[Reid, Hotchner, and Prentiss are at the train station where the latest victim was abuducted.]
- Reid: You're here to target a woman but you don't want to attract attention.
- Hotch: Well, standing in the middle gawking at passing women is going to attract attention. [sees Reid gawking at passing women] Like you're doing now.
- Reid: [snaps out of trance] What's that?
- Prentiss: And just like that, [snaps fingers] an IQ of 187 is slashed to 60.
--- Criminal Minds
Chapter 07:
I am in backseat of my car with Khushi.
Keith managed to pluck keys from my hand after one look at my eyes and the dark
circles surrounding them. My insomnia is worse than ever and my juniors are
smart enough to notice and not comment about it.
Eating out was a good idea and inviting
Khushi was even better. Shukla and Keith had let go of calling her as professor
Gupta the moment she asked them to call her by her given name.
I rest my forearm on the window and close
my eyes as the wind ruffles my hair. Dusk is slowly dissolving into night and
there is a faint twinkling of stars in clear sky. I make shapes of symbols from
crime scene using stars as guiding point. I formulate all questions once more
in my head hoping Khushi would be able to answer more than half of them. Night
deepens and the suburban traffic thins with passing minute. My eyes feel heavy
but I force them to stay open. I am not ashamed to fall asleep on drive with my
colleagues in car. This simply isn't a good time.
There are no more knots in my forehead or
crick in my neck. The drive to the crime scene is good to my body and I let out
a sigh of pleasure when breeze cools my nose. I lean back on the seat when I
car pass the familiar street.
"You
don't sleep much, do you?" Khushi asks me. There is sheen of worry in her
eyes and her mouth is tightly set. I smile at her charmingly which I can see
has thrown her out of balance. She hadn't expected my megawatt smile.
"Let's
go in," I respond instead. Keith and Shukla are already by the door. Keith
uses my car key and breaks the seal on front door.
Khushi winces the moment she enters the
house.
"It's
the smell of all the blood here. The crime scene is still preserved."
Shukla tells her kindly. He sighs when he looks at the multitude of footprints
in the hall. "At least what's left of
it," he adds looking at me. Khushi doesn't understand the last part and
looks at me for clarification.
"Sometimes
the constables we post outside a crime scene don't follow our orders and end up
letting in reporters or anyone with a microphone and a camera." I don't
hide disappointment in my voice and Khushi nods at my explanation.
"Crime
scene is this way." Keith calls her from inside. Khushi walks past me and
Shukla and enters the room. She double takes at the sight of blood and holds
her grimace.
She takes out crime scene photos I emailed
her earlier and has even gotten them enlarged; they are all photos of Vimal's
body. She places the photos on the table just how Vimal was found.
"We
could have shown you Vimal," Keith tells her feeling uncomfortable to be
surrounded by bloodied walls.
"This
will work too," Khushi replies.
Once she is satisfied with the photo
arrangement she looks at the entire crime scene.
After several moments of silence, I blurt.
"What do you see?"
Khushi smiled. "You see this symbol here?" She points to Vimal's naval area which
is surrounded by several smaller symbols. The three of us peer at her finger
closely. "This tells us the reason
behind this ritual."
Keith looks disgusted. "The reason is marked on him? That's cold
man…that's cold." He runs his hands in his hair and rocks on his heels.
Khushi's eyes are still transfixed on the
photos. But she looks up to explain her view better. "Every ritual has a reason. Just how every action we do in daily life is
associated with a reason, these rituals are no different. Reason can be
anything – darker the reason complex is the ritual."
"What
do you mean by dark reason?" Shukla is intrigued. I have a vague idea of
what's going on but I don't want to take my theory to the table yet.
Khushi chews her lower lip for a moment and
thinks. "These rituals come with a cost.
It's believed that the person who conducts the rituals should be as pious and
disciplined as possible. People who commission these rituals would be giving a
part of themselves to achieve their goal Inspector Shukla. Nature doesn't just
give without taking something from you first. That's how you maintain a
balance."
Keith blinks at her. "You lost me."
"Let's
say, I am the high priestess of the tribe who can perform the rituals – the
person who is believed to have the power to call upon dark elements of nature
and make them do your bidding." I can sense her voice quiver a little but
she masks it effectively by pacing around the table. I idly wonder why she
refuses to look at me the whole time. "A
client comes to me and asks me to help him get promotion in office because he doesn't
believe that he can beat the person standing between him and the promotion. So
what I do is perform a small ritual which makes him achieve his goal. But the
rules are strict and it asks him to give up something."
