A voice from the nether regionsDurai frantically switched from channel to channel. But he couldn't focus on the images on the screen. The tears welling in his eyes blurred his vision. His mind was elsewhere. He switched off the TV abruptly and picked up his cell phone to dial. Priya was refusing to pick up the line. He dialed again. She picked up this time only to hang up instantly. Clumsily, he punched the digits on the dial a third time but failed to get the numbers right, then in frustration flung the cellphone aside and slumped into the sofa.
He had lost all sense of purpose. He didn't know what to think or even feel. The woman whom he had wanted to spend the rest of his life with had ditched him. His parents had all but abandoned him; they had not even called since leaving for Kaasi in a huff a week ago. And, he was unable to seek solace at work either. He tried to discharge his duties as best as he could in the circumstances. Nonetheless, JC Vincent had summoned him to his home a week earlier, ostensibly to commiserate with him but in reality to chide him for having slackened in his duties.
He knew he had erred in dragging Priya to the police station for an enquiry on the day of their engagement. He regretted that the resulting shock had caused Sigamani's fatal heart attack. It also pained him that Priya was now bereft of all family support. But what could he have done in the circumstances?
Discovering that Priyan was in fact Annamica, the man who had committed one bloody murder and was on a deadly prowl for his next victim, was an utter shock for Durai. But more shocking than the fact that the murderer was someone he had met a couple of times was the fact that Priya knew him and had been seen in his company not once but several times. That threw Durai into total confusion.
Was he guilty of assuming Priya was guilty merely by her association with Priyan? No. He wanted to make sure he was not guilty of assuming she was innocent simply because she was to be his wife.
Could he have conducted the inquiry by himself in private? He could not. There was a clear conflict of interest. Had he conducted a private enquiry, he might have been accused of conspiring with Priya to cover up her involvement. She herself would never have been able to prove her innocence. Justice had not only to be done, it also had to be seen to be done. Could he have postponed the enquiry? Priya was associated with a murderer who was clearly bent on taking at least another life and time was of the essence. He could not have hesitated.
As a good police officer, he had always been trained to have a skeptical mind and not to take anything at face value. And yet he had allowed himself to fall for Priya on surface appearances. Was there any dark secret lurking beneath the exterior that he did not know of? Was Priya working in cahoots with Priyan? Was it in her gameplan to lure him, AC Durai, into some sort of love trap to throw him off her scent? Durai was totally baffled.
But, more than all those professional reasons, Durai needed to assure himself that he knew Priya before he took the bold step of being engaged to marry her. He could not have started a relationship without knowing who she was. He could not have taken the plunge with all those nagging doubts. It would have killed the relationship if it had begun on shaky grounds. Arjun had chided him for lacking trust in Priya. If you love her, you should have faith in her, he had said. He had accused him of being cold and calculating.
Was he perhaps jealous of the association between Priya and Priyan, Durai asked himself? Did he suspect that their relationship might be more than just platonic. Did these nagging doubts affect his judgement?
Perhaps. But the fact of the matter was Durai did not know who this person was that he was about to marry. It was Priya who had flung herself upon him six months ago and pursued him even as he was still smarting from the death of his murai penn. She was certainly a witty and charming girl who had eventually moved him from his resolution not to marry following Divya's death. But he hardly knew her and they had never as much as even held hands. He had had a chance meeting with her at the art gallery and had invited her for coffee. But that coffee date barely lasted half an hour. Sigamani kept calling her and summoning her home. Durai had subsequently seen her at Shanthi's home and they had engaged in a sly exchange of glances and some quick cheeky banter during the rare moments of privacy when Shanti and his parents were engrossed in conversation. But that was about all. Priya had barged in on him during office hours a few times but they had never had any heart-to-heart talk. They had hardly even talked on the phone as he often worked late and did not want to distract her from her studies by calling her in the wee hours. Like a good Indian man, he had decided he would discover more about her and fall in love with her after marriage. He was sure theirs was a match made in heaven, as Priyan himself described it.
As he rode with her in silence in the police jeep that evening, he thought his chest would explode. His face was flushed with anticipation and his heart was palpitating. He felt he was sitting with a stranger, a stranger whom he so badly wanted to reach out to, a stranger whom he wanted to know and embrace. He wanted Priya to hold him tight in her bosom and say it was alright, that she had no knowledge of Priyan's dark dealings.
When his parents called him at home later that evening to announce that Sigamani had died, he was completely shattered. A primal cry from millenniums past echoed throughout the house minutes after he had hung up the phone. A cry so deep it seemed to penetrate through the substratum of earth towards the unknown depths. As he weeped unstoppably, he wished the earth would crack open and take him to the depths of a burning inferno. For he knew he had lost his soul and was simply bearing flesh and bones. Until Priya forgave him and infused life into him again, he was doomed to wander around in the nether regions.
Edited by Bonheur - 18 years ago
Udne Ki Aasha
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
