Neelesh Arora Part 1: The Widow in Red The rain had begun at dusk, steady and indifferent, as if the city hadn’t just lost one of its most powerful women. Meher Singh lay sprawled across her marble floor, the crimson pooling around her head like a rose wilting in reverse. Her silk robe, the color of old rubies, glistened under the dim lights of her Walkeshwar apartment. The cordless landline still hung off the hook, mid-call to someone who’d never answered. Detective Inspector Jayant Rawte had seen worse in his years with the Mumbai Homicide Bureau, but something about this…