Doosra (24 page)

Rita looked at the only chair there, which was covered with papers too. Honey Singh looked embarrassed. He walked out from behind his desk, picked up the papers and put them on the already full window.

'I'm sorry I don't normally get any visitors. I'll arrange for another chair, just give me a minute.' He walked out and came back within a minute rolling an office chair on castors.

A minute later Rita and Vikram settled into the chairs.

'How may I be of assistance in a police enquiry?' There were no exaggerated gasps, no stammer. Only pathological or practiced liars could lie while making eye contact. Was Honey Singh either one of those or was he an honest bystander in a game that had included him without his consent or knowledge? Either he had prepared well for this day and enquiry or he was a consummate liar or he was speaking the truth. It was difficult to tell.

'Do you know Veer Singh?'

'You already know that I know him. You met my mother this morning.' Honey looked annoyed at Veer Singh's mention. It hardly surprised Rita after what she had known about his relationship with Veer and because she had seen his mother raging like an injured bull facing a matador when Rita had cited Veer. If anything, it tied in: the hostility was beyond one to one.

'You have any idea where he is now?'

'No. Would you mind telling me what this is about? It's been three years since I last met Veer, so what has he done now that the police is looking for him? And how am I involved?'

'Mr Singh, please answer my questions and I promise I'll answer most, if not all, of your queries.'

'How long will this take?' Honey looked at his wrist showing off his Omega.

'If you answer without wasting time, I'd say an hour.'

'OK DCP Ferreira.' He snapped shut all four laptops on his desk.

'So tell us more about Veer Singh, how and why did you two break up?'

'It's embarrassing, and maybe you'll think I am evil. Veer introduced me to my girlfriend, Kitty. We started dating, but we didn't know he had the hots for her. Needless to say things didn't work out for all of us so we parted ways.'

Rita realised she had worked that out as one of the scenarios already.

'And you guys never met up again?'

'Nope.'

'And you have no idea where he is?'

'I came to know he had left for Silicon Valley after he was gone from India.'

Rita looked at Vikram who, too, noted that the geographical co-ordinates had been somewhat narrowed down from all fifty States to just Silicon Valley. But would that little piece of info help in any way, who knew?

Rita pulled out the candid-shot she had shown to Lucky Singh in the morning; the one taken in the elevator in Brussels, and passed it to Honey.

He looked at the picture for a few seconds, then looked up at Rita, then Vikram but uttered nothing for a full minute.

Rita couldn't discern if he was worried because he knew where it had been taken or concerned that someone and clicked it without him being aware and that someone was then following him? He maintained the bewildered look on his face. If he was faking it he was succeeding.

'Where did you get this from?'

'Is that you?'

'Looks like me.'

'Then you should be the one telling me where this was taken.'

'Is this the person you're looking for?'

'Mr Singh, that's not the answer to my question.'

'I don't know. It looks like someone's taken this photograph without my knowledge from somewhere over my head. I can't imagine where and why.'

'Take your time…' Rita couldn't see any signs of any prevarication yet.

Honey Singh appeared confused.

Confused because he was surprised? Or confused about how did the police get this far?

'Honestly, I can't tell you,' he said and looked up from the photograph he had been staring at. 'Could you tell me how this is connected to Veer please?'

'It's taken inside an elevator.' Rita ignored his question.

'Where?'

'That's what we would want to know.'

'No idea where and no idea why someone would snap my picture in an elevator.'

'Before you answer my next questions Mr Singh, I want you to think very carefully—'

'Oh there's more?' Honey Singh interjected, his anxiety exposed, he appeared fretful.

'Lots more. Do you know anyone by the name of Sishir Singh?'

'No. Who is he?'

'Never mind. Now listen carefully and don't interrupt me please. Have you in the past few weeks or months noticed someone following you around?'

'Following me? Why? Who's following me?' His voice was aggravated, his face flushed red with fury or frustration. Maybe both.

