Justification for Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

perp.
    “Do you have any idea why anybody would want to run you off the road?”
    “No. No idea.”
    “Can you think of any?” Lynch now asked Dr. Balasubramanian.
    “Me? No, of course not. But who knows what that woman may be involved in.”
    “Uncle, please,” Ranjan said, his voice more tired than exasperated.
    “Why would you say that?” Lynch pushed.
    “Detective, please excuse my uncle. He doesn’t mean anything by it.” Ranjan shook his head but stopped almost immediately.
    “I would like to hear what he has to say,” Lynch said to Ranjan without breaking eye contact with the older man.
    “I am sorry, Detective. I didn’t really mean anything by it. I do not know that woman.”
    “You don’t know her or you don’t like her?”
    The doctor in applied economics thought for a few seconds, probably weighing his possible answers. Finally, he said, “Both, Detective. I met her this morning for the first time in my life, but I do not like her, nor do we wish her to be involved with my nephew in any way outside of work.”
    “Who is ‘we’?”
    “Ranjan’s family. We have better plans for him.”
    “How far would you go to ensure that Miss Meadows is out of Ranjan’s life?” Lynch asked.
    “Whoa, what are you implying?” Ranjan interrupted.
    “I’m not implying anything. I’m simply asking your uncle a question.” Lynch kept his eyes on the PhD.
    “I am a professor at Stanford. I’m not a stupid man, Detective. I can have an intelligent conversation with my nephew and make him understand his erroneous ways. I do not need to run anybody off the road, especially not with him in the car. That would be incredibly senseless.”
    “Can you tell me what you were doing from ten to one in the morning last night?”
    “I had a poker game with a group of professors. It is a monthly game, so you can check with them. I left a little past midnight. The game was in Palo Alto. So, as you can see, it would have been impossible for me to run Ranjan off the road close to Santa Cruz at the same time.”
    “Thank you. That should be easy enough to verify. Can you give me the names of the people you were playing with yesterday?”
    The professor gave him four names. Darcy wrote them down in his black notebook.
    “Any large sums of money leaving your bank accounts lately?” he pushed.
    “Detective,” Ranjan protested. “Seriously, my uncle didn’t have anything to do with this.”
    Darcy ignored him and waited for Dr. Balasubramanian to respond. After a few more seconds of pregnant silence, he did.
    “No. I will talk to my lawyer and give you access to my accounts if this is really necessary.”
    “That would be greatly appreciated.” Darcy gave both men a business card and thanked them for their time. “I hope you recover soon,” he said, looking at Ranjan’s bump on the forehead, which was still dark purple.
    About half an hour later he was back at the office, sitting at his desk. He’d been mulling over the conversation with Ranjan and his uncle during the drive. He’d check the alibi, but he was pretty sure the old man didn’t have anything to do with the case.
    It’s not even my case
, he thought.
I don’t want it to be my case
.
    Darcy turned the computer on, and Saffron’s picture from LinkedIn stared back at him. Her faint smile encouraged him to keep looking, to help her, even if it was only until somebody else could step in.
    He’d run through her entire background, trying to figure out why somebody would want to kill her. There was nothing. She had graduated from Berkeley with a business degree ten years ago and had hopped companies in the Valley every few years. Facebook had a few pictures from past vacations and a couple with ex-boyfriends, but there was nothing there that indicated animosity from anybody in her life.
    Lynch had also checked out Ranjan and was surprised to find he was five years younger than Saffron. He wondered if the uncle’s reticence toward her had more to do