Chapter 15

[MEMBERSONLY] [NOCOPY]

I'm very sorry for disappearing and not updating this story for months. But now I'm back and I will try to be as regular as possible. The story will move forward at a fast pace from now. I was focusing on romance earlier, so now the prominence will be given to the thriller section of the genre, aka the murder cases. There will be romantic highlights every now and then, but it will be mixed with the case.

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Chapter 13

The deafening silence overpowered the loud beeping of the machines. Everyone watched as the scarred sentence registered in Arjun’s mind and his eyes widened. Simultaneously, a glass shattered on the ground and several gasps rung out. Stunned to a statue, everyone mechanically stared at the ground only to realize that the glass in Arjun’s hand was missing and his eyes were glaring at the greeting.

Hands tightened into fists, Arjun zoned out the world around him. That one sentence echoed in his mind, collaborating with the anguished screams of his wife. A nightmare, that was his only reality, played in his vision and his nails dug painfully into the rough skin of his palms. He didn’t even realize when blood began flowing out of his punctured skin. But others did and his reaction worried them.

However, Riya’s pale face went unnoticed by all. She had, somehow, managed to control the shivering of her hands, but she was unsuccessful in concealing her petrified eyes. Her sweaty palms narrated the story of her fear, the fear of a lie being percepted as the truth. Shit! Why did Sikandar’s name have to come up now of all times? I’m so going to kill the commissioner for assigning another case that could jeopardize my hard-work of years to ETF, she cursed mentally in an attempt of relieving her pent up anger. 

Sameer, understanding that he needs to divert his friend’s mind, spoke up, bringing the two tortured souls out of their thoughts, “Sikandar? That means both of these cases are related.”

The others remained quiet, unsure of what to believe or how to react. It’s not everyday you are directly face-to-face, or maybe indirectly, with a criminal who is said to be a fragment of imagination by most of the police force. And the juniors didn’t want to add any unnecessary pain to the already hurting akdu senior of theirs. 

“It’s quite possible Sameer. Saboot toh yahi kehte hain ki Sumit ka khoon bhi Sikandar ne hi kiya hai,” Sakshi stated, her eyes never moving away from the stiffened figure of Arjun.

Chotu completed her unintentionally hanging sentence, “Ya fir karwaya hai.”

His words got everyone to think about the possibilities of Sumit being somehow involved with Sikandar. If Sikandar is behind all these crimes, why is he exposing himself to the world after so many years? Can’t the efficient officers of ETF question themselves about this once?, Riya berated the entire team in her mind. It was frustrating her that Sikandar was being labelled as a murderer for yet another victim. Sometimes she wished she could bang her head to the wall, ending this misery of dealing with one-track minded officers once and for all.

The sound of banging on the table caught everyone’s attention. Worrying, they turned to face the red angry eyes of Arjun, whose hands were resting on the flat top of the table. The growing redness in his eyes indicated the bubbling volcano, ready to erupt at any given moment. 

Realizing that his anger could potentially destroy the lab, Sameer adopted the chief's role and ordered firmly, "Team, conference room. Now!" 

The team nodded, silently filing out of the lab and ran to the conference room in bemusement. The case was entangling more than it was unraveling. Everyone faces the evidence board where hung a single piece of paper with 'Sikandar' written in bold letters. It was time to complete the space on the board and draw a conclusion from the collected information. 

“What do we know until now?”, Sameer presented the open question to the room.

Riya walked to the board, pinning up a couple of pictures with tags underneath them, connecting the common link between them through threads. She quickly attached a few sticky notes with words written on them. Spinning around to face the serious faces of the officers, she began, “Hume DK Ltd ki mills se 11 bodies mili hain. Sabke sar kate hue and the murder weapon was ricin poison. All of them were social workers aging between 20 to 50 years. Aur saare victims ka naam ‘S’ se shuru hota hai. Unn mills se x-zora II ke traces bhi baraamad kiye gaye hain.”

Removing a few old descriptions that were labelled as unanswered questions, Riya replaced them with the latest details of the case, along with the corresponding relations it had with the previously discovered dead bodies. “Purani factory ke paas hume Sumit Awasthi ki body mili. Reason of death was ricin poison. He was a 40 years old businessman who owned a chain of hotels. Unka naam bhi ‘S’ se shuru hota hai. And he was infamous for all the wrong reasons. There’s a great probability of these two cases being correlated.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, the two ACPs turned their questioning eyes to the remaining members of the team. Understanding it was his time to reveal, Shree got up from his seat and projected an image on the screen. Everyone could see a long list of numbers, some highlighted in yellow while a few were in red.

