The David Joseph Chronicle (David Joseph Mysteries Book 1)

Book summary

Psychologist David Joseph partners with the police in Tamil Nadu, India, to solve complex murder cases using his expertise in psychology. From crimes of passion to psychopathic killers, David's insights prove crucial. THE DAVID JOSEPH CHRONICLE by Terence Newnes is a gripping crime mystery inspired by real events.

Excerpt from The David Joseph Chronicle (David Joseph Mysteries Book 1)

The Wrong Spouse

He stood on his balcony looking down into his neighbour’s yard. A tall, thin, saturnine-looking man, clean-shaven, with his salt and pepper hair combed straight back over his head with a prominent widow’s peak. His house was in a large, laid-out residential community with rows of houses fronted by roads of 30 feet in width. Each house was set in plots ranging from 2,200 sq.ft. to 8,700 sq.ft. The man’s name was David Joseph and his two-storey house stood in a plot measuring 8,700 sq.ft. with a boundary wall around the perimeter and two large front gates. He was a loner who valued his privacy, which was kind of contradictory seeing as he had worked as a consultant for various advertising agencies all over the world.

What had piqued his interest, and the reason why he was standing on his balcony looking down into his neighbour’s yard, was that there were three police constables and a police inspector in the yard talking to his neighbours. His interest lay in the fact that he knew the inspector. His neighbour’s plot held two houses. The one in front was rented out and the retired owner couple lived in the house at the rear. The Inspector suddenly looked up and saw him, and David turned and went back into his house.

He was sitting in his living room watching television when the doorbell rang around fifteen minutes later. He muted the television and got up and opened the door to find the Inspector standing there. The Inspector was a tall man, almost six feet, and well-built. His hair was starting to recede from his forehead and he was clean-shaven. He had a face that was almost ugly-looking but with character, stern and tough, and could terrify a criminal when he was angry. But whenever he smiled, his face lit up and he looked almost handsome. He was smiling now. “Hi David,” he said. “Hello Raj,” responded David, “what can I do for you?”

“Well, you retired monk,” exclaimed Inspector Raj, “you can invite me in!”

“Oh! Sorry Raj, do come in,” David responded with a smile.

The Inspector entered and David closed the door. “Can I get you something to drink?” asked David. “No, no,” replied the Inspector. “I don’t have much time, just wanted to talk to you about your neighbours.”

“Yes,” said David. “I saw you talking to them. What happened?”

“Well, you know the couple living in the rented house?” asked the Inspector, to which David merely nodded. “They have preferred a complaint of attempted sexual assault against the owner.” Inspector Raj continued. “I was just advising him of his rights and told him that an investigation would be started. I just thought I would check to see what your take is on your neighbours.”

“You know me,” shrugged David. “I mind my own business and am rarely very sociable.”

“Oh right!” laughed the Inspector. “Don’t I know it! But I also know that you are a keen student of human nature and you always notice things that others don’t; you’ve been like that since we were in school. And as I also know that you were involved in solving some criminal cases in a few foreign countries, I’m interested in what you think.”

David shrugged again and said, “That was just me helping out some friends.” Raj just shook his head and asked, “Do you think the retired gentleman is capable of sexual assault? Have you noticed him making any, advances, shall we say, to his tenant?” David was silent for a moment and then asked him, “Haven’t they provided any proof?” Raj looked at him in mock exasperation and then sighed. “Attempted sexual assault is usually only circumstantial evidence when there isn’t an eye witness and this case is like that,” he stated. “The gentleman vehemently denies it and so does his wife. In fact, the wife says that the lady tenant always went out of her way to accost her husband whenever he was working in his garden or was going out shopping. On the other hand, the neighbour in the house on the other side said that she saw the gentleman going into the tenant’s place with the lady when her husband was at work. When I pressed her as to how often did she see this, she finally said maybe around three times. So you see...”

