Death and Dishonor

by Abhimanyu Saxena

  Brijesh hesitated; they were not mincing their words. “Sir, I almost had him –”

  Amritesh cut in, making Brijesh go silent in an instant, “It also happened to be that he was assigned under you in training and was also your partner in his first few months of cases. This conveys that you should have had a thorough understanding of him as a person.”

  “I did, Sir. I know how he thinks, how he plans, how he moves-”

  Subroto interfered, “Yet you couldn’t bring him in. Chaudhary, we have already seen that you have completely turned your record this year and this was the last straw. You are pushing late fifties now, retire peacefully and relax with your family. This is not an old man’s game, being in the field.”

  “Sir, please, he was my protégé. I feel responsible somehow. Please give me another chance; I will not underestimate him this time.”

  Amritesh stood up from his seat. Pratap held up a hand to shut Brijesh up. “He has escaped twice from our clutches. We have to do something.”

  Pratap stood up too, “Let me handle this case personally. I will get him arrested ASAP.”

  Amritesh asked him to sit again. “This case is of the utmost priority now, and it negatively paints the department. You two have a history with Arjun, and he has made a fool of both of you. We need a new plan – something unexpected. We need to catch him as soon as possible.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I believe that I can catch him,” added Pratap.

  “Me too,” added Brijesh but no one took him seriously.

  Amritesh placed his hand on Pratap’s shoulder. “You are the ACP; we don’t need you in the field right now. You have other things to worry about like keeping the media off the bad picture. I have complete faith in you, and that is why I need you in control of the upper side of things.”

  Pratap nodded. He wanted the case’s reigns in his hands, but it failed miserably. This was not going as planned.

  “What have you got in mind, sir?” Pratap questioned him.

  “There has been a new officer at Crime Branch; many senior officers have referred him to me. His methods are a bit unorthodox, but the word is that he gets the job done. I need a fresh pair of eyes on this case. I have reached out to his supervisor and called him in too. He must be on his way. Help him take point on this case and make sure Subroto gets every report.”

  “Sure sir.”

  Brijesh and Pratap stood up to leave when Subroto asked Pratap to stay back.

  “Something else, sir?” Pratap asked.

  “What is this lunatic Arjun saying about Ajeet?”

  Amritesh added, “Yes, it is strange for him to point fingers at a random cop to blame for his crime.”

  Pratap’s lips turned into a line. “I don’t know; we have to investigate first then only we can reach somewhere.”

  “Sir,” Subroto turned to Amritesh, “These are just ramblings of a guy turning rogue. He is cooking up meaningless theories.” He looked at Pratap again, “Remember, whatever you investigate, come directly to me with it, don’t throw Ajeet under the bus. His uncle would make our lives a lot difficult to live. And if all hell breaks loose on us, then be sure that it will reach you too.”

  Pratap understood the message. It was everybody’s ass on the line.

  There was a knock on the door. “Come inside,” Subroto called. A guy opened the door and closed it behind him.

  “Oh look, he is here. This is the guy that I was telling you about. He will be leading the hunt for Arjun,” added Amritesh.

  Pratap turned around to see the guy. He knew him by his face and had heard a lot about him.

  The guy took his cap off, reached the oval table and broke into a salute.

  “Officer Zayed reporting for duty, Sir!”

  MIRANDA

  “Wake up Sunshine!” a girl’s voice sang.

  “Hmmm,” I grunted quietly in response to Aditi on the other end of the phone, which I had managed to find and answer. Without opening my eyes, I pulled the covers over my head with no intention to get up. I didn’t want to look at the time because that would set off a timer in my head to which I have to eventually submit.

  “Oho! Look alive baby; today is our final exam of the year, remember?”

  The final exam of the year. Yeah, she had that ability to make these things grand. She could have said semester, but that wouldn’t sink in. “What’s the point of the alarm clock if you are gonna call me right before the alarm clock,” I moaned irritably, slowly pushing the covers to let in the cool breeze of the window cooler. I found a textbook and notebooks beside me, suggesting I had fallen asleep studying for the exam.

