Free Seduced by Murder by Saurbh Katyal

spoke excitedly. “Of course! I threw the locket at him in front of at least twenty people at The Clocker’s Pub.”
    “The Clocker’s Pub?”
    “It’s a pub on Wilson Street. Some of the occupants that night were regular visitors. And wait … the bartender –Reddy – he would remember the incident. I threw the locket at Anil, and it fell into his glass. He asked Reddy to get him another drink. I am innocent and I can prove it. Just let me make the phone call.”
    “You can make your phone call. But we want to ask you a few questions first. If you are innocent, you need not be scared. This will be part of a routine investigation, okay?”
    He nodded. I realised what this meant. If Leo could prove that he had returned the pendant to Anil, not only would my original theory of the murderer being an insider hold true, it would also incriminate Shalini. It was the usual mistake a first-time criminal made. It was supposed to be a flawless murder. In his or her panic, the murderer had planted the locket outside the back gate; and going by the circumstances, I was inclined to believe that Shalini was the culprit behind this.
    I asked Vimal, “If Leo returned the locket to Anil, who would have access to it?”
    “Umm … Anil would probably have kept it in his room. All of us would have had access to it.”
    I could see the realization dawn in his eyes, as he answered my question. I knew he was evaluating the same person I was – Shalini. Babu made a phone call and asked someone to talk to Reddy, the bartender, at The Clocker’s Pub. Leo was white as a sheet now and, unless he was a very good actor, he was telling the truth.
    Babu tried to extract more information from him. “Your real name is Leo?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Leo as in Leonard?”
    “Leo as in Leo.”
    The Inspector was not convinced. “What type of name is that?”
    “I was born on 23 rd July. My parents named me after the zodiac sign.”
    “Lucky you,” I chipped in.
    “Why?”
    “One day earlier, and you would’ve been called Cancer.”
    Leo didn’t find the joke funny. I looked at the carelessly half-packed suitcase, and grinned.
    “If you are innocent, why were you packing? Why would you assault a police inspector with a bat and make a run for it? What are you hiding, Leo?”
    “I … I … thought … you were thieves.”
    Babu turned a nasty shade of crimson. “Do I look like a thief to you?”
    I was not convinced. “So that is why you attacked us. Why would you instruct the guard downstairs to lie?”
    I went to the suitcase and emptied its contents – casual wear, undergarments, and toiletries. I could feel Leo’s eyes on me. I walked to a table in the corner and opened a drawer. There was an envelope there. I could see his reflection in the mirror next to the table. He licked his upper lips nervously, and moved his gaze from my back to the cupboard. He was nervous about something in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard. There were clothes, some documents, and a large black leather bag that was locked.
    “Key?”
    “What are you doing? Don’t touch my bag. I will sue you.”
    “Silly boy,” I said, and picked up a pair of scissors lying on the table. The scissors had been lying there all along. A murderer, who could stab someone in the heart, would nothave used a deodorant bottle or a cricket bat to attack an intruder. He would have used the scissors. I dragged the blades of the scissors along the width of the bag and emptied the bundles of currency notes on the bed. There were one-thousand-rupee note bundles. Babu whistled. There were five hundred bundles, and each bundle had a hundred notes.
    “That’s a cool five crores in cash. Care to explain this?”
    Leo had aged two years in two seconds.
    “They are my savings, from my modelling assignments.”
    “Who were you modelling for? Reserve Bank of India?”
    Babu stared at the notes in hypnotic wonder. Vimal walked to the bed, picked up a bundle, and remarked casually, “The