Deadly incidents finale.

Read part 15 - here

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The phone wouldn’t stop vibrating in Pavil’s pocket. This was Reyan’s sixth missed call. What was with these people today? He wanted to dwell on it but instead noiselessly climbed the third floor letting all thoughts blurring like smoke, leaving an acrid taste in his mouth.

Mrs Bedi lay inert on the ground floor. Someone had called an ambulance instead of the police. Good thinking.

Her husband was not around which Pavil determined by the lock on their door behind and he stood like a tranquillized effigy outside Mr Gor’s apartment; replicating the lull before the storm that raged within. Some out of his ignorance and most out of the guilt from a life wasted only because she happened to tell him the right thing at the wrong time. 

He’ll have to live with himself with this knowledge but there would be one satisfaction.

The morose conversation below morphed into distant jabbers and Pavil slowly turned the doorknob and unsurprisingly found it open. 

Mr Gor lay on the floor, clutching his chest. His wrinkled face seemed to have been sliced and lay beside him. The man was crying in agony. He wasn’t loud, his voice not nearly as gruff. Just a thin wailing sound creaking out of his throat sending swirls of befuddlement through Pavil. 

Who did this to him?

The disconcerted policeman carefully crept closer, armed and suspicious, he stared at the mess that lay near his feet.

Toni’s downcast face did most of the talking.

He was a good friend to the dead woman, in fact too much of a good friend who saw her in a light that she didn’t see herself.

They’d started small. He recalled. The first time he ever met her was when she was doing small jobs for little to no pay for small-time fashion shows featuring little-known models, of which Toni was one.

They bonded over their lack of resources and as Toni tried to gain footing in the industry, finally opting for a newer more professional line of work she began gaining new heights. Her work was better than most. She was diligent, hard-working, non-fussy and extraordinarily polite.

She’d met her husband Anik around the same time on one of her jobs. He wasn’t the competent technical analyst then.

Pavil wondered why Mrs Bedi was calling on his way back to the station. She was late for her walk she’d said. ‘Oh, something I’d been meaning to tell you, though it’s not important. I’ve been getting late for all my walks these days and that’s the thing.’ 

She’d lost his number and then forgotten about it but now is a good time as any she’d said.

‘You remember I told you how it was always Avi’s return from the gym at nine in the morning that indicated that it was time for our walk, well, that day when I saw the time on our clock it said nine, but it was only a few days later that I realized our clock had been running almost fifteen minutes slow. Which means’ she had said while helping Mr Gor climb down or up, Pavil didn’t know ‘that she came back from the gym almost fifteen minutes late that day.’  and soon after Mrs Bedi disconnected.

The vintage piece of crockery that was a ceramic sugar bowl was an antique proper as Khar had found out after a bit of research. The reason it looked so timeworn was that it was deserving to be in a museum and some more pointed investigative exploration had informed him that it was sold off at a local auction and cost a small fortune. 

Avi had bought that. She wasn’t just well off, but modestly rich, something her husband probably was not, seeing how the first time she met him he was doing small time parts going mostly unnoticed in a theatre group. 

Avi often encouraged him to do better for himself. She was aware of his potential and though she didn’t disapprove she knew he was made for bigger things in life. Toni had told Khar. 

So much so in fact that when finally Anik relented she paid for his education and even took care of living expenses in that squalid little corner they called a house. 

Toni had smiled looking at his own dwellings then.

‘I’d often meet her then as well and though neither Anik nor I shared any resentment towards each other, we just didn’t have any common grounds except Avi and soon whenever I met her it was always while Anik was away.’

Toni’s throat was heavy with sorrow. ‘Anik knew of it and he didn’t mind, and neither did I. She was a generous friend who helped me every way possible and now..’ The brawny fitness instructor who looked capable of kicking a small building to death was crying.

Khar had left at that and now drove a man possessed to where he knew Pavil would be.

‘Stay at the hotel Reyan and keep a lookout for Anik’

Pavil stared at the man who looked to be dying. His face hadn’t sliced off, it had fallen away. No, it looked like there was another face under it that was smiling as one hand slowly discarded the wrinkles while the other brought down a glass bottle over Pavil’s head and suddenly it was dark.

The last thing he heard was the sound of shattering glass tinkling on the floor. 

What was the reason he had come here again? The pain was acutely intense. The ache of hurt meets surprise, especially when he’d come armed. 

