~*~
“Reports are just in that Arjun Rathore, an ex-Inspector of the Defense Colony branch of Delhi Police is the prime suspect in the murder of journalist Aditi Mehta which happened at her residence at Paharganj last night. She was murdered brutally, and her house was ransacked. The police caught him at the crime scene red-handed and took him to the Defense colony station, but he escaped from there under mysterious circumstances. We have also got to know that a manhunt was conducted late last night where he was found in Aadarsh society, but it failed, and multiple police officers got injured in a scuffle with him. Recent update says that he is still at large and hiding in these areas. We request all the residents to be careful and keep a lookout as he is armed and very dangerous. We will return with more details shortly.”
John turned off the TV in his room, his eyes widened in shock and moved the curtains aside to reveal a sunny morning. He had taken Arjun in last night, who had fainted due to his condition and put a cot for him in the other room. He had put fresh dressing and bandages on his wounds and gave him a blanket. He knew something was wrong but never suspected that Arjun could turn out to be a fugitive. He hurried off towards Arjun’s room to check up on him and opened the door, to an even more shocking sight.
Arjun was sitting on his cot, looking weak and pale with troubled expressions, and a girl was standing there in front of him, pointing a gun at his face.
DAWN
I felt nauseated, it was a very long tunnel, and I had lost all the hope. There was nowhere else to go; I could only see the bright light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t know what was waiting for me at the end, but I had to go on. It took me ages to finally reach the end of the tunnel and see the light. I snuck out of the tunnel and saw white light all around me. After a minute, I heard Aditi’s voice.
“Police babu,” she giggled.
Then I saw a dim shadow gliding in front of me. It was surprising that I couldn’t see the shadow in all the light.
“Aditi, is it you?”
There was no reply, just the noise of the wind. The whole surrounding gave an eerie chilly vibe as though countless ghosts and spirits were present there.
“Who is it? Show me your face.”
She giggled. This was not the same Aditi’s giggle but a menacing one.
“Do you think I am beautiful?” the eerie Aditi asked.
“Ye-Yes.”
“You are not lying Police Babu, right?”
I didn’t know what to say; I had Goosebumps all over my body.
“It’s you Aditi, right?”
“YES!!!!!!”
At that moment, the figure raced towards me blazingly and stopped right just in front of me. It took me some seconds to realize that the figure was Aditi without her head. Then, in one swift motion, she took out a knife and pierced it in my right shoulder. I suffered in agony, and the pain accelerated.
AAAARGGGHHHH!
I woke up with a start; the nightmares were common for me. I hadn’t slept calmly in ages. I felt excruciating pain in my right shoulder – was it a dream or did it happen? After a while I remembered the night before, I had to pop back my shoulder after it got dislocated. I looked around me and saw a small cozy room with many paintings of Jesus on the walls.
“What is this place?”
I raced my mind and remembered. It was John’s church. I had collapsed right outside it. He must have attended to my bruises. “Nice bloke, that father guy!”
I turned in my bed, and all the bruises and aches came alive. It felt as though I was thrashed multiple times by a battering ram all over my body. If only, I had a bottle of Vodka to ease off the pain. I searched my jeans pocket and found the painkiller tablets that I had bought last night. There was a jug at the left corner of the bed, I mustered up my courage and dragged my battered body toward it. I gulped down three painkillers at once. I didn’t want to remember last night’s events. I closed my eyes and suppressed my tears. I had lost my best friend, and I was being accused of such a horrendous crime. I took a deep breath and had a firm resolve in my mind to kill Ajeet whenever I see him. After a couple of seconds, I opened my eyes as I feared that another nightmare would engulf me. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a gun pointed towards me and a girl standing in front of me in complete disgust. I had not expected this, and it took me by surprise. It was Tia.
“Tia, what is this?”
Her hands were shaking indicating that this was the first time she held a gun. She had the same disgust on her face whenever she talked to me, but this time I could see immense hatred in her bloodshot eyes.
“You bastard, you have screwed up my life!”
With that, she smashed the gun’s butt on my right shoulder.
AAAARRGGGHH! “Enough with this shoulder already, I have another one,” I shouted out in anger.
“You are a poison Arjun, you almost killed Baba and now you have put me and my job in jeopardy. I am gonna kill you today.”
There was not a single bone in my body that didn’t hurt, but I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. “Have you ever shot a bullet before?”
“No, but I will start with you gladly,” she remarked pointing the gun back at me.
“Tia, tell me what happened. I can help you.”
“No mister, that’s the whole problem. I don’t need your stupid help; you are the worst thing that ever happened to me. I am gonna avenge Baba’s misery today.”
She placed her index finger on the trigger, but I knew that she wouldn’t go through with it. This was not my first rodeo. I was about to proceed ahead with caution when I saw something behind her. John held a vase in his hand and stood behind her without making a noise. I tried to tell him not to attack her, but it was too late.
THUD
“I helped you, my kid,” John added and picked Tia’s unconscious body and placed her on the bed. I took the gun and kept it in my jeans pocket. It was fully loaded.
“John, she was not trying to kill me, she was just scared.”
