Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary – Chapter 11

Two sisters. Alike in appearance but contrary in nature. Both leave home but where one of them returns the other goes missing. Binita Sen steps in to help in another bizarre search after Debts of Desire.

Read Chapter 10

Binita stepped out of the Jolly Grant airport accompanied by Sheetal Das. Shyamal Lahiri was waiting for them at the Airport’s arrival lounge and smiled at them politely.

“I have not informed Benod yet” he said the moment he saw them.

“Good it is best that way” said Binita gently “Mrs.Lobo?” she asked looking at Mr. Lahiri questioningly.

“As you suggested, I had booked her a hotel in Mussorie for a few days. She has been staying there since the last few days” he said.

“Good we will pick her up on our way then” said Binita as she got into the waiting car.

The jeep sped out on its way towards Landour making a stop to pick up Mrs. Lobo.

The older woman looked quite lost and disheveled as she walked out of the hotel. Lodged in an unknown place for the past few days had unnerved her.

She looked taken aback when she saw Binita accompanied by Sheetal in her uniform. Her eyes welled up with tears and she broke down.

“I should have told you earlier” she wept.

“Everything’s going to be fine now Mrs. Lobo.” said Binita gently helping her in.

They reached Landour within an hour. As they drove down the driveway, Binita noticed the lawns had once again got back their manicured look. Shyamal Lahiri led them up to the drawing room and asked them to wait as he would call the rest of the family.

As they waited Binita walked up to the fireplace and looked at the photographs. She picked up the one which showed the girls and smiled. She was still smiling when the door opened and General Das walked in anxiously.
“Lahiri tells me you have news for me?” he asked looking at Binita with eagerness. He looked older than when she last saw him. His eyes had dark circles beneath them, his cheeks drooped and the wrinkles around his mouth and on his mid brow had given him a permanent frown.  

She felt sorry for this dear old man and gently put her hand on his shoulder asking him to sit down.

Behind him Nandita stood stiffly. She had a stony look on her face and her hands that were folded across her chest were clenched tightly into round fists.

Somnath, her husband, stood at a distance looking at them warily.

“When Sheetal came to me for help in finding Anindita Bagchi,” began Binita “The first thing that struck me was how could a mature adult woman disappear into thin air. It was possible in two scenarios. One, if somebody wanted to keep her hidden and two if she wanted to remain hidden herself.”

“With that as my premise, I began to explore both possibilities. I visited their old school to find out more about both the sisters. Schools are usually a good place to find out about a person’s true nature. Families may not be aware of what friends and most often teachers know about your children. Thankfully, I met Sister Joyce who gave me a lot of details. It is from her I got to know that the wild and often unscrupulous Nandita would often get into scraps and use Anindita to save her from them. Being identical twins, they were hardly detected and Nandita would easily save her skin. Her moral compass had swung southwards to the extent that she would also use Anindita to be her substitute when she went on dates with her numerous boyfriends.”

“Nani!” General Das glared at his granddaughter reproachfully “Is this true?”

Nandita just bit her lips and lowered her head.

“In fact, the trend continued even when she met Somnath. She would often ask Anindita to meet him in her place as she would spend time with other men. Gradually, while standing in for her sister, Anindita had started to fall in love with Somnath herself. She was going through a difficult time because she knew Somnath thought her to be Nandita and she could not even tell him about her true feelings.

Then one day Nandita told her that she and Somnath had decided to get married, and they would be eloping the next day. That was too much for Anindita to bear. All her life she had been playing second fiddle to Nandita. She had been forced to share everything with her. Now she would not let her take away the one man she had wanted for herself. They had a huge fight one night which Mrs. Lobo overheard. She came over to ask them what the matter was, but they did not tell her anything and pretended everything was fine.
A couple of days later Nandita eloped and Anindita went mad with fury. She made her plans immediately. She decided to go after them and tell Somnath everything. She was determined to win him back. She however did not mention anything in the letter she wrote for you all. She lied that she was going to search for her father’s roots. She went in search of her sister, instead.”

