Death In The Hills: A Revelation

Chapter 11: The Manager of Peking Homestay

The short and stocky receptionist of Peking homestay looked at Jai, Advik, and Laia as if they had landed here from another planet. 

"What? Murder? I don't know anything about any murder, I am new here! I just came to work last month!" the woman probably aged between 20 to 23 said in a high-pitched voice that made their ears hurt. 

Peking homestay was a small place with an entry door so narrow that two people couldn't walk in together. 

Its walls were a sharp green and its low ceiling was stark white. But the place was clean and the wooden floor didn't have any muck on it even though multiple people were constantly going in and out of the place. 

Laia saw that the homestay seemed to be filled mostly with male travelers, some solo, and some in groups. 

They were coming and going from the one small door located in the back of the room. Laia guessed it was the main door that led to individual rooms in the back.

Jai, Laia, and Advik found themselves standing in the cramped reception area, or rather the makeshift reception area which consisted of a small wooden table and a chair. 

On the table, there was a large and thick notebook. When the half-puzzled and half-frightened receptionist opened it for some men going out to sign their names, Laia saw that the yellow pages were filled with the details of the multiple travelers who had stayed there. 

After the men were done, the woman at the desk pushed the heavy notebook on the side of the rickety desk and put a pen inside the open folds of the pages.

A cheap plastic cover with haphazard pink flower patterns covered the desk.

Then the woman turned towards the three, signalling that she was giving them her whole attention. She asked, "What are you talking about?"

Laia pushed Jai out of the way and went to stand in front of the receptionist who was looking up at them. 

He was the one who had made the mistake of asking the thick black spectacle-wearing woman about a possible murder. 

Laia had internally smacked her forehead with her palm when she heard the question, "Can we talk to you about a murder?" escape Jai's mouth with confidence. 

He clearly had a lot to learn. Laia looked around briefly and saw that they had drawn attention toward them as people stared curiously while slightly whispering among themselves. 

"Can we talk to the manager of this place?" Laia asked the receptionist who was wearing a faded red churidar.

The color didn't suit her soft brown skin tone. But she could guess that the woman hadn't chosen the outfit because it was the one she liked best. 

"Do you have a reservation here?" The woman asked. She had collected herself in the meantime or as Laia thought, perhaps because hearing the word manager had reminded her of her job. 

"No, we do not," Laia answered clearly, "We are from a newspaper in Pune called Adhunik Daily and we are looking to interview the manager for a case. So can you call her?"

"Wait a second. What are your names and can I see some IDs?" the receptionist said authoritatively. 

"Yes sorry. My name is Laia Kar, this is my colleague Jai Prakash, and this is Advik Sneh, a local friend," Laia explained while fishing out her ID from her jacket pocket. 

Once she had shown her reporter ID, the receptionist asked, "Do you know the name of the manager? Do you have an interview scheduled or something?"

"Yes, Sheila Sarkar," Laia said confidently. "We don't have an interview scheduled but I did send an email requesting it on the mailing address given on the website of this place. Tried to call the phone numbers given, but it didn't connect." 

Laia had researched a lot about Sheila Sarkar, who was interviewed by almost every reporter back when Patil's death was a hot topic. 

She had even asked Millie, who had covered the case for their paper back then, to send any recordings or transcripts of interviews with her. 

Laia had found out that Sheila Sarkar, 38, had lived in Paharkunj her whole life. Born in a poor family, she was married to her husband Tarun Sarkar, now 42, and a truck driver when she was 19. 

They had two girls, but both had passed away a few years ago when they were aged 12 and 10 due to an unrevealed disease. Sarkar had managed the Peking homestay for over a decade after getting employment there when she was 25.  

Yash was alive at Paharkunj for 12 days and he had made 3 vlogs and 3 livestreams that he had uploaded every other day. In these now-deleted videos, he had highlighted Sheila Sarkar. However, not all of them had shown her in a good light. 

The initial vlogs had shown her to be a strict but good manager and caretaker of the place, but later ones made it seem like Yash suspected that she was hiding something and was a shady woman. 

Later video interviews from various organizations hadn't revealed much about her character or life. In every interview, she had parroted the same thing as if she had memorized it. 

She had said that Yash was a troublemaker at the homestay who didn't follow the rules and routine.

Sarkar had further alleged that he came back at night during odd hours while he was informed that the gates would be locked at 11 pm sharp every night. 

She had also said that Yash tended to wander off to out-of-limits or forbidden places like local burial or sacred sites, which led to locals complaining about his behavior to her.  

All of these were backed up by the locals as well as his own uploaded videos which showed him exploring various places and returning to his homestay late. 

The woman had also stuck to the official cause of heart attack as the reason for his death. It certainly looked like she was telling the truth. But Laia wasn't convinced. 

Sheila Sarkar's eyes had seemed so dead inside in every interview she had watched as if she just didn't care that a young man had died.

But the problem was that this wasn't enough. She had no concrete proof except her intuition and that wouldn't hold up anywhere. 

Laia had hoped Yash would have left some clues in his vlogs or some footage of what he had seen, but even after she had downloaded and watched the 6 videos multiple times, she had failed to find anything noteworthy. 

His parents had also looked through his cloud storage and other devices, online accounts, and more for proof of anything fishy going on at Paharkunj, but had found nothing. 

They had planned on keeping his YouTube channels and other social media accounts up, but had decided against it after they kept getting vile comments on his previous posts. 

Yet, Laia thought a fresh conversation on the topic after so many months could make Sheila slip on her words and reveal something. Either way, she was planning on questioning her from some other angles. 

Laia was lost in thought when the receptionist interrupted her to drop a bombshell. "Sheila Sarkar doesn't work her anymore. Mr. Anirudh Chahal is the new manager."