Fooled by an old man, except he wasn’t old, was he? That smiling face from under a thick veil of skin peeling off was a face he knew and liked, for always it looked unblemished and clean.

He was a rag doll whose throat was being plundered. Clutched in a grip between two very strong hands that didn’t belong to anything old. The thin stream of blood pouring from Pavil’s wound erased the tiny discoloured spots on those hands. 

‘How the hell was I to know those fatso’s depended on Avi for timing? Too bad I mentioned the same time as when she’d only just come back from the gym. You’re not as much a fool as you look.’ he growled in a gruff voice which on this close a hearing seemed to sound a bit like Anik’s.

‘It’s a good thing I was on the stairs when she spoke to you. Goddamn, that little rhino for messing my plans’ Mr Gor’s face was falling in small plops on the floor and now only a thin membrane over his neck remained to show any signs of wrinkles. 

Talk about anti-ageing. 

‘The fatter they are, the harder they fall, often breaking their necks, though Avi wasn’t fat, but she was startled when she suddenly saw an old man’s reflection in the bathroom and all I had to do was push her very very hard against something even harder. ’ he grunted and smiled with effort and recollection while watching the dying policeman’s flailing arms dance. 

‘Almost a bloody year it took me to plan. That perfect, clean murder that you just didn’t want to believe in. Do you know how many times I had to lie to my wife to convince her I was on tours only to live as a sullen old man upstairs? I was a good actor. Meant for greater things, only that idiot wouldn’t understand.’ Anik mumbled with pain as Pavil drove a small piece of broken glass into his leg. 

He was very careful to make almost no noise but then it must have hurt a lot because Pavil’s face met a resounding kick and a voice made itself heard outside.

‘Who the hell is that?’ Anik saw Pavil smile and dragged him into another room stuffing his mouth with a torn out shirt sleeve.

‘I hate you’ he demonically whispered punching the man until he lay lifeless on the floor.

It was suddenly silent and Anik slowly shed Mr Gor off him, glowing with the confidence that this was to be the last of his hurdles.

The insurance money had come in. Sure he had to kill his wife but such is life. She was always in the way and he’d been growing tired of her observations of his slacking off from work to visit theatres.

Money was always a problem for him. These things needs money, she didn’t understand and her refusing to indulge his decision to produce, direct and act was the last straw. He’d had her insured for a sum with enough zeroes, and what an intelligent decision that was. 

He felt handcuffed to this life which was hers not his and this little snake in the grass almost blew the entire game; he looked at an unconscious Pavil. ‘I tried to throw you off my scent, you bastard, with all that Hercules talk. I knew you’d find him innocent and give up on this, and we’d all be happy. Now look, two dead and one dying, and to think I’m just an actor’ He chuckled and heard the door open.

‘What is that?’ he whispered alarmed, staring down at Pavil who was still smiling through his broken nose, torn lips and wounded head.

‘What’s wrong with you? Where’s your gun?’ Anik clutched his hair and pulled up his face. ‘Where is your gun?’ he asked angry and terrorized. 

It fell in the living room. He remembered.

It was suddenly silent now. No footsteps. Nothing. Anik heard the door close. 

Whoever had come in was gone. 

He stepped out slowly into the living room which was empty now.

There was no one. 

‘Huh’ he chuckled and found Pavil’s gun on the floor. ‘A real gun’ he said to himself and turned back at the sound of a light cough. There was a sudden heat, a resounding sound that near deafened him and Anik was on the floor.

A searing fire bloomed from somewhere under his knee and a hefty kick dislodged the gun from his hand.

Looking at the world slanted as he lied prostrate, watching a river of blood pour out of his leg dampen the rug, Anik screamed a cacophonous screech of untainted pain.

A large man whom he seemed to have only vaguely seen before balanced a wounded Pavil on one shoulder while making a phone call from the other. 

Khar said something inaudible to the bloodied policeman and he smiled again. Anik had grown to hate that bloody smile, especially now when he was helpless on the floor just as Pavil had been moments before. 

‘Mrs Bedi isn’t dead’ Pavil near croaked through torn lips on his broken face and the two policemen left the apartment.

Deadly incidents- 14

Read part 13 - here

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It was barely ten minutes. Pavil contemplated giving up his apprehensions to the open mouths of black void that was time, ready to consume everything and turn the worst of worries into past. Maybe his restlessness was just that and he did have a tendency to overthink. 

