The Astral Alibi by Manjiri Prabhu Page A

terms of companionship. Absolutely no marital happiness. Next, I checked out Parmeet’s horoscope. He had Scorpio as an ascendant with Neptune in the first house, which made him an irresponsible, detached, and eccentric character. Also, Libra in the twelfth house had Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, and Harshal in conjunction, which indicated him to be an innately suspicious person. Mars as well as Saturn aspected the same house. It was obvious that not only would his wife die in dramatic conditions, but that he would be provoked into a criminal situation and be punished for it. I wondered where all this reading was going to lead. Could Parmeet be in any way connected with Vidya’s death?
    “We checked the list of apartment owners and when I discovered that Parmeet owned the vacant flat opposite Vidya’s bedroom, I realised that it must be he who was following Vidya around. Vidya had mentioned Parmeet’s bird-watching hobby. I put two and two together and searched the house for binoculars, but didn’t find them. Which seemed really odd. If Parmeet bird-watched regularly, where were his binoculars? Were they being used for something else and therefore were not in the house at all? It was then that I knew what exactly had happened. While Vidya sat writing in her diary, minutes before she died, she was convinced that someone was watching her. If her instincts were right, then that someone had also witnessed
how
Vidya had died. The idea clung like glue to my mind. I decided to check out if Parmeet had reported for night shift at work at nine o’clock. I was told that he arrived a little after midnight. So where was he all this time? If he was keeping close watch on his wife, then he must have seen something to do with her death. Perhaps
even seen
her commit suicide. Which sat perfectly well with my reading of his horoscope.
    “I deduced that Parmeet had watched Vidya drop the sleeping pills in the milk. He knew exactly what she was doing. But he did nothing to stop her. He slipped off to work without alerting anyone and then arrived on his own doorstep early the next morning, pretending to be stunned by his wife’s death. This, of course, was all conjecture on my part. I had no proof. But I realised that we could have a leg to stand on if I could catch him red-handed with the binoculars, since everything hinged upon the binoculars. We were lucky that he went back to the room, and seeing Renuka across the street, he raised the binoculars one last time to his eyes. That helped us prove that Parmeet coldheartedly observed and abetted his wife’s suicide, and that is a grave crime indeed!”
    “It was a good idea to use me as a substitute for poor Vidya,” Renuka acceded.
    Jatin sighed. “But why did he want her dead?”
    “I don’t believe that he deliberately planned her death. Perhaps not at first, at least. Matters just took their own course. Any normal person’s instinct would have been to rush home and stop his wife from drinking that glass of milk, or at least call the doctor after she did so. But Parmeet was careless and irresponsible. He had no particular love for Vidya. She was simply the woman he had married. Also, he was convinced that his wife was still involved with her ex-boyfriend and that enraged him. He conveniently ascribed her unbalanced state of mind and her desire to end her life to her affair. Also, the constant hassles with his parents, the dowry demands, and the tension at home—I believe that he was kind of glad it was all resolving, without any one of them lifting a finger. He had no idea that he’d lifted a whole hand in assisting her to die!”
    Renuka shuddered. “What a ruthless thing to do! And to think that Vidya trusted him and loved him and wanted to keep him from being implicated in her plan! He couldn’t have betrayed her in a more horrible manner!”
    “Yes, poor Vidya!” Sonia agreed, with feeling.
    “But why didn’t Parmeet try to save his mother? He knew that Vidya’s death