11 Hours

by Daniel Paul Singh

  After one hour, we had crossed about 150 KMs and were speeding towards Chennai, when Prabhu interrupted me with his finding.

  “Yes Prabhu” I said as I was focusing on the roads.

  “This guy has ‘peppermintpriya_92” as his password, whatever that means!!” he laughed.

  “Should have been his ex” I laughed along with him.

  Prabhu logged into Raj’s Gmail and was going through the mails.

  “Don’t read one by one, just search for Ganpath” I ordered.

  “Okay officer” he mimicked me and searched for Ganpath, but couldn’t find any.

  “No match for Ganpath, any other names?”

  “Try Brindha or may be even Darshan.”

  He then searched for Darshan and saw one mail from LinkedIn.

  “Looks like Darshan and Raj may be connected.” He said and opened the linkedIn page to see Darshan’s profile. There was no photo in his profile though.

  “What does this guy do?”

  “He is a diamond merchant. He has his own family business and he lives in Ashok Pillar”

  “Could he be the LOSER?” I asked.

  “How do I know? All we know is his car was used to kidnap Brindha. His car could be stolen, Raj could have used that car without his knowledge“

  “Check for his mobile number or contact details or email ID, something… we need it”

  “Yes” saying Prabhu searched for it, but couldn’t find any personal information. I was showing all my anger on the accelerator, when I received that call from the LOSER.

  “What the heck are you doing now?” he screamed from the other end.

  Shit! was he tracing Prabhu’s phone as well ? I felt like I was dead. But didn’t want to show it to him and uttered.

  “We, we are returning to Chennai now. We met Brindha’s parents. She is in Chennai. We will find her before 11 am and hand her over to you. That’s all, that’s the plan” I said.

  “I know what you have done and what you are trying to do, Mr. Rob. I told you, you have been bugged and are being watched.” He said angrily.

  “No believe me, this is the truth. We are just trying to come to Chennai and will reach there soon and find Brindha. That’s the plan. That’s what you wanted, right?”

  “You will never be able to find her”

  “What? We have her number. Her dad gave. She didn’t pick though. We are tracing it and will find her in a short while.”

  “Cut the crap, she is already dead” he said in a calm tone.

  “Who? How?”

  “Brindha, I killed her in my very own hands” he said and laughed hysterically.

  ₪ ₪ ₪

  Chapter 21

  A Broken Promise “Why did you do kill Brindha? Why did you? Why the fuck would you?” I hit the steering hard. I shouted, screamed, shrieked, cried.

  Prabhu was shocked and couldn’t move an inch.

  “Why are you crying like a baby now?” the LOSER asked.

  “I will find Brindha and you will let go off my wife that was the deal. I agreed for it - why did you break the deal”

  “Why did you post that photo in FB? Are you trying to act smart?” he said.

  Prabhu got alerted. He realized that the LOSER had to be Raj.

  “Raj, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to” I said.

  “Call me LOSER” he corrected.

  “What do you want now?”

  “Where do you want me to bury your wife?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

  “Nooooooooooo. No! Don’t touch her. Why would you? Please Raj, I beg you. I will do anything you ask for”

  “I loved Brindha, but she didn’t love me back. She kept comparing me with you. She told I wasn’t good enough for her. She compared MEEE with a good for nothing you. I had to kill her.” He told an eerily similar story I wasn’t aware of.

  “Then why did you kidnap my wife”

  “Don’t you have to know how it is to lose your loved one? And how it is to kill them by your own hands?”

  “I will never kill her” I warned him.

  “But I can kill her while you watch, come soon my boy. My systems say you would reach Chennai in two and half hours. Reach Tambaram and give me a call” he was unconvincingly arrogant and cut the call.

  I cried. I wanted my wife to live. He could kill me but not her. “I don’t want you to die. I want you to suffer. I want you to know how it feels if your loved one dies” I was reminded of his words. I couldn’t concentrate on the road. Prabhu offered to drive and I took the other seat. Sleeplessness, weariness, pain, suffocation were burning me down. Prabhu found it hard to console me. He knew that things had gone beyond our control and that we had to find Raj somehow before we could reach Chennai.

