Mystery fiction: Sarla Seth, owner of a popular marriage agency in Mumbai, gets threatening messages

An excerpt from ‘A Matrimonial Murder’, by Meeti Shroff Shah.

Mystery fiction: Sarla Seth, owner of a popular marriage agency in Mumbai, gets threatening messages

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“What is this, Aunty?” asked Radhi, alarmed. She turned the envelope over and checked it for a name or address. It had neither. She turned the card over. It had a fine geometrical pattern across the back in gold. She dropped the card on the table and checked inside the envelope again. A thin strip of white paper was stuck to its side. Radhi removed it and read the typed words out loud: “All good things come to an end.”

Sarla, who had been sitting with one hand clutching her head, took the note from Radhi and read it before crumpling it and letting it fall to the desk. “I don’t get it,” she said, more to herself than to Radhi. “Who’s doing this?” She picked up the phone. “Juhi, can you ask Hansa to come see me.”

Then, in response to Juhi’s reply, “I see…okay, ask her by when she’ll be in office.”

She hung up the phone and turned her attention back to the card. “This is the fourth one so far,” she told Radhi. “The other three were equally terrible.”

“They seem like they are part of a deck. Do you have the other three here?”

Sarla nodded. “They are tarot cards.” She rifled within her drawer...

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