When they reached the bureau, it was still raining heavily outside, Sarah stayed quite all the way.
Thomas gave the sample to Bellatrix, and Alastair took charge of the case as Thomas already spoke to Junaid.
Mr. Richard stood out of the interrogation room, whereas Sarah and the caretaker Simon sat on the chair inside the interrogation room.
The people who tested the portraits and paintings called Alastair and gave their results. Technology nowadays is fast forward and doesn't;t need to wait for a long time.
Bellatrix conducted the DNA test of the samples and matched it with the existing human data.
Mr. Richard asked to conduct the interrogation outside as he also wants to know how his granddaughter died.
Thomas allowed Richard inside the interrogation room, and Alastair started stating the facts instead of questioning.
Alastair said, "based on your age and experience, you can easily guess who this woman is, if not your wife.
Your granddaughter loved the son of your caretaker and planned to marry him, but your wife didn't agree for it correct..?"
Mr. Richard sighed helplessly and answered. "yes, she is so obsessed with the royal lineage that she never allowed my grandaughter to even spoke with servant much less to marry.
I thought if time passes, she will change, but alas, she never did."
Alastair nodded and continued, "taking this as a chance, your past lover did plastic surgery and came into your mansion as your wife.
She first killed your granddaughter for trying to elope with her lover and then killed your wife as well."
The woman named Sarah laughed hysterically, listening to Alastair's words and said, "are you a CBI officer or a fortune-teller..? You are saying as if you saw all these things with your eyes."
Thomas was slightly surprised, listening to Alastair's words, but he didn't interrupt him.
Mr. Richard shook his head and said, "young man, I can't accept what you said without any proofs. Moreover, my wife never hurt anyone. She is humble and polite.
Even though we disagreed with the marriage, we never wanted our granddaughter to leave us."
Alastair narrowed his eyes and replied, "Mr. Richard, have you observer your wife never left the palace after your granddaughter died? She even didn' allow anyone to come and visit you, people.
She only allowed the royal descendants to visit. From then on, she only got involved in royal meetings and gatherings."
Mrs, Richard scoffed before saying, "Officer as an ordinary person, you may not know the duties a royal family has to carry. We have lineage to move forward; hence we can't neglect our responsibilities.
I never hated my grandaughter, as you claimed, nor we had any conflicts. After losing my daughter and son-in-law, we both doted on our grandaughter; after all, she is the only one we had."
Thomas got angry when Mrs. Richard mocked them for being ordinary people but didn't say anything. "these royal people are too arrogant," -- he thought to himself.
Bellatrix knocked at the interrogation room and provided the results she had found out. She also found out the plastic surgery details as well.
Understanding how cunning Mrs. Richard is, Alastair changed the subject and questioned Simon.
"Simon, you are the one who brought the two corpses outside the hidden compartment and dumped them on the garbage bin purposefully, right..?"
Simon didn't say anything but nodded his head in yes gesture.
Mr. Richard confusedly asked, "what hidden compartment..? where is it, Simon..?"
With his head low, Simon answered, "your majesty, don't ask me anything. You should question your fake wife, who is sitting here with us..?"
Mrs, Richard snorted and shouted angrily, "what the hell are you all speaking..? I am the original wife of Richard."
This time Thomas didn't control himself and slammed the DNA report and the plastic surgery details on the table and questioned,
"Mrs. Richard, if you are the original wife of Mr. Richard, then who is the female corpse we discovered in the underground passage.?
This file has information about you having plastic surgery precisely at the same time when the royal palace is facing a crisis.
Thirty years ago, you frequently called a plastic surgery specialist and transferred colossal amount. After six months, he suddenly disappeared."
Looking at the ghastly appearance on Mr. Richard, Thomas continued further, "the DNA report states you are not Sarah but her college friend Aarya."
Richard looked at her and asked in disbelief, "you! you, are Aarya..?"
Alastair placing the results of the portraits, said, "Yes, Mr. Richard! This woman here is Aarya. If you observe keenly, even after doing plastic surgery, there are individual differences.
Your wife always liked to hold your elbow, whereas Aarya wanted to hold your hand like in this portrait. Also, your wife had a birthmark on the left collar bone, but this image doesn't have one."
Alastair concluded calmly, placing both images on the table.
Richard laughed at himself and said, " I lived with her for more than 50 years, but still, I blindly accepted this woman as my wife."
This time Simon opened his mouth and said, "Master, this woman killed your wife along with the young miss and my son. All these years, she blackmailed me saying she has evidence against me."
Disbelief flashed across Richard's eyes; he lowered his eyes, unwilling to listen to anything, and stood up to leave.
All this time, Aarya was confident of proving her innocence, but when Richard stood up, she trembled slightly and asked, "Richard, are you believing in their words..? I am your Norah, your past love. I will never do such thing, you know me..?"
Richard took a look at her and shook his head, then left. Before leaving, he left a comment, "you are not my Norah, we were over before 50 years. Officers, you can take any action against her."
Thomas asked, "Richard, don't you want to know what happened in those times and how your wife and granddaughter died."