  “That irritating thing? You are better off without it. Let me be your alarm clock, the one to wake you up with its cutest voice,” she giggled. I chuckled lightly, now sitting at the side of my bed.

  “Okay! I am up,” I let out a huge yawn and looked at the clock. It was 06:25 AM. ‘Five more precious minutes of sleep,’ I thought and deactivated the alarm.

  “So, when can I expect you here?” she asked.

  “In an hour. I have to drop Pratap at his home as well,” I said, kicking him in the butt. He was lying on the floor beside my bed, books surrounding him as well.

  He woke with a start, “What the fuck, man!” He looked at me with sleepy eyes, “It’s still night.”

  “Yeah, I wish,” I said, finally leaving my bed to get up, “Get up man, we have an exam in two hours.”

  “Exactly, two hours!” he dropped down again.

  I sighed, getting back to the call, “So, see you in an hour?”

  “Alright, baby! I will pack breakfast for you,” she hung up.

  “What exam is it again?” mumbled Pratap.

  “Defense and Strategic Studies? You have the book beside you.”

  It was the end of our first year in B.A. at Delhi University, and we had our last exam today. Pratap and I used to go to Hindu College, and Aditi studied at Miranda House, which was for girls only.

  We reached Pratap’s place a few minutes later on my bike. “Meet you at the college parking?” he said, starting to rush inside his home.

  “Cool,” I replied and left for Aditi’s place.

  She also lived in Defense Colony but a little farther from us. I reached there in a jiffy. It was 7:30 AM. I dropped her a message that I was outside. I wished she would hurry. We still had time, but there were other things involved.

  Her parents loved me, a lot. This sounds good on most days, but they used to check up on me from time to time on phone or in person, and I ended up being fed at her home more than my own. They were very sweet and caring for doing this, but I liked my quiet sometimes. Nothing changed when she told them about us dating, except they were pleased.

  As I suspected, her mother came out the front door, “Beta! Come inside. I have breakfast ready.”

  “No, no, aunty, we need to hurry, I have already eat-”

  “No, you haven’t, Beta!” She ushered me inside the house, “I have made your favorite, Aloo-Paranthas with dollops of butter and curd.” Perhaps she had heard my stomach’s hunger growls from inside. ‘Oh, what the hell!’ I thought of submitting myself to the delicious food in front of me.

  Her mother continued, smiling at me, “Aditi was about to pack for you but seeing that you had time, I thought it best that you eat here.”

  Aditi was already ready. Her father was nowhere to be seen, but I didn’t inquire. I finished my breakfast quickly, and we went outside.

  “Take care you two, drive safe,” her mother waved at us. We reached Miranda a little under an hour. I wished her luck and continued up the road, where my college was. Pratap was waiting at the parking area where bikes were lined up.

  “Freedom in about three hours?” He said when I went up to him.

  I turned off the engine, “Could be less.”

  We walked inside and reached the set of rooms we were assigned to.

  “Look, scrawny hair bush is in your room. Wonder how much has he prep
ared,” Pratap pointed.

  “Quit with the name calling,” I replied, “He is decent.”

  “Said his dearest friend, Arjun,” Pratap mocked.

  “It’s still a few minutes. Don’t you think you should use this time to convince someone to show you the answers?” I spat back.

  “Good point!” he hurried inside the room.

  The ‘scrawny hair bush’ boy who Pratap was referring to was now fiddling with his bag outside the room. I went up to him and dropped my bag there.

  “Hey, Ajeet!” He was skinny, and it always seemed like he hadn’t eaten for days at a stretch. He was very shy to talk as well, but I used to talk to him sometimes.

  “Oh, hi Arjun!” he smiled weakly, “So, what are you expecting?”

  “I will just do my thing, let’s see,” I replied, “What about you?”

  “I am really hopeful,” he replied with a smile.

  “Good for you. Its time, let’s go in.”

