Chap 7 - Orange Parka

Orange color symbolizes youth and enthusiasm

“We know all about it,” Shalini said after they were done with initial pleasantries.

“Know about what?” Jia asked softly.

“About you and Pawan,” Shalini snarled. For a moment, Jia stayed silent.

“I have no idea of what you are talking about,” she finally broke the silence.

“He rented a house for you, didn't he?” Shalini raised her voice.

“Rented a house?” Jia was incredulous. “What are you talking about?”

“The house number 7/2D,” Shalini persisted but now her anger was palpable in her tone. “Do you deny that he used to sneak to that house to meet you?”

“I have never heard of such bosh ever before in my life,” Jia snapped. “My relation with Pawan sir was only professional and nothing else.”

The finality in Jia's tone confused Shalini who looked up at Deepak to help her out. However, Deepak seemed incredibly reluctant to get involved and so it came to Vipin to intervene. After introducing himself, he told Jia about their recent discovery of Pawan renting a house near his own house. Jia professed her ignorance about the matter.

“Do you know of anyone who has green eyes?” Vipin asked Jia. “Or anyone who likes to use green contact lenses?”

“Kalpana,” Jia whispered. “She has naturally green eyes. Her father was a German. He married an Indian woman and settled in India. Kalpana inherited her green eyes from her father.”

“Does she work for Pawan?”

“No,” Jia replied. “She runs her own video channel. It is quite popular. She contacted us to get some material for one of her videos. She liked our work and kept in touch with us. She lives in Bangalore and prefers to make videos in her city. I had no idea that she was visiting Mumbai or that Pawan sir had rented an apartment for her.”

While Jia was talking, Deepak searched for Kalpana's name on the internet and the first page of the search results had entries about Kalpana, the eco-warrior. When he clicked a link to open the webpage, he saw himself staring at a very pretty, green-eyed girl who was taking pains to explain the fragility of the ecosystem to her viewers.

Vipin thanked Jia for her help and disconnected the call. For some time, all three of them stared at Deepak's phone, watching the video where Kalpana went to pain-staking lengths to underline the importance of marine life for the sustenance of human lives. She sounded honest and her natural exuberance, accentuated by an orange parka, made the video eminently watchable.

“Uff,” Shalini exhaled. “I can't compete with her. She is simply very beautiful.”

“Beauty is only skin-deep,” Deepak tried to reassure her. However, he was rebuffed when he tried to stroke her arm.

“Another person of interest,” Vipin muttered. “How in the Sam Hill did the police miss out on interviewing her?”

“They were far more interested in pinning the death on me,” Shalini couldn't help but smile. “The inspector was adamant about making me confess about murdering Pawan and I kept telling them that I had no exigent reason to kill my husband at that point in time. Why would I have waited for years if I wanted to kill him? I think I should not have voiced that aloud just after Pawan's death. It made the inspector mad. He must have thought that I was getting away with a perfect murder.”

“He had misplaced priorities, dear,” Deepak tried again to stroke Shalini's arm who let him do so.

“Let us try to connect to Kalpana,” Vipin suggested.

Shalini called Jia again and apologized for her earlier behaviour. Jia accepted her apology magnanimously and promised to share Kalpana's contact number soon. After about 10 minutes of waiting, which was used to consume one more drink precipitously, Jia shared the phone number with them.

Vipin took the phone from Shalini.

“Can you tell me a bit about Mohan?”

Vipin's question made Jia fall silent for so long that they thought the connection was lost.

“Mohan,” Jia finally spoke, “used to work with us. I mean, we two worked together and Pawan sir mentored us. I found Mohan to be funny and witty. He always managed to make me laugh. Then, one day, Pawan sir told me about Mohan's perverted ways. Mohan was obsessed with porn. Pawan sir had a video of Mohan where he was talking about his fetish. Honestly, I couldn't stand him after that. He was sacked soon after so that was good riddance.”

Vipin asked her what she remembered about the awful day when she discovered Pawan's dead body.

“I was not at all expecting it,” Jia said. “I know that everyone believes that the black rose was his way of announcing his death to the world but I never got the feeling that he was depressed or that he wanted to take his life. He wanted the black rose because he wanted to adorn his study with it. That's what he told me. I got it ready using black ink and then reached there at around 8 PM. Then we had to break the door and it was awful seeing him lying dead in there. It gave me nightmares for weeks. Shalini was unfazed though. She touched the dead body and then announced that it was cold, that Pawan was dead. I had to sit outside as I felt dizzy. She gave me some sugar cubes to eat. I will never forget that gesture. She put the container back in the study.”

“Container?”

“It had sugar cubes for Pawan sir. He loved to suck on them. If he would find that only six or seven were left in the container, he would empty the container. He loved eating sugar and kept the cubes in a container in his study. Shalini gave me some cubes from that container itself.”

Vipin thanked her and disconnected the call.

“Time to speak with the home-breaking, husband-stealing devil,” Shalini pronounced. Vipin was just glad that she used the word 'devil' and not a cuss word.