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.