

The Adventures of

Mehul and Kairav

Soumajit Bhowmik
CONTENTS

Modest Beginning

The Strange Case of Greed

The Case of Cause and Effect

Betrayal

Shonar Bangla

The Death of an Artist

Middle Man

1 Modest Beginning

Episode 1 - The Genesis

It was during the spring of 2002 that I decided to join RidgeCliff Corp as a senior application developer, leading a team of 10 mobile app developers. I wasn't completely unhappy with my existing job, nor was the salary increment very lucrative, but I had moved to a stage in life where I had to have a life beyond work. I had been working for the state development foundation R&D, among a group of middle aged men, bent by years of research, with glasses and a sweater, mufflers round their neck even when the thermometer registered 35 degree Centigrade. I was strong academically, and loved coding more than anything else, and so even though I wasn't really the nerd material, I had done well enough to get the most coveted job at the university. But when I looked at my current roommates, who by the way were my college friends too, I was torn between whether to continue with my mundane life of work and no play, or to start living life the way my friends did. I saw them work from home, party during the weekends, go for outings, make new friends, and all I did was work 9 to 7, even during weekends at times, on a project that someone of much lesser calibre could deliver, at a workplace which was far from what I had dreamt of. I had the liberty of working on new pilot projects which never seemed to meet closure among the company or clients, or train interns and new recruits. After a long time I gave in to the persistent requests by my friends to make the switch. Now thanks to them and their referrals I was going to be a part of a global team of 2500 developers mainly working out of the Denver office, which meant the only work on our hands would be minor enhancements, bug fixing, and quality assurance. It seemed like moving from the 12th standard to the 3rd standard, and yet getting paid more for doing so, but I guess I had made my choice.

After a month's break from professional career, I joined RidgeCliff. I soon started feeling at home, and loved the work environment. There were no fixed working hours, you just had to clock a total of 40 hours every week. My roommates became my colleagues, which meant going to office was now much easier, and time off work was much more entertaining. Life seemed perfect for the first time since college. After more than 3 years, I could feel all the positive energy, the enthusiasm coming back to me. I started playing football again, went back to my old routine of workouts and indulging in various extra-curricular activities. I am a 6 feet tall well-built guy, a black belt holder, with good knowledge of various martial art forms. I love my friends as much as they love me and we never missed any chance to hang out together after work or during breaks. My friends called me Bruce Lee, a name I am yet to fathom, as I looked more like an Undertaker when he was young and without the tattoos, and my real name is Kairav. My facial features were sharp with a strong jaw line and I had long, messy hair. Not really the person who could carry off a Bruce Lee. Maybe a Bruce Springsteen came closer within believable limits?

In the next 2 years, a lot changed, and yet many things remained the same. Vikash and Aveek got their own apartments and moved in with their girlfriends. Anuj still shared the apartment with me. It was a 3 bedroom apartment, and too big for the two of us, but with the salaries we got, we were not too keen on saving a few extra bucks by moving to a smaller house. I was on the verge of becoming a manager, and so was Anuj. Vik and Avi were much less interested in work life, and concentrated more on weekend plans than any of the application releases, and so barely scraped to a senior developer position, with a salary almost half that of ours. But we never let salary or designation come between our friendship. We made a couple of friends outside the four of us at office. Both were girls, Rita and Pooja, of almost the same age as ours, though it was very difficult to tell most of the times.

As far as my love life was concerned, the college affair and the way it ended, had left an indelible scar on my heart. It seemed to be a classic movie plot, where the girl's family had other plans for their daughter where I did not fit. But I hoped to at least get a chance to place my argument in front of her parents. When that did not happen, and she was not willing to go against her family, thus sacrificing a 5 year relationship with me, I found it very difficult to set my heart towards love again. My team and the management at office were very appreciative of my efforts and I would frequently get invited to team outings and parties. But even among a group of people, there always seemed a vast hollow, an emptiness that was never to be filled again. My friends had been with me through thick and thin, and they understood what I was going through. With them, there was a bit of solace. But things became difficult when my parents started hunting for the perfect bride for their son to settle down with. And on top of that, my dad felt that the Social Media was an easier option to use than e-mail, and started posting the prospects' pics on my profile column. Soon people started morphing their pics with mine, hugging each other, and posted back on my profile, just for fun. I wasn't getting any younger, and there was no one in my life, but I needed some more time to clear my head.

During March 2004, the organization went through a major revamp. There was a completely new management, headed by a visionary CEO. RidgeCliff signed up two Government projects and took up quite a few new assignments. There were fresh hiring, and work load increased significantly. We started spending more hours at office than what we were paid for, sometimes even overnight. Anuj was moved to a new team, as the Team Leader, which was finalising a major deployment for one of our largest clients. It was a 2 year project, due in less than 2 months. Anuj was so happy with this new work experience that whenever we sat for lunch or dinner, he would speak volumes about how the application would change mobile usage beyond calls / SMS. He envisioned that this would have the capability to integrate various aspects of daily life and more, in just one handheld device. Avi and Vik were the worst hit among us. They were both getting married soon, and their girlfriends kept complaining about how irresponsible they were towards marriage preparations and also that they spent so little time beyond work.

Over the next couple of months, we had a number of freshers joining the company, and I was one of the trainers / managers who would teach them various aspects of mobile application development and enable a smooth transition from college to corporate, and at the end of it take a few of them in my team. The first session I had was with a group of 30 new recruits, I started off with a round of introduction, knowing them, what they wanted to do in their professional careers, how much they knew about coding, analytical reasoning, and their background. On the farthest right corner sat a boy, pale white face, medium height, with dark curly hair and brown piercing eyes intense enough to fetch your innermost thoughts without the slightest of efforts. By the time the round of introduction reached him, it was noon. Everyone in the room started giggling and passing comments about him. Clearly he wasn't a favorite among them. He did look way too young for the job. He stood up and started introducing himself, "Hi. I am Mehul." As he spoke, a round of suppressed laughter broke across the room. He continued unaffected, "I am 20 years old, holding a double dual degree in Electronics, Electrical Communication, and Computer Science and IT Communication Systems. I am a gold medal winner from India's Best Engineering College, and with scholarship offers from any top 10 Universities across the world you may like to name. I have an IQ of 170, which, looking at the extreme lameness and lack of behavioural etiquettes or sense of humour of those sitting around me, I would assume is more than the cumulative IQ of the other 29 fools sitting in this room. I guess what you cannot comprehend, you just want to portray as sour grapes. Their behaviour is just a manifestation of the frustration they are feeling to share the space with someone so much younger to them, yet so much more superior in every regards. Now, coming back to why I am here. I do not consider education inside a classroom, to be the means of adding value to your knowledge or providing practical expertise to theory. So, I have set off from studies and want to pursue a professional career and see the world in all its practicalities. I have no doubt that if this doesn't prove to be a good idea, I can get into any University I want, across the world, but I also know I won't fail in any of my endeavour, unless I start interacting with these nitwits around me and get down to their level of mediocrity." The room was in pin-drop silence save the smooth and cutting words coming from the mouth of this eccentric and overly-proud genius. It took me a couple of minutes to find my sorts and comprehend what had happened. And all I could say was, "Lets take a short drinks break."

Eventually I took Mehul in my team, knowing very well the risk involved when it comes to working as a team, but also acknowledging the huge potential that this guy had in delivering world class solutions for our legacy platform. He did learn faster than what we could imagine, during the training, and started pointing out flaws in the system architecture from the day he started working in our team. I started spending more and more time with him, since he worked more efficiently than my whole team put together. Once Mehul sat for a couple of hours on the code, my team had nothing left to do for the whole week. He had an air of pride around him, and did not let anyone come close to him for any reason whatsoever. But he was comfortable with me since I never restrained his thought process or his experiments. I got to learn more from him in a couple of weeks than I had learnt in the last few years maybe. Such was his addiction to learning and exploring new ideas and the zeal with which he worked was almost infectious. Every day, I got to know new traits and achievements of this young fellow. Once, there was a short article on the Times, which talked about how he challenged the most intelligent minds in a World Symposium held in New Delhi, where he solved the Einstein's Zebra Riddle in under 3 minutes, at the age of 15. He even worked on subjects beyond his curriculum. India's largest nano-technology organization rewarded him nearly half a million dollars for conceptualizing a path breaking solution to one of the most difficult problems involving nano-fluids.

Meanwhile, Avi and Vik decided to resign. They planned to start off on their own. Both Anuj and I knew that this would mean an end to our group of four, especially since they even lived at a different part of the city, and working in a startup isn't really the easiest thing to do. But we were very happy for them. Finally, they would be doing something meaningful with a clear vision which they always seemed to lack earlier. They had a month before getting the relieving letter, and we planned a farewell party to set their spirits high. It was a small party involving few close friends apart from the four of us. Anuj got down to finalise the venue, while Rita and Pooja were responsible for the food and drinks. We even involved an Event Manager to ensure that the party would be a grand one. The Dream Arcadia was decided upon as venue for the party. They have a popular weekend bash every Saturday, and on 19th June 2004, we would be there to make the evening a memorable one. A large party hall with an overlooking mezzanine floor, flaunted by rooms on both floors, at the extreme end of the mezzanine floor was the DJ stand with buffet dinner being served on the 1st floor, and with this all our party plans got in motion.

On 14th June, something unexpected happened. My grandfather passed away due to a long standing heart disease. All through my childhood, I was very close to my grandparents. My dad used to be out at sea most of the times, being a marine engineer, and my mom had to take care of the household. It was my grandfather who took care of me. From reading fables to buying toys for me, all my needs found a resolution with my grandpa. Now that he was no more, I had to be there to pay respect and bid adieu to the great man who held our family together all these years. I took leave from office, offered best wishes to Vik and Avi for their new venture and started off for home. Anuj was disappointed that I would not be there to attend the party, but he was equally sad at my grandpa's demise and even offered to accompany me home. But I requested him to stay back and ensure that our buddies get a befitting farewell. I left everyone in high spirits, but never did I think that it was the last time I was seeing smiles on their faces. In a matter of 8 days, my whole world had turned upside down, and life was never going to be same again for me. Destiny had a very different plan for me.

Episode 2 - I Am Sorry Kairav

When I returned back to work, nothing was the same. I was clueless and confused. Anuj was a completely different person, Aveek and Vikash were no longer there in office. They were looking for a small office space to start their own setup. My whole team had boycotted Mehul for obvious reasons now that I wasn't there to keep him under control. Mehul maintained a nonchalant stand which was oblivious of the surrounding, lost in a world of his own. But amongst everything what stood out and was most surprising was Anuj's transformation. He had stopped smiling, had not shaved for more than 3 days (a rarity, since he religiously shaved and took a bath every day at 7) and was lost in some thought which seemed depressing enough to suck out every bit of happiness in his life. I spoke to him many times, or at least tried to, without any result. He started avoiding me and became irritated at every small incident that happened. One morning I forgot to pick the newspaper and the street dogs came into our garden and massacred the frontpage. Anuj was so disturbed that he started shouting at me for being careless and irresponsible. I was neither and I knew Anuj meant none of those. So I didn't react. But I was extremely concerned. He was very evidently hiding something from me, and I had no clue what it was. He was crying over phone one day, speaking in a very mumbled voice, and went out late in the evening and did not return till next morning. Very strangely, Pooja didn't turn up for office that day, quit the job over mail and left town to join a different company. She didn't even bother giving a forwarding address. Her roommate Rita also did not know anything about her whereabouts.

Few days later, one evening, both Anuj and I returned home early from work, and after watching TV for some time, I dozed off to sleep. Anuj had locked himself up in his room, with a Do Not Disturb sign outside. I was in deep sleep when a loud noise woke me up. I rushed towards Anuj's room, and found his door ajar, his laptop crashed at the corner of his room, smashed to pieces with smoke coming out. Anuj was sitting on his bed looking in the other direction with a perplexed look on his face. I entered his room to ask whether he was Ok and what exactly had happened, but he sternly asked me to leave him alone and also that he would take care of this. I disconnected the power plug of the laptop and left quietly. He was later reprimanded by the facilities manager in the company for being careless with company assets, since there was quite a significant amount of data loss. He eventually got permit for a new laptop, but that didn't do any good to his spirits. He had been skipping meals, came office late every day, disappeared for long hours during the day, had heated conversations over phone. I talked to both Aveek and Vikash, but none of them had any clue on what was wrong. They had not met him since the farewell party and now that they were working full swing on developing their new product, they did not have time for anything beyond work. Such was the confusing state of affairs, that I forgot to ask them about their company or the product. I was getting more and more worried by the day.

And then on 3rd August, the unthinkable happened. Anuj had not returned home from work the previous day, and told me that he had to work overnight. I came to office early, hoping to find Anuj and having breakfast with him at the office pantry, but when I reached office, he was not there. I had an early conference with the on-site team, to work on the deliverables for the next quarter. The meeting went on for a couple of hours on the 3rd floor of the office. After the meeting, I briefed the individual responsibilities to my team members and asked Mehul to wait back, since there was a new module that I wanted him to help me out with. We were walking towards the stairs to come down to the 1st floor when we heard a loud shout from the 2nd floor work area, and few people came rushing out of the office. One girl started shouting for help from inside. I rushed inside the office and saw a group of people standing together at the farthest end of the office, where the facilities room was, all trying to peep inside the room. I ran towards them, and seeing me, everyone made way so that I could enter the room. The security guard was standing outside the room trying to call the police. Inside the room was something that didn't make any sense to me initially. Instead of a head or shoulders, my eyes were directly looking at the feet of a person as if some magician was performing a levitation act. I walked ahead and slowly I could gather sight of the body and face of the person. It was Anuj, hanging by the top hook on the ceiling, dead. I had never seen such a thing in my life, and now when I saw the ghastly view, it had to be my best friend. My legs seemed to become weak and I was unable to stand without support. My senses had stopped working, and extreme sadness, shock and fear gripped me so hard, that I held on to the security guard and stooped down to gain control on myself. I started crying in disbelief and wished all this was just a nightmare or a bad practical joke on me. On the wall behind Anuj, there was something written with a whiteboard marker. I looked closely at it, and it read, "I hope my death can be a proof of my innocence. I am sorry, Kairav. I couldn't take this any longer". What was he sorry for? Who blamed him for what? What is it that he couldn't bear any longer? I had no answer to any of the questions. In his hand, held tightly, was a piece of paper.

Episode 3 - Moving On or Not

More and more security members rushed in to the scene, followed by the top management. I was escorted away from the scene, offered a glass of water and shown into the lobby on 1st floor. I wanted to go back and see if Anuj was still alive somehow, but I was made to wait there until the police arrived. Rita was there when they brought the body down after I left, and she confirmed that Anuj had been hanging dead for a long time before he was discovered. The body was as cold as ice. The piece of paper turned out to be just a print out of his mobile bill's first page for the current month with his personal email ID written on the other side, and there was no other evidence in the room or proof of struggle or any other external injury to Anuj's body. Coupled with the death note left on the wall, the police concluded it was most probably an open and shut suicide case. Yet they could not ignore a few facts - my friendship with Anuj, my name being mentioned in his last note, the "innocence" part, which opened up the probability of something wrong that might have happened somewhere by either Anuj or someone else, and the "pressure" or mental torture that he was unable to bear. The company's top management were ruffled by the incident, and used everything in their prowess – money, contacts, favours, to ensure that the whole incident remained as low key as possible. There was an enquiry set up to investigate the matter further. The police visited our apartment, looked into Anuj's personal belongings, credit card statements, bank account statements, and even talked to our neighbours. I had to visit the police station a few times, and was questioned by multiple investigators. Some of our colleagues were also questioned. Anuj's call records were checked. Most of the calls went to either one of his team members, Aveek, Vikash or me. Avi and Vik were subsequently questioned and fingerprints at the death scene were scrutinized. But due to lack of concrete evidence and motive for murder, the case was stamped as a suicide and closed earlier than what I thought as a reasonable time for conclusive judgement. The dead body after post-mortem was handed over to Anuj's parents. Anuj was their only son, and they went through a lot of hardships to ensure Anuj never had to make any compromises while he was growing up. On the day of cremation, Anuj's father came up to me, held my hand and with tears in his eyes, said "He could never have done this. We know him. He could not have been so weak. He told me you were like a brother to him. Did he not tell you anything before he died?". I did not have an answer.

Nearly a month passed before the police came out with a public statement which mentioned that "... Due to excessive work pressure and economic shortcomings, an employee of RidgeCliff committed suicide. The technology park houses more than 20,000 employees and this kind of an incident shocked everyone. But the local police handled the situation adeptly. They removed the dead body from office premises and ensured that no inconvenience was caused to any of the companies." The press release was followed by an uprising from local groups and communities to reduce working hours of employees and a social media campaign to appreciate the sacrifice of Anuj to bring out to public, how professionals are being tortured.

Since the management did not want me to break down after my best friend's death which happened within a month of my grandfather's death I was asked to take a mandatory break. I went back to work after a few days. Staying alone had started becoming unbearable. I was also a suspect for a brief amount of time, and the company could not bear another awkward situation in the office. But in order to move ahead, there was so much that I needed to put behind me, that it seemed very difficult to get back to normal. I still tried my best – woke up early, had a shower, had something to eat, prepared a few status documents for my team, turned off my vacation responder and reached office sharp at 10 AM, and summoned my team for a meeting at 10.30 AM, since it was Friday and we had to file all work progress and iterations completed. It was supposed to be a quick status reporting session, weekly targets and release plans for the latest modules. My complete team turned up sharp on time, but no one spoke and kept staring at me for the initial reaction. I understood the dilemma they were in, and so took the initiative to break the ice. " I understand that we had a terrible incident in office couple of weeks back, and that it involved me in a major way. But we have no control over life and death and the best thing to do now is move on. I would request you all to give Anuj, thirty seconds of silence so that his soul may rest in peace". The team obliged, and soon we were back to our usual team meeting session. There was but one difference. Unlike other days, Mehul was sitting in the last row, silently looking at me with those intense questioning eyes and a sombre face. The meeting was over soon, and the team left. I packed my laptop and turned to leave, but surprisingly found Mehul still sitting there looking at me.

"Hey Mehul, whats up? Sorry I had to stay off work without notice. The management thought that it...."

"How can you let go of this Kairav? Were you not his best friend? Don't you want justice for Anuj and to bring out the real culprits?" Mehul snapped even before I could complete my sentence.

Confused at this outburst, I spoke in a perplexed voice, "I am.. I am sorry?"

"Oh come on Kairav! Even a child can tell that this was no ordinary suicide. Anyone who has seen him work would say that for Anuj to commit suicide, the cause must have been difficult enough to break even the strongest of hearts. This was, in all aspect, a murder. I saw the police statement two days back and was amazed at how this was subdued to save a few extra days of work."

"But Mehul, how can you be so sure of this? To start with, I never knew of anyone who would hate him so much that he/she would create a situation compelling enough for Anuj to commit suicide."

"Well, think of this. One fine morning you decide to commit suicide on your own free will. What are the things you will do? Call your near and dear ones. Tell them how much you love them. Go through a few photos from happy times, maybe send a few mails to people you can't talk directly to, or just go ahead and finish your life, if you are that frustrated. But under no circumstances will you take a print out of the softcopy of your mobile phone bill, and hold it while you are dying. Also you will not mention the name of your closest friend, knowing that it might jeopardise his position during investigations. Suicide cases seldom have an exterior motive other than frustration, abandonment, giving up, etc. To commit suicide so that you can prove yourself innocent is a very different kind of incident. And how can you not probe into what he wanted to claim innocence for?"

Whatever Mehul said, had been running through my mind since the fateful day, but I felt so helpless and clueless, and not to mention haunted by the memories in the vast apartment which was empty now, that I had resigned from further thoughts in this matter. But Mehul showed so much confidence in this matter and spoke with so much enthusiasm that suddenly I could see a silver lining, not just for Anuj, but also for his parents who still had not received a closure to their son's mysterious death. "But what can I do alone, and to what extent? My best friend is dead, the loss is irreparable to his parents and near ones. Even my other friends would not stand with me at this hour. What can I do alone?"

"Never underestimate the power of one, my friend. It took one great idea from one individual, to change the course of history each time, to make the world what it is now. If you believe that justice denied is as big a crime as the crime itself, then why stay back. Go ahead and do what Anuj would have done if he were in your place. I have known you for quite some time. You are an honourable man and a very good friend. I can help you in this matter,... that is if you want to let me help."

There was nothing better that I would have wanted. This might present the only chance we had of getting Anuj justice and prove him innocent in whatever he sacrificed his life for. But if the company came to know that a manager and under his influence, a new employee have set out to do the work of an investigator, wasting valuable man hours, then Mehul might land up in trouble.

"No don't worry about that. I don't think this job means a lot to me. I'd rather be morally upright and ensure that the real criminals get their share of punishment. Yeah, if there really is nothing more to this case than what has been said, we can happily fall back to work with the proven knowledge that Anuj was a coward after all !!"

I was shocked at this reaction. Did I speak out aloud or can he read minds? "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"Well I guessed from the fact that initially you had a slight twitch at the ends of your lips like a wry smile, which meant you are happy to have me help you. But then the smile disappeared and you looked slightly sideways, which means you moved your thoughts from us to the surroundings, the company that is. Your head went back a bit which is a classic expression of the ego in our minds. With all due respect, the only ego which can come to you when I am in front is that you are my manager. Knowing how friendly you are and how good at heart you are, you would think of our professional relationship only if you fear that I might get into some kind of trouble with the higher management because of some action of yours, like involving me in this investigation. Rest was simple."

Episode 4 - First Clue, Is it True!

Mehul never ceased to amaze me, and today was no different. Still apprehensive about whether we should start digging into something that had been buried, I asked Mehul to get back to work and meet me outside the office during lunch hours where we can discuss further. I went back to my cabin and tried to get my mind onto all the pending works, but now that I could see a slim chance of knowing why Anuj had to die, all I could think of, were the facts and incidents that took place around the hanging. Could it be a murder? Highly improbable, as there was absolutely nothing that suggests a struggle or an involuntary chain of action. He wasn't drugged or dragged and even the security cameras had last recorded him walking alone towards the fire escape, where the facilities room is located. An hour into noon, I saw Mehul moving towards the main exit, with a file in hand and peeping into my cabin. I followed him, and soon we were sitting at the café outside our office discussing a plan of action.

I spoke up, "Why are you doing this Mehul? There is a lot at stake for both of us here. I am responsible to guide you towards a healthy career. I cannot be the one responsible for keeping you away from it. Or is this some sort of fun adventure for you?"

"Well, there are things about me which you are yet to know. I have spent a lot of time studying and observing human behaviour and psychology – almost a year you may say, since I completed and exceeded the number of credits needed to earn me a dual degree at college, well within 3 years. I am keen to know what had happened with Anuj. He was one of the trainers during our initial sessions, and I have seen very few people as happy and passionate about work as he was. But then some sorrow of monstrous proportion must have taken over his heart and mind to have forced him to take this extreme step. I need to know what it was. What good is my knowledge, if it cannot reward justice to those who have been wronged?"

"Ok, so how do we start?", I gave in.

Mehul continued, "We have a few facts, we have a few questions like a black hole, from where no answers seem to come out. I will start off with you. Did you notice anything weird about Anuj before he died? Anything out of the ordinary or something that would raise suspicion?"

I explained to him every change that I had seen in Anuj right since I returned from home, the strange series of unexplained incidents, and details of the day before he died.

Mehul wrote down as I narrated and then spoke up, "Alright, there are a few things we need to work with. We can safely assume that whatever happened, must have happened after the party. Usually the first instinct always works. Keeping that in mind, I feel that your other 2 friends might know more than what they have come out with. Pooja's resignation is the other aspect, which we may treat as a one-off incident and not related to this case. We need to start gathering as much information as we can about your friends. Can you give me their addresses, so that I can follow them during the weekend and see if I can get some clue to the case? Else we can always walk into their houses for a friendly visit and ask a few questions."

I gave him their addresses, but also insisted that I would accompany him. All this was important to me and I wanted to be involved in every bit of effort made towards the case. We went back to office, and spent the rest of the day at work. I left a little late. When I reached the parking lot, I found Mehul waiting by my car.

"You don't mind if I accompany you, do you? I assume you have some empty space in your apartment, and now that we are working together on this, and I don't have a car or bike, I could use some help. We need to leave early tomorrow."

I was okay with that, and so we drove to my apartment after a stop for dinner. Next morning, at about 5, there were loud banging on the door to my bedroom. I woke up with a violent start and rushed to open the door. Outside my door, was Mehul.

"We might get late. Wake up, breakfast is at the table, the geyser is on. I will meet you in one hour sharp outside the house. I need to check for a few things and will be there in the garden."

I felt like killing him for spoiling my sleep, but somehow I kept my cool, and went about getting ready for the trip. Mehul had kept toast with butter and juice at the table and I could see him snooping around in the garden looking for something. In less than an hour I was ready to go and we started off towards the other end of the town, where Avi and Vik lived. It was about an hour's drive. We finally located both their houses. There was a small statue at the junction, from where both the houses were perfectly visible. We parked the car there, and kept a watch on their apartments from inside the vehicle. I felt stupid to actually be spying on two of my best friends. I felt that if there was something to know, just asking them should have sufficed, but it was also a fact that they had been avoiding discussions about Anuj and were not as grieved by his death as I imagined they would be.

After almost 90 minutes, Vikash came out of his house, waved his hands toward his wife, standing on the balcony, and headed towards Aveek's house. Both of them came out together and drove off in Vik's car towards the city. We started following them. Once they crossed the National Highway, their car took a sharp left turn and went straight towards the satellite town. An hour's drive later, they entered the Technology Business Park and disappeared towards the parking lot. Our car was stopped at the gates by the security. Mehul went out, spoke to the security for a couple of minutes, came back and asked me to drive around towards the other side of the building, to the guest parking. Once we went out of sight of the security, Mehul asked me to take a right turn and take the highway back towards home. I did as he said with a surprised look on my face while Mehul connected the wi-fi dongle to his laptop and stared into the monitor. 10 minutes later, he shut the laptop, laid back on the seat and heaved a long sigh. Looking ahead with a worried face, he said, " The mystery intensifies my friend. We might have jumped a few lines here, but we certainly are on track. I went to the security guard asking if there were any office spaces available. At the prospect of actually getting involved in a sale for the building owners, he blabbered a lot more than what I asked. They do give offices for smaller companies, even startups like Smartcellular Tech, the founders of which entered the campus just ahead of us. Their office proved lucky for them as they seemed to be doing well. Having got some information from the guard I thought I rather do a bit of my own research than hang around here and this is what I found. They have been funded by enVenti Venture Capitalists last week, and they are planning a beta launch of their product by October. In one of the press articles, Vikash said that he and his partner have been working for years on the product, and now need a little push to finish the development process. Well, that's a lie I guess. But whats even more interesting is that their product is a client side widget, which will sit on WAP or Internet enabled mobile phones and deliver information like city guide, location guide, directions, alerts, and a host of other value added services directly to your handheld device. Sounds a bit too familiar?"

It did. That is exactly what Anuj's team was working on. Mehul continued, " I then looked up the investment portfolio of enVenti, and one of the international MNCs they have provided series B investment for is MyPhone, one of world's largest phone manufacturer. Obviously their market share had received a big blow when their biggest competitor, Velis launched the Whereiz app few months back which did everything that the widget being developed by Smartcellular Tech did. Anuj's team had developed the application. MyPhone came with a press release that they would be launching a much more advanced app by November along with a new fleet of mobiles that they referred to as smartmobiles. Wasn't very hard to connect the facts to each other. "

"So are we looking at a case of corporate data theft involving Anuj where Vikash and Aveek stand as the beneficiary of probably millions of dollars thanks to months of hard work by Anuj's team and the complete on-site team? Maybe they fooled Anuj into this trap, and as repentance, Anuj gave his life?" I asked.

Episode 5 - On the Hot Trail

"Cannot say yet. We need to ascertain many factors before we can even remotely arrive at that conclusion. Don't forget that proving such plagiarism needs months of work and court trials and yet sometimes its hard to prove. Our primary target is to prove that even if such a theft has happened, Anuj was involved in it, and was blackmailed by Vikash and Aveek for revealing the crime and coming clean on the matter themselves. Why didn't Anuj just tell the management or the legal department about how he was tricked, if he was innocent. Maybe the trail starts and ends with Anuj while your friends cannot be linked. Like I said, there are too many aspects and conditions that we need to look at before concluding anything."

We had a silent drive back to office. Being a Saturday, coming to office was optional, but there were quite a few employees present when we reached office. The new projects were going on in full swing, and hence it did not feel weird to have people working even on weekends. We wanted to get some clarity on the Velis project and Aveek and Vikash's involvement in it. We went to the 2nd floor office, and there were relatively few people in that floor. We went straight to the conference room and connected our laptop to the office network. We went to the intranet > projects > completed/shelved projects and then to Velis. It was archived, but had details of the team members and their work history. Anuj was mentioned as team leader, but there was no mention of our two suspects in any module – testing, transition, quality check, bug fixes or even as remote as documentation. So they were not involved directly. That would mean they downloaded (if at all) the code base from one of the existing team members. But that meant we were looking at over 250 members in the Indian office. We could rule out few members who never had access to the central server, but still the list would be quite large and beyond our means to research.

"This is not the right approach. We cannot start doubting the integrity of every employee and poke our nose at everyone's employee record. For the sake of this case, let us focus on Anuj alone, and if nothing fruitful comes out, we can work on other aspects and find out means to narrow down suspects." Mehul suggested.

We went through the office hallway to the east wing. On the left were the developer cubicles. Further down on the right were the manager and lead developer cabins. The fourth one was that of Anuj. On the glass door was a white paper with "Dark room" written on it. After Anuj's death, no one wanted to occupy the room, and now it was not used anymore. We opened the door and entered. The room was empty, but Anuj's desktop was still lying there. Mehul went ahead and started the system. On the login screen were options for 2 users – admin and Velis. He selected the latter and went into the user interface. There were 4 options – server, developer, commit and user history. The other options were all blurred out with the text "Archived" on top. I pointed towards User History. There were thousands of lines of history data. Starting from code commits, to appends, bug fixes, etc there were huge amounts of history logs. On sorting them by log type, and browsing to the downloaded and uploaded section, we were left with a very small list. There were instances of partial code download, upload of new files, but nothing suspicious. All were part of the development process. There were no instances of the complete code group getting downloaded. I was disappointed at having got to nothing, but was a bit relieved for my friends. They might not be the criminals we assumed them to be, after all. Mehul, with a smile on his face, said, " They are clever I must say. When did you say Anuj joined the team?"

"That would be somewhere during March"

"So, why are the records only after 14th July? Where are the earlier records? Logs are stored in individual accounts once the changes are committed, or on individual system logs. Neither places show any record prior to 14th July. Either he himself deleted it, or it accidentally got deleted. Either ways, the reason for deletion was safeguarded within the laptop burning incident which you say occurred around 12th. I guess no one could hold Anuj for the deletion, even if he was alive. So, the question again comes back to motive. If there was some misdoing involved inside the company, was Anuj aware of it or not."

Mehul's face was intense. Like a small boy, clueless about what needs to be done, I asked "What do we do now?"

"We go and find some identity proof of Anuj at your home and you need to practice his signature."

After a bit of searching, we found Anuj's Driver's License copy among the apartment deed papers. Mehul stood in the veranda staring towards the horizon, the solemn look still on his face. Once I was able to reproduce Anuj's signature to as much close replica as possible, we set off to the market 5 kms away from our place. Mehul had pasted one of my photos on the photocopy of Anuj's license and taken a xerox of the same. We now had a copy of Anuj's driving license with my photo on it. Once we reached the market, we confidently walked into the first mobile store. Mehul went in with a hurried look, and spoke authoritatively, " Hi, my friend needs a new mobile connection. Can you tell me the plans and monthly costs involved for the connections you offer?"

After a few minutes of getting pretty useless information, we showed content on our faces for the free sim card, 50 free SMS plan. We submitted the driver's licence copy, and I signed at 5 places with Anuj's signature. The residential rental agreement had Anuj's name on it. I gave my passport size photos as well to ensure the form was filled properly. Once the documentation was done, the new connection was handed over to us.

"Can you please activate the connection immediately? My friend is leaving town tomorrow for a few days. I want to ensure that he is always just a call away." Mehul asserted with a tone of authority.

The number was activated even before we left the shop. The verification procedure would take 3 working days, which means we had 5 days to use the sim card, before the verification department catches the forgery and blocks the card.

"Don't worry about the card validation. On Monday, call the customer care and discontinue services and tell them you are not happy with the coverage. And yeah, cut the card with a pair of scissors. I doubt if they will process your details after that. I just wanted to close the end where either of Vikash or Aveek calls up the service provider and tries to extract owner information. Anuj's name would make them weak and more vulnerable. We need to go to their place today evening. We might have to stay there till late, and again go back early morning. If we find a lodge or motel around that place, that would be the best thing. We need to see their reaction at every point."

"But what would they react to?"

"You will see my friend. Drive straight home, and lets pick up some food and water, and then speed off to where all the fun begins."

A couple of hours later, we had reached the same junction bordering Vikash and Aveek's houses. Both of them were yet to come back. So we waited patiently. I was a bit tired after the day's ordeal, and dozed off for a bit. I was woken up by Mehul as Avi and Vik were seen coming back. They stopped at the cigarette shop in the corner and came out of the car. Vikash bought a pack of cigarettes, both took one each from the packet and inclining on the car hood, started discussing something intensely.

Mehul hurriedly took out his phone which had the new sim card in it, and started typing an SMS and read it out loud to me, "I know you stole the code from RidgeCliff before leaving, and used Anuj for the felony. Have proof. Want a Deal?" Then quickly taking their mobile numbers from me, he sent across the SMS to both. We waited eagerly for them to bring out their mobile phones, but they did not seem concerned. After about 3 minutes, Vikash, having completed his smoke, lazily pulled out his phone from his shirt pocket. He stopped speaking and kept looking at the screen with horror, and surprise. Aveek bent sideways to look at what caused this sudden change of emotion, and then with an equally puzzled look, took out his own phone, to see a similar message in his inbox which he showed to Vikash. For a few minutes, they did not speak or look anywhere else. Vikash started speaking first and Aveek looked down with his eyebrows knit together and hand on forehead. They went inside their car and we could see a slightly animated discussion happening inside. After sometime, both started thinking intensely. Vik finally spoke and they both picked up their mobile phones and started typing something. A few moments later, both our mobiles had 1 unread message. I got a message from Vik, saying "Is that you sending us SMS?", while Mehul received an SMS from Avi saying, "What nonsense. I dont' know what this means. If you bother again, we will file your contact details with the Police."

By the time we turned back to see them, they were again driving off from where they had come. They were going back to their office. We followed them like last time, and by 10PM reached the business centre. We stopped a little farther away this time and kept an eye on them. Mehul asked me to call Vikash and sounding as normal and friendly as I could, ask him innocently what he meant. I called him and did exactly as Mehul said, and convinced him that I was out watching a movie. I also invited them to visit my apartment to catch up.

We waited for nearly 3 hours, but neither of them came out of the building. We left for my apartment at around 1.15 AM. I was feeling very sleepy, while Mehul was looking disappointed. After about 30 mins drive, he started speaking with a laboured voice, " No, we are working in the wrong direction. This was not the case. They didn't use Anuj or his access to steal code. They might actually have stolen the code, but not with the help of Anuj. At least it was never in Anuj's knowledge that the code was stolen. If it were the case, they would have asked me who I was. They would have discussed the deal. They would at least have tried to find out the name of the owner of the message sender's mobile number. But they didn't do anything that would be an effort to delink the death from their theft. They did come back to office, which meant the theft part hit them bad. They either actually stole the code, and would now be working 24-7 to change as much of it as they can before someone comes after them, or they might not have stolen the code and just wanted to ensure that there is nothing that can be used to trace a common origin. But some form of guilt is definitely there. The blame game had almost started before they decided to act smart. I would suggest that you cancel the mobile number immediately. We wont need that. Also, can I stay at your place for a few days? I would love some privacy and quiet around me to work better on this."

We drove to his apartment, and I parked the car a block away from where he lived, so that his flat mates, who all worked at RidgeCliff, could not see me. Mehul hurried back with a bag of clothes and other items of daily need and we drove back to my apartment. It was almost 4.30 in the morning by the time we reached home, and without any more words, I went to my room and crashed on the bed. I don't even remember when I went off to sleep. I was a little discouraged by the day's events, but somewhere inside me, I trusted Mehul and that he would find out the real chain of events.

Episode 6 - Clues and Truths

Next day, by the time I woke up, it was afternoon. I came out of my room, to find Mehul sitting on the sofa, fully dressed and perfectly awake, a notepad in hand and deeply immersed in thought. Seeing me, he smiled and asked me to freshen up, since he needed some information. After a light brunch, I sat with him. He asked me minute detail about Anuj, like his date of birth, his mobile number, email ID, his likes, dislikes, etc. He also asked me whatever I remembered about the farewell party preparation for Vik and Avi. After about an hour of questioning, he finally seemed satisfied.

" I might need a few days off from work. Since you happen to be my manager, I guess I will file for a formal leave application tomorrow. I need your car also, this week. Hope you can manage with the auto rickshaw. I also need you to stay in office as much as possible. I might need regular information from the office."

Well, asking me to travel in a rick, while he would use my car was a bit unfair I thought, and more so since he didn't bother about actually asking. But even if I said something to protest, I doubt if he would hardly listen. He was so engrossed in his own world and thoughts at that point, that I felt best to leave him alone and take a short walk outside.

Next day, we both woke up early and got ready for office. We reached office by 9.30 and were walking up from the basement parking to the 1st floor, when we met the HR Manager. She asked both of us to report to the Director sitting on the 3rd floor, immediately and that he has been waiting for us since morning. I knew that something was wrong. The Director was not the most pleasant person to be around if he was angry or displeased with someone. He had fired employees before and had a rude and harsh tongue. He had been appreciative of my work in the company so far, and was the person who pushed me into a senior level position earlier this year.

We slowly made way into the 3rd floor open area and went towards his cabin which was the 1st one after the lobby. We knocked the door and a deep voice echoed from inside, "Come in !"

We entered and saw Mr. Derrick looking at a bunch of papers and a stack of folders in front of him, with his reading glasses on and a disturbed look on his face.

"Sit down please, both of you. Would you care to tell me why Anuj's suicide case interests you so much? We have reports of you guys visiting the office on weekend, logging onto the system in the dark room, accessing private and secured data where you have absolutely zero authorization and going through employee records of people not part of your team or project. Do you deny anything I said? You won't since I already have the records with me. Now listen, and listen carefully. Anuj's death has somehow affected you, Kairav, so badly, that we find your performance has gone down to the level of absolute non-performance, while Mehul, you are too young and inexperienced to get yourself in a muddle that doesn't even concern you. We had to go through a lot to keep the incident under covers, and now a couple of employees reopening an "investigation" within the company, is the last thing I want. So, either you stop this completely and assure me that I won't be hearing further reports in this regard, or you are free to walk away and never return back. We will issue an experience certificate with reason for termination of services as non-performance and unauthorized usage of sensitive data. You can understand that the chances of your landing up with a new job will be quite bleak. Decide fast and tell me, right here."

This is what I was afraid of. I felt embarrassed, sad and foolish to have got into this and taken Mehul along with me. My companion looked unperturbed at the Director, smiled briefly, and said, " Thank you, Derrick, for giving this wonderful opportunity to me. Let me save you some time here. I have been doing the truth hunting for past few days. Kairav got dragged into it. He doesn't know much of anything and I am sure you will not have further issues with him, since I quit. You can keep the experience certificate and I would rather suggest not to print it. Save some paper and some trees for the next generations."

And without wasting a moment, he took leave and went on to submit the company ID card, laptop and health insurance. Derrick had never been dealt with in this fashion, and he was at loss of words after Mehul had left. He finally asked me to get back to work and explained that he had high expectations from me and that I should try not to give him any chance of complaint or doubt in future. When I came down, Mehul was waiting for me at the ground floor reception.

"Hey, I need your car. I will be here for a little while, till I get the clearance from HR and technical department to leave the premises. There are a few things I need to get clarity on, I will meet you at home in the evening."

"But what will you do hereon? Do you realise that you have just lost your job? And that too because of me?" I interrupted.

