The Siya Rajput Crime Thrillers Books 1-3 (Where Are They Now / Finding Her / The Bones Are Calling)

by UD Yasha

  Rathod said nothing.

  ‘I’m telling you. Put the blame on me. I’ve nothing to lose. He already hates me. You can minimize your damage.’

  ‘I’ll do what I have to do. Throwing you under the bus is not an option,’ Rathod said, walking back to his office.

  ‘Do you think we can trust ACP Shukla with what we know?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think he’s the Viper. I don’t think he knows him either or has evidence against him. If he had the proof, he would have used it as a bargaining chip and got a promotion to the CBI, which he has been dying for many years now,’ Rathod said. ‘I need to go. I’ll keep you updated on the shooter.’

  Rathod put the phone away. He noticed he was taking short and loud breaths as the ACP was motioning him to come to his office. He walked slowly, not knowing what was going to happen. The worst loomed in front of him. He remembered what Bhalerao had said. Suspension and then being assigned menial work. No big cases. He recognized he was spiralling down and needed to just focus on his conversation with Shukla.

  ‘Please close the door,’ Shukla said as Rathod entered his office. ‘Have a seat.’

  The ACP put his elbows on the table. ‘I’m just deeply disappointed,’ he said.

  ‘I let her be a part of this case for a reason,’ Rathod said.

  ‘You know it was the wrong thing to do. You wouldn’t have felt bad otherwise,’ Shukla said. ‘And when did getting a scumbag criminal defense lawyer into our investigation become a good idea?’

  ‘She’s more than that.’

  ‘What do you love her now?’

  Rathod shook his head. ‘What? This case has got to do with Siya’s father.’

  It was Shukla’s turn to be surprised. ‘Aniruddha Rajput? How?’

  ‘I’ll be honest with you. I’ll tell you everything right from the start. Before I begin you have to know that Siya is the one person who wants to get to the bottom of what’s been happening the most. It will give her answers, and miraculously, her father, if he’s still alive.’

  Silence.

  Rathod went on. ‘I know you and Siya don’t get along because of what happened in the past. But we made an exception to get her on board for the Zakkal investigation.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean she gets to be a part of every investigation.’

  ‘I know. But this time, the circumstances put her directly in the eye of the storm. She did not start off involved in it by choice, she was sucked into it.’

  Shukla narrowed his eyes. ‘Go on. Tell me everything and don’t leave out a thing. Be honest. I’m going to rain terror on you if I find out you lied again,’ he said.

  Rathod started off with the phone call that Siya got six months back and ended with how the two of them had met Motilal Ahuja.

  Rathod said, ‘We still didn’t know then who had shot Sonia, and we were understaffed,’ Rathod said. ‘For all of us, this was just another murder. Aniruddha Rajput’s disappearance was just another missing person. But for Siya, this is personal. She knows everything about this case. I felt that her coming along to meet Motilal was, strictly tactically speaking, a must.’

  Shukla stayed silent after Rathod had finished. He scratched his cheek and then went to the side table to pour himself some coffee.

  ‘I don’t know what to do with you,’ he said, his back still facing Rathod.

  He returned to his chair. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this before? I could have helped you, and got Siya officially on board as a consultant.’

  ‘I know this is hard to hear. We had proof that corrupt cops were behind some of the things that had been happening. we weren’t sure if you were amongst them.’

  ‘Fair point. What you did is not right and you have to be punished for that.’

  ‘I know. I take full responsibility for my actions.’’

  ‘You should. They put Dr. Sonia in danger and they also killed Mukund Dhar.’

  ‘I feel bad for what happened to Dr. Sonia and Dhar. They shouldn’t have been hurt, but I didn’t kill them. Yes, I got Dr. Sonia to help us. But her shooting was a systematic failure of our entire department. Not just me. Having said that, I don’t think I would have done anything differently apart from giving Sonia an extra layer of protection.’

  ‘Why do you trust me now?’ Shukla said.

