He turned to Vikram and said, ‘Let us call Dr. Priya and meet her immediately if possible. Do you have her number?’
‘I don’t, but Veena has her number.’
Vikram called up Veena.
‘Hi, Veena. Can you give me Dr. Priya Reddy’s number, please?’
‘Vikram – is this any way to talk to your wife? You didn’t ask me how I am. You are only interested in asking me for a phone number!’
‘But I know that you are well. I saw you this morning.’ Vikram said, bewildered.
‘So what? I might have fallen sick in between! You do not care enough about me, Vikram. You do not say that you love me. You only want me to work for you like a servant.’
Vikram made a noise like a strangled goat. Even Veena was startled. ‘What was that noise?’ she asked.
‘Nothing nothing…,’ Vikram said in a milder voice.
Then looking furtively at Reddy who was trying to hide a grin, he said in a low voice, ‘Okay, okay ... I love you... Now please give me the phone number.’
Veena cooed, ‘Yes, Vikram, you are so sweet and I love you too. And hold on, I’ll go get the phone number.
After Vikram had jotted down the number, Veena said, ‘I am making brown rice and some vegetable stew for you with less oil. And of course, a salad. We will get rid of that extra fat of yours soon.’
Vikram groaned inwardly and said hurriedly, ‘I have been invited out for lunch by Reddy. Sorry to miss your special cooking, but I won’t be coming home in the afternoon.’
Reddy looked up at him in surprise and saw Vikram folding his hand and begging him silently not to intervene.
Reddy burst out in silent laughter while Veena gave an exasperated sigh, ‘Vikram, if you eat out all the time, how you will lose weight? Anyway, you can have that for dinner. And do not eat too much during lunch time, okay?’
‘Yes, darling. And you relax and take care of Kamala. I will be home in the evening. Bye,’ Vikram said, as he thankfully cut the connection.
Reddy called up Dr. Priya who was very cooperative. She could meet them in her chamber at Reddy’s Hospital at around 2 pm.
After grabbing a quick lunch at Rayalaseema Ruchulu in Ameerpet, where they had the sumptuous Andhra Thali, they drove to Reddy’s Hospital by 1:45 pm. When they enquired at the reception, they were quickly shown into Dr. Priya’s chamber. In Vikram’s eyes, she looked even more haggard since the last time he had met her. ‘What is worrying her so much that she is losing so much weight?’ He ruminated.
Vikram said, ‘Hello Dr. Priya. Thanks for seeing us at such a short notice. You already have met ACP Reddy before I think.’
Priya smiled at both of them and said, ‘Yes I have met ACP Reddy before, though under stressful circumstances. I hope I was not too rude to you before.’
Reddy smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry about that. We policemen are human beings too you know. I can imagine the pain that you were going through at that point of time.’
Priya smile and said, ‘Thanks for understanding. Tell me how can I help?’
Reddy asked, ‘Was Dr. Renuka acquainted with Ashok Manepally?’
Dr. Priya looked a bit confused. ‘I seem to have heard the name somewhere. Let me think.’
Vikram said, ‘He works in Sai Vinayak Printing Press.’
Dr. Priya’s brows cleared. ‘Ah… now I remember. We get our brochures printed there. But Dr. Renuka used to handle that.’
‘So Dr. Renuka might have known Ashok Manepally?’ Reddy eagerly questioned.
‘Yes, I believe that she did. But lately she was getting a bit dissatisfied with his work. She believed that he was recycling the same designs.’
Reddy gave Vikram and excited look.
Ignoring Reddy, Vikram now asked, ‘Did they argue or anything of that sort?’
Dr. Priya shook her head and said dismissively, ‘It was a minor creative difference.’
Now Vikram looked at Reddy significantly.
Reddy looked disappointed. He now asked, ‘We are coming from Asha Foundation, where a nurse Rajagopal, works. An administrator in the hospital said that he previously worked here. Is it true?’
‘Which Rajagopal? When did he work in Reddy’s Hospital?’
‘I think that he used to work around 2 years back. He worked as a nurse I believe.’
‘Ah… yes – I remember now. Yes he did work in our hospital.’