"No, I didn't lose my job. I quit. And that's because I don't like my job as much. I didn't quit because of you. I would have quit anyways. Also you did not get me into this my friend. I think we both know it's pretty much the other way round. So stop finding excuses to be sad, and be there in office as long as you can. I might need some information."

I gave him my car keys, and went to my cabin. I could barely concentrate on my work, and even after reassurances from Mehul, I couldn't help feeling guilty. During lunch, Rita come to my cabin. It seemed like ages that we had lunch together. We spoke for some time, mostly about how we both miss our friends and roommates and how much it pained her heart that Pooja did not care to call her or inform her about her new job.

Once Rita left, I felt tempted to call Mehul and ask if he was ok. I was about to call him when I got an incoming call from Mehul.

"Hi Kairav. I need to know a few things. You need to give me Pooja's details, from her employment record. Her PAN card number and permanent address if not anything else. I also need a copy of her recruitment form and her last known address, where Rita stays now."

This was easy for me. Rita and Pooja were part of my project, even though they were not in the same team. I had to allocate weekly tasks to my team members and so it was not unusual for me to log on to the employee portal. I quickly checked the employee records of inactive members and got out details of Pooja's employment record. This was accessible only by managers and HR, and I had only limited access to her information. I sent a download request to the admin, who sits on the first floor, fingers crossed. What if they get suspicious again and reprimand me? I decided to tell them that I wanted to look at Pooja's profile, since we need a replacement for her in the Testing team. But would that be a believable explanation? Only if Derrick doesn't check any of the request logs, I should be through.

After a nerve racking 20 mins, the office boy came to my cabin with a few sheets of print out in hand, and handing them over to me, said," You asked for some documents. Please check if they are in order."

They were indeed in order. All the information we needed about Pooja was there, barring her latest address. I needed to get Rita's address as well, but without rising suspicion. So I asked her to have dinner with me during the weekend, and told her that I would pick her up from her house. I took her address with that pretence, and now I had everything Mehul had asked for. At about 7 PM, I left office and took the office shuttle back home. By the time I reached, Mehul was already there. He didn't speak much, but took all the information from me and went into the room he had occupied, and closed the door behind him.

I woke up next morning to see Mehul was gone and so was my car. Breakfast was laid out neatly on the table, along with a note, "I will be late. Stay in office as long as you can."

I was there at office all day, but didn't receive any call from Mehul. I left a little late after the team meeting, and reached home to find Mehul sitting on the couch, in deep thoughts. Seeing me, he rose up and said, "We have a long day tomorrow my friend. We are actually closing on to this case. Justice will be served to your friend."

I was shocked and happy, and had an abundance of questions. But Mehul raised his hand and said. "Not now Kairav. Wait till tomorrow. All in good time. But before that I need to ask you a few questions. Pooja quit job on a Wednesday. What happened with Anuj on Tuesday? Was he here at home, was he sad, or was he his usual self?"

It was not very hard to remember, and I told him about the whole incident of Anuj crying over phone and leaving for the night. He heaved a sigh, relaxed back on the couch, closed his eyes and slowly said, "The mystery is over. I need some sleep now."

He dozed off instantly on the couch and I did not feel like disturbing him. My heart was jumping with anxiety and excitement. I could barely manage to sleep all night. I was up early, and was ready even before Mehul had woken up. Within an hour, we finished our breakfast, and Mehul asked me to take him to the CIB (Crime Investigation Bureau) office at the Old Airport Road. We left at around 8.30 and was there at the reception of the CIB House by 9.30 AM. Mehul asked for Detective Kamath, the one involved in Anuj's case. Kamath was well built, with a light moustache, almost bald, but his eyes would testify that he was intelligent and a very well educated gentleman. We introduced ourselves to Kamath and told him that we had some information about the Anuj suicide case.

He took us inside the bureau, into an interrogation room and offered us tea, but Mehul went straight to the point. "Sir, you need to arrest Mr. Aveek Rajpal and Mr. Vikash Bohra for multiple instances of crime, including blackmailing, murder and falsifying evidence. I will explain each and every detail to you, but it would be great if you can send a team to arrest both of them and bring them here. They would be at the Technology Business park in the Satellite town. We need to record their statements as soon as possible. The more we tell them about what we know, more the chances that they will get to tamper further with evidence."

"But I cannot just order an arrest based on what you say. The investigation was done and closed without any evidence. I need to know exactly what you mean by crime committed by them and some proof to stand by your accusation."

Mehul reached for his pocket, took out some papers and handed them over to Kamath, and in a more demanding tone continued, "I understand. Let's have these as proof of the blackmailing part. As for the remaining things, I would be able to tell only when I can interrogate them."

With an uneasy look, Kamath reached for his mobile phone and ordered someone to meet him outside the room. There was a knock on the door shortly, and Kamath went out and walked away with the gentleman. After about 15 minutes, he came back, looking even more worried.

"But how did you find all these?" he asked Mehul.

Episode 7 - Pieces Fall Into Place

"Well I must start off by telling you that we did some vague research and resorted to not-so-legal approach initially to get to the criminals, following our own theory about what might have happened. We soon realised that we were wrong and dropped the line of investigation. I then started investigating Pooja's disappearance and the evidence left at the suicide scene. Anuj's case was definitely a suicide. But there were reasons behind it for sure. When I looked back at the death scene, the only thing out of place was the mobile bill print out with the email address written behind it, and then you have my friend's name mentioned in the wall. Maybe he was trying so say something to Kairav. I went to the party hall where there was the farewell party for Vik and Avi. I told the manager that I was there at the party, and loved the facilities and that I would want to have a similar party. I asked him how much the first party costed and cost breakup. The only thing abnormal was that a room was booked that night, by none other than Avi and Vik. I asked the manager to allow me see the facilities, and he asked the room cleaner to accompany me. I assumed that the boy must have seen Avi and Vik when they left the lodge. But to my surprise, upon questioning him, he distinctly remembered a couple leaving the room in the morning the day after the party. The girl was sobbing, while the guy looked very concerned. I even checked the register and found that it was signed Anuj and Pooja for that day and leaving at around 9.30 in the morning. From the information that I could gather about Anuj it is evident that he was very regular. He never slept beyond 6 o clock in the morning. The reason for his waking up late could have been that he was drugged the previous night. But to what extent? So I went back inside under the excuse of having a drink and found a way to talk to the bartender. I offered him some money for some information, and he told me exactly what had happened that night. Vik had booked a room midway during the party. A girl (who he saw leaving next morning) was forced to drink more than she could take by Vik and Avi with the excuse of having one last drink with friends before they left.

Pooja lost complete self-control and almost passed out and that's when both of them took her to the booked room and closed the door while everyone else was too busy partying and dancing. They came out after 30 mins, and started dancing with another guy, whom they again forced to drink till the guy was totally wasted. They carried him over to the same room. He didn't know anything else, but he did see both of them leaving around midnight. Whether they had added some drugs to the drinks offered to Pooja and Anuj was not known to him. I left the place and started working on how to gather all the proofs needed to substantiate my claim. I realised that if Anuj was being blackmailed, it had to be some photographic evidences which can be transferred over mail, since Anuj used an old phone which did not support any multimedia or photographs. Also the message left by Anuj started becoming clear at this point. He did leave his email ID on the back of the paper. Now when you receive the phone bills by email, why would you take a print out of it? Especially Anuj, who was working on creating smart technologies. Also, why would he take the paper to his death? That reminded me that all phone e-bills are password protected. The password is usually the first 4 alphabets of your name followed by your date of birth in DDMMYY format, followed by the last 4 digit of your mobile phone. I used that same password to login to the email ID, and it worked. Anuj was trying to tell us the whole story all this while, but we were stupid to ignore that. Once in his mailbox, I found all the mails needed to prove my point, including the mail that threatened him that if he said anything to anyone, they would put the blame on him, since the attached pictures tell a different story. Attached were those photos which I gave you – pictures of Pooja and Anuj in compromising positions, even though it is glaringly evident that they are unconscious. But this mail was sent on 12th July, the same day that Anuj broke his laptop, maybe in disgust after what he saw in the mail. But I thought that they wouldn't blackmail Anuj over something that happened almost a month back. Some new development must have happened. And suddenly it struck me that Pooja had quit over email and disappeared on 10th. Was it related, I wondered.

So far I was worried that Anuj's death was a result of blackmailing and mental torture, but now I saw a probable murder involved here. I took Pooja's PAN card information, went to the tax department and checked which organization had booked the PAN under their employee details. I got a null report. She was not employed anywhere. I then traced her permanent address and it landed in an orphanage in Hyderabad, where her mentor was Sister Martha. I called up Sister Martha and talked to her for a long time. She told me that Pooja was the best student of her batch. She had grown up in the orphanage, but her sincerity and dedication to learning took her towards a good career. She loved her work and never had any affair with anyone. Even though she had moved out of Hyderabad, she called up Sister Martha every week to know about how the orphanage was doing and to tell her everything that happened at work. She even sent some money for the orphans a couple of times. She would never disappear for weeks like she did now, or not call her. Talking to each other every week had become a habit for both of them. The last time she called, she sounded very upset. She kept talking about a mistake that happened and now she was unable to decide whether to live with the mistake or start afresh. Sister Martha asked her to stay calm and decide what's best for her. She promised to call back next week, but that never happened. I went through her job records with RidgeCliff in details. Her interview form and her work record shows she was a lady with high optimism, confidence and pride. Therefore the fact that she would do something so abrupt and irresponsible like sending her resignation note over mail was unlike her and hence not to be taken lightly. So, I went through her resignation note. It read : 'Dear Sir, I, Pooja Tyagi, hereby resign from my job at RidgeCliff with immediate effect. I dont' have the time to send a more formal notice or to complete my notice period. There has been some emergency at home, and I need to leave today itself. I dont' need an experience certificate or relieving letter. Wish the whole team luck and take care! Regards, Pooja.'

When I was going through the mail, something struck my attention. I have an SMS from Aveek which reads : 'What nonsense. I dont' know what this means. If you bother again, we will file your contact details with the Police'. Note the similarity in both the messages with the word don't. The spelling error is the same in both instances and comes in as a habit when you are typing on phone, where you don't have a spell check. For argument's sake, let us assume Aveek sent both the messages. It would mean that Pooja's resignation letter was typed by Aveek, on Pooja's phone which was connected to her mailbox, on the 11th, when Pooja was supposed to have left, and on the same day Anuj had disappeared for the night after some altercations over phone. I need to talk to both Aveek and Vikash to sort out the rest of the story. But I would request you to place both of them in separate interrogation rooms and also find out whether Pooja had boarded any train or flight on 11th or 12th from this city, even though I am sure you won't find any such records."

Mehul was right. There were no records of Pooja Tyagi travelling on either of the 2 days. After about 30 minutes, the policemen escorted Avi and Vik to the bureau. As instructed, they were placed in separate rooms and asked to wait. Mehul waited outside for more than 15 minutes for some unknown reason. I went up to him and asked him what was going through his mind. He sounded a bit nervous, "I just realised that for the first time in my life I am actually going to talk to criminals and what I say or do inside, will determine their punishment. I have a few hunches, nothing concrete, but I will persist in those lines. If I am right, the case will be over soon. Else, we might be giving both of them a lifeline."

He went inside Vikash's interrogation room. Vikash was taken aback at seeing him, since he was a colleague at one point and that too, a junior colleague. But he didn't say anything. Mehul started by saying, "So Aveek says it was you all the while. You are the one who booked the room during the party, and we have the booking details from the resort. It was you who took Anuj and Pooja's pitures. Later when Anuj and Pooja came to you for the truth, you killed Pooja to shut her up for good. There are 2 things which he couldn't say. Whose child did Pooja bear? And where did you hide Pooja's dead body? Aveek did confess being with you on all these instances and also on having sent the resignation mail from Pooja's cell."

Vikash burst out with rage and disgust. "How dare he blame me and think of getting away unscathed? Yes I booked the room, but it was Aveek who took advantage of Pooja. It was Aveek who brought Anuj to the room and asked me to take their photos. When Pooja called Anuj few weeks back informing him that she was pregnant, and Anuj brought her to our place, it was Aveek who started threatening Pooja and calling her names. He even told her that no one would believe a girl who was willing to have a few drinks and go to bed with anyone. Pooja started slapping him, overtaken with grief, and that's when he tightened his grip on her neck and choked her to death. We tried to stop him, but fear of society and how his fiancé would react, drove him mad. It was he who took Pooja's body and we never got to see her again. Believe me, it was he who murdered Pooja and he was the one who got Pooja pregnant."

"Okay", said Mehul. "I need one more information. Where were you guys when this happened, and how long did Aveek take to come back after hiding the body?"

"We were at an abandoned house near the National Highway, and after around 3 hours, he came back directly to our office, where I was waiting for him."

"Thanks. That will be enough." Mehul came out of the room and headed towards Aveek's room. He banged his hand on the table and spoke loudly, "You are responsible for the death of two innocent people. You are going to die, but before that, the least you can do is tell us where you have hidden Pooja's body, so that her close ones can get some closure, find solace in the cherished happy moments spent with her."

Aveek kept looking towards his right, without any emotion on his face. He slowly said, "I don't know what you are saying. I am not responsible for anything. I need my lawyer before I speak anything else."

Mehul stormed out of the room in rage, shouting, "I will not give you the pleasure of a lawyer. I am going to track the body even before your lawyer reaches this place." He went into the discussion room and started scribbling on his notepad. After a few moments, he looked up, searched the closet for some time, took out the city map and started plotting points on it. A huge number of circles and data points later, he finally came out of the room and called for Kamath.

"The dead body is hidden somewhere near the lake opposite to the forest area here." He pointed at a small area in the map, and immediately Kamath, accompanied by a group of policemen set off for the indicated spot. I had given Rita's address to the detective so that he could take a few of Pooja's clothes for the sniffer dogs to track the body. After around 3 hours, the team came back to the bureau. The body was dug out from near the lake, and sent to the forensic labs for fingerprints and to get conclusive report on whether Pooja was pregnant during her death, and if she was, who was the biological father. Both Aveek and Vikash were taken into custody, and we were congratulated by the police. Kamath gave Mehul one of the traditional salutes and everyone clapped with appreciation while we were leaving the building. Once we came out of the building, I could not hold back my emotions and hugged Mehul while thanking him for all that he did. He smiled and said, "No problem my friend, the pleasure is all mine. Hope the case gets closed very soon and both the culprits get what they deserve."

I drove him to the nearest restaurant, since we both were starving. After our lunch, Mehul said, "Okay, you can drop me to my apartment now. I have some clothes at your place which I can pick..."

"Absolutely not!" I interrupted. "You are not going anywhere. You can stay in my apartment as long as you wish rent-free. There are more than enough rooms for both of us anyways. I must see you getting stable and assured with your professional life. And don't forget Derrick. Once he reads about the case, I doubt whether I will be welcome to office anymore." Mehul smiled.

A week later, the newspapers were swarming with news about Pooja's murder and Anuj's suicide, in the new light of evidences unearthed by Mehul. The police department was honest enough to give complete credit of the new investigation to both of us. It became one of the biggest scandals in the recent years, to have taken place in our city. I was not asked to quit my job, rather congratulated for my determination. Mehul took a short break from everything, and pampered himself with music, and chess. One evening, I came back from office early and sat down with Mehul to understand a few things about the case which were still dark for me.

"So buddy, how did you find where the body was located?"

"That was easy. I noted down a few probabilistic geographical distribution where Aveek will not think of hiding the body, like areas close to his house, or office, or shopping centers, or police stations. Then once I cut those areas out of the map, I calculated the distance range which he could have travelled from the Highway to have come back to office within 3 hours. It was a distribution of areas. Once I eliminated those overlapping areas from the safe zone, I was left with 2 distinct circular areas. One had a playground, and the other had the forest with the dry lake. When he was driving to hide the body, he would subconsciously eliminate all the safe zones, or the high footfall areas, and try to go as far as possible and as remote as possible to hide the body. Determining the location was actually the easy part."

"How did you know that Pooja was pregnant?"

"That was an assumption I made, and mentioned to you as well before I entered the interrogation room. But it was a smart assumption. I saw that the incident happened on 19th, but the reaction came 3 weeks later. Why the gap in reacting? Maybe Pooja, the optimistic young lady that she was, had accepted the past and decided to move on with life. Her talks with Martha seemed natural during that time. But suddenly on the 3rd week, she was sad, she spoke about mistake in life, and having to choose to live with it or start afresh. She also called up Anuj. Something had drastically changed. Maybe she got to know about her pregnancy."

"Wow, that saddens me. She was a very good friend. But what about the code? Did they actually steal the code?"

"We need to leave it unsolved. Both of them have been sent to prison, their company has shut down. Their properties have been mortgaged to make up for the losses incurred to the stakeholders, the theft becomes as trivial as it can get. We will just assume that nothing of that sort happened."

"Well, that was one heck of an experience. But coming to more serious matters, did you decide what you are going to do next? Are you looking for a job?"

"Job? What do you mean?" Mehul smirked as he spoke. With a sarcastic tone, he continued, "Didn't you read the papers? We have become the youth icons. Our work is to serve justice to those denied. And I love my job. Now if you are willing to join hands, we have our next case waiting. Kamath has a peculiar case which has been bothering him. He would love to seek our advice and help. I do agree that we make a great team."

We both laughed out loud and enjoyed our evening tea and snacks.

2 THE STRANGE CASE OF GREED

Marriage Divorce Marriage Death

Tushar Bohra was one of the most acclaimed fashion designers in the country. Pick up any newspaper, and you will find him in Page 3 for majority of the publications. Top budget movies to top budget weddings, his designer clothing were a must for all high society folks. The prime factor that brought him fame and acclaim was his good rapport with almost all influential people. From Film actors to directors and producers, from cricketers to socialites, he knew them all. He was also known for some very bold fashion statements that brewed controversies among media and cultural gurus in the country. But still he remains one of the few designers who always seem to have fresh ideas and innovative thinking.

But a few months back, he was in news for very different reasons. He had been married to model and actress Shruti Tiwary for 2 years. Everything seemed to be fine in their relationship, and they were a happy couple, until all of a sudden, Shruti filed for a divorce. There was a mutual settlement, and the separation happened very soon. Tushar was not at all happy with the separation, and spoke volumes about how Shruti had used his fame, and ditched him for another guy, with whom she was having an affair. He mentioned in several magazines that he was disappointed, alone and terribly saddened by Shruti's insensitive actions.

There were gossips about an affair between Shruti and Sangram, an actor, producer, descendant of the erstwhile Maharaja, and Shruti's first co-actor, for more than a year. Within a month of Shruti getting a divorce from Tushar, she declared that she was about to tie the knot with Sangram. It was a big scoop for the press, and a heart-breaking incident for all female fans of Sangram. For the next 2 weeks, newspapers were filled with news about the wedding plans and arrangements. It was a grand wedding, held at one of Sangram's family owned luxury farmhouses. All celebrities and well known personalities were there to attend the wedding, except Tushar. When asked, he just mentioned that he still loved Shruti and could not see her getting married to someone else. He also blamed Sangram for separating Shruti from him, and that Shruti's infidelity had left such an impression on his heart and mind, that he might never be able to settle down with any other girl again in future.

The newly wed, after hosting and enjoying one of the biggest weddings ever in the country, planned to visit the palace owned by Sangram's ancestors, in Rajasthan, and take blessings from the elders and relatives. It was a long drive to the palace, away from the hustle and bustle of the city and their stardom. At the palace Shruti officially became Maharani Shruti and took vows to carry forward the respect, and dignity that befits a queen, such that the name of the dynasty and its legacy would always be held in high esteem. A month later, the couple set off for their honeymoon. The plan was to spend some time in Jaipur, followed by a month out of the country. It was Shruti's wish to see Jaipur, and since her in-laws had a huge estate in that city, she decided to stay there for some time.

On the day of journey, the couple set off in a white SUV, driven by one of their drivers towards Jaipur. It was a long journey from the palace to the nearest international airport. The route was easy, but went through areas of absolute nothingness, with long stretches of road and sand dunes or forests on either sides of it. They had crossed the village of Satturganj at 2PM, and were supposed to stop next at Jaffarbad by evening and stay there for the night and then continue their onward journey the next day. But on their way, they met a tragic accident. The car skid off the road, toppled multiple times, and caught fire. All the 3 occupants of the car, died inside with no witnesses to testify exactly what had happened. The road between the 2 villages was usually empty for most of the year, and there were very few people living near the place where the accident took place.

No Clue

Suspecting foul play, Sangram's family asked for an enquiry on this. Though the local police felt that the driver must have slept off during the drive and lost control of the car causing the fatal accident, they started the investigation as it involved the royal family and celebrities. Kamath was assigned the investigation. During a routine check-up of bank accounts of various suspects, there was one suspicious log that came up. All transactions were based on authenticated cheque or draft payments, while there was a single cash withdrawal of 10,000 USD from Tushar's account, which was not authenticated and was given to the bearer without subsequent validation. Kamath took a record of all the bill numbers which were issued and matched it with any existing records of resubmission. There was an instance of almost half of the money being deposited to an account belonging to one Mr. Rajnish Shetty. When the account and the owner was tracked, Kamath found that it was a fake account created by Ramanujam, an ex-military man and a shooter who was a suspect in a couple of other cases as well. The travel logs and railway / flight records were checked for the hitman and there was a booking made by him for Rajasthan at the time of the accident. In fact, he had reached Jaipur 2 days prior to the accident and left Rajasthan a day after the accident took place. Ramanujam was arrested and brought for interrogation along with Tushar. But both refused any connection with the incident or with each other. No matter how much they were questioned, they kept silent and did not say anything that would give the police some way ahead. They lawyered up very soon and the case met a dull end, since no clues were discovered at the crime scene.

But the family members persisted in their quest for justice and requested Kamath to keep the case open and hunt for further clues, so that the culprits could be punished and justice served to their dead son and daughter-in-law. It was around the same time that we met Kamath regarding our previous case, and he thought we might be able to help him with the Shruti-Sangram case as well.

It was just after the monsoons that year, when my parents came to visit me for a week with an album full of pictures of girls whom they had shortlisted as my prospective bride. They stayed with me for a week, before deciding to return back dejected. I had requested them for another year before I start thinking of settling down. Mehul, meanwhile, had a good time with my family. His appetite was no less than his intelligence, and with my mother in the kitchen, he was always hungry. My mom loves cooking, and she was more than happy to prepare all his favourite dishes, especially since he was much younger and spoke with a child-like enthusiasm when the discussion was about food. He always avoided questions pertaining to his own family, and just mentioned that he had a sister, and that his parents lived near Bhopal. I found him talking to his mom quite a few times, but he never spoke to his dad, at least not that I knew of.

The day my parents left in the morning, Mehul asked me to accompany him to CIB. He said that both of us were wanted, and that it was a top secret case. It was a Saturday, and I was free as well. So I agreed readily, and within an hour we were at the bureau. The whole office was busy with work, and it took a long time before someone noticed us. We were shown into the conference room and asked to wait, while the office boy went to inform Kamath of our arrival. Mehul had already explained the incident to me and that both Ramanujam and Tushar were roaming free due to lack of evidence. Kamath soon joined us and thanked us both for dropping by. He looked tired and worried. The current case had evidently taken its toll on the detective.

"I don't know how much is there in this case that we can bring out with evidence and proof, but I still felt that you guys might add some fresh thought into it. I have spoken to our department accounts head and we will be providing compensation for your time, not to mention any travel expenses with 4 to 5 star accommodation. The case lies exactly where I last explained to you.", he said looking at Mehul. "I hope Mehul has told you the story so far, Kairav?" I nodded. "Great, so we have a suspect and a guy who evidently planned the whole thing, but we don't have any conclusive proof. If you can get me all the proofs needed, you will be doing the department a great service. This case is of great importance, and the family involved will leave no stones unturned to reach out to every politician and businessman to ensure that someone gets punished for the accident, guilty or not. It is a matter of prestige and ego for them. They are left with no inheritor and their properties will go to the government treasury once the last of kin dies. It was a very sad turn of events for them as well. Anyways, we don't have permission to bring either Tushar or Ramanujam for questioning, nor can we treat them as suspects, at least not on an official level. I can get you the bank and phone statements for Tushar. The other guy lives a very private life. If you guys cannot help, I totally understand. But what is your opinion of this case so far?"

Mehul had been thinking deeply all the while, hands folded together on his cheeks. I knew he would not turn down this project. He was already planning the next course of action. He would rarely give up on any difficult work for that matter. Finally he spoke up,

"We need to start with Tushar. Somehow he needs to talk, or provide us with the first set of clues. I know it's hard or almost impossible to get him to say anything that might jeopardise his situation, but you never know! Little things that one says can become crucial towards our understanding of what had really happened. Can you get us some warrant to interrogate him, or maybe just meet him to know more about the case?"

"I will be very honest with you brother, the department has been asked to stop looking into the case from that angle. There are legal and statutory compliances that we need to follow. We cannot consider anyone a criminal or a suspect unless proven otherwise in the court of law. We definitely can question him, but that phase is long over. He has threatened to file a complaint against our department for harassing and disturbing his peace of mind if we question him again for this case, unless we have concrete proof against him. And as of now, I have none."

"Ok, that makes it a little tougher for us. Let me figure out something. Can you give me a copy of all the evidences and reports that you have gathered for this case? Also, if you can give me Tushar's address and his phone number, it would be very helpful. I will brainstorm on how we can get across to Tushar, with Kairav of course, and I will get back to you by Wednesday. Let me study all the materials we have in our hand."

"That will be done Mehul, you must understand that the documents are all strictly confidential, and can, under no circumstances, be available in part or whole to public or media. I am trusting you on that, and I will get one of the officers to deliver them to your place by evening."

With that we took leave and returned back home. Mehul had taken Tushar's contact details before leaving, so that he could do some research work of his own. After the first case that Mehul helped clear, Kamath did not want to question the need for various information. He assumed that Mehul would do something with those details that would never come to common minds unless explicitly told.

Once we reached home, Mehul started searching for news articles and press releases related to Tushar. He kept reading up every featured article for the next 3-4 hours. Finally, he came into my room, and said, with a lot of excitement in his voice, "Want to play a little trick on Tushar? Let's visit him as crew of Live 24-7 channel, and interview him regarding his upcoming winter collection."

"That's the easy part I guess. What about getting someone to bail us out of jail after we are caught and imprisoned and thrown behind bars for the night?", I ridiculed his idea.

"But it will be one heck of an experience my dear friend. And from what I have learnt about him, I doubt whether his pompous self will let him think beyond what we present in front of him. The truth of the matter is, people are confused. Whether he is a villain, or a celebrity that they always knew him to be. And he is missing those Page 3 appearances, people talking about his talent, his achievements. I don't think he will even ask in detail about who we are. He recently cancelled his PR agent, and right now he has worked very hard on his latest winter collection. Its supposed to be launched by the next month across 4 countries, and I think it's the right time to swoop in and figure out who Tushar really is."

The plan sounded very risky and improbable, but Mehul was fairly convinced. So I agreed but warned him about all the consequences that might be in store. I also recommended that he involve Kamath in this plan so that in the event of getting caught we might have a backup. But my friend was not convinced about involving anyone else. That evening when an officer came to deliver all the files requested, Mehul asked him for a video shooting camera so that he could get the neighbour's dog on tape coming over and using our garden as its toilet. The owner seemingly did not believe the complaints. The officer laughed at it and left, not knowing our actual intentions. Mehul was out early morning the next day and came back in the afternoon with a huge box in hand. He came in excitedly, opened the box and started bringing out the contents.

"Look here buddy, we now have fake visiting cards as Reporter and Camera Crew, we have the camera from the bureau which we need to return back by next week, and we have a few lighting instruments, along with this car window screen, some black cloth and a microphone. We need to create a believable set for shooting and recording of an interview. We have one full day to prepare, the day for interview is tomorrow. I had already called him up and scheduled the interview. I insisted on meeting him at his house, since that's where he would be most comfortable, and our viewers would get to know him the way he is and the wonderful life he lives. The funniest part is that he took it all very seriously and actually agreed that it was very true. He is dying to appear back in media in the right light. We will have good fun tomorrow. Only thing that remains is that we can't tell him our real names. Under no circumstances should he know that we are there to interrogate and not interview. The newspapers have made our names famous after Anuj's case. So I had to introduce myself as Tariq over phone, while you are Sarvesh, the camera man. Or do you want a different name for yourself?"

"You think about it, I need to prepare myself as a camera man. It is a difficult job for someone who has never held a camera ever in life. And please think this through very well. We cannot get caught at any point." I was getting a bit worried.

Next day, we left at about 2 PM since the appointment was at 3PM. We took a cab and reached at Tushar's residence well before time. The security guard let us in, as Tushar had informed them in advance about our meeting. It was a large house, very well maintained, with a large Hercules statue just outside the entrance to the main lobby. The interior was neat and perfectly well maintained, with not a spec of dirt or unwanted items anywhere. The housekeeper was a middle aged man, properly groomed and well dressed. He offered us some juice and asked us to take a seat. Tushar came down from the first floor. He wore a pair of red tight pants and a coarse material jacket with large patterns. He had a muffler fashionably tied around his neck, and a pair of white-frame glasses.

"Thank you so much guys to have taken all the trouble to come over and interview me. Although I was a bit surprised that your channel would interview me twice in 3 months, when the first interview, taken by that tall gentleman from your channel, was not even shown on TV."

This came as a surprise to us as well. But Mehul did not lose his composure.

"Yes, we know. The previous interviewer left the company shortly after the crew had met you. Sadly enough, the tapes were not submitted to us after editing. We were desperate to showcase a dashing and talented young achiever like you, and that's why we are here."

Tushar looked embarrassed. "You guys are most kind. I am but a lucky guy who got the right opportunity at the right time. There is still so much more that I have to achieve. Shall we start the interview?"

I quickly set up the camera and fixed a light on top of it, with some black screens on either sides. Mehul held the microphone the other end of which, we fixed to the camera Audio input, even though I doubt whether it was working at all. Tushar looked at the arrangement with a suspicious look and looked at me again. "Old school camera staff you have with you Tariq. He uses a very primitive way of video recording I see."

"Well, you know the budgets have not been very kind on us. And yes, he is an old school campaigner, but does really well with those outdated instruments. I am sure you would love the final product once the editing and post-processing is done."

Tushar smiled and shifted the focus back towards Mehul. For the next half an hour, questions kept flowing, and were met with self-appraising, bloated answers. Mehul asked Tushar about who he really was, what he wanted from life, what is a typical day like in the life of Tushar, his love life, his family, his work and his latest designs. Tushar had quite a few samples of his latest collection ready. He asked the housekeeper to fetch them and showed us a few of his most sought after designs. Every now and then, Mehul would stress on being natural and honest with the answers, to let people know the real Tushar behind the famous self. He would also occasionally turn back at me and with his thumbs up, ask me whether I got the previous shot properly. I would also raise my thumb in affirmative.

"Is it possible that we ask the last set of questions in a more informal area, like your living room or veranda, or bedroom for that matter. Such surroundings make our viewers feel that you are a non-complicated and open human being with no secrets."

Tushar readily agreed and took us to the first floor, where there was a huge room acting both as a bedroom as well as a study, with a work table, a book shelf on the side, leading to a veranda. There was an attached bath, and a huge closet filled with clothes. There was a small table and chair opposite to the bed, where a jacket was flung carelessly. On the table was a packet of cigarettes, neatly arranged beside a holder containing a lighter as well as a few more neatly arranged fags. I set my camera close to the balcony, while Mehul went around the room with Tushar. Finally they both sat on the large swing on the balcony and the interview resumed. Even though my friend tried to poke into his married life, he dodged the question by saying that what's gone out of hand can be left out. Else it gives rise to unnecessary disappointment.

We finished the interview at around 4.15 PM. Tushar wanted to see a snippet of what has been recorded, but Mehul convinced him that it's better if he sees the finished copy once they are done with the editing. We were offered snacks and drinks before we left, which we happily gobbled up since we both were pretty hungry. Tushar asked the housekeeper to get us some of the home-made sweets as well. "My mother is the best cook in the world. These sweets were prepared by her. Have some, I am sure you will love it." They were indeed very delicious.

When we were about to leave, Mehul suddenly turned around and started searching his pockets.

"Tushar, would you have a smoke by any chance? I think I forgot my packet back home."

"Sorry Tariq, I quit smoking couple of years back. In fact I have kept the last few cigarettes as memento and as a proof that I have overcome my smoking habits."

"Ah right! I should have known. Thanks anyways." Mehul said with a smile and started leaving.

We left at around 5 and got a cab. Mehul had a grave expression on his face and did not speak much, till I spoke out my mind.

"Is it just me, or Tushar appeared to be gay to you as well?"

"Of course he is gay. He never lived a happy married life with Shruti. In fact, his boyfriend is staying with him now as well. The one who smokes, and is not as neat and tidy as Tushar. He is the one who threw that dirty and down market jacket over the chair before he left. Tushar has his study inside his bedroom. No married man has that. There was this only one instance of an extra piece of clothing in the bedroom, all others in the closet were Tushar's – high priced and high fashion, with Medium size. The Jacket was XXL which means his partner is a much larger individual, more dominant and stronger as well which also tells us that his relationships with other guys are not long term and there are no emotional attachments. He did remember my seeing the cigarette holder and so tried to make up a memento story, but how can a non-smoker have a packet of cigarette whose manufacturing date is that of 2 month back? 2 years of married life is a long time my friend, and you cannot just get rid of every memory of the relationship in a couple of months. Not a single photo, not a single thing that belongs to a woman, his house looks more like a bachelor pad. He is close to his parents, and maybe because of them, and to avoid the ire of the society around his parents, he married Shruti, just so that people stop talking behind his back. Their marriage was a compromise and more of a contract. The contract was that Shruti would act as his wife and present him as a straight guy in the society. What Shruti was supposed to get back in return is the question and probably the first step towards solving the case. But one thing is for sure. There was no love between the two, and the press conference was just a way to clear Tushar from any adverse assumption that people or media might have made. We don't need the proof of this matter since we now know that the motive which Kamath believed to have been the cause for murder, does not exist at all. Even if Tushar planned a murder, it would have been for a very different reason."

We went to the bureau and returned the camera and met Kamath as well. We told him all that we observed and even though he was not amused by our little play, he was appreciative of the progress that we had started making.

"I need to go to Rajasthan as soon as possible, and visit a few places. I would like to speak to Sangram's family as well, and would like to check the local police records. Kairav doesn't need to accompany me, since I have a set of work that he has to complete here with respect to the case. I want you to arrange the travel and stay for me and get my friend all the access, help and support he needs to get work done here. The mystery intensifies Mr. Kamath, and I have already started enjoying this."

Kamath finally managed a smile on his face.

"Everything will be done and taken care of Mehul. Wish you all the best and hope this case is closed before this month ends. I will inform you about your travel plans and flight timings by tonight. I will send some cash and a few other items for you so that you can carry on your investigation without any worry."

We left the bureau and went to the market to pick up a few things that Mehul wanted for his trip, like a few light clothes, some formal suits, a travel pouch, etc. I tried to ask him several times about what I was supposed to do in town, but he persisted that we talk about it once we reach home.

Later in the evening, we reached home and found the same officer who had delivered the documents earlier, waiting outside the house with 2 large packets.

"Kamath Sir asked me to deliver these to you. I will take my leave now."

"Hmm. Nice scent. Which perfume do you use?" Mehul asked.

"Oh no, Sir. It is just the smell of Ittar. There is a very old shop just beside the travel agent's office. He puts a dab on every passer-by's wrist." He smiled at both of us and left.

The packets contained everything that we had asked for, flight tickets, hotel bookings, an envelope with some cash, maps, binoculars, contacts of local police, a mobile phone, internet data card, etc. Mehul was supposed to leave the very next day at 11 AM, and a cab had been booked to take him from home to the airport.

The Clue in the Secret Room

"That was quick. So, now I need to tell you what you are supposed to do here. You would find out the complete details regarding those 10,000 USD equivalent of Indian Rupees cash withdrawal from Tushar's account. How was it withdrawn, who took it, where was it spent, everything. Once you are done with that, try to find out about Shruti's past life – her life before marriage with Tushar, where she went, whom did she meet. It's not easy to spend 2 years of your life in a false relationship, without making friends. Keep me informed over phone about everything that you can lay your hands upon. You can send me emails as well. As it seems, I will have internet access! I still don't know what I would do in Rajasthan, but hopefully I would land on one clue after the other and knit the story correctly on the canvas."

Next morning, I got ready for office, while Mehul eagerly waited for the cab to arrive. At 8 AM sharp, the driver came to our door and picked up the luggage. I wished my friend best of luck, and asked him to take care of himself. After he left, I went to my office as well. There were some pending works, which I completed in the morning, and called up Kamath during lunch time. I asked him for all the details with respect to the cash withdrawal – bank CCTv footage, the cashier notes, a copy of the cheque and trace records of all the notes which were given to the bearer. Kamath told me that it would take some time for him, but if I could drop by the bureau next day, he would have them all ready for me.

I went on to do my research on Shruti. I used all the articles about her that I could discover online. She was a model before the married Tushar, and over the next two years, she got her break as an actress in 2 movies, as a supporting actress in the first movie and a lead role in the 2nd one, even though it was not a very high budget movie. The strange thing was that she used to be a struggling model, hardly getting a couple of shows of some visibility in 3 years before she got married. The last modelling assignment she had was with Tushar himself, after which they got married, and she stopped walking on the ramp, and started her acting career. The reputation of her husband had definitely changed her fortunes. But then, every article that she appeared in, drew her connection to Sangram, their closeness and a possible affair going on between them.

It was by luck that in one old article, I saw that Shruti mentioned how she had to struggle growing up, and that her mother took her last breath in St. Patrick's old age home after a long ailment. That was the only time that she made any mention of her family.

I called up the old age home and asked them for inmate records of someone who was brought by Shruti and who died a couple of years back. The warden was puzzled. She mentioned that similar questions were asked twice before, and both times she repeated the same thing. There has been no one at their place admitted by someone named Shruti Tiwary, or who died couple of years back. In fact, their old age home was meant for families of those who served the church. So clearly, Shruti made up a story about her family to the press. I called up Kamath again and asked him whether police had any records of where Shruti lived before marriage. He did not know much but assured me that he will find out by some means. At about 4PM, I left office and went to the bureau. The hunt of Shruti's old address was still on. I had with me, a record of her modelling career and the agency which handled her portfolio. We called up the agency and got to know that her registered address used to be a girls' PG at the west end of the city. We left the bureau immediately, me and Kamath, and drove to the address given. It was an old dilapidated house with a large number of smaller quarters or rooms in it. There was a security guard sitting at the ground floor. We asked him if he knew anything about Shruti staying there and if he could tell us anything about her life before marriage.

"Sahab, Shruti madam used to stay in the small room at the terrace. She struggled a lot to make both ends meet. After her marriage, one day she came back and told that she had bought the room and asked me to ensure no one tries to enter it. The room was given to her by some church, so after she left, the room was up for rent. But before a new owner could occupy the room, she bought it. All her stuff remains in the same room till date. She never really cleared the room. I do not have the keys, nor does the owner of the building. She did come back few months back, but left within a couple of hours. The room hasn't been opened ever since."

He didn't stop us from going to the terrace to take a look, once Kamath showed him the CIB Badge. It was dark, and the room was a small one. There was an attached bathroom, and a small covered area just outside the room. Kamath took an iron rod lying on one side of the terrace and with a strong blow, broke the lock. We entered the room and switched on the light. With a little flicker, the bulb lit up. It was a long uninhabited room with modest belongings. On the left was a small cot, covered with a thin emaciated mattress, and covered with a torn bed sheet, a layer of dust sitting on top of it. On the other wall was a small window, just above a table and a wooden chair. The table had 2 drawers. On the 3rd side of the room was the kitchen, not separated from the room, but can be identified as one because of a small stove and a few jars and utensils. There were a few posters on the walls of actors and models and a large aluminium trunk just beside the table. While everything else had dust on them, the box and the lock on it looked relatively cleaner. We started searching the entire room keeping the box for the last. There was nothing anywhere worth considering. A few papers were found in the table drawers, but they were audition tickets, studio contacts and other old bills. It took Kamath some effort to break the lock in the trunk, but finally it gave way. Inside the trunk were some old clothes, a file, and a smaller wooden box as big as a safe, but small enough to fit inside the trunk. We opened the box and found a package covered with an old newspaper. On removing the newspaper, there laid in front of us, new currency notes in bundles of 50, each of 1000 INR. There were 5 bundles and a few scattered bills as well. Kamath took out his phone and called in the evidence team and asked me not to touch the money to avoid losing any important fingerprints. We kept the package aside, and looked into the file. There were few photos of Shruti in her modelling photoshoots and an envelope. Inside the envelope was a photo of Shruti, much younger, hugging an older lady. Based on the looks, she looked like Shruti's mother. In the envelope was another paper, a copy of admission document from St. Patrick's old age home dated May 1998. The document was made for Ms. Sheela Joseph, while the relative who signed the document was Raji Joseph, with daughter as the relation.

