A suitable Man

Chapter 24

Sheena and Ranga

Smriti struggled with all the strength she had, but the men were too powerful for her. She tried screaming but her mouth was gagged. They took her to the outskirts of Honnavar in an empty house. She was bound to a chair in a dingy room. She was trying to comprehend her surroundings but she was not able to gauge where she exactly was. She stopped her struggle, age old common sense prevailed as she thought, might had to be bested with mind. She needed to act cleverly to get out of this place. And who were these people?she was trying to ascertain the cause. Mahendra wouldn't notice her absence till late evening when she won't come back from school. Ohhh!!! She thought, " Also at the school no one will suspect anything as I am on leave the whole week". This was not good, she had to act fast. She just remained silent averting their gaze. Her bag had been dropped in the scuffle somewhere. So right now she didn't have any means to communicate. Few hours passed and still she was bound. There was no sign of anyone else around, not even the sound of vehicles. She realised she Mishra have been brought to an isolated place somewhere.

The big man was pacing outside her room and talking in Konkani to someone on other side.Smriti understood Konkani a bit, and she could decipher that this man was talking to his boss and about her. She also heard him say something which sounded like ' Shetty's'. It dawned upon her that this might be about Mahendra's plantations. He kept on talking for a while. It was late afternoon now. Suddenly the man came inside, he gave a lusty look to Smriti. Her skin crawled, she had to act fast. He came near her and removed her gag. The minute her gag opened, she screamed as loudly as she could. She scratched, bit, she did everything in her strength to free herself. The man was totally shaken at her screams, he pulled her up and slapped her across her face really hard. She fell down unconscious. A deep mark appeared on her face where his hand hit.

Ranga was scared now, he had been instructed not to harm Smriti, she was only a bait. This would not go down well with his Sheena Anna. He quickly untied her and sprinkled water on her face but she remained unmoved. He loosely tied her back and went to look for his other men for help. She had to come to consciousness else Ranga would be in deep trouble.

Smriti opened one of her eyes slowly, just checked her surroundings as stealthily as she could. Her plan had worked, she had pretended to be unconscious just to catch her kidnapper on back foot. She was not a slightly built girl. She was strong enough to bear this blow. She slowly stood up. She scanned her surroundings to see whether the man was around. He was no where in sight, she quickly ran and hid behind the door. There was no movement for a minute. She slowly peeped out, she could see 2 men coming from the gate, one of them was her  kidnapper and the other was a burly man. She had seen him somewhere, she couldn't place a finger on it, but she had seen him. He was of a large frame. He had a brooding look not masking the menacing façade he had.

Smriti was scared now, she scrambled around to find a hiding place. There was a bathroom at the end of the passage, she could just run and get in but the movement may grab attention. But the men were fast approaching, she sped towards the bathroom. She hid herself near the bathroom window.

" You Rascal, Ranga, where is that girl? Sheena thundered, " Find her now or I will skin you alive, I want that Shetty boy here, she was our bait, you fool, where the hell is she" Sheena was very angry on Ranga, how could he be so careless, he had told Padmakar he would not harm his daughter. Ranga frantically started searching for Smriti.

Hosamane Urkeri

Mahendra was back in the afternoon from Sirsi, the Sandalwood plantation was now totally under his supervision with a lot of help from the government authorities. He could close in on Sheena anytime now, exposing him as a Sandalwood smuggler. He glanced at his watch, it was time for Smriti to get back. He thought of picking her up from school, just a surprise.