Priya looked at the three photographs on her wall.
The bruises on the wrists: Kabir. Explained. Accounted for.
The tear on the dress: unexplained. Unaccounted for. In none of the three statements.
Someone had grabbed Meera's dress near the cliff edge. Someone who was on the terrace during the 1:45-2:10 window. Someone who wasn't Rohit (in the kitchen) or Kabir (in Vagator).
Which left Kavya.
Kavya, who said she was in the bathroom for "three, maybe four minutes."
Kavya, who returned to find Meera gone.
Kavya, who — a psychologist trained in human behaviour, someone who knew exactly how to construct a narrative that was emotionally compelling and technically non-incriminating — had given a statement that was beautiful, moving, and precisely engineered to deflect the one question that mattered.
Were you on the terrace when she fell?
Priya pulled out her phone. She called Dr. Fernandes. "The dress tear. Can you determine whether the force was applied from the front or the back?"
A pause. Then: "From the back. The fibres are displaced forward. Someone behind the deceased gripped the shoulder and pulled."
Pulled. Not pushed.
Priya sat down. She looked at the wall. She looked at Kavya's photograph — a composed, intelligent face, a psychologist's face, a face that was professionally trained to show exactly what it wanted to show and nothing else.
What if Kavya wasn't lying about killing Meera?
What if she was lying about how?
---
Priya called Kavya back to the station the next morning. The psychologist arrived in the same clothes she'd worn the day before — a detail that, on anyone else, would suggest distress, but on Kavya might simply mean she'd been too focused on something else to change.
"Dr. Iyer, I have a follow-up question about your statement."
"Of course."
"You said you left the terrace to use the bathroom and were gone for three to four minutes. When you returned, Meera was gone."
"That's correct."
"Meera's dress was torn at the left shoulder. The tear is consistent with someone grabbing the fabric from behind. The force was applied backward — a pulling motion."
Kavya's face didn't change. Not a flicker. Professional composure. The mask of a woman who'd been trained to sit with uncomfortable information.
"You're suggesting someone pulled her," Kavya said.
"I'm suggesting someone was behind her when she went over the edge. And in the timeline you've provided, the only person who was on that terrace or near it — besides Meera — was you."
"I was in the bathroom."
"For three to four minutes. Can anyone verify that?"
"Rohit was in the kitchen. He might have heard the bathroom door."
"He didn't mention it."
Silence. The interview room felt smaller.
"Dr. Iyer, I'm going to ask you a direct question, and I need a direct answer. Were you on the terrace when Meera fell?"