Things were becoming more and more clear for us. I requested Kamath to let me keep the documents and accompany me to the old age home the next day. In the meanwhile we sent the cash for verification and to track the currency numbers. I was dropped back home by the inspector, and I immediately tried to call Mehul. His personal number was not reachable, so I tried the other number provided by the bureau. After a couple of tries, I could finally get across to him. I told him everything that we came across that day, and also our plan of action the next day. He, on the other hand, could not do much since the flight was delayed. He was in Jaipur, and told that his investigation would start early morning next day.

Next day I took a day off from work, and rushed to the bureau without even having my breakfast. Kamath was waiting for me. We picked up a couple of sandwiches and rushed off to St. Patrick's. It was an hour's drive and the place was located towards the city outskirts. On reaching there, we went to the manager's room. She greeted us warmly, and asked us how she could be of help. We showed her the picture we found last day. She immediately recognised the lady.

"That's Sheela. She used to be an inmate here. She died couple of years back. A very nice lady, who spent all her time serving the poor and needy. She grew up at our church and spent most of her time here among the priests and the nuns. But one day she left. She was in love with someone. She came back long afterwards, diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Her daughter had brought her here, but never came back again to visit her mother. We kept receiving money on her behalf every year, as donations, but Sheela longed to see her daughter every day. Maybe you can go through her left over possessions and see if something can be of help."

They had archived all her belongings in 2 huge trunks and locked it at the claim room. At our request, they unlocked both the trunks, and let us take a look. We quickly browsed through everything, and found a small woollen purse of special interest. In that there were a few photos and a few letters. The photos were mainly that of herself during her younger days, or that of her holding a small baby, that of her daughter when she was growing up, and then there was a photo of an army personnel. It was a very old photo and hence not very clear, but Kamath was taken aback when he saw the photo. With a dumbfounded look, he could just utter, "Ramanujam!"

A New Story Unfolds

It indeed was the same guy whom we suspected of killing Shruti and her husband. We quickly went through the letters that we got from the same pouch. They were written by Sheela to Ramanujam, but never posted. It talked about how their daughter was growing up, how society could not allow a Christian to get married to a Brahmin, but how she still loved him every day and how much Raji missed her dad and his guidance. She wrote about her dream of getting together with him and starting off their family and letting Raji have the love of a father and a mother. From what she wrote, it was very evident that both Sheela and her daughter faced tremendous hardships in their lives. They had to live off the streets and spend days without anything to eat.

We took those photos and letters and left for the bureau. I called up Mehul on our way back. He was going to the same hotel where Shruti and Sangram had planned to stay. I told him everything about our visit and what we had unearthed. He thanked me and congratulated me for the work done and asked me to get as much details as I could about the bank notes.

By the time we came back to the bureau, a preliminary report on the currency notes found at Shruti's place came in. The currency numbers matched those withdrawn in cash from Tushar's account. We also got hands on the bank's CCTv footage of the same day when the cash was withdrawn. As expected, it was Tushar himself who went in to take the cash. Since he was the account owner, the extra level of authorization was not required. He withdrew the cash and put it in a black leather bag and went out of the bank. We called up Mehul again and told him about the bank video and the money withdrawal details, and the fact that Shruti had the remaining money with her. We also told him that we were thinking of bringing Ramanujam in, in the wake of the fresh set of evidences that connected him to one of the deceased, but Mehul asked us to hold on and not take any quick action until we received a go ahead from him. He said that he would call back the next day once he has something more conclusive in hand.

I was happy with the day's work and could see multiple theories that would explain the chain of events. Maybe Ramanujam was threatening Shruti about telling everyone who she really was. Shruti might have paid him some money to shut him off initially, but when the demands increased, she refused, and Ramanujam killed her. But that theory was weak because why would Ramanujam kill his own daughter or take all the pains to do so, when he would still not get anything back in return. It may also have been that Tushar was involved in the planning, and he was the primary culprit who involved Ramanujam, without the latter knowing that he was actually killing his own daughter.

I tried to get in touch with Mehul later that evening, but could not reach any of his numbers. I sent him a mail asking whether he could gather any evidence throughout the day, and went off to sleep.

Next day, I was a little late in getting up from bed. Mehul had not replied to the mail, nor had he given me a call. I called up Kamath and asked him of any news from Rajasthan, but even he had no update on the progress. The last he heard from them was that Mehul took one of the officers and went to Sangram's house.

I went back to my work, but could hardly keep my mind off the case. Oh how I would have loved to be in Rajasthan, trying to gather as much clues as I could. Both Kamath and I kept trying all day to reach Mehul, but without any result. We even tried to get some information from the local police station, but even they did not know the whereabouts of Mehul or the officer accompanying him. The day passed without any further development. I was getting a bit worried for Mehul. I was so bored and tired of not doing anything useful all day, that I fell asleep.

Next day started off in a similar fashion as the previous one. No calls or emails from Mehul, no news could be gathered by either Kamath or myself, Kamath was on the verge of going to Rajasthan himself to ensure the well-being of my companion. At about 3 PM that day, I received an email from him. It said, "Coming back tomorrow with the real culprits. Will report to the bureau directly. Be there at 2PM to know more about the case and to drive me back home, LoL. Sorry for not having replied earlier. I did not have connectivity."

Ramnath always believed in the saying "Simple living and high thinking". He lived a very simple life, since he could not afford a better one. His father had left a mud hut behind, where Ramnath stayed with his family, a couple of cows, a donkey and a small piece of land. With his father's meagre saving and with his in-laws' gifts to their daughter, the small family consisting of Ramnath, his wife and a son, lived in extreme poverty. The money was draining fast and time was running out for him to start earning a living. But that did not stop Ramnath from dreaming big and of becoming rich and wealthy. Once on his visit to Jaipur he met his childhood friend Suprit, who had a small tyre puncture repair shop in the market. It was quite a profitable business according to Suprit, he told Ramnath that he earned nearly 2500 INR per month from the shop, enough for him and his family to live a life of luxury. Ramnath immediately decided that he needed a similar shop. He sold his father's ring in the market, and got a few items that would be needed to repair flat tyres. Over the next one month, he slowly built a shop near the National Highway connecting Satturganj and Jaffarbad. The location of the shop was good for him since it was just 15 minutes' walk from his home. Every morning he would sit on his donkey, pack some chapatis and onion, go to the shop site, and build a little bit more of the shop which would make him rich for life. He even designed a logo for his shop, a black circular design, cracked on the side to show puncture, and with the words "Panchar Repare" written beside it.

He was an honest fellow, good at heart. He was a little naïve and foolish, but never as much as thought bad for someone. He went to the village school when he was young, but never felt like leaving the village for higher studies. He loved his son, Sarvesh, and wanted him to grow up to be an independent, successful man. So that Sarvesh never thought of his father as a good-for-nothing lazy and unsuccessful man, this shop meant a lot to him. This would be his gift to his son, which would help him get some stable income in future.

Even before the summer had set in, his shop was ready. He had strategically built it in front of a hillock, so that sandstorms and desert wind do not blow the shed off. There was a sitting area in front for the customers. Then there was a shed area with a water encroachment where he could check the location of puncture. Behind that was the shop, filled with tools and products needed for his work. He even got a car stopping by on the shop on the inauguration day. A couple of foreigners got down, took a snap of his shop, laughed at the board on top, and left. Ramnath did not know if they appreciated his effort, or mocked at him. He was happy that people saw his shop with him standing in front. Maybe that was a good omen, one that God sent to indicate a great life ahead of him.

But 6 months down the line, all his optimism fell flat on his face. Not a single flat tyre came to his shop. On the other hand his shop got robbed once, and after some time, the small water pool outside served the purpose of quenching the thirst of the neighbourhood cattle, and all Ramnath could do was think of moving his shop to a more viable area.

Clouded by desperation and a struggle for survival, his sanity gave way to more undeserving and unbecoming thoughts. He planned to somehow bring business to him, rather than wait for eternity hoping that some tyre would get flat in front of his shop.

One day, his son came to the shop to play with the wheel. He used to run alongside the wheel with a small stick in hand, frequently giving a push to the wheel with the stick, to keep it rolling. He saw his father sitting dejected, and so walked up to him to know the cause of concern. Ramnath was worried about how he would pay the school fees for Sarvesh that month. But when he saw his son approach him, he managed a smile on his face, stood up, lifted Sarvesh to his lap and went towards the hillock to create a small sand hill that the little one could play with. Sarvesh could understand that their poverty was making his dad very worried, so he suggested, "Dad, why don't you do some farming and animal husbandry like grandpa?"

"Because, son, I do not want to live like grandpa, worrying and working every day of my life, and dying in this same village without seeing the world outside. I want to work hard for a few years and make sure that you and your mother have all the joy and happiness in the world in your hands."

"But the shop is not helping your cause dad. We haven't had any flat tyres coming in till now, nor has the shop earned us any money. With farming, at least we had assured meals and some money from the market", Sarvesh said innocently.

Ramnath smiled. "Son, this is a lesson in life that you have to learn. There is no free food in this world. You have to be patient, strive hard and believe in God. But most of all, you have to be smart. If sit at one place, you can never expect something good to happen, because you are not moving in life. Good things happen to those who take initiatives son. I could have followed my father's steps and lived a life of mediocrity, but I chose to follow my heart and take chances. Now business is a very tricky thing son. It is for those who know how to make money. It gives you the chance to achieve everything that you can dream of. But you have to believe in your work."

Sarvesh was not very convinced. So Ramnath decided to give him a demo so that his faith in his dad remained intact.

"Come over son, I will show you how to control your own destiny and not live a lowly life."

Just Bad Luck

It was monsoon and the sky was growing dark slowly. Ramnath picked up a few nails from the shop, and started walking along the road towards Satturganj. After walking for almost a kilometre, he stopped and asked his son to throw a few nails over the road. Sarvesh spilled 5-6 nails towards the other half of the road, and quickly came back to his dad. They went behind the hillock that bordered the road and waited patiently for a vehicle. Both of them peeped through a dry bush waiting eagerly for nearly an hour. In the meanwhile a vehicle had passed in front of them from Jaffarbad towards Satturganj, and so, had dodged the nails, which were on the left half of the road. But when the clock had struck 4, they saw a white SUV coming towards them in full speed from Satturganj. This was the moment they had long waited for. The car would certainly have a flat tyre, and stop somewhere close to their shop. The driver would walk a little bit ahead to find help and would eventually find his shop. Ramnath even planned to serve them tea and snacks and charge them 10 Rupees for the work, since it was difficult to find any other help in the near vicinity.

But then, the unthinkable happened. The SUV did go over one of the nails as planned, but it lost control. The car skid and screeched for some time, went off the road into the sand area, and toppled over. It rolled for 6 times before hitting the edge of a small sand hill and stopped. There was smoke coming out of the engine, and the car was turned upside down. In disbelief, Ramnath stood up, and started shouting for help. Soon realizing that there was no one ahead, he ran towards the car so that he could pull out the victims. Sarvesh followed him closely. When they reached the edge of the road, suddenly they saw flames coming out of the chassis. Ramnath stopped in the middle of the road, lifted Sarvesh and held him closely. He knew what was going to happen next. There was a huge blast and thick smokes started fuming up from the car. There were no signs of any survivor. He quickly went back to the place where they had thrown the nails, and picked up the few nails still lying around. With Sarvesh crying and scared, still in his laps, he made a run for his shop. When they passed the car, he could see a charred lifeless hand come out of the window.

Once they were in the shop, Ramnath quickly locked his shop, and ran home. On the way, he made Sarvesh promise not to tell anyone about what had happened, otherwise they would kill his father. It had started raining, and was dark all around. Thunderstorms and lightening had made everyone go back to their own houses. Ramnath ran into his hut and closed the door behind him. He was trembling with fear and guilt. Sarvesh started crying loudly once they were inside. Seeing all this, Ramnath's wife came up to her husband, confused. She had never seen her husband so rattled before. Slowly, with trembling voice, he narrated everything that had happened. She knew her husband was a good human being, and the fact that innocent people died because of him would destroy his peace of mind, self-esteem for life and nothing could ever abate his guilty conscience. She knew that forever it would scar their family and Ramnath would not be able to see his own son eye to eye. She could hardly comprehend the ill effects this would have on little Sarvesh.

Without saying anything else, she ran towards the closet, brought out all their clothes and other belongings, packed them in an aluminium box and wrapped up the remaining in a large piece of cloth, and asked Ramnath to get the cart outside.

"Where are we going?" Ramnath asked surprised.

"We have to leave this place. We cannot stay here. My father has a small cottage outside Jaffarbad. We will go there and stay. Sarvesh needs to get away from all the bad memories that you just presented him with. You need to get away from here if you want to live a normal life again. This place will haunt you forever."

Ramnath knew that she was right. He was in no state of mind to think or act or to logically alleviate the situation he had created for himself, his family or anyone associated with those whom he had killed unwillingly. The rain had considerably reduced, even though it was still very dark outside. He brought out the cows, tied the wooden holder of the cart to their backs, put the luggage in the cart, locked the house, and set off with his family They travelled for nearly 4 hours through the highway, passing a large convoy of police jeeps and ambulance rushing towards Satturganj. Once they were off the highway, they went through a small village that was located outside Jaffarbad. At the outskirts of the village was the cottage that belonged to his in-laws.

Life had taken such a swift and bitter turn, that Ramnath was still in utter disbelief. He was a criminal, a murderer, a failed father, all that he had never thought of being even in his worst nightmares. Whether he would be caught and punished, hanged, or sent for life to prison was not as much a worry to him as the fact that his foolishness had killed Sarvesh's childhood, the lives of everyone in the car and those who were dependent on them – their parents, husbands or wives. He kept crying like a baby, and dozed off to sleep. But memories of the burnt hand came back in his dreams and held him by his neck. Scared, he woke up with a start and could not sleep for the rest of the night.

His in-laws visited them the next day. His wife lied to them about the reason for shifting and also told them that henceforth, they would be staying in the cottage for good. There was a small field just outside the house where Ramnath started farming. His in-laws provided all the help needed to set up a new life for Ramnath and his family to the best of their abilities. But the problems kept increasing for them. Ramnath could not sleep at night, because every time he did, memories of the fateful day haunted him. Sarvesh became quiet and lost in his own world. Happiness and joy seemed to have left him for good. He would not go near Ramnath or talk to him. He did not even want to go out of the house.

Ramnath worked as hard as he could to keep himself busy and tired, and away from the thoughts and memories of the accident. But the more he ran away from it, the more it came back to him.

It was almost a month since they had left their village, but things fared worse for Ramnath till it was unbearable. He decided to end his life. One morning, his wife and son left the house to visit his in-laws. They were to come back in the afternoon. Ramnath took a rope, threw it across a wooden block in the ceiling, and stood on the chair, tied the rope around his neck firmly. He was ready to make the journey to afterlife. With tears in his eyes, he remembered his father, his mother, all that they did for him, the day when his actions killed Sarvesh's innocence and his childhood. He took a deep breath, and was about to push the chair under him with his feet, when the door was pushed open and there stood 2 men outside. One was a police man, the other was a young man, curly black hair, dark brown eyes, looking intently at Ramnath. It was Mehul.

The Innocent Criminal

Unable to control my anxiety, I reached the bureau at 12 noon next day, 2 hours before what Mehul had mentioned in his email. Kamath had gone to the airport, to get everyone back to the bureau. Mehul called me from the airport, once the plane landed. After 2 hours of wait, the whole team was back to the bureau. Mehul was accompanied by the inspector from Jaipur, 2 other police men from Jaffarbad, and the local team of Kamath and his men. Between all of them was a man with grey and black hair, unshaved face, pale dry lips, looking tired and exhausted, and with torn and old clothes. He seemed to be a man defeated in life and given himself up to the inevitable. The man was promptly carried over to the local prison cell, while the others went into the conference room. Mehul came to me, gave me a satisfied smile, and heaved a sigh of relief.

"This was fun all along Kairav! I didn't hope to come up with a tangible outcome of my pursuit. But thankfully, I could join the dots and land up at the doors of this unfortunate soul. Don't know who should be called as a culprit in this particular case. The events that led to the final misfortune, were more twisted and convoluted than the final accident itself. But anyways, come with me so that I can explain everything to the police in one go and we can leave for home. I am very tired."

I followed Mehul to the conference room. Everyone had seated themselves and were looking at Mehul to explain the course of events to them.

"Those who don't know who the captive is, he is Ramnath. He is the criminal in this case, even though I would say he never ever knew that his actions would take the lives of so many. In any case, even if the accident did not happen, lives would have gone, there would have been gravely unfortunate events, and the culprit would have been someone completely different. I would start off with our initial investigation. I had accompanied Kairav to a small staged mission in order to get more and more information from Tushar, since he was the initial suspect in this case. After we spent some time with the fashion designer, under the pretext of being an interviewer, we could realize that Tushar was gay and had no interest in girls. All the claims of love and infidelity post getting divorce from Shruti were lies and had only one motive – to prove to the world that he was not gay and that he has been wronged by a woman and was taking time to decide on his future. Under such circumstances, his killing Shruti and her new husband would have been absurd and unrealistic. He was therefore, out of our suspect list.

While I was going through the evidences and reports on the case, I came across the site photographs right after the incident happened. I noticed distinct tyre marks on the road a few meters away from where the car landed after toppling. The marks seemed to appear suddenly and then push down on the same line, before moving into the sand areas beyond the road. This was not in coherence with the theories we had. The shooter was supposed to have shot Shruti, or Sangram, if he had been employed by Tushar. For consideration, we can also assume that he might have just shot the driver, so that the car goes out of control and kills them all. In either case, the car was not supposed to leave such tyre marks on the road. Such marks appear under two circumstances – either when we have a flat tyre, or when someone comes in front of the vehicle all of a sudden, and the driver would want to dodge the obstacle. But shooting was definitely not looking a very plausible explanation. Strange things do happen, and so, to verify my theory, I had to visit the place where all these had happened. I did ask my able partner here to carry out a few investigations here about Shruti and the money which was tracked from Tushar's account. I must admit that the findings here were the most important facets of this case.

Once I came to know the relationship between Shruti and Ramanujam, and Shruti's past, her life before marriage I could not help consider her a block of this puzzle of finding the wrong-doer. When I went to the hotel, I started enquiring about Ramanujam as well. There were no bookings made during the time of the accident under the name of Ramanujam. Then I remembered the name Rajnish Shetty, which was the name used for Ramanujam's bank account. I met with some success, as 2 days prior to the accident, a room indeed was booked by Mr. Rajnish for a week at that hotel. With the local police accompanying me, it was not very difficult for me to get across to the room for an inspection. The room had been cleaned multiple times since then, but from what I could find, the room overlooked the garden area, followed by the swimming pool. After the pool, rose the next set of rooms, their balconies facing the pool area. The room number was A235. I went back to the reception and asked for more information on the room booked for Shruti and her husband. To my astonishment, the room number was B235. I went back to the previous room, and found that the couple's room was directly in front of, though quite a good distance away from, A235. The alphabet represented the block, the first number represented the floor, and the last 2 digits were the room numbers in the specific floor. The 2 rooms under consideration had to be facing each other.

Now Ramanujam booked the room first, and so it had to be someone at Shruti's end who could have booked the room exactly opposite to a murderer's room. So, I went back to the booking counter and asked for all the booking logs. I found that Shruti herself had booked the room 2 days after her father arrived, and when I looked at the special request column, I saw that there was a special request for the room B235. Considering Shruti had never visited that place before, it could only mean that Ramanujam had told her about the room perfectly opposite to the one he was staying in. All these pointed to the fact that Shruti was plotting against her own husband. But what was the motive? I decided to go and meet Sangram's family and understand what really was at stake here for Shruti. Also, I had formed a rough theory about how the accident happened, but no concrete proof to verify the same.

Ramanujam had left the hotel a day after the couple died. When I asked the receptionist, she mentioned that the occupant of A235 never left the room during his stay. He had asked the staff not to disturb him under any circumstances, and was only seen again when he left the hotel in a hurry.

With all these in mind, I set off for Sangram's palatial residence. On the way, I stopped at the location where the accident took place. If a shooting was involved, the shooter must have waited for the car at a place from where he could get a perfect aim and also hide himself efficiently. Standing at the approximate location, from where the tyre marks had started, I could see only one area where a shooter could hide himself while aiming at an approaching car. I went up the hill to see if I could find anything useful for the investigation, although I was sure that I would not find anything, since the shooter theory did not seem realistic. When I reached the top, I started looking behind bushes and stones from where a sniper can take aim. There was a large dry shrub which had a few trampled branches. On looking closely, I found a few nails lying below.

After collecting the nails, we went to Sangram's house. Shruti being the Maharani, was the heir to all of Sangram's properties and belongings. Sangram had already nominated his wife as the rightful heir of all his properties in case something happens to him. There was also a life insurance of over 1 crores, in which Shruti was the nominee. The family was sad that they lost not only a son, but also a daughter in that horrible incident. Obviously Shruti had done well enough to win the hearts of her in-laws, so that if something happened to her husband, there would be no objection in her taking over all the fortunes.

We went back the same day to the accident location. On searching the nearby areas, we found a tyre puncture repair shop that was locked. We broke open the lock and searched the small shop. We found a box full of similar nails that I had found on the hill top. We went to the nearby village and started asking about the owner of the shop. Everyone seemed to know about Ramnath, since he was good at heart and a very helpful human being. We came to know that Ramnath and his family disappeared the same night as the accident, and no one ever saw them since. His neighbour told us about Ramnath's in-laws and where they lived, and we followed his lead and ended up at a farm house which belonged to the Talwars. We found Ramnath's wife and son in the house. They had come for a short visit. When we started asking them about his whereabouts and also told them that this was about the accident which happened, Sarvesh started crying and told us everything that had happened. Poor kid was so moved by the incident and so scared, that he could hardly stop crying. We immediately went to the cottage where Ramnath was staying with his family, and just when he was about to end his life because of guilt and grief, we stopped him, arrested him and brought him over.

If not for him, the number of deaths would have been lesser as Shruti's plan of killing Sangram in the hotel would have eventually succeeded. But then, the culprit would not have come to light, nor would have the heinous plan of greed and deceit. Shruti might have come to know about her father from the letters her mother wrote to Ramanujam, and tracked him down after he was discharged from the army. She might have used his past to force him to help her out, since she needed someone to do the dirty work, someone she could trust. And who better than her own biological father. She even paid Ramanujam for the work, with the money that she extorted from Tushar after their divorce, blackmailing him about revealing to the world that he was gay.

That, my friends, is the long and short of this case. Ramnath is your culprit, but I don't think he deserves capital punishment. What he did was wrong, but he never intended to harm anyone. He acted out of immaturity and his naïve nature and desperation to get some business flowing in. If the police department can recommend to the court that a few years of exile should be enough for the poor man who already is suffering a lot, it would be great for him and his family. He is a good human being.

Tushar is innocent, but I do not know how you can nab Ramanujam. He is a criminal, but in this case, he had not committed any crime by which he can be convicted and tried in a court of law. May be its time to dig up some of his older crimes."

Everyone in the room listened to Mehul with astonishment and awe. The case went from one shore to the other, and eventually ended up at a state which none of us ever thought of in our wildest of dreams. Ramnath was taken into the cross border police custody and his family brought into safe house until the case was closed at the state court. The complete chain of incident was narrated to Sangram's family. They requested the police to keep everything under secrecy as the family name was at stake. That was the only thing that remained from their illustrious past. Not much could be kept under cover, even though the police did not put a public statement on this matter.

After the case was closed, the CIB issued 2 cheques in favour of Mehul and myself, for all our efforts and initiative to work on this case. It was quite a hefty amount I must say, and to top it up, we got a token amount of appreciation from Sangram's family for helping them get closure on their only child's death. Kamath threw a party for both of us, to commemorate our success and invited almost everyone in the department. On the eve of the party, both of us were called up on the dais, and to our utmost surprise, we were handed our CIB badges, which entitled us to take part in any investigation, access any crime scene and work with the state crime department. We were humbled and elated by the gesture.

The party ended a bit prematurely, since Kamath got an emergency call, and had to go along with a few other officers. Mehul was in the best of spirits and actually sang a few movie songs on our way back home. I had never seen the lighter side of Mehul before, and it was good to know that there was a fun character in him somewhere, camouflaged by the intense, serious and eccentric individual that everyone knew of.

3 THE CASE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

The Countdown Begins

Mehul came up to me one morning with some money and put it in my pocket. "That's my half of the rent. If I am going to stay here, and now that I have started earning again, I will pay my share of the rent."

I knew this was coming. He loved discipline in life, whether it was in his work, or his personal life. So, I took a step ahead from my own as well. "In that case Mehul, I would be giving you one half of every other expense – food, grocery, electricity bills, phone bills, and maintenance charges. If I go by the last month's expenses, it would amount to almost equal to what you just gave me. So shouldn't we make each other's life a lot easier by continuing in the pattern we do now? I pay the rent and you pay for the other things."

A big smile appeared on Mehul's face. The weather had just started becoming chilly, and a strong cool breeze over the past few days had made life a lot comfortable for people in Bangalore. It was the onset of winter, and a festive season all around. My parents had invited Mehul to visit our hometown to celebrate Diwali together and he was very excited at the prospect of having handmade homely food and time off work and daily chores. I had long suppressed my curiosity about his family, and finally one day I blurted out, "Hey Mehul, how come you never mention anything about your family or their whereabouts? I think we are good enough friends that I should know about your relatives."

With the pain of a century on his face and with an extremely laborious gesture he told me everything about his past. "I am from Gurgaon. I have a loving mother, a hating father, 2 silly sisters and a dirty dog back home. My father is the head master of a local school. I have always been a problem child. I troubled everyone around me, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unintentionally. There was one time when I was experimenting with a compound created during my chemistry lab, and it turned my sister's hair pink. Another time a sound emitting fire cracker, which I had created for my sisters, went out of control and landed near the feet of my mom, and her dress was set ablaze. A few experiments were silly ones, like how long can our puppy hold its breath under water, where I forgot that it won't be able to indicate when it ran out of breath, or the time when I made a fool out of our maths teacher in front of the whole class since she was teaching us wrong theories. I actually went on to prove that with her theory, I can give her 10 Rs and get back 10,000 in return. She was so embarrassed." Mehul spoke with a giggle and self-appraisal in his voice.

"Anyways, the problems increased by the day, and somehow my interest for experimenting and learning new things created a lot of problems for my parents and teachers. Eventually my father sent me to the boarding school which was within his means and where discipline had higher grounds than education. It was a torture out there. They literally put you in exile and curb all your creative freedom. I called up my dad and requested him to take me back home, since I was suffocating there. The warden used to beat me if I did something wrong, and any questions in classes which challenged the intellect of my teachers, were met with unnecessary punishment under the name of discipline. I requested many times to my dad, but he was adamant that boarding school was the only option for me. I even gave him my word that I would be a good boy, but he stopped receiving my calls. That's when I knew that I have to help myself out. One day when the external inspector visited the hostel, I told him that I wanted to be 2 grades higher than where I was, since all the concepts taught at my grade were too childish for me. The inspector was a kind man. He arranged for a viva along with various faculty from the school, where they threw all possible questions at me. I answered everything with a smile on my face. The rest is history. I cleared school in the next 2 years instead of 6, went to college and eventually landed up here. But till date, I could never forgive my father. He did keep sending me money while I was studying, but never did we feel like meeting each other. I spent most of my time outside home, and my only contact with my family is through my mom, with whom, as you might have already noticed, I speak frequently over phone. The main reason for my quitting studies and going for a professional career was to become independent and financially free from my father, which I now realize, was not too bad a decision after all."

Mehul had become a little sad and sat quietly for some time looking ahead towards the buildings far away. I wanted to lighten the mood and cheer him up, and so, proposed to have lunch outside, the treat being on me.

We reached Delice, Mehul's favourite Chinese restaurant, at around 1.30 PM. We finished our meal by 2.30 PM and started on our way back home. I had evening shift at office, and had to be there before 3.30 PM. I drove to our house, dropped Mehul, and was about to leave for office, when his phone rang. It was Kamath. An emergency situation had come up and he requested us to visit the bureau to help him out. He just mentioned that this was a matter of national security and many lives might be at stake here.

Without thinking twice, we raced off to the bureau. Kamath met us outside the office. He had a tense look on his face, and talked nervously. We went into the conference room on the 2nd floor, which was a level 2 secured location with sound proofing and limited access. He had a small box of papers and files kept in the room.

"Thanks a lot for coming down at such short notice. I would not have called you if I had a little bit more time to solve this case. But this time, we are racing against time."

He picked up the glass of water and emptied it to the last drop. For the first time, I could feel a little quiver in his voice.

"I will start off with a few incoherent and seemingly unimportant chain of events that happened. Few days back, there was an alert from the metro rail police, for 3 dead bodies found in one compartment. It was the last train for the day, and the 3 passengers were regulars from CR Road to the Vijaynagar terminal. The train reached the destination at around 12.30 AM, and as usual, stays there till 4 in the morning. The station master discovered the 3 bodies during a final round of inspection. There were no injury marks on the bodies, there were no signs of struggle, or of fear and pain in the lifeless faces of the deceased. The bodies were immediately transferred to the local police for an immediate post-mortem. All the three were found dead from cardiac arrest, in surprisingly the same fashion. No traces of poison or chemical agents were found in the blood of those 3 men. After some preliminary investigation, the case was transferred to our department. We have preserved the body cells for forensic investigation, but you know it would take substantial time for that to happen in our department.

Less than an hour after this happened, another case was reported from Ashoknagar, 8 kilometers away from Vijaynagar. In this, a driver ran into a road side electric pole and the car went off road into a dug out construction area. The driver was found dead in his seat, seemingly due to heavy bleeding. There was blood everywhere. But when the body was taken for post-mortem, it was found that the cause of death was neither bleeding, nor injury to head, but due to cardiac arrest. The lab expert believes that the time of death might have been before the accident. So, either he was killed, put into the car and the vehicle set to motion, or he died due to natural cardiac arrest while driving and lost control of the vehicle. The first scenario is ruled out, since it was a busy road, and if anyone did kill him and stage an accident, there would have been witnesses. But none have come forward so far. Even this death showed no signs of violence, or traces of poison or chemicals in blood. The lab did report minor traces of a rare bacteria in the blood stream of this man, but also mentioned that the bacterial infection is sterile and could not have induced a cardiac arrest.

And now, the bigger issue. On Tuesday morning, we received a note from an unidentified source. It mentioned that within a week's time, there would be multiple blasts in the city, which would kill thousands of people at least. They want us to wire 25 million dollars to an account abroad through an encrypted money transfer system, which they sent in a CD. The threat of this terrorism would be nullified if we give in to their demands, or they would go ahead with the killings.

Our intelligence keeps track of movement of every combustible substances which present security concerns including gun powder, RDX, etc., and we know for a fact that there hasn't been any major transfer of ingredients required to create a bomb in the last few months in or out of the city. Our informers have also spread their resources in all corners, but no dealers have been reported to sell any suspicious materials to anyone. So the first impression was that this letter is a hoax or someone trying to fool us.

But when we turned the letter overleaf, there were 3 blood marks on the paper. We sent it immediately to the DNA lab for tests, and we found that the 3 samples matched profiles in our database. The 3 people whose blood samples were included, were the victims of a bomb blast last year. I don't know if you remember, but last year, around the same time, there was a bomb blast near the city market. A small explosive was placed inside the drainage pipe that runs parallel to the main road. It was a minor blast, but 3 people died and 2 severely injured due to that. The case went on for months and no one could find the culprits. Some thought that it was the work of a political party, while some thought that it was the work of terrorist groups of our neighbouring country. The case was closed after every point of investigation reached dead ends. The victims were unlucky to be present there, and it was a general consensus that the blast had some other motive and not that of killing people. It was a small bomb and placed in a less impactful area.

Today morning, we received a new letter. It says now we have 48 hours in our hands to transfer the money. If we fail to make the transfer within that time, on the 48th hour, there would be multiple bombs going off around the city, and not even our bomb squads are equipped enough to stop them."

Tracing the Tracks

There was a momentary silence in the room. This case was actually a race against time, and we had less than 45 hours left in our hands. Mehul had been listening intently to everything that Kamath was saying. He leaned over slowly towards me and whispered, "Would you be able to come along with me today and tomorrow? I would need your help on this one, and we need to be moving very fast if my assumptions and foresight are true."

"Yes absolutely. I would love to be of some help. And when it is a matter of lives of innocent civilians at stake, no other work assumes more importance."

"Thanks Kairav. I must warn you though. This case can be potentially fatal for anyone involved, if we end up at the wrong place, at the wrong time with the case still unsolved." Mehul said with a smile on his face.

"Ok Mr. Kamath. I would need to know about the gentlemen who died in the train, the man who met with the accident and I need access to the post-mortem reports of all of them."

"Not an issue, Mehul. I have everything you need here in this box. I must request one thing. This is a case of national security, and we cannot let any detail of this case leak outside. We are talking to the ministry about the fund transfer, but it is not our principle to fall weak in front of terrorist demands. We will take as much precautions as possible. A large unit of bomb squad members have been made mobile, police scrutiny has been increased all over the city, we are even ready to sound a red alert all across the city in 30 hours, if we do not have any leads or resolution by that time."

Kamath had arranged for a cubicle for both of us to work from with laptops having access to intelligence reports and criminal records. The man who died in the car accident, Dr. Ashif Khan, was a senior researcher at Amchem, a government funded chemical laboratory and research center. He was 55, and a bachelor. Mehul went through the detailed reports of whatever was found in his car, but didn't seem to find anything worthwhile. Among his possessions were his glasses, wrist watch, the set of clothes he was wearing, his mobile phone and an empty folder with Amchem written on top with the words "Confidential Information".

"Did you process all these items for clues, Kamath?" Mehul asked.

"Not extensively, Mehul. We did retrieve all his phone records and are processing the last dialled numbers, we ran through the items he was wearing for additional fingerprints, but nothing of importance was found. His cell is locked by some pattern code, and we did not have time to take it to some mobile phone expert to extract any information from the phone memory. The cell got switched off an hour after we retrieved it. Was low on battery. Honestly speaking, so much has happened in the last 2 weeks, that we are finding it difficult to concentrate on one single occurrence."

"Can I have the phone for some time? I want to look deeper into it."

"Sure, go ahead. I will get the paper works done for releasing an evidence."

Mehul started going through all the remains of the passengers who died in the train compartment, while I started reading everything available on the previous year's explosion. After about 20 mins, Mehul stood up with a concerned face and started pacing up and down the lobby. Suddenly he stopped, looked at me and said, "Kairav, let's go. We need to visit the metro railway station where the bodies were retrieved. I am hoping that the train in which this happened, has been side-lined until further investigation. Kamath, are the CCTv camera feeds from the station available for the day when this happened?"

"No Mehul. That is another issue we had. Surprisingly, the video for that night is missing. The terminus admin says that no recording happened until next day morning, as the lines were found cut."

"Excellent! Just as I had thought. We will make a move now Kamath. Can we have a police jeep for the day?"

In about 10 minutes, we were on our way to Vijaynagar train depot, to examine the compartment from where the dead bodies were retrieved. Mehul had specifically asked for a police jeep so that we faced lesser traffic blocks and it would be easy to communicate with the headquarters. He took the internal battery jack, put it into one of the USB charging slots, and carefully connected Dr. Khan's phone to it. It was a high-end smartphone, but had been kept with less care than it deserved.

It was almost evening when we reached the depot. There were very few people around, barring the engine maintenance staff and the quality check personnel. We made our way to the back of the depot, towards the side lane, where the silver grey color shuttle was parked. The 2nd compartment after the engine had yellow tapes blocking the entrance. That's where the bodies were found.

I pulled the flange on the right and then twisted the lever on top, and the sliding doors flung open. Mehul stepped inside, followed by me. The emergency lights were turned on by the controller, upon our request. There was a pungent, wet smell inside, which was normal since the AC had not been running all these days, and the moisture along with the anti-insect spray remained stagnant inside for a long time. We left the doors opened for a few minutes so that it was easy for us to stay inside.

There were no signs of blood, or struggle inside. Not even a scratch on the wall, or any signs of attempt for a desperate exit near the doors. The 3 men must have been asleep when they died, or it might have been a very peaceful death.

Mehul kept sniffing around the extreme corners and the edges of the seat. He brought out an ear bud from his pocket, and scraped through a few layers on the window rim and near the seat corners. Carefully putting the ear bud in a plastic wrapper, he turned towards me and said, "Salicylic acid used in Aerosol. Completely harmless, but aerosol carries certain suspension or solid particles. What might have been the object of creating this? I need to run a few tests to check whether there are any remains of the main ingredients of the aerosol, one that killed those men."

"But what can be the source of this air borne chemical? If it was introduced through the AC, then there would have been more deaths and victims in the other compartments, unless there were absolutely no other passengers in the train that night."

"Well thought Kairav. I checked the station master records. There were 21 other passengers. But a good start indeed. Go on, think a bit more."

"Okay. So, if the death was caused by an aerosol, it would have been released between the Vijaynagar junction and the previous one. Since every time the door opens, the agent would disperse further and lose impact."

"Now we are talking. We need to go back to the previous stations and check the CCTv footage. If there was someone else in the same compartment till the previous junction, then our search index can be greatly reduced."

We hurried out of the station and sped off to the Barn Road junction, which was the penultimate stop that night. The technical staff out there helped us get across to 8 tapes from that night. We went on to the point where the last train stopped at the station. It was almost impossible to find out what was going on inside the compartment, but we found a lady along with a young girl, probably her daughter, coming out of the 2nd compartment after the engine. We tried every other angle that was recorded on that day, but nothing considerable could be found with respect to the occupants of that compartment.

Even though we did not find anything conclusive, the footage did confirm a few facts. The poisonous aerosol must have been released between the Barn Road and Vijaynagar junctions. It was impossible to believe that a women with a kid would do such a heinous thing. Even if she did, it was not possible to hide a dispenser in the small purse she had in her hand. If she had left the dispenser inside, it should have been found, but the compartment did not have anything else other than the belongings of those 3 dead men.

In order to dig deeper, we went to the CR Road junction. It was the central junction in the city and connected 2 channels of intersecting railway lines. The crowd was much more in this junction and so were the security measures. We found considerable difficulty in accessing the camera footage and other records. We had to wait for nearly an hour, before we called up Kamath, and within 5 minutes, a gentlemen came running down from the 1st floor, and respectfully escorted us to the records room.

The cameras in this station were at the opposite wall to the railway track. We forwarded the tape right upto the point when the train stopped at this station. Around 15 people got out from the 2nd compartment, and 3 people went in – a woman, a small girl, and a man in long coat with a muffler around his neck. We could clearly see 3 men sitting inside towards the back end of the compartment talking among each other and having a laugh. But we could not see the face of the man who entered.

Mehul quickly went through the other tapes and pulled out the one which was recorded by the camera at the entrance. He quickly forwarded it to 9PM, 2.5 hours before the train had reached CR Road stop. Keeping the speed on roll at 4x, he kept rolling the tape and queered at it intensely. At around 11PM on the tape, he paused. We could see the man with long coat and muffler entering the station. He had a long face, with thick glasses, cropped hair and a nervous behaviour. He was none other than Dr. Khan.

"Bingo! Got ya." exclaimed Mehul.

Search in Research

We rushed back to the jeep, as Mehul had to check something in Dr. Khan's mobile phone. He carefully unplugged the phone from the charger and switched it on. The home screen appeared, but it had a pattern lock on it.

"We tried to open this lock a couple of times before it switched off, but it didn't work" said the constable accompanying us.

Mehul asked him to switch on the light inside the jeep, and took the phone screen near the light, holding it horizontally to the ground in the same line as his eyes.