He reflected upon more encouraging thoughts driving back to the station when the phone rang.

It was Mrs Bedi.

‘Something you ought to know’ she sounded her usual joyous self and surprisedly exclaimed when Pavil informed her he’d just visited the deceased’s apartment. 

‘Oh, well. I think I missed you by a few minutes it seems. I’ve just gotten back from my walk. Oh yes, it got late today, in fact, there was something I’d been meaning to tell you, though nothing important, but kept forgetting about it. I’d lost your number.’ she goodheartedly guffawed. 

She suddenly seemed distracted. ‘Oh, let me help you’ her voice seemed distant like she was talking to someone else. 

‘Hello, are you there?’ she resumed. ‘Sorry, I was just..um..helping Mr Gor. yes, so what was I saying. Yes.’

Pavil listened to her on the loudspeaker as he drove and almost panicked at her last words. ‘Mrs Bedi, I need you to go back home right now.’ He near yelled inside his car but there was no answer.

The sudden lurch of his heart beating against his throat made him feel queasy. Pavil clutched the steering wheel through his sweaty palms to keep himself from shaking; bringing the car to a screeching halt and maniacally reversing.

His head was blowing incoherent fumes of questions and jabbing his thoughts with possibilities that could have been, that should have been. 

Both aggravated and with misgivings Pavil raced back to the apartment to talk to Mrs Bedi who had abruptly hung up, or so he hoped.

He was spooked and had not the time to pick up his phone that kept ringing. Time was of the essence, the timing was everything and he had been a fool. Khar was incessant with his calls but this was more important.

‘He’s still not picking up’ Reyan said pocketing his phone, ‘and Anik’s not in his office.’

‘Of course! Did Anik mention having met Toni before he married Avi?’

Reyan stared at Khar puzzled. ‘Uh, yes I think so.’ he produced a notebook from his pocket. ‘in passing. Said they met on a few occasions before their marriage and that Toni sometimes stayed in their house, but he didn’t much like him staying with them while he was around because it was awkward for him to make small talks. I believe Toni was of the same thought, which is why Avi invited him while her husband Anik was away. Why?’ He tried reading Khar’s concealed distress. 

‘Not a word on anything else, like what Anik did prior to their wedding. His job?

‘No. er, we didn’t ask.’ Reyan licked his lips unable to understand what any of this had to do with this sudden urgency to meet Anik.

Khar didn’t wait for Reyan who trailed behind him as he near sprinted to the concierge in the hotel lobby.

‘Anik Chowk, I need to meet him right now.’ he demanded.

‘Room 205’ Reyan chimed in almost out of breath.

The well-dressed woman behind the concierge desk looked too perplexed to react. ‘Uh, would you like for me to call him?’

‘yes’ Khar tersely replied looking at the wide-eyed woman who was about to ask the two men a few more questions since she didn’t wish to disturb the hotel guest but something about the deep timbre of the large man’s grating voice chilled her.

She looked up the computer upon having her calls go unanswered and immediately raised her eyebrows. ‘His room has a do not disturb sign for almost a week. No housekeeping in so long?’ she wondered to herself.

‘sir..’ she was about to repeat everything she mumbled but her voice had carried and the two men were impatient at best.

‘We need to go into his room. Call someone to unlock it.’ Khar’s cold voice froze her resolve to refuse them and a quick look at their id cards had her summoning room service.

Reyan was breathing steady, anticipating a surprise, though Khar’s urgency at the office seemed almost prophetic and he stared in awe at the man whose only discernible expression was that of cool detachedness. He readied his weapon while Khar unlocked the room and what he didn’t expect was exactly what he got. The room was empty. 

‘I thought there’d be a dead body or something’ Reyan sniffed the air for any signs of decay though he could only smell synthetic citrus of the floor cleaner if a bit musty since no one seemed to have been here.

There were some clothes on the bed, a few used coffee mugs, an empty wine bottle, and a large suitcase stuffed under the bed concealed behind the over hangings of the bed cover.

‘Anik’s luggage’ Reyan sated the obvious with no regard from Khar who pulled it out opened it, stared at the contents and made a dash for the door.

Reyan was still gaping and there was not a single shred of reasoning or logic nor connection to what he saw and what was going on. 