‘Why did he leave?’
‘My mother-in-law didn’t like him. He was lazy and didn’t come on time – in general very irregular.’
‘So Dr. Renuka decided to discontinue his service? Did you also agree with her?’
‘Yes – Dr. Renuka discontinued his service. I had no say on the staff she decided to recruit or discontinue.’
‘But you thought that her decision was right?’
‘I am all for giving a person another chance. But she was adamant that he should go and she had the final say.’
‘Are you connected with Asha Foundation in anyway?’
‘No... But my mother-in-law was part of the advisory board and she would occasionally refer patients to the Foundation for rehabilitation.’
Suddenly, tears filled her eyes. ‘My mother-in-law had a heart of gold. I remember once she had referred a patient’s husband for treatment. He was such a horrible drug addict. He visited his wife who was suffering from birth related critical complications exactly twice. He was drunk both times. It was a pity really as he was quite good looking and his wife said that he had a heart of gold and could be charming when he was not drunk. His mother used to work as a nurse in our nursing home. Dr. Renuka referred this person only because she used to be fond of his mother.’
Reddy was all admiration for Dr. Priya. He empathised that she had lost her husband at an early age and now she had lost a second person close to her heart.
He again remembered how upset she had been when she had come to know that Dr. Renuka had been murdered. Instead of wallowing in self-pity she had immersed herself in her work, trying to make the sick and unwell better.
‘Do you know what happened to him?’ Vikram asked.
‘No – I’m not sure. In any case I never interacted with him as his wife was Dr. Renuka’s patient. I saw him once in Dr. Renuka’s chamber, but I remember his case as I came to know that his mother, Rama Nurse, used to work here. I knew his mother quite well. Hence, I was curious to see her son.’
‘How was Nurse Rama as a person?’
‘She was a very hard working woman. She was a widow and so had to work very hard to support her only son. And the son turned out to be a stupid drug addict.’
‘Do you recall his name?’ Vikram asked.
‘Yes – I think his name was Satya Prakash. Actually I happened to see the sketch of the killer on Star News yesterday and thought of him. There is a striking similarity in looks.’
Vikram and Reddy looked at each other. Both were feeling excited. This could be the breakthrough they were looking for.
‘Do you think that this Satya Prakash could be our killer?’ he asked, showing her the police sketch.
‘Yes...looks familiar,’ she said, after examining the sketch carefully.
‘Do you think that he could have turned into a killer?’
Priya looked thoughtful. ‘Hmm... Could be possible. And maybe he had a grudge against my mother-in-law. She had been rather nasty to him you know…’
‘Can you get his address?’
She immediately called a clerk and asked him to get the address. While the clerk was searching for the address, Vikram asked, ‘You are running the hospital on your own?’
‘Yes – I have hired a few more doctors to take charge of the delivery cases. Of course Dr. Renuka’s skills would be hard to match. But yes – it is all very hard work as I have to handle all aspects of the hospital; take critical decisions all on my own.’
By this time the clerk had come back with the address written on a sheet of paper. After taking the sheet from Dr.
Priya, Vikram said, ‘Thanks Dr. Priya. I think that you have provided us with quite a bit of useful information. I wonder if you would do us a favour.”
The Dr. Priya nodded, in encouragement, ‘Yes of course!’
‘I would like to monitor Dr. Renuka’s activities over the week before her death. Can you please write an account of how she felt, what she did on the week of her death?’
‘Yes –definitely- I will gladly do anything that will help to catch the killer.’
Dr. Priya rose gracefully and accompanied Vikram and Reddy to the door.
As soon as Vikram and Reddy got into the car, Reddy said, ‘Uff! Vikram, at last a breakthrough. If this man really turns out to be Prakash the killer, then we have indeed taken a giant step forward. Thank God we have a solid lead at last. I feel like singing at the top of my voice.’
Vikram had heard Reddy sing before and was not eager to hear more. He said hurriedly, ‘I think you should hurry back to the Commissioner. If you start singing now, you will not be able to focus on your driving,’ he added craftily.
Reddy was not offended. He also knew he could not sing. So he laughed aloud and started driving towards the Commissioner’s office. He was feeling on top of the world.
