Chapter 30:
"Are you sure that's what she said? Good bye?" Keith asked me for the third time. I don't bother a reply but just sigh at the repetitiveness of the questioning that was going around.
"Khushi doesn't know anything about Anjali's involvement?" Shukla throws the question to everyone. Arjun has a stack of files that needs my attention but at the moment we are all ignoring it and analyzing the week we have had. As he had been cooped up in coroner's office, we are filling him on the cult case.
"Khushi knows that Anjali has enough back up to get herself acquitted or find herself in a deal that is made a pay grade that's at least three levels higher than mine. She is of the opinion that the kind of people involved are practically untouchable." Anjali had walked out pretty easily by the time Shukla and I were back at the station after finishing up with Khushi. But Shyam and Arav's disappearance had thrown her into a downward spiral. She was trying hard to figure out where her husband and son had gone. It was plain wrong how she maintained innocence with enough evidence proving otherwise. We couldn't convict her.
A part of me is slightly happy that my sister is safe at home and not toiling in prison but I wonder how much of her affection was real. It's an abyss I don't want to fall into but every time she tried talking to me I kept wondering if there was a greater meaning to that; that she was playing me for some information. I couldn't afford that so I stopped going home for sometime and crashed with Keith. It was like living with a teenage boy who had vendetta against organizing and cleanliness. Cleaning his apartment had given my hands something to do and mind occupied. Kieth had flushed looking at apartment and flubbed his hands in apology and gratitude. My friends company is safe.
"How is Anjali doing?" Arjun asks.
"I don't know. I am not living in that house anymore." I shrug carelessly. It hurts like a bitch but I don't make it a point to tell or show. "In three weeks my family is split into three factions Arjun. There was a definitive end to what happened to Anjali and I when our parents died. It was a fluke accident that took place because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. What we are today is because of a conscious decision made by Anjali. I cant live with a person like her. I...I just can't." She is the closest family member left. My aunt and uncle moved on when I reached legal aged their duty as guardians completed. Anjali convinced me to be a cop because I had the mind and the talent to do it. It had sounded so righteous when she lectured how I can influence and change society with my decisions and actions. Dewy eyed, I had taken exams after post graduations and gotten through. Did she convince me to be a cop because she expected a day like this would come? I cannot be sure anymore.
Arjun pats my shoulder and squeezes gently. I give him a watery smile and he backs off from questioning.
"What is Khushi up to anyway?" Keith is pacing across the room. There is a manic look in his eyes as he tries to dissect my conversation with Khushi. "Shukla, traditionally how does a cult like this one fail? If at all they have?"
Shukla is thoughtful for a moment.
"There are cults with religious connotation surviving for decades. They are popular and well known because of the people associated with it. The people associated would choose not to disclose their association with the cult. These cult adapt and morph into something much complicated like the one we have on our hands. These people aren't simply looking for salvation or want aliens to pick them up. They have much earth bound materialistic agenda. In worst case scenarios cults die out after departure of massive number of people." Shukla provides a simplistic and compact answer. There is something missing in his answer though. Deshmukh catches it.
"Don't some cults die out because their leader and his followers commit mass suicide? It's happened before, hasn't it?" Deshmukh frowns. Keith stops pacing, Arjun looks blankly and my heart sinks.
"That is true. These cults claim to have knowledge that general populace isn't aware of and they are the only ones who are going to achieve greatness or nirvana or something mystic because of their enlightened leader. You will be surprised how even educated and otherwise learned folks can become part of such a cult and carry out cult's missions." Shukla explains.
"Some cults do undertake actions against government or public because their very existence contradicts the cult's agenda. They believe they are helping the society by killing who they believe as unworthy." Deshmukh adds. "Like Aleph cult from Japan. Some followers carried out Sarin gas attack on subway. Now they are listed as terrorist organization of the activities the cult has performed over the years."
"The cult here, however, is shying away from public and is so intricately woven in our system that the members would do everything in their power to not be outed in public as something vile or bad. They want to continue to be this community with a common belief regarding peace, contentment and all that bullshit." Shukla explains further.
"So you agree with Khushi," there is a trace of anger in my voice. Khushi said almost same thing and when I told Shukla what Khushi told me while saying good bye made him thoughtful and he agreed that the cult was far too powerful for a bunch of police officers to take them down.
"I agree with the sentiment sir ji. We couldn't shake a simple player like Anjali. Do you think we can actually pin the freaky murders to the leader who possibly ordered the hit? Let's be realistic sir, if we try really really hard, we can eliminate some smaller players by threat or giving them the infamous third degree in police station. The rest? We cant even touch them." Shukla rationalizes.
My mouth suddenly goes dry. It's something in the way Khushi spoke that had stuck to me for hours after parting from her. She insisted what Shukla is saying now but she spoke as if she had come to a conclusion. She was in a position where she could be meeting all high honchos of the cult. She had access. I am confident she isn't going to turn against us. But I am suddenly scared what she could be thinking.
"What is she thinking of doing?"I blurt out without thinking. "She has been a fighter. She has fought for her survival and she knows exactly what the cult is capable of. Yet she wants to be there and..." f**k. No bloody way.
"Didn't we get an invite from the ashram's administration this morning - a personal invitation to attend some ceremonial nonsense tomorrow?" My hands are moving on the table trying to get my hands on invite. Khushi had kept her promise and did ask for me. Well she asked all of us to go to ashram for some high profile ritual she was heading. We would be both guests and provide protection to some half assed politician or rich guy. My station almost never gets such an invite and it was also surprising that though my station was out of ashram's jurisdiction I was still called for duty. Its not that it happens but my men and I generally escape protection duty. It seemed strange but now it seems was a strategic move by Khushi.
"I think she is planning something. She got us an invite because she wants to show her people that she has moved on from previous life or some shit like that. But that's not it. The invite is like a ticket to watch something...happen on the stage she has set up." I pace the small space behind my chair as I try to wrap my head against the idea in my head. The thoughts aren't pleasant and I am horribly scared. What the f**k was Khushi up to anyway!?
"What do you think she is planning?" Keith asks.
"Nothing good." I grit out.
Cold settles in the pit of my stomach. This isn't good. Khushi's defeated expression comes in front of me. If she had said yes, I would have gladly resigned and walked away from all this shit. It was a long decade and half since I thought about myself. Anjali and family came first. Work came second. The family is gone. Work is compromised. I am not sure what my priorities are anymore.
Isn't walking away easier? Isn't forgetting about past and things that are happening uncomplicated? I can simply move on with Khushi in a different town under different name. I can be something else. I can be someone else. I can be happy.
'You will not be happy. You will lead a life but never live the way you want to because you wouldn't be what you are. You would be trying to be someone who you are not. A personality doesn't come from adapting characteristics because they are useful to us. Its because who we are, those personality traits become us.' A voice eerily sounding like Khushi echoes in my head.
I collapse in my chair and ignore the strange looks thrown at me. "We will have to stop her." Is all I can say.
NOTE:Next chapter is the final chapter! :-)
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