‘but, but..’ he stuttered to himself because Khar had suddenly disappeared and taken the car as the lone policeman stood outside the hotel ‘Where the hell has he gone?’

Pavil’s legs had developed into an entirely different entity utterly contradicted in their decisions. On the one hand he found himself running at breakneck speed towards the apartment building and on the other his legs shook wanting to stop and freeze in anxiety and the moment he spotted a small crowd gathered at the entrance of the building he knew the worst, for his legs halted as he tried to let his gaze meander through the small cluster of life that extended like a queue to the foot of the staircase where a body lay sprawled.

Pavil stared through the thin crowd and his ears began deafening under the noise vibrating within his skull as he nervously grated his teeth upon realizing what he’d just found out.

A pair of feet poked out from under a clump of people looking over the body in an effort to pick it up and place it someplace a bit more dignified than the floor.

That all efforts at trying to resuscitate the person now far from life had failed was something the quivering policeman could see from their surrendered eyes and just as he’d stopped Pavil found himself roaring with anguish and anger as he raced past the people who seemed to pay no mind to anything right now.

Deadly incidents- 13

Read part 12- here

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Pavil stood in the empty bathroom catching his reflection in the polished mirror. 

Almost two weeks ago this face had been bloated, dishevelled and hungover in near contradiction to today’s visage bright and cheerless with an odd lightheadedness that comes from having finished a case unsatisfactorily, at least to Pavil it felt that way. he slowly walked out, staring at his feet, looking at the floor.

It was done. There was nothing more to it yet he was left feeling like he’d forgotten something vital along the way that couldn’t be located no matter how much he visited the lost and found.

Anik hadn’t exactly revelled in the news when Pavil told him the same. He was his usual morose self, still suffering from the loss and in no mood to celebrate when Pavil informed him that he was free to move back into his apartment whenever he wished.

He’d gotten too used to living in the hotel and eating their horrible breakfast it seemed and seeing how empty and forlorn this house looked he couldn’t really blame the bereaved. 

Pavil’s ears tuned in to a faint scraping noise. It was almost fuzzy, even indefinite, not least because there was enough ambient noise from outside capable of drowning most sounds but because this seemed to be coming from upstairs, in fact right above his head in the living room that the policeman found himself following his curious footsteps until once again he stood outside on the welcome mat, though why it said welcome instead of ‘get out’ was beyond him, since the ancient relic, Mr Gor only ever said these two words.

No one responded to the few knocks Pavil delivered on the door and there was a silence suddenly emanating from the house. It was eerie and Pavil’s arms were studded with goosebumps. 

The chronic honking of cars that leant a permanent background music to the city was now muted in his ears as they morphed into radars trying to pick the smallest movement from beyond the old man’s door.

Nothing stirred.

His arm silently glided to the gun holster that inaudibly grazed against the cold metal and he slowly walked forward towards the door until it near touched his face when a resounding sound almost deafened him.

‘Get out’ cried the soap breathed man, staring in his face. His abruptness at having suddenly opened the door sent Pavil reeling back in a defensive stance which to the old man was so shocking he screamed for help.

‘Shh, it’s just me Mr Gor. I was..er..just worried.’ Pavil tried to calm the old man who stared wide-eyed at the gun in Pavil’s hand. 

‘I knew it. You’re trying to kill me’  

‘Please calm down sir’ Pavil slid the gun back in its holster. ‘I was just here to check.’ there was no easy or rational way for Pavil to describe why he’d cocked the gun out and why he’d been feeling uneasy, not that the old man cared, because thank Alzheimer's or whatever it was that Mr Gor suffered from this recent aggravating incident began blurring in his mind and he began his small tirade that Pavil already knew by heart, accosting him of disturbing a dying man’s peace and what not.

‘I was just here to check’ Pavil repeated, edging in some words amidst the bloom of contemporary curses.

‘Checking what?’ he asked gruffly and his wrinkles seemed to have shifted from his usual facial contours. The powdery quality to his skin that was his decaying membrane flaking wasn’t easy to look at and Pavil politely averted his gaze to the old man’s shoes, that despite his failing years were still crisply clean.

‘I..er.. heard some noise, dragging noises to be more precise. Can I help you with something?’ 

‘Yes, you can by getting the hell out of here. Can’t let an old man pack his clothes in peace.’ he mumbled and suddenly with a raised voice in an effort to be heard by his neighbours whom the relic hated with mutual disgust cried ‘I’m moving in with my daughter. Hope that makes all you bastards happy.’ 

