by Leena Nandan
There was a burst of static and the line disconnected.
Vikram frantically re-dialled the number and got through on the third try.
‘Are you there, Khanna? Telephone that bright young man Menon immediately, give him the name, and put him on the job. There is terrible danger if you delay.’
‘Sir, I’ll need a promise from you that you’ll tell my bosses about the investigative efforts I’ve put in…’
Vikram bit back an expletive. ‘Okay okay, there’s no time to waste. Give him a message on the wireless.’
Khanna noted the name and broke off the connection, not daring to say that Ajay Menon’s wireless set had been taken from him. At first, he just couldn’t get through. His first instinct was to avoid speaking to the fellow, but then healthy self-preservation kicked in. He had almost bungled the case and if he didn’t retrieve it now, his career was doomed. Radhika would just about kill him and then who would investigate his death?
Tina and Shelly got into the car and Shelly reversed it expertly. ‘How do you manage?’ asked Tina admiringly. ‘If I look in the rear view mirror, I forget everything else—and you won’t believe how nasty other drivers can be.’
‘Oh, I’ve always been self-sufficient. No adoring boyfriend or devoted parents to indulge me. One learns the hard way.’
‘No, I think you ooze confidence so people don’t fuss over you unnecessarily.’
Ajay’s cell phone rang. He put it on speakerphone so that he could drive on at the same pace and barked out ‘Hello’.
‘It’s me, Khanna.’
Ajay almost disconnected then thought the better of it. He had to avoid telling Khanna what he was up to, so he said with a marked lack of enthusiasm, ‘Oh sir, I’m busy right now but I’ll get back to you first thing tomorrow.’
‘No, I actually was calling to say there was an urgent message from Mr Vikram Batra. He said that the people who were involved in the call centre racket got his steno killed to destroy the evidence. They were caught only because of crucial evidence from Tina Sahni and she is in danger.’
‘Did he mention who he suspects?’ asked Ajay urgently and swore as he heard the reply. He turned the bike around, back to Tina’s office. They had to find out where exactly she was headed.
Ajay threw caution to the winds. The rain was pelting down and he could hardly see ahead. The road was dangerously slippery and visibility extremely poor but they were beyond caring. The guard had locked himself up again and only repeated banging accompanied by threatening gestures from them made him stir.
‘Quick man, where did Tina go to?’ cried Jeet. The man responded to the tone of urgency. ‘They drove towards the research centre.’
The bike made a full circle across the road and zoomed off. The guard stood uncertainly for a while. It would not do to take unnecessary initiative. But then not passing on the information also could create a problem. He painstakingly flipped through his diary and then settled on the one number he could call that would absolve him of responsibility…
‘Tina, how long have you known Reggie?’ asked Shelly.
‘Well, a year-and-a-half, for sure. Why?’
‘He seems sweet on you, so I wondered.’
‘No, I think he admires your spirit and style,’ laughed Tina.
‘Don’t be so bloody patronising,’ said Shelly in a withering tone and Tina drew back as if slapped.
Ajay drove faster, the motorcycle at an acute angle to the road, almost skidding on its wet surface. Jeet didn’t want to break his concentration and end up with a broken neck, but he said a silent prayer. Suddenly, Ajay braked. Ahead was a taxi parked on the road, and standing next to it was a young woman, crying. On her neck were bruises. ‘I’m Deepti,’ she sobbed. ‘He almost killed me…the sound of your motorcycle saved me. Please help.’
They could not afford the delay and were in a quandary. Then Jeet had a brainwave. The keys of the cab were in the ignition. ‘Can you drive?’ he asked. She was in shock, but nodded slowly. ‘Thank God! We have to go, because we’re handling a critical situation. But you can drive yourself back to the office. Lock the windows and drive slowly.’
Shelly drove fast, but with total confidence. They were on the main road now approaching the T-point, but instead of turning towards the right, Shelly swung the wheel to the left.
‘Hey, weren’t we supposed to go to the plaza with the PCO and coffee shop?’ said Tina.