  ‘Deep down, I know you’re a good man. You don’t get along with some people but that’s a different matter. You are their boss. You have to take tough calls. You are also on the firing line being the ACP. I may disagree with you on several things, but that’s a personal matter. But, I know you are not a killer. I know you will do everything in your capacity to hunt down a killer.’

  ‘I will,’ Shukla said and paused. ‘What you did was wrong. But the case has reached a point where you are too valuable to it. Suspending you right now is going to affect it adversely. I’m conflicted. At the same time, I know that suspending you wouldn’t stop you from investigating the crime. No matter what I do. That’s why you’re going to be suspended but only after this case has been solved. You will be able to think about everything that you have been doing wrong then. You will be suspended for six months.’

  Rathod knew that a post-dated suspension was going to be his best possible outcome. However, he felt six months was harsh but he held his tongue. ‘I accept the suspension,’ he said. ‘What about Siya?’ He knew that he was pushing Shukla’s limit.

  Shukla’s answer was ready. ‘I’ll list her as a consultant on this case if she agrees to never meddle in our cases in the future. If she does, then I’ll personally make sure she gets charged for withholding evidence and interfering in an active police investigation.’

  ‘I’m sure she will agree,’ Rathod said.

  ‘She has no choice.’

  ‘Also, given the sensitivity of the situation, can you keep what I told you about the Viper and the case to yourself?

  ‘I wasn’t planning on telling anyone,’ Shukla said. ‘Now, get out of here. We have work to do.’

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I was relieved when Rathod told me about his conversation with Shukla. I had had a feeling that Shukla would expel him from the police force on grounds of conspiracy and withholding evidence. So, the 6-month suspension seemed like a win. It was going to be tough, but at least he could still work on this case.

  Before going through my list of things to do, which involved finding the man who was going to meet Kabir and knowing what kind of evidence he was going to give him, I decided to help Radha and Rahul sift through the papers that Motilal had given us yesterday.

  Radha said, ‘He has put a disclaimer that certain data is encrypted as it may contain government secrets.’

  ‘I was wondering how he handed us so much stuff about all the enemies he has and his investigation into them. Because his enemies are basically enemies of the Indian state,’ I said.

  Within ten minutes of going through them, I realized Motilal had been very meticulous in going about his investigation. He had spoken to each suspect. If the suspects were dead, Motilal had spoken to their lawyers or relatives. While going through his investigation, I realized that Motilal Ahuja rose to prominence by becoming one of India’s most valued encounter specialists. He used to track down dangerous mafia lords and known terrorist financiers and sleeper cell operatives. He had a big team under him. Ten years ago, he had been granted special status and reported directly to the Prime Minister’s Office.

  ‘This data has almost all his cases,’ I said. ‘What was he working on at the time Kabir and Sheena were murdered? Maybe the people he targeted were pissed off.’

  ‘A month before their murders, Motilal was tracking a person who was suspected to have links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The person, his name has been blacklisted, was a bomb maker and had made bombs to be used in two terrorist attacks that had fortunately been stopped in time.’

  ‘I’m guessing the names of places and dates are also blacked out,’ I said.

  ‘Right, i
t would cause unnecessary panic if that information was leaked.’

  ‘Did Motilal get the man?’

  ‘Yes. We don’t know how, though. It’s not a part of the file.’

  ‘How did he rule out this man as a suspect?’ I said.

  ‘He had no known family. He was a lone wolf who only contacted a Lashkar sleeper cell in Mumbai. He has given multiple reasons why he thought this man was too focused on waging war against India.’

  ‘What about cases before that?’ I said.

  ‘I’ve been looking at those. I wouldn’t read out the terrorism related ones as his reason for those people not ordering the hit is more or less the same. This is what he said verbatim. These terrorists have a one-track mind. They want to destroy India. They want to scare people. Who catches them or is chasing them is irrelevant to them. In my entire life, only two terrorists have known me by name. That’s because I was interrogating them for about six months. In both the cases, we knew a lot about each other’s families. Sharing such information may appear risky but I know they were never going to speak to another soul and get out of our facilities alive. I was right. Both of them were killed off to avoid a situation like hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814. Apart from this, I have personally spent a lot of time questioning these people. They don’t have anyone in their life who is crazy enough to kill an officer’s family just because their son or brother or daughter was arrested for terrorism by him. The families are going through their own shock of finding out that the person, who they thought wouldn’t hurt a fly, is conspiring to kill thousands of people.’