David pondered for a while and then said, “I never like to say things about people that are after all only conjecture on my part, so I will only say this. My advice to you is to look into the tenant’s past. Check with their previous landlords if anything like this has happened before. I doubt there would have been a police case, so you will have to be your usual persuasive self to get them to open up. See if any of them have also been accused of sexual assault. You know what to do. You can be very persuasive. After all,” David went on with a smile, “you managed to persuade my sister to marry you! How is she by the way?” Raj frowned at him and then laughed, “You would know if only you visited more often! Anyway, tell me why you want me to look into the tenant’s past and not the past of the owners. Do you know something?” David shook his head, “As I said, I don’t like to talk about people based on conjecture. Tell me what you find out and then I’ll tell you why.” Raj sighed and stood up, “Well okay, you close-mouthed monk, I’ll get back to you later. But you don’t think the owner did it?” David gave him a thoughtful look and said, “Man is a funny animal and you can’t really say what a man is capable of. But no, I’m sure he’s innocent.” He refused to say anything more, and so with another exasperated sigh, Inspector Raj took his leave. David sat thinking for some time after the Inspector had left and then sighed and turned up the sound of the television.

Later that same evening, his doorbell rang again and David opened the door to find his neighbour’s wife standing there. “Good evening Mrs. Gopalan,” David greeted her. “Mr. Joseph,” exclaimed the lady, clearly agitated, “can I please come in?” David looked at her, and seeing her agitation, replied quietly, “Of course. Please do come in.” As soon as they were seated, Mrs. Gopalan began speaking while continuously squeezing her hands together nervously. “I saw the Inspector coming here, so I’m sure you know what is happening. I can swear to you that the woman is telling an absolute lie. In fact, she had first threatened my husband in front of me that she would file a complaint. She told me that my husband had tried to molest her in her house when she had asked him to come in to look at some electrical problem. My husband admitted that she had indeed called him in, but that this was not the first time.” She took a deep breath and continued, “That is something I well know myself. You see, every now and then she keeps asking my husband to come in to see to some problem or the other. We couldn’t understand what the problem was, because we keep everything well maintained, and my husband told me that he couldn’t figure out how a tap could suddenly leak, how a switchboard could suddenly short, especially when he checked and found the tap loose and a wire pulled out of the switchboard! We had discussed it but couldn’t come to any conclusion. I now think that all this was planned. After threatening us, she then demanded that we pay her some compensation for her suffering or she would file a police complaint.” She looked to be on the verge of tears. “How much did she ask for?” queried David. “A hundred thousand, which enraged my husband!” exclaimed Mrs. Gopalan. She went on in a calmer tone, “What did the Inspector have to say? Could you tell me? We are so upset, and what will our children say when they hear about this?” David ignored the questions about the Inspector and the children and instead asked her, “So you are very sure that your husband is innocent?” She cast her eyes down and then looked up and said firmly, “Yes, I am absolutely sure!” David looked at her kindly and said, “You know, Mrs. Gopalan, so am I.” She looked startled and gasped, “But how...you know?” David stood up and said, “Don’t worry, things will work out. Trust me.” With that he led her to the door. “Tell Mr. Gopalan also not to worry,” he added and closed the door.

For the next two weeks nothing much happened except for the tenants moving out. Though there were immediate enquiries about renting the place, because the locality was good and the house was well maintained, the Gopalans obviously weren’t in the mood for another tenant because the house remained empty. Then Inspector Raj came to visit David. When they were seated with coffee and biscuits served, the Inspector asked him, “Just tell me this. How did you know?” David smiled, “So there were other incidents. Did you find out how much the owners paid?”

“In the past 5 years, it seems they have changed residences about 10 times,” the Inspector explained. “That’s hardly 6 months at each place on average! Of course, in some places it was longer and in some it was hardly 2 to 3 months.” David murmured, “In those places, either the owner, the male, wasn’t there much or the owner wasn’t sociable at all.” The Inspector stared, “Damn you, how could you know that? But you’re right, though I don’t see how that is important.”

“Oh, it’s very important,” retorted David. “You can’t accuse someone of sexual molestation unless you have enough contact with them. Again, how much did the owners pay?” Raj stared at him and shook his head, “Now how would you know...but you are right again. I could only get three to admit to it, but I am sure there are others who just didn’t want to get involved again. Two paid 50,000 and the third paid 75,000.” David raised his eyebrows and said, “Escalating. She asked the Gopalans for one lakh, 1,00,000.”

Inspector Raj stared at David for a long moment. “So you think that was the modus operandi?” he asked. “Nothing actually took place? Just a plan to make close contact so as to be able to make accusations? It won’t work that way. I don’t believe it.” David smiled and told him, “Oh, I’m sure in some cases something took place; maybe in most cases. But they are getting more brazen now and are willing to take a chance on just appearances. But they failed this time because of lack of proper information.” He shrugged and added, “You could say they took the pitcher to the well once too often!”