Vikram however, was in a pensive mood. He was silent throughout the drive, only commenting once, ‘Don’t you feel it’s quite a coincidence that Dr. Priya guided us to the killer.’ Reddy asked, ‘What do you mean?’
Vikram shook his head and said, ‘Let me think a bit more on this.’
The Commissioner was prowling around in his office looking like a caged tiger. The press had been particularly critical of the Hyderabad Police that day.
He scowled on seeing them now. But before he could make any scathing remark, Reddy said, ‘We have made a breakthrough in this case. We had gone to meet Dr. Priya Reddy today and she has tentatively identified the person in the sketch to be Satya Prakash. It seems he is a drug addict. We have got his address. It is somewhere in Lingampally.’
Immediately, the Commissioner’s scowl was replaced by an expression of great delight. ‘Great! Let us immediately send some policemen to this address. You have both done an excellent job.’
Vikram now warned, ‘However this address was given more than two years back. So he might have shifted by now.’
‘Do you remember the tea stall owner Thapa said that he was running to catch a train to Lingampally and his appearance was unkempt and there was blood spatters on his shirt. He would have to go home to tidy up. So I would assume that he lives in Lingampally still.’ Reddy replied excitedly.
Vikram nodded. ‘Quite probable. If Satya Prakash works as a salesman selling kitchen storage containers then it is certain that Dr. Priya Reddy has identified the random killer.’
‘Yes, good point Vikram. We will immediately get to work.’
Vikram said, ‘I can see some similarities of this case with the BTK killer case. You can look him up in the Wikipedia. There is the infamous BTK random killer in the USA who called himself Bill Thomas Killman. He is also known as the BTK Strangler. "BTK" stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill", which was his infamous signature. He sent letters describing the details of the killings to police and local news outlets during the interval when the murders happened. He worked for a home security company where he installed security alarms as a part of his job, in many cases for clients concerned about the BTK killings.’
‘So you mean to say that in a similar modus operandi, Satya Prakash goes to houses to sell kitchen storage containers and kills people he considers as potentially soft targets?’ the Commissioner questioned.
Vikram nodded. ‘Yes I am sure that he might have stalked his victims while pretending to sell the kitchen items and then killed them at a convenient time when they were alone.’
But when Vikram and Reddy went to the apartment in Lingampally along with police reinforcements, it was found locked from outside, which was a bit of an anti-climax. After arming themselves with a search warrant, they broke open the door, to find that Satya Prakash indeed stayed there. There were syringes, cocaine powder, and the blood spattered shirt was also found tucked away in a corner of the cupboard. The shirt was sent to the forensic lab for tests to confirm if it indeed matched the blood of Dr. Renuka. But Satya Prakash himself seemed to be missing. Where could he have gone?
All the evidence in the apartment pointed to his guilt. A laptop was found from which the emails to the editor had been sent. Many photos of the murder scenes of Padma, Renuka were saved on it. The laptop was sent to the police laboratory for further forensic analysis. Even though Satya Prakash was not arrested, the police was hoping that the killings would now stop as the murderer was on the run.
But this hope was dashed when next day, on 15th May, Dr. Kiran Chanchu was found unconscious while taking his morning walk in the KBR National Park. He had been hit on the head and the murderer must have left him for dead. Luckily for him, he was discovered almost immediately by another walker. The walker had not seen anybody attacking Dr. Kiran. The murderer must have heard the walker’s footsteps and left in a hurry.
Dr. Kiran had been in the habit of taking his morning walk regularly from 6:30 am to 7:30 am in the park. The police found no clues. The attempted murder had been smooth. No one had seen the killer. When an email to the editor turned up, it became clear that Kiran had meant to be the fourth victim of the random killer in a period of one and a half months. But the killer had finally failed in his mission. Dr. Kiran was still alive. He was rushed to the hospital, where his condition stabilised.
Commissioner Sanjay Kumar was sitting in his office running his fingers through his hair, trying to calm himself when Inspector Reddy and Vikram walked in.
Kinshuk Jain of The Telangana Times had forwarded him another mail.
