Panch ka panchnama

The thing about ghost case was that ETF was personally invested, but there was not a case per say. There was no FIR, nobody was harmed, no property was damaged. Apart from some emotional trauma and tensed silence, nothing happened. So no matter how much some of the team members wanted to work on it, Rathore won’t have it- if they want to, they had to do it on their personal time, outside ETF work hours. Shree personally did not want to go there again, Chotu was curious and of course, got support of Riya who was curious herself. She read all the books she could find on the history of the half finished castle and would tell to anyone who would listen. Rathore wanted to go back as well, haunted by what he saw. But he also knew the visit was a one off thing and this incident may be chalked upto various bizarre thing that will be part of his, hopefully, long IPS career.

Arjun Rawte won’t have it, of course- there was a white fog which made him watch his wife being stabbed to death. When his eyes were open and he was surrounded by his colleagues. He won’t take this lightly, and he was one edge, so of course one evening he tried to sneak out early.

“I will tell Chotu to drop you home tonight.” He said to Riya before leaving. Usually she don’t care who enters a room or leave, but tonight she looked up from a thick, old, brown hindi history book and looked at him straight.

“You going to that place, are not you?” His silence was answer enough so of course she was intrigued, “Can I come?”

“No.” He snapped. He don’t think he can take another round of vision again, especially if someone else was with him. Riya blinked at the harsh tone, then looked down at her book, shrugging.

“Okay. I will go tomorrow then. Chotu was saying . . . “

“What’s your reasoning to go there?”

“Like others. it’s a mystery. There is no ghost. I want to understand it.”

“You believe in God and you don’t believe in supernatural?” Arjun frowned. Riya remained silent at the question.

“You believe in neither.” She turned a page in her book, seemingly over the topic, “Good luck.”

Arjun sighed, and he did not understand why would he even say the next couple of words. “Close the book. I am waiting downstairs.”

This was a bad, bad, bad idea. Returning there, taking her with him, trying to keep a lid on his unchecked emotions. Every nerve in him was screaming and yet he won’t have it. To distract himself, he asked her about the history of the place, and of course she obliged- eager to share her knowledge, sensing his mood, or maybe, a mix of both. ACP Rawte have started to realize the doctor looks and acts aloof, but she is anything but. Might be a camouflage, or maybe her attention span is such. But she does notice things.

The castle was build in early 1800, surprisingly, by british. Apparently it was supposed to be a gift to a king who fought valiantly against a south indian king on their behalf, but stories say that some mystical force stopped the construction. The king also died abruptly by falling from a horse, and thus it remained unfinished, abandoned. Interestingly, in recent times a real estate developer bought the place but two day before the company was supposed to demolish the castle, their project manager died in a freak accident. Hence the plans were abandoned. Arjun had done his own research- the local police suspected drug and alcohol supplies around this location and did many raids, but never got anything. It was an empty place and people avoid it in any cost.

They waited in their car until it was midnight, Arjun kept glaring at the castle as if it will melt under his gaze, the Doctor, as usual, buried in book. When his wrist watch chimed at 12, they got out, huddled close as they moved inside the castle. After reaching the previous place where they saw the hallucinations the last time, the two waited for the familiar fog.

It came after a while. Arjun barely noticed the time- 12.13- until visions overtook him. This time, he was mentally prepare, so when it got too much, he took out his gun and started to fire at the sky. It was only when he felt fingers clutching at the back of his shirt and a whimper, that he realized what the hell he was doing. Reaching for the shaking doctor blindly, he ran outside as fast as his legs would carry him.

He exploded once they were near his car.

“Why the hell you would even come with me?” He did lower his tone after that, but his anger was at peak- at her presence, his own stupidity and realization that either he or the doctor would have been hurt thanks to his waste of bullets. Also, they found nothing, they could not even check if his bullet hit someone in case a third person was present there. Throughout his rage Riya remained silent, jaw locked most likely due to how the night went south, also seeing for the first time the infamous Arjun Rawte temper.

ACP realized later just because she was silent, doesn’t mean she was scared of him. He parked near her house and looked away, not wanting to look at her least he sees distress or tears. He heard the lock of the car opening, but Riya did not move for a long time.

“How is it that I am to be responsible for your anger?”