John’s eyes widened. “Who points a gun at someone in fear? One should go in God’s arms whenever afraid.”
“What kind of a priest are you John?” I asked suppressing my smile.
He placed a hand on my left shoulder and whispered slowly in my ear. “The good kind,” he said, and his wrinkled hands swung in one swift motion connecting the vase with my head. I could see lights go out as I fell on the floor with a throbbing pain in my head where John had hit me with his vase. Two knockouts in two minutes, he was one hell of a priest. My eyes closed and I felt that I was being picked up from the floor.
~*~
I opened my eyes and saw Tia and John staring at me. I was tied with heavy ropes on a chair.
“What is wrong with you guys? Untie me now.” I shouted.
John placed a chair in front of me and sat on it. “Arjun, this is a house of God, it’s not a place for criminals or guns. I hit both of you so that I could see your soul.”
“What kind of gibberish is this John?”
“I gave Tia the first chance to speak up as I knocked you out good,” he added with a chuckle.
“If only I was untied and you were not a priest, I would show you who the boss is.”
Tia stood in front of me looking into my sunken eyes. “My credentials have stopped working, my calls are being tapped; there are three cars in front of my house after you killed that girl.”
“Watch what you say. That girl Aditi was my best friend, and I am being framed for her murder.”
“Son, why should we trust you?” John weighed in between.
I took a deep breath; I had to keep my calm if I wanted to prove this to them. “Why did you trust her so easily then?”
“Who said easy? I gave her the chance to speak up, and she won my confidence. This girl has suffered enough and mostly due to your actions.”
My head hung in shame. “I thought you understood me, John.”
“I do, but you need to explain this murdered girl’s story. May her sou
l rest in peace.”
“Tia, I have told you time and again – I couldn’t ask for forgiveness enough. I lost my loved ones too. After my wife, Shikha’s death, the closest person to me was Aditi, and she was murdered brutally too. Trust me, I don’t want to live this life anymore, but I can’t leave that bastard who killed her free. I know the killer and believe me this goes way up in the hierarchy level. I know you are in a mess because of me, but I approached you because of a reason. You and I both know the value of a loved one’s life; we can do anything to save them. I have lost my love, my job, my dignity, my honor and my best friend. Now I am being framed as a gruesome killer.”
“Why should I trust you Arjun? I could never forgive you for what you did to Baba.”
“Don’t forgive me but at least help me in avenging her murder. You joined the Police force to correct the wrongs – to fight for the greater good. Help me, because God-damnit I need it the most right now.”
John cleared his throat. “No abusive language in the house of the God. Do not say the Lord’s name in vain!”
I looked at him funnily. This is where he drew the line; just half an hour back he was swinging lefts and rights in this very house of the God.
“Just tell me why I would kill her? I don’t have any motive. The life as I knew it was over when I lost Shikha.” I suppressed a tear and John looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“I don’t want any sympathy, I am a broken shell of a man, but I am not going anywhere until I avenge Aditi’s murder. Tia, why would I have come to your place attracting the attention if I was planning to kill my best friend? You knew there was another man at her place torturing her; did you forget him? At that time, I was at your place trying hard even to keep it together.”
My words changed something in her. She didn’t say anything and just stared at the corner. John untied me and gave me water to drink. I took a gulp reluctantly.
“Is there any alcohol here?”
John smiled. “Of course not, my child.”
I smiled back, which was entirely unusual. I hadn’t smiled in ages. Tia tossed me a mobile. “Use it to communicate now. It is almost untraceable.”
“How should we proceed further on this?” she asked.
I thought for about a minute and decided the course of action that we should take. This wasn’t any normal case; this was personal.
“You have access to the CCTV footages all over the town, right?”
“Not now, all thanks to you asshole,” she snapped.
John gave her an angry look, and she apologized. “My credentials are flagged, and I can’t log-in to our central database.”
I stood up and punched on the front wall in anger. John brought a couple of glasses filled with orange juice for the both of us. “Guys, you are doing the God’s work now. Have some patience and the path will be clear to you.”
“John, you trust me now?” I asked.
“I always trusted you Arjun. I could see the pain and suffering behind your eyes. You can cause harm to yourself but never to anyone else knowingly. I never believed that you would kill a girl.”
Ideally, this should have calmed me down or made me happy, but my reaction was opposite. “If you knew that I couldn’t have hurt someone then why did you hit me and tied me up?”
“Jesus was tied too. Trial is the nature of the life. Life questions you every second and you should always be ready to justify your actions.”
I had a puzzled expression on my face. It seems that John had many layers to himself but at the end, he was a kind-hearted bloke.
“I can hack my way into the database, but this opens an entirely different can of problems,” added Tia after much contemplation.
“What more problems can it cause? We are already in knee-deep shit.”
“I don’t know. My life is already a mess. I am unable to reach my ex-boyfriend who could also help us; I am getting scared.”
“Look, we will clear our names. Trust me on this. You don’t have to avenge her or anything. I have screwed up a lot of lives; just help me in getting justice for Aditi. Also, it is best not to involve somebody if you don’t trust them.”
Her lips turned into a line. She nodded, and I was relieved. Tia was a huge asset; I couldn’t have done it alone.
