Second Lives by Anish Sarkar Page A

a dark bundle. As they started to carry it across the sand and towards the water, Grigor realised that it was a human form wrapped in a black plastic sheet.
    The men hadn’t seen him and he remained where he was, motionless. They went up to the waterline but it was too dark to make out what they did there. It took them several minutes and they came back without the body. He soon heard the car drive off.
    That was pretty much it and Grigor had abruptly ended the interview after that, saying he didn’t want to speak anymore.
    Naturally, the lack of specifics made the reporter highly skeptical of Grigor’s story. There was no proof that the body was that of Anna Grishin. In fact, upon further prodding, Grigor admitted that he couldn’t be a hundred per cent sure that it was a body in the first place, given that it was fully covered by the sheet. He was unable to describe either of the two men, beyond saying that they looked and were dressed like locals.
    Writwik then told me with some satisfaction that the same reporter had managed to locate and speak to Grigor’s girlfriend a couple of days ago, even before the police could get to her. It had taken all his ingenuity and resources, for Grigor was a loner and there were few people who knew him. I guess inveterate drunks aren’t welcome even in the Bohemian tourist communities of Goa.
    The woman was in her fifties and her name was Jennifer. She had befriended Grigor only a couple of weeks before his death. I presumed she had either taken pity on him or was just desperate for drugs, which he had in ample supply. During their brief relationship, they lived separately but hung around together on most days. Grigor had told Jennifer everything that happened on the night of Anna’s death. It had continued to disturb him deeply.
    There were a couple of remarkable new details which weren’t known earlier.
    After the car left, Grigor had followed in the footsteps of the two men to see what they had been up to. As he approached the waterline, he saw a pale, crumpled form lying on the sand just within reach of the breakers—it was a young girl, naked and bleeding!
    Anna Grishin.
    Grigor was so shocked that all he could do was turn around and run. Even in his inebriated state, he continued running until he was well away from the beach. It didn’t take him long to decide that he would keep quiet about what he had seen and not report it to the police. To salvage his conscience, he told himself that it was obvious the girl was beyond human help.
    The second thing was that there was a third man. He remained inside the car while his cronies went to dump Anna’s body. Grigor only realised his presence when he stepped out briefly as the men were returning. He looked left and right, as if to ensure there were no witnesses, and got back into the car. Luckily, Grigor was missed by him too.
    Writwik said that this man was clearly the boss and in all likelihood, Anna’s killer. I asked him if Grigor had described him to Jennifer—he hadn’t. However, he had told her with certainty that he knew who he was.
    ‘Jennifer couldn’t tell us anything else about this man,’ said Writwik with some frustration. ‘Whether he’s Indian or a foreigner, what he was wearing, how Grigor knew him…Nothing.’
    I asked, ‘Do you think she knew but didn’t tell?’
    ‘I asked my reporter the same question but his opinion was that she was telling the truth. If she wanted to hide anything, there was no reason for her to have said as much as she did in the first place. She had been very curious to know from Grigor who the man was but he had clammed up and said that he would tell her later. Then he was killed, of course.’
    Grigor had obviously been giving different versions to different people so it was difficult to figure out what the truth was. I guess he must have been scared and confused and disoriented. Something told me that he had really seen Anna’s killer. If only we had managed to get to him