The Turning - Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

It was one O'clock at night. Zerxes flung down the book he was reading, yawned, stretched, and walked up to the window. It was a full moon night. He gazed unseeingly at the silver-dappled waves below, framed by the rectangular cleft window of his study.

What had he missed? What?

He racked the recesses of his memory. He must look up the treatise by Tyabjee. Could Sattar have been given a Hindu funeral? Why had he been given a Hindu funeral? Had there been any motive for that, apart from sentiment? Vinod Shahane did not appear to be unduly sentimental! What were the consequences of Sattar having been given a Hindu funeral?

His mind went back to his conversation with his father earlier on that night. . .

For once Sam Avari had paid more attention to his visitor than to his fish. And not entirely because the visitor had been his only son. He had heard Zerxes out in silence.

"So the police are inclined to accept that it was Nivedita Shahane who murdered Dina Sattar and then committed suicide," he had mused. "Are you?" he had suddenly shot at his son.

Zerxes had answered with a decisive negative. "It is perhaps the most convenient, almost the ideal solution," he had acknowledged wryly. "But I'm pretty sure it is not the correct one."

"Why do you say that?" Sam had asked his son.

"It's a bit too pat," Zerxes had answered. "Almost stage-managed. Besides, I can't get rid of the nagging feeling that even the police themselves are not quite sure that this is the right solution!"

His father had nodded in agreement. "I know Sushil well enough to realize that he has doubts on this one," he had acknowledged.

Zerxes had drained his coffee cup and placed it deliberately on the low stool next to the sofa, a frown creasing his dark brow.

Zerxes had looked at his father speculatively. "What do you think, Dad? What's your opinion?"

"My opinion my son is that the solution to the puzzle of the Dina Sattar murder may well be within the realm of your expertise. I suggest you brush up your Muslim personal law a bit. Unless I'm much mistaken, it all ties in with this conversion business. And once you have solved the case of Dina Sattar, the cause of Nivedita's death will be clear enough." . . .

And so Zerxes had been reading up his Muslim law. He glanced at the clock, and decided that he had read enough for the night.

Tomorrow, he'd pop over to old Faiz-ud-din and borrow some more tomes from him.

* * * *

Aliff Faiz-ud-din's office was barely a twenty-minute drive from Zerxes' flat. Zerxes drove himself there at about 10 in the morning. The old man hardly ever went to Court nowadays, but better to go early! One could hardly get any parking space in the cramped lane leading to his office.

He parked his car a little away from the decrepit old building housing Faiz-ud-din's office. About to get out of the car, his gaze was suddenly arrested by a figure coming out of the building.

Zerxes remade his plans rapidly, then turned the car around and sped off towards Crawford Market. To the office of DCP Sushildutt Tagore. Instead of going to Faiz-ud-din.

Tagore heard what Zerxes had to say without interrupting and surprised him by saying that Irani too was of that view. "You're probably right! We'll keep a watch on him," Tagore promised. "But we'll need something definite, soon," he warned.

*