A Will to Kill, стр. 55
‘Would you like to call Mrs. Carvallo?’ Athreya asked. ‘Phillip’s housekeeper.’
‘Of course,’ Sebastian nodded and made a note. ‘I believe she works at the resort. She was fond of him and kept a tidy house, despite Phillip’s idiosyncrasies.’
‘Idiosyncrasies?’
‘The painter in him really messed up the house, you know,’ Sebastian said with a slight smile. ‘You must see the room he used as his painting studio. There are so many spills and blotches of paint on the rug that you can’t make out its original colour. Phillip would leave paints, canvases, brushes and all sorts of things all over the place. If Mrs. Carvallo didn’t come one day, you could make it out from the state of his house.’
‘A bit of a dreamy man, Phillip,’ Father Tobias agreed, no less absent-minded himself. ‘Forgetful and erratic in his habits. But he was kind and generous. Always willing to help out his fellow men. The few times he did come to the church, he would always drop something into the collection box.’
‘Have the police traced his sister?’ Athreya asked.
‘Jilsy said he had a sister in Pune.’
‘I believe so,’ the priest nodded. ‘They found her phone number on his mobile phone, the inspector told me. He had come to ask me if I knew her, and if I could break the sad news to her. Unfortunately, I don’t know her. It’s always such a shock to receive such news. Especially over the phone.’
‘They got her address from her letters they found in his house,’ Sebastian added. ‘Muthu was thoughtful enough to have a local policeman deliver the news to her husband. I believe they are coming here tomorrow.’
‘Ah. That’s good.’ Father Tobias bobbed his head in a relieved manner. ‘There is the matter of his interment. They will have to decide where to bury him.’
The cleric glanced at Bhaskar, but Bhaskar ignored him and remained steadfastly silent. Was Father Tobias expecting Bhaskar to offer the family cemetery to a friend?
‘That’s, of course, for the family to decide,’ the priest went on after a brief pause. ‘I hope they have the money.’
‘I believe the police found a fair bit of cash in Phillip’s house,’ Sebastian clarified. ‘Phillip only dealt in cash. I don’t know if he had a bank account. I’ve never known him to go to a bank in Coonoor, but he used to pay his rent promptly. Always in cash.’
Athreya wondered what Phillip’s source of income had been. Was it only the money he had saved in Austria, or did he have a local source too? He must have invested his savings somewhere. He made a mental note to ask Inspector Muthu about it. On a day-to-day level, how had Phillip replenished his cash supply if he was not in the habit of going to a bank?
The discussion went on to the details of the memorial service that was to be held in the chapel that evening. Dora became involved in the discussion, and Athreya, finding that he couldn’t contribute, decided to keep out of the way of those who were organizing it.
He had not completed his examination of the chapel, but there was no chance of continuing it today. He would have to do it tomorrow morning, when the rest of the household was asleep. He had confronted Michelle and Dora regarding their deceit. There was one more person to confront at the earliest, but now was not the time for it. Let the memorial service be the sole activity for the day, he decided.
The planning for the service continued into lunch, with Father Tobias, Dora and Manu taking the lead. Sebastian was the one organizing it, and his lunch plate was surrounded by pieces of paper with lists on them.
Athreya retired to his room and checked with his contact in Delhi to see if he had learnt anything new about Phillip. Apart from having developed a greater confidence that Phillip was indeed the Philipose who had disappeared from Austria seven years ago, he had nothing. The high-resolution photographs Athreya had sent him had only confirmed his suspicions.
With his investigations temporarily stalled, Athreya decided to take stock. He sat and wrote down the timings at which various people had been outside the mansion on the night of the murder.
According to the autopsy, the murder had taken place sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. But experience had taught him that these estimates were not cast in stone. Coroners went by averages derived from empirical estimates, which were based on diverse studies. Case-specific variations had to be taken into account over and above that.
Some people digested food faster than others. If that had been true for Phillip, the murder could have taken place before 12:30 a.m., except that Varadan had seen Phillip at around 12:25 a.m. Similarly, if Phillip had been a slow digester, he might have been killed as late as 1:30 a.m.
This meant that Athreya had to operate with the time window of 12:25 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. With that in mind, he went down the list of people and their time logs.
Dora had returned to the mansion at 12:27 a.m., and had been seen by Varadan. Unless she had gone out subsequently, she seemed to be in the clear.
Varadan had gone out at 12:27 a.m., and then conversed with Michelle till about 12:50 a.m. Unless they were both were lying, they provided alibis for each other for that time window. But Varadan was alone after that and had the opportunity to kill Phillip.
Michelle had said that she had returned a little before 1 a.m., but there was no evidence to corroborate that. Dora hearing her door at 12:50 a.m. didn’t mean much. It could have been any door other than Michelle’s. Even if it had been Michelle’s door, it did not