“Excuse me?” His head whipped to face her, shocked at the audacity of her question, “How are you not responsible? You wanted to come with me. I told you no. You came anyway, and you could have been hurt tonight. There is a reason I did not want you to come. Am I supposed to be responsible for not being firm enough?”

“I was not planning to come with you. I could have gone with Chotu.” She pointed out. “You fired in the air. How am I responsible for that?”

“Why you wanted to go there anyway?” His hands banged on the steering wheel.

“I saw something in the mist. I wanted to understand it.”

Arjun let out a disbelieving laugh, “So your curiosity was enough to make you go there. Why am I not surprised?”

“My lack of trauma doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to go back in that place.” She spoke quietly, but she was anything but kind. “Chotu saw his team mates back in Commando dead. Shree saw a snake. Liza saw dead body getting up from table. Rathore sir saw losing his career and respect in society. You probably saw something horrifying. I don’t match upto those, but I want to find out just as much.” Opening the door, Riya moved out, “Thank you. Good night.”

Arjun did not drive away until she was inside the house, door locked behind her.

Dr. Mukherjee was not giving silent treatment per say, but she did distance herself the next day from the ACP. Hiding in files room, nose buried in book, deliberately not looking at him when he is around, the whole nine yards. Of course, Chotu noticed, and through his tired mind distraught with nightmares of his team mates dying, he found it amusing.

He sat on the dusty floor of file room beside her and asked directly, “Why are you avoiding Arjun sir?”

“I am not avoiding.”

“You are sitting here and reading a book. You don’t do that anymore. You sit in conference room now, so?” At that, the former looked up, caught about her avoidance, and after a few minutes of thinking, she informed everything that happened last night. Chotu was horrified that Arjun sir would shoot at sky and endanger the two of them, but he has also seen this man punching criminals and politicians on face. He was not shocked, but that the Dr. Was giving silent treatment to the infamous ACP Rawte over this was hilarious.

“Are you okay?” He had to ask, and she made a gesture of being fine.

“How am I responsible for him shooting in the air? Anyways, better if I don’t upset him too much over something so trivial.”

“It was not trivial, Riya. You or him could have been hurt, you are not wrong to be upset about your safety.”

“I am not worried about that. But he made it sound like I forced him to shoot.” Pausing, she added softly, “He must have seen something horrible. I empathize with that, but I can’t listen to him shouting over something which I did not do.”

Chotu patted her shoulder, “I understand, Riya. He will be fine, trust me.”

After a few minutes of silence, Riya asked, “You saw your friends dying in that mist, did not you?”

He turned at her, surprised, but it went away as a few beats passed. The Dr. Is always, surprisingly accurate about things, “I did.”

“ETF too?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see?” When he remained silent, she winced, “That was an inappropriate question, I apologize.”

Chotu did not reply immediately, gathering his thoughts, “You know, we are taught to shoot first and see later. Act before think. Our weapons are up before our eyes could see, ears could hear and brain can process. So there are gun shots, a lot of them- to enemies, between us. At times, bullets are fired so rapidly that a body is unrecognizable. The face is gone, there are holes through skins and muscles. Like a lump of flesh.” He released a shudder, “You can only identify by clothes of things. Shree’s half jacket, Rathore sir’s holster, your bag, Arjun sir’s glares.” He took time to erase those images out of head, physically shaking himself to become alright, “What did you see?”

“That’s the part I did not understand.” Riya admitted, confused herself, “I saw my house. That’s it. How is my house a source of fear? I did not understand, and I wanted to go back so that I can see again and understand.”

Not many people would do that, but she was not many people. “Are you planning to go back?” He asked, and the Dr. Nodded immediately, “When?”

“I don’t know.” She showed him a book she was reading, and he barely saw the title- hallucinations and psychology, “I was going through the castle and it’s history. You know recently a builder bought the place? But there was a death in his office and the project was halted. Someone is actively trying not to let anyone use the place. It’s not a site for any illegal activity, there was no news of a treasure buried somewhere, it don’t have any environmental or historical value. And yet, someone wants it to be left alone. Why is that?”

In the evening, Riya was waiting downstairs and booking a cab when a car stopped in front of her. She didn’t have to look up- she knew that sound or the person who walked near her.