Pavil sneaked a peek through the thin slit of the closing door that mercilessly banged on his face of a large suitcase stuffed with the senior's favourite colours. All browns and muddied greys. He quickly glanced behind to ensure the Bedi’s hadn’t popped their heads out to learn of the commotion and retreated to the apartment downstairs for a final exhale, because, he, for the life of him couldn’t get over this incomplete feeling, like something was still left out.

Khar had mentally cursed the system that was stubborn in its insistence at wasting his time. His voluntary vacation was marred by meetings which he’d been obligated to attend, investigative reports of his former cases that he was expected to clarify and threats of transfer orders he tried ignoring. 

A waste of time for him, at a time when he was irrationally curious about a man who invited little analysis.

Pavil had submitted the report, the case was closed, a woman had died in what the report said was an accident, leaving behind a doleful man who did nothing more than repeatedly visit the dead woman’s house to find something which needled him.

Pavil could be relentless sometimes, he had felt an inconsistency but it was invisible and now that this case was closed, Khar knew it would bother him until he’d scratched the blisters raw. 

He wasn’t a part of this case, but he could feel the aberration that his friend wanted to spot and there was something about what the Hercules said that Khar couldn’t stop thinking.

He’d done a bit of investigation of his own regarding the photographs that Pavil took in the apartment. Pictures of vases, porcelain glasses, more to the point of the antique ceramic sugar bowls. 

He’d wanted to meet Toni sooner to talk to him a bit more before he could discuss it with Pavil but then he’d gotten busy and it was only this morning when he’d finally visited the gym and come back with an imperceptible worried expression and asked Reyan to get in touch with Pavil because for whatever reason Pavil was not picking up his phone.

‘No answer’ Reyan looked at an unsettled Khar. 

‘Do you know where he is?’

‘No sir.’

‘Can you call the husband?’ 

‘yes, of course.’

‘No answer’ Reyan said redialing, ‘but then he never usually picks up his phone at this time. Probably in office.’ 

Khar threw a thin jacket over his shoulders, something he was accustomed to even during the hottest seasons. ‘Do you know which hotel he is staying?’

‘Yes sir’ Reyan watched Khar pragmatically check his gun before it disappeared under his jacket.

‘let’s go’ Khar said.

Deadly incidents - 12

Read part 11- here

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‘I had gone to Avi’s house that morning sometime after seven to collect a few things that she had allowed me to keep there’ Toni's face was plagued with anguish at the memory of that day.

‘She often let you keep things in her apartment?’ Pavil asked matter-of-factly.

Toni’s shoulders drooped and suddenly seemed much smaller than he’d been. His muscles looked deflated as the man himself.

‘Yes. As a way of helping me out. We’ve known each other for years and I’d met her when I was still modelling and she was a makeup artist. Once my modelling career stalled I crossed over to my primary world of interest. Fitness, and studied to become a registered nutritionist but work was scarce and I had to freelance as a fitness instructor.’ Toni licked his lips. ‘She had done good for herself and often referred me to well-known names and it did help my work but it didn’t pay as much and I’d decided to start something big of my own.’ he exhaled.

‘I wasn’t left with much after my friend Michael and I started working on our new business and I often needed a place to stay and keep some of my personal equipment and clothes etc.’ He spoke despondently, ‘and I..uh..stayed at a lodge sometimes but it wasn’t always that I had the money to pay for each night, that’s when Avi helped me out.’ 

Pavil looked at the sombre Hercules now looking absolutely dismal and down in the dumps. ‘So you stayed at her house when her husband wasn’t home?’ 

Toni looked hurt, even angry at Pavil’s backhanded supposition but forbore it with a small grimace. 

‘It isn’t what you think. She was helping a friend in need, and I am a bachelor and a man.’

Pavil hadn’t failed to notice that. A good-looking man even, the brawny kinds with large hands and..

‘Avi was a married woman and a friend in need but even she was aware that an association like ours might look suspicious, and whose husband would approve of another man continually staying over at their house?’ Toni said rationally.

‘She told you that?’ Pavil asked.

‘No, I surmised. I mean why else would she ask me to only come during her husband’s absence?’

‘hmm,’ Pavil pursed his lips and looked over at Khar who was silently listening in a corner.

‘So what happened that morning?’

