Love is dangerous with a Stranger
(A romantic, investigative and detective thriller)
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“You did not let your opinion known to me yet.” Stuart once again leaned back in the chair and said. “If I agree to your conditions and cooperate with you in all respects, can you catch the culprit and how much time you do take for it?”
“Mr.Stuart, in the hundred or so far of my cases the failure percentage is only one. My subconscious is saying to me it is not going to be difficult to catch the culprit in this case. If you give me the chance, the maximum time I do take to catch the culprit is, one month.”
“Really, really you are thinking like that!” with a shocking expression in his face Stuart said. “Can you really catch the culprit just in one month?”
“I am thinking positive about it Mr.Stuart.” Smaran smiled. “If I cannot keep my promise and find out the culprit just in one month, you need not pay any amount to me. I have stopped taking any payment from the cases in which I faced failure.”
“Money is not a big thing for me Mr.Smaran but what all I want is that the culprit has to be caught and punished.” Smaran once again stooped forward in his chair and balanced his arms on the table once again and asked with a determined expression in his face. “When can I sign on the contract sir?”
“These contracts are always ready with me Mr.Stuart, we need to fill just some gaps in that.” Then Smaran put his right hand in the suit-case he took along with him and took some set of papers from it. After writing something in those papers, he put them before Stuart and Stuart has gone through them one after one carefully before signing on the each page of it. While he was handing over that to Smaran, he looked into the face of Isabella and her face was with full of uneasiness.
“Now a contract has been set between you and me and you can start work.” Stuart leaned back in the chair and said. “Tell me with what you are going to start this?”
“First I want to search his house thoroughly. Who does take me there?” putting those papers into that suit case again and locking it Smaran said.
“I take you there. No problem.” Stuart got off from the chair and Smaran also followed his suit.
“You need not be troubled yourself for that sir. I can take him there and show the entire house to him.” Isabella also got off from the chair and said.
“No Isa. You stay here and talk with HRD chief. Ask him to find out that file on David Carter at any cost on this day. Where are the keys of that house?”
“With me.” Isabella opened her purse and extracted keys from it. “You need to open only the main door of it.”
After taking those keys, without looking back Stuart left that place along with Smaran.
&&&
“This is indeed a beautiful house!” When they both have entered into that house opening the main door with the key taken from Isabella, Smaran exclaimed.
“Our organisation has constructed houses like these for our top employees. My secretary Isabella also has been given a beautiful house like this.” While talking like that he led Smaran into the bedroom of David Carter. “On this very bed we found him dead.”
“I see” Smaran went near to the bed and said. “How did you come to know that his death was because of poisoning?”
“Our family doctor Peterson suspected it like that. Until that moment we thought that he died with heart attack. He said that he suffered heart attack two times before and doctors said to him it would be quite dangerous to him if he got that again.”
“Your family doctor Peterson found him like that? For how long he is your family doctor?”
“For more than thirty years. He and our dad were very good friends.”
“That means, he could have been known about this David Carter while he was working with your dad.”
“Not just knowing. He is a friend to that David Carter also.”
“I want to talk with that Peterson also.”
“Sure you can.” Stuart nodded his head. “His house is just ten kilometres or so away from here.”
“That David Carter used to live all alone in this house?”
“Yes, he lived all alone in this house.”
“Then what about his food? Did he engage any cook for that?”
“We have restaurants in our office and wonderful food is available there for all the staff. He used to take his food in those restaurants when he is in work. Moreover he knows cooking also and he has cooking facilities also in this house. Whenever he did not come out, he used to cook for himself.”
“If it is so……….” Smaran said. “…………there is a chance that he would have been poisoned in your office restaurants.”
“Mr.Smaran, everyone in the office loves him a lot and he maintains a friendly relationship with all the people. There is no necessity to anyone in our organisation to poison his food and kill him.”
“I shall decide about it. Anyhow I want to see the rest of the house also.”
“There is another bedroom also in this house. Come with me.” Stuart moved away from that place and Smaran also went after him.
That bedroom also was as much spacious as the previous bedroom but was ruffled. As soon as they went near to the bed, they found the brassier on it, Smaran bent down, took it into his hands and looked into the face of Smaran after straightening himself “May I know whose this is?”
“This is Isabella, my secretary’s. She quite often used to visit this house along with Jasmine while he was alive. Jasmine and Isabella are good friends and you know he was Jasmine’s own uncle.” Stuart’s face was blushed while he was looking at that clothing article.