  After about half an hour, Prabhu got a call from Professor Vimal Kumar. He put the call on speaker.

  “Hello sir, tell me” he started.

  “Prabhu, I have managed to find the location to which, the signals from your friend’s ‘Thought Detector’ are being sent without a glitch. Whoever had designed this has to be a genius bitch. He has used frequencies in pico-meter to send the signal relay and it was difficult for me to trace, hence the delay. And I also slept for sometime as in my bed I lay”

  “I think it’s the perfect time sir. Can you send me the co-ordinates of the location?”

  “I have sent already. Check your phone when you are ready” saying he ended the call. Prabhu checked in his phone for the location and it pointed to a place near West Mambalam in Chennai.

  “Rob, have a closer look at this place, where it leads”

  “It shows that it’s near Public Health centre on Lake View road. Guess should be behind that building, somewhere.”

  “It’s the building next to Sangeetha Fancy Store. I think I know it. It’s a warehouse, painted in khakhi. It stays completely irrelevant to the surroundings” he said.

  “So, the kidnapper is located in this building?”

  “That’s what the professor says”

  “Can we trust him? He and his rhyming sentences!”

  “He is obsessed with rhymes son, but a better scientist I know none” Prabhu said.

  “Dude, stop the crap”

  “Habitual impacts of listening to him” Prabhu giggled.

  “Duh. So Ganpath is not the Loser, but Raj is and he has already killed Brindha. Should he be a serial killer kidnapping and killing women?”

  “May be he loved Brindha, but she didn’t reciprocate and killed her, but why kidnap Diana?”

  “Is he kidnapping happily married couples and killing off the wives? Could he be such an obsessive maniac with desire for blood of loving wives, because he didn’t get his loved one?”

  “But Diana?”

  “Diana was working with him. I have visited her office, he could have seen me. He could have seen that we are a happy couple. Wait, I remember it all now, this guy had once asked Diana if she would marry him, it had happened long before our wedding. Shit, he is that guy. Diana had politely rejected and remained friends with him. She told me about this. How could I forget? He has loved Brindha who chose someone else over him and has loved Diana, who also chose someone over him. I was the one involved with both the women and he is making me suffer for it. Damn. It all falls in place now Prabhu.” I told him my conclusions.

  “He loved Brindha too? Is he also from Trichy?”

  “Could be, or from Chennai for all reasons, and worked in VCS. Brindha could have been his ex. team mate or for that matter he could have known her through some other means, friends or friends of friends or family or something man.”

  “Makes some sense. Is that guy your shadow? Closely following you and the women in your life?”

  “How would I know, Prabhu? Listen, its 8.30 AM now. We have 2.5 hours in our hand. Two hours to Chennai - find him, finish him and save Diana. Right on the clock, right on the money” I said.

  “If my guess is right, he might not wait for us. He might not wait until 11 am. We hav
e to reach well ahead of that before he could do anything to Diana” He insisted.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because, we have pissed off him. He knows that we have found him. He knows that we are approaching. He will do anything now”

  “But he told he will wait for my arrival and kill her only in my presence”

  “What if I have already asked him to kill her?”

  “Prabhu!” I screamed and choked him.

  “Rob sorry, bad joke, bad timing. It’s a joke. Take your hands off me. I am driving, you will get us both killed” he shrieked.

  “This is no joke. Tell me, are you involved in this. Tell me now Prabhu. Don’t play with me. What did I do to you for you to do this to me? How are you and Raj related? I should have known it with you knowing every move of that Raj”

  “Rob, I am sorry. It was really a bad joke at a very bad time. I am sorry. I have zero involvement in this entire saga. I have no clue who that Raj is” He pleaded folding his hands.

  “Hands on the steering” I said. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him. Was it just a joke? Was he the one following me all the while? What gain would he have in killing my wife?

