The Astral Alibi by Manjiri Prabhu Read Free Book Online Page A

an empty bottle of sleeping pills doing in
your
cupboard?”
    “We told you before, my mother takes sleeping pills occasionally! Many times Vidya herself has given those pills to her. As a matter of fact, so have I!” the dead woman’s husband answered.
    “But it was full the last time I saw that bottle!” Mrs. Sahay declared.
    “And it is empty now. And found in your cupboard. Vidya drank a glass of milk before sleeping and she was dead by morning. There is every chance that that glass of milk contained the same pills which belonged to the bottle in the cupboard. And if that happens, you can forget all notions of suicide,” the Inspector remarked grimly.
    “That woman was trouble when she was alive and she’s still trouble now that she’s dead!” Parmeet’s mother grumbled nastily.
    “Maa!”
Parmeet uttered in a frustrated tone.
    Renuka turned a furious face on the older woman. “Vidya gave every ounce of her energy, time, and love for this family, and this is all you can say for her? That she was
trouble
? The fact was that, despite you making life miserable for her, she stuck by your side, refusing to leave her home and a husband who didn’t deserve her! And now she’s
gone
! So now you can be happy!”
    “Renuka, stop it!” Sonia put a firm hand on the agitated girl’s arm. “Let the police deal with this. Show me Vidya’s room, will you? Inspector, do you mind?”
    The Inspector gave her a go-ahead signal while Renuka looked daggers at the in-laws. Both glowered back at her. Sonia prodded the girl and she moved reluctantly. Jatin followed.
    “It’s a three-bedroom apartment. And this is Vidya’s room,” Renuka stepped through the doorway of the scene where her friend had breathed her last.
    A double bed took up most of the space. A table and chair and two steel cupboards stood against the wall. A window with a sliding pane overlooked the courtyard and the street. Sonia stood in the centre of the room and tried to imagine what had transpired. Vidya had been administered a dose of sleeping pills. She had drunk a glass of milk before going to bed and had been found dead at dawn. Had the pills been in the milk? And who had put them in there? The obvious suspect was, of course, Mrs. Sahay. After all, according to the Inspector, the bottle was found in her cupboard. Had Mrs. Sahay got rid of Vidya, because the poor girl couldn’t supply her avaricious demands? If that was the case, the woman deserved the worst punishment possible!
    Sonia strode to a cupboard and turned the handle. It was locked.
    “That is Parmeet’s cupboard and the other one is Vidya’s,” Renuka explained.
    The second cupboard opened easily. Sonia looked through the contents. Ironed saris, with matching blouses and petticoats and a couple of Salwar Kameez, all hung neatly on hangers. Every article had a place and was neatly folded. Even her handkerchiefs. Vidya had been a disciplined and tidy person. The drawer contained some receipts, papers, and a money purse. Sonia casually riffled through the papers and to her great surprise found a booklet. Vidya’s horoscope! What luck! Sonia’s immediate impulse was to open the horoscope and begin reading it. But she curbed the desire. She had to go about this case logically and patiently.
    “You know, I just thought of something,” Renuka said eagerly.
    Closing the cupboard, Sonia quickly turned around at the tone in her voice.
    “Vidya was in the habit of writing her diary regularly,” Renuka continued. “She wrote
everything
in it!”
    “The police must’ve surely found it,” Sonia remarked.
    Renuka shook her head. “I doubt it.” Her eyes gleamed. “Vidya hid her diary really well, because she never wanted her in-laws to get their hands on it. She told me once that her mother-in-law secretly went through her cupboard and her mail, so she kept her diary in a place Mrs Sahay wouldn’t ever think of looking.”
    “But then it could be just about anywhere in this