1: Maanik

“It’s way too late in the night for me to suffer such blows to my self respect. We’ll deal with Mrs. Jaiswal tomorrow,” Inspector Maanik groaned and stretched lazily on his chair.

His sub inspector was scandalised by his attitude. “Sirji, she has lost her husband. That too in such a horrible-”

“People die Ashish, her threats are not going to bring her husband back,” Maanik cut him short.

Although he shrugged his junior’s concerns off, Maanik was very worried about this case. Four people had been murdered in what seemed to be the work of some twisted psychopath. His city was no stranger to crime, but Maanik was posted in the most affluent, sophisticated and boring area of the city. Full of rich people who seemed too dull to have anything to do with crime.
So far, but not anymore.
Dirty secrets had tumbled out of closets as the murders unfolded, it was like someone had opened an opulent mummy casket and was unravelling the rotting corpse inside.

He walked out of the chowki and headed towards the nearby bus stop. The four dead men kept spinning around in his mind. He was so preoccupied with himself that he did not notice when it began to rain. He was eventually pulled out of his abstractions by the sounds of a scuffle.

Maanik looked up to see a lady at the bus stop being harassed by some miscreants.
“Aye!” he called out loudly.
The men saw a police officer coming towards them, so they threw the lady’s handbag at him and took off.
“Tch tch walking distance from a chowki…” he muttered under his breath.
He dusted the handbag and gave it back to terrified lady who let out a grateful sob and clutched the handbag like it held precious jewels.“Thank you so much saheb! If it hadn’t been for you…”

Maanik was not paying attention to her vote of thanks, he had been taken over by waves of self loathing. If some low thugs could have the courage to harass a woman, so close to his turf, maybe he wasn’t cut out for this, job, maybe he was just a terrible police officer.
The first murder had been committed on 5th January, It was March 31st, Two days after the latest murder. He had been able to do nothing. Since the murders were random, he had no lead to work on from there as well.

“Ooo, seems like they did not open my bag.” The lady was going through her purse now. “What a design of fate, you coming in time to rescue me”
“It was random”, Maanik mumbled absentmindedly.
The lady shook her head violently, “Arre saheb, nothing is random, there is always a design, even if we can not understand it.”

Maybe there was something that connected the murders and he just couldn’t see it.
“I took 50 rupees from my husband’s pocket the other day, that is why this happened, that cursed kulfi nearly cost me everything. Oh if it hadn’t been for you…”

What if these men and their filth was connected somehow to the killer’s identity? The first victim, Bansarilal Mahato was a reputed jeweler and he had been accused of murdering his maid but got off after insufficient evidence against him. The second, Sanjay Nirupama led a double life as a pimp. The third, Tapas Pallan was a disgraced army general. And the most recent victim was famous film director, Sriprakas Jaiswaal, who had recently been accused of molestation by several struggling starlets. Maybe their crimes had brought this upon them.

But what did they exactly do?

“Saheb, can I have your autograph? Sign here, please, I will show it to Rita’s father”

There were signs that stood out in all the crimes, but they didn’t make sense to him or anyone else. Jaiswaal was found shirtless. According to the last person to see him alive, he had been wearing a red t-shirt. The pimp had been found dead in a local bar and all their coloured bulbs had been smashed. The general’s medals had been slashed and ruined. The jeweler Mahato’s store had been ransacked and only the rubies were stolen.

“Saheb I think I can see the lights of the bus…”

“Rubies!” he exclaimed

“Huh? What? Where?” she jumped and looked around.

“Ruby” he reminisced softly.
The maid that had Bansarilal Mahato had been accused of killing. She wasn’t his maid, she worked at General Pal’s house.

Memories rushed into Maanik’s frenzied mind and he could see everything clearly now.

Sanjay Nirupama had testified in the murder case’s trial and claimed that Ruby was a prostitute and had been probably killed by one of her customers, not the most honorable jeweler in town definitely. Her husband had been working under Jaiswaal.

Her husband.
He remembered Ruby’s fiery husband, Matthew, who had almost opened the mummy’s coffin before this killer. If he hadn’t disappeared…his thoughts trailed off to the possibilities.

“The bus is here Saheb. But I must thank you for what you did, here-”

Maanik walked absentmindedly towards the bus and boarded it.

This was all connected to Ruby’s case. Maybe it was someone who knew the couple, maybe it was her husband Matthew, back with a vengeance.

He settled down and noticed that the lady had handed over her handbag to him. He looked at the people around, but he did not remember what she looked like, he hadn’t paid much attention to her.

“What a crazy woman”, he chuckled to himself and opened the handbag, only to discover it filled with sparkling rubies.