by Sana Shetty
Raunak caught him by the scuff of his neck and almost lifted him off the floor, along with the chair. “And you know what I will do to you, if you don’t talk,” his voice was dangerous. “Remember, you are already dead.”
“Please, please. I have a family,” the man cried in terror.
“You should have thought of that before you played this game. Talk!!” he growled, putting him down roughly.
“I wasn’t present that night, I swear. But…but I overheard some things,” the man was sobbing now.
“What did you overhear?”
“Apparently, after Jay bhaiya heard the story from me, he went to meet Tarun and they got very close. He spent a lot of time there in the hotel, supposedly helping him. But I heard he was secretly recording all that was going on in that place. He had set up some surveillance cameras and is said to have hooked it up to his laptop at home. He had a load of recordings that can incriminate all of them. So far none of us have seen the kingpin. Save for a few close aides, no one knows who is running the racket, but Jay had proof. They killed him for it.”
“Where are these recordings, Prasad?”
“I don’t know. And they do not have it either, if I hear right. That is why they needed Ved Saab. They made him come back. They knew Jay had contacted him and they thought he knew what Jay had hidden and where.”
“What do you mean they made him come back?”
“They told him Tarun had disappeared. They knew that he would come back for his brother.”
“Are you saying Tarun hasn’t disappeared? Where is he?”
The man appeared surprised at the question. “Of course Tarun is in on everything. He has been at the hotel all this while.” Raunak stepped back from him as he digested what the man had just told him.
“What were you doing around the hotel grounds, Prasad? Are you still working there?” he asked after a pause.
“I just sneaked in to see if any of the guys would help me get some work.” the man sobbed. “I overheard Mrs Birajdar talking to someone. She said…something about keeping an eye on Ved Saab. She said the noose was tightening and soon Ved would lead them to the evidence. They could then go away.”
“Is she the kingpin? The boss? Talk!!”
“I don’t know. She runs the show at the hotel but I think there is someone else. Because….because she also said something about the boss getting impatient.”
“Tell me Prasad, if the boss has been in and out of the Heritage how is it none of you guys have seen him? How is it you don’t know who it is?”
“When the boss comes down we are told to keep away. Only a handful can interact with him. On other occasions we are given orders by Mrs Birajdar that we have to carry out, that’s it. People fear her.”
Raunak whirled around and looked into the far shadows where Nagral stood with his back against the wall, watching them. He moved away from the shadows and came towards them.
The man continued to talk. “Mrs Birajdar was telling her men today keep an eye on Ved as she was sure they could press him to find what Jay had hidden. She said that he would get desperate soon, because everyone he knew was dying and that would force his hand.”
Raunak focussed on the guy again. “And what are they planning to do then?”
“They don’t want to kill him. She said the boss wanted him alive. She was saying something about making the Birajdar’s pay for their sins.”
Raunak frowned, “Pay for their sins?”
The man looked at him, pleadingly. “That is what she said. That is all I know.”
***** As Misha and Namita made their way through the underground passage, Misha was overcome with a wave of nostalgia. When they had run around here as kids, she had never imagined that life would come around to this. Jay, Vedant and she had numerous adventures here and now there were only memories. She blinked away the tears. She wondered what Raunak would say if he was with her. He would probably disapprove of this whole adventure, not wanting to involve her. In fact, Namita had been reluctant to let her come. Misha had pressed her advantage of knowing her way around the Heritage and she had given in.
“You okay?” Namita whispered behind her. She was sounding a little awed their surroundings as she said, “This is cool. I never imagined that one day I would be going through one of those tunnels that I had read about in history books.”
“Yes, isn’t it cool?! Who would have thought that a secret passage, made hundreds of years ago for the people to escape from their enemies would be helping us get into the palace?”
“I still don’t think this is a good idea, though. I somehow feel like a rodent walking right into a trap.”
