G.R.BOSS

Ch - 7 Frustration

I had to wait for a day so that people I was going to call upon would be free. I thought to meet all of them at one common place on Sunday. I didn’t want to give them any time to manipulate the truth that they knew or to share this information with Harsha. It was a do or die situation for me. Either I'd get an answer which was true and that would certify my analysis, or I'd be stuck and have to end the investigation at that juncture. There was no other option left to proceed in any way in this case. I was in need of a definite answer for this. Having heard from all the Swamynathan family members regarding this, the only option left for me was the answer of those guests.

If their answer negated my thoughts, then it would be all over. There would be nothing else to support my analysis. I would have to answer myself differently and stop the proceedings. Even Vignesh analysis would prove wrong. There would not be any such crime that we thought might have happened.

“I would like to call them all at once, to a single place, and then talk to them one family at a time. We need the help of Vignesh now for gathering people at one place,” I said to Watson.

“That is right. Let us talk to him,” said Watson.

I called up Vignesh, “Hello, Mr. Vignesh. I need help from you regarding Kishore’s case. I can assure you this will be the last help I need from you in this case.”

“That is okay, Richard. What do you need?" Vignesh asked.

“I want to talk to all the guests who came to the party that night. I have
taken their mobile numbers and addresses from Mrs. Swamynathan.
For making it official, I need your help to send them notices via letter or by call.”

“Okay, so you want to ask everyone about Harsha’s movements during
that night. That seems quite a reasonable question. Let us go ahead.
But sending an official notice for them to attend the discussion might not be possible because the case is already closed,” Vignesh said.

“So, is it possible to call them over mobile phones. Inviting them on Sunday seems to be appropriate,” I said.

“It is not usual, Richard. But let us do it. I’ll ask one of our staff to call all of them and ask them to come to.” He waited with an expression of a question mark for me to respond.

I remained silent and indicated almost the same expression.

“Okay. Let us do it in the guest house. The place where we interrogate VIP's. It has three big halls" Vignesh said.

“Thank you, Vignesh. I’ll send an email to you with names and mobile numbers of all of them.” I hung up on the call.

I immediately sent the email to Vignesh. He checked it right away and acknowledged.

“How many of them are there?” asked Watson.

“Around twelve families. If we average it out as four people per family, then it's around fifty people in total. We'll talk to one family at a time. If we take five minutes per family, then in total, it'll be done in an hour,” I said.

“That makes sense. But getting all of them on time would be a bigger task. Hopefully, it'll be done. People respond to the police positively, even if they are not willing to do so,” Watson said.

“Yes, my friend. But the only exigency is their presence on Sunday,” I said.

I did not want to disturb Vignesh Saturday morning. I was sure that he'd call me once there was an approval from all the families. Nevertheless, I was curious and was in a rush to know. I checked my email, expecting one from Vignesh. There was nothing. At last, I got a call from him at around 3PM. Surprisingly, he said that all the families were in the city and agreed to come. I intentionally didn't specify the time to Vignesh. I left it for his ease and comfort to schedule the discussion. He decided it as 11AM on Sunday. I thanked him again.