Crime Control Squad

Chapter 12

"Revenge??" "Have the rapists avenged?" "Fate of a noble soul" and lot of other catchy phrases made their way to the title of the case snippets. The history of Kiran Rape Case, the involvement of Veerkaran Singh, the life story of the convicts were all revived from the grave. There wasn't much criticism on the part of the team. In fact they were widely appreciated for the efforts they had put in in spite of the terrible weather.

"That was a masterstroke by our boss," said Sagar with admiration. "The identification of the murder scene was a significant lead and a news which he could give the media without disrupting our enquiry process, and the weather and his own presence amidst everything projected a nice positive image for us. Perfect!"

"Reports ready?" asked Vedant as he entered the office briskly. He loved to see his team at their usual self, having a normal time. At the same time, he mischievously loved to spoil it.

"Good morning Sir," wishes from every officer was uttered in no sync. Everyone pushed the newspapers aside and got back to the report writing grudgingly. They hated paper work. They have argued a million times that the paper work slows down their investigation process and that they should do it after the closure of the case but no one seemed to be listening to them.

"Good morning. I want all your reports on the table in an hour," he said as he made his way to the meeting room.

"But Sir?" protested Sagar. "In one hour? That's impossible and we have so many work to do?"

Vedant turned surveyed the room with a smile. It seemed like a classroom with his colleagues as students and him being a teacher and they bargaining for more time for their assignment. "Sagar! I am giving you 1 hour to complete the reports when I have to submit my report which contains all your reports in 30 min. Consider yourself lucky that you have one hour." He could see the childish disappointment in everyone's face as they dragged their mind to their reports. Opening the meeting room door and getting hit by the pitch darkness, he waved his hand to get hold of the switch. Having never been aware of which switch held the responsibility for the glow of light, he banged on all the switches. Still dark. He turned towards his team shrugging.

"No power!" replied Heera understanding her boss's movement. The light from the windows brightened the squad room. Vedant gazed at the dark room for a moment before walking back to his team. He searched for an empty chair. Every chair was occupied. Ruby and Charith stood up to give their chair, but Vedant raised his hand in refusal. He settled himself sitting on the table. "Bring the board here," he instructed. Vikram and Charith pushed the heavy board slowly from the meeting room to the squad room. Everyone looked at the details written on the board along with the pictures stuck. They had two and a half days more to close the case. Practically 2 days.

The sound of the crashing thunder brought the team to the present.

"I got a call from the Commissioner," said Vedant. "The media has started digging up the Kiran rape case and are making a mess out of it. Kiran's family isn't happy about it. We have orders to complete the case as soon as possible and not wait for the 2 days."

"He thinks 2 days is too much time?" asked Vikram.

"They are just looking for a reason to disparage us," added Sagar.

Vedant avoided answering those comments directly.

"Let our attitude not be towards winning the challenge in hand but on catching the killer. Our attitude should be towards gaining justice. Don't force yourself or rush your steps keeping the timeline in mind. If we are unable to find the killer in 2 days, no problem. I will deal with it. I don't want us to make mistakes in our investigation and wrongly persecute and convict an innocent just because we want to prove ourselves. Go with the flow."