  “Rob, it was a gag. Okay. Stop imagining things and stop giving me that look. I thought my joke would ease the situation…I failed. I agree and apologize. Forgive me please. Now Listen. Listen carefully. The real reason why I said so was because the Loser was the one who asked you to find Brindha and then killed her before you could get close to her. He is now asking us to come to him in two hours, he could do anything to Diana.” Prabhu told in a serious tone.

  “Prabhu, I will never forgive you if you are involved in this”

  “Kill me if I am involved, okay? But trust me now. I didn’t realize what I was saying. And I am the only person who you can trust now” he insisted.

  I didn’t have a choice but to believe him. Also what he said made sense. The Loser was capable of it. He could very well kill Diana. We had to make it to his place as soon as possible. I just wished Prabhu didn’t have a hand in it. I wondered what state Diana was in. She should have cried all night. I wondered whether she would have had anything to eat, where she was, how she was treated by him.

  “Who am I to you? Your wife, your love or your best friend?” she asked me once.

  “A Kid. You will always be my kid first and then the rest of everything you said” I replied. She had always been a kid to me. All my life. I agreed to the LOSER’s deal hoping he wouldn’t harm my wife and that I could somehow save her. I didn’t want my eleven hour turmoil to end in vain. I had to definitely save her. She would have hoped all night that I would come and find her.

  Nothing looked more important at that moment than to save my kid, not even Brindha’s death hurt me. I hoped Prabhu wasn’t involved. From the thought detector to Brindha, to trichy, to the accident, he was always by my side. The thought detector shouldn’t have been of much use to Loser, thanks to Prabhu. How much have I endured in a single night - my wife, my friend, my life. I wished it was only a joke from Prabhu. I wanted the Loser Raj to wait for my arrival and not do anything silly beforehand. I fervently wished he would not do anything stupid. It ached. I suffered. I was upset. The fatigue was too much and before I could realize, I had fainted.

  A sprinkle of water sprayed on my face woke me up. I could see someone trying to talk to me.

  “Don’t kill my wife. I will do anything for you. Please leave her” I pleaded.

  “Rob, it’s me, wake up. It’s alright” said the familiar voice of Prabhu.

  “Where are we? Where is the Loser? What happened to me? Have you handed me over to him?”

  “Duh, Rob. We are on our way. Nothing happened to you. Here drink this” saying he gave me a bottle of coke and then gave some food to eat. I looked at him. My lens was on the verge of falling down and hardly managed to fit in my eyes.

  “You are worked up. You need some rest and energy” he said.

  “We don’t have time Prabhu, just drive. We need to save her” I said…

  “Just five minutes. Eat this and drink that, you will feel better and then we will go beat the pulp out of him.” He assured.

  “Where are we?”

  “We are near Changalpet now”

  “Did you eat?”

  “Yes”

  “Whats the time now?”

  “9 am. We have 2 hours left. We can go to the location of the LOSER within one hour and then you can do whatever you want” he said and smiled. I reciprocated. He continued.

  “But there is a change in plan”

  “What?” I looked at him confused. Don’t beat me and leave me for dead Prabhu, not after all you had done for me, I prayed.

  “I am going to go to the place the professor had mentioned, all alone. I will find him, thrash him, save your wife and then you shall come”

  “Have you gone mad? Why should you go for me? This is something that I should handle. Prabhu, come on” I was still not sure if I could trust him. I couldn’t risk Diana’s life on his words.

  “Have YOU gone mad?” He was furious.

  “No, not yet, but soon I may”

  “There is a ‘Thought Detector’ placed in your head. Everything you think will be known to him. He will know that you are coming to kill him. He will know where you are, even before you could step on his street, he will have you killed and then kill your wife. Did we endure all of this for you guys to get killed? It won’t work. I will have to go, it has to be me. He would never expect me” he made sense.

  “Prabhu, but it’s a risk. Do you really have to?” I intervened.

  “Won’t you do it for me? Am I not your brother? Is she not my sister?” he asked, choking me with tears.