“Are you sure that it is your secretary Isabella’s?” with a mischievous smile on his lips, Smaran asked him.
“Yes…….no…….” Stuart understood what mistake he did and his face became even more blushed. “It is not my wife Jasmine’s. So I guessed it would have been hers.”
“Alright” Smaran dropped it on the bed there again and observed around it curiously for sometime. There were some books and magazines on a table nearby.
“It seems that your uncle is a good reader of books.” Going through them one after one, Smaran said.
“He is not. But my wife Jasmine and my secretary Isabella are book freaks. They took the books here also to read.”
“So your wife and that Isabella are good friends and they quite often visit this house.” still looking through those books, Smaran said.
“Yes......……” Stuart nodded his head with irritation as Smaran asked like that even he already said about that. “...........so far Isabella has become a good friend to Jasmine. Jasmine whenever visited this house especially in the evening times, she took Isabella also with her. Both of them said that to me.”
After few seconds more observation of those books, Smaran turned towards Stuart and looked into his face. “I think there is nothing useful here to notice. We may better move ourselves into the remaining house.”
Stuart took him into the kitchen after showing the rest of the house to him. There was a big refrigerator and Smaran opened it and observed the things minutely before closing it. There were cupboards in the kitchen to the wall and Smaran went near to them observing one after the other, they all have draws in rows to keep things and with proper locking facility. All of them were in open condition and some not much useful articles were kept in them. One cupboard was absolutely empty and there was nothing in it.
“All these cupboards have good locking facilities. Once things have been kept in them and the cupboard is locked, they cannot be stolen unless the lock of it is broken” Stuart said.
“Nothing has been kept in this cupboard” Smaran went near to a cupboard and said observing that minutely.
“He would not have left with anything to keep in that cupboard” Stuart laughed and said. “Just see, he kept only useless articles in the other cupboards also.”
“No, Mr.Stuart. He has kept something very much important in this cupboard. Someone broke the lock of this cupboard and has stolen that thing from here. Probably the murderer would have done that.”
“You are right!”Smaran exclaimed when he went near to that cupboard and observed it. “But I just cannot understand what he would have kept in that!”
“Something relating to your organisation. Big organisations sure do have things to be kept secretly like that.” Smaran looked into Stuart’s face.
“You may be right.” Stuart nodded his head. “But if he has kept anything secretly like that regarding our organisation, why did not he tell me about it?”
“We cannot say anything until we come to know what that has been stolen. But I am feeling confident sooner or later we can find that thing also.” Moving away from that place Smaran said and Stuart also just followed him.
“Now do you want to talk with that Peterson?” Stuart’s confidence on Smaran was increased after his finding something like that in the kitchen.
“No, first I want to talk with your wife and David Carter’s niece Jasmine.” Smaran said.
“But she is very much upset at present. First losing her dearest uncle like this caused her enough distress but the later knowledge that he was murdered just devastated her. She is quite often getting hysterical bouts and I just don’t know how to control her in such situations.”
“I am not going to vex her much Mr.Smaran. If she is not in a position to talk with me, I leave her. But I just want to give a try.”
“Okay then come with me.”
After locking that house in the usual way both Smaran and Stuart came away from that place in Stuart’s car.
&&&
“I am really very much sorry that I have to trouble you like this now but it is all out of necessity. I want to gather all the information possible to catch the culprit. Will you please give the answers to me?”
Stuart took Jasmine into the hall and made her sit in a sofa there before settling himself beside her on that. Smaran dragged a chair nearby opposite to them both and asked her so after settling himself comfortably in it.
“Just answer his questions if you know. We are not going to bother you for long.” Looking into her face, Stuart said.
“I want that murderer to be caught.” Jasmine said with a slow voice and leaned back in the chair. “Ask any questions you do want to ask.”
“Do you know that your uncle has any enemies?”
“My uncle is a very good man. He has only friendly and amicable relationships with all the people. He has no enemies.”
“Even he has some enemies, there is no chance that you can know about them, is it is not so dear?” Stuart said still looking into her face. “Before coming here, he worked in many organisations and would have made some enemies in them. Even very good people also cannot remain without having enemies sometimes.”
“You are right, I agree.” Jasmine nodded her head and said.
“First your uncle has come here and after three or so months of time you followed him.” Smaran said. “Where were you till that moment?”
Jasmine’s face was filled with an uneasy expression and she looked into the face of Stuart as if to know whether to answer that question or not.
“Mr.Smaran I just cannot understand how the answer of this question will help you in your investigation.” With an irritating expression in his face Stuart said.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