Shelly did not reply and drove faster. Tina put a hand on her arm. ‘Shelly…’
‘You bitch!’ The voice, a guttural whisper was like a shard of glass. Shelly looked at her and the eyes were dark and empty. She said with a terrifying smile, ‘Tina…’ and let her voice trail away.
The voice sounded eerily familiar, thought Tina and then reality struck, like a bolt of lightning. Trembling, she stammered, ‘Oh my God! That voice…was it you all along…did you…’
‘Yes, I’m the one who hated you since the day we met.’
‘But why? What have I done to you?’
‘Tina the popular, Tina the pretty, Tina who Reggie and Neil dream about,’ said Shelly. Then her tone became vicious. ‘You’re so full of yourself and your pathetic virtuous nature. You ruined my group—especially Aakash and my boyfriend Vijay. Miss Butterwon’t-melt in-her-mouth—you make me sick.’ There was a mad look in Shelly’s eyes now and flecks of spit around her mouth. Tina was paralysed with fear. Every muscle, every nerve seemed to be frozen.
‘Shelly, I’ve always been your friend, helped you…’
‘No good deed goes unpunished, pretty Ms Tina,’ intoned Shelly in a singsong voice.
She slowed down the car to avoid the branches of a tree fallen at the side of the road and Tina’s brain somehow seemed to grasp the opportunity. She suddenly swung open the door and flung herself out. She hit the road so hard, every bone in her body jarred and her whole left side was bruised. The car stopped. Tina got up awkwardly and started running. Her knee felt like it was on fire and the left ankle was already swelling but as she ran on, crossing the car, she realised that Shelly was in no hurry. She seemed to be looking around for something in a manner that suggested she had all the time at her disposal. The car door slammed and she heard a faint sound like a keening. Gasping for breath, she stood still for a moment and then made out that it was Shelly singing. There was a tuneless quality to it and the pitch was very high. She glanced back once and almost collapsed when she saw the long curving knife in Shelly’s hand. Shelly saw her looking back and broke into high-pitched giggles which were all the more frightening because they sounded completely insane.
Sobbing with terror, Tina blundered on in the general direction of the research facility. Surely, some security guard would be on duty and would scare Shelly off. She could hardly hear anything above the pounding of her heart and the lashing rain coupled with furious winds. The campus loomed right in front and with tears of relief she ran towards the gate, hope giving her strength to overcome the cramp in her thigh muscles and searing pain in the knees. The gate, surprisingly enough, swung open easily. She could dimly make out the shape of the guard through the glass pane of the kiosk but he did not even look up. She could not hear sounds of pursuit, so she stopped to draw breath and re-assess her strategy.
Tina heard the swish and drew back a fraction of a second before the edge of the knife slashed through the sleeve of her T-shirt. An angry red line appeared on her skin and in a daze she saw the drops of blood like small rubies form a macabre necklace on her forearm. A hand like a claw stretched towards her neck and with a shriek she brushed it away, using the branch she had picked up when she fell on the road. A muffled curse and then the silvery arc of the knife again. She could not last much longer. With a sudden burst of energy, she reversed her grip on the branch and hit out with all the force she could summon. A dull thud and a scream gave her some satisfaction but there was no time for selfcongratulation. She rushed towards the building praying that by a stroke of fortune it would not be locked.<
br />
TWENTY ONE
6 February
Neil was pale with fury as he drove home. He reached in just ten minutes and stormed into the apartment. The maid stood there, terrified. Neil held her arm in a vice-like grip and shouted, ‘Have you found her?’
‘No,’ she said in a scared voice.
‘Did any of the neighbours see anything?’
She gave him a meaningful look. ‘You always ordered me never to talk or let her talk to the neighbours. Mrs Dhawan is also not at home…’
He turned away impatiently. ‘How do I find out where she is?’ he muttered to himself. Suddenly, his phone made a buzzing sound. It was picking up a signal from Leila’s phone on which he had installed a tracking device. He immediately punched in the code for the map and pinpointed her location. ‘Got you!’ he shouted triumphantly. He rushed to the car, pausing at the door to glare at the maid, ‘If you say anything to anyone, you’ll regret it, I promise you.’
