Zayed placed the towel in the bucket and looked at me. “Any other clues?”
“There was a message ‘Follow your heart’ - I haven’t deciphered that yet.”
He nodded with no expressions on his face. It felt like he believed me as he had stopped torturing the hell out of me.
“Why didn’t you tell this to anyone? Why all the running and killing? And what about your illegal drug business and women trafficking?”
I tried to get up, but Zayed placed his hand on my chest urging me not to be too comfortable.
“Everything is being planted or fabricated. I am getting framed as I had heard Ajeet torturing and killing her mercilessly.”
“There was no flash drive at her house?” he asked.
“No! What is the deal about it?”
He didn’t reply and pointed towards Akshay, who was slowly regaining consciousness. “What about him? He is also in this for his sister?”
I nodded. He removed his hand away from my chest. “You can get up now. I believe you-you should have talked to me earlier.”
“Thanks! Will you help me in finding this scumbag Ali, and the flash drive?”
“I will help you in finding the drive. Regarding Ali, I think you are wrong. He is not a scumbag, but is someone who has lost his love, and doesn’t believe in the Government.”
I tried to get up again with all my might and spat all the water from my mouth and nose. I felt weak, yet somehow, I looked at him straight in his red shot eyes.
“Arjun, you have finally found Ali, and he is standing right in front of you. I am Ali – Mohammad Zayed Ali.”
It was too much to take in, and my knees wobbled, and I fell unconscious due to all the waterboarding.
~*~
I felt a slap across my face again. This has got to be the worst day for me. After all the times I have passed out, someone has slapped me or kicked me to wake me up. This time it was Zayed again. I jumped away taking a fighting stance.
“You are Ali? Why did she write your name?”
“Because she trusted me, and wanted us to meet, and avenge her.”
Akshay was nursing his wounds and didn’t care about us. I still couldn’t wrap my head around all this. “Why was she murdered?”
“I have a suspicion, but firstly, we should get out of here.”
“Why?” I asked impulsively.
Akshay intervened. He had a scar on his cheek where Zayed had punched him. “Because this hotshot called for backup a while back. They should be coming in another five minutes.”
“What to do now?” I asked.
“Run,” replied Zayed.
All three of us exited the hotel room and went straight to the parking. Zayed took out his keys and pressed the fob. “My car would be here. Let’s get inside quickly.”
I had a weird smile on my face. “By any chance, is it a green Duster?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Let’s find another vehicle. I slashed the front tires with my knife.”
Akshay chuckled and looked at me trying to control his laughter. Meanwhile, Zayed was breathing fire. I could hear asshole and other expletives from his mouth.
“Guys, there is a small Bob truck there, see!” Akshay pointed a little ahead.
We raced towards it and saw the driver was completely drunk. I took him out roughly.
“We went GTA on him,” remarked Akshay.
“Wh – what the heck?” the drunkard started shouting.
I was in no mood for a fight especially the state my body was in. “We will pay you back.”
He hurled at me and tried to punch me. I ducked and hit him in his groin. He fell on the floor, and we jumped inside the truck. As soon as Akshay hit the ignition, and started moving ahead, we could hear faint noises of cop sirens near our hotel.
“We have a ten-minute head start,” added Zayed.
At that moment his phone started ringing. I read the name and immediately picked up his phone.
“What are you doing? This is my phone!” shouted Zayed.
“Trust me; I know what I am doing.”
I picked up the call and heard a familiar voice across the line. “Hello, Pratap!”
“Arjun?” he sounded shocked.
“Yes, I have had a talk with Zayed. He is on our side now, and we will uncover this mess together, and get justice for Aditi.”
“Where are you Arjun? And are you alright?”
“I will call you with a location shortly where we can meet. Zayed has a plan. Everything will be alright now. I will let you know once we reach.”
The call got disconnected due to low battery on his device. He scoffed at me, “Pratap and I are not on the best of the terms.”
“He is a good guy deep down the tough exterior.”
Akshay and Zayed were seated in the front while I was laying in the back seat still breathing with some struggle. “Zayed, what about the flash drive? What does it have?”
Akshay laughed. “I bet I could steal it if I know its whereabouts.”
Zayed looked at him angrily. “Your sister told me about all your shenanigans. Regarding the flash drive, we should proceed with –”
He couldn’t complete his sentence as a big supply truck came out of nowhere on the one-way street, and hit our vehicle with all of its force. We were on a very narrow road and our bob truck toppled and fell down the side of the road. It didn’t stop, and our vehicle took several rotations before colliding with a huge oak tree.
~*~
Someone called out inside the studio, “Rita, we are ready for you.”
Few crew members moved away, and there she was, coming towards him, not letting her brisk pace defy style. She gave a nod to him with a smile. She was wearing a bright yellow dress with a thick brown coat along with happiness on her face glowing from the red lipstick, and the ponytail like a crown.
She sat on her designated chair, and a girl started doing a bit of touch up on her. She looked around the studio which was a huge setup in their News Now Station. The clock showed five minutes until it was about to hit six in the morning. There was a rush in that room even in the early morning hours as the crew was busy doing the last-minute preps before her segment starts.