"Pattern locks leave behind a blueprint that no other form of phone security does. When you keep running your finger on the phone screen as per the lock pattern, over time, a transparent finger-mark gets created on the phone matching the pattern, due to various reasons starting from dust in your fingers, or oil, or any other external substances. It is not a visible mark, but when you hold the phone against light, you can clearly see the pattern along with various other marks coming from pressing on the number buttons or typing messages, etc. In this case, I can see that the owner of the phone did not make any effort to clean the screen at regular intervals, and thus we have quite prominent patterns on the screen. The most repeated pattern is the one to open the screen lock, and that resembles an "S"."

Mehul took his finger along the pattern and it showed wrong input. He quickly followed the same pattern in opposite direction, and the lock screen disappeared.

Mehul went to the messages, browsed through them and then opened the gps application. He went to "Recently visited places" and opened the map by date. He kept browsing hurriedly through the coordinates and then spoke up, "We need to visit the Amchem labs right now."

The constable quickly started the jeep, and we were on our way.

"What did you find on the gps?" I asked

"Dr. Khan was a typical researcher. His phone was high end, which means he was well-to-do, but he never found time to use the phone beyond calls or messages. Being an intelligent man, he would not have used his personal phone to call anyone under the radar of police or intelligence. But he did use his phone extensively to map the city out for him. I doubt if he knew the way to any place within the city other than that from home to lab and back. So when I went to the GPS records of the day he died, it showed that he went to Vijaynagar station first from Amchem labs. From there, he went to CR Road, and then followed the railway tracks back to Vijaynagar, like we saw him board the train. From there he started off towards Ashoknagar where the signal was lost. I think we will find out more at his office."

Mehul called up Kamath and asked him to check whether Dr. Khan's car was parked at the Vijaynagar Railway station on the day of his death.

An hour's ride brought us to the Research and Development centre of Amchem Limited. The supervisor was informed about our visit, and he was waiting at the gate for us. He took us inside the facility and gave us access cards which would get us inside any section of the building. It was a large professional lab with a huge common work area, and smaller laboratories and private offices surrounding it. It seemed quite under staffed, since most of the cubicles were empty and most offices had empty name slots on the doors.

We went in to Dr. Khan's office. It was a messy work area. It seemed like he lived out of his office for most of the time. There was a work desk, with a desktop, a large shelf on the side filled with books and publications. The table itself had large bundles of papers on top, the waste paper bin was overflowing with crumpled papers. It was evident that Dr. Khan was an astute researcher, and we needed to know what he was working on. I asked the supervisor about his work, who he worked with and which lab did he use.

"Khan sahib was the most experienced researcher here. He had an assistant, Manish, who was an intern to start with, but slowly became of one the most promising individual in this centre. He got recommended for promotion twice last year. They both worked on the secured lab on the other side of the building. It belongs to the cryogenic department and has the research facility for HRPH materials (High Risk and Potentially harmful materials). It has a nuclear research lab as well, and only authorized professionals can enter the lab after taking all necessary precautions."

"Do you have a chart of all the research done by them or materials procured by them over the last 2 months?"

"It must be there in the vendor pile, and in the official resource records. In fact Dr. Khan himself managed everything as all procurements happened with his permission. I will get all the details that we have."

The supervisor went on to bring the ledgers, while Mehul kept going through the papers on the table. Occasionally, he would browse through the books on the shelf, bring out one of them, and read up something. He separated 3 to 4 sheets of papers from the table and the paper bin, and kept them side by side. He then looked up again at the shelf and starting searching aimlessly for something. On the top left rack he found something of interest. He took that book out, went through the index for a few minutes, and then tore a few pages off the book. The records had been delivered to us by then. Mehul hurriedly went over all the records and pulled out a few sheets of particular importance. He kept them beside his earlier finds, and started moving his eyes over all of them.

"Can you show me into the lab where Dr. Khan and his assistant worked? I need to see all the lab records that was filed during their research. Do you also happen to know someone belonging to bio-chemistry background who works here in this lab?"

"Yes sir, Manish himself held Bachelors in Bio-Chemistry. I can get the lab reports from the cryogenic department, but I cannot let you go inside the lab. It is against the law, and those who sign the papers have left for the day."

We followed the supervisor to the other side of the building, while Mehul called up Kamath. "Can you check for deposits of some salt of salicylic acid, like Sodium Salicylate, in the tissues of all the 4 bodies?"

Once we were at the labs, we were given a white robe along with specially made gloves and boots, before we entered the research area. Beyond that were multiple layers of protective shields, walls bordering the labs, but we were not lucky enough to have a look inside. We were presented with a huge pile of lab records, each slotted according to dates and researcher. We pulled out all the records of Dr. Khan and Manish over the last couple of months. A few papers were torn off and a few records missing, but overall, Mehul seemed to be happy with whatever we got. He took a bunch of sheets out of the records, and added them to whatever he had sorted out in the office, put them all in a folder, and thanked the supervisor for all his help and cooperation.

Before leaving, he turned back and asked for all the personal records and employment details of Manish. We were given a print out of all the official details about Manish that were present with Amchem.

"Let's leave now, Kairav. There is nothing more to be found here."

We were about to enter the jeep when Kamath called. "You are right Mehul, we did find Sodium Salicylate in the dead bodies. What do you want me to do now?"

"Send a few officers to this address. Umm .. 47A, 3rd Main, Ashoknagar Phase 1" said Mehul, holding the employment records of Manish towards the street light and peering closely at the papers.

Soon, we were on our way to the house of Manish Saxena. He was an over achiever for his age. His records showed that he was excellent in academics, passed with flying colors at all levels of education – primary, secondary and professional. He had quite a few recognitions and appreciation awards under his belt. He even had 6 papers published in 2 years' time. He was married as well, and had a 1 year old kid.

The constable accompanying us knew the city well, and we did not find much difficulty in reaching the place. It was almost 11.30 by the time we reached. Kamath and his men were already waiting for us. The house was completely dark, with all the blinds drawn. We waited near the vehicles, while the police slowly approached the front door and 2 officers waited near the rear exit. Kamath rang the doorbell twice and asked Manish to open the door in a clearly audible voice. After warning twice, he ordered his deputy to barge open the door. The house, indeed was empty. After checking all the rooms, we were called in. It looked like the house of any happily married couple with a kid. There were framed photos of the couple on the wall, toys of a 1 year old daughter, all the amenities and facilities needed by a family for their day-to-day lives. There was a kid's room, a large bedroom and a guest room as well. But there was not a single living soul. On the dining table, there were a few papers and envelopes. Electricity bill, mobile bills, credit card statements, newspapers, etc were all left there untouched. We tried calling him up on his mobile phone, but the number was switched off.

Without much luck on tracing Manish, we all returned to the bureau. Once all the documents and records in relation to the case were put in order, we assembled in the meeting room. It was very late at night, but Kamath was sleepless. He was tensed and filled with anxiety.

"Ok Mehul, so what do we have in our hands? Did you find any link between Manish and the bomb threats?"

"Most probably yes. But there is an element of doubt. This attack will be a bio-chemical attack if I am right. This started with Dr. Khan getting involved with the terrorist group in some capacity. Whether it was voluntary or it was forced is not known to me, and is not crucial to be unearthed at this point. But he did develop an aerosol – one that can be used to massively kill people and leave very little traces behind. He used an isotope of Polonium, Po-210 which he dissolved in Salicylic Acid and added a few stabilizers, an anti-coagulant agent, and few fission inhibitors, and came up with a compound which can be released in thin air and it spreads very fast. Once this is inhaled, the Polonium isotope is absorbed in the tissues of human bodies, and it affects the regular blood flow, creating almost an inevitable and fatal cardiac arrest. The salicylic acid used, breaks down into Sodium Salicylate inside the body, and acts as an anti-inflammatory agent, which removes all proofs of Po-210 causing the cardiac arrest. The isotope eventually breaks down releasing alpha particles and the level comes down to an extent which is naturally available in the atmosphere. Since the attack is so acute, a very small quantity of the nuclear material can prove fatal for thousands.

Once the compound was developed, he wanted to test it, while ensuring his own safety. This is where he used Manish's knowledge to come up with an anti-agent, made of a rare bacteria which inhibits spreading of the isotope within the body. The isotope being unstable for most parts, quickly disintegrates without harming bodily functions.

At this point, a problem came up. Manish is a good enough scientist to know what dosage of anti-agent is needed to counter the effects of the isotope, but he somehow injected a much smaller dose to Dr. Khan, which eventually caused his death.

On the fateful day, Dr. Khan went to Vijaynagar station and parked his car there. Then he got on Manish's vehicle and went to CR Road junction. He boarded the last train, while Manish must have got back to Vijaynagar. Dr. Khan was already administered with the anti-agent before he left the lab. He waited for the penultimate station, where the mother and her daughter went off the train, and then he released the aerosol inside the compartment. The 3 men inside died slowly while he must have had some irritation or discomfort, but he survived. Manish came back, and cut the Local Area connection wires which pass through the main box outside the main office. It was quite late and no one would have seen him. But because of that, the CCTv camera failed to capture images of the train.

Once the doctor came out of the station, he must have handed over everything to Manish, since nothing was found in his car, and they headed off in their own vehicles towards Ashoknagar, probably to Manish's house. But due to insufficient dosage of anti-agent, the doctor collapsed a few minutes later, inside the car and collided with the roadside post. This has been my speculation so far, but then it all becomes a little ambiguous, as Manish turned out to be a married man with a kid at home. So the theory had to be either of Dr. Khan being the oppressed researcher and Manish being the mole, or the other way round. But if Manish is innocent and was forced to help Dr. Khan, why would he kill the doctor, and where did he run away. I am beginning to think that his family had been kidnapped and he was being blackmailed all the while. But even then something does not strike right. The letter today morning means that the terrorists now have everything they need, and hence they are confident about the 48 hours period. The formula must have been delivered to them by Manish, since he had access to all the details about recreating the compound and using it to make a dirty bomb. So if he has already delivered, and he is innocent as we think, the terrorists must have already released his family. So where are they? I am sure he was able to take stronger grounds in demand for his family, since he killed the doctor and had all the details with him to trade, unlike if he had just followed the doctor's directions or the terrorists' orders. We need to work on that part."

"So what do we do now?"

A Murder and A Murderer

"Couple of things. Firstly, get across to the credit card usage log of Manish. We can get his monthly statements from the company. Call them up in the morning and get them to provide every details which can help us locate Manish. Secondly, get every record of purchase of Po-210 and Salicylic Acid together in the city. The isotope of Polonium we are looking for, is a rare material and Secured-A Classified, which means that any purchase of the same has to be documented and recorded in the central database before selling by the dealer. While very less quantity of the nuclear material is needed, a substantially larger quantity of Salicylic acid would be required. I have the complete list of ingredients needed to create the aerosol. You can distribute the list in your network for further information."

According to Kamath, there were only 5 to 6 places where the dealer was authorized to sell a potentially harmful substance like Polonium, and that too under strict supervision and under compliance guidelines issued by the government. He immediately sent a technical team to retrieve the point of sale records at each of those facilities.

There was very little to be done for the night, and so, we returned back to our house for a quick nap. Both of us were extremely tired, but we were equally worried about the outcome of our efforts and what the next day had in store for both of us. Mehul sat in the car with his eyes closed and hands on the forehead.

"We need to track Manish. We don't know for sure that the aerosol is going to be used by the terrorist. These two events might be completely different and distant, not related to each other. In that case, we have to forget about Manish and Dr. Khan's case and start afresh on the terrorist attack threat. I just hope we are on the right track, for the sake of thousands of lives at stake here."

I did not have a particularly sound sleep that night. Every minute seemed to bring us closer to the hour of calamity. I felt almost helpless not to be able to utilize every passing moment towards eliminating the threat that inevitably lurched towards the city.

I woke up at 6 in the morning. Mehul was already awake, pacing up and down the veranda. His red eyes were suggestive of the sleepless night he had. We freshened up quickly, had some breakfast and set off for the bureau. The whole team at the bureau was in office the whole night and we felt a bit embarrassed to have left them behind for a good night's sleep.

The credit card company regional office opened at 9AM. The call centre helpdesk would not divulge any information to anyone other than card holder. They were right in their position, but little did they know about the underlying risk which made it crucial for us to have that information. We left the bureau and reached the office at 8.55 AM. Kamath had got all approvals and authorization before leaving. Within 5 minutes, we were taken into the office of a senior manager, who took a print out of all the latest transactions of Manish and gave us a copy of it. We had to sign a few documents and present our identity proofs before we could bring the print outs outside the company premises.

Manish used his credit card very actively. There were lists of grocery shopping, food bills, etc. But the last transaction that took place was at the Empire hotel, a small lodge near the express highway, at the extreme east of the city. The transaction happened 2 days back and there were no other records since. Strangely, Manish's phone also was switched off 2 days back and there were no voice calls or messages sent from the phone, as per the phone company records, retrieved by Kamath's team overnight.

We immediately set off for Hotel Empire, while Kamath called up the bureau and asked for additional backup to arrive at the same place. It was about 40 kms from where we were, and we were about 25 hours from the deadline set for us by the terrorists.

By the time we reached the hotel, it was about 10.30 AM. It was a small 2-star lodge cum restaurant, looked shabby from outside, with very few staff. There were no security guards at the entrance, and we went straight to the reception area, which, as expected was empty as well. After banging the desk for some time, an untidy, unshaven young boy appeared from the room behind, still reeling from a few extra drinks the night before. Initially he looked terribly angry at our audacity, but when he saw a couple of police constables behind, the wrath transformed to a peculiarly artificial smile. He quickly brushed his hair with his hands, rubbed his cheeks and eyes and came up to the counter.

"Yes sir, myself Mohan sir, how can I help you sir? Hotel Empire at your service sir. First class food and rooms sir." He definitely needed some training on customer handling.

Kamath leant forward, held him by his collar and pulled him over the table, near to where we were standing.

"We are looking for someone named Manish. He was at your hotel 2 days back, and used his credit card. Do you know where he is now? Did you see him when he came here?"

Mohan looked like he was about to cry. With folded hands and with a stammer in his voice, he started speaking in his local language, which, luckily for us, Kamath understood well. When he stopped speaking, Kamath left his collars and motioned him towards the register behind him.

"He says he has been here from yesterday night itself. He doesn't know who came before that. But he has the register with him. Maybe we can find out something from there."

The register had very few entries, and it looked evident that the hotel was very less occupied. On turning overleaf to check the bookings two days back, we found the name Manish Saxena. He had checked in 2 days back, but surprisingly there were no check out dates. He was allocated room no. 219, and according to Mohan, the room was still occupied.

We rushed off towards the room, with the extra key from Mohan. It was on the 2nd floor, just after the corridor. There was a small tray outside the room with a tea pot, a sugar bowl and a tea cup on it. It was dry and had flies all over it. Even without bothering to knock on the door, or sound a warning, Kamath inserted the key into the door lock and twisted the round door-knob. It opened but refused to budge. Kamath pushed hard at the door, and it gave away a little, as it there was some heavy object just behind the door. Immediately a foul odour came from inside making all of us almost throw up. Kamath asked Mehul and me to go further away from the room, and asked a constable to go inside the room through the gap created. He entered, with handkerchief on his nose. After a few seconds, the door opened, and we saw one of the most horrible scenes of our lives. It was a dead body, which had started putrefying. There was a thick and dry layer of blood all over the floor. The face of the dead body was badly mutilated.

Kamath, pointing towards us, asked a constable to guide us to the ground floor be with us until he was done with the scene. Mehul had covered his nose as well, but was sternly looking around the room and at the corpse before he followed me downstairs. 2 police officers were holding Mohan in front of his desk, so that he could not run away, now that he knew about a murder in the hotel.

The detective came downstairs after about 30 minutes. He had a few papers in his hand.

"It definitely is the body of Manish. We found a few papers in his pocket. But he does not have any other belongings in the room. Even his phone, wallet, etc, are all gone. The windows were shut, and the blinds pulled. The door was also locked. How was he killed then?"

"I need to see the body again. Can I visit the crime scene?" Mehul asked.

"Ok, take these gloves and put on these masks." Kamath handed over a pair of gloves and a doctor mask to Mehul. I accompanied him to the 2nd floor, but waited outside the room while Mehul went about investigating the body. He moved around the room, standing at various poses and positions, looking at the blood splatter closely. After about 15 minutes, he stepped out and asked everyone to come down to the reception. The foul smell was overwhelming for him as well.

"The murderer entered the room without any struggle, as if Manish was waiting for the person or he did not pose any threat to Manish. He went inside; they had some altercations or maybe some fight. The person was wearing black boots, well-polished recently but carelessly, and a little old. He had kicked Manish on his right leg with the boot, and lost balance when Manish probably fought back. There are shoe marks on the floor, and similar marks on Manish's trousers. There are also a few broken pieces of the shoe sole where there is a skid mark, which makes me believe it's an old shoe. Manish was shot at his leg after that, and he fell on his knees. He followed the murderer to the door on his knees, which is evident by the scraped look of the trouser near the knees. Manish was begging him for something, else he would not have followed him till the door. When the murderer was unable to free himself from Manish's grip, he shot him in his head, or at least tried to. The shot missed his head, but went across Manish's nose and pierced his cheek. The murderer than closed the door from outside and left, while Manish suffered a very painful and slow death, lying along the door. Few things become obvious. The guy who came in, was not a killer. He had considerable difficulty in killing someone, even though his mandate was to kill Manish, since he came in with a gun. And there is something else .. Oh, I have been a fool !"

Mehul slapped his forehead and ran upstairs again. He came back in a few minutes with a key in his hand.

"Here is the key to the room which was given to Manish. It was there in his room. So if the murderer had to lock the door from outside, it had to be..."

Even before he completed the sentence, we all turned and looked towards Mohan. Mohan knew the danger that had gripped him, and with a pained face, he started crying loudly like a child.

"I am innocent Sahab, I am innocent." He kept lamenting.

Kamath went up to him and spoke in his mother tongue for some time. He replied back to whatever was asked of him. Kamath then came up to us and said, "I don't think he is the criminal. He has come here yesterday night, and says that there was an old man who managed the reception before him. But the old man was crippled by an accident last year."

"It is one of the staff" Mehul spoke up. "The person wearing black boots must be from the maintenance or kitchen staff. Ask him who all are there in this hotel who cleans rooms, or provides room service – food, laundry etc. The other key is here at the reception. So it has to be a staff, who left the key back here without arousing suspicion."

We went over to the other side of the hotel where the staff quarters and the kitchen was located. There were 4 men out there, wearing white shirt, black trousers and black boots. The police officers got all the 4 staff members outside for questioning. All of them had very well polished new shoes, unlike those described by Mehul. Kamath asked the youngest one if he knew anything about the person staying at Room no. 219.

"I went to deliver a pot of tea to that room 2 days back. After that I don't know."

"Is there any other staff member working in this hotel, who is not present here now?" Kamath asked in a deep and husky voice.

"Yes sir, there is Manohar who has not turned up for work since yesterday."

"Where can we find him right now?" asked Kamath

"Maybe, at his house. It is nearby. I can show you the way sir."

He accompanied us to a cluster of small houses, about a kilometre away from the hotel. He pointed us towards one of the huts and nodded his head. Kamath and four inspectors quickly crept in towards the hut, and went in quietly. A little later, one of the inspectors came out and waved towards us to come in. Inside Manohar was sitting on the ground with a smile on his face, looking straight into our eyes.

Kamath held him by his ears and shouted, "Why did you kill Manish? Whom did you give the papers?" Manohar kept smiling. Kamath lost control and slapped him thrice so hard that he started bleeding from his lips. He still sat there determined, with a wry smile, looking threateningly at Kamath. Kamath asked us to leave them alone and close the door behind us.

A few minutes later, we were called back in. Manohar had a terrified look on his face, tears in his eyes, and was trembling. "You cannot do anything now. I have given every detail to the enlightened one. By tomorrow there would be fear and death all over the city. You can never catch him. No one has seen him. He works like a shadow, silently and efficiently. They asked me to get everything from Manish and kill him. I did not want to kill the man, but he started asking for his wife and child and was making a lot of noise. I had to shut him up for good. Now justice will be served to all of us." Manohar uttered those words, closed his eyes and started mumbling something. No matter how much everyone tried, he did not speak a word.

Finally The Cause

Mehul went around the hut looking for further clues. He reached for the box below the bed, pulled it out, opened it and brought out a few papers and certificates. He went through them quietly and put them back in the same box.

Manohar was sent to the local Police Station along with 2 officers, while we went back to the jeep and contacted the bureau. There were still no information regarding the purchase of Polonium and other ingredients to make the bomb.

"This cannot be possible. The sale has happened already. The bombs are being made as we speak. There has to be some records." Mehul sounded frustrated. He pulled the mouthpiece from Kamath and spoke directly to the bureau officer. "How are you tracking the sale so far?"

"Sir, there is a requirement form and a sale record which gets added to the central database, maintained by the BPNCW (Bureau of prevention of Nuclear and Chemical Warfare) whenever there is a purchase of these high risk materials."

"Ok. How many dealers are there in the city, who sell such materials?"

"We have been able to track 7 dealers, including the small ones."

"What have they been selling over the last 3 days?"

"Mostly general chemicals, lab requirements, one large consignment for the Government research centre, a few on-the-spot buying, and that's about it. I can send you a detailed report via mail if you want."

The officer emailed a 5 page report on various purchases. Mehul started going through them. He went about 3 to 4 times and then gave a small shout of disappointment and left the laptop on the car seat. The report, as I could see, was ordered according to purchase time. I took the laptop, and went through the report as well. There were dealer names on the last column. On going through the dealer names, I found that all the records correspond to 6 dealers. The 6th dealer actually made 1 sale in the last 3 days, but as per the officer, there were 7 dealers. Maybe the 7th dealer did not sell anything recently. I still pointed it out to Mehul. He grabbed the laptop back from me and intently went through the list. He quickly called up the bureau and asked for the contact details of the 7th facility as well as the activity over a month. Once the details came, we saw that this dealer made considerably large quantities of sale over the month, but abruptly stopped 3 days back.

Mehul had a sparkle in his eyes. "This, by no means, is a small dealer. He has had orders from some of the largest Research facilities and chemical laboratories. But there is no record of sale for the last 3 days. Pass on his number please. I need to talk to them."

Kamath dialled the facility phone number, put it on speaker and passed on the phone to Mehul.

Mehul: "Hello, is this Kumaran Traders? I wanted to talk to the facility Manager."

From the other side: "Yes, this is Kumaran speaking."

Mehul: "Sir, we received a complaint that your broadband is not working."

Kumaran: "Yes I have been complaining for days now. How can you guys be so irresponsible with internet uptime? Sometimes you say there is a system issue, then you say there is a trenching problem. My business is suffering because of this."

Mehul: "I completely understand and apologize for all the inconvenience caused. It must have been very difficult for you to make transactions without internet?"

Kumaran: "Transaction is not an issue, but we are a government organisation. We are supposed to submit all details of sale to our managers every day without fail. How can we keep piling up paper records, and then get pressurised with the manual data entry process after the internet issues are resolved? It is a waste of time and effort."

Mehul: "Okay sir, we will try our best to resolve the issue today."

Mehul hung up the phone, turned towards us and said, "We need to visit this place. I am sure this is where the purchase was made. The internet wiring has been manually cut by our bombers to keep the radar off this dealer. If I am not mistaken, there would be internet connectivity issues in multiple houses and shops in that locality."

He was right. There were massive wire damages in that area and most of the field executives from the internet service provider was busy taking stock of the extent of damage done to the wires. We drove to Kumaran traders and met Mr. Kumaran. We explained the situation to him and he immediately provided us with all the hardcopy records of transactions done in the past 4 days. Mehul was right about the purchase. 2 days back, there indeed was a transaction consisting of everything that we had comprehended.

"Who purchased these? " Kamath asked.

"I have a Xerox of the person's ID proof that I took before allowing him to purchase. I will get it for you."

The buyer was Mohammad Ismail. But there were no record of his address or contact details in the card. Mehul pointed towards a camera on the opposite ceiling.

"Do you have the recordings from that camera on the day this transaction happened?"

"Yes sir, we do have every bit of recording. I will get the disc and video player."

He returned with a DVD properly marked with the date of recording, and a small DVD player. We forwarded to 6.15 PM, 30 minutes before the transaction happened. There was a white van which was parked outside the entrance. Ismail stepped out of it, walked towards the counter with a solemn look. He handed over a piece of paper over the counter, and a bundle of cash. Kumaran went inside and got a tray of bottled contents and a shielded and sealed suitcase. He handed over everything to Ismail, who went over to the van, opened the rear door and went inside. He came out after a couple of minutes, closed the door back and quickly drove off.

Mehul asked Kumaran to rewind back to the point where he opened the door. As soon as the door was opened, the left arm of the door came directly in front of the camera. Right at the bottom of it, on a yellow background, was the vehicle number. It seemed a little blurry, but we could clearly make out KT-04-TR1029. Kamath radioed the number to the bureau for further information. We came out and waited near the jeep for more information. It was 8 PM, and time was running out of our hands. Kamath had to make a call whether to declare an emergency, or wait for all the information needed to nail the terrorist before they could set their plans in motion.

The vehicle number belonged to a service van from the nearby RT Packers and Movers. Their office was just 5 minutes away from where we were, and it did not take us much time to find the place. The shop floor manager was still there. We asked him about the vehicle, and he took us to the garage where they kept all the delivery vehicles. The van we were looking for was standing there, empty.

"Ismail runs this truck sir, but he is on leave now. He was not well. Last I saw of him was the day before yesterday."

"Where did he take the truck on that day?" Kamath asked.

"I don't know Sir. We sent him along with 3 other vans for an assignment, but he returned after 2 hours and said he was not feeling well. He left the van behind and disappeared."

Mehul was growing impatient. "Do you have any idea how far he went with the other vans that day? Maybe you have some meter readings?"

"Sir, when I asked the other drivers, they said that he was behind them till the Flyover, where they had to take a right turn. But after that he disappeared. The van reading would be there in the records. I can check that for you."

The manager took us to his cabin and pulled out all the records pertaining to the van movements. He shuffled through a few records and then took out a paper. "There sir, the van went around for 32 kilometres that day."

Mehul hurried back to the jeep and took out the city map.

"The van travelled 32 kilometres. From this point till the flyover, it is 8 kilometers. He drove back from the flyover to the dealer. That's 5 kilometers more. So we are left with 19 kilometres. That includes going from dealer location to the bomb delivery spot and from there back to this place. The distance between this place and Kumaran's place is about 4 kilometres. So, if I plot out the probable locations where he might have been to, we end up with this."

Mehul drew a curved line on the map. For the time we had in hand, it was a pretty huge area to cover. He kept looking at the map for some time, and then pointed out two spots which coincided with the line he had drawn. "What are these 2 spots?"

"The first one is an empty plot of land where there was supposed to be a government project on solar energy. The other one is the abandoned factory of TRL Alloyed Machinery Plants."

"That's it!" Mehul shouted out. "That's where they are making the bomb. Go go go !"

Kamath called for backup immediately, and with the rest of the officers, he set off for the location. He left one constable behind and asked him to drive Mehul and me back to the bureau safely.

We were almost on the other part of the city, and with all the traffic jams, it took us around 2.5 hours to reach back the bureau. I was tempted many times to call up Kamath and ask about the proceedings. They would have called us if something was not right, but we received no news of them until about 12 o'clock. Both of us were waiting at the bureau, when the phone rang. It was Kamath.

"Mission is successful, Kairav. Thanks a lot and congratulations to both you and Mehul. I will meet you guys tomorrow morning. I will get someone to accompany you back home."

The whole office jumped out of their seats with joy at the good news. Mehul heaved a sigh of relief and gave a smile. We were escorted back home.

"So Mehul, how did you figure out that the terrorists were at that location?"

"First, Manohar talking about justice being served made me wonder what might be the motive for this act of terrorism. Then, when I was going through Manohar's personal belongings, I found his father's death certificate and few documents which mentioned that his father worked TRL Alloyed Machinery Limited and that he was relieved from work with immediate effect 2 years back. When I read that, I remembered about how the factory was shut down after a case of corporate fraud and money laundering which lead to firing the management and shutting down of the company. The employees and staff were all left jobless and without any remuneration. Eventually few committed suicide and gave rise to a series of protests and rallies. But no one listened to their plea. The major stake holder in the company was one of the ministers, and even though he was eventually put behind bars, the staff never received their due payments or any support by the government.

When I was looking for a place where the terrorists could have worked all this while, I knew it had to be an isolated area, away from public view, near the highway, so that they could transfer the bombs fast, and where they had access to high voltage electricity supply. When Kamath mentioned the name of the shutdown factory, I could easily connect the cause and effect."

Next morning, we both rushed to the bureau. Kamath had put a huge board outside the office with the words "We welcome our nation's heroes" printed on it. There were a number of police officers and army officials standing in the lobby. When they saw us coming, they all turned towards us, and with a salute expressed their gratitude and respect. It was one of the best moments in my life. All that we could do was, salute them back.

As it turned out, the money that was demanded, was equivalent to the sum of the retirement money that the employees were supposed to receive. Ismail himself worked at TRL until the factory was closed. The employees were influenced by a terrorist group to avenge the wrong done to them and their families. In fact, the terrorist group had no intention to call off the attack. They would have released the aerosols even if the money would have been paid to them. Everyone involved in the planning and execution was arrested and all the materials which were supposed to be used for creating the bombs, were confiscated and taken to safe house.

A week later, the government officials set up a camp to bring each and every employee of TRL who were left without any means of livelihood, into the folds of the state pension scheme. Few of them were offered government jobs as well, and everyone was assured security for life. The terrorist group involved were linked to various other attacks and bombings which happened earlier.

Mehul started packing for a long vacation with my family. I was equally excited to go back home after quite some time. The day before we left, we were at the shopping mall near our house, buying gifts for everyone at home.

"So, Mehul, how about spending the next vacation at your place? Would love to meet your parents and you would get a chance to bond with your father. I am sure everyone is dying to see you as well."

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I thought a lot about it. I think I just stayed away from them because I wanted someone to reach out for me. But now I realize that life is too short to place conditions before relationships. I am sure you would love my hometown." Mehul said with a smile.

"Great, but you never really told me how long can a dog hold its breath under water without dying."

We both laughed and moved ahead.

4 BETRAYAL

And Another Case on Our Lap

It was almost evident that elections are round the corner, when you see all the pot holes getting filled, water supply getting regularized, power cuts reducing to almost nil, and traffic police writing the challan ahead of demanding cash. This year it was no different, and so was an otherwise peaceful and uneventful election process. But then how was I supposed to know the details of what went behind the curtains? Neither of us were politically motivated. We hardly knew anything about any of the candidates, the political parties, the promises and propositions, the propagandas, the scandals and the cover-ups.

Something strange happened that year just before the election process. The United People's Front, who also happened to be the opposition party, had high hopes on Nataraj Venkat, a young and dynamic individual, who worked hard towards the development of alternate power in the state, to win the election for his constituency. So popular and well known was Nataraj, that he had won by a clean sweep in the exit polls. An upright individual with a clear sense of purpose and the desire to serve people, he was loved and respected by one and all. But just before the election commissioner could declare the final list of candidates, The UPF withdrew Nataraj's candidature and replaced him with the second choice candidate. Nataraj was in news for some other reasons as well, but I never really bothered to know more about that, since pre-election news and scoops about the candidates were in plenty and mostly useless.

One evening, a week after the elections, Mehul and I were sitting at home, going through the files of a cold case, which the bureau had given up on. It involved the sightings of the stone man, who killed 8 homeless people during a span of 4 months before disappearing all of a sudden without any trace. The interrogation went on for 6 months, over 25 people were arrested for questioning, but it did not give the police any breakthrough in solving the case. I had become less engaged in office works of late, since I had put down my resignation letter and was only serving the mandatory 2 months' notice period. I did not know whether being one half of an investigating duo would help me build a career, but I loved this new role and was willing to give it a serious go.

"The police were very close to catching this guy. Why else would the murders stop? I think he must have been questioned by the police just before he decided to call it a day", Mehul spoke up, breaking the ice which had set in with both of us deeply immersed in the case files. I looked at the arrest documents and the interrogation records. "That leaves us with these 2 men". I pointed at the 2 names who were mentioned in the list, and who were interrogated after the last killing of the stone man. The next arrest was made one month later, which was longer than the average time gap between consecutive murders by the criminal. So we could safely assume that whoever committed the crimes, had already decided to stop. I asked Mehul to bring out the files of those 2 individuals so that we could study in depth. At that very moment, the door-bell rang twice in quick succession. It was typical of Kamath to ring the bell that way. He was always in a hurry and for him, waiting at the door, was the worst possible way to waste valuable time. Mehul went up to the door and let the visitors in. Kamath had company this time. He was followed by a tall, dark, middle-aged gentleman, well built, clean shaven, with a golden colour wrist watch, wearing an old white shirt and black trousers. He looked agitated and tired. Kamath respectfully showed him towards the single sofa and took the seat opposite to him.

"Hi guys. I would like you to meet a very old friend of mine, Mr. Nataraj Venkat. I am pretty sure that you have heard of him, but probably have not met him before."

Yes, I remembered. He was the aspiring politician.

Mehul looked into at him for a while and said, "So you want us to clear his name from all that happened to his family?"

Mehul certainly had more interest in politics than what I had assumed.

"Yes, to some extent, but more importantly, my friend here wants to find out who the real culprits are. He is not too bothered about his future in politics, as much as he is about being framed for murder of his own family members, with the killer still at large.", Kamath explained. "I would let Nataraj tell you everything that happened."

Nataraj had been in deep thought till now. He had joined his hands below the chin and kept staring at the table while we could easily say that his mind was elsewhere, much beyond the walls of our room.

He cleared his throat, had a sip of water and started speaking, "As you might already know, I have been an active member of the state development division, and have been instrumental in setting up of over 25 alternate power plants in the last 5 years. I have also been involved in the seamless functioning of 5 NGOs, catering to women and homeless children. I think I have earned my way into politics. I was sure of winning this year's election by a very comfortable margin, before calamity struck my family.

Before I tell you the details about what happened, I must tell you that I don't have any enemies, at least none that I know of. I am a peace loving and friendly person. I have never been involved in corruption or money laundering. If money held any importance in my life, I would never have been in public service. My father, Mr. Shivaraj Venkat, is the owner of Felix Industries. We are a 30 year old organization with branches all over the country. Even though my dad was not very ambitious, we have done fairly well all these years. I loved and respected my dad a lot. He was my role model. He always supported me for everything I wanted to do in life. When I told him that becoming his successor was not something I desired, and that serving the country was my goal in life, he was happy and proud of my decision to forge my own way. He even offered me money few months back, to support my election campaign, which I refused. I always visited him at least twice a week to make sure he is in good health and to share a laugh between father and son. My... my point is,.. we were very close to each other.

I have a younger brother as well. He met with an accident when he was very young, which affected his nervous system. He became very fragile and weak, unable to take any stress – physical or mental. Both my dad and myself took care of him. We got him the best of medical treatment, the best doctors from around the world, and he was improving every day. He even began going to office and learning about the various works we did.

My dad and brother lived in a secluded bungalow on the cliff of Purvachal hills. My dad always wanted to live amidst nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city. He had the house specially built so that it overlooked the abyss and the forest beyond. The sunrise falling directly on our house would create a picturesque view for onlookers and tourists. We had very minimal security and a handful of servants looking after the house and taking care of my dad and brother.

I live much closer to the city, with my wife. My wife used to be my colleague before I got into politics. We recently tied the knot, and she is now my PR manager and helps me with all my work. Few weeks back, on the eventful day, we had an invitation to a party organized by the health minister to commemorate the success of the recent anti-polio campaign. We left home at 6 PM, the two of us, locked the doors properly, all windows and blinds were closed, and drove to the event location. We have a security guard at our house and 2 bodyguards assigned to me by my political party, who accompanied us that day. All the keys were with us and the duplicate keys were kept safely inside our house. There is no way any one could have got into our house without breaking in.

We returned at around 10 PM after dinner. The outside gate was locked and so was the entrance door. There was no sign of forced entry or any struggle anywhere. We went inside our house and I turned on the TV as it was my habit to watch the news channel at least twice or thrice daily. My wife went inside the bedroom to change, and as soon as she switched on the light, she gave a cry of horror and came running down the stairs. There was a blood-covered body inside my bedroom. I called for the guards and called the police immediately, while waiting with my wife in the living room. The guards ran through the rest of the house and confirmed that everything else was ok. The police arrived 10 minutes later and accompanied us to the bedroom. The body was lying in a puddle of blood but the head was not visible from where we were standing. One constable went in to check whether the man was alive, but he found the body cold as ice. He overturned the body so that the face now became visible to all of us. It was the body of my own brother.

Right at that moment I received a call from Madhav-ji, that my father was no more and that his dead body was retrieved from the abyss in front of the house, in a completely shattered and mutilated state. Madhav is our company's CFO and has been with my father since his early days. My father and brother were in fact missing from the morning and everyone in the house had been looking for them. They informed Madhav at noon, and since my father was not at office, Madhav informed the police immediately, who arranged for a search party. My brother frequently went off to short trips with friends, or to our old house near the Pala forests, and so Madhav had sent two of our employees to try and find him.

The police opined that my father committed suicide, while they interrogated me for days with regards to my brother's murder. I was the only possible suspect, but then, the time of the murder was found to be somewhere close to noon that same day, when I was at my NGO. So they let me go based on that alibi.

But it tarnished by reputation so much that I had to withdraw my candidature. I am not at grief for not having contested the elections, but I want to find out what happened actually and I want justice for my family."

Mehul stood up from the sofa, folded his hands and took a few strides towards the window, intently thinking. "But why at all would people think that you can kill your own family? And who do you think would actually kill them and why? This case is most definitely connected to you, since they took the pain to leave your brother's body at your house."

"Well, people think that my father was not happy with my decision to join politics and leave the family business. I am the elder son after all. There are rumours that my father had thrown me off the inheritance, and that I kept blackmailing my father for money to support my campaigns. My father had recently declared that after him, the complete family business and fortune will go to my younger brother and I would be overlooking all the funds. On the absence of my brother, all the properties would go to a trust formed by my father, while the board will take a decision on the company's future. But believe me, this will was drafted as per the discussion that happened between me and my dad. I did not want to inherit anything that was my dad's. I am a self-made man and I cannot live knowing that whatever I own, was earned for me by someone else. My dad respected that decision of mine. I firmly believe that this was a politically motivated crime committed only to throw me off charts in the elections. Killing me would have increased the sympathy of voters towards my party. They wanted to do something to kill my image in front of followers, make them believe that I was a bad man, not fit to govern or lead. Kamath is my school friend. He knows me well and has supported me during these dark hours. He recommended you guys when all other quarters seemed to turn a blind face at us."

"Ok, I have another question. Where were you the day before this happened?" Mehul asked.

"The day before I was supposed to visit my father, but because of a meeting, I had to rush out of town. I have already presented the police with sufficient proofs on the matter. I returned back to town next day morning and went straight to my NGO as I mentioned before. I came home in the evening and then left for the party with my wife. She was not well, but now when I think about it, I am happy she went with me, else the murderer would have found her alone and may have killed her as well."

Nataraj pushed himself to the edge of the seat, leaned forward and with his hands clasped together, said "Please help me Mehul and Kairav. Help me and my family get justice. The culprits should go behind bars. I know this wont be easy, especially since there would be politicians and powerful individuals involved, but I am here to support you for everything and so is Kamath. Whatever money you need, whatever permissions you need, you will have them all. But please give it your best shot. You are our only hope in this case."

Entering through Closed Doors

Kamath nodded in affirmative and turned towards me. "I can vouch for his innocence and non-involvement in any wrong doings. I have known him closely for years. People need a leader like him at the top, and I know for a fact that he has been framed."

Mehul kept thinking quietly for some time and then spoke up, "We will take this case up, but under 3 conditions. Firstly, if our investigation yields that you really are involved in this crime in some way, you will be convicted. Secondly, we need access to all the case files as usual, but we also need to question and know everything about your personal life – every aspect of it. And thirdly, our advance payment will be two lacs, and on successfully solving the case, we would need three lacs more. That's about it."

"Agreed on all points Mehul. Within an hour, my person will deliver your advance and I will appoint 2 people to be with you at all times and take care of your well-being. I am always available for any questions you have. I will also ask Madhav to be with you to facilitate any files, information and records that you need with regards to my family."