This is Prakash writing.
I am the murderer of Kiran Chanchu. I kept my promise of killing another doctor. For heaven’s sake, why can’t you catch me?
I want to stop but I can’t control myself, God help me.
This time there had been no attachments. The killer obviously did not have enough time to take photos. There was a look in the Commissioner’s eyes that brooked trouble for someone. He had called an emergency meeting in his office immediately after receiving the email.
In his previous press conference he had given the impression that the police would nab the random killer very soon and he had confidently assured them that the killings would stop. Now this attempted murder of another respectable member of society would have a detrimental impact on the image of the Hyderabad Police. Even the Chief Minister had personally called him and had expressed concern.
‘Seen the email I forwarded?’ He snapped.
‘Yes,’ Reddy said, hooking a chair with his feet towards him and sitting down. On seeing Vikram still standing the Commissioner impatiently waved him to a chair.
Vikram now exclaimed, ‘Reddy sir, do you remember I told you that there was some discrepancy in the third note from the killer, but I could not point my fingers to it at that time?’
Reddy said eagerly, ‘Yes – what is the discrepancy?’
‘In the note he says, “I will kill again on 15th May. Catch me if you can. For heaven’s sake, catch me. I want to stop now but I can’t control myself.” It’s as if he wants to stop the murdering spree. That is an indicator that our killer is cooling off. Also, in the note that he sends after Kiran’s attempted murder, he does not mention when the next murder will happen. He also does not know that the attempt did not succeed since he writes as if Dr. Chanchu is dead. It is as if his heart was not there in Dr. Chanchu’s murder. Maybe this is the reason why his attempt to kill Dr. Chanchu did not succeed. And in this note as well he is almost pleading to be caught. Also no attachments in this email’
‘Yes, but that is obviously because there were too many people around. He took a huge risk in trying to kill Chanchu and was nearly caught.’ The Commissioner snapped.
‘But what was his desperation
to kill Dr. Kiran Chanchu? He knows the police have his physical description, his photo is being widely circulated, and yet he still takes the risk of trying to kill the doctor in a public place in broad daylight? Is it not a rather foolish thing to do?’
‘Well you cannot expect a psychotic murderer to be full of common sense. Dr. Chanchu should have been more careful.’ Reddy said.
Vikram said, ‘We had warned him and all employees of the Asha Foundation. Even then he was foolish enough to go for his walk. He could have skipped for today.’
‘Yes – but the good part is that this attempt by our killer failed. This round to us I think.’ Reddy said.
‘That is more due to Dr. Chanchu’s luck I would say rather than any effort on your part.’ The Commissioner snapped at Reddy.
‘Yes – but I am sure that luck is slowly but surely turning in our favour. Do not worry! We will definitely catch the killer soon,’ Vikram said.
‘That’s what you say. But where is Satya Prakash?’
16
SATYA’S NARRATIVE
SATURDAY, 14TH MAY 2016
AFTERNOON
I am in the safe house of my contact. But he himself is missing since yesterday. I am unable to get in touch with him. I have run out of drugs and am now in agony. I cry and beat at the door which is locked from outside. I am a prisoner and my contact refuses to let me go. He says that the police are searching for me outside and it is for my own safety that he is not letting me go out.
I have not had drugs since Friday evening. I think I am going mad. But no one seems to be willing to help.
I must have fallen asleep but my cramping muscles wake me up. It is 4 am next day. I run to the bathroom to throw up. I beat the door and am crying in pain. The security guard outside peeks through the window and on seeing me lying crumpled on the floor and opens the door. As he bends down to look at me, I hit him hard. As he falls down unconscious, I take his wallet, move out of the room, and rush down the stairs and out of the building. I find an auto parked nearby, the driver sleeping inside the auto. I shake him awake and beg him to take me to my destination. Irritated, he looks at me – a strange figure in pyjamas. But I am beyond caring. I offer him Rs. 500 to drive me to my contact’s home in Srinagar Colony. I have to get some drugs before I die. Finally the auto driver relents.
A Season for Dying: A Vikram Rana Mystery (Vikram Rana Series Book 2) Page 9