  To my surprise, I was in for the whole time. I came out satisfied that I had done well. Ajeet had left half an hour early, and by the happy look on his face, he had done an outstanding job. I checked my cell and found a missed call from Pratap. I called him back to get his whereabouts.

  He was at the front lawn, “I think I messed up my paper,” he looked dejected. “I figured out a lot of answers and copied some-”

  “You underestimate yourself. Don’t worry; I am sure you did well.”

  He nodded, “Uh! You are probably right. Wanna do some sight-seeing and then get wasted later?”

  “Sounds awesome! Aditi said she is with her friends for a while, so we have time.”

  We passed our friend Alan on the way to our bikes, who was chilling with a girl, “Hey Alan, how did it go?”

  “Hey guys, I think I was in my A-game there, so it went pretty good. What about you?”

  “We did alright,” I replied.

  “Great. I will catch up with you later.”

  “Sure buddy!”

  We took out our bikes and rode off down the road. We were outside Miranda when we noticed Ajeet with a girl. She was smiling and talking to him.

  Pratap cheered, “Whoa! Scrawny scored there!”

  We stopped our bikes at the nearest tea-stall and ordered tea and cigarettes without de-boarding.

  Suddenly, I saw something and nudged Pratap, “Look, Ajeet is in trouble.” He was surrounded by three guys who came out of nowhere, one having a small wooden stick. They started pushing and slapping him. The girl got spooked and started crying and moving away.

  Pratap frowned. Keeping the funny banter and name calling aside, he used to get stern and very righteous in these cases. He could get very intimidating with his large built and loud heavy voice.

  He started his bike, “Get behind me.” I sat on his bike behind him just as the guy with the stick bashed Ajeet with it and he fell to the ground. The girl let out a cry and ran inside the premises, sobbing.

  “HEY!” Pratap boomed, launching his bike straight towards them. The guy with the stick gave a start and fell over. Dropping the stick, he ran away in panic. Pratap grabbed the collar of one of the guys left and started punching his face with his other hand. I leaped on the other guy, and we went down on the ground. My arm got slashed on a sharp rock which made me stay on the ground in pain. The guy got up and was about to kick me, but to my surprise, Ajeet flung himself towards him making him fall again. He started throwing punches at him madly. He broke out of Ajeet’s grasp, picked up the guy beaten up by Pratap and they both ran away.

  We all stood there for a minute, catching our breath and looking at each other’s bloodied selves. Ajeet started to say something, but I stopped him, “It was about that girl. We get it.”

  Then, I looked over at the tea-stall owner and called, “Ram Bhaiya, are our teas ready?”

  He nodded, calling us over.

  “Wait, we all have bruises,” Ajeet said, making us stop. “We should get medical help.”

  Pratap laughed, cleaning his bloody hand with his handkerchief. I put my arm around Ajeet’s shoulder, “We should relax for a bit. Exams are over and holidays begin,” I said, chuckling along.

  Pratap and I lit up our cigarettes. “Smoke?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t,” he replied and took a sip from his tea. “Wow, this is some good tea I have had in a while.”

  “See? Join the club, buddy,” Pratap said, taking a sip and savoring it.

  Aditi was calling. I picked up, “Yeah, we’re just outside at the tea-stall. We may have run into a slight problem, but it’s past now.”

  She saw us and crossed the road to come over. “Bhaiya, one tea for me.”

  “Coming up,” the owner said, smiling.

  Then she came to us, her mouth wide open in shock.

  “So, how did you fair?” I asked her, trying to act normal.

  “Fuck that, what the hell brushed with you guys?”

  We laughed, “Yeah, about that medical help he mentioned,” Pratap said to Aditi, indicating Ajeet, “We might need it now.”

  The laughing faded away, and the clock in my room at the church came into view. It was 1:00 AM. I was still lying on my cot, running through my thoughts. I couldn't get some sleep or even rest or calm myself, but I had to, in order to figure out something about Ajeet which had led to this. Obviously, this was bigger than him, but he hated us enough to betray us after everything that we have been through.