Misha smiled at the picture it conjured up for her. As they reached the other end, she stopped and looked up, shining her flashlight in front of her. The tunnel sloped upward and was narrower on the top. The years had added some more dirt and mud, making the tunnel narrower. She hadn’t thought this through. As children it had been quite easy to slide in and out of that hole. Could they do it now? But on the other hand if Vedant and Jay had been able to do it, maybe they could too.
“Stand back let me try first,” Namita whispered.
“There is a handle somewhere on the right edge. Take hold of it and push upward,” Misha told her.
“Okay. Here, hold this while I try.” She pushed her gun in Misha’s hand.
Namita carefully lay on her back and pushed herself upwards, till she reached the edge of the tunnel. “Give me some light here,” she whispered and Misha shone her torch there. They could just see the outline of the trap door. Namita felt around and her fingers found the handle. The trap door was totally rusted from the inside and Misha hoped it would open without a sound. They couldn’t afford to make too much noise.
“Here goes,” Namita whispered and pushed the trap door. At first it did not budge, then it opened with a soft thud and Namita heaved at it, opening it completely. Misha gave a sigh of relief.
They crawled out into a dark room and slid back the trap door, squeezing themselves out from behind the cupboard.
“Put out the flashlight,” Namita whispered. “We don’t want to attract attention to ourselves.”
They waited till their eyes had adjusted to the darkness and then carefully moved towards the door with Misha leading the way. Just as she was about to push open the door, the room was flooded with light and they turned around to see three men standing there, with guns pointed at them.
“Shucks!! Right into a trap,” Namita muttered.
“Put down that gun and move back,” the man in the middle instructed.
Namita bent down to place the gun on the floor and moved back. The man came forward cautiously, keeping his eyes on them. When he had pocketed her gun, he waved his own gun, telling them to turn around and move ahead. As they were marched forward and out of the room, Namita asked in an undertone, “You sure, you know the way around here?”
“Sort of. But it has been a long time since I came here,” Misha whispered back.
“Alright, follow my cue and when the opportunity presents itself lead the way.”
Misha stared at her and Namita winked back.
“Will you two stop whispering,” the man behind her ordered gruffly.
They were walking down a long carpeted corridor. Misha knew this led into the foyer and up the stairs to the rooms above them and to the front entrance. Glass and ceramic vases lined the corridor, mounted on small decorative tables and the walls looked freshly painted. They passed the shut kitchen door and in another ten steps the corridor turned a sharp left.
“I was just telling her, she was stupid to have led me here,” Namita said, feigning irritation. “If she had listened to me, we would have been asleep in our beds now.”
“How dare you call me stupid? You wimp! I did not force you here with me, did I? I could have handled this myself.” Misha retorted.
“Yeah like you are doing now,” Namita mocked.
“Shut up! How dare you…?” Misha stopp
ed walking suddenly and the guy behind them almost walked into them. In a flash, Namita had delivered a neat upper cut to his jaw and swept his feet from under him, to bring him crashing down. The two other men, who had been walking a little behind them, came rushing forward to help their friend. Without thinking, Misha picked up a ceramic vase from the table next to her and brought it crashing down on the head of the guy to her right. At the same time, Namita had tackled the other guy. She then turned to the man stunned by Misha and delivered a side kick in one fluid motion, sending him crashing into the wall.
They looked at the men lying at their feet and Misha breathed a “wow.”
“Not bad, huh?” Namita grinned at her.
“Yeah, not bad at all. You can really kick ass,” Misha said in awe.
“Did I tell you I was a martial arts instructor at the academy?” she asked, as she quickly rifled through the guys pockets and retrieved her gun. She picked up another and offered it to Misha. “You will need this.”
Misha looked at it sceptically, “I don’t know how to use that.”
“Oh, it’s easy. You just cock the hammer and shoot.” She demonstrated and then handed it to Misha. “Aim at the torso, you cannot miss and it will be enough to stop the guy coming for you.” She was already moving forward. “Come on lead the way.”
