“Alright, I will take your leave then,” said Avinash, saluting Erika, and turned to leave.
“On second thoughts, I will need help with these, I guess,” said Erika going back to her chair.
“I will tell Ekbote sir, and he might help you with that,” replied Avinash turning around.
“Yeah sure” said Erika, as she rung the bell. “Ekbote ji ko bulao” told Erika to the peon.
Ekbote came running to the cabin and was surprised to see Avinash there. “Jai hind madam,” saluted Ekbote.
“Ekbote ji apki madat chahiye thi” said Erika.
“Yes, madam,” replied Ekbote.
“I needed help with all these files. Unsolved homicides,” said Erika pointing towards the pile.
“And you need me for that?” asked Ekbote, gulping hard.
“Hmmm,” replied Erika, nodding in agreement.
“Ma’am, sorry to say, but the thing is that I have grown old now. I even have my retirement in the next five months. So I can’t put a strain on my eyes, you know. I… have migraine problem,” said Ekbote. “Aap…Aap hai na Avinash ko le lijiye. A very efficient officer and to work directly under you will be his privilege. Right Avinash?” added Ekbote looking at Avinash, with hope.
“I mean… I am o…
“Abhi isme puchna kya. Uski IPS mein bhi madat ho jayegi. He will join you after lunch then. Jai hind ma’am,” said Ekbote, patting Avinash on the back and pulling him out.
“But I have not come here to get busy with such paperwork,” protested Avinash as soon as they came out of the cabin.
“Please understand. I am getting old, and just the sight of that pile made me dizzy. I owe you one. Lunch is on me today,” said Ekbote.
“I am not hungry.”
“But I am. Let’s go,” said Ekbote pulling a half-convinced Avinash along with him.
After lunch, Avinash did join Erika with all the files. They managed to complete half of the pile during the office hours. But then Erika wanted to complete this work as she couldn’t stand the mystery of the letter and the cash she had received earlier today. According to the message these files were the only way to find something concrete. So Erika requested Avinash to accompany her to her house, where they could complete this task. And when an ACP invites, you don’t decline her request. So Avinash had no other choice but to accompany her to her house.
“When is the exam date, Avinash?” asked Erika, rummaging through the bunch of files on her desk, in her study.
“5th of November, ma’am,” answered Avinash.
“Oh. two months to go then huh,” said Erika
“Yes, ma’am,” said Avinash bending over his bunch of files
“By the way, what are we looking for, ma’am?” asked Avinash. Even Erika did not have an answer to this.
“Needle in a haystack, I guess,” replied Erika.
“It’s just that we have been working on it since the afternoon and gone through a million double homicide cases already. So just wondering,” said a puzzled and exhausted Avinash.
“I am going to take that figuratively, and yes, we haven’t found anything, but we are close, and I can sense that,” replied Erika, trying to cheer up Avinash.
“Okay, let’s take a break. C’mon, leave that. Let’s go," said Erika getting up from her chair and leaving the room, followed by Avinash into the garden outside.
“Beer?” asked Erika
“No ma’am, I don’t drink,” answered Avinash
“Okay, soda then. I’ll be right back,” said Erika leaving Avinash in the garden.
Erika came back with a can of beer and a glass of soda. They both sat in the chair, sipping their drinks.
“So why did you refuse the bungalow given by the government?” asked Avinash, finally breaking the silence.
“I am not after the luxury that comes with the position, Avinash. I just want to do my duty and punish the bad guys. That’s what we are all here for, right?” answered Erika sipping her beer. “Protect the innocent and convict the criminals,” she added.
“Yeah, that’s true,” said Avinash. “You are such an inspiration for me. Achieving so much at such a young age and…
“I put my father behind bars,” said Erika interrupting Avinash. “I was sixteen back then. My father was a sub-inspector at the customs office. One day he was caught…
“You don’t need to continue, ma’am,” interrupted Avinash.