  Rahul paused. He took a sip of water and continued. ‘Apart from terrorists, he took down local dons. According to him, people from the mafia were capable of making it personal. That’s why he spent more time focusing on them. Just before the murders, he was investigating a gangster in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The person was smuggling sand into Mumbai and Delhi.’

  I knew sand seemed like a ridiculous commodity to smuggle. But it is a multi-billion dollar industry in India. Not everyone is given licenses to dig up sand. That’s why the supply is less. The sand mafia, spread out across the country, illegally dig up sand from river basins, causing irreparable damage. Apart from the environmental cost, sand mafias employ people to do dangerous digging jobs. They also bribe and kill bureaucrats and police officers if they didn’t comply with their demands. I reckoned a sand mafia operating in the early-2000s was a big deal.

  Rahul looked up from his laptop and continued. ‘As you can imagine, investigating such thugs and dons for murder is tough. Arresting them, getting them to talk or even finding a link between not just them and a hitman or murder, but even them and their illegal business is difficult. Motilal used Government resources to check their finances. He had them followed, both to expose their operations and to check if they did anything that tied them to the murders.’

  ‘I’m guessing he found nothing.’ I said.

  ‘He has not. He has issued another disclaimer for the section of local dons and mafia members. It states the difficulties associated with getting proof against them. He also said it’s a long game. He still has a few of these people under surveillance but has not found anything against them.’

  ‘We have gone through twenty of the hundred and six people he has listed as potential suspects,’ Radha said.

  I assisted them for an hour and, together, we knocked off seven more people. We were trying to find a connection between the data Motilal had compiled on them, and the information we had from all the new evidence we had gathered that Motilal did not have yet.

  But we found nothing useful. I got up and stretched. I needed a change. From how Radha and Rahul’s shoulders were drooping, I knew they needed to change it up too. They had been going through Motilal’s data for a longer time.

  ‘Let’s go to the garage and look at other stuff. A different setting, new topics and a fresh perspective wouldn’t hurt,’ I said.

  It was almost noon. Not yet time for lunch but all three of us were miraculously hungry at the same time. So, we went downstairs and had a round of filter coffee. We spoke with Maa and played with Shadow. After a twenty-minute break, we went to the garage to start off on the things I had in mind.

  ‘How are we doing this?’ Radha asked me.

  I said, ‘A couple of things occurred to me after speaking to Dhar. He told me that Kabir was expecting someone at the farmhouse. He had not shown up till Dhar was present.’

  ‘Are we taking what he told you at face value?’ Radha said.

  ‘For now, we are.’

  ‘Dhar hinted that the bloody clothes at his house were planted by the cops. I don’t know how but I’ll check if that was true,’ Radha said and paused and her eyes wandered. She appeared to be thinking. ‘I’ve an idea,’ she said. ‘I’ll work on it.’

  ‘It will surely be helpful to know for sure if Dhar was framed,’ I said. ‘Coming back to the person who was supposed to meet Kabir, three things could have happened. Firstly, the person killed him. Secondly, the person got cold feet and decided against meeting Kabir. Thirdly, the person was killed. Both Kabir and Niyati were killed because of what they knew about the Viper. There’s no reason why Kabir’s mystery person was not killed for the same reason.’

  ‘How can we find which one is true?’ Rahul said.

  ‘I have a method in mind. We cannot prove right now that the person killed Kabir or that they had cold feet. There is literally no way. But we can check the third option.’

  ‘Of the person being killed?’

