Chap 1- Black Rose

Black color symbolizes sophistication or elegance

Vipin knocked on the front door and waited for it to open. He stood in a broad lane with houses on either side. Each house had a manicured lawn in front of it. The houses were more or less similar looking with the owners not getting enough leeway to make changes to their abode. Vipin glanced at the houses and wondered what sort of prominent people stayed in that affluent locality. He stared at house number 21/2D with ill-concealed irritation. He wanted to take it easy in his house that Sunday but when his friend Kartik requested him to visit house number 21/2D, he couldn't turn the request down. A man had committed suicide two weeks back in that house and Kartik's friend Deepak had been a good friend of the suicide victim. Deepak had requested Kartik to make Vipin spend the afternoon with him that Sunday.

The front door opened slowly. A housemaid welcomed him inside and led him to the living room where he met Deepak. They shook hands in a solemn manner and Vipin was then introduced to Shalini who didn't look at all a picture of tragedy. She was dressed in a casual t-shirt and jeans and she had a lighted cigarette in her hand.

“Oh, I am the widow,” she announced gaily. “Pawan is sorely missed but what is written in the stars will find a way to take place and so Pawan had to go before me, and that's all right with me.” She smiled at Vipin who looked on at her with disbelieving eyes.

“Did I fail your expectations?” She smirked. “People expect widows to mourn and grieve but tell me, Mr. Detective, why should I mourn someone who I fell out of love with a long time ago?”

“For the sake of appearances,” Vipin replied. He spotted two glasses on the table with a whiskey decanter next to them. He shook his head at Deepak drinking so early in the day. Deepak caught Vipin's disapproving glance but ignored it.

“I never cared for them,” the young widow cried out. “Never. Not even when I set out to marry Pawan at the tender age of 18. He was 35 at that time. Everyone told me that he was just using me for my money but I didn't care. I married him and we lived happily for about some years.” Vipin noticed that Shalini hesitated while talking about her happy matrimonial days. “Then we fell out of love. That happens regularly. Most of the marriages are loveless. Soulless! It is perfectly natural that two individuals would grow at different paces and would seek different things in life. Those are Pawan's words, not mine.” She gave a hollow chuckle. “

Behind the sophisticated veneer, he hid a pretty vindictive streak. His words cut me through and through. When I tried to leave him, I realized that he had stolen all my money. And then he offered me a deal. I could stay as his wife and act out the role of a happy wife, and he would give me a monthly allowance without any questions, or I could divorce him in which case I stand to get nothing. He promised me that he would set an army of lawyers upon me and leave me destitute and broke. I caved in.” She looked around the room. “I waited for him to croak. After all, he was 17 years older than me. A lack of exercise coupled with his love for drinks conspired to push him quickly towards his grave. I stood by his side, waiting patiently. It took me 11 years, 3 months, and 17 days to finally get back what was originally mine.”

After her long-winded speech delivered with the most brutal display of honesty that Vipin had ever witnessed, Shalini slumped on the sofa. Deepak made a drink for her and handed it to her.

“Why have you sent for me?” Vipin asked Deepak.

“Well, everyone thinks that Pawan committed suicide,” Deepak approached Vipin and stood next to him in such a way as to keep an eye on Shalini. “She is a very good friend of mine.” He looked at Vipin meaningfully. “A very good friend.” He repeated the words as if he wanted to believe in them. “I want to know if he was murdered.”

Vipin glanced at Shalini to check the effect of Deepak's words on her but she seemed lost in her own thoughts and cared nary for Deepak's concerns.

“Why?” Vipin asked his friend.

“Because I don't want to marry a murderer,” Deepak whispered to Vipin.

“But if the police have closed their investigations...” Vipin shrugged his shoulders.

“I want to know,” Deepak reiterated his stand. “Do it for me, buddy. I promise you that you will be compensated generously for your time.”

“Why do you think it was a murder?” Vipin let himself be gently escorted towards Pawan's study. It was the room on their right. Sunlight filtered through the designer glass panes. The room was aesthetically arranged. There was a center table with chess pieces strewn atop it.

“Pawan was found dead beside the table,” Deepak told him. “He played chess with his friend Mohan. At around 7 PM, Mohan took his leave. Pawan informed Shalini that he was going to work on his new blog post and that he was not to be disturbed. He locked the room and worked on the blog post for about an hour. I checked the blog submission time. It was 7:52 PM. Then he wrote a suicide note and consumed poison. The death was not instantaneous. He must have suffered terribly during his last moments. His thrashing around caused the chessboard to fall and the chess pieces to scatter about. He never tried to seek help. He didn't cry out nor did he try to open the door to seek Shalini's help.”

“Who found the body?” Vipin stared at the strewn pieces of chess. The chessboard had been removed but the random pieces on the table were mute witnesses of the gory death that took place in the room.

“At around 8:30 PM, Jia came to meet her boss,” Deepak stayed with Vipin, not making any move to enter Pawan's office. “She had brought a black rose with her. She is around 20 years old. Shalini suspects that Jia was having an affair with Pawan but she has got no proof. In any case, her sudden appearance with the black rose raised Shalini's hackles. They had to break down the door to gain entry to the room. They noticed Pawan's dead body and then called the police.”

“A black rose?”

“She used ink to blacken a perfect rose,” Deepak shook his head. “It is a symbol of death, right? She told the police that Pawan asked her to bring a black rose that evening. She even showed some messages from Pawan about it.”

“So Pawan committed suicide and then asked his colleague to bring a black rose to his house,” Vipin sighed. “It sounds so weird.”

“The correct word is elegance,” Deepak said. “The black rose was meant to announce his death to the world. I think the gesture was quite awe-inspiring!”