“Get in.”

“I will book a cab.”

Apologizing is something which don’t come easy to Rawte. Easy would be a wrong word- it will be never. When it’s his mistake he will beat himself over it, but will never utter a word to other person whom he have wronged. Anger is his go to for anything, but the Dr. Is not someone on whom he can use this tactic. She had never stood for his misplaced anger, and shut down his antics by taking herself away from the situation. Maybe that’s what makes him so desperate to fix it. Like, what is the need to seek her out after work? She can get a cab, she will be fine. What was the need to ask if he was bothering her somehow when she first arrived? Maybe its guilt, maybe its sense of justice.

“I will drop you home.” He tried to keep himself calm. She glanced at him for a few seconds before looking at her phone again- flip phone, of all things. Who uses that in this era?

“It’s almost booked.”

“Are you purposely trying to be difficult?” He snapped, then turned on his heels and walked near the car. Riya stared after him, and frowning when he got inside the vehicle, started the engine and opened other side of door, waiting for her. No words were spoken but it was also established that he was not going anywhere. Sighing, she closed the phone and got inside the car.

The car journey was suffocating and he wasted no time to start, “I should not have shouted at you.” This was as close to an apology or remorse he would do, and she would get. “You could have been hurt.”

“You saw something bad, it’s understandable.” Her voice was surprisingly calm, and he realized she was not upset at him, but the way he conducted himself back in the castle. Arjun was relieved, and he did not even know why.

“I was going through the real estate deal today.” Of course it drew her attention. That’s all he was doing the whole day to distract himself. He asked for the file on the death of employee of the real estate office who died and went through it all. It was a simple death, there was even autopsy done even though there was no necessity. Nothing came out of it, it was just a freak death.

“May I see the file?” Her eager smile made him feel ten times lighter.

“It’s in the backseat.” Before the words were out of his mouth, the Dr. Had leaned back, fingers outstretched to grab the file lying there. Her loose strands of hair almost getting caught on his face, jasmine, he said to himself. Physical appearance tells a lot about a person- for example, Rathore always use a thick coat of gel to perfect his hair, but they will always be unruly after a long day of work. When Shree’s jacket is over a chair, that means he is deep into something. Chotu ties back his hair in a ponytail, and the one time anyone of them saw it open was when he almost beat a thug into pulp. The Dr.- she is always perfectly dressed. No wrinkles on dress, matching shoes and attires. Her hair is always done in a low ponytail, sometimes haphazardly put in a bun when she is diving into a file, then open on days when work is slow. By the time Arjun realized he was analyzing the hair styles of his colleagues, she had already opened a file and was going through it.

“Why there was an autopsy if there was a natural death?”

“The builder insisted. Everyone knew the place’s reputation, he wanted to check if there was any foul play. Of course, there was none.” He sighed, “Just go through it.”

“Uh huh.” She was already doing that, and he shook head at her antics.

The Dr. Called around 2 in the morning, and Rawte frowned before picking up, “Riya?”

“So you were not sleeping.” She muttered, before getting into a rant about the file’s content. Sufficient to say, she had finished it, made notes and had a lengthy discussion with herself before calling him.

“I don’t understand why that place. There is no historical benefit- you know the majority historical places and horror stories are tied up to the legends of buried treasure? Maharastra at least have 10 of them. Apart from that, there are places who’s history in violent- like in Rajasthan queens committed suicide and the places got reputation of being haunted. There is no illegal activity going on around this castle. The place is not significant, the old king’s death don’t seem fishy enough- it had no impact of the things that followed. He was not even a factor. Nothing happened recently in the place, and yet someone wants that place to be left alone. Who uses chemical gas for creating horror? A mist? It’s like the person wants to get caught, but also warning others to stay away.” Her voice muffled during the speech and Arjun realized she had, probably, laid down as she spoke.

“Chemical gas means the person has to know about what he was doing.” He replied quietly.

“But that gas thing could have been figured out by anyone. It was pure luck we were there and Rathore sir found out.” Her voice slurred a bit, and despite the conversation which had no good outcome, his lips stretched which could be counted as a tiny smile.

“What you got from the file?”

“Nothing, absolutely nothing.” She sighed, “It was a natural death. Can be categorized as phenomenon, so called freak accident. But nothing was amiss.”