There was a big dais where she was supposed to sit and do her segment. The screen behind her dais chair showed a collage of a few of Delhi’s major historical monuments with the words etched in gold ‘Rita ki Report.’ The crew had set up the mic, camera, and the broadcast was ready to be live when she was ready.
The girl finished and brought a mirror in front of her so that Rita could see.
“How is it, Ma’am?”
“Perfect!” Rita exclaimed, beaming at the girl, “Are you new here? Your work feels like you have been here forever.”
The girl giggled, “It is because I am a big fan of you and your work. I just joined today, but I have done my homework on everything that you might like, and will not disappoint you. I have always envied you, and the heights of success that you have reached.”
A crew manager heard her saying this and rushed towards them. He shouted at her, “Are you getting paid for chatting? Stop disturbing Rita and get back to work.”
“Oh, Aman dear, don’t be hard on her,” she put her hand on the girl’s shoulder, and continued, “Girl is ambitious. Nothing’s wrong about that.”
He nodded, and said, “Its time.”
Rita went towards the dais and sat on her chair.
Aman announced just when the clock was about to hit six o'clock, “Rolling in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
The segment animation played, and Rita began, “Ek aur shaandar subah ke saath main aapka din shuru karne aa gyi hoon, apni yaani Rita ki Report ke saath. Here are today’s highlights, the exclusive breaking news is that the mass murderer Arjun Rathore has claimed two more lives in his recent evasion from law allegedly including the cop in charge of putting him in prison. He is now in the wind again. We will go into details shortly at the crime scene with ACP Pratap Singh.�
��
She went on to the other highlights as the crew stood in attention, monitoring the live broadcast to ensure that all goes well.
She addressed the elephant in the room once she had shared all the highlights, “The terrible time has really come when someone has shown our capital what a true menace looks like. Once a lawman himself, though his actions today make us doubt that possibility, mass murderer Arjun Rathore is now allegedly killing his own kind. Yes, my fellow Delhiites, the man has indeed stooped so low that I am not sure even the almighty can salvage him. Reports are in that last night our police force got very close to arresting him. His brutal actions though caused not only the death of the reputed Senior Inspector Mohammad Zayed but his own accomplice Akshay Mehta, who was also identified yesterday as a major suspect wanted by many agencies for gang-related heists.”
The screen had changed behind her while she was talking, and was now showing Arjun’s mugshot, and beside it, one-liners created on this story kept flashing up.
She continued, “We will now go straight to our correspondent who is at the crime scene right now with our Defense Colony ACP.”
Arjun’s mugshot vanished and changed to a camera feed showing one of the correspondents of the news channel.
Rita said, “So Raghav, what is the update there?”
“As you can see behind me Rita, this is the car crash which happened last night taking the lives of Senior Inspector Mohammad Zayed, and the perp Akshay Mehta. We have ACP Pratap Singh with us who can go over the details.”
Pratap came into view as well when the feed shifted, and Raghav said, “Hello sir,” Pratap gave a nod, though marks of tension were clear on his forehead.
Raghav went on and asked, “Sir, please tell us about the details that we know so far.”
Pratap cleared his throat, then started, “Raghav, first of all, let me help you find a keyword that you might have missed in your statement. It is ‘allegedly’. Yes, this is a very significant word at this moment as the vehicle, and the bodies were badly burnt, and there is no way to identify one of them as they are missing a head. We don’t know who the deceased are at this point, and who killed them.”
Raghav asked, “So what do you think has happened?”
Pratap continued, “Based on our initial analysis we conclude that it is a case of an attack from a much bigger vehicle like a truck or a bus. The hit and the consecutive topple of the vehicle might have caused an oil leak, and a spark could have triggered an explosion. There is a slight blood trail around the burnt vehicle as well that we suspect could be Arjun’s if he might have survived. It makes no sense though that he would endanger his own life for this hit.”
SI Amar Gupta started calling Pratap from behind, and he concluded, “I have to get back to it, but as you can see I am using words like ‘could’ and ‘might’ a lot of times, proving that nothing much is known or confirmed at this point. Excuse me now.”
Pratap started heading back towards the burnt car as he heard the correspondent say, “That was all from Singh Sir at the moment. Thank You. Back to you, Rita.”
“Thanks for saving me,” Pratap said in relief as he reached Amar. Amar chuckled, and said, “My pleasure, Sir.”
“Any updates since I left for my screen time?” Pratap scoffed.
“Yes, we found a pistol, and a chainsaw inside the car stuck with all the other debris, though any prints may have died as both objects are badly burnt,” Amar said.
“Send them to the lab along with the other relevant car debris. We might still get something out of them.”
“Also, there are two sets of footsteps here, one coming towards the vehicle, and one going away.”
“Arjun might have escaped,” Pratap said, “explains the footsteps going away, the footsteps coming towards would be the local who discovered the aftermath and informed us. What else?”
“Well, the forensics and medical examiner believe that the chainsaw could be responsible for the decapitation, but they would know more about it in their lab. They would be able to determine their identities too.”