“I promise you, I will always help you with whatever you need,” I said.
“Kids, so what is the first step that we need to take?” asked John.
“You don’t have to do anything, old man. Tia, please scan all the CCTV footages around the area. We need to find S.I. Ajeet Prasad, I believe you must be knowing him. If you find anything, just let me know.”
She nodded and picked up her bag to leave. “Wait! Thanks for your help, let me know how should I reach you?” I asked.
“I will contact you,” she replied and shook John’s hands.
“Are you sure Arjun that I can’t help in any way?” asked John.
“A bottle of Vodka and a pack of cigarettes would do.”
He had an expression of pure shock as though the devil stood near him. A familiar voice on the television broke the awkward silence in the room. It was Rita, the News reporter who had made her life’s mission to become famous at my expense.
“Report just in that the Police have announced a handsome reward for anyone who tells the whereabouts of Arjun Rathore, ex-Police officer, who is currently on the run after murdering the reporter Aditi Mehta. The latest update regarding the case is that Aditi had various proofs of Arjun’s illicit behavior and his involvement in a drug trafficking racket. There are even some reports that he ran a prostitution racket too and was one of the most corrupt Police officers. Please be aware that he is armed and extremely dangerous. I would personally like to ask all of you to be cautious and help in any way possible for apprehending this killer. I, Rita Sinha will keep you updated about the further happenings in this case. Stay safe Delhi!”
I clenched my fists hard turning my knuckles white and punched on the wall.
FUCK!
John shook his head in disappointment and asked for the Lord’s forgiveness. The road to redemption couldn’t have been more difficult for me.
“John, this is going to be one hell of a ride.”
~*~
Brijesh Chaudhary gulped and his uneasiness magnified. He had one task assigned for him – he had to apprehend and catch Arjun, which he excelled at but had failed this time. This was his one last chance; he had screwed up badly this time. There was no getting back from this. He sat there in Pratap’s office, watching him pace around his seat. He surely believed that if he had caught Arjun, it would have brought all the glories that eluded him for a few months. If only, he could get another chance. He looked at Pratap with waited breath. He cleared his throat, hoping against hope that he would get his wish granted.
“ACP Sir!”
Pratap looked at him with no expression on his face. His handlebar mustache always gave him an arrogant edge. Pratap checked his buzzing phone – it was a call from his wife Neha.
“I am busy right now, will call you later,” replied Pratap monotonously.
He switched off his phone and kept it in his pocket.
“Tell me, Chaudhary Ji, what the hell happened?”
“Sir, I tried my best, but Arjun got away-”
“You were given an army last night, enough to fight another.”
“I am sorry sir, we thought we had it covered, blocked him inside that society, but he got a step ahead, found loopholes-”
“You underestimated the best cop we had,” said Pratap, putting his hands on the table and closing his eyes, “Probably the best cop Delhi ever had, and this is you, who trained him?” he scoffed and turned his back onto Brijesh. “I am lost here, really, I can’t figure out what has been going on with you in these past months. You have been having your merry string of failures, but there’s only so much that I could cover for you.”
He looked Brijesh in the eye, “You wouldn’t be surprised that your case has
reached above me now that one of our own men is a fugitive. I gave you this chance so that you could redeem yourself as you were an expert at this sort of thing.”
A Sub-Inspector entered the room, “Sir, the commissioner is here, and he is waiting for briefing in the Bunker.”
After taking a glance at the leaving sub-inspector, Brijesh looked back at Pratap and gulped, “The commissioner?”
“Yes, he is here with Subroto.” Subroto Das was the Deputy Commissioner of the South East district.
“But, let me explain-”
“No need for wasting your energy here now, do it in the bunker in front of them. We have got a lot of explaining to do.”
They proceeded down the stairs to the Bunker, a big room comprising of the control room and adjoining conference room. Brijesh reached the door just as Pratap opened it outwards for him, a look of dread on his face. Brijesh knew that this could only mean one thing – trouble. He already knew what would go down inside, but he had to obey his superior’s orders. As soon as he entered the oval conference room, he could see three senior Police Personnel seated at the table. He knew the one seated at the other end of the oval as Amritesh Mishra, the Commissioner of Delhi Police. To his left, sat the Station House Officer, Deepak Rane and to his right, sat Subroto. All the bigwigs were present who could put his career in jeopardy.
“Sir!” Pratap and Brijesh saluted at all of them, still standing.
“At ease, men. Sit down.” Brijesh sat down at the other end of the oval opposite Amritesh, with Pratap sitting next to him.
Subroto spoke, “Chaudhary Ji, I hope your family is well. Coming to the present events, please be kind to brief us on what happened last night at the Aadarsh Society.”
After Brijesh briefed them, there was silence for a couple of minutes. Amritesh and Subroto mouthed something quietly to each other while the SHO looked at some documents, passing one to Amritesh.
“Brijesh Chaudhary, right?” started Amritesh after clearing his throat, “I see that you have a decorated history regarding the apprehension of fugitives, yet you couldn’t catch this one, who happened to be one of ours, ranking this one top priority above all fugitives you had caught in the past.”
Death and Dishonor Page 7