Sidharth clicks on the last video of the second victim, Sameer Salunke. He carefully checks the video. He then starts looking at the last videos of all the victims one after the other. He runs his fingers through his hair.
"Sana needs to see this."
He pulls out his phone and gives her a call.
"Hi bebu! Missing me?"
"Yup, a lot. Can you come down to the office after some time? "
"Haye, ACP Sidharth Srivastava itna romantic kaise ho gaya? Mujhe office bula raha hai? Romance in office. How exciting!"
Sidharth smiles,"Nautanki ho tum, pata hai tumhe? Listen, I have a video to show you. When can you come?"
"It's related to the case, isn't it? Pata tha, ACP and romance? Not possible. Hmm.. I have a shooting till 6. And I was thinking about paying Dr. Anand a visit by 8. So I can come to your office on the way."
After a knock, Ranne enters the room. Sidharth signals him to sit.
"Okay.. I will wait for you then. Bye.."
"Love you."
"Hmm."
"Sidharth Shrivastava, yaar kabhi toh bolo tum pyar karte ho."
"Sana.."
"Don't Sana me.. unromantic. Room mein shayari and bahar ek I love you bhi nahi.."
Sana starts her fake cry and Sidharth rubs his temples.
"I am hanging up. See you in the evening."
"Tumhe meri kasam lage, agar bina I love bole phone rakha toh. Tell me love you then you will hang up the call."
Ranne whispers,"Is everything okay?"
Sidharth nods his head and stands up. He goes to the window and says,"I have a meeting now, everyone is here. I will tell you when you come here. "
Gaikwad and others join Ranne.
"Tell me you love me. Now."
"I do. Happy! I do a lot. Now please.."
"WORDS.. IN WORDS..say I LOVE YOU, SANA."
He looks behind and then whispers,"I love you, Sana."
"I couldn't hear you. Louder Siddy boy."
"Now it's too much. Rakho phone."
"I knew it. You don't love me anymore. "
Sidharth gives out a deep breath and says, "I love you, Sana. I really do. And Ma and Ruhani, they love you too. But you are always so busy. They miss you, that's why they are a little upset, nothing else. Please take some time off and spend it with them.."
"Haye! Yeh kya tha.."
"I said what you wanted to hear. Try and understand, Sana. I am hanging up now. Bye!"
Suppressing his smile, he hangs up the phone and turns towards the desk.
"Is everything alright Sir?"
Gaikwad asks.
"Yes. Just a tiny household problem. Nothing serious. Let's get down to work."
"We first need to find a connection between the victims. Apart from the fact that they were vloggers, do we have anything that connects them?"
Ranne says, "No Sir. They belonged to well-known families but they didn't know each other. They stayed at different places, studied at different schools and colleges and had different interests. Only common factor is their channels where they used to visit places that people term haunted."
Sidharth shakes his head, "No, there must be something which we don't yet know."
Gaikwad says, "The dates are not in a pattern. "
Ranne says, "Exactly. The second death happened around 20 days after the first one, the third one 15 days after the second, fourth 12days and the fifth 16 days. And now Tony died only 5 days later. Dates are not anywhere matching."
Sidharth stares at the dates written on the white board.
"What am I missing?"
He mutters under the breath.
"Places where they are killed have nothing in common except that people had died unnatural deaths there and they were a abandoned for years. There were rumors of these places to be haunted."
Kambli adds.
Sidharth looks at his watch and then says, "There's sure something that we are yet to uncover. Apart from the interrogation here that we will carry out, I want all the information that you can lay your hands on about the victims. Get me very tiniest detail, every incident on them. Talk to their friends, relatives and neighbours. Bhonsale, anything from the Khabris?"
"Yes Sir. One very interesting fact about Rajnish has come up."
Sidharth waits for him to speak.
A man in his early 50s, sits in the interrogation room with a woman a few years her junior. The man wears a linen white shirt and khaki colored trousers. He has short hair that has started to turn grey from the sides. He has an average height and health and wears rimless glasses. The woman has short hair, tied into a pony. She wears a white cotton salwar suit, a pair of diamond earrings and dark rimmed glasses.
Sidharth enters and shakes his hand with him and nods at the lady. He sits down asking them to take the seats.
"I am really sorry for your loss. This is a routine interrogation."
Prashant Thakur, a senior journalist and the Chairman of Today's India nods his head.
Sidharth asks, "So what kind of guy was Rajnish?"