“How will they determine the decapitated person though? They already said that without dental evidence-”
Amar cut in, “There are some articles present on this body with which we could identify it, but it is too soon to tell.”
Pratap got a phone call and stepped away to take it. He came back five minutes later, looking frustrated.
“The office of the CM wants me to give a press conference about this incident within the next hour.”
“Election blues, huh?” Amar replied, waving his hand away, “The CM is trying desperately to win a losing battle. How will we get the results so soon?”
“I told them that, but they are adamant. I could only buy an hour more, get the bodies to the autopsy table ASAP so that we can at least know their identification. Identify the articles on the one without the dental evidence to check who those belongs to. Please get all of them working so that I can get the results in two hours,” Pratap ordered.
Amar nodded and left hurriedly.
~*~
A payphone was visible at a distance but was fading in between. It was coming closer by the minute, but everything was a blur. The early morning heavy smog wasn’t helping, but it failed to cloud my conscience which now had more deaths to live with.
I struggled to traverse up the alley towards the payphone. My vision had improved, but my kneecaps were killing me. I grabbed the wall at my side and resumed moving forward slowly, careful not to pull my hands off the wall.
I could feel my hand reach the door handle of the booth, and I opened the door. I begged to almighty that I had a coin for the phone. I found one and dialed a number.
“Hello,” I said and winced. There was a new type of pain around my jaw now.
“Hello!” a woman with a familiar voice answered, “Who is it?” It was Aditi and Akshay’s cousin, Maya. It seemed like she had been crying, and talking in between sobs.
“Maya, it’s Arjun,” I said, kind of expecting what I would get back. There was a pause.
“How dare you?” Maya started, “You have the balls to call up here after the shit you have pulled on us?” Her voice was shaking with anger.
“I just want to talk to Mom,” I whispered weakly, tears dripping down my face.
She continued, “You have lost the right to call her ‘Mom’. Don’t utter these words from your mouth or God will burn your tongue. You have wiped off half of our family, and you still demand an audience with us. Never call us again, Arjun. You died for us months ago.”
She cut the call. The phone receiver slipped from my hands as I slid my way onto the ground, feeling defeated, and tears tearing through my face. Series of faces clouded my head, Aditi, Akshay, and all others whose lives I had torn apart. I began to drift off.
I woke up with a start. I stirred slowly, pulling myself off the seat to attend to the people in the front seat. I couldn’t believe I had been in another car accident. Through the mind-melting pain, I somehow managed to get to Akshay, who was already gone. I don’t even remember if I had time to grieve. I saw smoke coming out of the hood of the car and tried to wake up Zayed.
My eyes blinked a little as they found myself back in the phone booth. I was trying to keep them open, but my sorrows were making them drift again.
I found myself fallen on my front on the ground. I turned back to see oil leaking out of the car and smoke clouding it. I remembered limping away and seeing the car explode. I panted as I kept on limping away from the smoke, and fire.
My eyes glimpsed the booth, and the hanging receiver one last time before they closed.
~*~
Pratap cleared his throat in front of the press conference and began, “Citizens of the capital, it is with heavy heart that I have to give you this news, but Senior Inspector Mohammad Zayed Ali has laid down his life doing his duty for the nation, and we mourn and salute him for his valor.”
He sighed and continued, “Arjun Rathore�
��s accomplice Akshay Mehta was also killed in the same incident. We are still investigating, and I have been assigned to be in charge of Arjun Rathore’s case starting now. I will see to it that the justice is served accordingly.”
DELTA
The alarm rang, and Pratap woke up. Neha wasn’t there by his side. He checked his phone. It was 8 o’ clock, and he already had missed calls, and messages from his superior Subroto, the DCP, asking for updates. He kept his phone back on the bedside table and got up from the bed. He went up to a showcase in their room and looked at their photos. There were several photos of Neha with some neighbors’ kids at their birthday parties or some other occasions.
Neha loved kids. They didn’t plan for any because Pratap was not ready. Now that he had become ACP, his schedule was very busy too. She didn’t say anything and supported him, but it was clear that she was not happy even if she didn’t show it.
He walked up to the kitchen and found her there, she was preparing breakfast.
“Oh, you’re up!” she smiled. “I have got breakfast going; I will be done by the time you are ready.”
As he turned to make his way to get the morning newspaper, she sneaked from behind, and put a bit of gulaal on his cheeks, saying, “Happy Holi!”
He got startled as he turned to face her, then smiled. He took a handful of color from her hand, and then applied to her face, replying, “Happy Holi, my love!”
Then she hugged and kissed him on his cheek and said, “Do you really have to go today? Its Holi, surely you can get one day off. You are the ACP.”
“We already discussed this yaar,” he said as she looked at him with puppy eyes. “I have to get ready now.”
He left her with a sad face and went to take a bath. After thirty minutes, he sat at the dining room table ready in his uniform.
They ate in silence for five minutes, then she asked, “But we had plans to celebrate with the Aroras, I was making gujiyas.”
“I know we had, but you are aware of the circumstances,” he said.
Death and Dishonor Page 22