The Devil in Me (Part 10: Curtains)

I had underestimated Chandrakant. Things began to unravel too fast for me to think. I had always perceived him as a drunk and an opportunistic thief. But his death only accelerated my downfall. The man had taped almost all the telephonic conversations between us. He kept a detailed account of every penny he had received from me. This was his way to ensuring that I went down if things went wrong for him. Police found a heap of evidence in his one-room apartment.

The tapes and a SIM card from his phone were sent to Inspector Apte. The phone records from the SIM card were traced to my cell phone. They also found that the call to the guest house on that day was from the SIM card recovered from Chandrakant’s house.

They also found books on dog training a few bundles of currency notes that had been withdrawn from my account. The numbers of the currency bundle were in series and worst of all, when dusted; it had my fingerprints on them.

The money now lay in the dead man’s house. The last nail in the coffin was the pliers that had been used to cut the dog chain. The doll and the sonic whistle were part of the evidence recovered.

The medical examiner’s report on Chandrakant’s case showed a high amount of Oxalic acid, the body’s metabolic by-product of ethylene glycol in the anti-freeze. Though he was initially thought to have died of heat attack, the new found evidence of suspected foul play, prompted police to reopen the case and a thorough examination brought to the conclusion that it had been a case of poisoning.

With mounting evidence, the judge served a search warrant of the two-room apartment that I had once occupied and planned for the task. It was too late for me by the time the police could not find the bottle of foreign liquor with antifreeze in it. I had destroyed it. But I had forgotten that I had used my credit card to purchase the anti-freeze from a website. They had tracked me right to my door.

As days went by Mr Sharma and Aditi began to realise the truth. I last spoke to her on my phone, two days before the police began to encircle my house. She was crying, and said she hated me more than anyone else. And, that meeting me had been the biggest mistake of her life.

Mr. Sharma disowned me publicly, and in a swift move, he and the rest of the board, removed me from the board of directors. This move came as his stock prices began to plummet after the news began to trickle in of my involvement in the double murders.

I was served a quit notice, and soon the apartment, the car and everything I had dreamt of began to evaporate. Minal was gone and now I was facing the prospect of a long term jail sentence. I knew I didn’t have the influence or the money for a long-drawn court battle. The money had gone dry.

As my phone began to ring, I knew that it was Inspector Apte. He was cajoling me to give up. I had bolted the main iron-gate and barricaded the door of my bedroom.

I opened the large window, looked down at the curious crowd below looking at me. As I stepped over the ledge calmly I felt the wind rushed towards me. I closed my eyes for the last time.