Daughters of Kalika

২৩. they came to baghdad

Mandodari fails.

****

Things had become clearer than the day itself, but Maya needed to go through it all one last time, play the events in sequence and watch what it had to offer her. She sat in Aadi Babu's room, her eyes scanning the collection of Catherine's books while her mind analysed the mystery that surrounded this woman.

"Was Death on the Nile a favourite of Catherine?" she suddenly asked.

"She used to speak about the false stars after reading the book. She was a quick reader."

False stars... Maya had probably been following them initially. Fortunately her eyes opened before it was too late.

"It was during her last days. It-it hurts me to even think those were her last." Aadi Babu grimaced. "But at that time she was reading They Came to Baghdad. I don't have the courage to touch that book. It reminds me of her absence."

Aadi Babu got up and left the room to go downstairs for tea. Maya did calculations in her mind.

There wasn't sufficient proof against Aadi Babu, Nathu and Anandi. Even if one of them was Lucifer and the other two knew about it, she could not know. Based on what information she had gathered, they were out of suspicion. From the very beginning Anandi had been protective of Maya and had even mentioned not wearing Catherine's clothes, lest she might take her place. The words didn't make sense to Maya until later.

She had seen this family's emotions and the love they harboured for Catherine, the pang they still felt.

"They are safe. They aren't the culprits."

Then came the slum dwellers, particularly Lalita. They were more likely to be victims than the victor. Even if people did commit great crimes in fear, Lalita and the rest were out of suspicion.

Then came Rahul, and his boss Sundar Babu.

"Rahul is just a pawn in Sundar's game. He, being the son of a family of good repute, could not risk declaring his attraction towards Sahiba, the daughter of a veshya, publicly. It was best to send her letters and roses through a man who was related to her by blood, and the money too. Maybe Sundar Babu asked Anandi to give Sahiba the money through Lalita after me and Rahul had a clash, which also pushed Lalita to be protective of this affair since she smelled there was true love."

And what about Sundar's creepy stalking tendencies?

"I think some men do become weird. He couldn't go meet her openly and neither do I think Sahiba will give in so smoothly. Only option left, stalk. And that was a bad move."

The first day Maya had read the letter penned down for Sahiba, she felt it was from an unrequited love. The bouquet of roses did confuse her, though she didn't understand why would he leave such a prominent clue. The fact that the dead women wore a wreath of roses didn't go well to save Sundar. Maya thus thought he was trying to trap her in the honey of amour and then kill her. And his stalking tendencies too posed a threat.

"But Sahiba cleared so many doubts. The first day we conversed properly she wasn't ready to tell me the name of the man who wrote her the letters, neither show them to me. She was acutely aware of who was doing the deed. And the next day we met, she showed a completely new and complex side of herself, something that makes me wonder if she is really as innocent as I think. She has seen a lot in life. She could quickly find out who was pursuing her."

But she also hinted she knew the murderer. And this wasn't fitting in the puzzle until later.

"Sundar Babu, on close inspection, has enough reason to keep his love life a secret. It did land him in a tight position, but there's not much clue about him. What if he's trying to win Sahiba? Is that enough to call him the murderer? No. It is just a signal that indicates something fishy is going on. He didn't have a connection to Catherine or Radha, the previous victims, unlike his brother."