Chapter 21: The Report

Mira filed the complaint on Monday morning.

She did it at the police station near the bank, with Nandini holding the folder.

Dev stood by the door, as she had asked, and said nothing.

The inspector read the pink slip twice. He asked who had copied her name.

"Rhea Malhotra," said Mira. "My husband's sister."

Dev did not flinch.

On Tuesday at noon the family gathered in the house in Vasant Vihar for the lunch that Harish had called.

Eighteen relatives sat in the front room. The aunts had come out of loyalty, the uncles out of curiosity.

Nobody mentioned the garden.

Rhea was in the kitchen. She had been there since five, the cook said, frying puris and refusing every offer of help.

At a quarter to one, a jeep stopped at the gate.

The inspector came up the drive with two constables behind him.

He had a paper in his hand and the look of a man who did not enjoy his job.

Mira stood at the window. Dev stood beside her.

"We should have warned her," he said quietly.

"We did, Dev. We told the lawyer to tell her."

"I know."

The doorbell rang. The cook opened it.

"I am looking for Ms Rhea Malhotra," said the inspector. "I have a warrant on a complaint of forgery."

A gasp went through the room.

Chachi put down her glass.

Rhea came out of the kitchen drying her hands on a dishcloth.

Her sleeves were rolled to the elbow, and there was flour on her cheek.

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