“He used to bring a lot of expensive gifts every weekend. Dresses, toys, shoes, cycles. You name it, and he bought it. I used to love him for that, and he was the best dad on this planet earth,” continued Erika staring at her beer can.
“He would never let us feel like a middle-class family. He provided us with everything. We lived a luxurious life. But one night, three men arrived at our doorstep. They wanted something from my dad, and within minutes I saw one of them pushing him around and threatening him. Dad asked me to run to my room as he stood there, trying to sort the issue out. I hid under the dining table,” narrated Erika as she stood up from the chair.
“The argument escalated so much that one of them pushed my mother, and she swung and hit the table corner and went unconscious. Father ran to the bedroom and brought a few packets of a whitish powdery substance. I was naïve enough to understand then, but it was cocaine. The man took the packets and struck my father on his forehead with his gun as a parting gift, I guess,” chuckled Erika. “As soon as they left, I was so scared and did not know what to do, so I just ran out of the house and kept running until I reached the police station and asked them for help because police are your friend whenever you are in danger. The police entered the house, and saw both my parents on the ground and a torn packet of cocaine on the floor. They took in my father for questioning. But little did I know that it was the last time I was ever going to see him, as they charged him with possession of psychotropic substances. A fancy word for drugs,” said Erika, taking the last sip from her beer can.
“But that is not more than ten years of prison. Shouldn’t he be out by now?” asked Avinash
“No, Avinash. He committed suicide in the cell. Slit his wrist open with a sharpened plastic tool,” answered Erika
“Oh shit. I am so sorry,” consoled Avinash
“He could not live in the guilt, I guess. The guilt of letting down his daughter and the only woman he loved. It pricked his conscience, demolishing him from within. Mom could not take the trauma and it got the better of her and she lost her voice,” continued Erika.
There was silence for some time as Erika sipped through her third beer can, and Avinash was still completing his glass of soda.
“Okay, never mind, let’s wrap it up for the night. Let’s go in and keep all files stacked up and let’s continue tomorrow,” said Erika breaking the silence.
They both stood up, and Erika lost her balance for a few seconds. It must have been the beer, she thought. They both made their way back into the house and into her room. Milo was already in there sitting on the floor, about to doze off. Erika went up to him and started petting him to sleep. Avinash went to the desk and started to sort out the files which were scrutinized and those which were still pending. As he was doing that, he picked up a file and from the file, slid a page and fell on the floor.
Erika picked up the page and asked, “To which file does this page belong to?”
“Oh, it must be from this file, might have just slipped out” answered Avinash, handing over the file to Erika.
The file was about a homicide case dated twenty years back. It had a male suspect convicted for the murder of a female in her late 20s. Had Slit her throat open. The male started to show psychotic symptoms during his punishment period. He had gathered quite a few well-wishers during his stay at the central jail. The cell mates claim that he had gone insane during the last few years before his death in the cell. Further the report read that he used to murmur only three words during the last days in his cell “Truth Be Told.” And that he had started rema
ining in isolation.
Erika’s eyes lit as she read the phrase “Truth Be Told.” She had read this somewhere before but could not remember where she had read it, due to the alcohol effect. She closed her eyes and tried to remember hard but could not remember anything, and then suddenly, she opened her eyes and said, "The envelope!”
She ran to the kitchen and opened the drawer, and took out the envelope she had received at the doorstep earlier that day. By this time, Avinash and Milo had also reached the kitchen and were standing there confused. She took out the small piece of paper from the envelope and matched what was written on them. Both of them read “Truth Be Told”.
“This can’t be true!” exclaimed Erika looking up at Avinash with a baffled face.
“You go home now. I will see you directly at the station tomorrow. And thanks for helping me out tonight. Meant a lot,” said Erika putting the piece back into the drawer and closing the file.
“I mean sure. But are you all alright? Do you want me to stay? Because you don’t look fine” asked a concerned Avinash.
“Oh no, I will be fine. You go,” answered Erika, and opened the main door. “Thanks once again, and see you,” added Erika and closed the door on Avinash.