“Why would a builder buy a dead place?”

“It was cheap, had potential to be transformed into something.”

“I was thinking to pay the builder a personal visit.” Arjun mused, “Find out a bit about the deal, about the death. I already dropped a message to the PA.” Then he remembered something, “Need to finish the report too for the last case.”

“I can do that.” Riya’s voice was muffled, probably halfway towards sleep. It made him smile, of course he had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop doing that.

“You will do that for me?”

“I will . . . do that for you.” After that she spoke nothing, and Arjun started counting beats. When it hit 30, he disconnected the call.

Chotu don’t interact with the forensic Dr. Much, so it was partly surprising, partly comical when she arrived one morning in the conference room with urgency in her steps and slammed her hand on the desk. Shree jumped out of his chair a bit and looked around nervously- the seniors weren’t there. Riya looked up from her Hallucination book at her arrival, frowning at the agitated expression of the other Dr.

“I am done being scared.” Liza started, eyes roaming over them as she spoke, “The floor where I work is empty, you know? You do this.” She tossed a pen over desk, “And it bloody echoes. These days, I am scared that a dead body lying on a table will jump at me. Me, who have dissected them for years, late at night with none in sight.” Exhaling, she paused, “I don’t like being afraid. Especially of some stupid . . . bloody thug, who use chemical mist to scare people. I am thinking to visit there, who’s with me?”

There was dead silence after the speech and the Dr. Probably was expecting a better response. Riya came to rescue, casually saying, “I will go.”

The former beamed, slightly relieved, “I knew that.”

“Ri!” Shree’s tone was chastising, and he had picked on the nickname as well, “You want to go?”

“She wants to go.” Chotu nodded.

“She wants to go?” Shree was in disbelieve.

“She wants to go.” Liza clapped her hands in happiness, then arched an eyebrow at the men, “What about you? Too scared to return there?”

“Excuse me?” The former had a stern tone, “I am scared of nothing.”

“I was thinking to go with her, she was planning it.” Chotu mused. “Going together would be better. But before dark, I want to search that place. There has to be something.”

The team settled on a time and met downstairs for the journey after hours. If Rathore noticed, he did not comment- it was a slow work day. Arjun kept staring at them till they left, and the feeling coupled with paranoia made them uneasy. There was a dead silence in car as Shree drove, nobody bothered to lighten up the mood. The sun was still up by the time they reached, and they made two pairs- Shree with Liza, Chotu with Riya. The men silently agreed on gun as well, just in case. Riya was looking at the castle, and by the time she turned, the other half of team was vanished.

They found the ‘machine’ used for mist in no time, hid behind a stone statue covered with leaves and sticks. They had to step foot inside the building, hyperactive as they stepped on dry leaves and dead carcasses, pushing aside spider webs. They split when a turn came with two separate roads, and Chotu lent her his mobile phone with torch light on. He cautioned- whatever she sees, whenever she feels she is in trouble, just scream. Kick something, make some noise.

Chotu vanished around a dark turn, and Riya started moving again. She was fascinated by the stone work inside, the statues, albeit broken and dirty. There were spaces up in the wall where marshal used to be put for lighting, just like she had seen in old books. She was lost in those, until she saw a skeleton, clothes still on and leaning against a wall as if sitting. There was a hand over her shoulder and the phone fell from her hand, just when she was about to scream a hand covered her mouth.

Arjun Rawte stood there with undecipherable look in his eyes, a lighter in his hand. The panic subsided instantly, and she frowned at the lighter. Realizing her focus was diverted, he slowly removed his hand, fingers barely brushing over lips. Startled, she looked at him, but his attention was somewhere else.

There was a dead body- rather, skeleton here.

It was a private property, but not like the owner was going to charge anyone with trespassing. Riya sat on a stone and looked on as police, media and forensic swam around the place. It was dark now, she had given statement and put her name on documents, minus any mention of ETF. Like Rathore sir had said before, there was no FIR or complaint for this haunted castle. There will be now, and they were not sure where this will head.

Liza came to sit beside her, “I have a feeling there won’t be any ghost sighting further.”

She silently agreed with the statement.