Richard shook his head, "what will I do by knowing..? Will I be able to bring back my family..? Somewhere it's my fault as well. Your friend handled this case quite effortlessly," saying he left to his royal palace.
Aarya, who was adamant to no open her mouth, shouted angrily and demanded to call her lawyer. Thomas and Alastair both ignored her demands and shoutings.
Thomas brought Simon into another interrogation cell and asked to give his statement.
Simon opened his mouth and said, "I came to know about this when that woman was secretly speaking to someone on the phone. After their conversation, I followed her and learned that she is not our mistress.
I observed her moves for more than a month and then came to know there is a hidden compartment, and both streets are interconnected."
Thomas looked at Alastair instantly, and then he explained, " from the entrance of both streets, we can see the palace compound walls. So I was tempted to go into the second street.
When I went there, I observed some footprints and assumed that someone came here before us. Thanks to the raining, because of which I was able to dictate your prints," Alastair looked at Simon.
Alastair continued saying, "he gave us two clues Thomas. One is when we went to the royal palace, Simon didn't ask us any questions and led us inside as if he was waiting for our arrival.
And the second is, around the palace the carpet is red, but in one place it is green, correct Simon..?" Alastair finished.
Simon nodded, "one day, I followed her secretly without getting noticed and shocked to see my son's and young miss' corpses placed in a secret room.
I replaced them with other corpses and shifted to the garbage bin."
Alastair interrupted, "but what you don't know is, your mistress and your wife had been murdered and placed in another room.
That room leads to the second street because of which we can see royal palace compounds from both the roads.
Alastair and Thomas looked at each other, and the latter immediately rushed out of the building.
Alastair asked, "Thomas, get an arrest warrant for Mr. Richard and come to the royal palace immediately. Also, give this nameplate to Bellatrix and ask her to check with Mr; Richard DNA."
When Alastair traveling back to the mansion, he luckily found Mr. Richard on the way and urged him to come to the bureau as Aarya wants to confess something to him.
Richard's thinking case is already solved, agreed with Alastair, and ordered his chauffeur to take a u-turn.
Bellatrix did the test and informed Thomas, "it matches with Richard, Thomas."
Thomas called Junaid and explained everything. Junaid called someone and ordered to issue an arrest warrant against Mr. Richard.
Alastair calmly looked out of the car window and started humming to himself. Richard looked at him and commented, "I never thought a person like you would be a CBI officer."
Alastair looked at him, but Richard spoke again, "don't misunderstand, boy, your plain ripped jeans and wrinkled shirt made me think so. Moreover, your hair all messed up."
Alastair laughed, not clarifying about his real identity but saying, "hmm, I don't like being formally dressed." Poing at his head, "I like to ruffle my hair casually."
Richard nodded, and they reached the CBI bureau. Thomas brought him into the interrogation room and asked, "why did you kill your granddaughter..?"
Richar confusedly asked, "what are you talking about officer, as I said, I didn't kill anyone. "
Alastair clicked his tongue and said, "your game is over, Richard. It was you who didn't approve your granddaughter relationship with a mere butler's son."
Before Richard feign ignorance and act innocent, Thomas called Bellatrix, and they present an autopsy report.
Alastair answered, "it was you who instructed to drug your granddaughter and then tried to kill her. Unfortunately, your grandaughter's lover came to the same place as they already planned to elope on the same day.
That's why before he died, he was shocked to see you there. Out of frustration, you hit him with a massive thing on his head."
Even after his cover blew, Richard calmly stood there and said, "what do you, young people know about honor and dignity. As a royal descendant, it was my granddaughter's fault to fell in love with a commoner.
We don't have any commoner in our lineage. How will I allow her to marry that mere butler's son..? I tried to make her understand, but she didn't listen to me.
Think about our reputation and blood lineage. We are royal people, not some mere ordinary persons.
Bellatrix got angry listening to his words, "so what if you are a royal..? Being a royal doesn't allow you to kill a person.
Tell me, Mr. Royal descendant, does your royalty is upper than us..? As a human being, we all have the same rights, so what if your granddaughter loved someone from lower-status, you think you have the ability to punish her..?"
Richard got angry and shouted, "you foolish girl! Shut up if you don't know anything. We have a history of carrying forward. How can we tarnish it..?
You people will not understand, I want to speak with my lawyer. Get him right now," he demanded.
Thomas shook his head and ordered someone to take him into custody. A royal descendant getting arrested became a piece of massive news in the city.
Alastair came out of the building and stood at one corner, looking at the rain droplets falling.
Thomas asked him, "how did you find out that it was Richard who killed them..?"
Alastair looked up and answered, "when I noticed the nameplate, I saw 'R' letter in the middle. Then I concluded it might be Richard's also I found that nameplate at the entrance of the hidden room, which leads to the second street."
They stood there for a long time, not speaking anything. After some time, Alastair said again, "these royal people are so different from us. I pity them; not only do they have a huge burden to carry, but also they can't live their lives as per their wishes.
This honor, pride, and dignity don't allow them to live freely." Then he walked out of the building and stood at the nearby bus stop looking at the people running in the rain.