“But she did not even contact Nani” said General Das

“Exactly! the fact that she did not meet them or try contacting them triggered my suspicions further” said Binita

“But then I began to explore the possibility that though Anindita may not have contacted Nani but she might contact Somnath, her real objective. And” said Binita narrowing her eyes as she turned to look at Somnath “my hunch was right.”

Somnath widened his eyes in shock “Me? Never! Anindita never contacted me!” he said his voice squeaking with nervousness.

“There is no point in denying the truth Mr. Palit” said Sheetal “We have found the SIM you discarded in the garbage bin and have tracked your call details. A significant number of calls have been made from one particular number that belonged to Anindita Bagchi.”

“How…How did you…? asked Somnath stuttering in despair.

“We can come to that later” said Sheetal curtly “Was Anindita Bagchi in touch with you for the duration of her stay in Kolkata?”

Defeated and broken Somnath nodded his head slowly.

“Why did you not tell us that?” asked General Das shocked at his admission.

Binita sighed as she continued “When Anindita arrived in Kolkata, the first thing she did was call Somnath and ask to meet him. Somnath and Nandita were already married by then and living in a small-rented house in Garcha 1^st lane in South Kolkata. Unaware of her presence till then Somnath was shocked to learn that Nandita had a twin sister. He was even more stunned when he saw her and realised they looked exactly the same. Anindita told him everything about how Nandita used her to double time Somnath with other boys. Desperate in her bid to win him over, she also revealed that she loved him. Somnath did not believe her at first. She would then call him up usually late at night or when she knew Nandita was not at home and convince him of how cheated he had been. She would forward him photographs of Nandita and other boys to make him believe her.”

Somnath opened his mouth to protest when Sheetal stopped him midway with her crisp rebuke “As I said, we have checked your phone Mr.Palit. So please do not deny anything.”

Somnath wilted into the shadows once again.

“Then finally Somnath could not bear it anymore and charged Nandita with these allegations. They used to have frequent fights which were fuelled mainly by Anindita. And then one day things went a bit overboard, he lost his temper and….” Binita intentionally paused mid-sentence to see if Somnath would take the bait and he did.

He jumped up almost in a frenzy and shouted “I did not want to do it. Please believe me. It was all a mistake. She stood there laughing at me mocking me for my naivety. She would often ridicule me saying I should be grateful that somebody like her has been kind enough to allow him into her bed. She said…she said….a person like me did not deserve somebody like her…Oh it was too much to take…I don’t know what came over me in that moment…I lunged at her throat and….”

“Somnath!”
From the corner where she stood, Nandita gave out a throaty scream “Shut up you idiot! Can’t you see what they are doing to you?” she hissed “They are leading you on and you are stepping on to their well laid out plan.”

She turned towards Binita and curled her mouth into an evil snarl “You can’t prove anything can you? These are all your assumptions. You have no proof.”

“Why don’t you help us then Ms. Anindita Bagchi?” said Binita in a steely voice.

The room was filled with a deathly silence.

Everyone stood still as a rock. The silent whisper of the wind blowing in the mountains outside were the only sound that pervaded the room.

“What…what are you saying?” croaked Anindita in a hoarse whisper, licking her lips nervously “Can …Can you prove it?”

Binita walked up to her calmly and stood before her “How is your bruised finger now Ms.Bagchi?”

Anindita instantly moved her hand behind her. Sheetal walked up to her and pulled out her left hand and stripped off the plaster. Everybody gasped as the little stub of a sixth finger peeked out from the side of her little left hand pinky.

“Oh Annie!” whispered General Das as he hid his face in his hands and shook his head in despair “What have you done?”

“Not me. It was her…Nani…she was the one who did everything while I had to bear its brunt. Not anymore…I could not take it anymore…She was taking away the only man I had ever loved and I would not let her do it. Also, she did not love him. She never loved him. She told me herself. She was just using him as an excuse so that she could escape from here” screamed Anindita in a mad frenzy.

