The man who might have been considered to have the motive, although an insubstantial one, in detective fiction chimed in next.

From: Anjan

To: All (Except Gour and Manas)

Date: 17 Dec 2007

Time: 7.13 a.m.

What? A killing, close on the heels of a theft, a near-fatal accident and an abduction! 

Someone is after us. This can’t be a coincidence. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy action as the saying goes.

Gour and I didn’t see eye-to-eye for which I have not been best pleased with him, especially recently as I wrote yesterday. It has to be said that he had the bad habit of saying offensive things, even if he did not mean all of it. Unfortunately, much of that offence was directed at Manas and I over all these years.

However, I want to emphasise, before anybody asks, that neither did those translate into enmity, nor was I in any way connected with the killers or the killing. I could not have been since I was at home with my ailing father, emailing all you guys about Gour, as it happens, when he appears to have been shot (going by what the TV channels are saying). Friends may disagree all the time or even dislike each other, but that rarely leads to them killing one another!

I wish we could do something, anything at all, to help just as he did every day of his life, but he is beyond all help and the need for it. 

May his soul rest in peace!

***

The shock left them numb. Anjan’s defence went largely unheeded presumably because it wasn’t considered strictly necessary.

From: Amal

To: All (Except Gour and Manas)

Date: 17 Dec 2007

Time: 7.48 a.m.

Prithwish, what are the police saying? Any idea about who killed Gour and why?

~~~

From: Debi

To: All (Except Gour and Manas)

Date: 17 Dec 2007

Time: 8.15 a.m.

I’ve been seeing this horror story unfold on my TV screen ever since I read Leena’s email this morning. Gour’s murder still hasn’t registered with me yet. It is difficult to even write and read these group emails, knowing that Gour is no more on our mail list as he will neither be receiving nor reading these emails anymore.

As Sutapa has already said, and I believe that she is echoing all our sentiments, Gour was one of the most helpful people to have around. Not just for medical purposes, at which he was a godsend, but for any reason at all. Sometimes it even seemed that he appeared miraculously when I was on the verge of calling him to seek his advice or his help.

The visuals that they are showing on TV of his blood splattered car and of his body wrapped in plastic being carried off from the scene are horrific beyond all measure. And yet, I am strangely unaffected. It is almost as if I do not believe what has happened and am therefore not in the least concerned by these ghastly scenes playing out on TV. 

~~~

From: Prithwish

To: All (Except Gour and Manas)

Date: 17 Dec 2007

Time: 8.43 a.m.

I am at the crime scene. I haven’t been able to learn much from the police yet. The whole place is swarming with TV cameras. Gour’s brother is flying down from Delhi. He is expected to reach by early afternoon.

All that the police have told me is that they have launched a manhunt for the killers, although they do not expect to find them soon. However, the car in which they came should not be that difficult to trace according to the cops and it will hopefully lead back to the killers.

Will mail you guys again in the evening.

***

Ashish had been working on a high-profile criminal case with his juniors in his home-chamber rehearsing the arguments for the defence and anticipating the ones for the prosecution, when the news of Gour’s murder broke. Even after two decades of knowing criminals of the worst kind, he could not come to terms with the savagery of the killing. But years of training at dealing with crimes and criminals enabled him to recover his wits. He asked a junior to read out the mails from his friends, and then dictated his reply in a halting and feeble voice.

From: Ashish

To: All (Except Gour and Manas)

Date: 17 Dec 2007

Time: 10.05 a.m.

Like most of you, I don’t think I’ve fully processed the news. Even so, there are some common sensical questions that must be asked because the answers might prove to be helpful in identifying who killed Gour and his or their motives. So, here goes:

1. Do any of you know of any person who would have a reason to kill Gour? Such as the disaffected father/brother/husband of one of Gour’s patients who may have expired during treatment? In simpler words, was this somebody extracting revenge for what he considered medical malpractice?
2. Was Gour party to any dispute about any substantial property, inheritance, valuables and the like? I am not completely sure but as best as I know, Gour was not embroiled in any lawsuit for he surely would have told me or consulted me, but disputes can fester even outside of courtrooms for which I ask.
3. The other question that I need to ask as well may seem disrespectful to Gour’s memory, but we need to prioritise the truth above all else at this time—was Gour having an affair with a married woman, perhaps a former girlfriend, whose husband had run out of all options to separate his wife from him?

I am sorry if these questions seem to be either clinically cold or in bad taste to any of you, but I reiterate that although I am in just as much shock as all of you, we must think straight at this most disastrous of times if we are to get our hands on Gour’s killer/s (I do not mean that literally, of course).

I do not personally hold out much hope from the police. We already know how little, if at all, they have done in tracing the vehicle that hit Manas’s car. Gour was not a VIP that there will be pressure from up above—his murder is going to be headlines for at most a few days before it recedes from public view and police attention.

So, we have to do our best to at least find out the possible motives for murder because absolutely nobody shoots a well-respected doctor to death on the EM Bypass for no reason at all. 

Of course, it could be that Gour was shot dead because he was mistaken for somebody else, but I really doubt that possibility. For this kind of shooting, Gour’s car must have been followed for some time, for the killers to make sure that they had their guy, and moreover the distinctive doctor’s sign on Gour’s car eliminates the possibility that the killers were looking for a car without a doctor’s sign but shot a doctor by mistake. In fact, it strengthens the notion that Gour’s killers were looking for a doctor and found their target.

At any rate, and sorry again if my thoughts appear disjointed, we have to first establish the motive behind this killing. Once we do so, our chances of zeroing in on the killer/s will be much stronger. Please therefore let me know if you know of any incident or conversations that Gour might have had with any of you, relevant to the questions that I have asked above.

Also, Prithwish: Can you please ask the police and let us know when and where they are going to release Gour’s body to his family? Also, any information on his funeral if available. I for one would like to take a last look at my friend, and I am sure that many here would too.