This was the first time that I saw Mehul asking for money from a client. Kamath and Nataraj left soon after. After almost an hour, Nataraj's PA visited our house to hand over the advance amount in cash. He also gave us a card that had the contact details of Nataraj and Madhav along with the address of his house and that of his father. There was very little we could do about the case for the rest of the day. Mehul asked Kamath to keep all the case files and related documents ready by next morning. We planned to visit the bureau first thing in the morning and talk to the investigating officer in charge of this case.

The details of this case were so baffling that we completely forgot about the case of the stone man. How could a dead body get inside a locked house without breaking in? Why would someone commit suicide without any reason to do so? Next morning, we set off for the bureau after we had something to eat. We had recently hired a cook, a decision we cherished at least 4 times daily when we got to eat homemade food. So breakfasts now meant French toasts, fruits, milk, corn flakes and omelettes, instead of left-over pizzas and a can of coke. Anyways, we left the bureau at 9.30 sharp, and met with Kamath. He took us to senior detective Vincent George, who was handling the case. Detective George did not seem too happy with our appointment in this case. He believed firmly that he would solve the case himself. He handed over all the files and documents to us unwillingly and offered his card so that we could call him up for any further help on this matter.

We took an empty room in the building and started going through every details of the case. A few things came up immediately which were not known to us. Nataraj's father was not keeping very well recently. He was under medication for quite some time. It also mentioned that Mr. Shivaraj had difficulty sleeping, and used to take sleeping pills every night, for the last three years. Nataraj's brother, Suresh Venkat, was first hit on the head with a blunt object, and later-on stabbed with a military grade knife.

If we went by Nataraj's guess, we would need to get into a political mess and look into the lives of people who were more powerful than we could possibly fathom. Not to mention the fact that it would not take them much time to change, manipulate and doctor evidences against them. All we hoped was that it did not reach that angle at all.

Madhav arrived at the bureau along with two guards whom Nataraj had appointed specially for us. Mehul wanted to waste no time sitting at the bureau, and wanted to visit Nataraj's house. We left in an SUV arranged by Kamath specially for us, since both Nataraj and his dad lived quite far off from each other and the bureau as well.

We reached our destination after a 30 minutes drive. Mr. Venkat was waiting for us along with his wife and a couple of guards. There were no servants in the house which was strange, but Mrs. Venkat later told us that they were not comfortable keeping full time servants in the house. A cook and a house cleaner came every day in the morning and left by noon. There was no need of any more hands since they did not have any kids, and they stayed out almost all throughout the day.

Just inside the gate was a small security guard room, where an old man, wearing a torn security uniform was standing. He was the security personnel for more than 10 years now, and seemed to have grown a lot of respect and love for his master. He had a distraught expression on his face which came from gloom, despair, guilt and a deep sense of responsibility for what had happened.

Mehul went up to him. "Did you see anything weird on that day when the bodies were found inside the house?"

The old man started sobbing almost. "Sir, due to old age, I am no more the agile security guard that I once used to be. When sir left the house, I actually fell asleep, since I knew that sir would return quite late. I woke up when sir's vehicle approached the gate. It is all my fault. I should have taken retirement long back."

Mr. Venkat walked up to him, placed his hand on the old man's shoulder and asked him to stop blaming himself. "There is nothing that you could have done. What happened is in the past. Forget it." We did not antagonize the guard any further, and moved towards the front door.

The house was a modest one, with two bedrooms, a small dining area, a living room, a kitchen and two bathrooms. There were no back doors to the house, and the back side faced the wall of the next building. There were 2 windows on that side, with iron grills and mosquito nets attached. The front side of the building had the door and 2 windows: one in the living room and another in the second bedroom. Both windows were securely fastened with iron grills and mosquito nets. The other 2 sides of the house did not have any ventilation. There was a small porch at the entrance of the house with a few rose plants on either sides of the walkway.

We went into the bedroom from where the body was recovered. It had a small wooden almirah, a study table at one corner and a queen sized bed. There was a door just beside the almirah, facing the bed, which led to the bathroom. The bathroom had a small ventilation towards the top, certainly not big enough for someone to come in. The body was found beside the bed, with the legs extended to just inside the bathroom. Mehul brought out the files containing pictures of the crime scene and started going through them while constantly matching the locations within the room. There was one photo, taken from near the bathroom door facing the dead body. It seemed to interest Mehul more than the other photos.

The photos definitely had quite a few things unexplained. The murder had happened long before the Venkats had left home, but the photos suggested blood splatter on the floor and the bathroom door, the blood pool on either side of the body was smeared, but there were no other blood prints from the door to the bedroom. If he was killed before, why did it not leave any traces upto the spot where the dead body was finally found?

Mehul went back into the living room and started looking around. He picked up a few photo frames which were kept on the shelf and above the TV stand. He then asked me to accompany him outside. Once outside, he took me towards the rear of the building.

"Kairav, the murderer came with the dead body through the front door for sure. There are no other ways in. This locality seems quite well populated and they have a security guard. The culprit could not have come from the front gate. So he must have come in through one of these walls. The backside wall has a house adjacent to it. So, it must have been either of the side walls. The one towards the north is not a possible way in, since there is a small shopping store facing the wall. The one on the south is a restricted land. Help me get over the wall and look around. I will climb out through the front gate which is locked."

I stood facing the south wall, while Mehul climbed on my shoulders and went over the wall. Once he was on top of the wall, he paused for a while and looked at a spot on one of the bricks, very closely. He scratched an area with his nails, and collected something on a piece of tissue paper. He then jumped on the other side and disappeared. There was a security guard in front of the locked gate to the restricted land. After about 20 minutes, Mehul climbed out of the gate, much to the displeasure of the guard. He kept hurling abuses and threatened Mehul with closed fists. Mehul smiled at him and came back to the crime scene.

"Mr. Venkat, can I have a look at your house keys, especially the one you use to open the front door? Did you ever hand over the key to someone else in the past one or two months? Also, do you have a duplicate copy of this key with someone else?"

Mrs. Venkat went up to the shelf and brought out one of the keys from the bunch, and handed it over to Mehul. "No, this is the only key we have and which we use. The duplicate key is safely placed inside the locker and it has not been touched. We never give our keys to anyone and nor do I think we ever made a duplicate."

"Thanks. I would need a small bowl of water."

Mehul opened his wrist watch, and with one sharp edge, he started scrubbing the key. After some time, he took a few drops of water and smeared it on the metallic part and rubbed it hard. There was lather on top of the key. Mehul chuckled, handed over the key back to Mrs. Venkat, and stood up.

"That will be all Sir and Ma'am. Our work here is done for the day. I need a detailed list of every place you have been, every day, since one month before the body was found. Please think carefully, and try not to miss any point. I will visit your father's home now, but I will be back here sometime this week. Please try and get me the list of visited places by tomorrow morning."

Once outside, there were quite a few onlookers who had grouped outside the house to look at what was happening. It included the security guard as well from the adjacent property, who could now understand that the matter was more complicated and serious than what he had comprehended. He looked at Mehul apologetically while we all left for the older Mr. Venkat's house.

Mehul had a smile on his face as though the purpose of his visit was successfully achieved. The security guards took the back seat, while Madhav sat beside the driver to guide him to our destination. We sat in the middle row.

And the Hunt Begins

"The murderer somehow got hands on those keys to the house and made a duplicate of it. He then came in through the sidewall of the house, once Mr. Venkat and his wife had left for the party. This means that the murderer has excellent knowledge about the whereabouts of Mr. Venkat. Someone from within the political party maybe? Anyways, he opened the door, went into the bedroom, placed the body on the floor and left.

The only possible way he could have come inside the premises was through that wall adjoining the restricted land. I went in to check the property and found that it has a very low and broken wall on the back side since it faces a small lake, almost dry, which is bordered on the other side by the main road. There were three distinct set of footmarks, less evident near the main road, but more prominent from the lake to the wall. The first set of footmarks suggested that one person was much heavier than the other, probably because he was carrying the dead body. There were two sets of similar footmarks going back as well. So two men came from the main road, through the adjacent wall, pushed the dead body over to Mr. Venkat's lawn, in the process of which, some blood from the dead body was left on the wall. I noticed a few smeared and dry blood patches on top of the wall when I climbed it.

The body must have been wrapped in some plastic to prevent blood from flowing out, since the actual murder happened long before. During the transfer of body over the wall, the wrap must have torn or got loose, since the blood percolated towards the back of the body. The photos show a thick band of blood towards the back of the shirt which looked odd initially.

The duplicated key was then used to break into the house. While taking the body through the living room, the murderer disturbed quite a few show pieces and photo frames kept on the stand on the left side wall. I matched the current position of the items with those in old photos to confirm. The dust marks below the photo frames also shows a marked shift.

The murderer placed the body on the floor, and then took out the plastic wrap. While doing this, the body must have turned either sides, which explains the smearing if blood on either sides of the body. A few drops of blood must have fallen off the plastic wrap as well when the culprit was getting ready to leave. Overall, it was quite a shabby job. I wonder how the police could not see these glaring evidences before."

By the time we hit the National Highway which would take us to the outskirts of the city, it was late afternoon. We went past the International airport, and kept driving for another 20 Kms, before taking the 2nd exit towards Purvachal Hills. We had to drive for about 15 kms uphill through a steep slope to reach the first settlement. From there, the mansion on top of the cliff was very clearly visible. It looked like a king's abode. We drove through the jungle for another 20 minutes, before we reached the security gate. After some moderate checking, we were allowed to go inside the premises of Mr. Venkat.

We drove through a garden, most beautifully maintained, and a lawn adjacent to a huge water fountain, ahead of which lied the doors to the mansion. Our car stopped in front of the main doors, which was wide open for us, since Madhav had already informed the caretaker about our arrival.

We got down from the car and stretched ourselves since the long drive had taken a toll on our backbones. Suddenly from inside the house, a huge dog came running towards us, barking and with bloodshot eyes. Madhav quickly stepped forward and got hold of the dog before it could bite us.

"Calm down Cleo. Calm down. They are friends!". The dog seemed to have understood, since it quickly softened up, and sat down on its hind legs, with its tongue dangling out.

"This is Venkat Sir's dog. It has been there in the family for quite some time now. It is very obedient towards the inmates of the house though. I spent a lot of time with Sir, and so it has become friendly with me."

"Where was Cleo on the day of suicide?" Mehul asked.

"In the house itself. The suicide took place at night as per police reports. After dinner, Mr. Venkat used to leave Cleo outside at its own doghouse on the backside of the mansion."

"Ok, can we go and take a look inside the house?" Mehul asked with a frown.

We were taken inside. It was nothing short of a palace, unlike Nataraj's house. There was a huge guest area with very richly decorated walls and cabinets. A huge chandelier hung from the top and staircases ran on both sides leading to the mezzanine floor. The floor marble was clean as glass and there seemed not a spec of dust on any of the furniture. Everything had been kept exactly like it was during the day of Mr. Venkat's death as per police request.

There were 4 bedrooms in the house. One in the mezzanine floor, for the guests, and 3 on the floor above it. Mr. Venkat obviously hoped that Nataraj would eventually come and stay with him. Without wasting any time, we went to the bedroom of the elder Mr. Venkat. It was the last room towards the right of the lobby. It was a spacious room, but was filled with so much stuff that it appeared pretty congested. There were two large almirahs, one large wooden bed, one huge work table, TV, a huge shelf filled with documents, a cabinet filled with trophies and awards. His bedroom looked like his mini office. The bed was placed towards the center of the room. On the right side of the bed, was a large window which opened towards the backside of the mansion, beyond which was the edge of the hill. There was a short wall bordering the edge. The left side of the bed there was a small newspaper stand, and further ahead were the work table, shelf, etc.

A small cabinet on the left of the bed was filled with medicines and prescriptions. Mehul went up to it, to take a closer look. He pulled out a few files from the top of the pile and kept them side by side on the bed. The prescriptions were all in proper order. It was clear that Mr. Venkat suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and a few other ailments. He also had difficulty sleeping and was being treated for the same. Most of the medicines in the cabinet matched those prescribed, though there were a few over the counter medicines as well like tablets for indigestion, nasal decongestion drops, etc. There were 2 bottles of Diazepam, which was prescribed for insomnia, and for help reduce anxiety. The lower drawer contained medicine bills. Mehul brought them out and kept them above the prescriptions as per date of purchase. He then started comparing the bill dates with the prescription dates.

One of the prescriptions and three bills seemed to interest him more than the others as he picked them up and started comparing them. He then opened the bottles of Diazepam and emptied the contents on the bed. He counted the number of tablets in the bottle and looked at the calendar on his mobile phone.

"The post mortem report suggested that the time of death was around 11.50 PM on the 18th of April". Mehul turned towards the caretaker and asked, "What time did Mr. Venkat usually go to sleep?"

"Nothing was fixed Sir. Sometimes he would go to bed at 9 PM, sometimes at around 1AM. He was a late sleeper. On the fateful day, we went up to his room at around 10.00 PM. He did not like any of the servants or cleaning staff entering his room unless he would ask for someone." The caretaker said thoughtfully.

"Ok. So he went up at 10.00PM, soon after which he must have had his medicine and gone to sleep. The number of medicines suggest that he had his sleeping pills on 18th April. He got the new set of tablets on the 6th, and started using them on 7th, as per my calculations. So on 18th, he must have consumed the 12th pill, which is exactly what the numbers tell us. It is highly improbable that someone wanting to commit suicide would actually take a sleeping pill on the same night he plans to jump off the cliff. My guess is that he must have fallen asleep after having his medicines, and whoever murdered him actually did that while he was sleeping."

That was surprising to hear. Mehul had already decided that it was a murder. He must have been sure about it, else he was not the person to make loose statements. He seemed pretty engrossed with the room and various objects in it. He kept sitting down on all sides of the bed and watching something very minutely. Then he stood up and went to the stand beside the bed. He brought out the last newspaper on top, looked at it for some time, and went to the work table of Mr. Venkat. There was a glass cover lying on one side over a bunch of papers. Mehul opened the glass cover, looked at the contents inside, kept it aside and picked up the bunch of papers over which the cover was placed. He came back towards the bed, bent down a bit on the left side of the bed and looked towards the window. He frowned for some time, went towards the other side of the bed, crouched on the floor and started looking around. Soon he jumped up and came back to the left side of the bed and started going through the newspapers. From behind, he discovered a paper weight made of glass. One edge of the paper weight was broken slightly. Mehul smiled and heaved a sigh of satisfaction, as if he had proven himself correct to his own self.

"This is how the incident happened. On the fateful day, Mr. Venkat must have...". His voice trailed off, as he rushed towards the window, and looked out, staring blankly. "Oww, I am a fool...."

Evident Evidences

With a stern look, he turned towards us. "Lets go to his son's room. My investigation here is done."

That was strange. He was just about to tell us what he had found out, but something made him eat his own words.

Suresh's room was much smaller, less cluttered and much better kept. There was a large window in this room as well, facing exactly the same direction as Mr. Shivaraj's room. There was a small table beside the door, a storage bed and an almirah. This time Mehul looked more confident about what he was doing. He quickly went to the almirah, opened it, removed the clothes from the hangers, and sat down on the floor to inspect the bottom of the almirah. There were mud and dirt present along with stains of a few drops of fluid on the right side. Mehul bent close to the stains and started sniffing. He stood up, closed the door of the almirah, and looked at the caretaker.

"This room was cleaned the morning Mr. Suresh went missing, I guess?"

"Yes Sir, we always cleaned Mr. Suresh's room in the morning, and that day was no exception. Sir used to go up to the terrace room sometimes, and spend hours painting. We thought he might have gone up there."

"Okay, that explains a lot. I would request all of you to stay here, while I will take Kairav with me towards the backside of the building a take a look at a few things. Can someone ensure that the dog is chained up properly?"

Cleo was locked inside one of the rooms in the ground floor, while the others waited for us near the 1st floor lobby. Both of us quickly found our way to the back of the building. When Mehul was sure that we were alone, he spoke up.

"Mr. Shivaraj was murdered in cold blood. If you look at his bed, the mattress on the left was more used that the right, which means he slept on the side of the door, away from the window. Yet the bed sheet is more messed up on the right side. The murderer must have come in through the window, went around to the left side of the bed. At that moment, something he did must have woken Mr. Venkat up and he rolled and tried to get away from the right side of the bed. The murderer had something in his hand, most likely a bottle of chloroform and a handkerchief. He panicked, and found a paper weight beside. He picked it up and aimed at Mr. Venkat's head. The object hit his victim and fell on the floor, breaking the edge of the floor tile as well as its own edge. He then hid the paper weight, lifted up Mr. Venkat's body and his glasses from above the newspaper and left through the window. Few things which stands out – Firstly, Mr. Venkat used his reading glasses for reading the newspaper, while his usual glasses were kept on the work table. The killer did not understand the difference while trying to make the murder look like a suicide as much as possible. So the murderer is low on education, very well built to have picked up both father and son and brought them down, and had means to leave the house without any suspicion.

When I looked outside the window, the first thing I saw was Cleo's kennel. By the time the murder took place, Cleo must have been inside. So it is improbable that no alarm was raised when the murderer was climbing down. Which means, Cleo was not there, or must have been with someone trustworthy enough to keep it from barking. Only one person came to my mind, and that is Madhav. He may not be the culprit, but he is a strong suspect nevertheless. The son was kidnapped earlier. The murderer waited in his closet as you could guess, and had the bottle of chloroform with him. A few drops fell while he was soaking his napkin with the liquid.

Now the question is how the murderer managed to leave the premises with the unconscious body of Suresh, without being stopped by the guards. Obviously the father's body was thrown off from the edge of the hill just over the boundary. Lets look around and see if we can find something that explains this puzzle."

Mehul was right. Most of the blocks fitted in the slots, barring how Suresh's body was taken out of the premises. We went to the back of the building, from where we could see the windows of both the bedrooms in the first floor. There was a platform near the ground, below which was the junction shaft of the sewage system. The murderer would not have had much of a problem in finding his way down. The drainage pipes, the sun shades and the sewage platform created an easy path to climb up or down the building. Mr. Venkat might have never bothered about this since beyond the building backside, was the edge of the hill and the front side of the building was always heavily guarded.

We went around the kennel towards the right side of the building. The area was a little darker than the other areas, but we could find our way through. No one seemed to ever come towards this side of the building. But what struck weird was the stench in this area. It was as if this place was a dumping ground for daily garbage and leftovers. In the faint light, we could see some remains of vegetables and other food items scattered on the ground. There was a clear area with tyre tracks leading up to it from the front of the building. Just as we were looking closely for some clues, a garbage truck was visible driving towards us from the front portico. It came up straight over the empty area and turned off the engine. The truck was from a cleaning company called A2Z Cleanerz, their logo quite prominently placed on the side of the vehicle. The driver was a young boy, well dressed, but with a tired look on his face.

"Sorry Saab, I am late today. You can start dumping now."

He opened up the back shutter of the truck from where even more foul smell came out. He must have dumped off a load before coming to this place.

Mehul spoke up, "So you come here everyday?"

"No Saab, I am coming for the last 4 days only. But my boss has given me 4 buildings. When there is delay in one of them, I am delayed here."

"Ok. So when do you usually come here and when do you leave?"

"I come here by 7.30 PM, and leave the truck here till 10 AM in the morning. Then I leave. Previously we used to come here directly in the morning. But recently we have been instructed to park the truck here at night as well."

"When did this happen?" Mehul asked impatiently.

"Don't know Saab. A month or so back, our contract was terminated suddenly by the client and when we asked for a reason, they said that the new agency offered overnight garbage collection. We had to convince them a lot before we could get back the deal."

We thanked him for all the information, and started walking towards the front side of the building.

"Mehul, if we have a strong doubt on Madhav, why don't we just let the police interrogate and get the truth out from him? We would get to know if he is innocent or he is the mastermind behind the whole episode." I asked.

"Yes we can do that, but that way our client's reputation is not reinstated. People would think he forced an employee to take up the guilt so that he could pass unblemished. We have to nab the criminal and also ensure that the whole truth comes out to public, including everyone involved, so that Nataraj can get back to his public life like before. Makes sense?"

He did make a lot of sense. For all we knew, with just a hunch and without any concrete evidence, Madhav could have somehow escaped the legal scrutiny and ensured all open ends are tied up, and we would never get the truth out in public.

By the time we reached the front porch, everyone was outside waiting for us. Now that the doubt was on Madhav, his every expression seemed to betray him. He started looking suspicious in every move of his. He was on a call, while constantly looking at us from the corner of his eyes. He approached towards us and we could hear him asking the caller to call back next day. He hung up, and with a smile, started acting as casual as he could.

"So, Mehul, did you get any clues? Anything you need from me?"

"Yes, actually quite a few things we need. To start with, I need to see the ledger entries and details of each and every company entrusted with garbage disposal for this house, in the last 2 months. Address, phone numbers, names.. everything. Who maintained that?"

Madhav looked taken aback completely. He started stuttering. "Well, I kept a track of that, but there has never been any formal record. Whoever we hired for our company, I just asked them to come over to this place as well. Why do you need that information?" Madhav had perspiration on his forehead now.

Dead Man's Clue

"Explanations come later Madhav Ji. Anyways its good to know you handle this. So would you like to tell us why the agreement with the current vendor was terminated a month back, approximately at the time of the death of your boss, and who was given the work during those few days?" Mehul replied.

"Do you guys think I am somehow responsible for the two deaths?", Madhav said looking amazed.

"We don't think anything while working on a case. We work on probable theories, and at this point of time, no one is beyond suspicion." Mehul explained.

"I do not have the contact details of that agency. We needed someone to stay overnight to collect the garbage, and someone approached us at that point of time. We gave them the contract, but then the earlier agency offered the extended service at a cheaper cost. So we switched."

"OK, that is not an issue. The gate security must have the records." Mehul was as calm as he could be.

We went to the front security, and asked for all visitor registers. There was a specific register maintained for vendors and workers. It did have details of every vendor to have crossed those gates. We went back to the time of the incident, and there was indeed a different vendor entry during that time. The name mentioned was Vishnu and there was also a mobile number mentioned. Company name was written as Vishnu Garbage cleaners while there was no signature. The security guard recalled that the person did not know how to read or write and did not have any company ID as well, so he just made up a company name for the sake of entry. He further told us that the person was very well built, tall and had a scar on his forehead.

Mehul chuckled, and turned towards the security guards, while pointing towards Madhav. "Can you please seize the mobile phone from this gentleman? We need to take him to the police bureau." The security guards were ordered to obey us and they did just that. Madhav's face was red as he started shouting at all of us. We did not waste any more time there. It was already quite late, and we drove back quickly to the bureau. Mehul had already informed Kamath during our drive back. He was waiting outside with a few constables.

As soon as we reached, Madhav was taken into custody. We then went to Kamath's cabin for giving a brief of what had happened.

"We strongly believe that Madhav was behind all these. The theories point towards him. We need to get the proofs in hand. But we cannot let Madhav spoil all clues and details even before we reach them. So it is necessary to have him under check." Mehul said.

"I trust you Mehul, but we cannot keep him under custody for more than 48 hours" Kamath was concerned.

"Don't worry. We will have the case solved by then." Mehul said with a smile." For now, we need to know the address and details of this mobile number". He handed over the small piece of paper where the security guard had jotted down Vishnu's mobile number.

Nataraj arrived soon after, with a file that contained his whereabouts for a month prior to the murders. He clearly did not recover from the shock of getting to know about Madhav's involvement. "He is so close to our family. We trust him more than anyone else. Why would he do something like this?"

"We are yet to find that out. But we also had to arrest him so that he does not tamper with the evidences. We will resolve the case by tomorrow, and also get to know the motive behind the murders." Mehul assured.

The file given by Nataraj had a detailed list of every meetings and gatherings he had attended. We started going through the list one by one, while Nataraj explained in details about each entry. Mehul wanted to get across to every possible instance where was scope for someone to take an imprint of Nataraj's house keys. Nataraj said that they keys were mostly never left out of sight. Outside home, Nataraj always kept the keys in his pocket. Inside the house, it is hung on a hook behind the main door with quite a few other keys as well. According to him, the housemaids did not know which were the keys to the house and even if they did, it was highly improbable that they could have done something, since they have been very loyal and their stay inside the house is very short and always under observation from his wife or one of the guards.

We went through the records for nearly two hours, before we came down to three instances which could have provided the window for someone to take an imprint of the keys. One was when he visited one of the multinational motor vehicle manufacturing company Research and Development wing, and he was asked to deposit the mobile phone, keys, laptop, etc at the security desk. Nataraj clarified that all his belongings were put in a bag and sealed in front of him by the security guard, and the seal was broken only after the meeting was over.

The second instance was when he had to leave the keys at a car service station for half an hour to repair a flat tyre. But the flat tyre happened during a leisure trip and they went to the nearest service centre and there is no way the culprit could have planned an intervention at that instance. It was way too far-fetched.

The 3rd instance was that of a felicitation ceremony where Nataraj was the chief guest. Post ceremony there was dinner at the same hotel and Nataraj stayed back with his wife overnight in the hotel and returned next day afternoon.

"I was the chief guest in this gathering. It was planned and organized by Madhav for one of the institutions that our family business funds. My father was into a lot of CSR activities and he used the company profits to drive a couple of educational institutions. In this instance, it was a prize distribution ceremony and my father was not well. So Madhav set me up to be the chief guest instead." Nataraj explained.

"Hmm, maybe the housekeeping staff.." Mehul murmured. "Anyways, we should get going for now. It's almost midnight. We will visit Vishnu tomorrow once we get the address and also this hotel where you stayed. In the meanwhile, I would request Kamath to start going through all outgoing and incoming calls on Madhav's mobile phone and see what we can get from there."

We were dropped back home after a very late dinner. Both of us were very tired and immediately went to bed. We needed to track Vishnu as early as we could and our only hope was that he admitted to the crime and the involvement of Madhav in all these.

Next morning I woke up earlier for a change. Kamath had called me up to tell me that the mobile number has been tracked. The owner Vishnu Reddy lived near the Central railway station. He had quite a few cases against him, but lived off the mercy of the ruling party in the government. Kamath had sent across a jeep to pick us up. He would meet us at Vishnu's house at around 10 AM.

We got ready and left at around 9. Kamath was waiting for us at the location much before we reached. The locality was densely populated, mostly with families well below the poverty line. The roads were so thin that at times it was difficult for our jeep to pass. There were children playing on the road and every pathway was closely bordered with huts and mud enclosures. The jeep stopped at a roundabout. We had to walk from there as the road was too thin for a 4 wheeler. After walking for about 5 minutes, we reached an open area. There were very few houses around us. The road now went downwards quite steeply with a few boulders jutting out, acting as steps. Once we got down, we found Kamath standing a little further away on our right. He was standing in front of a small house which looked dilapidated from outside, but when you see a dish antenna on the terrace, the outer unit of a split AC on the back of the house, you cannot help but expect a lavish lifestyle inside.

"You guys are on the right track. Vishnu is dead. Someone slit his throat. The dead body is lying inside. But he did leave some clue for us before he died. Come inside." Kamath told us.

The Truth Unfolds

This was a relief as well as a shock. There was so much we had to know from Vishnu as he was the single most important card in this game. But nevertheless, we followed Kamath inside. His house, from the inside, looked like the secret office of a political party. It had banners, posters, leaflets, stickers, and handouts of the ruling Government party, the Indian Secular Front. Vishnu was clearly a very active member and took part in the pre-poll promotions and publicity.

There were two rooms, a small kitchen and attached bathroom. One of the rooms were locked from outside, and that was where the dead body lied. Kamath asked us to cover our nose before we entered the room since the body had already started decaying. He handed over two masks and asked the constable to open the door.

A huge, dark-complexioned man was lying dead inside. There was blood all over the floor. He was lying near one of the walls, face down, and turned towards the door. There was something written in blood on the wall.

"What is written there? And who wrote that?" Mehul asked.

"It is the local dialect. He wrote 'Madhav' on the wall before he died." Kamath replied.

"That's non-sense. Vishnu doesn't know how to read or write. Even if he did know how to write the local dialect, how is it possible for him to write something on the wall with his throat opened up? He would have died instantly. And even if he did not, imagine how difficult it would have been to lie face down, turn towards the other side, lift his hands perpendicularly behind and write something so neatly on the wall, and die the moment he finished writing Madhav. This is a set up."

Kamath was completely confused. All this while he assumed that the case closed at this point, but now it seemed that the case was more complicated than we had thought. Mehul started going through the various belongings of Vishnu. Just beside the almirah, there was a huge roll of packing plastic with the end torn off carelessly. Inside the almirah, there were clothes, a gun, a few bottles of alcohol and a bottle of chloroform, carefully wrapped in a plastic.

"Everything seems to fall in place, but still something doesn't match up." Mehul said in a concerned tone. "Kamath, whoever murdered Vishnu, wrote 'Madhav' on the wall using Vishnu's finger. So he had to hold Vishnu's left hand. Check for fingerprints. The left hand is still resting on the wall. It has not yet touched the pool of blood. You might get a fingerprint still. Check for the fingerprint match from your criminal database. I am sure whoever murdered him has other criminal cases filed against him. He seemed to have been stronger than Vishnu and a skilled murderer. He was also someone known to Vishnu, since Vishnu did not bother to keep the gun or a knife in defence. The murder happened in the bedroom, so both of them walked or fought till this point without raising an alarm."

Mehul turned towards me. "Kairav, can you go to the bureau and talk to Madhav. Find out what his motive can be for the murders. Was it something to do with the state politics, or something within the company, or was he acting under some pressure. I will go to the hotel and find out if Vishnu got an imprint of the keys on the very day when Nataraj got stuck after the function."

Mehul went off to the hotel on his own, while we drove back to the bureau. I kept wondering what I could possibly ask Madhav. He definitely had a dislike for both of us and now that his crime was being slowly uncovered, he would be even more careful with whatever he says.

We reached the bureau at around 11.30 AM. Nataraj was also present at the bureau. The moment he saw us, he walked up to us. "Madhav has confessed to his crime. About an hour back, we met him and asked him why he did such a thing. He denied everything at first, but then we told him how Mehul had clear evidence against him and how the murders took place, he went silent. Within an hour, he called for his lawyer and gave a detailed confession on both crimes."

"Why did he do it?" I exclaimed.

"He says that he was not happy with the position he had in the company. My father kept giving younger employees more chance to grow than him. He also hoped that my father would make him a director in the company, but instead my brother, who had no knowledge of business, was given more preference. So when the ruling political party, in a move to overthrow me from contention, approached him, he facilitated everything for them to successfully move on the plan to malign my reputation. He knew that I was not interested in the family business, and he being the most senior person in the company after my father, would be empanelled into the board of Directors."

This made life easier for us. Had Madhav not agreed to his involvement, there were very few proofs we had in our hands to send him behind the bars. I had to inform this to Mehul so that he does not waste any more time on the wild goose chase. I called him up and explained everything to him.

"Wow. That does make life easier for us. I did not find anything here which can be pursued further. An employee did stop coming to the hotel for the last few weeks, and she was in housekeeping, but I doubt if she had any connection with Vishnu or this murder. But then we still do not know how the duplicate key was made. Maybe you can ask Madhav now that he has agreed to everything. I will be there in 30 mins." Mehul said before he hung up the phone.

I went to the detention center where Madhav was kept. Kamath took me to the meeting area and got 2 policemen to escort Madhav to the room. Madhav had a worn off look on his face. He looked deeply disturbed and broken, but there was absolutely no remorse on his face.

"Madhav, I need to ask you just one question. How did you manage to get a copy of Nataraj's house keys which you eventually passed on to Vishnu?" I asked.

"Nataraj had dropped the keys during the Institution event where he was the chief guest. He did not notice that. When we went up on the stage to address the students, I took an imprint of the keys and kept it back on the table."

This was weird. Nataraj had told us that he always kept the keys in his pockets when he is outside. And moreover, Nataraj's wife and friends would have been around during the event. How did Madhav manage to take a print amidst all the guest?

"Madhav, are you sure? I have been told that Nataraj doesn't keep his keys lying around. In fact he is very particular about keeping the keys in his pockets."

"Yes, it must have dropped off his pockets. I don't remember clearly. I have already told whatever I needed to. Now I want to stay alone."

He was certainly hiding something. Mehul arrived soon and I told him everything that Madhav told me. Mehul started muttering something on his own, deeply engulfed in some thought. He walked into an empty room on the left and closed the door behind him. He stayed there for quite some time, before he came running out of the room and asked for Nataraj.

Nataraj was in the other section of the bureau giving his statements. Kamath called up the in-charge and asked him to send over Nataraj immediately. Mehul was pacing up and down impatiently. As soon as he saw Nataraj appear, he ran towards him.

"The bottle of Allegra in your bedroom – who uses that?"

"My wife does. She has allergy problems." Nataraj replied.

"What stimulates the problem for her? What are the triggers?"

"I don't know, neither does she. But mostly it appears because of dust or dirt or unclean environment. She immediately gets a blocked nose and if she doesn't take her medicines at the very onset, the problems increase and the allergic reactions intensify."

"And the day this happened, you mentioned she was not well. Was it the same issue she had?"

"Oh yes. She was down to bed that day. But why do you ask?"

Mehul smiled and turned towards Kamath. "Loyalty, my friend, is something that a few people really understand. But the extent of loyalty is something that even fewer people can ever fathom. Madhav is innocent. We were completely wrong about him. He is just trying to save the family name by accepting a crime that he never committed. You may as well let him go."

He turned towards Nataraj. "Your wife on the other hand, has not been quite loyal to you I am afraid. We need to bring her to the bureau immediately. But do not tell her anything in advance."

Nataraj kept staring at us in disbelief. Anyone present there would have felt for him. He lost his father, his brother, and now the only person he could call as his near family. Kamath held him and took him to his chamber while instructing 2 lady constables to pick up Nataraj's wife from home and bring her straight to the bureau.

Once Mrs. Venkat arrived, she was taken to the interrogation room, where we were waiting for her. She looked overwhelmed at what was happening, but Mehul, calm and composed as ever, went on to start questioning.

"So Mrs. Venkat, how would you want this to be? Should you tell us everything that we need to know and save all of us some time? Or do I need to ask for another day to get concrete evidences against you and put you behind bars for the rest of your lifetime? Maybe, if you cooperate, the court of law might show some lenience in their judgement."

"I do not know what you are talking about. Where is my husband? I need to talk to him right now."

"On the contrary, I think you very clearly know what we are talking about. Do you deny giving Vishnu the duplicate key to your house? Do you deny visiting your in-laws' house, hiding inside the garbage truck on the day Vishnu went to set the plan in motion? You deny keeping Cleo under control while all these things were happening? And then you went inside the truck and left early morning next day? You may deny all that, but I guess you forgot to carry your medicines on that day. The stench of all the garbage, the dirt inside the truck and finally the dog hair, all mounted to giving you a really bad allergy, which persisted even when Nataraj returned home."

Mrs. Venkat had turned pale. She quickly controlled her emotions and kept looking sternly at Mehul.

"So, Ma'am, I will ask you one more time. How is it going to be? Lifetime in prison, or telling us the truth and getting your punishment reduced for cooperating with the legal system? You have not shown any loyalty towards people who love you the most. At least show loyalty towards your own self?" Mehul tried convincing her.

"Loyalty? Please do not talk about something you don't know. You are trying to give justice to Nataraj? What about justice to me? I worked together with Nataraj few years back. It was me who politically motivated Nataraj to do something good for the country. I started an NGO, Nataraj joined it and became known for his philanthropic nature. I worked on Women welfare, I took a leading role in campaigning for a Polio Free country, I showed Nataraj the way. But when the time came to handover tickets for elections, I was not considered. You want to know why? Because I am from a poor family and could not contribute to the Party fund. Mr. Venkat, on the other hand, sent money to the party office and ensured that Nataraj got the ticket. The party asked me to step aside and help my husband with his election campaigning. He took credit for all my work. Tell me Mehul, can a woman not have political aspirations? So yes, I joined hands with the opposition to make sure Nataraj's career in politics gets over. He would have no other option but to take care of his family business. I would then use the same money, which 'bought' Nataraj a party ticket, to fight elections next time." She spoke with tears in her eyes.

"Ok, and who all helped you in this?"

"You have my statement, and that's all you are going to get. I am loyal to people who cared for me. So if you want to have more details you will have to find them yourselves. I will not be saying anything else in this matter." Mrs. Venkat spoke with a straight and determined face.

"Very well, Mrs. Venkat. You have been very helpful." Mehul said while getting up from the seat.

Nataraj had been listening to everything from the other room, and he came out to meet us once the interrogation was over. Kamath was with him as well. Mehul placed his hand on Nataraj's shoulders as he spoke. "I am sorry that you had to go through all these. But now you know whom to trust and who doesn't deserve your trust. I think once Kamath traces the murderer of Vishnu, the other blocks will fall in place to link the whole series of events to your opposition party. Anyways, I leave it upto you to decide how much further you want to proceed with this case. Be advised that the more you push, the more people will get to know about your wife's betrayal and the murkier your family name becomes. I would want to speak to Madhav before we leave."

Nataraj managed a smile. "Thank you for all that you did. You have done our family a great favour and I will be indebted to you guys for a lifetime. Your payment shall reach you by tonight. The fact that my wife, Shivani, had political aspirations, was never known to me, else I would have happily pushed her up within the party. I would be very thankful if you assist Kamath in case he needs further help in cracking down the murderer of Vishnu. I have decided to finish this case till the very end without bothering about my family reputation. Anyways, I am the only one left from the family. So how much worse can it get?"

We shook hands as we left the office. Madhav was waiting for us near the reception. He looked saddened at the whole event.

Mehul immediately went up to him to apologize, "Madhav ji, we are extremely sorry for what you had to go through. It was not our intention to cause inconvenience to you, but the turn of events were such that we could not stop thinking of you as a suspect. I just want to know one thing. What made you so sure about Mrs. Venkat's involvement and which led you taking the blame on yourself?"

"I have 2 mobile phones. One is my office number, and the other is my personal number which only a handful of people have – my wife, my daughters and the 4 members of Venkat family. When Vishnu had called me asking for the job, he called me to my personal number. And that too a day after Shivani advised the house keeping staff to get a new vendor to collect garbage after dinner, since she was not happy with the cleanliness maintained by the existing vendor. I did not think about it too much then, but now I could correlate both incidents."

In the next couple of weeks, there were some major news doing rounds. Vishnu's killer was nailed by the police and he confessed his allegiance to the ruling political party. He also gave some names which led to a few arrests and resignation of two party leaders. Nataraj came out clean and received sympathy from every corner. He came up as a strong contender to win the re-elections from his constituency. Nataraj did not fail to thank us enough in public for all that we did. Shivani received imprisonment for life while Madhav became the Director of the company he had been such a loyal member of.

We became busy in solving petty cases and cold cases while waiting for the next big adventure. As it turned out, we got the next big case soon, one which brought us face to face with a monster that haunted our lives for many more days to come.

5 SHONAR BANGLA

Episode 1: Dead at the Doors

In the darkness of the pathway parallel to Park Street, going towards City Market, a figure stood resting on the walls of an old building. He had a cigarette between his lips and a diary in his hand. He wore a kurta with a pair of jeans and had long hair. He was impatiently looking at his wrist watch every few minutes. It was not very hot outside, but still, he was perspiring. Suddenly another figure appeared from the other end of the road. This man wore a hat and looked much larger and stronger than the first. As soon as he started coming closer to the man wearing kurta, the latter threw the cigarette and started pacing towards him. They came close to each other and extended their arms to shake hands. But just at that moment the second man pulled the first one close to him and stabbed him. Three quick blows across the sternum. The first man was so shocked and in extreme pain, that he could not make any noise, and slowly sank on his knees. The second man lit a cigar, puffed twice, picked up the diary carried by the dying man, turned around and left.

The summer of 2007 was not very kind to both of us. While Mehul had flu, I had even bigger problems. My parents were adamant that I get married and even gave me a deadline of a month to decide whether to choose our neighbour's daughter or the daughter of my father's best friend. I remember that I used to like the girl next door, although I completely forgot what she looked like or what exactly made me like her. But I trusted my old instincts, and gave an approval for the girl I once used to like for some forgotten reason, over someone I had never talked to before. I put forward a condition though, that the girl whom I choose to marry, needs to spend a month with me before we proceed further, and be sure that she was willing to spend the rest of her life with someone as adventurous and reckless as I was and would have no objection to my profession and passion to solve crimes.