  I banged my fist on the wall. I never suspected he was obsessed with Aditi. He was always with us, around her, even at times alone with her. Anything suspicious or bad never happened.

  We guessed that the incident with that girl involved her ex-boyfriend or some other goon who liked her and she cut off with Ajeet after she got spooked that day.

  As per Ajeet, she was the first girl who was close and nice to him and not many people were at that time. It might be that she saw him get hurt that day and didn’t want that to happen again.

  Did Ajeet blame Pratap and me for her? She could have thought we were there to attack him too. She didn’t see the whole thing. But we saved him, and he repaid us in screwing up with Aditi’s life? That doesn’t make sense. Somehow, in his conscious, he had replaced that girl with Aditi and had got obsessed with her because she was also very nice to him. Getting jealous of me was inevitable then. But he didn’t show or said anything in college that would have indicated this obsession or jealousy.

  My mind was filling with more questions than answers, much of which were meaningless. Did something suspicious happen after college? We have been through every thick and thin in our police career, and we were always there for each other, ready to take a bullet if need be. Did anything happen that opened those wounds for Ajeet, taking him back to the path of obsession and betrayal?

  “Damn it,” I whispered to myself, “that case!”

  We had a case where a girl from Miranda College was killed brutally. It was a crime of passion and Ajeet was not himself throughout it, showing sudden signs of nervousness. Maybe he connected with the killer as he himself obsessed over Aditi. It all started to make sense now.

  ~*~

  Three hours earlier, at an abandoned factory warehouse near a highway. It was a big warehouse. Two men seemed to be patrolling the front, crossing each other at times. They were in ordinary civil dresses but had automatic rifles.

  Ajeet was lying on a couch playing candy crush on his phone. He was trying to clear every level in the fastest possible way. He got stuck in one level, got up and started pacing around his couch. His room was more like a factory office room, with a desk having a computer and multiple piles of documents and folders stacked on top of each other. There were a couple of chairs and a big couch and they looked out of place as though they had been stuffed into the room.

  There was a window open which was creaking in the breeze and one dimly lit lamp on the desk, failing to brighten the room.

  “Damn it! Stupid level,” he tapped his phone on the desk
a few times and kept it there, the game still on.

  He went up to a mini-fridge behind the desk and opened the small door. The fridge was empty except for a can of beer which he took out and emptied in one gulp.

  He opened the door to his room and came out. There were two guards in similar outfits and arsenal standing on either side of it.

  “It’s ten in the night, where is my food?”

  The guards looked at each other, then one of them replied nervously, “We couldn’t go out for food sir, boss didn’t allow it. He said it was best not to leave your side.”

  “What?”

  “He-he said to make do with the day’s stock which was brought in the morning,” replied the other guard.

  “It wasn’t much, it is finished,” Ajeet shouted. “Wasn’t it worse that I am stuck in here, now I have to starve too?”

  “We have some bread and potato chips sir-”

  “I needed proper food. Ugghhh! Where did I get stuck?”

  “Sir, boss did say he would call soon.”

  “I have been hearing that all fucking day,” Ajeet said through gritted teeth. “Fine, bring me those bread and chips,” then he slammed the door on their faces.

  He went in and picked up his phone, the game level still stuck at an impossible position. “STUPID GAME!” he shouted and threw his phone on the couch which bounced off and fell on the floor. He went and slumped on the couch, grabbing his head and looking down towards the floor.

  ~*~

  A fresh pack of bread and a packet of chips were lying on the desk untouched as Ajeet had dozed off. His phone was still on the ground when it started to vibrate loudly.

  He awoke in a sudden movement and picked it up. It was 1:00 AM and the call was from a private number. He got up from the couch and took the call.

  “Have you seen the time?” He whispered angrily, “It’s been more than twenty-four fucking hours since I am stuck here, what the fuck is going on?”

  “There’s no need to get agitated,” a voice spoke on the other end, “This is for your own protection.”