I don't hide my surprise and neither does Keith. He is back with preliminary reports from medical examiner's office. We are both surprised with the number of files Shukla has managed to pull in three hours.
"There are at least seventeen cases here which the stations admins thought fit to our description." Shukla pushed the files in front of me.
I feel drained. "We will have to look through each one of them and see if they are related."
Shukla sat down. "This doesn't cover entire city sir. Just five stations," he kept his face straight but I can see the storm behind his eyes. My Blackberry rings but I ignore it.
Keith pulls the stack towards him and checks the details on the file. "Some case are more than a decade old. Unsolved," he sympathized.
Shukla and Keith looked at me waiting for my next set of instructions. I am unable to take my eyes off the first file I picked up moments ago. They look at each other trying to be discreet but I catch their weary glance anyway.
"Let's talk about the medical examiner's report on our way to restaurant." I stand up marking an end to the current conversation. Keith lets out a sigh filled with relief and excitement and Shukla is stoic as ever. Keith picks up the report and walks past us first.
"It was a good call." Shukla wasn't a man of many words but he acknowledged appreciation wherever it was due. I simply shrug. "But something else is bothering you." He notices my hesitation.
"What's the guarantee these kinds of murders haven't happened outside our city border?" It throws him out of loop, I can see it. His shoulders freeze and his gait is abnormally slow.
"We cannot rule that out," he says slowly.
We walk out of station in silence and see Keith waiting by SUV.
"Let's take my car." I don't see a need to attract unnecessary attention. My Blackberry buzzes again.
"Aren't you going to take it?" Keith asks me distractedly. I do not respond. That's an answer in itself.
I note belatedly how my junior officers have forgone their uniforms and dressed casually. We haven't forgone our weapons in the process though.
Keith breaks the peace in the car by commenting on report. "There was a cocktail of neural inhibitors, muscle relaxants and things to keep him awake through the whole damn process. He was killed couple of hours later."
"I wonder if keeping him alive was because it was necessary as a part of ritual or the killer's sadism." Shukla turned and looked at Keith.
"Professor Gupta may be able to answer that." Keith suggested winking at Shukla.
"I can see you in rear view mirror, you know?" I deadpan. Keith smiles sheepishly. "What is the cause of death?" I ask not really enjoying driving all that much. I should have listened to Keith and handed him the car keys when he outstretched his hands by the door.
"It was due to one swift cut across his neck. He died almost immediately." Keith summarizes Arjun's reports.
"Did Helen die of poisoning?" Shukla asks. More papers are shuffled.
"Yes. There were no defensive wounds or any wounds at all on her body. It's as if she committed suicide." Keith said and frowned. "Do you think she knew what was going to happen to Vimal?" He wondered aloud.
"Why did she have to die? She had a solid alibi and she if she refused knowing anything about a plot to kill him, there would be little or no suspicion on her. It is strange." Shukla replies. I allow them to dissect the ME's report and analyze what we have learned in past sixteen hours. I don't participate and I pay attention to the conversation mutely.
"She could have been threatened. Her family could have been threatened. She got spooked and took the poison pill." Keith hypothesizes. "It doesn't make sense. Her committing suicide wouldn't help her in anyway. Had she been alive she could have at least bargained a deal for the knowledge she had, if she did that is, of Vimal's murder."
"Maybe she knew bargaining would go nowhere. So she took a way out which was the only solution from her perspective." Shukla effectively played Devil's advocate.
"Living is better than dying Shukla. She had money, could have run away if she wished to." Keith sincerely felt sorry for the woman.
"Don't be so hyped up about living Keith." Shukla turns back and looks at the road in front of us unblinking. "There are people who would vouch otherwise." He adds. Keith and I exchange a glance via rear view mirror. Keith doesn't bring it up again.
"We can conclude that she was being threatened and that's why she killed herself," Keith summarized for good measure.
"Or…" I decide to chip in. Shukla whips his head towards and Keith leans forward in his seat; his face stuck between the two front seats. "Or she was simply following orders." I finish softly. I can see that Shukla and Keith have similar expressions on their faces. I was building a hypothesis in my mind which was really an out of the box scenario.
"What do you mean by that?" Keith broke the silence again. The kid can never tolerate long pauses let alone bouts of silence.
"Let's say for argument's sake that there are at least a dozen cases which are similar to that of Vimal's and it do indeed involve a twisted ritual. What does that give you?" I throw the question out in open as I was having hard time convincing myself that it was remotely in the realm of possibility.
Realization dawns on Keith first. "A cult."
Shukla latches on immediately. "And that would explain how Helen got into an elite party and got hooked with Vimal. But…" I know the reason behind hesitation.
"But sir, it's a huge leap from what we currently have as evidence." Keith finished it on behalf of Shukla.
I shrug nonchalantly. In my non-verbal cue it was merely an extrapolation of an idea. But my instincts told me otherwise. I can taste the fear in Khushi's eyes and the way she had withdrawn her hand from one of the photos as it physically hurt her. There was something bigger at play, I could feel it.
I don't share these thoughts with my team and listen to their brainstorming session with practiced patience. I know very well that Khushi is going to play an important role in solving this murder. I just don't know how far she has to embrace her fear and delve into darkness which I had witnessed today morning.
*****
Shukla rolls his eyes when Keith hogs all conversation time with Khushi. I don't interrupt and eat my food slowly. Keith declared the moment we stepped into restaurant that we aren't to talk shop. After introducing Khushi to two inspectors she will be working with, I slink back in my own shadow. Even Shukla comes out of his shell and throws in a smile or two. Keith doesn't bother hiding his astonishment. After so many hours of talking about death and gore, it's relaxing to talk and listen about life. Khushi is far from being socially awkward and even manages to get Shukla to open up.
I hold her eyes couple of times over food and they hover for a moment longer than necessary. I declare it as our own private conversation. I wonder if she is thinking I am a creep or worse a psychopathic stalker with an official weapon. But every time she looks away, a barely there smile plasters on the edge of her lips. My short comings don't feel short anymore in those moments.
Khushi orders dessert: hot jalebis. It's utterly cliched and agonizingly adorable as we stand in a street corner and eat the dessert. She says it's the best place in city to eat this sweet. Keith lets go of his inhibition after the first bite of crispy sweet heavily coated with sugar syrup melts in his mouth. Shukla is strangely calm and is telling Khushi about how it's traditionally eaten in his home town. She goes into her nerd mode and questions him endlessly about the culture, his ancestors. Shukla replies patiently and encourages her to visit that place.
It's probably the first time he is talking about his family other than Keith or I. Khushi is naturally charming and has stupefying communication skills which make her an easy person to be with.
Yet, there is something lurking behind her smiling eyes. Her eyes are constantly looking over her shoulder without letting anyone know.
What is she afraid of? Or, who was she afraid of?
Thanks again everyone for you comments.
Reader Commendation: Thank you so much greenMoss for your continual supporting and summarizing of the updates. You always manage to come back to the story and ensure you read and comment. I love this spirit of yours and thanks for sticking with the story so far.