Eternal Return: Ch 9-16 summary; 26/July/2015; pg 101 - Page 53

started.

Originally posted by: -Sookie-

Links are fixed!

Very intriguing, crisp and unpredictable so far. Unlike 'Till human..." i felt this story is more personaised as in terms of leads. I don't want to compare just for a single reason because ER mainly focused on self discovery where as Till human was more of finding the truth. Though the genre may remain the same but the psychological aspects determines the path of this story.

Now will start reading O & MM 😊

Oh...Omerta thread closed...

Chapter 18:

"Assuming the guy was somewhere in his twenties during first set of murders wouldn't that put him in his 50s or 60s by now? Is it even possible for a person of that age to pull off murders like these?" Emily stirred her coffee cup more viciously than necessary.

"It isn't entirely improbable. The dormant period could be because he was jailed for some other reason. If you add the life sentence given in this country, it will add up with his age." Maan replied.

"So the moment he comes out of prison he starts killing where he left off?" Emily asked.

"It's not improbable. The man would be resourceful, confident and organized. Being jailed wouldn't deter him. He would have kept himself updated with happenings around the world during incarceration. He may not have experienced the changes that's happened but he understands all of them in theory. The thing is Emily, this is all speculation at best. The current cases may as well be the works of a copycat or someone who has been studying the old set of murders. The thing is - we don't know for sure if the murders are connected. But the possibility exists and that's what we will be working with." Geet replied.

"What next?" Satya interjected.

"We dig deeper." Maan said. "Geet and I went to check Bhagats residence last night and what we found there was...nothing good." He shook his head. There were lot of things he had seen in his career but every time a child got involved, it threw him off his game. Nisha Bhagat's room had managed to do that to him.

"Its quite possible Nisha Bhagat was a victim of child abuse. There were all the markers in the room indicating that." Geet said softly. "It is either that or she is incredibly scared of something and is hiding that from her one or both the parents. The girl carried a burden on her shoulders and it showed in the way she kept her room."

"Should I talk to her friends and teacher?" Emily asked Maan. Maan nodded his reply.

"You found something at Guhas?" Geet asked looking at Emily. "Maan mentioned the photos in the living room were reorganized."

"The maid was saying how Mrs. Guha was a real slave driver. She made the maid clean all the crap she has in living room every weekend. The maid wasn't around for two weekends. Except for the photos hung on the wall every other item on the wall, show case, book case had a very thin layer of dust." Emily answered.

"Mrs. Guha gets bored one morning and reorganizes the photos on the wall." Satya replied.

"And then she goes ahead and wipes the photo frame and its back so thoroughly that its so sparkling clean that she doesn't leave her own fingerprints on them?" Emily countered.

Maan and Geet shared a look.

"What's changed in the photos?" Geet asked.

"The photos on the wall are that of the family posing for pictures on different occasions. There are couple of photos of just the mother and son, father and son, the parents and all of them together. I am not sure what it represents but they have been rearranged differently now." Emily shrugs.

"I will have to take a look at it and study other photos in the house. There is an instinct playing when we pick up photos from a pile as we subconsciously project a narrative that's been playing in our head. Sometimes it represents a fantasy that we want to embrace or a surreal moment that we wish belonged to us." Geet explained.

"Could it be a way of communication?" Maan asked quietly. Geet looked up, surprised at the softness in his voice. She had a feeling he wasn't telling her everything and that was becoming more and more evident when they spent time in crime scene. It wasn't the distraction that came with the detachment and cynicism the job made one choose but failing to reign in the errant thoughts that ran in head to the point of madness. It was a hard place to be. She knew that.

"Is that communication or an affirmation for the act done?" Geet replied instead.

Maan let out a strangled laugh throwing off everyone in the room. "Every evidence in this case is the lack of evidence. Every act the killer hasn't done is its supporting proof. However he goes out of his way to arrange few pictures of the family which may possibly give us an idea why he is doing what he is doing. Why would he compromise the crime scene like that? He could have simply walked away after everything was done and the crime scene would be pristine. Yet he gives himself away with his action."

"Bhagat's house didn't have any pictures. They didn't have much to show off about the dynamics of the family, in fact." Geet frowned. "But the state of the master bedroom and the daughter's bedroom gave us some idea; parents slept separately and maintained different rooms. The girl was living in fear of someone or something. She was definitely closer to her father - there were some coffee mugs, art work on refrigerator etc. But the killer didn't find anything to rearrange there." Geet sighed. "Unless he has changed something but we aren't able to pick the difference."

"Maybe the killer didn't change anything because everything was perfect." Emily said. "Did the killer identify himself with Anuj Bhagat?" She asked, distracted in her thoughts. "Or did the family represent what he hated the most?"

Her question was followed by a long stretch of silence as each one in the room was engrossed in their own theories. Everything they had found till now was debatable. There was no concrete forensic evidence which could at least kick start an investigation on paper. It was just hypothetical and heavily theorized.

"And I still cannot say for sure if there was only one or more than one killers," David said, breaking the silence. "Yes, there is some evidence showing that you said before," he said looking at Maan. "The shallow cuts on the adults in both the cases indicates that the strength behind the swing was less and matches to that of a child."

"Or someone who is physically incapacitated," Emily interjected. David nodded with a smile.

"Its possible Emily but in case of an adult, the choice of weapon would have changed had that been the case." Geet replied. "With the kind of violence we have seen, inflicting pain was the primary goal. So a larger knife would have achieved better results. So why wasn't that used?" Geet threw the question to the room.

"Because the hands that hold the weapon are small." Emily whispered to herself. "Or the killer thrusts the weapon the in hands of children and ask them to stab their parents."

"Then how did they end up similar depth on their own body?" David asked. "The angle of entry is perpendicular to the skin so the child would be laying down when knife went through him. Had it been his own hands inflicting the wound, it would be angled a little. And the condition the boy was in - he wouldn't have that kind of energy in him and not to mention the dire situation they were in. The wound would have been a much deeper cut if assisted by the killer themselves integrating with the rest of the wounds. But that isn't the case. It's another thing the killer did purposefully because its requirement. And that some of the wounds are postmortem. So no way the child was involved." David finished his analysis.

"Are we seriously considering a minor to be a partner in these gory murders?" Emily all but shouted.

"I don't know Emily. But the possibility exists. For now, however, we can consider that there were at least two people involved in the murder of two families and are somehow related to three murders from two and half decades ago." Geet replied.

"I think we have to revisit your father's notes on the old cases, don't you think?" Maan asked.

Geet shook her head. "After we finish talking to the friends of children. We cannot rule out the possibility of them being victims of abuse - domestically or otherwise at this juncture."

"Let's regroup a week later. I don't think we can complete it earlier." Maan replied. The underlying order in his words weren't lost on his people as the room was empty within moments barring Maan and Geet.

"Did you talk to my father?" Maan asked when the two were finally alone.

Geet sighed. "Don't go there Maan. He simply wants you to-"

"I don't know why he thinks he can fix everything. Somethings are unfixable - like me." Maan sounded tired than being angry. In her book it was never a good sign.

She stood up and dusted her pants, adjusting the pleats. "Of course you are unfixable Maan," she said candidly. Maan's face fell and hurt was evident on his face. "And that's because you aren't broken. You have some issues but who doesn't?" She shrugged and picked up her belongings. She swallowed a smile when her eyes caught the slight twitch of his lips.

This conversation was far from over. She had a bad feeling that the case was worse than what they all had originally anticipated. She only hoped to make out of it unscathed.

UPDATE

wow it's really thrilling. i m hoping for regular updates.