Might as well ask the cat
Don't believe the fake news
Hindi words used:
Bhaiya - a social title meaning brother
Yaar - a social title meaning friend, pal, buddy, etc
“What do you make of it?” Detective Khan seemed to ask of the rancid air around him.
“Cat-astrophic?” His sidekick, Billu, replied with a grin.
“Evidently.” The detective said, ignoring the pun. “Cats, as can happen rarely, do take bites out of their dead owner, especially if they are starving.”
“Do you really think–”
“Perhaps, but her cats cannot plot to kill the fine lady, now can they?”
After scouting the studio apartment, Khan stood in the centre of the room still unconvinced and vexed. His gaze followed Billu collecting pieces of evidence with gloved hands, and sealing them in ziplock bags.
“Take a sample of the pet food too.”
“Of course, Sir. Would you like to check her phone?”
“Ah yes. Thank you. Tell me, Billu, can you recognize the smell?”
“Catnip?”
“Correct. But that’s to mellow down the creatures, not aggravate them.”
Billu nodded.
Khan walked to the corpse and pointed the phone at the dead woman’s face, and smiled when it worked.
“I should remember to disable face unlock on my phone.” He whispered and began scrolling through recent calls and messages. After a few minutes, he said: “Okay, let’s secure the evidence and leave, for now, and take enough photos of the victim.”
“Right away.”
“Thanks. I’ll wait in the patrol car for you.” He ordered and walked out of the apartment to the waiting car. With the stench of the apartment gone, he took deep breaths, the aircon of the vehicle at full blast.
“Why would you keep seven cats, Ms Shalini?” He murmured, swiping through the photos on the phone.
Shalini grew impatient as the butcher continued blabbering on the phone. He would break out into boisterous laughter and almost choked in a bout of coughs.
“Bhaiya, will you hurry up, please? I have seven cats to feed.”
Still on the phone, he waved a splayed palm at her.
“Five minutes? Sure!” Shalini fumed.
“Okay, miss. I am sorry,” he said, finally grabbing his cleaver, “now what type of cuts can I offer you?”
“For my cats,” corrected Shalini, “and make them small.” She held her thumb and index finger an inch or so across.
“Oh, you feed your cats raw meat?”
Shalini didn’t want to engage but ended up saying: “Yes. The pet food from the shops can make them aggressive.”
“Good for me, no?” the butcher laughed. “Otherwise, everyone is feeding processed food to their pets these days.”
“To each their own. Once you know what’s good, you can never go back to that crap.”
“Chalo, here’s your meat. That will be two hundred rupees.”
“Thanks, can I pay by card?”
“Sure” the butcher shoved a POS device at her, his fingers replete with bits of meat and blood.
Shalini tapped the credit card gingerly and left, happy at the bargain she had managed to secure.
Detective Khan was staring at a picture of two kittens entangled in a wool yarn when Billu yanked the car door. He placed the evidence on the rear seat, secured himself in the driver’s seat, and said: “It is macabre in there, Sir.”
“We’ve seen worse, haven’t we, Billu?” Khan smiled at him.
“You’re right, Sir. But dying at the hands of your pets. Tch. tch.”
“What’s weird is that the cats look happy in all of the photos. Also, Shalini had few visitors. Most of the selfies are outdoors.”
“Given that her house was full of cats, I, for one, am not surprised.”
Khan smiled. “I’m wondering what caused her death. There’s some blood under her head. Scratches all over her body; clearly from the cats. But what would turn seven cats savage and brutish… that too, towards their owner. Cats are known to be loyal to a single human.”
“If she had only female cats, that would explain–”
“Explain what?” Khan snapped.
“The aggression. Female cats are way more vicious than the males.”
“Urban myths. Conspiracy theories. Don’t trust all of your Whatsapp forwards!”
Billu drove silently for a while. At the next step of lights, he exclaimed, startling the detective: “Urban myth! What if she was a victim of an urban myth?”
Khan patted him. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said since I’ve known you.”
Megha flailed her arms at Shalini, trying to catch her attention. Patrons thronged the tiny restaurant and Shalini felt overwhelmed even as she spotted Megha’s wave.
“Hello, beautiful!” Megha hugged her.
“And you, missy. Why haven’t I seen you in, like, forever?”
“Too much work, yaar,” Megha lamented, “and kids! Let me know when you want to die of boredom and I’ll share my sorrows with you.”
Shalini laughed.
“How are the seven sins doing?” Megha asked, referring to Shalini’s cats.
“Goooood.” Shalini blushed. “Keep me company, but keep to themselves.”
“I envy you, y’know” Megha said, “But let’s get our orders in, shall we? The place is packed and it may be a while. I’m not here to starve.”
At the end of the meal, Megha squealed. “Hey, I completely forgot to forward you this message I received from someone. Apparently, canned pet food can be lethal to the animals.”
“Oh, really?” Shalini added. “That would be great. Gluttony and Greed don’t like the dry pellet-like food. Please share it.”
“Sir, the pet food had gone sour weeks ago.” Bill was at Khan’s office door, with a sheaf of papers.
“Just as I suspected,” Khan stood up from his desk. “Also, the autopsy report said her fingers were chewed, almost to the bone.”
Billu sighed. “What was the cause of death, though?”
“She hit her head on the marble floor. From the pool of blood around her skull, that’s what caused her death. But my main suspicion is a conspiracy theory!”
“What?”
“Yes. I found a message on her phone from someone called ‘Megha’ about the ills of canned pet food. Fake news. I bet.”
“But did the cats–”
“Unfortunately so. She probably handled the meat with her fingers. So, that’s where they began once she died.”
That was a spooky story ! I loved how you keep transitioning between the Past and the Present. Curious to know how the story will unfold.