So, now that the wedding bells were ringing so close to my ears, and Mehul was still recovering from the after effects of the ailment, we decided to go for a bachelor outing somewhere far away from the city to rejuvenate and recharge ourselves. We had a decent time window of 3 weeks before I had to visit my parents and bring along my wife-to-be to spend time with me and make a final decision.

One fine morning, Mehul was deeply buried in the newspaper, while I was trying to put my laptop back to factory settings to repair some corrupt system files which had been bothering me for quite some time, when we heard the familiar clanging sound of a jeep forcing its way through the uneven road in front of our house. It was Kamath's jeep and it also meant there was something for us. Kamath had recently started sporting a beard and would stroke it with a lot of pride everytime he wanted to show off.

"Hello guys. I have some great news and some good news for you. The good news is that I have an adventure planned for you guys." Kamath said when he walked into our apartment.

Mehul slowly looked up at him. "Nice way to put forward that you have another case that you guys failed to solve. But we are not taking any new cases now. We are planning a vacation."

"Well, then you must listen to the great news. This case is in Kolkata. We will make all the arrangements for you guys. So you can mix a bit of business with pleasure. What say?" Kamath grinned at us with his teeth flashing from between his moustache and beard.

"Hmm. Does your arrangement include 5 star stay, with unlimited buffet meals and a 24 hours available chauffeur driven car, along with some cash reward?" Mehul pushed forward his case.

"Ok, everything will be taken care of. The case is really a disturbing one and we have got strict orders from higher authorities that it has to be resolved in any which way possible. It is a very sensitive case and the local police do not want any involvement of the central government on this one. The DCP there is Inspector Pradhan, with whom I had worked for nearly 5 years while we were posted in Bhubaneshwar. He asked for my help in this matter. So I will be accompanying you guys to Kolkata to help them out with this case."

"What is the case?" Mehul asked, finally with some interest in his voice. He was still weak from the flu, and was in a sulky mood most of the time. He hated not being at his 'pink' of health.

"Let me start by saying that this case has an element of supernatural in it. Towards south of Kolkata, on the banks of the river, lies an old Kali temple. It was built more than a hundred years back, and is one of the most famous tourist destinations, not to mention the huge daily turn-ups of local followers and worshippers.

The temple opens its doors at 6AM every day. Two weeks back, the security guards opened the gates at the same time and started putting the entry registers in place, when they heard a scream. One of the staff, who was cleaning the steps that lead to the river, found three dead bodies of priests of the temple, lying side by side on the last few steps. They were all stabbed from behind in similar fashion.

The temple has been sealed off after that. The police have not been able to trace the murderers or find a plausible cause for murder. The priests lived within the temple premises and have never been into any sort of altercation with anyone whatsoever. There are rumours flying around that the priests were punished by God because He is angry with the local inhabitants. Some people even say that there are dark forces inflicting the lands. People are scared and they want answers. The temple runs on alms by tourists and the government. People have stopped visiting the temple for more than two weeks now. The sustenance of the temple and the inmates rely solely on the footfalls to the temple.

The State government has refused to take external help for this. They cannot even reopen the temple for visitors, with the murderer still at large. So my friend asked me for help from outside of the department. It is more of a personal favour. But the police department there would extend full support to us."

"Good. I see you have already booked the tickets for us. When do we leave?" Mehul replied with a smile.

"Goodness gracious. How did you know that?" Kamath was surprised.

"Well, it is quite sunny outside now, but it did rain in the morning. I see mud stains on your trouser and shoes, which means you left early in the morning. If you had been to the bureau and then visited us, you couldn't have been here before 10.30 AM, since the bureau opens at 9.30 AM. It is 10.20 AM now. That means you are coming directly from some other place. So you left your home before 8.30 AM and went to some place before coming here. When you walked in, I got the distinct smell of Ittar, which I know is sold next to the travel agent's office, since your officer who got me tickets last year for Rajasthan got a dab on his wrist from the same shop. So, there you go." Mehul explained.

"Wow. In fact I have the tickets with me right here." Kamath handed over the ticket print outs to us. "We will leave day after tomorrow."

Disturbed Serenity

Two days later we were picked up from our home by one of the bureau jeeps. Kamath had arranged for everything starting from our luggage pickup, breakfast and airport drop. He was waiting for us at the airport. The flight was scheduled to depart at 11.30 AM and arrive at Kolkata at 2 PM. There was a slight delay in the flight take off, but we reached almost at the right time. It was extremely hot at that time of the year in Kolkata. Coupled with that, was the high humidity, which made it almost unbearable for someone who had just landed from Bangalore.

Just outside the airport arrival gate, a middle aged man wearing a grey cotton shirt and dark brown pants was waiting for us. He had a paper in his hand with "Inspector Kamath, Bangalore" written on it hastily with a blue marker. As soon as we started approaching him, he came running towards us and took the luggage trolley along with our hand luggages. I prefer carrying my own laptop bag, and so I motioned him to carry on with the others. There were long queues of Black and Yellow taxis waiting outside the airport in the pre-paid taxi area. A white cab was waiting for us in the 5th lane. It had "Police" written on the front board and was almost brand new. The chauffeur was an elderly man dressed in all white. It felt really good to get inside the AC car from the scorching heat outside. The other person loaded our luggages into the car dickey and asked us to carry on, since he had to receive someone else as well from the department.

We left Dum dum airport and started off towards south Kolkata where we would be staying until the case was solved. We were told that it would take us at least 2 hours drive to reach the destination at that time. Exhausted by the flight, and the heat, and with the AC running at full speed, I dozed off to sleep.

We reached Baruighat at around 4.15 PM. Mehul woke me up from a very deep sleep the moment we reached. The car drove us to Hotel International, where our bookings were done. The driver only unloaded Mehul and my baggages, and kept Kamath's luggages back inside.

"Where am I going to stay?" Kamath asked.

"Pradhan Sir asked me to take you directly to his bungalow", the driver replied.

Kamath turned towards us and smiled. "Seems like we wont be able to spend much time together off work. Anyways, we would be at work most of the time, and beyond that you guys can enjoy your stay here. Give me a call if you need anything."

A luxury suite was booked for us on a twin sharing basis. We were greeted inside the hotel by Mr. Sengupta. He was assigned to stay with us at all times during our stay in Kolkata.

"Welcome Sir, I am Nilanjan. There is a car waiting in the parking lot only for your use. If you need anything – food, drink, siteseeing, any official documents, talking to local residents, etc, I am your man. I stay nearby, and I have nothing else to do during your stay here. So call me up for anything and everything you need help with." He said with a smile. "You guys go and have some rest. I will take you to the crime location tomorrow morning at around 9. Pradhan Sir would be waiting for you.". He handed over our room keys and left.

The hotel was exquisite and so was our room. There was a huge flat screen TV, Jacuzzi inside the bathroom, a study room, a balcony overlooking the swimming pool, two huge beds to start with. No matter how difficult the case might turn out to be, we knew that our stay would be extremely comfortable.

Dinner would start at 7.30 PM. Mehul jumped into his bed and lied still for quite some time before I could hear snoring from under the pillow. I ordered for a cup of tea and started going through Kolkata's map which was kept in the study table drawer along with a tourist information book. The rest of the day was quite uneventful. We had buffet dinner with a huge spread of authentic bengali and continental dishes, and went off to sleep early. I hoped the case would present us with a world of challenges, so that we had the chance to stay here for as long as possible.

Next morning we were woken up at 7.30 from the reception. Breakfast was ready and we had to leave by 8.30 so that we could reach the location by 9. Nilanjan proved to be quite punctual, since he arrived at 8.15 sharp and waited for us at the waiting lobby. We left the hotel at 8.35AM. It was not that hot yet outside, and the road to the crime scene was along the river.

The whole area looked less inhabited, and filled with greenery. Trees arched from both sides of the road, dense plantations on either sides with the river flowing not so far off from the road. Occasionally there were roadside vendors selling some vegetables or dry fruits, and hand-pulled rickshaws passing by at regular intervals.

Soon we reached the main road. The car took a sharp right and the whole landscape changed. There were big buildings, quite a few 19th century styled, there were tram lines, taxis, people running to office, hawkers, and almost everything that you could imagine to be a part of any metro city. We went on for 2 kilometres, before we reached a huge arched gate. This was the entrance gate to the temple. Once inside the gate, the cobbled path lead to a flight of stairs which ended at a huge wooden door, in the middle of a tall wall that blocked any entry to the other side of the temple. There were many small shops on either side of the pathway, starting from sweet shops, flower shops, to ones which kept your slippers and shoes safe while you visit the temple, for a meagre 2 Rupees per pair of footwear. All shops were closed now, with a few worried and distraught shop owners sitting outside the gate, talking among themselves.

Our car stopped just at the foot of the steps. We kept our shoes inside the car and went up the stairs towards the huge wooden door. The door squeaked open as soon as we pushed at it. Inside, the temple was huge with mostly open spaces, and five smaller temples built around one large temple, and all of it surrounded by a wall. On two sides of the wall there were doors which opened straight to the river with flat steps going into the river water. There was also a small porch on one side that lead to a park which had a few huts lined up one after the other. The inmates of the temple stayed in these huts. One had to get into the main temple area to go to these huts as beyond the huts and the barb wire boundary, there was a steep and ragged descent to the river.

Kamath and a few other Police officials were already there with a photographer and other priests of the temple. As soon as he saw us, Kamath and the other Police officer came over to us with a smile on their faces.

"Hello guys, let me introduce you to Inspector Pradhan, my old friend, and they are Mehul and Kairav, two extremely intelligent young men who have helped us solve seemingly unsolvable crime cases.", said Kamath pointing at us. Pradhan looked almost as old as Kamath, without the beard and moustache. He had an air of determination and optimism around him and had a very heavy voice which created a stir in the otherwise silent temple.

"You have my full support. I have already asked my department to help you with whatever is there at our disposal. Just keep me in loop for anything important. Also remember that the local people are a simple and naïve lot. They can get scared very easily and they do not understand 'routine investigation'. So before probing into someone's whereabouts, be sure that you know what you are doing. Anyways, I trust Kamath and his judgement and I am sure you can close this case. It will be a huge favour on all of us!", Pradhan shook hands with us and left for an urgent meeting with the Commissioner.

Near the door towards the east, a police constable was standing. He was the first person to have reached the crime scene and taken statements from various people in the temple, Kamath explained to us. He had already been informed about our involvement and was asked to provide us with all the documents, reports and evidences collected. We walked towards him.

"Ranjan, these are the consultants we told you about. Talk to them, and make sure they get everything they need. I will leave you guys to discuss." Kamath told the constable. He then turned towards us. "I need to visit the police station for some paperwork. Please carry on with your work. I will join you in a couple of hours." Kamath left in a hurry.

"So Ranjan, tell us everything you know, whatever you saw when you walked into the temple that day. I am Mehul by the way."

"Sir, I got a message from the control room that day at around 6.30 AM when my shift was about to get over, that there has been some unfortunate incident at the temple and that I should visit the site immediately with a fellow constable. Usually we never get a call at that hour and so most of the other staff had left for early morning tea. I called up my partner and asked him to rush to the site as soon as he was back, while I hurriedly came in the Police bike.

When I reached the temple, there was a huge gathering outside the temple while the security had locked the gates from inside. I went in and found the 3 dead bodies on the steps in front of us. All of them were stabbed from behind, two of them were stabbed at the lower back, while one was stabbed near the neck. No weapon was found which could have been used for the murder, nor anyone here has any motive to kill them. As you can see, the priests and temple inmates are an innocent lot of people who spend all day praying and serving the poor. We still have asked them not to leave the temple until the investigations are over, and none of them are a bit interested to do so. They have spent most of their lives in the temple. The security guard saw no one coming or leaving after the temple gates were closed. The three priests killed were the senior most priests who were always present in the central sanctum – the large one in the center. The day they were murdered, everyone saw them cleaning up the interiors of the central shrine, collecting flowers and sweets, and leaving towards their hut. No one knows what happened after that until they heard the scream of the cleaning lady next morning.

We have carried out quite a bit of investigation, starting from questioning everyone associated with the temple or with the deceased, to forensic investigation of the dead bodies, but we have not been able to come up with a solution. As you can imagine, we do not want to hurt the religious sentiments of people in any way and hence our probe has been quite conservative, but we have been thorough. I have brought all the case related files for you along with photographs and statements of eye witnesses. You can have them."

He handed over a few files to us.

Mehul looked at the first file briefly, "What about the doors of these 6 inner temples? Do they remain locked at all times or are they open?"

"No, there are no locks on these. The priests just pull the door close and leave it like that. If the main door is locked, no one can enter this part of the temple. So the temple management did not bother to put locks on the inner doors." Ranjan replied.

"Ok Ranjan, you carry on. We would like to take a look around the temple on our own. I will get back to you if we need anything. Please give me your contact number." Mehul saved his contact details on his mobile phone.

Mehul wanted to start off with the temple at the center, since that is where the priests used to pray and attend to visitors. There were a few steps leading up to the temple. The door was left half ajar and as soon as we pushed it, it opened with a creak. It was completely dark inside and we had to search for the light switches on the side walls. There were four bulbs, which, along with the sunlight peeking in through the open door, lighted up the sanctum well enough. There were iron bars with chains that started from the entrance and went round the centre podium, where the idol was kept, and ended at another door towards the west from where visitors would get out. This was done to ensure nobody touches the idol or steps on to the holy podium where only the priests were allowed to step in. The floor was made with slightly uneven stones, dark in color while the central podium was made with concrete. Four small metal pillars supported an artificial decorated roof made of silver which made a structure for keeping the idol.

The Kali idol was wrapped in satin clothes, the whole setup created an overwhelming effect powerful enough to make your head bow down with reverence. Mehul crossed the chained perimeter and sat down near the concrete podium. Something had caught his eyes. The walls of the temple were beautifully carved out depicting various mythological stories and deities. I went close to the wall and started inspecting the sculptures. On the wall behind the deity, there was something strange. It looked like as if someone tried to break the sculpture, or at least used a sharp object to try and break off some part of it. It was not just in one place, and from the look of it, whoever did it, was not very sure of what he or she was trying to do.

"Mehul, can you come over here and take a look at this? Someone tried to tamper with the wall art I think."

"Yes, I saw that. Whoever did it, was looking for something inside the temple. It was not the idol that they were looking for, since the idol is not stuck to the floor and if that is what they wanted, it would have been gone by now. There must be something else they were trying to uncover. I can see similar scratch marks near the elevation as well. Since the priests who cleaned this particular temple are dead, the cleaning has not been done very efficiently. I can see white dust at the corners which came off when the digging was going on."

Mehul started peeking closely towards the base of the podium. There were clothes and flowers covering most of it. He removed some of them to get a closer view. Then with both his hands, he pushed at the concrete structure hard. The podium split into two and everything placed on it was about to fall.

Baffled and Threatened

"Kairav, ask for a priest to come over, along with a few cleaning staff. Also get the priest who cleaned this area after the incident."

I rushed out and went towards the temple office. Ranjan had not left yet. I asked him to get the head priest along with the one who took care of the central temple after the murders, while I ran to get the cleaning staff. In a few minutes we were all standing inside the temple surrounding the holy asana, which was now broken into two halves.

Coincidentally, the head priest himself looked after this temple for the past few days and he was shell shocked.

"Sir, since the flowers are fresh, I presume you have been changing them everyday. Did you notice the crack in the asana?" Mehul asked.

"No. I did not spend much time inside the temple. Just came in, removed old flowers, put fresh flowers on the side and cleaned the idol. The idol was previously hinged on the old asana, but when we renovated the interiors last year, a square mould was created on which the idol fitted perfectly, holding it well enough. So cleaning the idol is easier now. I never could imagine in my wildest dreams that something like this could have happened!"

"Ok, can you remove the idol from here so that we can take a look at what is there underneath?"

The priest obliged. He arranged for placing the idol in another asana and placed it at the other end of the room. Mehul asked the helpers to remove the broken concrete slabs and started inspecting the place. The circular podium was broken from the side and later assembled again and covered with clothes so that the crack remains out of sight. The debris were removed and the broken piece kept aside. There was nothing beneath, only cement, bricks and debris. Whoever did it, tried to get as deep as possible until it hit the stone flooring beyond which it was difficult to get through with simple tools.

"You said that this was created recently. Before that where was the idol kept?" Mehul asked the priest.

"There was a sandalwood and teak asana which was there for a very long time. It was there even when I came to the temple for the first time. So I think it must have been there since the beginning. Once the management decided to repair some of the structures, the old asana was sold in an auction."

We spent some more time inside the temple, hoping to find something unusual, but there was nothing that could be seen as an evidence. After our discovery of the broken podium, there seemed to be a fresh round of gossip at the temple office. Kamath arrived in the meanwhile and got to know about what happened. We were all hungry and decided to try out some of the local street food. We left the car behind and walked out of the temple, crossed the road and reached the pedestrian path lined with food stalls. The path was so crowded with people moving both ways and with people standing and eating outside the stalls, that we found it difficult to move. Mehul asked us to carry on, while he ran towards a small book shop down the road. While we tried to find a less crowded area to sit and eat something, I felt someone putting something in my back pocket. I turned back immediately and there was no one standing behind me. I put my hand into the pocket, which was empty earlier, and found a piece of paper inside. It was an old piece of newspaper, the orangish one like The Economic Times, and on the inner fold, there was a message. It said "GO BACK & LIVE. IGNORE & DIE". Each of the alphabets were again cut out from other newspapers and glued together.

I folded the message and kept it in my pocket. I knew that if Kamath were to know about it, he would immediately send us back to Bengaluru. We finally found a quiet and less crowded location where the traditional Kolkata Rolls and Mughalai Parathas were being served. Mehul also came with a packet full of books and mementos.

"Found a shop selling photos and literary works related to the temple. Says it has been running for more than two decades. Got a few things to keep me busy at the hotel." he explained.

After a sumptous meal, we decided to head back to the hotel to analyse all the paperworks done for the case so far, the FIR report and related case files handed over to us by Ranjan. The car was waiting for us just outside the temple. Kamath accompanied us to the car.

"Ok, so you guys can take the rest of the day off. If you are done going through the paperworks, give me a call. The nightlife in this city is something you guys should check out! By the way, what do you think about the case?"

"Yeah, the chicken roll was good." Mehul replied as he got onto the car.

As soon as the car left the temple, I showed the letter to Mehul. He read the letter, smiled a bit and then folded it and kept it along with the other stuff he had bought.

"Lots of doubts, lots of theories Kairav. This case is going to be the largest one we have handled so far. Don't be surprised if we find a few more murders or crimes associated with this case. And be very wary of this letter. Whoever is behind all these murders, means business. Its not just an empty threat. But why do they consider us as a threat? Have we met before? Or maybe there is some relation with one of our previous cases? Anyways, I need to read a lot back at the hotel, so I will use the travel time sleeping."

He covered his face with his handkerchief and went off to sleep.

As soon as we reached the hotel, I went off to take a bath, while Mehul sat with one of the books he had bought. It was a brief history of the temple. The other books were also scriptures related to the temple, photos, and books about Shriman Jyotindra Narayan, the freedom fighter and philanthropist, who had built the temple.

Mehul sat there till late evening, reading and making notes. He handed over a few Police documents to me so that I can check for any anomaly in the reports, but found nothing substantial. The details recorded were prima facie and had nothing beyond what we already knew. Mehul looked like an engineering student, one day before the exams. He had his laptop open, books on all sides, and was furiously looking for information.

I took the paper out from the carrybag, and sat with it on the table. The base paper piece on which the alphabets were stuck, was from a week old newspaper, based on the article that was visible on the back side. More specifically, it was from the Wednesday, 18th June edition of The Economic Times, since it had the orangish background. The alphabets of the message had a white background. That means, it was either from the Times or the Telegraph, since they were the most widely circulated newspapers at this part of the country. I opened the epaper website and started going through all the newspapers since 18th June trying to find the edition which had all the capital letters present in the message. The I in IGNORE was blue in color on a white background. That meant it had to be one of the special supplements which are printed on Sundays. So I started looking at the Sunday version and found that other than G, all other letters were present in the Sunday edition of the Telegraph. I saved a copy of the epapers for Mehul to take a look at.

It was evening by the time we finished our work. Mehul looked deeply immersed in thoughts and kept pacing from one end of the room to the other.

"I believe there is another murder connected to this one at hand. Or at least some other act of violence. Call Kamath and ask him to get the auction winners of the old asana to the police station for some questioning. Make sure he takes a few of the deputies along with him. If I am guessing right, he might find the lucky winners dead by now."

I went ahead and called Kamath and conveyed Mehul's message for him.

"Are you getting a hang of this case, Kairav? Sri Jyotindra Narayan was a rich man during his time. He had lots of jewels, precious stones and money. So much that it was believed that with his money, he can buy a few armies for himself and yet not feel any pinch in his pockets. The treasury he had could have been very useful in building our nation. But he was killed one day and no one ever found any of the riches. He had built this temple before he died. And now we find people digging up the temple for some unknown reason. If that is the case, and as we know, they did not find anything under the statue, they would go after the old asana.

Sri Jyotindra Narayan had two sons, of which the younger one lived in USA. He returned back to India last month and was found dead near Park Street. The killer has still not been nabbed. The elder son lives in Kolkata and runs an NGO. He is quite a popular leader around this area. Maybe we should go and meet him tomorrow."

"So you mean to say someone is trying to get the fortune and killing people in the process? But why the temple? What guided them to look for the riches in the temple? After all, we saw there was nothing there." I asked.

"Yes, lots of questions need to be answered. But we made a good start today. Lets have dinner and we will think about this tomorrow."

At about 10PM, Kamath gave us a call. They found out details of the auction winner. The asana was taken by Mr. and Mrs. Ghosh, devout believers of Goddess Kali. Their delivery address was taken from the ledger. They lived in an independent house, which was locked for nearly a week, as told by neighbours. Both their contact numbers were switched off. Suspecting something fishy, the police broke into the house. There was a strong stench coming from the kitchen. When they opened the refrigerator, they found both their dead bodies stuffed inside.

The asana was vandalised and broken but nothing else of interest to the case was found at the house. Kamath requested us to come over and take a look at the crime scene if possible. We were more than willing to visit the place even though it was quite late. The place was just 20 minute drive from the hotel and since it was already half past ten at night, the roads were quite empty. Once we reached the site, we were greeted by Kamath.

Futile Murders

The house looked very old from outside and was rarely maintained. There was a small porch leading to the front door. There was a swarm of police officials near the main door while around fifty neighbours were standing near the gate trying to peek inside. Kamath gave us a pair of masks and gloves and guided us inside the house. The bodies were waiting to be taken out, but Kamath had insisted that we get to look at the bodies exactly the way they were. The couple had been stabbed and stuffed into garbage bags and put inside the refrigerator. Two of the constables took the corpses out of the bags and laid them side by side on the floor. It was a horrible sight. Mehul started inspecting the bodies while I went to the front room where the asana was kept.

It was completely broken. Some parts of it were intact and I used them to start integrating the structure back. It took some time but at the end of it, the whole asana was standing in front of us. Mehul came and stood behind me in the meanwhile.

"Brilliant work, Kairav! This proves that whatever the killer was after, wasnt here as well. Both his attempts have been futile. At the temple, there were two men who killed the priests. The third guy may or may not have been there. Here the third guy was definitely present. In the temple, all the 3 stabbing were done at the same height. The forensics show a horizontal cut, which means the people who stabbed were almost same height as that of the priests. They used a military grade dagger to kill and used the same to try and unearth the temple podium. Here the third guy carried a revolver with him. He was at least 6 feet tall and quite strong. The lady doesnt have a head injury, but the man had a head injury. The killers must have showed them the gun to enter the house since there are no symbols of forced entry. Once inside, one of them hit the man on his head with the revolver and knocked him out before proceeding with breaking the asana. The injury is towards the top of head, which means the guy with the gun was taller than the dead man, and hence at least 6 feet tall. The priests were stabbed on their lower backs which means those killers were all short heighted and hence I said that there was a third person involved in this one. Also, in the temple, the marks on the floor and walls had two different patterns. One of those patterns were less prominent than the others. If I were to guess, there are 3 guys involved. One is a tall and well built guy, the other two are short of which one is reasonably well built while the other one is lean. Looking at the depth of the stab wounds, it would have been the work of the sturdier short guy, since all stabs are very similar to each other. Which also means that this guy had some military training or martial arts training at some point."

Mehul searched for something in his mobile phone and continued. "I need to meet Sri Ashutosh Narayan, elder son of Sri Jyotindra Narayan, who lives near Camac Street. His life may be in danger. I suggest you send some policemen as well to his house to ensure his well-being."

Kamath called up the area-incharge and asked him to dispatch a unit to Camac Street. It was nearly 12.30 AM and we did not want to bother Mr. Ashutosh at that hour. So we went back to the hotel and decided to meet him at morning. It was an eventful day, and Mehul's face became more and more intense with time. He was deeply immersed in a world of his own, thinking of theories to explain every incident that took place.

Next morning, we left the hotel early. We had our breakfast and left by 8 AM for Camac Street. We reached a bungalow named Narayan Nivas at 9.30 AM. That's where Sri Ashutosh Narayan resided. By the look of it, we knew he was safe, since even without the Police, he had sufficient number of armed guards and security measures in place. It would have been very difficult to walk into this house with a gun in hand.

It was an old house, but very well maintained. Kamath was sitting inside talking to Mr. Ashutosh, a stern looking man in his early sixties, but looked much younger for his age. They both stood up once they saw us coming and motioned us to take the seats beside them.

"Good Morning Ashutosh ji. My name is Mehul and.." Mehul was cut short.

"Please call me Ashutosh. I don't deserve or crave for more respect." Ashutosh spoke with a deep and resounding voice and smiled.

"Ok Ashutosh. My name is Mehul and this is my friend and partner, Kairav. We have come to know that recently your brother was murdered, and that there are a few people who are trying to get something that belonged to your respected father. They vandalised the temple built by your father and also the old Asana, and killed five people in the process. We had doubts about your well-being and that is why we got the policemen to your house late at night, but now as I can see, you do not need much security."

Ashutosh laughed out. "Well, you see, I love helping people. So, wherever you see there is injustice, I will lead rally, peaceful protests, candle marches, etc. More than half of what I earn goes towards helping the poor and needy. Recently, I strongly objected to the urbanization bill passed by the state government. Making poor people homeless under the cover of urbanization is not acceptable you see. After two or three threats and phone calls, they actually made an attempt on my life. Hence the protection was given to me free of cost to prevent further attacks on me."

"Great, so that means we don't need to worry about another dead body for now." Mehul replied with a smile. "Tell me something Ashutosh. Your father had quite a lot of money I read, which went missing after he died. People speculated about where he hid the money, and how he knew that he was going to be killed. But that is a topic of discussion for some other day. Now your brother returns from abroad, and gets murdered. Then the priests get murdered and we have evidence of someone trying to dig the temple. And then the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Ghosh. Can you think of some connection between all these?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I think I can vaguely connect the dots for you. Let me start by saying that I grew up at my father's house near Howrah. After my father died, my brother and I were looked after by my grandmother and uncle. Since our mother died when we were very young, they were the only two family members left. My uncle never got married and vowed to never let us feel like orphans. He did everything he could to bring us up like our parents would have. My brother was very naughty, always playing mischief, and had to be shifted to a boarding school at the advice of our school Principal. I stayed in Kolkata and grew up under the influence of my grandmother and uncle. During those times, my grandmother used to tell me tales of how my father fought for the country's freedom and welfare of people around him. My grandfather also died a freedom fighter, and so she brought up both my dad and uncle all alone, and now looked after me. My dad left a diary behind in which he wrote about everything that came to his mind. He was quite philosophical and I enjoyed reading his diary. I even made notes about his experience and day to day struggle that made him one of the richest zamindars of his time. My grandmother passed away when I was in my 8th standard.

When I grew up, I moved out of my father's house in search of a job. Few years later, my uncle passed away. Both my brother and I never came back to our father's house, and so, when we got an offer from the government to buy out the house for their own use, we happily agreed. The house being quite a big one, they converted it to a government office, but kept a few of the things intact as a token of appreciation for my father's sacrifice. The building itself is named after my father and small writings about him are placed at various walls of the building.

Anyways, after selling the house to the state government, we went on to divide the belongings among ourselves. I later realized that my father's diary went to my younger brother, but did not bother asking it back. Now that I am quite old, I remember all those days spent with my grandmother. Few years back, I called my brother up and asked him the whereabouts of the diary. He said he had dumped everything at the cellar of his house in Kolkata before moving abroad, but also wanted to know why I was so interested. I told him all the great things he wrote in the diary, and also happened to mention that the secret to all the wealth was mentioned in the same diary but I could never decipher it. He said he will get someone to look for it and call me back, but he never did. He even stopped taking my calls.

Now that all these incidents happened, I think he tried to sell the secret of the wealth to someone, who killed him and tried to get the riches. The reason I am safe is that there was only one diary and my brother had it."

Mehul looked amazed. "Do you have the writing that talks about the treasure?"

Ashutosh started fumbling through the pages of his own diary. "Yes, I have it somewhere here. Just give me a second. Well, yes, this is it. Now it is not exactly the same as what my dad wrote, but this is all that I could remember. My father wrote it in Bengali, but this is what the English version would look like –

When the time is bad, the horizons are dark,

There is but my Goddess, to whom I can turn.

When friendly mortal souls are not to trust.

Beneath her stone, she guards the wealth that others yearn.

That's it. This is all I could find where some mention of the wealth is there. You may want to go through this diary if it helps you find some other clues. Some of the notes are in Bengali, but mostly it is in English. So you should not have much problem."

He handed over the diary to Mehul and asked him to return it after he was done. We took the diary and along with Kamath, left the bungalow. Kamath seemed visibly happy with our findings so far and expressed pride in us to his fellow officers.

"The intent behind all the murders are now quite clear. Ashutosh's younger brother tried to either sell the diary and its secrets, or worked with a group, with the intention of distributing the treasure once unearthed. Whatever the understanding might have been, he made it with the wrong set of people. They killed him and tried to have everything for themselves. Once they tried to understand the meaning of what was written in the diary, they realized that the treasure was hidden below the idol of Goddess Kali, since the temple was built with a lot of reverence by Sri Jyotindra Narayan. So they tried to unearth that, but soon realized there was nothing there. Next they went to the house of Mr. Ghosh and returned empty handed. So now, there are a couple of things we need to work on. Firstly, who are the murderers? Secondly, where is the treasure after all? Its not really important to find the treasure from the perspective of the case in hand, but we wouldn't miss a chance to solve a riddle, would we Kairav?" Mehul smiled at me while asking.

Finding Answers

We went back to the temple at have a closer look at the site of murder. There was very little chance that we would find something. The steps lead directly to the waters of the river, and during high tide, when the level of water rose, a number of steps got immersed in water. So, with the waves and the splashing water, most of the evidence would have got washed away in all these days.

"Kairav, what we need to do is find out how the murderers came to the temple and then trace them back."

"From what we have seen, the only way they could have come is, on a boat which came upto the edge of the temple on either sides leading to the river, and then they climbed the steps on to the temple. But from that it will be extremely difficult to trace them back. They might have started from anywhere along the river." I suggested.

"Exactly. That is the challenge. Also, where the treasure could be hidden. Has it already been found and taken by someone? Maybe it was under the idol after all."

We sat down on the steps of the temple leading to the river, and before we knew, we were both lost at the beauty that lay ahead. Clean water flowing incessantly in front of us, dense forest on the other side of the river, birds chirping, a cool wind blowing. Beyond the forest on the other side, there was a small fishing village as well. Further down the river, few tourists were crossing the river on long boats with a small covered structure in the middle. Our tryst with nature was broken by Kamath, who came to call us for lunch.

We returned to the hotel in the evening after spending some more time in the temple. The moment we approached the lobby, we could see the door of our room slightly ajar. Someone had entered our room. We thought it might be the housekeeping staff, but when we pushed the door open, it was dark inside. I quickly put the access card in the slot and turned on the lights. There was no one inside. On the bed was a piece of paper, cut out from a newspaper just like the last time, with the following message pasted on it – 'LAST AND FINAL WARNING'.

Usually, Mehul takes threats in a sporting spirit, and confidently confronts it, but this time, I could see worry in his face. He could not clearly see a solution to this mystery. It was a cat and mouse game now between us and the murderer. I went back to checking the newspaper cuttings, and these were from the same newspapers from a one day old edition.

Mehul spent all evening reading the diary. He ordered dinner in the room, and stayed up till 3AM reading the diary. When I woke up in the morning, he was sleeping. I did not feel like waking him up, so I went out alone. I called up Kamath and told him about both the letters, and also that we did not want to return at this point.

"You should have told me earlier Kairav. This is a very serious matter."

"I know Kamath. But we knew that the moment you get to know about this, you would send us back. We cannot leave until the case is solved. Neither can you tell Mehul anything about this call."

"Ok. Don't worry. I will talk to my friends here and see what best can be done." Kamath assured.

By the time I returned from breakfast, Mehul was ready to leave for the temple. He got some breakfast packed before we went out to the parking lot. To our surprise, Kamath was waiting for us there with 2 other very well built men who looked straight out of some commando movie.

"Hey guys, guess what? I got myself a room at this hotel, just opposite to the one you guys are staying. So I am going to spend most of my time with both of you." Kamath said with a grin in his face. He turned back to get a pair of bullet proof vests out of the backseat of his van, and handed them over to us. "For security reasons, I need you guys to wear these as well. Just a formality you see."

"Oh darn. Kairav told you about the letters." Mehul realised what was going on. It did not take his level of intelligence to guess the same. Kamath did not clearly understand the meaning of keeping it discrete! We were to travel in Kamath's van from now onwards. It had tinted glass and was supposedly bullet proof.

"Something is off about the location of the treasure." Mehul said once the van was in motion. "I went through the diary that Ashutosh gave us yesterday. My first impression is that Sri Jyotindra Narayan was a very well educated man but not a very religious one. I need to speak to Ashutosh once more. Tomorrow maybe?"

Once we were in the temple, we went straight to the riverside steps and started from where we had left the previous day. We worked out every possible movement of the murderers, but still could not find anything in the temple which would lead us ahead. After about 3 hours of effort, we were all filled with despair, and sat on the steps looking at the river. At about 1 PM, we went to a nearby dhaba for lunch.

The dhaba was owned by a man and his wife and they made wonderful rasagullas. It was probably the first time that police officials entered the dhaba, so they were extra careful about everything.

"Sir, is the food ok?" He asked Kamath.

"Yes. Its delicious. How long have you been here.", Kamath replied.

"Oh, we have been here for more than 20 years now. My dad used to run this place, and now its me and my wife. So you are here for the temple massacre, eh?"

"Right. If that's what you guys are calling it." Kamath replied with a grin.

"It has affected all our businesses. The temple vendors, stall owners, ferry wallas, everyone! This used to be a very busy place few weeks back you know. I wouldn't have been able to talk to you, there used to be so much rush during lunch hours. The jetty would be swarming with people trying to catch a boat, the flower vendors would be running around trying to replenish their stock of flowers. Its our only way of life. And now things are so dull!"

Mehul stood up all of a sudden. "We need to go back to the temple."

We all went in a hurry to the temple. Mehul went down the steps towards the river and looked down the other side. He pointed to us a boat further down the riverside near the forest.

"Can you see that boat guys? I knew something was odd, but could not figure it out. That boat has not moved in the last 3 days that we have been here. All other boats around it have left and come back. The boats are tied to different pillars on the small jetty there everytime they came back from a trip, but this one has been tied to the same pillar all the time. The blue boat with green border. The boat owner might very well be unwell to take people on rides, but we need to make sure that it has nothing to do with the murders."

We went inside the van and started off for the small fishing village on the other side of the river. We crossed a bridge and then took a sharp right through a muddy road. After driving for almost 10 kilometers, we reached the village. Police vans were not welcome there. The moment they saw police vans, they thought that they were going to be asked to empty the village. None of them owned the land and inevitably, the government would enforce an urbanization order in future.

One of the cops knew the local dialect, and he went ahead to question the villagers. Most of them shrugged their shoulders and moved on. One villager stopped to point something towards the south before leaving. The cop came back and informed us that the man who owned blue and green boat lived further down the road towards the right. We went ahead in that direction, while the cop kept stopping people and asking directions. Finally we reached a small dilapidated hut which belonged to the owner of that boat. The door was locked and the hut empty. We started asking the neighbours of his whereabouts. No one seemed to know him well. He lived alone and had a bad temper with an even worse habit of drinking all day. But he rarely stayed out of home for so long. The neighbours didn't see him from the day of the murders at the temple.

While we were questioning the villagers, we met a guy who claimed to have seen two men talk to the missing boatman a day before he disappeared.

"There were 2 men who came near the river and talked to Santosh, the man who owns the blue boat. One was a sturdy man with a cut mark across the face, while the other was a thin guy. They were not speaking bengali very clearly, had an accent. They talked to Santosh for some time and left. I did not see them again. Santosh was not a very friendly guy. No one liked him. He beat his wife out of the house few months back and lived alone. He was always drinking all day and had a terrible temper."

We went ahead to see if there was something in the boat that would help, but even here, the constant splashes of water over the past few days would have kept very little of use to us. So, we left the village and went back to the temple. Kamath informed Pradhan of everything that happened, who in turn informed other policemen to ask their informers about any clues regarding the two men described by the villager.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We set up a meeting with Ashutosh for the next day and returned back to our hotel. Next morning, Kamath woke us up at 7AM. He kept banging on our door until we opened it.

"The killers have been traced. One of our informers have told Pradhan that there indeed are two killers who match the description. That have come from Uttar Pradesh and they take up big assignments only. But no one knows where exactly they are put up. The department is working with the UP Police to get photos of these criminals from their record by matching the description we have given."

Starting from the Beginning

We had our breakfast and went to meet Ashutosh again. He welcomed us back warmly and arranged for tea at the garden.

"Ashutosh, can you tell me more about your father? His young age, what he liked or disliked, etc?" Mehul asked him.

"Well I do not know a great deal about him. I was quite young when he died. I do know that he was from a very poor background. My grandfather left my grandmother with 2 sons when they were in Bangladesh. During the partition, they had to come to Kolkata. My grandmother worked very hard to give both her sons formal education and a good life. Both my father and uncle were very close to her." Ashutosh replied.

"Ok, do you have any photos of your old house?"

"A few, but they are very blurred. I will get someone to bring them." Ashutosh called for one of his servants and ordered him to bring a photo album from the main bedroom. He came back with a small photo album which looked quite torn.

Ashutosh pulled out a few photos from the album and passed them onto Mehul. They were photos of Ashutosh with his brother or with his grandmother in front of an old house.

Mehul looked at two of the photos for a while, and asked Ashutosh, "What is this structure in front of which you are standing with your grandmother?"

"Oh, that? It was a Tulsi manch, a bengali tradition. Before my father died, he extended the podium on the side to accommodate a small Kali idol, since my grandmother was a devout follower of Kali."

"What happened to that now?" Mehul asked back.

"It is still there. The structure is within the boundary of the building. The government officials sealed that side of the building and opened up the entrance on the road side. There is a small gate behind the parking area, you need to go through that gate. You will find hardly anything visible now, since it is covered with trees and plants all over." Ashutosh replied.

We thanked Ashutosh for all the information and left. Where we were getting into the van, Kamath's phone rang. It was Pradhan. They seemed to have found a match with the police records.

"Pradhan says that they have found 2 people who match our description. One of them is ex-army as well. We searched for their recent movements, and found that they came to Kolkata a month and half back. But the question is where were they now? Pradhan is issuing photocopies of their mugshots all across the town to be put up at strategic locations so....."

Kamath was cut short by Mehul.

"It is of no use. We do not have that much time. Ask Pradhan to send his men to meet all newspaper distributers. With their photos in hand, it will not be very difficult to find who delivers both Economic Times and The Telegraph to these people. They have been using these two newspapers to send us messages. Wherever they are putting up, they have access to these two newspapers on a daily basis."

There were more than 75 locations from where newspapers got divided among distributers early in the morning. Pradhan arranged for more than 2 to 3 constables per location to talk to the newspaper wallas early next morning. We woke up early next morning and waited with our fingers crossed to know whether someone could recognise them.

We were in luck, because at 8AM we got a call from Pradhan. A newspaper boy near Salt Lake identified the leaner guy in the photo. He delivered those 2 newspapers to an old cyber café for many years. Usually the shop owner always received the newspapers. But one morning, he saw this guy standing outside the shop with a cup of tea. The police had an address and wanted us to join them in the hunt. Nothing would have pleased us more.