“Where do you want to start?” Misha asked.
“How about the house?”
“Okay but for that we have to cross the foyer, get out the front and go from the right side towards the back. We will have to cut through the ruins, if we don’t want to take the risk of getting caught. The grounds are fairly well lit at night so we may be spotted by someone watching from the hotel windows.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
They crept through the corridor and out into the foyer. The lights were dimmed here and they kept to the shadows. The going was slow but they succeeded in reaching the entrance to the foyer without running into anyone. Just as Misha was about to push open the glass door, she spotted someone walking towards them, his head bent over a sheet of paper in his hands.
“Wait! Get back quick! Someone is coming this way,” Misha whispered. They quickly retraced their steps into main foyer and ducked behind the reception counter. A minute later, the man stepped through the door and switched on the lights. He was wearing tan coloured cotton trousers and a white shirt. As he turned toward them, Misha gasped in surprised and called out loudly, “Tarun?!”
The man jumped at hearing his name and turned around to look at her. Tarun was tall like his brother, well-built and had the same eyes and nose. Instead of Vedant’s curly mop though, he had straight hair which he wore combed to one side and half of it fell onto his forehead, making him look boyish. He stared at her, as if seeing a ghost, his face ashen. Misha ran towards him, “It is really you! Oh God! We were sure something had happened to you too.”
Tarun’s look of surprise had been replaced with one of delight as he stepped forward and hugged her. “Misha!! I thought I was hallucinating.” He then put her away from him and looked down at her frowning, as if just realising she wasn’t supposed to be there, “What are you doing here? Are you alone? Is Ved….?” He stopped as he spotted Namita. She was standing with her gun pointed at him, warily watching them.
“Miss Patil,” Tarun whispered.
“You know me?” Namita asked, narrowing her eyes as she cocked her head to one side.
“Yes.”
“How?” She asked still holding the gun in his direction.
Tarun threw a quick, nervous glance around and then answered, “Please, can we not do this here. Someone might see us.” They stared at one another, he pleadingly and she sceptically.
“It’s alright. We can trust him. He is Ved’s brother, Tarun.” Misha said.
“Misha you don’t…” Namita began, when Tarun put his hands up to show he was unarmed and pleaded, “Please, I can explain.”
“And it better be good,” Namita ground out as she lowered the gun.
Tarun pushed back the hair from his face, nervously. “Let’s get out of here.”
Namita and Misha followed Tarun as he quickly switched off all the lights and led them towards his office. “Stay with me,” Namita hissed to Misha.
₪ ₪ ₪
Chapter 13
Nagral walked up to the first floor of the hospital and spotted Mrs Goud sitting outside the ICU as usual. She was not alone though. A small boy of about eight or nine sat next to her talking to her in sign language. As Nagral approached them, she said, “Hi, Nagral, meet Krishna Bhatt. He has something to show you.”
Surprised, he looked from her to the boy. “What does he want to show me?”
“Shall we go somewhere more private?” she asked and then turned to the boy and said, “Krish, you can trust this policeman. He will listen to you.”
***** Raunak crossed the woods as fast as he could. Nagral and he had discussed their next move and both had agreed that it was time to search the hotel. They needed to pick up Tarun before Vedant came to any harm. But they needed men and both knew they couldn’t trust the guys from the police station. Nagral told him some of his own men, about ten of them were in and around the hospital, undercover. But he would need time to gather them. Just then Raunak’s phone had beeped. It was Namita.
“Shit!!” Raunak cursed.
“What is the matter?” Nagral asked him.
“Time is something, we don’t have,” Raunak told Nagral grimly,
as he showed him the message. “We have to move now.” After much discussion, Nagral decided to go to the village to gather his men. Raunak wanted to proceed to the hotel immediately. He couldn’t let Misha and Namita go there alone.
