by Sana Shetty
“Then what did Jay mean when he talked of the ghost in the dungeons? And these number, 3.19.3.35, must mean something.”
“Doesn’t make sense does it? None of it makes any sense.”
“Ved did say the eagle motif looked familiar. Maybe it is in the hotel somewhere.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
***** Meanwhile……
Having run away from Misha’s house, Vedant had bolted the door from outside, put the gun down on the porch and headed blindly out into the woods. Hiding behind the trees, he watched as Namita came running after him. She appeared furious. She called out his name, pleading for him to come out so they could talk. He stayed hidden, slipping behind bushes and trees as she searched. Finally she gave up and headed back to the house.
When he was sure she had gone, he flopped down on the ground to catch his breath, wondering if he had done the right thing. He could wait it out in the woods till dark and then sneak into the hotel to find answers or he could go back to the house and let Namita decide their next move. He realised he had acted rashly. Now Misha would think he was guilty. And Namita, he still wasn’t sure if he could trust her. He remembered the intruder, who had broken into the house earlier. Namita had said he was a cop. His gut feeling was Namita was not one of those cops. She was here to investigate the death of her fiancé. She wanted closure too. Shit!! What a mess! He wasn’t doing anything right these days.
He thought of Jay and of how lonely he must have been in those last days. He knew now how he must have felt. Jay had stumbled upon something. Something big enough to have got him killed. He hadn’t been able to trust or reveal it to anyone around him. He leaned against the trunk of a tree, his eyes far away. The only person he had reached out to was him and he hadn’t been there for him. He thought of Jay’s last message. He had said to let Krishna guide him. He hadn’t been able to figure that one out. If he had meant the Bhagvad Gita, why did he talk about listening to the silent voice? So far he knew only one silent voice. That eight year old son of the priest. Son of a bitch! Is that what Jay had meant? Vedant sat up straight, his mind racing. The boy had deliberately sought him out. Also, Jay had left him that photograph so that the boy could identify him. Every time he had met the boy, he had tried to tell him something. He had tried to get him to go with him. That had to be it! That kid knew something and he was willing to bet the boy’s name was Krishna. His heart thudding furiously, he got off the ground dusted himself and started towards the temple as fast as he could.
***** Back at the house, Misha and Namita poured over the book, going over messages after messages. The two verses that Jay had marked still meant nothing significant. He had made some scribbling and then cut it out as if he had been trying to say something but wasn’t satisfied.
“This is a waste of time,” Misha stood up frustrated. Her head was aching from staring at the pages and she was also worried about Vedant being out there alone. She wondered where he was. It scared her to think of what would happen if he went back to the hotel. She desperately missed Raunak, too. If she could only talk to him. These doubts that had cropped up again after talking to Ishan were driving her crazy. There was something that was not right. Something she was missing, she thought.
“Why don’t you take a break? And I will tell you if I come up with something,” Namita said sympathetically.
“Alright,” she sighed. “I have to call the hospital anyway and I am famished as well. Let’s see if I can rustle something up.”
She called Mrs Goud and spoke to her, feeling a little guilty. She hadn’t gone to the hospital the whole day. Mrs Goud assured her it was okay. “They are not letting us see him, anyway. So you do what you have to, dear.” She reassured her. Promising to be there in the morning, she put away the phone and was just about to go to the kitchen to look for food, when her eyes fell on the photograph that Vedant had found in Tarun’s room. She picked it up staring at Namita’s smiling face.
Why did Tarun have that photograph? Did that mean he had known Hriday was an undercover police officer? Was someone blackmailing him about his death, threatening to expose Jay and Vedant? Namita was convinced that was it. It definitely explained why Jay never approached the police and instead reached out to Vedant. That could also be the reason Jay was spending so much time in the hotel in the off-season. Jay had also said that Tarun was in trouble and Vedant did find those drugs order forms. What was the name Vedant had mentioned? Venkatesh Raut? That’s it, she thought, her heart racing. She turned around to go find Namita, just as Namita came bounding down the stairs in excitement.
“I think I found something!!” they both chorused together.
“Wait…what did you find?” Namita asked just as Misha said, “You did?”
“Okay, slow down. You go first,” Namita said, putting down the book in her hands and sitting down on the couch.
“When Ved went back to the hotel yesterday, he said he had found some order forms signed by Pankaj. He also said it mentioned Tarun and one other name. A Venkatesh Raut.”
“Venkatesh Raut?” Namita jerked in surprise.
“You know who he is?” Misha asked.
“Yes, but go on. What were you saying?”
“When I first heard this name, I thought it was familiar but I did not know where I had heard it.”
“And where did you hear it?”
“Ishan father’s full name was Adinath Venkatesh Raut,” Misha announced triumphantly. “It means Ishan’s grandfather’s name is Venkatesh Raut.”
“Ishan’s grandfather?”
“Yes.”
Namita stared at Misha unseeingly. Misha could almost see her brain working on overdrive and she waited impatiently.
“Namita?”
Namita focussed on her and frowned. “Remember, I told you Hriday and his men were investigating someone, some big businessman on whose trail Hriday came to Tamara?”
