“Let me get this straight,” I said. “Your girlfriend wants you to kill
her husband?”
The man across the desk nodded unhappily.
“For the insurance money?”
Again, he nodded. “That’s right.” His
narrow face twitched, making him look more like a rat than ever.
“And she can’t divorce him and get alimony
because he won’t give her any? And that’s because he knows she’s seeing
somebody, though as yet he doesn’t know who?”
“He isn’t rich either,” the man said. “The
alimony won’t be much, nothing like an insurance payout.”
I sat back and studied him. Despite his
ratlike, unprepossessing appearance, there was something which persuaded me he
was serious. He looked scared. It’s the frightened-looking people who tell the
truth. If he’d appeared sincere I’d have likely ignored him.
“Um, well,” I said at last. “It’s not as
though I don’t believe you, but we don’t exactly come across this kind of thing
every day. You’ll forgive me for saying that it reminds me of the plot of a
James Hadley Chase novel.”
His expression said he had no idea who
James Hadley Chase was. “Can you do something about it?”
“Let me go over this a minute.” I looked at
the notes I’d been taking. “You’ve been seeing this lady for three months now. You
first talked online, on a dating site, and you met at night, in a restaurant.
After a couple of times out, she invited you home on an evening when her
husband was away. Right?”
“Yes, but I don’t see...”
“Just checking the facts, sir.” I looked at
the notes again. “You said she was friendly and, er, insatiable?”
He nodded miserably.
“You said you’d never felt wanted by women
before, so you fell for her hard. And for a month or so things went along
perfectly.”
“Right, but then –“
“Then she started talking about leaving her
husband, about how he mistreated her, and emotionally abused her. Of course, you
sympathised. Even if you weren’t sleeping with her, what else could you have
done? Nothing.”
“I asked her to leave him, but –“
“But she said she didn’t want to be
destitute. Also she said that she didn’t want to be a financial burden on you. So
how long did things go on like this – a month? Longer?”
He shrugged. “Until three weeks ago,
when...”
“When she mentioned that her husband had a
large life insurance policy, with her as the beneficiary,” I said. “And did she
ask you to kill him right away?”
“Well, not in so many words. She said
something like, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I could get the payout from that. Then
I could be both free of him and financially secure.’ “
“And what did you reply?”
“Nothing much. I just pointed out that her
husband was still only middle-aged, and healthy, so she wouldn’t be getting
hold of it for a long time, if ever.”
“Did she say anything then?”
“No, but two days later she had bruises on
her arms and back, and she said her husband had beaten her. And she said ‘I
wish he were dead.’ “
“ ’I wish he were dead,’ ” I repeated. “I
see.”
“I asked her then to leave him, and that
money wasn’t so important, but she refused. She said...” he looked down at his
hands, their fingers twisting together. “She said she couldn’t stand him any
longer, but that she wouldn’t quit what was hers by right either.”
“And then she asked you to kill him?”
“Not until three days ago. Then she said
she’d been beaten again, and showed me whip marks on her back. And she said
that we should kill him.”
“The both of you?”
“Well...she said she’d tell me when and
where, and give me a knife to do it with. She showed me the knife, too, a big
bayonet thing with a grooved blade. She said I’d do the actual killing, because
I was bigger and stronger than she is. And she’d provide me an alibi, if one
were needed, of course.”
“And you waited till today before coming
here?”
There was a brief pause. He kept twisting
his fingers together. “I was trying to think what to do. I couldn’t make up my
mind.”
“I understand that.” I did, too. I could
see him agonising over his options. “Why didn’t you simply dump her?”
He didn’t say anything, but the misery in
his face gave the answer. He couldn’t give her up, not so easily – she was
probably the first woman who’d given herself to him.
“Actually,” I said, “since a crime hasn’t
been committed yet, there isn’t a lot we can do. I suppose you don’t want me to
have a talk with the lady about this?”
His expression of alarm showed he didn’t.
“I’ll keep an eye on things as far as
possible,” I said. “Just make sure you keep out of trouble, young man.”
He
nodded so eagerly I thought his neck would crack.
***************************
“Can I have a word with you?”
It was close to midnight, two evenings
later, and as he peered at me fearfully round the edge of his door I thought
for a moment that he didn’t know who I was. Then he opened it a little wider. “What
happened?”
“Quite a lot,” I said. “Your girlfriend’s
husband was found dead an hour ago.”
He went white and swayed. “I didn’t do it.
I swear!”
“Yes, well. I’m not saying you did. But
these things have to be investigated, of course. I’m sure you understand.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” He was beginning to
recover a little of his composure. “How did her husband...die?”
“Stabbed,” I said. “He was found near his
car, by the side of the road. He’d been stabbed by a large knife, right through
the sternum. A bayonet with a grooved blade. Does that sound familiar to you?”
“But that’s...”
“The kind of knife she showed you. Of
course, there are many like that, and it shouldn’t really matter, since of
course there shouldn’t be any of your prints on it. Right?”
He looked suddenly stricken again. “The
knife...I touched it.”
“Hmm?” I looked at him. “You didn’t tell me
that the other day. Where were you all evening?”
“I was with...her. And after that I came
straight back here. I’ve been home for hours.”
“Alone, of course?”
He nodded. “I was just...thinking.”
“Thinking.” I shut my notebook. “Well, sir,
could you come along to the station for a few questions? Just for a short
while, then you can come back.”
I stepped back to let him precede me down
the stairs. “My car’s parked down there,” I said. “I’ll drop you back later.”
He shuffled down the deserted pavement. The
houses were dark and the street lighting almost nonexistent. The only
illumination was from the distant glitter of scattered stars. “Thanks.”
“That’s all right. Now, this lady of yours.
Can I ask a question about her?”
He threw a wide-eyed, terrified glance at
me over his shoulder. “What?”
“You do realise, sir, that she might have
entrapped you in the relationship? Perhaps her entire scheme was to get you to
kill her husband – right from the beginning?”
His expression said he had considered the
possibility.
“After all,” I continued, “if you pardon me
for saying so, you aren’t exactly a prime catch for someone with her looks, are
you? She could probably do rather better.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just a possibility to think about,
that she has a boyfriend somewhere. Someone who she could go away with, if she
could get you to kill her husband. That is possible, isn’t it?”
He opened his mouth and closed it again.
“This boyfriend,” I said. “Let’s say he’s a
man with a ruthless streak, just like her. Once they realised you weren’t going
to do it, they decided to kill him themselves and pin the blame on you. That
way they can still get away with it. It’s possible, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Perhaps they’ve had some inkling that you’ve
gone to the police. So they’d be sure to implicate you as completely as
possible, so that nobody would believe in your innocence.” Oh, the threads were
coming together, and I was feeling good. We had reached my car, and I fumbled
in my pocket. “Ruthless people, as I said, and possibly with some inside
knowledge. Perhaps they’re relying on you doing something stupid, like trying
to run away, or resisting the police and forcing them to shoot you down. That
would put the seal on your guilt. Wouldn’t it?”
“This boyfriend,” he whispered. “Who is it?”
I smiled and took out my hand from my
pocket, so that the starlight glittered on the pistol barrel as I pointed it at
him.
“Guess,” I said.
Copyright B Purkayastha 2013