“Alright, go,” Nagral told him. “But promise me, not to do anything foolish till I reach there.” So here he was, racing through the woods to reach the hotel. At the edge of the woods he stopped and slipping out the gun from his hip, held it in front. Carefully, he stepped through the undergrowth to the narrow mud lane between the woods and the hotel. He had done a recce of the hotel before and knew there were two guys at the back gate. Two was a good enough number, he thought. He could tackle two if it came to that.
His phone vibrated. Keeping his eyes glued to the gate, he fished out the phone and quickly peeked at the message. It was from Nagral.
Things just got more complicated. I think Vedant Birajdar is headed there too. Tell you when I see you. What is your position? Find the girls yet?
Raunak texted back. Not yet. Going in through the back gate now.
Keeping low, he moved forward. On reaching the gate, he crouched behind a bush and waited. He knew from his earlier stakeouts here that the two guys stationed at this gate, were not always very alert. And sure enough, he saw them standing a little away, their backs to the gate. They were engrossed in looking at something on their mobile. Thank God for mobiles, Raunak thought to himself, smiling. He sneaked closer to the gate, waited a few more seconds and slipped in. As he had expected, neither of the guards looked up. Keeping to the shadows, he went further into the grounds, being careful to watch his step. He did not want to announce his arrival yet.
As he skirted the house and the garden, he looked up at the house. It was in total darkness. No one appeared to be around. He moved away from it towards the hotel, keeping an eye out for the men. There were at least a dozen of them moving around and he couldn’t afford to get caught. He stopped to catch a breath and decide his next move. There was no sign of Namita and Misha. He had never been through the tunnel that Misha and Vedant had talked about but he knew it opened into the storage room and the storage room was near the kitchen. That was where he would have to head.
If he cut straight across the ground, he was sure to be spotted even in the dim light. On his left, he could see the hotel and on his right were the ruins. His gaze swept through the ruins. In the darkness, it had an ominous look about it. He had seen it as a child when he used to come over with the rest of the village kid
s to play. They had never been allowed to explore the ruins, but now it looked like his best chance was through there. He only hoped the stories they had heard, of poisonous snakes and spiders, weren’t true.
***** Once inside his office, Tarun turned to Misha and said, pleadingly. “Misha as you can see I am alive and well. So will you let this go? Will you just walk away and forget that you have seen me here? Miss Patil will handle it.”
“Are you out of your freaking mind!!?” Misha said angrily. “Did you really just ask me to walk away?! After all that has happened? Do you know how many people are dead? Do you know Jay is dead?”
“Oh he does, don’t you, Tarun?!” Vedant’s voice had them all whirling around to look at him. He was standing at the door and looking at Tarun, his face drawn and tired. “Or do you intend to deny any knowledge? Or maybe better still, you are going to kill us all, just like the rest of them for asking questions.”
The colour drained from Tarun face when he saw Vedant and he sputtered, “What…what the hell are you saying Ved? You know it is not true. I have been so worried about you all…..” he moved towards him but Vedant stepped back from him in revulsion, “Don’t! Don’t pretend like you are happy to see us.”
Misha looked from one to the other, “Ved?! What the hell are you talking about? Of course he is happy to see us,”
“Will you tell her or should I??” Vedant ignored her and continued to talk to Tarun. “She deserves to know, Tarun.”
Misha looked back at Tarun, “What is he talking about?”
Tarun looked away from them and sank down into a chair. “I didn’t want to do it, Misha. I really didn’t! He was like a brother to me too. I loved you kids, you know that.”
Misha’s mind went numb with shock as what he was saying sunk in and she shook her head despairingly. “Please tell me you aren’t saying what I think you are saying. Please tell me this is not true.” Her voice had started to tremble but she couldn’t help it.
“It is true, Misha. It is true!! He was the one that lured Jay back after he escaped from here by telling him he was in danger and that he should return.” Vedant stared at Tarun accusingly. “He is the one that killed Jay!”