“Over the past few days, Sumit had been receiving calls from various unknown numbers. No number was ever repeated but each call was exchanged for almost 30 minutes. I tried tracking the numbers but they all indicated different parts of the country. For example, the first number on the list is from Assam but the second one belongs to Bangalore,” he said.

Aisha was quick to interrupt as a doubt entered her mind, “Aisa bhi toh ho sakta hai ki call karne waala ek nahi, kayi alag log ho? Ya fir jisne call kiya tha wo jaan boojh kar alag-alag shehar se phone karta ho?”

Shree smiled but shook his head. “Aisa nahi ho sakta. Because these calls were made at an interval of a few hours or sometimes a few minutes. And I’m damn sure ki yeh calls ek hi aadmi ne ki hain. Mujhe lagta hai ki the caller possesses a great knowledge of technology. Isiliye wo purposely apni phone location iss tarah manipulate karta tha ki sab ko lage wo ek shehar mein nahi tikta. Lekin yeh saari calls usne apne ghar se ki hain, bas technology ke peeche chhup kar,” he informed the curious faces staring at him.

Eyes widened and jaws slacking, the team slowly processed his words. This case appeared to be more complex than they had originally imagined. However, Arjun asked, "Shree, do you think ki tum iss technology ko reverse karke uss caller ka real address pata kar sakte ho?" 

Unexpectedly, Shree's eyes twinkled and he nodded excitedly. "Kar sakta hoon sir. Bas thoda time lagega because caller ne bohot carefully apna IP address secure kiya hai." 

Nodding at him in appreciation, heads turned to observe the evidence board. Sakshi sauntered towards the picture of Chander and slowly picked it up. Facing the team, she presented her research, “Chander Madhan was Sumit’s account handler. Phone records ke hisaab se Sumit ke mobile pe last call Chander ka aaya tha, wo bhi qatal se theek 5 minutes pehle. Chander ka kehna hai ki kal Sumit ne apne account se 50 crore ka sum withdraw kiya tha and that’s the reason he was regularly calling him. I’ve run the statement through my sources and it’s confirmed that he was saying the truth.” 

“Murder location se paise baramat nahi hue toh zahir hai ki murderer apne saath paison ko le gaya. Sumit shayad qatil ko jaanta tha and maybe the money was for the murderer. Tabhi toh itne clean way mein khoon hua, chaaku ya bullet wound ki bajay, he was poisoned," Sameer continued her sentence. 

A single piece of thread connected each individual picture to the heading, Sikandar, on the top of the board indicating the suspicion ETF had about him being the mastermind behind the massacre. But it was evident that something was amiss, something crucial. 

"Kahin kuch chhut raha hai, Rathore. Kuch toh hai jo humne dekh kar bhi undekha kar diya," Arjun voiced out the confusion. Receiving a nod in response wasn’t exactly comforting.

Sameer eyed the words and pictures, mentally storing them in his memory before drawing a few parallels to gather a hint. A blank spot on the board, adjacent to the details other members had presented, caught his attention. Something clicked in his mind and he spoke, "Chotu, Aisha tum dono Sumit ke office gaye the na? Toh wahan se kuch toh mila hoga tumhe." 

The said officers exchanged a glance before nodding vigorously. As the khadoos bosses turned their glaring eyes to them, they lowered their eyes in both fear and shame. Of course, any mistake at this point would cost them a lot. 

“Sir, Sumit ke office se zyada kuch toh pata nahi chala,” Aisha began after gathering enough courage, “Lekin ek peon ne hume bataya ki murder waale din Sumit bohot pareshaan tha. Aur ussi pareshaani ke chalte usne apne staff pe bhi bohot gussa kiya. Aur shaam ko office se nikate waqt Sumit ke haath mein ek bag tha jo subah uske paas nahi tha.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at her words. “Bag? Kaisa dikhta tha wo bag?”, Arjun asked urgently.

Chotu, who had been silently bearing the heated gaze of the ACPs, finally spoke up, "Humne office ke CCTV footage se bag aur Sumit ke screenshots liye hain. Here are the photographs." He forwarded his hand and passed the plastic squares to Sameer.

The team carefully observed the pictures, memorizing the little details of the print for further understanding of the case. However, as soon as Arjun and Riya’s eyes fell on the photographs that contained the bag, their eyes widened significantly. Exchanging a glance, they froze in their places and remembered the place from where they recognized the bag.

Having read the emotions of the faces of his two teammates, Sameer questioned, “Arjun, Riya, what happened? Tum dono inn photographs ko aise kyun dekh rahe ho?” The realization reflecting in the eyes of the duo puzzled him. 