Nivedita Thakur, journalist and Executive Editor of the same channel says,
"Rajnish was like any normal kid of his age. College, friends and his social media channel."
Sidharth nods his head, "Did he tell you where he was going that night?"
"No. He never told us anything, like any other typical youngster. But he was responsible and good kid. He used to returnhomeon time except while shooting for his vlog. That night he was gone for that only."
"Did he have any enemies?"
"No. "
Prashant asks,"I have heard about the case. Isn't it a serial killing?"
Sidharth takes a pause,"We can't really say anything for sure. We need to see things from every angle. You know that."
Prashant nods his head.
Sidharth asks,"Where was Rajnish last year?"
They look at each other without replying to anything.
Nivedita says,"Why here, in Mumbai."
Sidharth leans on the table and taps the pen, "Rajnish was not in India, definitely not in Mumbai for about a year. He returned a year back."
Sidharth smiles, "Mr. Thakur, you are a senior journalist. You think we are talking just like that."
Nivedita says, "He was in the States. He wanted a break, so he went there."
"Break from what Mrs.Thakur?"
Nivedita stays silent and he continues, "Thompson Centre for Psychiatric and Mental Care. Does this ring any bells?"
Prashant looks up, "Rajnish was admitted there and he stayed there during that time."
"Why was he sent there? What had happened to him? "
"One night he returned home late and started behaving abnormally. He was scared as if he saw a ghost. We tried to talk to him but he didn't say anything to you. Our doctor suggested we send him there for better treatment. When he returned home, he was normal. He started his channel only after that. He was suddenly fearless."
Sidharth gazes at him, observing him carefully.
Gaikwad asks,"Sir, what do you think?"
Sidharth runs his fingers through his hair, "They are hiding something. I can feel it."
Ranne asks, "But what is the use now, Sir? Rajnish is dead. Why are they still hiding things?"
"Because their names are at stake. Rajnish might be dead but they are alive. They are not willing to risk their names in the process of telling the truth. They are involved in something. Something that made Rajnish lose his mind and he had to be sent outside India for treatment. Something that caused his death."
He says,"Remember the lines in the video,
Hosh kho jaye toh,
Yahaan aate hai,
Par yahan woh bhi aate hai,
Jo duniya se khafa bhi hai.
Tumhe yahan aana pada,
Apni gunah ki saja jo milni thi.
Tumhe yaad dila na tha,
Koi khuda se upar nahi."
He looks at them,"He is talking about the Asylum. People come here when they lose their minds. That's Rajnish. But the next two sentences, I don't get it. Is he talking about himself?"
Ranne says,"The last four lines are clear. He had got Rajnish there to pay for his sins."
Sidharth nods his head, "What were his sins?"
He stands up and walks to the white board. He writes down two dates on the board.
"As per our investigations, Rajnish left India with his mother and uncle on this date." Sidharth circles one date as he says.
He then underlines the other date, "His social media account shows the last update before he left for the US was on this date, exactly 2 months before. There's a gap of about a year and he again posts a photograph of him with the quote, 'It's all about returning to your roots.' He was returning home."
Ranne says, "The last social media post was for his college freshers party held that evening. His friends have confirmed it."
"I think something happened that very night. His sin maybe.. yes that's what I think it is."
Sidharth sits in front of a young girl of 20 years. She wears a white kurta over jeans. She is beautiful even with no makeup.
"Miss Bharadwaj.."
"Please call me Sonali."
"Hmm.. Sonali, for how many years, have you known Rajnish?"
"Rajnish and I were family friends, I knew him since we were kids. We have been together since our school days."
"So, you knew him well. Tell me, why did he go to the mental hospital?"
Sonali gazes at him nervously,"Mental hospital? No, he wasn't.."
"Miss Sonali, we already know everything. The Thakurs have accepted everything here. Now, tell us what you know."
"I.. really.. I knew he had a mental breakdown. Uncle sent him away to the States. After a few when he returned, he was fine like always. He never spoke about it to me. So I really don't know."
"You are lying Sonali. You know what had happened. Who was she?"
Sonali stares at him, "S..he? Who?"
"Sonali, you know about whom I was talking about you. Tell us."
She gulps down saliva and says,
"All I know is that night, he had an accident. He had started having trouble after that. He used to stay indoors and frightened all the time. He had become delusional and had hallucinations. During this time he had once told me one thing. She was dead because of him. He was sorry. He was scared all the time and said he felt as if she was always around him."
"This happened on the night of the freshers party? Isn't it?"
She nods her head.
