Kitty Party
By ayanmisra
- 734 reads
Mr Roy rang the bell for the third time. As before there was no
response. Lily must have gone out, he thought. But it was eight thirty.
And the tv was on. Something appeared to be amiss. Mr Roy called the
watchman's office on his cellphone. It took an eternity before someone
picked up the phone. All the watchman could tell him was that the
ladies' club had had their monthly kitty party at Mr Roy's place that
evening. But he already knew that. Mr Robin Roy asked the watchman to
come up and give him a helping hand. By now it was clear that something
was seriously wrong. The door had to be broken.
The watchman appeared on the twentieth floor in an instant. He smelt
money, lots of it. With his help Mr Roy broke open the door. Mrs Lily
Roy was not in the living room. Mr Roy entered the living room and
there she was. Her eyes seemed to pop out from the socket and the body
was all blue. Mr Roy rang the family doctor.
Lily Roy was dead. Mr Roy told everyone that she had committed suicide.
But the post mortem report seemed to indicate otherwise. Lily had been
poisoned. The probable substance used was strychnine. It is difficult
for a person to consume strychnine since death is rather painful. The
convulsions in particular are horrible. So Lily could have been killed.
Who could have murdered the wife of a successful businessman?. Well,
for one, her own husband. It was rumoured that he was involved with his
secretary. But there was no evidence.
The next kitty party took place a month later. The hostess was Mrs Sil.
Mrs Sil was a widow. She had lost her husband very early. She ran her
publishing business quite efficiently. She invited all her friends to
any party. There was Mrs Jolly, wife of a cricketer. This lady was a
part-time insurance agent. When she was not talking about her husband's
escapades she was selling insurance policies. All her friends were also
her clients. Then there was Mrs Tonic, the psychiatrist's wife. She
always carried her spitz pup Woof in her arms. She liked the good
things in life but always complained that her husband didn't give her
enough money. Last but not the least there was Koonika. Koonika had a
beauty parlour in the city center. Wagging tongues always said that
brash and rude Koonika knew a lot of secrets. Anyone who visited her
parlour always came out relieved of a few secrets. But back to the
party. It was a grand affair. Mrs Sil served champagne. A lot of people
turned green with envy. Koonika wondered aloud, 'So Mrs Sil, that wine
maker does give you a few gifts each time. You must introduce him to
our friends.' Turning to Mrs Jolly Koonika remarked, 'Jolly dear, it
seems Lily had a huge policy taken out last year. Who is the chief
nominee?'. Mrs Jolly curtly excused herself, 'I was not handling Lily's
account. But my sources tell me that one of us was blackmailing Lily
Ray. That person will receive all the money from Lily's policy'.At
this, the entire gathering looked at Koonika. Koonika puffed at her
cigarette and said, 'So you think it's me!'. The rest of the party was
uneventful. The gathering was finished by eight pm. Exactly at
eight-fifteen a call was made to the local police station. The caller
said that Mrs Sil had been murdered. The motive was also communicated.
Mrs Sil had recently taken an insurance policy with Mrs Jolly as
nominee. The huge sum of a hundred thousand pounds was to pass on to
the nominee in the event of Mrs Sil's death. Enquiries revealed that
Mrs Sil had been poisoned to death using Strychnine. And the issueless
lady had left an insurance policy in the name of her best friend Mrs
Jolly.
Woof had been entered in a dog show. Dr Tonic wanted to make a list of
his pet's feats and take a printout. As he cleared his table something
caught his attention. It was another printout. The document was the
case history of Mrs Lily Roy. Lily Roy had been a patient of Dr Tonic
for two years. Her husband's infidelity had caused her to go into acute
depression. The case history contained many private details of Lily
Roy's life. Dr Tonic never took printouts of case histories. On an
instinct he went to what was called Woof's room. This was the room
where Woof's things were stored. As he looked through the drawers he
found some white crystals. He took it near the tongue. The physician's
expert senses immediately knew what it was. Strychnine. The box
containing the crystals belonged to a vet dispensary. Strychnine is
generally used for household pests.
Mrs Tonic was arrested. It was revealed that she had come across the
directory containing her husband's case histories while web-surfing on
his computer. She recognized a few names. One person whom she
recognized well was Lily Roy. Immediately her brain began to work. She
asked Lily to take out an insurance policy. Mrs Tonic would be the sole
nominee. In exchange for keeping quiet about her psychiatric problems
this was all she asked. When the time was ripe the strychnine from
Woof's vet was used to bump off Lily Roy. Afterwards Mrs Tonic was
afraid that Mrs Jolly had found out about her. So she killed Mrs Sil
and implicated Mrs Jolly in her murder. When Mrs Tonic was asked in
court why she killed two people in absence of any strong motive she
answered that she was Bored.
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