Commissioner Goyal had descended on Vasant Kunj police station again to review progress on the 24x365 call centre rape case. Khanna stated that Ruby Tripathi had been attacked by an unemployed driver who had worked for the cab company earlier and knew their odd timings. His associate was a smalltime criminal who specialised in car-lifting and they had stolen the cab that day. There were other cases of sexual assault against them. Their modus operandi was to target the newer recruits who were careless in noting down the name and staff number, and did not report strangers to security. Both men had been arrested and charged with the crime but it was worrying that they were part of a bigger gang which used the same tactics.
While the Commissioner took note of this feedback, his mind was preoccupied with the discovery he had made by accident. He called Naveen Kumar into his office. One look at the Commissioner’s face and Kumar knew he had uncovered the truth. Strangely enough, Goyal, known for his short fuse, was calm.
‘Did you realise the enormity of what you were doing?’ he asked in a dangerously subdued tone.
There was no point pretending he didn’t understand what was being referred to.
‘I did,’ Naveen Kumar replied in an equally quiet voice.
‘And what about the oath you took to do your duty?’
‘I swore that I would take care of my brother, who I have looked after all my life. He was part of the gang involved in the call centre’s cyber theft case, so he tried to retrieve the CDs because there was evidence against him. Unfortunately Celia, the steno, saw him, so he panicked and killed her and told me when it was too late. At any cost, I had to close investigation of Celia’s murder, and I assigned it to Khanna, who can be relied on to bungle any investigation.’
‘You would have let an innocent man hang and saved a criminal. You are a disgrace to the force,’ said Goyal angrily.
Tushar was at his table, staring into space with a frozen expression. He had never thought it would unravel like this. He had been so sure of himself, assuming that all his flanks were guarded and now he stood exposed, vulnerable. Natasha Grewal’s murder might never have been solved, but by some freak chance it had; the pieces of the puzzle might never have been put together, but they had been. It had all begun in the research centre and that’s where it would end…
Neil couldn’t believe his luck. Leila was close by. But why had she chosen to go to his office? Did she want to beg forgiveness? Oh, he’d forgive her all right—and by the time he finished with her, she’d be feeling really sorry for herself too. He took out the cell phone and updated her location. She had been in the vicinity of his office before and was now in that research centre. But why had she gone there? He drove faster. Prudently, he stopped at a distance from the centre, taking care to keep the headlights off, so that his presence would not be noticed. Softly, he moved forward until he could enter the gate. The lone guard did not look up when he rapped on the window, so he entered the kiosk. The man was slumped back in his chair.
Neil crept forward stealthily and reached the building. The door was shut, but opened when he gently pushed it. The lobby inside was in pitch darkness, but he hid himself behind a cabinet all the same. He could dimly make out a male voice speaking. A moment of doubt assailed him. Was he on the wrong track, thinking that Leila was here in this god-forsaken research facility? Then suddenly he stiffened. It was Leila’s voice; she was laughing and she said something that ended with ‘Vikram’. She was with that bastard. He’d kill them both with his bare hands. His fists balled up in rage and he almost launched himself out to confront the two, when someone treading softly joined Leila and her companion in the hall, followed seconds later by another individual panting for breath.
Benoy and Leila were at a loss to begin with. Leila kept looking uncertainly from one chair to the other. ‘It was simpler in theory,’ she said. ‘All the furniture looks identical.’
‘Come and take a closer look. I’m sure you’ll see the difference.’ ‘I can switch on the light and…’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Let’s not leave our prints all over the place.’
‘But you must have told the guard why we’re here, so it’s perfectly straightforward.’
‘Let me be the best judge of that. You focus on the chairs,’ said Benoy with an edge to his voice.
Leila tried to concentrate and then ran her hand along the back of one chair. A footstep sounded and Vikram entered the hall. ‘Any luck?’ he asked.
‘I think it is this one,’ she said, adding with a laugh ‘I had stuck some chewing gum on it by mistake and you really lectured me for it, Vikram.’
She bent down to look below the seat. ‘Yes, this is the compartment and there are some papers in here.’