Misha nodded and Namita continued, “Venkatesh Raut is the name of the person that he was investigating.”
“Does that mean…?”
“Wait, before you jump to conclusions. There was something odd though about the man. No one had heard from him or liaised with him directly. He was like some ghost. When I took up this case, we investigated him. We found that he was a petty criminal, who lived in the city and then suddenly around ten or so years ago he disappeared without a trace. He apparently had no family that the police know of.”
“But he did. I mean if he is the same guy then maybe he came here, to the village,” Misha said.
“Could be. But then, if he was the rich guy he was supposed to be and he came here to the village, why are Amma and Ishan living in such abject poverty? And why doesn’t anyone know of his existence. This village is too small for him to hide.”
Misha sank down on the couch and looked at Namita, “So it means either he isn’t the same guy or ….?”
“The name is fictitious.” Namita said. “But I don’t think it is a coincidence that someone from this village is using his name. Maybe Ishan knows more than he let on.”
“But Ishan is too gentle and naïve, to be involved in any wrongdoing. We have known him all our life.” Misha said emphatically. They stared at each other and Misha felt a little deflated. “Another dead end,” she said slumping on the couch.
“I think it is a lead worth following. I have a feeling it is you who is naïve enough to believe, everyone around you is innocent. Someone is holding the reins of a multi-million scam and I am willing to bet many of those who you believe to be the good guys, aren’t so good.”
Misha remembered Namita had said she had found something too. “You said you found something?”
“Hmm…Yes. See this?” she opened the book to the page with the marking Jay had made of the passages.
“Haven’t we already seen this? Those are just translations.”
“No, not that. Look at the scribbling he has done and then cut out.”
“Hmm… can’t read those so well…: she pee
red at it.
“I have managed to read what he had written and cut out by looking at the impressions on the subsequent pages and here it is.” She put a sheet of paper in front of Misha.
It read, ‘Duty without attachments? How do I betray those that stood by me? I don’t know who to turn to. Ved?? Higher good? Will it achieve higher good by betraying Tarun?’
Misha looked up at Namita, “What is he talking about?”
“He had written this after he had marked the first paragraph. He was probably struggling with himself about exposing Tarun’s involvement in whatever was happening at the Heritage. He mentions Tarun by name here. Now read the next one.”
‘I don’t know if I am doing a duty or if standing against your own people, is the right thing. But Ved, you need to know. You need to know the truth. If only….’
“He probably decided to contact Ved after this. He was so burdened by the knowledge that he wrote down his musings.” Namita said.
“But why did he cut it off?”
“Maybe he was afraid of someone else reading it. Remember, he did not want to expose Tarun. He was feeling guilty about it. It vindicates my theory that Tarun probably got involved after Jay and Ved’s little adventure. He talks about betraying someone who stood by him.”
“Does this mean Tarun was …” Misha shook her head. “No. It cannot be. And yet…” she trailed off, not wanting to put into words what she was thinking.
“And yet what, Misha?”
“I was thinking. You said Tarun was the last one to call Jay and he told him that his life was in danger. Do you think they killed Jay and Tarun that day? Or if Tarun was involved with the drug mafia was he responsible for Jay’s death.”
“I think there is one way to find out. We have to find out what happened to Tarun and what that symbol of the eagle and the ghost of the dungeon means. We need to find a way into that hotel.”
₪ ₪ ₪
Chapter 12
When Vedant reached the temple it was already dark. He stood at the foot of the stairs, looking up at the temple. The temple was lit with a lot of Diyas and there was the sound of bells ringing and people singing hymns. He started to climb the stairs going up into the sanctum. A crowd of about twenty-five to thirty people stood with folded hands, as the priest performed the aarti and the tempo of the singing rose and fell in rhythm. Vedant stood behind the crowd, looking around to see if he could spot the small boy.
As the tempo of the singing died down and the temple priest came out of the sanctum with the lighted aarti, people started to surge forward towards him. That was when Vedant saw him. He was trying to wriggle out from the pressing crowd. When he had freed himself, he looked around and spotted Vedant and a huge grin spread across his face. He ran towards him and threw himself into his arms, genuinely pleased to see him. Vedant picked him up and hugged him, touched by his greeting. He could see why Jay may have been drawn to this boy.
“I need to talk to you,” Vedant whispered in his ear. The boy looked at him and then freed himself from his arms. He tugged at Vedant’s shirt urging him to follow him. Vedant went willingly this time. The boy was leading him away from the temple towards the back. It was darker here, with the lamps few and far in-between. Vedant could just see the outline of a stone structure in front of them.
The boy removed a black thread from around his neck and Vedant could see a silver key dangling at the end. He inserted the key into the lock on the door and opened it. As they stepped inside, Vedant realised that it was some sort of a store room for puja materials. There were shelves full of aromatic materials that made the inside of the storeroom smell heavenly. The boy walked over to the other end of the storeroom and Vedant followed. There were rows and rows of all sorts of puja materials such as incense sticks, copper bells and plates, bales of cotton, oil cans and such, kept it no particular order. He wondered how the priest found anything here at all. The boy deftly climbed on one of the shelf, at the far end and reaching up brought out something wrapped in cloth. Vedant moved forward and helped him down and the boy triumphantly held it up to him. Vedant watched as the boy uncovered a laptop.