Although Riya was in no position to answer the question posed at her, Arjun was quick to regain his composure. “Maine iss bag ko pehle bhi dekha hai, Rathore,'' his words stunned the team, “Parso jab main yahan se nikla tha toh ussi jungle ke paas gaya tha jahan se hume Sumit ki body mili thi. Aur wahin ek constable ke haath mein maine yeh bag dekha tha. Constable or murderer, I don’t know.”

The second he finished, a hopeful glint appeared on team’s face. Maybe now it’s time to uncover the answers that have been building up for a while. Sakshi jumped up instantly, “Toh tumhe uska chehra toh yaad hoga na Arjun?”

Staring at the evidence board to gather his thoughts, Arjun said, “Raat thi aur andhera bhi bohot tha. Chehra toh…”

However, he never got to finish his sentence because Riya interrupted him. “Chehra yaad bhi kaise hoga aapko, sir. You were too busy ki-”, she stopped abruptly, realizing that she was about to spill the beans about the kiss they shared. Mentally cursing herself for the slip of the tongue, she prayed that nobody noticed her implications.

Arjun’s eyes widened in shock, his eyes staring at her with an unfathomable emotion. She shifted her focus to him and their eyes locked, flashes of the intimate night playing in their heads. Despite the constant denials, they knew that they felt for each other, maybe a lot more than they would’ve liked. It wasn’t attraction, and it surely wasn’t lust. It was something that they knew would destroy them, and the dangerous thrill of the risk exhilarated them. 

“What do you mean, Ri?”, Shree’s voice brought them out of their trance.

Stumped temporarily, she stumbled over her words. Without thinking twice, she spewed the first excuse that crossed her mind, “-kicking and punching the trees.” 

Amused he was at her explanation. Seriously, this is the best she could pull off? This girl is just unbelievable...and beautiful, he chuckled at her poor attempt of covering her almost revelation. In spite of trying his hardest, a lopsided smirk spread on Arjun’s face. Had it been a different place, he would have openly laughed at the sheepish expression on her face. 

Noticing the crestfallen faces of the team at her words, Arjun intervened, “Agar meri baat tumne poori hone di hoti toh tumhe pata chalta ki main kya kehna chahta hoon, Riya. Chehra toh exact mujhe yaad nahi hai, lekin main ek rough idea de sakta hoon jo uss aadmi tak pahunchne ke liye kaafi hoga. Yeh tum samjhi ya samjhaun?”

Shouts of joy rang around the room when the team realized that they had yet another lead to solve the case. 

Riya, on the other hand, recognized the teasing tone lacing his words. She glared at him and huffed in anger. How dare he make fun of me? It’s not like it’s common knowledge to everyone that the great ACP Arjun would notice a constable’s face while his tongue was shoved down a girl’s throat, she flushed unintentionally at the reminder of his warm lips on her. 

The faint red across her cheeks led to a massive grin on his face, which he hid by turning to stare out of the window. 

A ‘ping’ resounded from Riya’s phone, indicating a message, and she instantly whipped it out. A single sentence, bold and underlined, read ‘It’s time to end the game, madam ji.’

Eyeing the clock, she realized it was indeed time for her to put her plan into action. She smiled wickedly, re-reading the message and thought, Now your reins are in my hands, ETF. She recapped the moment when she had told her informer to message her at 12:00 pm sharp and he did exactly as told. 

"Kya hua Riya? Tum muskura kyun rahi ho?", asked a perplexed Sakshi. 

Turning her head to grin at the team, she responded, “Sikandar ko pakadne ki ek lead mili hai.”

Seven heads snapped in her direction, some glaring with amazement while others had a look of impatience. Understanding that they won’t be questioning her verbally, she assumed this to be her cue and continued, “Pathan Lala, sir. Uska ek hideout Dongri mein hone ki khabar hai. Aur mere informers ko yakeen hai ki wo hideout abhi bhi active hai. Pathan toh jail mein hai, sir, but his hideout will take us to Sikandar.”

“Good job Riya!”, Sameer exclaimed almost instantaneously, “Team, we all know what to do. Shree, tum uss caller ki location dhoondo. Arjun, tum uss aadmi ka sketch banwao aur mere saath uss murderer ko pakadne chalo. Chotu, Aisha and Riya, you will go to Dongri. But be careful as it can be dangerous. Sakshi, try to find as much as you can about Sumit and his connections with the underworld. Main commissioner sir se permission letter lelunga after which Shree and Sakshi will go to Rajat’s house to investigate about x-zora II. And Lisa, mujhe saari post-mortem reports aaj raat tak meri table par chahiye. It’s time for some action!”

The group of officers, with the exception of Arjun, saluted and chorused a ‘yes sir’ before scattering in groups assigned to them.

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