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at the letter. He turned around and left the room. Tambe followed him with a nonchalant walk. Rujuta was too dumbfounded to make anything of this. She was standing close to the door and after Prakash and Tambe walked past her, she felt weighed down by responsibility and did not know how to react or make a retreat.
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    Rujuta climbed down the stairs two at a time and ran after Prakash and Tambe. She caught up with them when they had reached the lawn and were almost out of the main entrance of Ronak. “What is this? You’d simply walk away?You’re not being responsible Prakash,” Rujuta said.
    Prakash looked at her, started to say something, and stopped abruptly. Tambe and Rujuta turned around to see what had caught Prakash’s attention. They were stunned to find Nidhi Kapoor running towards them. Nidhi had suddenly transformed into this bobbling mass of energy from a shock-stricken young dame.
    “Wait, wait,” she was panting. She was almost out of breath. “Wait a minute please. I want to speak to you about this.”
    She was holding the letter in her left hand and was waving it frantically in the air. Tailing Nidhi were Verma and Payal.
    Prakash was curt, “What about it? Your uncle seems to know better than us and believes that he does not need our help. We are anyway short-staffed and…”
    “I apologize for him, please,” Nidhi interrupted Prakash in mid-speech. She looked him in the eyes and continued, “I am not worried about the letter. I have been getting such letters and threats since I was a kid. I saw my father get these by the tons all the time. But it’s not about me. It’s about Caesar, Cho and Cookie. They are very important to Payal and I. I really want to know who killed them and why. Please help me.”
    Nidhi had come really close to Prakash without anyone realizing it. She was holding onto Prakash’s forearm. Prakash looked down at his arm. Nidhi noticed and let go of his arm with an awkward gesture.
    “OK fine, I need to ask you a few things. Plus, you will have to lodge an official police complaint about your petsand this letter. Can we sit somewhere quiet?” Prakash asked.
    Nidhi nodded like an obedient school kid and led them to her bedroom once again. Prakash insisted that she be alone this time. Rujuta observed that Nidhi was composed throughout the interview and volunteered information at a few places even though she was not asked. She also noticed a controlled use of words and emotions. Maybe being an actress helped in real life after all.
    After Prakash was done with Nidhi, he spoke to Payal and the two servants. He did not interrogate Verma though. Rujuta took copious notes during all interviews. Tambe, meanwhile, was working with the rest of the police team that had arrived to take stock of the crime scene.
    Finally, Prakash was done with Nidhi and Verma. “I’d be leaving now. My team is here to gather evidence and would leave in a bit. I would need those CCTV tapes as and when you can get them. Please send them over. Do let me know in case you need some extended cover for your security. I’d also advice you and your family to restrict movement for a few days, if possible.”
    With that, Prakash and Rujuta walked out. “What do you make of these interviews?” Rujuta asked as they left the house.
    Prakash summarized the interview for Rujuta and Tambe. “Everyone seemed to be cooperating. Whoever did it is very meticulous and has a very good reason for taking such a risk. It’s not easy to break into the house with all this security and electronic surveillance. I think Nidhi was lucky that she was not at home. But something tells me that the intent was not to harm her. The poor animals, however,were probably at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    He paused to catch his breath. “It looks like a job of an insider. But cleaving these animals like this, you need to be a strong man. The only person that I can suspect right now is Naveen Verma, but he looks like those