“Whose is that?” Vedant asked, but he already knew the answer. The boy started to make signs with his fingers and then as if realising Vedant did not understand him, ran to one of the shelves. He came back with a pencil and a writing pad. Together they sat down on the floor. The boy wrote Jay’s name on the pad and held it up and Vedant nodded.
“What is your name?”
The boy wrote ‘Krish’ in bold letters.
“You are Jay’s Krishna.” So he had been right. Jay was talking of
a real life Krishna. The boy grinned up at him, relieved that they could communicate. “Alright Krish, do you know what happened to Jay?” he asked gently. “Why do you have Jay’s laptop?”
He gave it to me for safekeeping.
The boy started the laptop and signalled for him to look, as his small hands flew over the keys. Vedant was amazed at the ease and the expertise with which the boy used it. Obviously he was quite adept at it.
“Who taught you to use this?”
Jay dada.
Of course! He watched as the boy keyed in some password. He scrolled the computer and clicked open a folder. He used another password to open it. Vedant now knew why Jay had chosen this little mute boy to keep his secrets. He was smart and it was quite unlikely that anyone would think of looking at him for answers. He had opened a video file and Jay’s face came into focus.
“Hi Ved. If you are watching this, you have met Krish, our Krishna. I don’t have time. I have to go back. Tarun is in danger, so I will get right to the point. What I am about to say and what you are about to see may not be what you want to hear. But I have no choice. I needed proof, before I could tell you anything. So here it is.
Two years ago, I came face to face with the guy that we had supposedly killed. Yes, that guy is alive, very much alive. After all the trouble we went through…anyway, I gave him a good hiding and what he told me blew my mind….”
And as Vedant continued to hear what he was saying it was blowing his mind.
***** Meanwhile some distance away…
Raunak kicked the legs of the chair and it toppled over. The guy tied to the chair cried out in pain as his head, hit the floor hard. They were in a small shack in the woods, behind the hotel. Only one small bulb burned overhead, throwing a menacing shadow over Raunak’s face, as he bent over the man on the floor. “You will be in a lot more pain than that if you don’t start talking soon.” He growled.
“Please…please…believe me. That is all I know. They asked me to pretend I was dead. They wanted Ved Saab and Jay Bhaiya to believe they had killed me. I am sorry sir, I was in need of money so I agreed, please believe me sir. I know nothing else.” The man tried to cringe away from him.
Raunak snapped his fingers and a burly man standing behind him came forward and straightened the chair, roughly jostling him as he did it. The man whimpered and watched Raunak, pacing in front of him, warily.
“And who were ‘They’?” Raunak asked.
“The men who hired me also worked at the Heritage. I don’t know who their leader is.”
Raunak cracked his knuckles menacingly in front of his face. “Tell me everything about that night.”
“I…I was supposed to pick a fight with Ved Saab and Jay Bhaiya on any pretext. I followed them for the better part that night. They were in high spirits and a little drunk. I followed them from the riverside to the pub. There I purposely picked a fight and in the melee, Jay bhaiya hit me on the back with a chair and I pretended to collapse. The men then took over. The owner of the pub, Vishal, convinced Jay and Ved to run, telling them they had killed me. Once they were gone, they brought in this other guy. I had overheard them saying he was some undercover policeman. I was scared. If the police ever traced this mess to me, I would be dead meat. I wanted to be safe. So unknown to them, I recorded the whole thing on my phone. Later that night, when
Tarun Saab came in with Dinkar, the men told them that Jay and Ved had killed a police officer. But they assured him no one would know and they would take care of it. They then told me, I would have to disappear. If I was ever spotted in the village again, they would kill me. So I took my money and I went back to my village.” he paused as Raunak moved menacingly forward.
“And?? Keep talking.”
“And…and… I stayed in my village for a long time. But the money they gave me was soon over and I needed work. So about …. about two years ago, I…I… got a small job at the market, in the next village…” The man was sobbing now.
“Keep going?”
“Jay Bhaiya…he….he had come there for some trade and saw me. I tried to run away but …he….he caught me and beat me up. I told him everything. I showed him the recording that I had made that day. Jay Bhaiya asked me to keep the recording safe and warned me I would have to come when he called me…otherwise he would come looking for me at my village and tell my family. I agreed.” “And where is the recording?”
“It is safe in my village. I can give it to you,” the man offered hopefully.
Raunak turned around and walked to a small desk at one corner of the room. Flipping through a file, he pulled out a photograph of Hriday and thrust it in front of the guy’s face, “Was it this guy? The dead man?”
The man cowered in his chair, timidly, as he looked at it. “I…I don’t know sir…” he began and then looked at Raunak’s menacing face and cowered again. “I...I think so….I don’t remember so well. Please…it was eight years ago. But I have the recording,” he whined.
“What do you know about what happened to Jay?” Raunak let it drop, changing the question.
The man nervously ran his tongue over his parched lips. He looked at Raunak pleadingly and whispered, “They will kill me, if they know I talked. Please…”