'Calm down Mr Singh, there's no threat to you.'

'But why would someone follow me? Is someone planning to whack me?'

'Again, that's what we want to find out. But... coming back to my question, are you absolutely certain you haven't spotted some unknown person or persons or some cars more than usual?'

'Not at all.'

Up until now Honey Singh did not even blink an eyelid or show any usual tell-tale signs of insincerity — no involuntary gulps, no loss of words. Rita had held that he had been speaking the truth. But his response to the last question—that he had missed spotting Handlebar Raja totally — put Rita in a quandary. She had been around in this job long enough to read that although he had dispensed the
“not at all”
with all sincerity. Honey Singh was lying. Definitely. Handlebar Raja might not have been obvious at first, but if he tailed Honey Singh repeatedly, the guy would positively register, at least in his subconscious. There was no way someone like Honey Singh could have missed Mr Handlebar and his noticeably derelict car tailing him daily — maybe even twice/thrice a day — for almost over three months. A near impossibility. The question was, why was Honey giving a false statement? Why was he misguiding the police? And as always happened if you trapped one white lie, you became sceptical of all that was said earlier or what would be spoken thereafter.

If Honey Singh's mien did not reveal signs of dishonesty in the one answer Rita was confident he was fudging, she lost all credence in all the previous ones too. Honey was denying the simple fact of having spotted someone tailing him. Why? Did he plan to settle it himself? Rita's follow up thought was if it was even worth Handlebar tailing Honey Singh after she had just told the target that he was being followed. If Honey Singh genuinely didn't spot a tail before, he would now.

What if the secret client's other option was to dispatch a gunslinger?

'Are you absolutely sure?'

'Yes. I haven't spotted anyone.'

'Make no mistake Mr Singh, if you're on board the train to Bhopal, sooner or later you will get to Bhopal. There is little point in blaming the train later.' The sarcasm in Rita's voice could corrode steel. She could see Vikram look agape at her.

'I'm not sure what you mean?'

'If you don't tell us the truth now, we cannot help you is what I'm saying,'

'I am telling you the truth.'

Rita kept a calm façade but she was annoyed with Honey's repeated lies. 'Let me repeat: you've got a little window here to tell me the truth. I don't know what you know about me but I don't believe in giving anyone a second chance to tell me the truth.'

'Are you threatening me, DCP Ferreira?'

'If I were you I'd take it as a warning. At this moment neither of us knows who's out there; all I can tell you is that someone's following you around. For what purpose, I have no idea, but I will find out. So, if you know or suspect anyone, now is the time to tell me.'

Honey went quiet like he was contemplating the pros and cons of something in his mind.

'Why me?'

'Why you what?'

'Why is someone following me?'

'Let me ask you a question from an old fable — have you ever seen people fishing Mr Singh?'

'Yes, just once with some friends. Why?'

'Did you or any of your friends manage to catch a fish?'

'Yes.' Honey looked perplexed.

'With so many other fish in the sea, did the fish you guys had at the end of the line ask,
“why me”?'

Honey did not respond, just passed a crooked smile.

'You have our sympathies but don't ask me self-pitying questions please. We will, of course, find out why you've been targeted, but in the meantime let's assume someone must have a strong motive.'

'You may be right. Is this guy, who's supposedly following me, in some dilapidated car? I think I've spotted the vehicle in a few times, but I did not realise someone was actually following me like in the movies. Now that you asked I think I've seen him in more than once place... but why?'

Out comes the truth.

'Like I said, I don't know for now but we'll find out soon.' Rita didn't think it was advisable to let Honey Singh know that she would have her guys follow him around once again, just in case. 'Don't worry too much. If someone wanted to cause you any harm they had a few months. If they haven't done it yet it means they don't want to hurt you. However, I have to tell you to be extra careful.' Rita looked at Vikram who still sat silently scribbling in his notebook; she raised her eyebrows to ask if he had any further questions for Honey. He creased his brow and shook his head slightly to decline.