Two things happened simultaneously. A wild-eyed figure crashed into the building. To Neil, still concealed, the figure was only too recognisable. Vikram was dumb-founded for a moment, then exclaimed, ‘Aren’t you the girl who helped us in the cyber case?’
‘Yes, I’m Tina. Please help. She’ll kill me.’
Totally engrossed in the conversation, Neil failed to hear the stealthy movement behind him. Suddenly, there was a soft sound behind him and he turned, reflexively putting up an arm. The knife blade hit his forearm. He could feel the warm blood gushing out. Somehow, he grappled with the person and as they both fell into the hall he could make out her face. It was Shelly and yet it wasn’t her. Her face with deep scratches and her matted hair made her look feral. All veneer of civilisation had stripped away and her face was like that of a wild animal, lips drawn back in a snarl. She scratched his face with her talon-like nails.
Tina cowered behind Vikram. Leila cried out. ‘Neil! Oh God, what has she done to you?’
She ran to him and put an arm around him trying to help him up.
Shelly attacked him again with the knife. ‘You bitch. This should be for you,’ said Neil and he pushed Leila in front. The knife cut her on the shoulder. She tried to twist out of Neil’s grasp and as the knife swung towards her again, she managed to break free. In horror, she saw the knife descend almost in slow motion and stab Neil straight in the heart. Silence, then both she and Tina screamed—a long sound of terror and desperation.
Vikram had lost five minutes making and receiving the calls. When he came back, he could not see Leila. She must have gone in with Benoy, he thought, and entered the building. Instinctively, he put his hand out to switch on the light, but there was no connection. How odd, he thought, that all the security systems had taken leave of absence at one go. He heard some voices, walked in and found Leila and Benoy looking for the chair. Immediately afterwards, Tina ran in. For some time he was unable to react—he was rigid as if entangled in the throes of a nightmare. It was only the attack on Leila and then Neil that made him snap out of the trance. Before he could do anything, Neil was on the floor, bloodied and still, and Shelly was extending her claw-like hands towards Tina.
Leaping forward, Vikram held Shelly’s arms in a vice-like grip. ‘Benoy, help me. We’ll get the knife away from her and tie her u
p with some rope or a belt, anything.’
Someone materialised behind Benoy; it was Raghav. Vikram turned to Benoy with a puzzled frown; shockingly, Benoy had a revolver in his hand and it was aimed not at Shelly but at the three of them—Vikram, Leila and Tina.
‘Yes,’ said Raghav as if in answer to his unspoken question. ‘I am the man whom Dr Maken had identified for selling the company’s research details to competitors. Luckily, Benoy informed me that you all were headed this way and I reached in time. It is up to me to clean up this sorry mess created by some overzealous, conscientious people. Vikram, let go of Shelly or Leila will be killed. In any case there’s no hope for any of you.’
‘But Raghav, how did you get caught up in something like this? Why?’ asked Tina. She could hardly believe that charming, likeable Reggie was this cold-blooded, hard-eyed man threatening to kill them all. It had to be a sadistic joke.
‘It started as a lark, to see whether I could trade the company’s business plans. Benoy saw what I was up to but decided to join hands with me. Dr Maken was analysing everything. His report would have exposed Benoy and me, so we had to do something. Now the tracks will not lead to us without the report.’
‘You can’t get away with this, Raghav. The guard has seen Benoy and you,’ Tina said.
‘The guard is dead,’ said Raghav.
‘How can you just kill people like this?’ cried Tina. ‘My God, you’ve become a heartless monster.’
‘It’s addictive, my dear, and I’ve begun to enjoy the power of life and death. Celia and Deepti felt my power too.’
Tina shuddered. Raghav gave her a diabolical smile.
‘Don’t worry, my delightful Tina. I’ve thought it all out. The evidence will show that Shelly, who is insane and hates your guts, stabbed the three of you to death and Benoy had to shoot her dead in self-defence, using his licensed revolver. I will be his lone and naturally most credible witness; of course, I will be overcome with grief at my darling Tina’s untimely demise. Quite a tidy ending, don’t you think? Rather like the sad but convenient death of Dr Maken.’