We left even without changing clothes. The van was waiting for us outside. We rushed to the location where the cyber café existed. It was located right at the end of a series of small shops bordering a nullah. A few police officials were standing outside in front of an ambulance which was loading 2 dead bodies. We were greeted by Pradhan.

"They are both dead. They were found with their throats slit, lying on the bed. This cyber café is a very old one, and the owner gave out the first floor for rent to both of them. He says he has been giving the 1st floor on rent for many years now, and the neighbouring shop keepers have agreed to that as well. He did not know what the tenants were up to or where they are from. He lived 2 blocks away, and he gave the tenants a duplicate key to go in or leave the building. In fact, he made a call to 100 today morning at around 8, when he found the 2 guys dead. We have taken him for interrogation to see if we can find anything more."

We looked at the police van standing at a distance. A senile old man with long beard was crouching at the back seat.

"Thank you Kamath, Mehul and Kairav. You guys are extremely good at your work. I think we can take it from here on our own." Pradhan spoke, beaming with a smile.

"But the 3rd killer?" Mehul snapped.

"Oh, have faith in us. We are sending the 2 dead bodies to Forensic Department. I am sure we can track the 3rd killer in a jiffy. You guys are more than welcome to stay and enjoy the beauty of Kolkata as long as you want to, and not bother about this case any more." Pradhan assured us.

"Ok, but can you please take us to the Government building which was previously owned by Sri Jyotindra Narayan? I wanted to see a few things." Mehul asked.

"Sure, Mehul. In fact, you can follow us, since we will be going by that road. I will stop with you guys as well, since it is a government holiday today, and you would need me to get into the building."

Mehul asked Kamath to call Ashutosh and request his presence in that building as well. We drove through the city towards Howrah. It was a holiday at Kolkata and the roads were quite empty. We reached the building after a 45 mins drive. Ashotosh stayed closer to that place and was already waiting for us.

I accompanied Mehul, Kamath and Pradhan to the front office, where an old security guard was dozing off. He stood up in a hurry and offered a salute to Pradhan as soon as he woke up. We were allowed inside, while Pradhan waited for us outside. We went through the parking lot outside, and saw a small rusted gate with a huge lock on the extreme end. Mehul jumped over the gate, followed by Ashutosh and myself, while Kamath motioned Pradhan to carry on. Once inside, it was difficult to move through dense foliage and roots of trees. Towards the extreme boundary, we could see a small broken structure that looked like a place of worship. The top was almost broken, but the writings in the front were still clearly visible.

Devi Ma

Mehul chuckled slowly and turned towards Ashutosh.

"Sir, this is where all your father's riches are buried. If I tell the police about it, it becomes a Government property. It will be dug out, legally or illegally, and it might reach wrong hands. You, on the other hand, is the rightful heir to this fortune. Whether you give it to the state government and decide to keep only a small percentage offered back to you, or you want to keep everything to your own, I leave the decision upto you. In my opinion, a lot of bloodshed has already happened for this, and so its best if it remains here, unknown to anyone else."

Mehul smiled at Ashutosh, who was awestruck at what he heard.

Case Solved?

We left Kolkata the next day. Kamath was extremely happy and he made no effort to hide it. It was a tough case and I was happy that it was solved. Mehul did not look very happy though. The 3rd murderer was still in his mind. Once we reached Bangalore, we had our cab waiting outside the airport. Having been in Kolkata, the Bangalore weather gave us chills. Kamath took a separate cab to go to the department.

As soon as he was about to board the cab, Mehul shouted out. "Kamath, I need to talk to Pradhan."

Kamath knew it had to be something urgent. He quickly called up Pradhan and passed on the phone to Mehul. After a couple of rings, Pradhan picked up the phone.

"The cyber café owner – how did he reach the shop that early in the morning? His shop timings is from 10AM, and most of the other shops were locked when we were there. Did you ask him?" Mehul blurted out. "Go find him and ask him why he came early that day." Mehul kept the phone down after a brief pause.

We left for our home since it would take some time for Pradhan to investigate further. Once we reached home, I switched on my laptop to check my mail. Among all the other mails was one from an unknown sender. It was titled "Thank you Mehul and Kairav", and was copied to both of us.

Before I could read the mail, Mehul's phone rang. Kamath had taken him in a tele-conference with Pradhan. He put the call on speaker and kept the phone on the table. Pradhan spoke with a concerned voice.

"You are right guys. We went back to the shop, but the old man was not there. The old man was found in his house, killed with a knife. This was not the man we had arrested. The medical experts say that the actual owner was killed much before the two killers were killed. But the problem does not end here. There was a break in at the building which belonged to Sri Jyotindra Narayan. The Kali Manch at the back of the building was vandalised and the whole area dug in at the middle of the night. The security guard lied beside the huge pit, dead. He must have been threatened to dig for his life, and killed once the work was done. One gold coin was left back at the center of the pit."

Mehul disconnected the call and sat down at the table with his hands on his forehead. I went back to the laptop to read the mail. As soon as I opened the mail, I called Mehul. He had to read what was in the mail.

"Dear Mehul and Kairav,

Thank you for helping me find all the riches. I knew if anyone can solve this, it is you. But, to be fair, I did warn you guys twice.

In case you did not know, I killed Narendra, younger son of Sri Jyotindra Narayan. He wanted me to help him uncover his father's riches and offered me a 30% share! I thought, what a shame. He did trust me very fast.

I hired the two goons and got into the temple. The gold was not there. We caught the priests and asked them about the riches. They mentioned about the auction and we retrieved the details from the office register. Of course, as you know now, we killed them before leaving, and that triggered the involvement of you two in the case. First I thought of killing you two, then I thought it would be such a waste. Why not use you guys to track the gold?

You made things difficult when you tracked the 2 mercenaries I hired. I had to kill the cyber café owner and dress up like the old man to get into the café to avoid suspicion. Once I killed them, my informer called me up and told me the police would be reaching anytime. I almost escaped, but then I remembered that I had left my phone behind. I went back and called up 100 from the landline to make my story more believable if I couldn't run out in time. I went upto the 1st floor to find my mobile, but, by the time I could leave, the police arrived on the scene. So I played a short drama, and lo! What a fortunate turn of events! You guys took me to where the gold was, and I watched you enter the backyard of the building with Ashutosh, sitting inside the Police van. I was released by the police after a short round of interrogation. It is so easy to fool them! I waited all day and at night, I finally unearthed all the treasure!

Anyways, I like you guys, but I hate people meddling in my business even more. So the next time you get in my way, I will kill you two. And you two are not good enough to stop me.

Awrighty then, adios! Until we meet again.

K"

6 THE DEATH OF AN ARTIST

Suicides or Murders? Related?

Before the monsoons were over, I had to get Neeti over to Bangalore to give her a month to decide whether she wanted to marry me. There was a girls' PG next block to my house and I booked a room there for her. Neeti did not stay with her parents. She was doing a course on Journalism in Delhi. As a gesture of goodwill, I sent her tickets to Bangalore and went to receive her at the airport with a bouquet, something I am always averse to. Her parents talked to me quite often after the nuptial ties became a possibility. They mentioned how Neeti never went out alone, how she never had a boyfriend, or that salwar suit was the only thing she would wear outside home, that she had very long hair and was very homely. I was so sure that she would reject me!

The flight was on time. The airport authorities did not allow friends or visitors to enter the airport arrival gate, and so I had to wait outside. People coming from Delhi came out one by one, but Neeti was nowhere in sight. I started thinking whether she found her baggage too heavy to bring down from the belt, or maybe she was working on her make-up in the restroom. Suddenly there was a tap on my shoulders. A gorgeous young girl, in a white shirt and blue jeans, with medium sized hair, big expressive eyes and a backpack was standing there.

"Hi! Waiting for me? Neeti." She said with a beautiful smile.

I was quite taken aback. Whether it was her beauty, or the shock of expectations versus reality, I could not speak for a while. In my mind I found it difficult to assemble words to speak. I knew I wanted to say that it was nice seeing her and I hope her trip was smooth.

"So Neeti, will you marry me?" That's what came out of my mouth.

She laughed her heart out and then said. "We'll see. Shall we go now? I am hungry."

Mehul had been a little depressed of late, after the unhappy ending to our previous case, but with the prospect of my marriage, he had turned up for the party. He had ordered lunch from his favorite restaurant for the three of us, put up a welcome home banner as well, without my permission of course since I was all but welcoming. But that was before I met her. Conditions were very different now.

Things soon became very different at the house once she was in. She was loud and bubbly, she ate a lot and talked continuously while eating. She would have one leg folder up on the chair and eat with both hands. For some time both me and Mehul just stared at her eating. Surprisingly, she would talk more to Mehul and blush when she looked at me.

"So, I was told that you guys consult the police. What do you actually do?" she asked.

"We help them solve crimes. Mostly which are unsolved or dubiously closed. We seek to deliver justice." Mehul clarified.

"Detectives huh!" she blurted out with excitement. "Take me with you to the case you are solving now please."

"We are not working on any case. In fact we could not complete the previous case. The killer was one step ahead of us. But yeah, as soon as something comes up, we will take you with us. Right, Kairav?" Mehul asked.

"Yea, you are extremely beautiful." I was blabbering again. Both of them burst out into laughter.

Kamath had been pursuing us for a small case for the last few days, but since Mehul was not in the mood for getting back to work and he did not think of the case very highly, he had refused to participate. A poor family consisting of an old woman and her son, died when the house was set ablaze. Some neighbours suspected gas leak while some suggested that local goons who lent them money few months back and were not repaid, did that to set an example. Initial investigation did not lead to anything conclusive, but forensics reported that both inmates were shot before the house was set ablaze. In fact, the case was covered by news channels the day before, only after this revelation. The boy who died was a painter. Although he never became famous, neighbours opined that he was a wonderful artist, one of the best they had ever seen.

There was water shortage in our area, and in fact over the whole city of late. We had ordered for a water tanker to keep the taps flowing. Neeti kept her stuff at the PG and came back to freshen up. Once she was done, we planned to visit the nearest shopping mall so that Neeti could buy some dresses for herself. We were about to leave when Kamath showed up at our door.

"Guys, you really need to look at this." he said. Seeing Neeti, he managed to smile a bit, "Hi, you must be Neeti. Sorry that I am bothering you guys, but I think we have something serious in our hands."

Kamath had brought a few photos and documents with him. He looked tired and worked up.

"Yesterday night, the famous artist, Yogendra Perekh died. Evidence suggests he committed suicide. He shot himself on the head. But servants reported that soon after the gunshot, they heard Ashish Mehta, Mr. Parekh's secretary, run out through the main door. We have been looking for Ashish, but he is nowhere to be found. We have set up security at every exit points of the city, so he definitely has not escaped far." Kamath explained.

"But? This is not the type of case you would bring to us." Mehul asked.

"Yes, that is not all. If you remember the case I brought few days back where a house was set on fire. After our primary investigation, we are to believe that both the gun shots in that case and this one, has happened from the same or similar guns. We cannot rule out a connection between the 2 cases. Both cases involve artists, same weapon, and happened within a week." Kamath sounded concerned.

"Ok, lets go to the bureau and look at it further. We were about to leave anyways, and my to-be sister in law seems to have an eye for solving crime." Mehul said with a smile.

We took our car and followed Kamath to the bureau. The people at the bureau knew us better by now, and everyone we passed by would smile and greet us. It had started feeling like our workplace. Kamath did not waste any time and got us all the details of both cases at his disposal. The first case was that of Amina Baig and her son Sharif Baig. Sharif was an aspiring artist and a daily wage worker. He worked at a multistorey apartment construction site nearby and was going through quite a bit of financial stress lately as per neighbours. Amina, his mother, had chronic bronchitis and had to frequently visit the doctors. She was getting older and unwell by the day. Sharif had some altercation with the construction site manager a couple of days before his death and had not been to work for those two days. But the construction company was a very reputed one and it was silly to consider that they would kill their workers over some small dispute.

Mr. Yogendra Parekh, on the other hand, was extremely affluent and lived a very secretive life. He was an acclaimed artist with his works sold both in India and abroad for hefty amounts of money. He would organize art exhibitions every four to six months which would be attended by film stars, politicians and other reputed personalities. Of late, he stopped being present at the exhibitions, with his secretary managing everything, but that did not reduce the guest list one tiny bit. He did not meet anyone in the last couple of years and there were rumours that he was finding it difficult to maintain his standards of creativity.

"What about the paintings by Sharif?" Mehul asked.

"We did not find anything unburnt. A few half-burnt canvases and a few utensils is all that remained. It was a small hut with very few things inside. Because of the water shortage in the city, the neighbours could not get enough water to put off the fire. By the time the water tanker arrived, it was too late." Kamath explained.

"Why water tanker? Why not the fire brigade?" Mehul replied back.

"The local people opined that fire brigade people were called but they did not turn up. They closed the case saying it was a prank call. We are yet to verify the same with the Fire department."

"Ok what about yesterday's case? What time did the death occur, who came to meet him before the incident?" Mehul asked.

"Mr. Parekh's murder is even more suspicious. His secretary came to meet him at 5PM. They met at his study, where not even the servants were allowed. There were some heated discussions between the two, but the point of debate was not audible. Only some muffled voice. Then there was silence for quite some time followed by a gun shot. Almost at the same time, the servants heard footsteps, running across the hallway towards the main door. The secretary must have slipped creating a loud thud, and then somehow scrambled to the main door. He then took off the main fuse of the house, thus cutting off electric supply. There were 2 servants at home that time, and they took shelter in the closet behind the kitchen. The security guard later confirmed that he saw Ashish drive away on his bike. He did not try to provide any resistance, since he heard the gun shot as well and was afraid for his own life. He called the police immediately and hid behind the security counter." Kamath explained.

"So much for having security guards." Mehul mocked.

"The police arrived at the scene after some time, followed by Mr. Parekh's son Vishwanath. Police sealed off the study immediately and sent instructions to find Ashish. They took the dead body for post mortem and informed us about the incident. The media people reached the scene of crime soon afterwards. When we questioned them, they said it was some anonymous tip that they received. We found it really difficult to keep them off the scene, since Mr. Parekh was a celebrity in the world of art." Kamath explained further.

"Where was Mr. Parekh's wife?"

"Mr. Parekh and his wife lived separately for quite some time now. One of the servants called up Mrs. Parekh and informed her soon after they heard Ashish drive away. Mrs. Parekh in turn informed Vishwanath to reach the scene as soon as possible."

"Great! So why waste time? Lets go to Mr. Parekh's residence and start the investigation, before any evidences get removed knowingly or unknowingly!" Mehul looked geared up again for solving the case. This was a welcome change. Neeti was excited as well. She couldn't have asked for more. Her first day in Bangalore and we have a new case to work on.

The Chase Begins

Mr. Parekh lived in a less populated area East of Bangalore, near Hoskote. His bungalow looked greener than most part of the city. The security room was at the entrance. It lead straight to the basement parking lot. You had to drive in and turn around to reach the basement. From the basement there were a few steps which lead to the garden and the main door. There was a wall with a small gate which separated the garden from the main entrance way. It was a duplex bungalow with a bedroom on the ground floor and one on the 1st floor. There was also a huge study on the first floor, half of which was Mr. Parekh's art studio.

Mehul turned to Neeti and said "Why don't you and Kairav go to the study and see if you can find something important there, while I talk to the servants and security guard, and take a look around. I will join you guys shortly."

Neeti was over the moon to hear this. Both of us went to the study. It was secured by the police, but we were let inside. The study was kept neatly enough considering it belonged to an artist. The other half of the study had an aisle, lots of blank canvas, oil paints, etc. He definitely was a master painter. Such beautiful were his works, that it was difficult to concentrate on the case and not on his sheer genius artistry. We were shown the chair where Mr. Parekh was found dead. There was a cabinet on one side of the room and a small sitting area in front of it. On the left side was a recliner sofa with a study table. Neeti went towards the table and started glancing through the contents. She had been asked not to touch anything, by Mehul, until he had a look himself. I put on my pair of gloves and went towards the paintings, partly because I wanted to look at them closely, and partly because there was something unnatural about the room. The studio half of the room also had a wooden old table. On top of it was an artist palette and a large bundle of brushes. The palette was extremely dry, as if no one has used it for months. The bristles of brushes had become so hard that when I tried to move one of them, they came off. Good brushes are supposed to be made from rabbit fur. When put in water, even dry brushes become supple. But not in this case.

The aisle, and canvas also gave the same look. They were not used for ages. I browsed through a few paintings kept aside. All of them had Mr. Parekh's signature below, but they all dated almost 3 years back. It was obvious that Mr. Parekh had not used this area to make a single painting for quite some time. Even the volume of paintings and sketches were very less – much lesser than can be expected from an artist of his repute.

There was a small drawer below the table. It was not locked, but the small latch had become extremely jammed. Even the drawer was not opened for quite some time. But the more interesting thing that came to my notice is that the latch was forcefully twisted to open the drawer. Inside the drawer were a few papers which seemed to have been recently shuffled. I collected those papers and put them in a evidence bag.

Neeti called me from the other half of the room.

"Can you please pick these 2 bottles up and let me read the names?"

There were 2 bottles of medicine stashed away at the extreme corner of the study table. I picked them up and turned them so that Neeti could read the names.

"Inderal and Mysoline. Heavy doses" Neeti murmured and took out her mobile phone and started typing something.

Meanwhile Mehul came into the room, looking thoughtful. Neeti went up to him.

"Mehul, Mr. Parekh was on Inderal and Mysoline. These medicines are given to patients suffering from Essential Tremor. It's a disease which affects hands and forearms, making them tremble uncontrollably. Even though the disease in itself is not life threatening. Now considering that Mr. Parekh was an artist, and in all his paintings that I saw downstairs the signature was on the right bottom side, and thus assuming he was right handed, the disease either affected his left arm, or he has not done any painting for quite some time."

I told both of them what I found on the other side of the room and that it matched Neeti's theory.

Mehul turned towards Kamath and said, "Kamath, can you set up a search team to look at all parking areas nearby, maybe within a 5 to 10 minute radius, to look for Ashish's bike. I may have a theory that he did not go too far. Can we go to Sharif's house, I mean whatever is left of it, and talk to his neighbours?"

Here and There Everywhere

It was already quite late, but now that we got some foothold on to the proceedings, we did not want to delay the investigation a bit. We drove to Malur taluk where Sharif stayed. It was a small village at the outskirts of the city. A thin road made way into the village through an arch, from the main road. There were small houses and a grocery store on the way. Under a huge banyan tree, a few elderly people were discussing something. After driving a bit further, we found the almost completely burnt house of Sharif. Kamath had some high power lamps in the van. It lighted up the area well.

The remnant of the hut smelt bad. Not just the smell of burning wood and plastics, but a rotten pungent smell hit us as soon as we entered the dilapidated hut. There was almost nothing left for us to consider as a clue or to investigate further. Towards the other end of the house was a half burnt closet. The door had been broken by the police during their investigation. Inside, there were a few rolls of paintings, half burnt as well. We picked up one roll which seemed the least burnt of the lot. There were 2 paintings in that roll. One was almost brown from the fire. The one towards the inside was a little less burnt. We kept it under a light held above us by Kamath. On the bottom right corner of the painting, there was a signature. Even after losing its shape completely, we could read the word 'Parekh'.

We took the painting as a possible connection between the 2 painters and left for the day. It proved to be a really long day for me. We had dinner on our way back home, and dropped Neeti to her PG. Once we reached home, Mehul sat down with his laptop and started working, while I went to bed. I had a feeling that next day was going to be a long one as well!

Next morning, the alarm clock did not wake us up. Neeti did. She kept banging on the door loudly until we both were up with a startle. She looked even more energetic than the previous day. She had breakfast at her PG, but had her fair share with us as well. She ate with such dignity and poise that you would feel like offering her more and more.

"So where are we off to today?" She asked.

Mehul slept very less and his eyes were almost red. With a deep voice, still in half slumber, he said, "To Ashish's house."

Ashish's house looked nothing special. Just an ordinary row house located near KR Puram Junction. There was strict security placed around his house by the city police, lest he visits his home. His door had been broken open with the search warrant issued a day before. Everything in the house was very well organized and kept neatly. From the furnishings of the house, it was evident that he was a bachelor. There was a servant who cooked and cleaned the house, but she was asked to return by the police.

There was a study in the ground floor. It had a large almirah on one side. The almirah was filled with large files and ledgers. They were very well indexed and marked on the side. There was one shelf where all ledgers were labelled as Auctions. Then there were Independent sales, finally there was a set called cash flow. The inside of the almirah door was filled with images of gods and deities. It seemed like he was a God loving person. There was a large puja room as well, on the ground floor.

We brought out all the files and started going through them. Mehul tried to get Neeti involved yet again. He handed over all cash flow vouchers to me, took all independent sales files himself and gave the Auction details to Neeti.

The cash flow vouchers and files dated back to the year 2000 with consolidated monthly reports of credit and debit. Most of the reports were audited, and hence a consolidated report was available every year. From the year 2000 to 2005, there seemed to be little discrepancies in the cash flow. There was steady income all round the year, and there was a fixed amount that was withdrawn every month for personal expenses. The scenario changed drastically from 2005 onwards. From 2005 to 2007, there was negligible income, but quite a lot of expenses were incurred. The expenses towards medical needs increased till 2007 end to such an extent that the available bank balance in Mr. Parekh's account almost dried out. 2007 onwards, there was steady income just like earlier days, with money coming from both independent sales as well as auctions. But unlike previous days, 50% of the income now went under Commission. There were 4 auctions that happened since 2007, with the last one happening just a month back. In the latest one, no details of expenses or commission was mentioned. Just total sales revenue. That was not surprising since it was quite some time away from the tax filing due date.

Neeti suddenly looked up from the files. "There was no auctions from 2005 to 2007. This is surprising. There have been auctions from 2007 onwards, but why skip those 2 years."

"I might know. The cash ledger shows increased expense on medicines in those 2 years, so much so that Mr. Parekh's bank balance almost fell to nought." I opined.

"I think it might have to do with his ailment – the tremors that he faced. He was trying hard to recover from it. But clearly he did not recover, since we found the medicines at his study." Neeti continued.

"So, his bank account was getting depleted, and he needed money. But he was unable to paint. What does he do? He gets Sharif into the equation. Takes painting from him and sells them under his name." Mehul added.

"Yes, and paid him 50% as commission as I can see." I said. "But Ashish was well aware of the whole thing. Since he would deliver the money to Sharif, being Mr. Parekh's secretary. Then why would he kill everyone?"

"Assuming Mr. Parekh did not make any paintings since 2005 would imply that all these sales from 2007 belonged to Sharif. We know there is a difference in the way Mr. Parekh signed 'Parekh' and the way Sharif did. So lets verify whether the sales were actually falsified. I have one independent sale during the winter of 2005, one during April 2006, and lets pick one from a month back." Mehul pulled out a few papers. He turned towards the duty officer. "Can you ask Kamath to get these paintings to the bureau for inspection?"

The officer took those papers and went out.

We went around the house for some time more. On the front room shelf, there were a few papers, one knee cap, strongly smelling of Iodex, and a few medicines. Mehul looked through them carefully and put them in an evidence bag. In the meanwhile Kamath arrived at the scene. It was one of the rare times when Kamath was late to a scene of investigation. He usually is the punctual one. But when we called him up that day before coming to Ashish's house, he still was not ready for work. Oh how wonderful it felt to wake up early in the morning and get to work!

"I see Neeti already has some positive effects on you two! Neeti, you should do them a favour and get married to Kairav." Kamath smiled as he spoke to Neeti. "So what did you guys find? Anything positive?"

"Quite a lot in fact!" replied Mehul. "Our findings yesterday and today here at Ashish's residence reinforce each other. We have reasons to believe that Mr. Parekh was unable to paint for a few years now, and he used Sharif's paintings as his own, to keep the money flowing in for his treatment and lavish lifestyle. Did you find the bike that Ashish drives?"

"I am afraid I do not have much good news in that regards. The local police have increased man power to look for the bike and I am sure it will soon be located, provided it really is within a close vicinity of Mr. Parekh's residence." Kamath responded.

"Okay, can you tell me from which side of the head was Mr. Parekh shot at?" Mehul asked.

"From the right side. I can show you forensic photos if you want."

"Yes that would be great! And I do believe it was not a suicide. Considering his right hand was trembling quite a lot uncontrollably, his general instinct would always have been to use his left hand to shoot himself."

"Wow! That's a lot of findings. Where do you want to go now?"

"Lets go and meet Mr. Parekh's family. His wife and son. I do not expect to find much there, but there are a few things which only they can clarify."

"Sure, they live nearby. I can accompany you if it is ok and if you are going to the bureau after the visit."

I was completely ok with that. I immediately handed over the keys to Kamath, hoping to take the rear seat with Neeti. Mehul understood that immediately. I realised that when I saw him running towards the car and occupy one of the rear seats. So finally I had to sit with Mehul while Kamath and Neeti took the front row.

Knocking Closed Doors

Mrs. Parekh lived just 10 minutes drive away from Ashish's house. Unlike Ashish's house, this was a villa in a posh locality. The house belonged to Mr. Parekh, but he had long moved to the outskirts, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Mrs. Parekh was at the door to welcome us. In the driveway, we could see a black Fortuner car parked. There was a small veranda with a coffee table adjoining the garden.

We went inside and sat on the sofa in the front room. A servant came and asked us for tea or coffee. From upstairs, a tall gentleman came down. We could tell from his appearance that he was Vishwanath. Both mother and son were quite tall and well built. Vishwanath was more than six feet tall and muscular. He was way too well built to look like an artist.

Once everyone sat down, Mrs. Parekh asked with a smile on her face, "So how can I help you?"

"We wanted to know why you and Vishwanath lived separately from Mr. Parekh? Were you divorced?" Mehul asked.

"Well it is our personal lives and so I would not want to discuss much on that, especially now, since Yogendra is not alive anymore. But you have the right to investigate. So I would just tell you that Yogendra did not deserve the happiness of family life. That man could not be trusted. Yes, we were not divorced, but we lived like ones. I have shed my quota of tears. It would be very helpful if you do not ask any more questions in this regard. I can assure you it has nothing to do with the case."

"How are you so sure?" Mehul snapped.

Vishwanath immediately jumped in. "What my mother means to say is that we have been living separately for more than 12 years now. Both dad and mom settled well into their lives. Nothing about the separation could have made dad commit suicide. In fact I heard that it was not even a suicide, and that Mr. Ashish is the murderer. Why don't you catch him? Why all the investigation?"

"We cannot ascertain that yet, Mr. Vishwanath. The investigation has to be conclusive. That is why all the questions. Can you tell me your whereabouts on that day your father died, between 4PM to 7PM?" Mehul asked back.

"Yes, most certainly. I was at work till 6.30 PM. At around 6.45 PM, while I was driving back, my mother called me up and told me about everything. I reached dad's house at around 7.30 PM and shortly after, the cops arrived. I stayed around for some time, and then left to check if my mom was ok." Vishwanath explained.

"Where do you work? Do you have any proof to suggest you were at work till 6.30 PM?" Mehul asked.

"I am an independent consultant. I do not have any colleagues at work."

"Very well, we will stay in touch." Mehul stood up as he spoke.

We left the house and went to the bureau. By the time we reached there, the police had already retrieved two of the 3 paintings asked for. The 2005 painting was not yet available, but the other 2 were carefully placed in the conference room. We went close to the paintings to check for the signatures. The 2006 painting was made by Sharif, since the way Parekh was written at the bottom right corner resembled what we saw at his house. But the latest one received had Parekh written in a different way. It neither matched Mr. Yogendra Parekh's signature nor did it match Sharif's signature.

"This was made by someone else. Any guesses who this could be?" Mehul asked.

So far the case had got us across two painters. We were clueless about the involvement of a third painter. It was already noon, and Mehul wanted a break. So we went for lunch and drove back home. After a couple of hours break, we assembled in our living room. Mehul picked up the whiteboard marker and started writing on the board.

"Tell me, what do we know about this case so far?" he started.

"Mr Parekh was suffering from Essential Tremors and could not paint since 2005. He then hired the services of Sharif to provide him with paintings that he sold in his name." Neeti said.

"Very good. For this work he got 50% as commission. It was a good deal for both as both were in dire need of money. Without Mr. Parekh, Sharif's paintings were not worth anything. Without Sharif's paintings, Mr. Parekh's treatment was getting difficult." Mehul added. "Next comes Mr. Ashish to the scenario – the trusted secretary who managed all work related affairs and finance for Mr. Parekh for a very long time. He knew about the agreement between Sharif and his boss, as well as the deal with this 3rd artist. The curious part is, if I am not mistaken, he was at the scene of crime when Sharif and his mother were killed. In fact while trying to run or maybe during some struggle, he injured his left knee. He was under medication for inflammation and pain killers, and was using a knee cap as well.

Now comes the all-confusing murder site at the Parekh residency. Mr. Parekh was shot from the right side, making his suicide story highly implausible. The complete series of events that followed is doubtful. Mr Ashish could not run fast because of his injury, yet the servants heard someone running. If he really killed Mr. Parekh, why would he be running hard. He did not need to be scared for his life. As per my discussion with the servants and security guards, the incident happened at around 6.40 PM, yet his bike was seen leaving the bungalow at around 7 PM. From leaving the room to escaping the front gate, it cannot take 20 mins." Mehul continued.

We then have the completely unexplained reason why Mr. and Mrs. Parekh lived separately. But something is missing among all these. We missed some essential clue which will bind the complete case. Please try to remember, what did we ignore about the whole case?" Mehul murmered.

We all started thinking. Mehul was right. There was one variable which would make all equations consistent, but we failed to recognize that. What happened that was not supposed to happen during all these?

"How about Sharif getting fired?" Neeti suggested.

"Bingo, my cute sis-in-law! You are right." Mehul had a large smile on his face. "Lets go to the bureau. I need to talk to the construction site manager."

We immediately raced back to the bureau. Inspector Deepak had been doing the preliminary investigation on the Sharif case. Kamath called for him when we asked him to get us the contact number of the site manager. In the meanwhile, Kamath gave Mehul a bunch of photos which were from the forensic department, pertaining to Mr. Parekh's death. Mehul took a very close look at all the photos and then heaved a sigh.

Inspector Deepak was a young officer with a strange accent. He had spent some time abroad and probably that resulted in a confused accent. He gave us the contact number of Mr. Manjunath, who was the site manager for Vruhath Sameena, the apartment project coming up just next to where Sharif lived.

Mehul called him up from the bureau landline and put the call on speaker. Manjunath had a rough and loud voice. Managers of reputed builders do have a hard job in their hands or rather, their throats. They have to meet the deadline, make sure development is up to standards and still get bullied by the builder.

"Hello Mr. Manjunath, I got your number from Inspector Deepak. I am calling from the bureau." Mehul started speaking.

"Yeah what do you want? What did I do?"

"Nothing sir. Just wanted to ask you about Sharif. He worked at your construction site..."

"Yes yes I remember him very well." Manjunath replied with irritation. "Please don't think I had anything to do with his death. I am just an ordinary person. He had some problem. It was the 3rd time the full tray of cement mix fell from his hand. His hands started trembling like crazy every now and then. First couple of times I told him politely to stop working. I cannot afford that much loss. Finally I had to terminate his contract. What else?"

Mehul chuckled. "That would be all sir." He kept down the phone.

Finally everything made sense to all of us. Sharif had to be Yogendra's illegitimate son. Mrs. Parekh must have got to kow about this resulting in their separation. This was the reason Mr. Parekh wanted to help Sharif while helping himself as well. But then what went wrong?

Mehul suddenly became excited. "The room in the basement parking! I need to go to Mr. Parekh's house again. Right now!"

When Mehul becomes super excited, usually we do not speak much. Kamath motioned us towards the parking lot. Soon we were all driving towards Mr. Parekh's residence. It started raining heavily outside and there was a lot of traffic jam. What should have been an hour's drive took us almost 2 hours. Finally we reached the destination.

The security station outside was lighted up but there was no one inside. We kept honking until the guard came running after 5 minutes still trying to wear his pants properly.

"Sorry Sir, had a nature's call. My stomach has been upset for a few days now!" he explained.

"Drug induced diarrhoea sir. That's what you are having. Probably it is in the water you are drinking. Clear the water drum and you should be fine!" Mehul smiled and said. Something about him told me that he might have already solved the case and was just getting the facts in order.

We drove straight to the parking lot. There was Mr. Parekh's car parked in a corner. The other corner had a small room with a wooden door. It had a huge lock on it. It was so old and rusted that one could tell that it hasn't been opened for years. Mehul went close to that room and sat down to inspect something on the ground.

"The servants told me last day that this room has been locked for ages and it contains junk. But I see someone has recently tried to open it. Where is the key to this lock? While trying to open this lock, some chunks of rust got loose and fell on the floor."

The servants were called. One of them came hurrying down. On being asked, he pointed towards a small shelf on the top of the parking area. There indeed was a key lying inside. Mehul took that and put it inside the lock. With one turn of the key, the lock squeaked open.

There was no light inside, so we had to use a torch. The room indeed had junk. Broken furnitures, torn clothes, etc, but on one side, the dust on the floor was completely ruffled up. It looked like some heavy object was placed on top of it. On further inspection, we could clearly see a few drops of blood on the floor and a patch on the wall.

"This is where a body was kept, the head resting on the wall. And if I am not too wrong, it was the body of Ashish." Mehul said with a smile.

Painting the Clear Picture

Kamath was on phone for sometime, less interested in the conversation over phone and more on what Mehul was saying. He disconnected the call and said, "They have found the bike. It was parked in the parking lot of a theme based park just a kilometer away from here. Some numbers from the number plate were taken off and that's why it took so much time. My men are bringing the bike here now. So you definitely were on the right track. Who is the killer?"

Mehul smiled. "I saw that question coming. But my answer remains the same – all in good time."

In about 10 minutes, Ashish's bike was brought over to Mr. Parekh's house. It was a very ordinary bike, one that belongs to middle class daily commuters. There was a carry box attached to one of the sides.

"Break the lock please. It will not be possible to find the key right now." Mehul instructed.

The police officers got a crowbar and broke the lock of the carrier. Inside the box were a diary, a pen, a raincoat and some oranges. Mehul took out the diary and started going through it. It was an appointment scheduler for Ashish. His meetings, telephonic calls, to-do lists, everything was penned down in the diary. The first thing that came to our notice was the meeting with Sharif on the day of Sharif's death.

We skipped through a few pages to the time of the previous auction. It was very important to find out who the other artist was. Almost a month back, we saw an entry – 'Pay commission to Viren (artist)'. Now we knew the other artist was Viren. On further searching the content, we found that almost 2 months back, there was an entry –'Meet Viren, Vishwanath Babu's friend – 32/2, Mahaveer Apartments, ITPL'.

Suddenly, we saw that one of the servants was speaking to someone on the phone. Mehul kept looking at him while he talked with his mouth covered with one hand. We could distinctly hear him say, "Ok Sir, I will tell you once they leave." Before disconnecting the call.

"Kamath, find out who he was speaking to and what." Mehul asked Kamath.

"Hey, come here. Who were you talking to just now?" Kamath roared.

The servant came up to us, scared, and said "It was Vishwanath Sir. He called me to ask who came to the house and what you were doing. He called me thrice so far."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him the truth sir. I told him that you had come, opened the basement room, and were going through Ashish Sir's diary." He replied.

Mehul looked at Kamath with a worried look. "I am not sure if Viren is safe. Can you send a team to check on him? His address is right here in the diary. In the meanwhile, you need to issue an arrest warrant for Vishwanath. We need some more proofs. Lets start with the camera at the parking lot where he parked the bike. Next we need to check the back of his SUV where he probably had stashed Ashish's body while taking it for disposal. The body could not have been disposed off far away, since from the time he left this house to the time he reached his mother's place, there is not a huge time gap. I am sure the search dogs can find something."

Kamath sent a team right away to Viren's address, while we set off for the recreation park. It was not very far off, and because of the rains, there were not too many people around. We went to the admin office, and explained everything to him. The manager there was very cooperative. He immediately gave us all the recorded tapes for the day of murder. After a bit of forwarding and rewinding, we could see Ashish's bike coming in through the security gate. The person driving was wearing Ashish's coat, and the helmet. We could not see the face at all. We tried zooming in as much as we could, but still nothing prominent showed up.

"Hey, look at the watch. Vishwanath was wearing this watch when we visited his place!" Neeti pointed towards the wrist of the biker.

It indeed was Vishwanath's watch. But was it enough to prove his guilt?

"Please take a copy of this tape. We will analyse it more closely at the bureau tomorrow. Anyways, I think we can gather enough proofs against Vishwanath, so you may arrest him as soon as you have the warrant. It is very late, so we will leave for the day. We'll see you tomorrow at the bureau. Let us know if something important turns up."

Once we came out of the house, Mehul offered to drive and asked us to take the back seats. He took us to a multiplex and handed over two tickets for the latest movie.

"I will take a cab home. You guys need some privacy. I anyways do not like hindi movies. Kairav, take good care of her." He said with a smile and left.

We reached home a little late after the movie and candle light dinner. We talked a lot about our home town, about her schooling and life after I had left town. I shared my side of the story as well, and how I became a sleuth trying my best not to take any credit away from Mehul. When we reached home, we found Mehul sitting at the dining table with a large smile flashing across his face.

"Guys, work done! When the police reached Viren's home, they found Vishwanath there trying to strangle Viren. He was arrested for the attempt to murder and his vehicle has been impounded as well."

This was wonderful news. Knowing Mehul as much as I did, I knew he would explain the details of the case only once, at the bureau tomorrow, and so I did not make much of an effort to ask him more. Once Neeti left for her PG, we went to sleep.

Next morning, we reached the bureau well before time. On our way to the conference room, we saw Mrs. Parekh at the waiting lounge. Vishwanath had been kept under detention.

We were soon joined by Kamath, who had more good news. "As it turns out, Ashish was buried behind the steel factory nearby. We confiscated Vishwanath's car and we did find bloodmarks at the floor on the back. We have sent the blood samples for DNA testing. Vishwanath has already accepted that the blood is that of Ashish. Question remains, how did you find all of it Mehul?" Kamath asked with a smile.

"It was quite easy actually. We had already established that Mr. Parekh was suffering from a condition which made his right hand tremble, thus making it impossible for him to paint or shoot himself with the right hand. Also the photographs shows that the bullet entered his head from a greater height than it went out, which meant someone taller than him had shot him. Ashish was shorter than Mr. Parekh, and Vishwanath was much taller.

When we found out that Sharif also had the same medical condition, it became clear to us that he was Mr. Parekh's illegitimate son. Clearly Mrs. Parekh or Vishwanath did not like this and detested the presence of Sharif or his mother in their lives. When Vishwanath got to know about the arrangement between Sharif and his father, he plotted an elaborate scheme to get rid of Sharif and Amina Baig, and put the blame on Ashish.

He started off by contacting Viren and asking him to sell his paintings to Ashish. He asked Ashish to use Viren's artwork instead of Sharif's. Ashish agreed since he probably did not know about the relationship between Sharif and Mr. Parekh. But when Sharif came to know about it, he must have threatened Ashish about telling Mr. Parekh how he had changed the artist to get more commission. Vishwanath asked Ashish to meet Sharif and sort it out, but that same day went to Sharif's house with his father's gun, shot both the inmates and put the house on fire. Ashish panicked and ran off, injuring his knee in the process. Vishwanath called the fire department and ensured that no one would extinguish the fire.

When Mr. Parekh got to know about this incident, he called up Ashish. Vishwanath must have misguided his father about Ashish. On the day of the murder, Vishwanath parked his car near the park and sneaked past the bungalow security by drugging the guard a day before by contaminating the drinking water. He went to his father's room and waited for Ashish, all the while telling Mr. Parekh how he thought Ashish killed Sharif over an altercation over commission. We know the next bit. Ashish came, was rebuked by Mr. Parekh. He tried to explain the truth, but eventually after the drama was well created, Vishwanath shot his father. He placed his father on the sofa, and ran after Ashish who was limping out. He used the gun to strike a blow on Ashish's head and made him unconscious. He took out the fuse from outside, and took the body to the basement and hid the body in the old room. He wore Ashish's jacket and drove the bike to the amusement park. He parked it there, came back to his car and waited there for some time. At around 7.30 PM he drove back after calling and informing the media about the murder. While the police was busy handling the media, he took Ashish's body out, and placed it at the back of his car and drove out. Later he disposed off the body. The time gap between the gun shot and Ashish driving out was the first point of doubt. Secondly his knee injury and that he was on painkillers would imply that he could not run across the hallway. If he indeed shot Mr. Parekh, and wanted it to look like suicide, why would he run at the first place? He would shout and call for help!