Rita asked where he had spotted the familiar car and Honey told them it was somewhere between his residence and office.

'Has anything like this had ever happened before?'

'No.'

There was a slight pause in the conversation. Then:

'You said you would tell me what this is about? I can't believe that someone looking for Veer Singh is tailing me after three or four years since I've last seen or even spoken to him. I don't even know where in the world he is or if he is even alive.'

'This is a murder investigation, Mr Singh.' Rita decided it was time to drop the other shoe now.

If he was aware of what Rita was actually looking for he did not let it slip. But Rita was now aware that it was difficult to redline what was true and what wasn't with Honey Singh. He was crooked, but he didn't appear to be the guy they had been looking for; doubts were indeed denting the initial euphoria of finding someone who looked like Sishir Singh.

'Who...Veer?'

'No. You must have read in the papers that there was a murder in Brussels in April. One Mr Ron Jogani was shot in his hotel room and the killer or killers got away with diamonds worth millions.'

'Yeah... ' Honey said seemingly without having to think. I read about that and my question still remains, what does it all have to do with me?'

'The suspect fleeing the murder scene was caught on camera.'

Rita paused, half expecting Honey Singh to utter something. But nothing except a cold stare came from him for a full sixty seconds.

'So if you have the photo of the killer why don't you just arrest the suspect?'

Rita was mindful he would comprehend the dilemma in a second. She waited him out.

'You're not saying the photograph you showed me—'

'I'm saying exactly that. The photograph I showed you,' — she pushed the photograph that still lay on his desk towards him once again — '...is this. And this was taken inside the elevator in the hotel in Brussels, and which your mother and you have identified positively as you.'

Confusion. Apprehension. Exasperation. Grimace. All expressions passed Honey's face in quick succession. Then Rita saw fear in his eyes, which could mean anything or nothing. The dichotomy was that if he had been involved in the crime either directly or indirectly he'd be afraid, but in case he wasn't aware about the Brussels murder till he had read it in the newspapers he'd still be fucking shitting.

'There has to be a mix up. I've never been to Brussels.'

'We know that.'

'How d—.' He stopped halfway through. 'So I don't need to even ask you the exact date and time of the murder to provide an alibi. You should know that this couldn't be me in this picture. It may be some kind of a coincidence—'

'It's seems like one hell of a coincidence, doesn't it?'

'What do you mean?' Honey looked pale.

Rita was certain Honey Singh had attempted to lie, but eventually gave up and admitted the truth. She was equally concerned that if Honey Singh wasn't involved, Vikram and she coming his office might get reported to the killers and that could trigger events that might not have been in their agenda presently. A thought pushed through that if there was some real threat to Honey Singh's life, she had to do something about it. She had to divulge a bit more. If she were to err it would rather be on the side of caution, she couldn't just have someone's life be at risk. she waited till some colour had returned to Honey Singh's face.

'We think it's orchestrated, not coincidental.' She gesticulated to halt his questions. 'We also think it
might be
someone who knows you or knew you well enough—'

'Veer Singh?'

'Maybe, maybe not. So now what more can you tell us about him?'

'As I said we were close friends. Very close friends.' Honey detailed their long friendship from engineering college days till they both started their careers in Mumbai running their respective businesses. Veer was also an information technology expert. As Veer had no family he used to hang at Honey's apartment on most weekends. And Veer had met Kitty through one of his business contacts and later introduced her to Honey and things just went from there.

'So how tall was Veer?'

'An inch shorter than me.'

'Weight, colour, build?'

'Almost the same as me, we used to be in the college basketball team together, visited the same gym, exercised almost the same amount, so our builds were obviously comparable, unless he's changed in the last three years or so.'

'And his face?'

'Obviously, we weren't a replica of each other. We have. or rather had — as I don't know what he looks like now — common features like skin colour, sharp-
ish
jaw, but that was because our roots were similar; our forefathers came from the same region in Punjab.'