reporter upside down and punch his head for his low IQ.

“I am sorry. I can’t share the clues and my suspicion now. I don’t usually give warnings to the criminals like ‘Hey, I got this old smelly sock of you. Be ready. I am coming’”. Everyone laughed. “You see, the murderer is so mean that I wasn’t given any clue. So, I’m not gonna give that person any warning either”
“Sir, but we have to know…”

“I know your newspaper is very famous. What if the killer reads my plan in your paper and flees away? Can’t you think?” Chatur lost his cool. The reporter remained silent. Chatur knew what the next day’s paper would carry. With the metaphors and rhyming words, Chatur’s aggressiveness would be highlighted. But Chatur decided to catch the killer before the paper could reach the people.

 

 

 


You can read the previous and the next  episodes by clicking on the respective links:

Episode 9

Episode 11

Shot dead – is an exclusive bilingual crime novel series, jointly written by Swathi Mohan and Anirudh Ramesh (English) and Arun Balaji, Kishore and K.Pavithra (Tamil).