Rajendra Prasad - 1

I was a senior detective with the CBI for the past ten years, 3 years in arson working in Delhi. Karnataka was career suicide for any CBI detective, I got a message from the higher-ups telling me to create a team and set up shop in Bangalore, it was a great opportunity to lead an investigative team but to do so from Bangalore was the most pointless thing to do. The world told me to quit and find something in the private sector but I decided to stick it out for the next few years until my tenure is completed. Then one of the most interesting cases of my life appeared before me which was the case of Satish Nair.

"This is more than a torture-murder case this is a heist!"

"Sir, what are you talking about ?"

"Somebody tortured him to get to something in the vault."

"That does seem possible."

I walked into the vault in awe to see something like this in a regular engineer's house who earned an average salary. The vault was completely wiped clean nothing was left, not money jewelry nothing.

"Did you call the forensic team ?"

"Yes, sir they are on their way."

After 30 mins the forensic team arrived and further later Abhishek and Damini arrived as well. Once they arrived I asked them to come to the first floor as well.

"Why did you want us to come here so quickly sir?" Damini questioned.

"Come see for yourself."

They were shocked at the vault as well.

"What did you find for us Abhishek?"

"Nothing like this. we found out that he was kind of like a social pariah and didn't interact with anyone nobody even knew he got married."

"What did he do in Global Tech?"

"He worked in cyber security."

"Anjana if you find something send the report back to us."

"Yes Sir."

Then we headed back to the office, we started piecing together whatever we found.

"Esha brief us today what have we found so far?"

"Yes Sir, our victim Satish Nair, age 32, engineer, worked at Global tech. Tortured and murdered, the cause of murder is blunt force trauma to the head, from what we found in the office he was most likely an introvert and didn't interact with others in the office. In his house, a vault the size of a small room was found empty most likely that Mr. Nair was tortured for a way to open the vault but that doesn't explain why he was tortured in a different location."

"What do we know about his wife?"

"Shreya Nair sir, she is currently living with her parents and will be coming shortly," Abhishek replied.

"Have told her the reason for coming in?"

"No sir, just told her that we have some news to give about her husband and it was urgent."

Two days later Ms. Nair arrived in our office and we had put her in one of our conference rooms, I had Esha and Damini give her the news and try to find out as much as possible.

<<In the conference room>>

"Hello Ms. Nair I am detective Esha and this is my colleague detective Dhamini we have some bad news to tell you."

"Ma'am it is about your Husband," Dhamini added.

"What happened to my husband?"

"Ma'am we are sorry to inform you that, your husband is....."Esha continued.

"NO no no my husband is not dead."

"We are very sorry ma'am."

"How? how did he die?"

"Ma'am we can't reveal the details but all we can tell you is that it is not natural causes."

"NO, no why would someone murder my husband? He wouldn't hurt a single soul."

"That is what we are trying to find out ma'am, you can help us by telling us about your husband."

"What do you want to know ?"

"Did your husband have any enemies either at work or in his personal life?"

"I don't know a lot about his work he never spoke about it at home, but he had only one friend, it is his childhood friend, his name is Madhav I have his number."

"Ma'am, how did you meet Mr. Nair?"

"We used to work together before he left that company and joined Global tech."

"Ma'am, what can you tell us about the vault in your residence?"

"What vault?"

"The vault found in your house the address given in your husband's aadhar card."

"I have never seen that house, that was the house he lived in before our marriage after we got married we moved to a different house."

"Ma'am, where were you the day before yesterday, and can someone verify your whereabouts."

"I was in Chennai for the past few days I had meetings with some of my company execs."

"Ma'am, you said you moved into a different house after marriage, you didn't want to move into the big lavish house that your husband lived in?"

"I have no idea about how the house looks, he told me it was a small one-bedroom apartment and told me that we need to move into a bigger better house. I didn't question it back then I just assumed that he either sold or put the house up on rent."

"Thank you ma'am if you can think of anything else please let us know."

"Sure, anything to help, please find my husband's killers you have to find them."

They were escorting Ms. Nair when I had one question that had been knawing at me since the beginning of this interview. I waited for her outside by her car.

"Hello, Ms. Nair I am Captain Rajshekar of the Major Crimes department it was my detectives that you have spoken to inside about your husband's murder."

"Yes, hello sir."

"Can I ask you something?"

"yeah sure, sir."

"Why did you lie to your detectives about the business meeting in Chennai and why did I find a sense of relief when you found out that your husband was dead?"

"What do you mean I have no idea what you are talking about I was attending a conference with some company execs. Now if you would please step aside I would like to go home and rest for a while it is too much to take in already."

"Just one last thing, how many weeks has it been since you found out that you were pregnant."

"How did you know?"

"Please tell me the truth Ms.Nair, if you want our help to find out about your husband's murder."

We sat down nearby in front of a coffee shop.

"Please tell me Ms.Nair what were you doing in Chennai and why did you hide your pregnancy."

"I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks ago when I had gone on a business meeting with some colleagues. On one of our off days, we went to a party and I found one of my old friends from school at the party, we got to talking then one thing led to another, after a few days I found out that I was pregnant so I had gone to meet him in Chennai. Turns out he is married as well "

"So it was a relief to find out that you got away with your infidelity."

"I love my husband, I might not have been a great wife but I would never kill my husband."

"Didn't say you did just said that you were relieved."

"Nice speaking with you Ms.Nair and ohh don't leave the city if you want to perform coitus you should call your friend here from Chennai."

We have more than enough info we will have to just piece things together, there is still one piece that we haven't seen this so-called childhood friend of our dear victim.