  “Yes I would. Yes, Yes we are” I nodded.

  He let loose of the grip and said “Then this is how it has to be”

  I felt bad for doubting him a while ago. Friends like him were rare to find. If there was one good thing that had happened to me in the last few hours, it was Prabhu. He was there through the thick of things and ensured I was safely protected. I wouldn’t have known about the Thought Detector or the details of the kidnapper, if not for him. He was indeed one true friend for life.

  “Alright, how are you going to go?” I asked him.

  “I have booked a cab already” it was always meticulous planning and execution with Prabhu. He did nothing on the go.

  “Why? Take this car and then I will get a cab”

  “Did you even look at your state? Shirt torn, blood stain, bandage, you look like a half zombie and you have already fainted once. Gain your senses and once I am done with it all there, I will inform you. Take the car and drive through. Is It clear? Don’t contact anyone” he ordered me.

  “Wait? What about the LOSER ? He is tracing my phone. He would know where I am with that”

  “Do you think I wouldn’t have thought of that ?“ saying that he put his hand in his right pocket and took out the object that was bulging all the while, from it. It was the Nokia 1100 phone.

  “You had put this in charge in your room and you went back to take this?”

  “Yes boss. I knew that we would need it sometime. This is fully charged. You have this Nokia phone and I will take your smart phone. We both will be in touch throughout. The batteries won’t dry out and…”

  “And?”

  “I will go till Tambaram and call the loser, while I will also make a call to this Nokia phone from my phone. I will put you both on speaker and you guys can talk. You ask him where you need to come exactly. Once he informs, I will throw your phone away and then I will go attack him, you get it?” Prabhu asked me.

  “I get it, yes, Prabhu. I guess this will work. But wait, don’t throw my phone away, it has almost 3000 contacts.”

  “Oh yeah. Then I will ask any of my friends from Tambaram to collect it on the way and have it with them and return it later, is that okay?”

  “That’s fine Prabhu. Trustable friends right?”


  “Yes, Mr. Robin” he stressed it.

  “Hope things go as planned” I wished.

  “Your Jesus is there, he will protect us” he said.

  “Hope your Krishna comes along” I said.

  Who said people from different religions couldn’t be the best of friends? We had our differences, a lot of it, but the understanding and the extent to which we were ready to push ourselves to help each other was beyond measure. He was a non-blood brother for me.

  We waited for Prabhu’s cab to arrive. I had finished my breakfast. My watch showed 9.15 am. Prabhu’s cab came and halted before us, he was about to get in, when I got a call on my mobile, which he was taking along with him. He stopped and fearing it could be the LOSER, he ran towards me and pushed the phone into my hands.

  “Is it the LOSER?” I asked Prabhu.

  “Not sure…Just talk” he murmured and handed the phone to me.

  I had a look at the number and it wasn’t the Loser’s. Who could it be, wondering, I answered the call.

  “Hello, who is this?” I asked in a casual tone.

  “Hello, I am a friend of… Friend of...”

  “Please tell me”

  “I am a friend of your wife. I just wanted to know if she is alright”

  “She… She is alright” I said and summoned Prabhu as I put the phone on speaker.

  “Fine sir. If she is alright then fine. I was trying to reach her mobile, but it was switched off, then found your number in FB and thought of calling.” he said.

  He knew too much about me than he should know. A wave of doubt ran through my nerves.

  “Her mobile is switched off, that’s all…” I continued the conversation.

  “Fine sir, thanks” he was about to cut the call.

  “Hello, wait, wait. May I know who you are?” I had to ask.

  “I told you, I am a friend of hers”

  “Your name sir”

  “My name is Raj” he uttered.

  “Your full name please.”

  “Rajasekhar T” he said.

  “T for?”

  “Thirumalsamy. Why sir?”

  “Where are you Raj?”

  “In my room, but why are you asking?”

  “Where is my wife?”

  “Sir” he was getting nervous.

  “Raj, I know its you. Where have you kidnapped and kept my wife” I implored.