"Who was she? What had happened to her?"
"I don't know. He didn't tell me anything. I asked him but he kept repeating the same thing again and again."
"Who was with him the night of the accident? Tony?"
"I seriously don't know. I told you everything I knew. I am not lying."
Kambli asks, "Sir, it was a fluke, isn't it?"
"Yes. And nishana thik laga. But still we have got nothing."
Bhonsale asks, "Can't we look into the system to find if there's any accident?"
Sidharth replies, "I don't think we will find anything, Bhonsale. "
Ranne says, "Thakurs are highly influential. They must have buried everything. That's why they are hiding everything."
Sidharth stares at the photograph of Rajnish.
"Rajnish is drunk that night and while driving back, he crushes some woman under his car. He comes over to his parents and immediately they make calls and bury everything. Rajnish, however, loses his mind over his.. guilt or fear. Prashant Thakur sends him to the Asylum abroad. A year later he returned home, sane and joined college again. To fight his fears, he starts the vlog and gets noticed by the killer. He somehow gets in contact with him and asks him to visit the Asylum alone. And there he kills Rajnish. Now the question arises, what was the motive? Howis the killer related? If we still consider the killer knew this woman and took revenge, why did he kill others then?"
Sidharth pulls Sana to his chair and makes her sit on it. He opens the video on the laptop and says,
"Just look at this carefully."
"I am angry, okay. What you did was wrong."
Sidharth cups her face and kisses her forehead and then on her nose.
"Madam, everything is fair in love and war. You brought war in my love. How could I lose the game? That was the only way I found to do what you asked without letting others know what was happening."
"Very smart!"
"Woh toh main hun. Now please see this."
"Baat kya hai? What are you showing me?"
"Uff, bina kuch pooche kya tum dekh sakti ho ya nahi?"
Sana stares at him and then nods her head. He clicks on the play button and the video of Rajnish at the Asylum starts playing.
"Oh My God!"
Sidharth looks at her,"Did you see that?"
She nods her head, "I did. It's not clear but I did see it."
"Is it her?"
"Yes. That's her."
Sidharth smiles, "I thought so."
"Will this help?"
"No. This is not clear. This is just an apparition. One can say it was an glitch. The question however is why is she here? Check this video. This is of fourth victim."
He clicks a video file and they watch the video together.
"Did you see? "
"No."
He plays it again. This time Sana nods her head.
"Oh My God! She is there again."
Sidharth smiles, "This is something.. I don't have words for it. Being in police, you always look for logical explanations. But lately all my logic is going down the drain."
Sana giggles, "ACP Sir, aap ki logic kam pad rahi hai? Lovely!"
Both smile at each other.
"You need to find more information about this lady."
"Hmm.."
"Why don't you get a sketch artist? I can help."
"That I will do. But I am not sure how much this will help. Anyways, can you spare me sometime. Vikash, a friend and a very good sketch artist will be here in a few minutes."
"Of course ACP Sir, anything for you my lord!"
She giggles saying that, "Just get me something to eat and your famous tea."
Sidharth smiles, "Bribe? Fine. Anything for you my highness! "
Sidharth stares at the photograph Vikas had drawn.
"Did he kill you that night? But what is your connection with the killer? Stop! What do you want me to stop? Investigations?"
Gaikwad enters the room and Sidharth says, "Did you send the picture?"
"Yes Sir. They are checking in the system for any missing complaint or any accident deaths. And I have sent the pictures to all police stations too. Sir, aap ko lagta hai kuch hoga isse?"
"I don't know. Let's see."
"Sir, aap nahi jayenge? It's late."
Sidharth nods his head and stands up, "I was leaving. Did you get the information on the tablet that we found from the terrace?"
"We will get the report tomorrow"
Sidharth picks his keys and phone from the table and is about to put it in his pocket when it starts to ring.
"Sir, late ho gaye aap? Madam ka call hoga."
Gaikwad says with a smile and leaves the room. Sidharth smiles after he finds Sana's name on the caller ID.
"Hello, I know I am late. Main bas nikal raha hun."
"Sidharth, no.. don't come.. "
Confused he asks,"What are you saying Sana?"
"He said.. someone will.. yes.. something will.."
Sidharth's face turns serious, "Relax Sana. Take a deep breath and then tell me."
Sana gives out a deep breath, "Something will happen tonight. I can feel it. Do something quickly. "
How was the update? Sorry for being late. Was in a writer's block.😒😔Anyways, let me know how is this book going on?
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Let the suspence continue...