Erika just stood there at the door staring at the file with Milo by her legs.
Chapter 10
“Erika! Erika”
“Baba! I can hear you! Where are you!?” screamed out Erika as she was sitting on her bed. She got out of her bed and stood up. She was in a room similar to her room, with walls painted beige, a silver-coloured fan and pink curtains flying inwards due to the wind blowing, making a whistling noise. But there were no doors or windows to this room. Instead, there were just open spaces. As she was calling out to her father, she suddenly felt her feet getting wet. So she looked down and saw her feet in ankle-deep water. She tried to jump out of it but failed, because the whole place was filled with water.
“Erika! Erika!”
Hearing the shouts again, Erika started walking in the direction of the voice, splashing her way through the water. But as she was getting closer to the origin of the voice, its direction seemed to change. So she changed her direction. But to her surprise, the voice again changed the direction, this went on for quite some time, making Erika change her direction continuously and make her splash around in the whole room. Every time she changed her direction, so did the voice. Finally, Erika stopped and stood motionless, clueless about what she was doing or what was needed to be done. Suddenly she again heard her name being called out from behind, but this time the voice was a bit calmer. As she turned towards the voice, she saw a healthy man standing at the entrance of the room where the door should have been. He had chains tied to his hands and legs and was a little hunched due to the weight of heavy iron chains. He raised his hands a little and called out, “Come Erika. Come”
As soon as she saw him, she sprinted towards him and hugged him tight. “Oh, I missed you, Erika,” said the man hugging her lovingly.
“I missed you too, Baba. Every single second” replied Erika.
“I am sure you did my biscuit,” said her father. “Where is mom?” asked her father.
“She is around. I will take you to her. Let’s go,” answered Erika.
“Oh, yes, we will. But first, let’s catch up,” said the man.
“I should not have done it Baba. I was too naïve to know any better back then. Baba but now that you are here, it’s going to be fine”, said Erika in a muffled voice as she continued hugging her father.
“Yes my little biscuit, everything is in line now”, said the man tightening his grip on Erika.
“Let’s go Baba,” said Erika getting a little uncom- fortable. “It’s hurting me a little, Baba,” continued Erika.
“Yes, I know biscuit. But not as much as it hurt me all those months in prison, knowing that the reason I was behind those awful bars, was my daughter,” said her father tightening his grip furthermore.
“Staying trapped in that cell, knowing that his daughter was foolish enough to rat out her father,” he continued louder this time.
“Let me go Baba! You are hurting me,” yelled Erika in discomfort, trying to get out of the grip. “I was immature to understand the consequence of my actions, Baba. I regret that very much. Please let go of me,” continued Erika in the same discomforted tone.
“It’s too late now, my biscuit. I am sure you are as bad a cop as you were a daughter,” said her father trying to maintain the grip.
“Let go of me!!!!” screamed Erika using her full force, and suddenly woke up in her bed upright.
She sat there on her bed, panting hard and drenched in sweat. She was breathing heavily and sweat trickled down all over her face. Her scream had woken up Milo, all scared. He was standing by her side on the bed barking. Erika sat there, afraid and confused at the same time. She reached for the glass of water on the side table and gulped the whole glass within seconds. By now, it had struck her that it was just a terrible dream and nothing else. She reached out to the photo of her father on the side table. She took it and looked at it with teary eyes and said, “I miss you, baba,” kissing the photo. As she was keeping the photograph back, she saw that it was 8:30am. Reality struck her and she jumped out of her bed as she was terribly late for work.
As she jumped out of bed, she remembered everything that had happened the last night. It was a foggy memory due to the alcohol, but she did remember about Avinash and how they had found something concrete the previous night. She ran to her study at once, where she saw all the files scattered on her desk. She went closer towards the desk and found a file kept aside on the chair. She picked it up, and rummaged through. And suddenly, all the events of last night surged up and filled her up. She now wanted to reach the police station at once and get to the bottom of this.
