The Miss India Murders by Gauri Sinh

Author:Gauri Sinh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

Akruti

Three successive murders at a Miss India Pageant—this was too much calamity even for Murphy’s Law. The general air of hysteria ran rampant, spreading like wildfire from backstage to the audience. There was quite simply an uproar.

The police cordoned off the stage area almost immediately, even as event head Anjali Rodrigues rushed to the mic and declared as calmly as she could, that the talent round was over. The few contestants remaining would later be assessed privately by the judges, and Nina would be declared winner, but all of that seemed rather irrelevant in the awfulness of what had just transpired.

A frantic Vandana was being questioned by the expressionless Addl.CP Mhatre, and he was not going easy. This had happened on his watch, in full glare of the media and his bosses in the top rung of the Mumbai police force, who happened to be invited today. We gathered round her as Vandana sobbed.

‘We were going to use the mobile restrooms, Nessie and I,’ she explained to the Addl.CP between sobs. ‘And we saw her. Lying like that, not moving …’

Vanessa, or Nessie, as all of us called her, interrupted. ‘I checked for pulse. I would’ve called for Nina, as she has medical experience, but Vandana’s screaming got everyone running to us immediately. Including the hotel doctor, who was here.’

‘Did you see anyone else around?’ the Addl.CP asked them.

‘There was nobody. Not even in the restrooms, both stalls were empty. We were perhaps the first to discover her like that,’ Nessie shuddered.

‘Did you move the body at all?’ the Addl.CP enquired, watching them closely.

‘No,’ Nessie answered, and Vandana nodded her compliance. ‘I only checked to see if she had a pulse, but I didn’t move her. Vandana didn’t touch her at all.’

‘Did you’ll discover her together?’ the Addl.CP asked.

‘Yes,’ Vandana said. ‘We were both going to the restroom and met in the passage leading to it, so we walked to the mobile unit together. We saw her immediately.’

Nuzhat was no more. The doctor told us death had been instant when the skull had been smashed.

‘Who was she with last, when alive?’ this time the Addl.CP addressed us all.

Nobody spoke up. We all disliked Nuzhat intensely. But she was always around some of us, it wouldn’t be that hard to recall who.

‘… fight with her, where is she?’ I heard a whisper behind me. Tania and Nina had their heads together speaking in low voices. But if I had heard them, so had everyone else. Including the Addl.CP.

‘Speak up,’ he turned to them. ‘Who fought with whom?’

Tania and Nina exchanged surreptitious glances.

‘Tara was with Nuzhat,’ Tania’s big, scared eyes looked into the Addl.CP’s. ‘She was telling her not to pick on her. I believe they had a bit of a scuffle. We heard them near the restrooms, when we were going in.’

‘What did you hear?’ the Addl.CP asked the two girls.

‘Just a fight,’ Tania said. ‘Voices were indistinct, we couldn’t make out the words. But we knew they were arguing, because they both sounded angry …’

‘Where is Tara?’ the Addl.

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