The Nidhi Kapoor Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

indifference and Rujuta’s trauma. “I don’t know. We found this…” he paused, pointed ambiguously in the middle of the room, gulped and continued, “this morning when Nidhi came into her office. Poor girl is still in shock. Cho, Caesar and Cookie meant the world to us. Nidhi and Payal took care of them as if they were their children.”
    Prakash glanced at Tambe and turned back to Verma. “No one at the house saw or heard anything? The security guards? If someone had to kill these animals, they had to have access to the house. And don’t dogs and cats make a lot of noise? There is no way someone mutilated these animals without anyone hearing a thing,” Prakash said.
    Verma was surprised at this rambling of Prakash. Tambe however, knew that Prakash was merely talking to himself. He and Prakash had been working together since Tambe moved to Mumbai from Satara, another district in Maharashtra. Tambe had been a beat constable before his promotion and transfer four years ago.
    Verma eventually answered, “These were very friendly dogs. They did not bark even if you took their food away. They have been… had been with us for a long time and Payal had trained them herself.”
    “Mr. Verma, I asked if someone saw or heard something,” Prakash said curtly. He apparently had no time for Verma’s pointless rant.
    Verma started to say something but Prakash interrupted him. Prakash knew he was pushing his luck but he wanted to ascertain if Naveen Verma knew more than he was telling. It had to be an insider. There was no way someone from outside could do this. He shot another arrow in the dark. “Do you have more pets in the house? Did you speak with the guards?”
    Or maybe it was an outsider. How hard could it be for someone with enough motivation to climb the wall and get into the study? The pets would have noticed the movement and they would’ve got excited. The crime scene made Prakash wary and he was unsure about the modus operandi. It looked like a planned assault, executed methodically in cold blood. If it was indeed an outsider, he had access to the bungalow and even the main residential building. He had come in, done the barbaric job and left without getting noticed. All this at Ronak, one of the most watched houses in the country.
    “No. No. I haven’t had time to speak with anyone. Nidhi discovered this… mess and then all hell broke loose. Even Payal was hysterical. Both of them are in Nidhi’s bedroom upstairs,” Verma said. Prakash was looking around the room but he hung onto every word that Verma spewed. He had an eidetic memory and he could remember conversations, words, scenes, clothes, smells and other things from the crime scene for a long time.
    Prakash walked to the writing table. “Hmm… OK. I want to talk to every member of the house, including the servants. I want to spend some time here by myself. Please wait for me outside till then.”
    He continued, “Tambe, take Rujuta madam out of the room and get her some water or something.”
    Both these statements were more like orders rather than requests. Tambe was used to these but Naveen Verma wasn’t. He wanted to revolt but had no energy left to do so. He did not want to be in the room with the dead bodies anyway. Verma started to walk out and paused momentarily when he saw Rujuta wilted outside. “You know, this is exactly how I found Nidhi, right here by the door,” he said and without waiting for an answer, sidestepped Rujuta and walked out.
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    The moment Verma was out of sight, Tambe muttered, “Sir, something is wrong. This Verma guy is not as worried as he’s trying to appear. But who would kill these poor animals? They had a far far better life than most of us. They live in air-conditioned rooms with enough food to feed five families, and access to doctors that take more money for each visit than we spend on medicines in our entire lives.”
    Tambe always had an opinion on everything. And most of those opinions would