“Avinash, Madam is calling you inside. She wants to give you a file, I guess,” said Ekbote.
Avinash became a little alert as he heard Ekbote say that. The previous evening was still fresh and was playing on a loop in his mind. He couldn’t get out the thought of how Erika had read that particular file, and her eyes had lit up. How she had ran towards the kitchen, and as soon as he reached there, Erika impulsively asked him to leave.
“Oye, Alice in wonderland! Madam bula rahi hai” said Ekbote again, snapping his fingers this time.
“Sorry, I just zoned out. Had a long night,” said Avinash getting up from his desk.
As he reached the cabin, he saw Rodriguez sitting opposite Erika, and they were discussing something.
“Avinash come in and have a seat,” said Erika. “Alright then, keep me updated on the matter, and I want daily reports on this matter,” instructed Erika to Rodriguez.
“Sure, madam. Jai Hind,” said Rodriguez leaving the cabin.
“Avinash, I need to tell you something!” said Erika leaning forward. Her voice had a sense of urgency, and her tone had completely changed compared to what it was when the inspector was around.
“You remember the homicide case file we saw last night?” asked Erika
“Yes. Frankly speaking, ma’am that’s the only thing on my mind since last night,” answered Avinash.
“Okay, so I received this note yesterday morning on my doorstep,” said Erika passing the note to Avinash. “Read the last sentence,” she added. “And after that, read the statement given by the cellmate of this prisoner.”
Avinash read the line in the note and then took the file and read the cellmate’s statement. After a minute, he stopped reading the file and again picked up the note.
“The last line on the note matches with a line in the cellmate’s statement. But what does that mean?” asked a puzzled Avinash. And he further read out, “This is a twenty years old homicide case where the convict, a 53 years old male was convicted on the charge of murder of a teenage girl”. “The crime was committed at Bardez Villa. The one that is owned by Mr. Ranvijay Shekhawat, the late celebrity lawyer. And the witnesses are Mr. Sh
ekhawat and a bunch of teenagers”.
“It’s a full-proof case, ma’am and it involves the celebrity lawyer Mr. Ranvijay. What could have gone wrong?” added Avinash.
“Yes but, I think someone is trying to draw my attention to this particular case. There is something that is being missed,” said Erika leaning back on the chair. “And I personally think something is off about this case” she added.
“But why now? It’s been twenty years now, and officially reopening the case again would just be illogical,” said Avinash.
“Yes I agree, doing it officially without any proof would be completely impossible. So we first need to gather concrete evidence supporting the fact that this case needs to be re-opened,” said Erika.
“But we don’t even know if it is a fact or not. And how and where do we even start?” asked Avinash.
“We should directly interrogate the inspector who was in charge of this case. Mr. Imran Sheikh,” said Erika reading the file. “He was the senior inspector in this police station, so finding his address would be easy,” she added pointing out to the name on the file.
“So ma’am, are you planning to go alone on this one?” asked Avinash.
“Okay, I think, Ekbote is too old to go on field trips. With only five months left for his retirement, he should take it easy. And we all know how trustworthy Rodriguez is. So that leaves you. You are accompanying me, and you already know everything about the case, so that’s easier,” said Erika snapping her lips.
“Ma’am, but I am just an amateur. Like if there is anybody it should be Rodriguez Sir,” replied Avinash completely caught off guard.
“You are going to appear for IPS shortly. This is just some on-field training which will help you later. So let’s go to Mr. Imran’s house tonight after the office hours,” said Erika.
“Okay, ma’am. Let’s do this,” said Avinash as if he didn’t have a choice in this. “Jai Hind” he said as he left the cabin.
It was an extremely busy afternoon at the police station for Avinash and Erika as she was trying to find as much updated information on Imran as possible. While Avinash was digging into the homicide file, trying to understand it completely. They had decided to meet at the back gate of the police station after the office hours.
Into The Shadows Page 6