“I killed her…do you hear me all of you…I throttled her with her own chain and saw her gasping for breath. Begging me to grant her life. But I did not give her that reprieve. I would not allow her to live with my share of happiness any longer.” she said panting with rage.

General Das shook with grief as his sobs racked his body. Mr. Lahiri moved over to put his arms around his friend’s shoulders to steady him. He wiped his own eyes as well.

“It was Mrs.Lobo who was the first to realise that it was Annie who had returned and not Nani. She did not mention it to anybody because she was thought she was making a mistake. Then she would hear Annie and Sommath talk in their room and was convinced that her doubt was correct.  She had not yet confronted Annie with her thoughts. When she was speaking to me the other night, she had thought of confiding in me, but she did not. Perhaps loyalty and a genuine love for her girls made her think she would speak to Annie first before talking to anyone. That is what worried me. If my assumptions were correct, Annie would not like anyone to realise her plan. Hence, for the sake of Mrs.Lobo’s security, I asked Mr. Lahiri to keep her away from the house for a few days.”

“Where did they…what did they do with Nani?” asked General Das looking up his eyes red and his face grim.

“They buried her body in the garden in front of their house. We have exhumed the body and got it tested. It does belong to Nandita Bagchi” said Sheetal.

“How did you know where to look for her?” asked Mr. Lahiri curiously.

“A little boy had noticed Anindita enter Somnath’s house, but he was curious that he never saw her leave. That triggered my curiosity” said Binita “Then when he said he had seen Somnath and Nandita, or who he thought was Nandita, planting rose beds at night, that intrigued me further. I have a bit of a green fingers myself, so I went over to inspect the rose beds and found this near the briskly laid out patch of roses” said Binita holding up the shiny silver bracelet. “While Annie and Somnath were carrying Nani’s body into her grave, they probably did not notice it as it slipped off her wrist and got hidden in the mud.”

Everybody stared as the letter N dangling from the chain gleamed in the afternoon sunlight.

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Epilogue

“I am a bit curious Maam as to how you realised that Anindita had polydactyly” asked Sheetal licking the back of her spoon to devour the remains of the rice custard that Binita had prepared.

It was one of Sheetal’s day-off and Binita had invited her for lunch. Having just finished they were all lounging around in Binita’s little balcony garden discussing the case. Sheetal sat on the swing in their balcony and Keya on the floor resting her back against the balustrade while Binita as usual was pottering around with her plants.

“Oh, that was simple. Their drawing room had lots of photographs of the family and one had the girls covering their faces playing peekaboo. That is where I noticed one of the girls had six fingers instead of five. Then Ronnie also confirmed that the girl who had come asking for directions also had six fingers. That same night I noticed the bandage on Annie’s left hand. If it was indeed a bruise caused by cooking, then two weeks was a long time for it to be healed.  My years of experience in the kitchen tells me no burn takes that long to heal. I just let my hunch take the lead.”

“Wow” said Keya “But then how did you know that Anindita was in contact with Somnath.”
Binita sighed.
“It was obvious that Anindita did not leave home to meet her father’s side of the family. Then why would she leave home and cite a false reason for doing so? Only if she has something to hide. Also the two sisters were obviously not on good terms and Anindita would not be meeting Nandita for sure. Who then was she leaving home for? She was a quiet, introvert girl who was being manipulated and used by her twin. Then she meets this man who seems simple, homely, and docile like her and who she realised was also being cheated upon. Naturally, she felt empathetic and the feeling later on developed into something deeper. So, it is obvious she would be going to meet Somnath whom she felt needed to be saved from her sister’s evil intentions.”

“Poor Anindita” said Keya “I do feel sorry for her.”

“Yes. But a crime is a crime. You cannot expect to escape the law if you commit one and they did hatch quite a plan” said Sheetal. “Unfortunately for them, Binita Sen stepped in to thwart their intentions. And I had thought this was a simple lost and found case. Who would have thought it hid a murder in its foils,” she said laughing.

“True!” said Binita sighing as she got up to wash her hands. “Complete with silver bells and a pretty maid lying low.”