Absolutely nothing came out of that skeleton. It was of a man in his late 40s, died at least 2 years back. There is no record on him. The man’s living or dying, apparently, impacted nothing. And like Liza said, the ghost sighting stopped. A month later, the builder even announced the official announcement- they will demolish the castle and make a resort.

It was bizarre, unsettling, and because it was so, nobody cared to dive further. It was, what they call, a cold case. Liza did not fear to be alone anymore, Chotu didn’t frown, Rathore had brushed aside, filing it under ‘unsolved’ in his case files. Arjun Rawte wanted answers, but not that intensely as he would for his dead wife. Hence it withered and died, but not forgotten, though.

Months later, Dr. Mukherjee accompanied Rathore and Chotu for an interrogation in Pune. She had requested ages ago to give an opportunity to observe one, as their Boss was a famous name in department who can extract information, no matter how long and tiring it was. What was better than this criminal- he killed his wife and hid the body months ago, and they had to find it. Every evidence point at him, they just need a confession and clue on where they can find the body. Many police officers had tried their hands, and when words spread, someone higher up recommended the ETF chief’s name.

Chotu was bored- judging by a rubic cube he tried to solve. Riya, as expected, fascinated. Rathore don’t look like someone who had patience for anything which is time wasting, or someone who tries to deceive him. But once he was inside, his demeanour completely changed. He was relaxed,open, humored the criminal’s fake statements as he tried to avoid confessing, gently put him on track when he intentionally diverted. He sympathized with the criminal, coaxing him to say the truth- nothing to be ashamed of. There had to be something which led him to lose control right?

Fascinating.

Chotu smiled beside her, hearing that word, “Enjoying, I guess?”

“He is fantastic!” She turned to him, “He is so amazing, just look at him.”

“I have accompanied him in many places, Ri, I know the drill.” He replied dryly, but with a hint of pride. “At times, unsettling too. The way he goes into a character.” Snorting, he added, “Should have been in undercover mission, I guess.”

“He is a good leader.” Riya said. By then, the criminal had confessed to the area he had buried the body and Rathore stopped pretending. Sensing it was over, she looked at her watch- almost 9 hours since they arrived. It was evening, they had to return. Her eyes fell on the cube, hand reaching out for it. Chotu fondly rolled eyes, and gave it to her.

It was the only light moment they had the whole day, and went violent only a few moments later. They were on their way out, and co-incidentally, the criminal was being shifted as well. Seeing Rathore, he walked near him, and out of nowhere, violently attacked him with a pen he had hid under his palm. Riya had, just in time, barely pulled him away but he had a scratch on back. By the time others recovered, Chotu had the man by his throat, feet dangling in air. Rathore was rushed in medic room even though he insisted it was nothing, and Chotu personally volunteered to see the criminal out.

Riya loitered for a while, then headed to see Rathore. She was on the door when he was putting up a shirt- just a light scratch, but what caught her attention was the word scrawled across his shoulder bone.

Nadia..

He was startled, probably at how quietly she entered or stood there, “Hey.”

She did not let it show, “Just came to check, sorry for not knocking.”

“Its fine.” Rathore gave a smile, “Nothing serious.”

The duo headed outside, ready to leave.

Dr. Mukerjee is part of ETF for 6 months now, and have seen her team mates solving serial killer, drug peddlers and corrupt rich people spewing dirt in society. It was kind of a question as to why they don’t go for the, “action” part as one would say- they had two senior officers with years of experience, a Commando who can probably decimate multiple people at once. They had the brute force to go for something physical, and yet apart from Chotu being rough with criminals or story of how ACP Rawte once lost control and punched someone out a courtroom, she saw nothing.

And then, out of nowhere, the team got “action”. There was this infamous local drug ring masquerading their work as a popular night club. The Narcotics Control Agency, another department had an officer undercover with the gang, and co-incidentally their link came forward when ETF got a case where the drug ring supplied cocaine to one of the rich kids in town, the kid got caught and the Father, wanting blood, arranged so that ETF was forced to raid the club. ETF and NCA made plans, and Riya, for the first time having nothing to do, just sat and watched. With each passing time she had this sinking realization that this group was violent, and this mission can go wrong anytime.

But she said this to none, even though Chotu glanced at her time to time, forcing a smile, the unease did not go away.