Chap 8 - Red Ink

Red color symbolizes passion or love

Kalpana picked up the call after the second ring. When she learned that it was Pawan's wife who had called her, she introduced herself and enquired about Pawan. Vipin, who had been paying close attention to her words, felt that Kalpana's words were not meant to hurt Shalini and that she was unaware of Pawan's fate.

“He is dead,” Shalini broke the news harshly. “Pawan committed suicide two weeks back.”

Kalpana's reaction to the terrible news was genuine. She made all the right noises but Vipin didn't feel that she was mourning a lover.

“We collaborated a few times,” she mentioned. “I even stayed at his place in Mumbai. He had taken an apartment on rent and he let me use it graciously. He was very generous with his time and money. A real gem of a person! He had some unusual habits. He loved eating sugar cubes and he took his medicines mixed in canned fruit juice. He didn't like cranberry juice that I liked but he preferred orange juice. Oh, I don't know what I am blabbering about. Sorry about that.”

“Why didn't he invite you to his house?” Shalini interrupted Kalpana.

“His house?” Kalpana sounded confused. “But he lives in Kolkata, doesn't he? I never got a chance to visit Kolkata.”

“What are you talking about?” Shalini lost her cool.

Once again it came to Vipin to take matters into his own hands. When he explained to Kalpana that Pawan's own house was metres away from the rented house that he let her use, she was left flabbergasted.

“But, but,” she stammered, “why would he do it? It doesn't make any sense.”

“Did he drop by to meet you?” Vipin asked her. Shalini poured a stiff drink for herself. Vipin gestured to Deepak to stop her but Deepak just shrugged.

“Never,” Kalpana asserted. “I stayed there for five days this month. He mailed me the keys and I had been using those to access the house.”

“And he let you change the curtains for your stay?”

“Yes. He told me to decorate the house however I may wish to. So I got the green curtains for the house.”

“You were not aware that he used to come around to the rented house?”

“No,” she was most clear on it.

“Did you ever feel as if you were being stalked? Or that you were being watched?”

“Oh my God, yes,” she replied earnestly. “Sometimes I would feel as if someone was around me watching me closely but I could never locate that person. I told him about it and he advised me to ignore it.”

“Let me ask you a rude question,” Vipin gave her a moment to brace herself. “Were you having an affair with Pawan?”

“No!”

An emphatic denial was then followed by indignant protests of innocence.

“I must tell you that our relationship was thoroughly professional,” Kalpana cried out. “He never made any pass at me. Even if he had done so, I would have put him in his place. I am betrothed to the love of my life. It is true that Pawan's generous offer to use his house was deeply appreciated by me but I never got any creepy vibes from him. You have it all wrong.” Then she disconnected the call.

“Well, her outrage is totally understandable,” Vipin remarked. His remark was met with a loud 'harrumph' from Shalini.

“How often did Mohan come to play the game of chess with Pawan?” Vipin asked her.

“Ten or twelve times a month,” she replied. “Sometimes it would be weeks before they would set up an appointment and sometimes he would visit on a daily basis.”

“Why do you ask?” Deepak asked Vipin.

“Kalpana mentioned that she was here only for five days this month,” Vipin replied. “I was wondering if it matched with the appointments with Mohan.”

“Let us find Pawan's diary,” Shalini suggested. “He kept a record of his appointments in there.”

For the next half an hour, they went over Pawan's study.

“Did the police seize it?” Vipin asked Shalini who shook her head.

“I never mentioned it,” she pulled a drawer out and began shuffling through the items in it. “They never asked for it. Moreover, it was not in the room that day. I found it yesterday inside my dressing table. I tossed it inside this room.”

Deepak found the diary in the chest of drawers. They leafed through the diary and saw various entries on different pages. Most of the stuff scribbled in the diary was about mundane matters. To mark an appointment, Pawan would circle a date and then mention the appointment next to it. For the current month, Pawan had set eleven appointments with Mohan. Shalini lost interest rather quickly and went on to pour another drink for herself. Deepak handed the diary to Vipin and went to assist her.

Vipin checked all the entries of the month religiously. His drink was placed on the table. He was distracted by the loud talk between Shalini and Deepak. She was cussing out her dead husband and Deepak was conducting himself very shamefully.

Vipin noticed a phrase that Pawan had written many times. It read penitus in caritate. It was Latin for 'deeply in love' as found from a quick search on the internet. On a whim, he logged in to the blog of Pawan and went through the drafts. One of them was titled 'Deeply In Love'. Vipin opened it to find two paragraphs about the futility of love and how it makes the world go round. Then he found a strange phrase 'behind the dresser'. It had been repeated at least 50 times.

He asked Shalini to take him to the dressing table. The toiletries and bottles of perfume were scattered on the dresser. The drawers were crammed with stuff for makeup. Vipin then peaked at the back of the dressing table and saw cobwebs and a lone key. When he pulled out the key, it left Shalini and Deepak astonished.

“A key to what?” Deepak looked at Shalini for an answer.

“It must be of his travelling bag,” Shalini slurred. “But why would he keep the key here?”

She opened the bed box and made Deepak remove a light red travelling bag. There was a small lock on it and the key found behind the dressing table was able to unlock it. There was a folder inside it. Underneath the folder, there was a uniform that delivery boys were mandated to wear while out delivering the food items.

“Zomi,” Deepak whispered even before the uniform was straightened out. Vipin noticed the logo and realized that Deepak had been bang on target in identifying the uniform. Deepak was a bachelor and must have been using home delivery for his food.

“Was Pawan in the habit of using this travelling bag a lot?” Vipin asked Shalini who was staring at the uniform in confusion.

“He would take it out every morning and then at the end of the day, he would put it back,” Shalini replied.

“Did the police know about it?” Vipin asked her. She shook her head.

When the folder was opened, they found themselves staring at fifteen letters. Pawan had written those letters but had never posted them. He had addressed five letters to Shalini, two letters to Kalpana, and eight letters to Jia. All of them were written in red ink. Vipin handed them to Shalini for he didn't feel right going through the personal letters of a dead man but Shalini scoffed at his concerns and asked him to read all of them. Vipin soon found out that the letters were about Pawan's deepest feelings and longings. The visceral tone and the brutal honesty addressing his weaknesses and shortcomings made for a very difficult read. It was as if he were peering inside the psyche of a man who was deformed and who hated himself for his deformities, and yet was courageous enough to look at himself with honesty. The red ink belied Pawan's passion and seemed an apt choice for penning down his heartfelt emotions.