  ‘That’s right. Kabir was killed in Pune. If this was such a big meeting for him, closer to the date and time of the meeting, Kabir would have checked if the person was still willing to meet him. Let’s say the meeting had been confirmed. In that case, the person would have had to be in or around Pune. If he was murdered, he would have had to be killed in Pune. I’ll ask Rathod to check how many people were found murdered on the same day as Kabir Ahuja. I don’t think there will be too many. To further reduce the number, we can eliminate people based on their age. Very old and young people don’t make the cut.’

  I called Rathod and told him to find out all the people who had been killed on 20th November 2002 in Pune. Five minutes after I put my phone away, it started ringing. It was Rathod again.

  He said, ‘One of my criminal informants just identified John Doe.’

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I could feel the adrenaline course through my body. I put the call on speaker. Radha, Rahul and I stooped in over it.

  ‘John Doe’s name is Vivek Saxena. My CI knew him because Vivek was a fellow criminal.’

  ‘What was he known for?’ I said.

  ‘Vivek was one of the best lock-picks out there. My CI told me that there was no safe that Vivek could not crack. He just needed time and some motivation in terms of money,’ Rathod said.

  ‘The safe might have had the evidence,’ I said.

  ‘We’ll find out soon,’ Rathod said. ‘My SWAT team is on its way to Vivek’s house. Bhalerao and I are already on our way to your house. Stay ready and be armed. We’re picking you up in five minutes and then heading to Vivek’s house.’

  The call ended and silence rebounded on the walls of the garage. I knew what Radha was thinking. I turned to her and said, ‘We’re going to have a lot of firepower on our side with Rathod’s SWAT team. All of us will be okay,’ I said.

  I went to my room and changed into jeans and a T-Shirt. I put on my bulletproof vest. I made sure both my Glocks were ready to fire. I secured them in the ankle and chest holster. I went back to the garage and waited for Rathod to arrive. Radha and Rahul were still inside. Radha sat next to me and held my hand until I got up when I heard Rathod’s car at the gate.

  ‘I love you,’ I told Radha and Rahul as they hugged me together. ‘I’ll see you all soon.’

  Just before I stepped in the car, Radha came running behind me. But she didn’t want to speak to me. Instead, she was knocking on Rathod’s
window.

  ‘Can I have your login details to look up old cases?’ Radha said.

  ‘Just don’t do anything stupid with them otherwise I will be without a job for a year and not just six months’ he said and told her his ID and password.

  Once I was in the car and we got going, Rathod said, ‘According to my CI, Vivek Saxena was really psyched about his latest assignment because it was in his words “the most challenging safe yet”.’

  ‘What are Vivek’s finances looking like?’ I said.

  ‘We’ve been going through them. He’s most likely routing money into a Swiss bank account. His Indian bank account doesn’t have much money. He has a front job as a construction consultant and his earnings don’t qualify for tax. But he lives in a fancy bungalow in Forest Trails near Bhugaon. No way can he afford that with his income.’

  ‘Any family or associates?’

  ‘None. He is an orphan,’ Rathod said. ‘My CI said Vivek liked to fly under the radar. Vivek had once asked my CI for help in breaking into a locker a year back. They had hit it off then and became friends.’

  We reached Forest Trails at fifteen minutes past two. Rathod’s SWAT team had already reached and were standing a hundred yards from Vivek’s house. We parked behind the two SWAT SUVs.

  Rathod took the lead. He turned to me and said, ‘You’re the civilian here so stay back.’

  I gave him a thumbs up. He turned to his team and showed them the layout of Vivek’s house.

  He said, ‘We don’t know what to expect. Stay put and stay alert. Remember we are facing people who are happy to kill. So, if you have the chance to shoot someone, go ahead. We also don’t know if the house is being occupied right now. We are going to follow our usual protocol. Step one, we enter cautiously by checking for booby traps. Step Two, we secure the place and make sure no one is going to harm us while looking for any injured people. Step three, we start securing the evidence inside. Siya, Bhalerao and I will take lead for Step three while you secure the house and make sure no one comes inside. Let’s do this and bring them down,’ Rathod said, as the veins on his neck stood out.