‘I’d let myself in and packed and left soon after, around eight and went to visit a client. I realized that I’d forgotten to pack the new t-shirts I’d gotten printed for the gym and came back, but..’ he sheepishly looked at Pavil. ‘Uh..I saw the police under that apartment building and a stretcher bearing her body.’

‘And so you decided to disappear’ Pavil raised an eyebrow.

‘No.’ Toni protested ‘It wasn’t like that. I..I got scared because I’d been to her house just a couple hours prior and now this. I was worried and uh..’

Pavil let the silence stretch a few long moments and listened to the hulking man crack his knuckles. 

‘So you didn’t meet her that morning?’ Pavil asked.

‘No. Not at all.’ Toni cried

‘Have you met her husband?’

‘Anik?’ Toni licked his lips nervously. ‘yes, I have on a couple of occasions. he..uh..we didn’t much talk, though I think.’ he paused and hesitated. ‘Uh..I think he didn’t much like me.’

Of course.

‘Why did you use fire exits to enter the building?’ 

Toni looked at Pavil whose expressions didn’t much betray the reasoning for his question. ‘I didn’t want anyone to form an opinion and gossip about Avi.’ 

Toni left, having liberated himself of the guilt he felt and Pavil found himself trying to find words on a blank slate. 

‘There isn’t anything much to it, is there Khar?’

Khar wasn’t ready to reply yet.

Pavil looked distractedly at Reyan who seemed like he had something vital to share. 

‘I’ve been trying to get in touch with Anik since morning, but he isn’t reachable’

‘What for?’ Pavil asked. 

‘To collect the..uh..body.’ 

‘Oh. call him again and if he still doesn't’ pick up..’

Reyan’s phone suddenly chirped to life.

‘It’s him’ Reyan said.

‘Ask him to come to the station today.’ Pavil said lifelessly.

Khar had left by the time Anik reached the station and that he was vexed was anyone’s guess. His face didn’t suggest as much but Pavil knew distress when he saw it, especially when someone was going to such great lengths to hide it.

Pavil didn’t wish to ask his whereabouts but he did anyway and there was no hesitation in his replies. The usual Anik had said. Apart from all the condolences from associates, few friends and relatives there were other things as well; all the paperwork required after a person ceases to be. Official things. Bank, insurance, leases and now the morgue. 

He looked as tidy as a schoolboy, even under such duress, his rather plain yet well-groomed carriage didn’t fail to impress Pavil who felt reluctant asking him about Toni and to Anik’s credit he didn’t as much as flinch upon hearing that name.

Yes, he knew Toni he’d said. 

‘though not personally. Just as’ his face darkened and Pavil noticed odd splotches on the sides of his neck ‘Just as’, wiping his face of moisture that were tears quietly seeping from the corner of his eyes longtime time friend and associate’ he concluded and avoided looking straight at the policeman, visibly embarrassed. 

Perhaps he didn’t mean to cry in front of him. 

‘did you ever meet him?’

‘Yes. A few times before the marriage and after; he sometimes, well on a couple of occasions came to stay over and brought a lot of things. I think bags, and some dumbbells, and just uh, some large bags.’ Anik spoke clearly.

Pavil found it difficult to understand. This man knew everything. ‘Did you know he came in your absence to the house?’

Anik stared at the policeman like he’d been plagued. ‘What are you trying to imply?’

‘I had told her,’ he swallowed ‘Avi, to not invite him in my presence because it bothered me to have a stranger around. We weren’t friends but I was aware she helped him out and she told me about it.’ 

Pavil was beginning to speak. ‘Please if you re going to slander my dead wife then..’ Anik shook with indignation but his voice didn’t as much as waver from its usual timbre.

Pavil silently looked at the husband still calm in his bearings, who refused to meet his gaze now and left, leaving Pavil uneasy.

There was nothing left to this case anymore. Pavil decided to finish his report, file it and  submit it. 

Toni sat in his tiny room, remembering the woman who was his aid and confidant. 

He remembered each time she’d readily lent him a helping hand and how her husband and once boyfriend never seemed to much like him.

Toni knew Anik since before marriage, met him a few times and decided that the feeling was mutual. 

Should he have told the policeman of the small argument that sometimes broke out between the two men? But it was a long time ago and it’s not like the policeman had asked him anything about it. 

Toni decided to forget about it. It had after all been a long long time ago.