That's about it. I am sure you can see everything in the right order now. Please go ahead, finish the formalities and put the criminal behind bars."

Neeti could not control her excitement. Her face told it all. It was an important case for us as well, since it came at the back the very disappointing Kolkata incident. We walked out of the room just in time to see Vishwanath being taken away, handcuffed. He looked at us, smiled wryly, and said, "He is watching you two. You think you won here? His main intention is solved. He will soon kill you. He told you not to interfere with his work." He spoke with anger and disgust.

Mehul could not control himself. He jumped onto Vishwanath, held him by the collar and shouted, "Who will kill us, who is the coward sitting behind and not facing us?"

The police pulled Mehul away, and he regained control on himself immediately. "Do me a favour. If you get to meet K or talk to him, just tell him that Mehul promised to put him behind bars the next time he confronts us." Mehul spoke with confidence and resolve.

Vishwanath angrily tried to free himself, before he was taken away by the police.

Neeti did not know about K, but later that day Mehul explained to her the complete case we worked on in Kolkata. As much fascinated she was, she also grew a bit worried about the two of us.

"Worry not, Mehul. I am experienced at having others back, especially when they are bullied by others. Did Kairav not tell you about how I saved him from the group of senior boys from another school?"

I somehow did not remember what she was talking about.

"Well, the story goes like this. Kairav used to cry everyday for not going to school. When I asked him, he told me that a bunch of fat kids from another school bullied him everyday before he entered the school gates. He was very scared of them. I assured him that nothing bad would happen anymore, and that I would take care of everything. Next day I collected a lot of small pebbles and hid behind the bush outside his school. When he got down from the rickshaw, and those kids started approaching him, I threw stones at them as long as they did not run away. I thought Kairav would be impressed with me, but instead he was angry and crying since one small pebble hit him in the forehead." She laughed loudly with Mehul.

So now I realized why I liked her.

The next few weeks went by like a breeze. Even before I could express my feelings for her, it was time for Neeti to go.

I went to see her off at the airport. Mehul bid her goodbye at the parking lot, and waited inside the car, while I carried her bags inside. I did not know how to bid her farewell, but she made the work easy.

"Bye, Kairav. I really enjoyed my time here. I know you do not want to get married now, and there is no compulsion. If you think I am the right girl for you, you know where to call me." She opened her necklace and put it in my hand.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The stone you were injured by that day outside the school" she said with a smile as she picked her bag up and left.

7 MIDDLE MAN

Not an Interesting Case

It had been a month since the previous case involving Mr. Parekh. We did not take up any new case in the interim. Both Mehul and I went to my hometown, where I got engaged to Neeti. We spent a week there while my marriage dates were finalised. The auspicious day was 6 months away, so we had ample time to prepare and organize everything.

Kamath had been calling us almost everyday for a new case that he wanted help with. So the moment we landed in Bangalore, we went to the bureau. It was very late when we reached, but Kamath was waiting for us at office.

"Welcome back champs. Hope you had a great trip!" he welcomed us.

"Yes, everything was awesome. Would have loved to spend some more time with Kairav's family. But anyways, what is the case for which you wanted us back?" Mehul asked.

"It is not yet a case. But there can be serious implications if certain things are proved. I was approached few weeks back by Astitva Group, one of the largest real estate developers in India. They have a huge Technology Park in the city, which I am sure you must have heard of. It is the Unity Tech Park. They have quite a few large corporate houses who have set up their offices in the Tech Park. One of the largest being EasyKart, the ecommerce giant.

There is another equally big Technology Park just 4 kilometers away. It is the NextGen Tech Park by Kumara Builders. There has been severe tussle between the two builders for each having portrayed the other in bad light in front of prospective clients who would want to rent out office space in the locality. Starting from rate per square feet for rent, to negotiations in security deposit, lease terms, etc, each Tech Park wants to remain a step ahead of the other one.

Last month, EasyKart suddenly faced internet disruption. They use a leased line from a broadband company named TeleWiz. When the broadband service team started investigating, they found major fiber cut near the Tech Park. Someone had intentionally cut all the fibres and left them open. It took 24 hours to resolve the issue, leading to serious delay of work and operations for EasyKart since they had to rely on the backup connection. Thankfully their technical team sits at a different office and so the portal did not face any issues, but EasyKart did not take this matter lightly. They pursued the incident with the builders for not being able to provide them with sufficient security.

Evidently, the top executives of Astitva Group are suspicious of foul play by the Kumara builders. They cannot blame them publicly as they do not have any proof, but wants us to investigate and find out who cut the fibers." Kamath explained.

"Did you talk to the Kumara builders? What are they saying?" Mehul asked.

"They are not answering our calls anymore. When I asked them the first time, they got really angry and asked me to leave, and not to come back without any concrete evidence."

"Ok, but why is this case important. Two private builders playing dirty politics should hardly be the city's concern now." Mehul argued.

"There are political backings for both the Tech Parks, Mehul. Starting from land acquisition to the approvals by municipality, everything has a touch of politics. That is the sad truth. I have pressure from the home ministry to set the issue straight once and for all. It is like an order from the ruling party. I believe this might be an easy case for you guys to solve. So I need your help. Remuneration will be good, and moreover, with this case, I have a strong case to push the government to empanel you permanently as advisors in our department. It will make work lot easier for you guys."

"Ok, but not today. We just returned to Bangalore, and need to rest a bit. We will come over tomorrow. Lets start by talking to Astitva group. We need to understand why they are so confident it is the other group, whatever their name is." Mehul said in a tired voice.

This was a bit disappointing. A simple case of Fibre cut and we need to find out who did it. Might be a cake walk, or it might prove to be impossible to solve considering that the patchwork has already been done. Either ways not something that excited either Mehul or me.

"Kairav, do you think that being official members of the department is something we should opt for? I mean cases like these are not what we became sleuths for. Two big builders flexing their muscle is hardly something I would want to get into. I think freelancer sleuths suit us more. We are making good money everytime we are consulted, we are taking up good cases and we have a satisfaction for what we do. If we become advisors, we will be consulted for everything, even for cases that don't deserve our time. I want to give it a pass." Mehul said once we were in the car, driving towards home.

He had a valid point. In fact he read my mind. "Yes, we will tell Kamath not to empanel us. Lets help him this time since we have already committed, but we will make it clear that we wont take up these stupid cases in future." I told him.

"I also think I should move out now from our apartment. You will get married soon, and it will be embarrassing having me around when Neeti visits us while she completes her journalism course."

I knew this topic would come up sometime. "I think we can get the top floor on rent as well. The building owner is a nice gentleman. I will ask him if he can get the top floor vacated in 6 months. Should not be a problem."

I had kept an eye on the top floor only with this intention in mind. There were a few bachelors who shared that apartment. Recently 2 of them moved out. I was hoping the other 2 guys would move to a smaller apartment as well. Mehul smiled at this prospect.

Next day, we reached the bureau late. Kamath was growing impatient, but we really did not bother to hurry up. By the time Kamath took us to Unity Tech Park, it was almost noon. The property manager, Kishan, was not too pleased with us as well, but he welcomed us. The builder's office was an exquisite one. One look at the office and you'll know why the Astitva builders were regarded as one of the best in business. We were taken to the manager's office. Once inside, Kishan offered us some snacks and beverages. Mehul nonchalantly took a seat, inspecting the office attentively.

"So Mr. Kishan, your competitor is trying to take away your business and spoil your reputation. But what made you think they would play dirty in the process? Have they done something similar before? Why accuse them?" Mehul started.

"Mr. Mehul, let me start by saying that Kumara builders is extremely unethical in the way they carry out business. They started creating problems right from the time we were halfway through with this project. They threatened our electricians, stole bags of cement, spread propaganda against us and the land ownership. Their mischief continued even after we were fully operational. They provide faulty workstations, poor quality office with water seepage and rodent issues, and yet they would defame us in front of prospective clients citing false reviews and stories. Lets not get into specifics. I will tell you exactly why I know this time it was their involvement. EasyKart has been looking to consolidate their offices and are looking at a larger office space. We have offered them a larger, independent facility within our Tech Park, but negotiations are ongoing. Kumara builders got in touch with them and offered them 100 Rs per square feet less price than whatever we offer. They even told the EasyKart management that we are not capable of handling such massive operations and we have used low quality materials in our construction which have made our facility very less secured. EasyKart obviously did not believe anything they said, but three days later there was a fiber cut. The fiber cut happened towards our north side, outside the compound wall. Usually all dedicated lease line connections come through pipes laid under ground, but towards the north compound, we have a government sewage canal which we cannot touch. Hence a part of the connection passes above the ground. There were three connections using the same channel, but only EasyKart connection was cut. Now you tell me, are we wrong in doubting their involvement?" Kishan asked.

"Hmm. No I don't think they could do it alone. Firstly, for the goons hired by the builder, it would have been very difficult to find out which connection belonged to which company. They needed help of the connection provider. Next, there is little chance that they would know where the connection passes from." Mehul explained. "Can you put me in touch with the internet provider who has given them the dedicated lease line?"

"It is TeleWiz Broadband. I can put you in touch with the area manager." Kishan replied.

"That would be great. Please give his contact number. We will contact him rightaway." Mehul said and started to leave.

"Mr. Mehul, one more thing. Please do not let the news of this incident go out to the media. Our reputation is at stake here. Just get us proofs that Kumara builders are behind this, and we will handle the remaining."

The Investigation Follows

Subhash, the area manager for TeleWiz, was a friendly guy. When we called him regarding the fiber cut, he was more than willing to provide us with all the help we needed. He came to meet us at the bureau in the afternoon, along with one of their field executives who was in the repair team.

"I heard about the fiber cut when I was in Hyderabad for a training session." Subhash said. "When I came and joined the repair work, I was surprised to see how meticulously the connection was cut. Usually when we have fiber cuts, it is someone who is just trying to create troubles, or some local broadband suppliers trying to upset our business. They come with knives and pliers and cut the whole connection. But in this case, it was very different. Someone had removed the foil, taken the pain to remove the outer casing carefully and then just cut one connection, and then too in a small chunk, so that patching up takes more time."

"So you mean to say, this was not some random miscreant?" Mehul asked.

"No. I would further like to disclose something off the record. Day before yesterday, I got to know about a robbery that happened few months back at our office. The management did not tell anyone about the robbery earlier, because nothing seemed to be missing. But after the fiber cut incident, the records department had to get the blueprint of the lease line laid for EasyKart. They were unable to find the blueprint anywhere. Records department keeps all documents in alphabetical order and in a very systematic way. So, it was very surprising how an important document could go missing.

Someone in the department suggested that the robbery might be related to the missing document. They went through the security cams again, and realised that the boy in fact went into that same room that night, where the document was kept, when the robbery happened."

"Boy?" Mehul snapped.

"Yes Sir, a young boy I would say. He somehow breached the security code, the access door and came into the office. The security guard outside said that the boy who came that night had TeleWiz ID card and so he let him through the main gate. He does not remember his face properly, but says if a photo of the boy is shown, he can recognize. Once he entered the building, he covered his face, and so the security cams are not helping us trace the guy." Subhash replied.

"Can we see the video?" Mehul asked.

"Sure Sir. You can come to our head office tomorrow morning. I will ask the system admin guy to keep the clip ready for you to see. But please do not let this become a news. If we lose credibility, we lose business. And if that happens, my job will be at stake."

There was little we could do that day, and so, returned home. Mehul looked more engaged with the case now than he was at the beginning. Once he came back, he started browsing through the EasyKart website. I asked him if he wanted to buy something online, but he just shook his head and continued browsing.

Next morning, we went to the TeleWiz head office. The admin guy was waiting for us. He had processed the recordings for the night of robbery and made a clip of all camera angles from the time the boy was visible inside the premises till the time he had left.

Indeed, he looked like a young boy. He had covered his face and wore gloves. We could see him enter through the empty office, and go inside the records room. There were 10 sections in the room. He went inside one of them and then we could not see anything further, since there were no cameras inside that room.

"Why is there no one else in the office?" Mehul asked.

"Sir, what you are seeing, is the admin office, where mostly people leave by 7.30 PM. There are people who stay back, but considering that the next day was Independence Day, everyone took a long weekend, and so the office is vacant. The robber must have planned to come on that very day to avoid getting noticed."

The camera had very little to offer. We tried to look from every possible angle, but nothing consequential came to notice.

Then I noticed something. When the boy was about to enter the records room, he pulled out the ID card from his bag to gain access.

The moment he pulled the bag in front of himself, there was a logo clearly visible, printed on the bag.

"That logo on his bag." I pointed out. "Can you zoom into that and show us?"

The admin opened that recording and zoomed into the logo. It was H07 written in an unique typography.

"Hackathon 2007. The logo is for that event." Mehul said. "This event happened earlier this year, and many college students were invited to participate."

Mehul did not want to speak much of it in front of the TeleWiz employees, and so we left their office. Once outside, Mehul called up Kamath.

"Kamath, the boy who stole from TeleWiz office, participated in an event called Hackathon 2007. It was held at the St. Michael's Auditorium this year during February. The initial rounds were conducted online, while the semi finalists were invited for a final face-off. The finalists all got 'goodies' which included a backpack. I need the names and whereabouts of all the finalists."

We drove back to the bureau. Kamath had contacted the Hackathon organizers already and had a list of finalists ready. In fact they also provided the contact information of each finalist. There were 10 of them from various parts of the city. Kamath sent a team to get all of them to the bureau for questioning. All of them were college students, and hence Kamath requested his officers to treat them politely.

Boy Missing

By the time we came back from lunch, there were 7 of them at the bureau. One finalist had to go home, abroad, because of his father's illness. Another finalist was from Hyderabad and had left soon after the competition. He had travelled to Bangalore only to participate in the competition. The last one was missing for a few days and even his phone was not reachable. The college staff suspected he went home, and the officer was trying to establish contact with his parents.

The students brought to the bureau denied having anything to do with the robbery. In fact, based on body structure, we immediately eliminated 5 of them from the suspect list. The other two had good alibis to cover them. Soon afterwards, we got a call from the Rajajinagar police station. The tenth guy, Sameer Ahuja, was missing for the last 4 days. There was an FIR lodged on his name at the police station by his parents, but the police had not found any trace of him yet.

Sameer was a computer science and engineering student at the Karunashree Institute of Technology and was studying in his Final year. We decided to visit his college to find out more about him. He stayed in the college hostel, and was one of the top 3 in the Hackathon event.

We reached the college campus before it was dark and were taken to the Dean of Student Affairs' office in the main institute building. He was joined by the Head of Department – Computer Science and Engineering. They informed us that it was not unnatural for Sameer to be regularly missing from the hostel and campus in the last few months. He was working as a freelancer to have some income flowing in for supporting his family with his hostel charges. He usually went out in the evening after college classes and returned late, or early next morning. Recently he started missing classes because of the job and his professors were thinking of sending his parents a notice.

But they did agree that Sameer was one of the best students in the department. He was intelligent, eager to learn, was passionate about coding and software development and got good grades in all subjects. They handed us his grade sheets and curriculum details, which was completely unnecessary, but somehow they felt it would be of utmost importance in the case.

We were shown to his room in the hostel. It was a small room, shared between two students. Sameer's roommate was there in the room when we visited. Sameer's side of the room was in a mess. Just like any other care-free college kid. There was a desktop on his table, a few books, lot of papers and notebooks, a few used routers and capacitors and a photo of his parents. There were 2 shelves on either sides of the room. On Sameer's shelf, the clothes were stacked up in a dump, while in the other one, the clothes were kept properly folded, or hung in cloth hangers.

Mehul switched on the PC to see if something important can be found.

"Its locked with a password. I use his desktop when he is around, but he does not like the desktop used by others when he is not sitting behind. He did not tell me the password as well." Sameer's roommate said. "Hi, my name is Animesh. I am also a Computer Engineering student. Do you think Sameer is safe? He is a very good friend of mine."

The operating system was indeed locked with a password. Mehul shut down the system and opened all wires from the CPU. He lifted up the CPU on the table and started opening the screws with a spoon lying on the shelf. Once the outside shutter came off, he opened the connectors to the hard drive and took it out of the CPU.

He turned towards Kamath and the warden. "I will be carrying this. Will add it as a secondary hard drive and see what he was working on, if at all there are any relevant files in the hard drive."

We left the college and came back home since it was already very late. There was power shortage in our area, and the generator had run out of diesel. We had our dinner and went to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, electricity supply was restored. Mehul had set up his laptop with the hard drive connected as a secondary device. He was busy browsing through the files. I did not want to bother him, so went ahead and visited the market for grocery. When I came back, Muhul looked much more ruffled and pre-occupied.

"I have no idea what he was doing. From all the recent codes he was working on, he was just trying to search for certain strings and filter data according to certain fields. But that is not the kind of work a computer engineering student has to do, or will be paid for. He has worked for a month on collecting the data and storing it. There are multiple versions of this file, and unless there is a physical component to it, this is junior school stuff." He explained.

"What about those routers and network bridge equipments lying on his table?" I added.

"Yes that did cross my mind. But how can they be used together? He has routers, network bridge devices, and a simple piece of code that decrypts information, filters the data based on keywords and sends them to an action file, which is missing here. Then he steals the lease line route map." Mehul stopped in the middle and went back to his laptop. He searched for something online and started going through a few links.

"Man in the middle Hacking. That's what he was doing." He explained after a few minutes. "Sameer was getting into the datastream of the lease line connection and sending junk data ahead, or he was just collecting data, filtering them and sending them elsewhere, while keeping the original data stream intact. So, either EasyKart would never be able to send any data or receive any data in the original format that it was intended to be, or Sameer was stealing some valuable information and using it against EasyKart. Both cases could have been master minded by Kumara builders. But I still don't get why they are going such great lengths in tarnishing Astitva builders. There might be something that Astitva builders are hiding from us. Or maybe we are getting it all wrong."

Uninteresting, taking an Interesting Turn

"But this man in the middle hacking has to be done on the broadband connection. The fiber cut was repaired and there was nothing inserted in the wiring there. Then how do you think it worked? Maybe the code was never implemented? They cut the connection but failed to put the router there." I said.

"Or, maybe the fiber cut was just an eyewash. There might have been a cut elsewhere as well, and the router inserted in that 2nd cut while the TeleWiz people were busy repairing the first cut. If there was a 2nd cut as well, it will not be difficult to trace. We just need to find where the cables pass through close to ground or easy human access. For that, we need a copy of the lease line blue print which was originally stolen by Sameer." Mehul continued.

I called up Subhash and asked him to arrange for a copy of the blueprint. He assured that it would be done immediately and delivered to the bureau before noon.

We reached the bureau post lunch and met Kamath. The copy of the blueprint was already waiting for us there. The blueprint was more like a flowchart. It had every terminal and nodal details in a diagrammatic fashion laid out on the city map. Mehul opened his laptop, and opened an online map of the city. He connected the laptop to the projector so that we could see a large view of the terrain. Once he started going from one node to the other in the blue print and started comparing it with the actual map, we knew immediately that it was going to be a very tough job. After about 2 hours of gruelling, we left Mehul alone for some time and went for a cup of coffee. It was difficult to take Mehul's attention off what he is doing unless he is satisfied with his research.

When we returned to the meeting room, Mehul was standing at one corner of the room, both hands on his head.

"There is not a single instance when the connection line comes within human reach or close to the ground. Even if we assume that someone dug their way all the way down, there has to be some place where they can sit very nearby to receive all the data on their laptop and transmit again. But the wire passes mostly under roads, or side walks, barren lands, etc. The only time it comes above ground is at the TeleWiz junction office, from where it merges into a much larger mesh of wires and connections. Unless someone within the company is responsible for this, there is no way one can hack into the network." Mehul told us.

He thought for some time more, "Or if someone used the basement of a building which is located near the trajectory of the connection."

He went back to the table and started going through the nodes and matching them to the map once again. After 30 mins of scouting through the map, he came up with 2 points.

"These 2 points have office spaces with basement office, and are located right beside the path of the lease line." he said. "One belongs to a bicycle showroom, while the other one has multiple offices in the same building. If I were to put my money on one building, it would be the later one. Lets go there and find out if something fishy is going on at the basement floor."

The building was located around 8 kilometers away from the Unity Tech Park. It was a 3 storey building. The top floor belonged to a Chartered Accountant firm. The next 2 floors belonged to a Bank. The ground floor was a fast food joint. The basement floor was locked. There was no company board outside and it did not look extensively used. We went to the food joint on the ground floor and asked if they knew the building owner and his contact number. The manager found out the required information from his diary and handed it over to us. The building owner was Mr. Arun Lingarajan. We called him up to get the details of the basement floor tenant.

Mr. Lingarajan told us that the basement floor was given to a startup company named Proactnet Solutions. He got the rent every month via online transfer and he was never bothered by anyone from the company since renting it out. Initially the employees stayed at office all day and night, but recently they come rarely to office. We asked him if there were duplicate keys to the basement floor, but according to him, both the keys were taken by the tenant and he did not have a duplicate key.

Once we disconnected the call, Kamath said "It will take me a lot of time to get a warrant to forcibly enter this place, mainly because we do not have any concrete evidence yet. But I know someone who can pick locks. Let me get him to open the lock for us. This is a press lock. So it wont need a key to lock back. If we find something worthwhile, then we have an excuse, else we will just lock the door and leave" Kamath winked at us.

Kamath called a young man named Dhiraj, who was a keymaker. He was an expert with locks and keys. He brought a thick wire and a pair of clips. Even before we could notice, he had the lock opened. Kamath patted on his back and swung open the door. There was a damp smell inside the room as if the room had not been opened for a few days. I used the light from my mobile phone to locate the switch board and switch on the lights. It was a large enough office to seat 25 people with a manager cabin at one end. There was false ceiling in the office and the walls were covered with laminated sheets. Mehul took out the blueprint and spread it on the floor. He located the wall of the office which was just adjacent to where the broadband cable passed. He then started knocking on that wall at various places to see where it sounded hollow. On one extreme corner, the knock sounded like thuds. He started looking for the edges of that particular sheet and see if that comes off. It indeed came off once we tried to put a key through one of the edges. Behind it was a hole dug through the ground good enough for one person to pass through. At the other end of it, we could see a red light glowing, and a green light flickering. Kamath directed a torch light towards it. We could now clearly see a custom router sitting there with a large wire plugged into it, and coming out from the other end. It had a small antenna as well.

"This is the component which captures live data." Mehul explained. This transmits the data wirelessly to any computer with compatible software and with the correct username and password, located within its range. So whoever collected the data had to sit right here to be able to capture the same." Mehul explained. "We need to find out who comes here for data collection. Can you get Sameer's photo and ask the other people in the building whether they have ever seen him here?" Mehul asked Kamath.

"I will get it done Mehul. Anything else?" Kamath replied.

"Yes, we need to find out who owns this company. Can you get someone to retreive details from the Registrar of Companies regarding ownership of this company?" Mehul said.

We left the building after putting everything back in order. While Kamath and his team returned back to the bureau, the two of us went back home.

Once we were near home, we saw Nataraj waiting outside our door. We had helped him solve the case of his father and brother's death a year back. He had called Kamath looking for us, and was told that we were on our way back home.

"Hello Mr. Venkat! What a pleasant surprise. Sorry, we were out on a case. Please come in." Mehul greeted him.

Once we were seated inside, Mr. Venkat explained the reason for his visit. "We are organising an event day after tomorrow, to felicitate young people from the city, who are making a difference in our lives by putting their own personal goals at stake. I have come here to invite you two. I have spoken about the great work you guys are doing with Kamath, and we all agree that you deserve this award more than anyone else. You selflessly put your lives on the line to get justice to the wronged. Here are your guest passes. It would be a great honor to have you with us on that day."

Soon after he left, Kamath gave us a call. "We got Sameer's photo from the college. One of my officers is on his way to the building. We are also sending the photo by email to the building owner. I will let you know about that shortly. The company is not a Private Limited company. As it turns out, it is a proprietorship firm registered under Sameer Ahuja. I will tell you more once I have the information."

Later that day Kamath called us again to tell us that everyone in that building could recognise Sameer. In fact the builder replied that Sameer had come to sign off the rental agreement with another guy. The other guy was reluctant to sign as the witness, and so the agreement had only Sameer's signature.

Next day, early in the morning, we called up Kamath and asked him to get information about the bank account from where Sameer sent the rentals every month to the building owner account. After a few hours, we got a mail from the landlord with screenshots of the bank transactions. All payments were made in cash, barring the security deposit. That was made from a current account of the same name as the company – Proactnet Solutions. It came from Vijeta Rao Cooperative bank, Old Airport Road Branch.

We went to the bank, accompanied by Kamath and his officers. The bank was as unprofessionally kept as it could get. There were tons of papers lying all around, records were kept outside, there were no fans or AC, and employees were using hand fans, desisting working for the customers. We went to the manager's cabin. The Manager was an elderly man who was as helpless as the customers.

"Hi, we are from the police. We need information about a current account opened in your branch. Company name is Proactnet Solutions. We need all the transaction details, records and information that you have about the account." Kamath spoke in a serious tone.

Learning that we were from Police, the Manager became eager to help us. "We are not doing very well as you can see. We are on the verge of closure. People who find it difficult to open bank accounts elsewhere, used to come here. We do not have access to the central server. The internet has been down since morning. But we maintain very good hard copy records. I will try and get you everything we have. But you need to give me some time. As you can see, the office is a mess."

That was not surprising at all! I would imagine it wont take them anything less than 3 to 4 hours to find the records. But the bank closes at 3PM and looking at the bankers and cashiers, they did not look like employees who would give in a few extra hours at work. So, we decided to come back at 2.30 PM to collect all the documents.

When we came back, the shutter at the entrance was half down. The security personnel was initially reluctant to let us enter. The bank officials had asked him to reduce customers 2.30 PM onwards, so that they get to leave at 3 PM sharp. Once Kamath showed his badge, he saluted us, in a completely awkward fashion, and let us in. The manager did collect all the documents and kept a copy of the same for us. None of us felt like sitting there to go through the documents, and so we left with all the paperworks for the bureau.

The documents were divided into three heads, one was account opening, one was debit transactions and one was credit transactions. All account opening formalities was done by Sameer. The documentation pertaining to the Proprietorship firm was also provided and undersigned by Sameer. There were only two credit transactions while there were 5 debit transactions. 4 of the debit transactions were of the same amount, and was for the office rent as we could see. The 5th one was a self cheque signed by Sameer. Both the credit transactions were cash transactions. The cash was deposited at the same branch. The deposit slip was undersigned by someone named N. Reddy. When we looked more closely at the signature, we could make out that the name was Nagaraj Reddy. The moment Mehul heard the name, he stood up saying he has recently heard the name, but could not remember where. We searched online, and the police database of criminals, but nothing fruitful came out.

Deeper than it Seemed

Mehul spent the whole evening silent, face buried in his laptop screen and kept talking to himself. The more he tried to remember where he heard the name, the further he kept going from the answer. Finally, he gave up, or so he told me and went off to sleep. We had to leave early for the ceremony next day, where we were invited by Mr. Venkat.

Next day morning, we left for Indiranagar, where the function was organised. There was a large auditorium on the main road, and we could see Mr. Venkat waiting for us outside. Once we parked our car, we went inside, to find a hall full of people. Most of them were people from Government or politics. The event went very smoothly. Towards the end of it, we both were introduced to the audience by the Emcee and called up on stage to give the award and memento. When we were climbing up the steps to the stage, Mehul suddenly became excited.

"Kairav, I remember where I saw the name. Lets leave fast. We do not have a moment to lose." He told me.

Even before the function was concluded, we left. On our way back, Mehul explained how he could remember where he heard of the name before. "When I saw that event sponsors today, there was Quick2Shop as one of the co-sponsors. Seeing that, I remembered that they were also sponsors for Hackathon 2007. In one of the news it was mentioned that when asked about the event, Mr. Nagaraj Reddy, head – marketing, Quick2Shop, said that it was one of the best event that they sponsored since it involved such talented young minds. That's where I heard the name. This opens up a whole new story Kairav. Quick2Shop is a direct competitor of EasyKart and now everything is falling into place. For the last few months, on any special event, Quick2Shop has provided cheaper price for all their products than EasyKart. And the price difference has been between 25 to 50 INR. This cannot be a coincidence. They had access to the pricing of EasyKart. So the data they were stealing was pricing related data, and that too before any special promotions. Last day, when you asked me what I was shopping, I was actually checking the historical data regarding product pricing of these portals. Everytime there was some special promotions, and both portal reduced prices, Quick2Shop would reduce by a small margin more than EasyKart. Lets go and meet Nagaraj Reddy. He might provide us with all the answers as well as the whereabouts of Sameer."

We called Kamath and asked him to set up a meeting for us with Mr. Reddy.

Nagaraj was busy all day, but promised to meet us in the evening. We went to Quick2Shop office at 5PM. Nagaraj Reddy was a middle aged man with a thick moustache, and with years of experience visible on his face.

"So how may I help you fine gentlemen today?" he told us with a smiling face.

"We are here to discuss about the disappearance of Sameer Ahuja, whom you hired to hack data from EasyKart and funded his proprietorship company as well." Mehul went straight to the point.

Nagaraj laughed loudly and said, "Are you guys mad? Why should we ever do such a thing? And who is this Sameer?"

Mehul quickly held up his mobile phone and took a photo of Mr. Reddy. He then looked down and started typing something on his mobile phone. "Well, Sameer was one of the top Hackers in Hackathon 2007, an event you were present in throughout. You were also at the house of Arun Lingarajan, the office space owner, when Sameer signed the rental agreement. I just forwarded your photo to the police to verify whether you were present that day at Arun's place. We also have your signature at the Bank slips for 2 cash deposits. If you want, we can get your signatures matched to make our case even stronger. So how will it be Mr. Reddy?"

The laughter and smile had already disappeared from Mr. Nagaraj Reddy's face. He had a bit of nervousness about him now.

"Ok, fine. I agree it was me. But we did all these just to motivate young Sameer. We did not know what he was doing especially with the hacking of data. Please believe me! As a part of his winning the Hackathon, we just gave him a career start. He never came to us with any data of EasyKart. Maybe he was using the data against them in some other way. Sameer has not contacted me or my company for quite some time. If we had any idea about all these, we would have stopped him long back."

Mr. Reddy proved to be a hard nut to crack. No matter what we said, he claimed innocent. We left the office telling him that we will come back for more questioning if required. He smiled and nodded in affirmative.

"Where are you Sameer? How can I trace where you have been?" Mehul murmured. He was thoughtful and worried. He turned to Kamath and said, "Lets go back to the college. Let us go through his belongings once more. I am sure, the truth to his absence can be found there."

So, we went back to the college hostel. This time, before we went to his room, we started talking to a few students who stayed at the same block.

Most of them said the same thing. Sameer was a friendly and intelligent guy. He always thought big and came up with new ways of solving traditional problems. We met a student named Amir just outside his room.

"Hi, my name is Mehul and we are here to ask a few questions regarding Sameer. Can you tell us where he was working of late? We heard that he was working as a freelancer somewhere." Mehul asked him.

"I do not know where he was working. He did not even sit for campus placements. He wanted to develop security solutions for non commercial purposes. In fact he is the only student from our department who has not been placed." Amir replied.

"Is it? How have been the placements overall?" Mehul asked.

"Quite good. Almost everyone from Computer Engineering have been placed. I am going to Softel, his roommate in fact cracked a marquee job at EasyKart even though he was the weakest student in the department."

We continued asking him a few more questions before he left for dinner.

"This is interesting. So, Animesh has some connection to EasyKart, and he was the most probable candidate to know what Sameer was working on. Lets ask him again if he knows something, a little sternly this time." Mehul suggested.

We went to the warden office and waited for him. The warden sent an office boy to get him from the college mess once he was done having his dinner. He came after about 30 minutes.

"Hi, the warden told me you have some more questions for me. I had already told you whatever I knew." He started defensively.

"We got to know that you have been placed at EasyKart and also that you are the weakest student of the department. We think that you knew about what Sameer was working on and you traded that information to EasyKart in return for a job." Mehul said.

Animesh started sweating and swallowing. "I don't know what you are saying. I was duly placed at EasyKart and I had no idea that Sameer was working on something that I could have used against him."

Kamath went and closed the door to the warden's office. He started walking towards Animesh, while opening his wrist watch. "Animesh, we are authorised to use any means to get the truth out from suspects. Right now, there is no going out of this room for you, until you tell us the truth." Kamath sat on the table in front of him, and bent close to him. "We are in this business for very long. We know when someone is lying. So for the sake of your own good health, I suggest you start speaking."

The Drive with Answers

"I will tell you. I knew he was working on stealing EasyKart data. My elder brother is head of operations at EasyKart. I told him everything and gave him Sameer's contact. He told me that he will take care of Sameer's program without hurting him." Animesh was on the verge of crying. He folded his hands and said, "Please let me go now. I don't know anything else."

We asked him to give his brother's contact details. Once he gave us all the details, we left the college. Animesh's brother was one of the top level employees at EasyKart. His name was Akash. We called him up, but he did not pick the call. After a few tries, we decided to call it a day.

Next day, Kamath called us up early in the morning. Akash had called Kamath back, seeing all the missed calls and agreed to visit the bureau at 10.30 AM sharp. Kamath requested us to come over on time.

Akash was a well built guy, very well dressed, and an air of authority about him. He found it difficult to take his eyes off the mobile phone. Once we were all seated in the questioning room, Mehul started with the questions.

"So, Mr. Akash, your brother tells us that you got to know about the program being developed by Sameer and you told him you will handle the situation. Immediately after that Sameer disappears. Where is he Akash? What have you done to him?"

Akash smiled at us and bent forward to speak to us. "Firstly, you lock my brother up in the warden's room and threaten him without any evidence or warrant, even though he is innocent and young. You did not have anyone from the juvenile department, or anyone from the commissioner's office while you did the questioning. So the way I see it, I can get you down to the knees whenever I want. But I am a law abiding citizen with immense respect for the police. So I will tell you that even though I wanted to put Sameer behind the bars and get him roughed up, I could never trace him. You told me that he disappeared immediately after I got to know about him, but the fact is he was gone even before I tried to contact him. Even I am looking for him if you must know. I did not need to come here, but I still did, to respect your investigation." He pointed his finger at us and said, "But now onwards if I see any of you near my brother or trying to disturb me, I will suck the happiness out of your lives. Do your job the way it should be done."

He stood up and walked away, again busy with his mobile phone. It was the first time Mehul looked intimidated, and heaved a sigh of relief after Akash left.

"If he is saying the truth, then we are left with no leads about where Sameer is at present. And that is as dangerous as it sounds." Mehul broke the ice.

He was right. At that point, the question or the point of consideration was no more the tussle of builder, the hacking of data or the fight between two competitor portals, but that of Sameer's safety and well-being. We spent the whole day trying to figure out what could have been the course of events, but failed to come up with any plausible answers. It was raining heavily in the evening, and we left for home early.

At almost 8.30 PM, we were about to have dinner, when the bell rang at our door. Kamath was standing outside with an umbrella in hand. He kept the umbrella outside, and pushed us aside to get inside.

"You wont believe what happened. Remember that guy Amir, we met at the hostel? He came to meet me in the evening. He said that the last time he saw Sameer, few days back, Sameer had handed him a pen drive and asked him to keep it until he returns. Amir never gave it due importance until he saw us and felt that Sameer was in some danger. They were best friends, but Amir was afraid of coming out in public with the pen drive. So he contacted me and requested me not to disclose the source of the pen drive. He says that there is a locked folder inside which he could not open or crack the password. But a text file in the root folder will tell us the complete story."

Mehul took the pendrive and connected it to his laptop. There was a text file outside, ReadMe.txt, and a locked folder named 'Josephus-Dagger-100-1-1'. He opened the text file. It read as follows:

'Hello Amir,

I am giving you this pendrive because I am not sure how tonight is going to end. I have been working on a project for Quick2Shop, and that is against the data security of EasyKart. I know it is wrong, but when I took the project, I was promised enough money and resources to start my own venture. By the time I realised the seriousness of my folly, Quick2Shop threatened that they would declare complete ignorance on this matter and put the entire onus of the incident on me, if I thought of quitting. Hence I continued, keeping the whole work under covers.

I made a mistake yesterday and told Animesh everything about the project, trusting him not to use it against me. But he told everything to his brother who is one of the heads at EasyKart. Today evening I got a call from Quick2Shop. They were very angry since they got to know about EasyKart's knowledge of the hacking program. They have called me to their office right now and I don't know what they plan to do.

I do not have a good feeling about this. If I do not return, consider that I am gone for good. Either Quick2Shop has killed me, or if I get a chance to escape, I will disappear from everyone's eyes. It is for the safety of my family and my close friends. You may keep this pendrive hidden from others if you are afraid of your own well being. The other folder contains all the proofs that police need regarding this case – audio recordings of my conversation with Quick2Shop, email records, etc. I have locked it to keep it safe.

Bye"

The folder required a password to view contents. Mehul took a white paper and pen and started calculating something. After sometime, he came back to the laptop and said, "The password is 73. Josephus-Dagger-100-1-1 is a computational problem. In computer science and mathematics, the Josephus Problem is a theoretical problem related to a certain counting-out game. There are people standing in a circle waiting to be killed with a dagger by the person standing behind. The counting out begins at some point in the circle and proceeds around the circle in a fixed direction. In each step, a certain number of people are skipped and the next person is executed until the last person remains. Here 1-1 represents that the process starts from position 1, who kills the person in front and gives it to person at position 3, and it continues. The last person standing will be position 73."

He was right. The folder opened and it did have all the incriminating content and proof against Quick2Shop. He recorded every phone calls with them, kept a copy of every email transactions and details sent to and received from them.

The next few weeks created a storm in the ecommerce market. The website, Quick2Shop, was taken off the internet, the investors and directors of the company resigned, there were a few arrests and employees were sent for questioning. EasyKart made lives even more difficult for them by filing a case for damage and data theft. Lots of sellers across the country started protesting for non payments and losses, since their bank accounts were frozen and no more transactions could take place.

Quick2Shop officials maintained that they did not know anything about Sameer's disappearance. They kept insisting that he was not killed by them. This was one of the biggest corporate crime cases to have surfaced in recent years leading to shut down of one of the largest ecommerce giants in the country.

The case also proved that the builders fight had hardly anything to do with it. Astitva builders rued a lost chance to incriminate the Kumara builders, but were happy that EasyKart took up their offer, knowing that the cable cut was not the builder's fault.

Mehul was not too happy with the findings. "What happened Mehul? You seem lost." I asked him.

"Just wondering what might have happened to Sameer that day. Did he go to Quick2Shop office, or was he too clever to disappear?"

"Let us just assume that he disappeared and is safe now." I tried to cheer him up.

"Yes, but someday soon, I would like to find him and bring him back home, if he is still alive. We need kids like him in our country. He did something wrong, but if guided properly, he can do wonders." Mehul said.

After a small pause, he continued, "But before that I must find K. I need to uncover his truth and take him out before he does us any harm. And I need to do this before you get married and Neeti comes over to Bangalore. I am not afraid for myself, but I am for the two of you. And I promise you I wont let him harm any of you."

K clearly had left an indelible impression on Mehul.

A few weeks later, we got a call from Kamath requesting us to visit the bureau. He wanted us to sign a few documents. When we reached there, we realized that it was for our permanent job offers as advisors in his department.

"Congratulations guys, the state head has approved your permanent job offerings. We need to follow the procedure and get this application form signed first." He explained to us.

"Sorry Kamath, but we do not want to be a part of the department officially. We gave it a lot of thought, and decided that we want to continue as freelancers only. That way we have the liberty to choose our cases, not get tied down by the legalities of the department and not be answerable for everything we do." I told him.

Kamath smiled. "I thought as much. I also know that initially you did not want to take up this case, and I assure you I will not come up with such requests henceforth. But you will agree that the case proved to be much more complex than what you guys would have thought. Anyways, there is one more reason I called you to the bureau. There is a new case that requires your expertise. This time, it is in Mumbai. I will get someone to deliver all details to your house today. Go through it. If the case interests you, let me know. We must leave in a couple of days. I will accompany you for the case."