Keith nods in understanding. "Frigging complicated, if you ask me."
We chuckle at that but no one responds.
"What
does this one suggest?" Shukla asks pointing to Vimal's naval area.
Only now Khushi looks at me. I do not know
the reason for that but her eyes bore into mine. "Someone wanted his power." Her voice is shaky but I can see she is
trying her best to control.
No one speaks for several minutes. Khushi
is observing the wall and my eyes manage to get stuck on that one damn symbol.
It was the symbol of high priestess and Khushi vouched in morning that it
wasn't possible. She hadn't answered my question then; I still remember.
"Is
it really the tribe's work?" Keith asks the question which is swimming in
all our minds.
Khushi turns around and faces us with an
unreadable expression. "No, this isn't
the work of that tribe. This is a cheap rip-off." Anger laced her words. I
am surprised at her outburst.
"Are
you sure?" I ask hesitantly.
She nods. She walks to the wall directly in
front of the table and points to the symbol which is bothering me. "This is wrong." She taps it with her
gloved hand fervently. "The symbol's position, size, orientation –
everything is wrong. The body position is not right. The symbols which are used
here are indeed correct but their arrangement is wrong." There was visible
relief in her voice.
"I don't
understand what you are trying to say here Khushi." Shukla questioned.
"Someone
is trying to mimic what they are not Inspector Shukla. This is not an act of
people from that tribe!" Khushi snorted in amusement. "It is someone who has enough knowledge about the culture and has
probably interacted with the real members of the tribe. And this person or group
of people is using that said culture to make profit."
"It
could be possible that they haven't learnt properly about their own culture, isn't
it?" Shukla pressed.
Khushi shook her head. "That's not possible as far as I understand
this tribe Inspector. But then again, you never know." She shrugged.
"How
sure are you about this?" I intervene. Shukla and Keith look at me
questioningly but I ignore them for the moment. Her theory complements what I was
thinking couple of hours ago quite nicely.
She simply looked at me with a raised
eyebrow. "If the guy who killed Vimal
made a mistake in this crime scene, then he would have made in others too,
right?" I ask the room.
Shukla perks up at that. "Those old case files I dug up…"
I nod at him. Khushi bristled. "Wait. Are you saying there are more of
these crimes?" Her voice is strangled. She is still fighting a fear. That's
another mystery I will have to solve along with this case.
"I
have narrowed down seventeen of them dating back to more than two decades. I
need you to look at them and tell us if they fall into this pattern." I ask
her. There is urgency in my voice and she notices it almost immediately.
"I
can do that." She replies gently.
"Do
you know what kind of person or people we are looking for?" Keith asks.
Khushi takes her gloves off and stares at a
symbol thoughtfully. "The person who did
this or who is orchestrating all this is well versed in the culture."
"And
you mentioned a high priestess who might be in charge of," Keith cottoned
on. Khushi nodded.
"And
this person will have resources – both money and personal." She frowned as
her eyes scanned the walls once again. "I
do not understand the motive bit here but it could be simply money or power. My
bet is on power; if the person is adhering to standards of the tribe, then it
would be power they would be interested in. A standing or position in the
society will be promised."
"How
many people can there be who knows this stuff?" Shukla wondered. I don't want
to go there right now. It makes our perspective skewed and narrow minded. But I
cannot escape the inevitability what I have already predicted.
"Keith,"
I begin. "Find out everything about
Vimal. I mean everything." I stress the last part. In one week Keith will
tell me every private detail, even the ones he has hidden from his friends and
family.
"You
think he holds key to the mystery?" Shukla asks me.
"Him
and Helen. He probably got pulled into something he didn't want to because of
Helen." I look at Vimal's photo on the table and strangely enough, there is
no sympathy within me for that man.
"Can
we go now?" Keith asks weakly. He is paler than usual and I can understand
the nausea. Shukla doesn't wisecrack today – strange, and we pile out of the
house together. The constable comes running to us and covers the main door with
another new tape.
It escapes all of us that Khushi is still
with us. The ride back to the station is filled with discussions with Khushi
explaining many facets of the tribe to us and how it didn't fit with what was
done in the room. She was convinced that someone was copying the rituals albeit
badly.
Only when the car pulled into the lot, the
three of us looked at Khushi.
Shukla and Keith spluttered apologies.
Khushi and I exchange glance to see the two of them offering her to drive. "I am headed home for a bit. I will drop
her." I announce once again pulling my rank.
Keith turns and goes to the station and
Khushi walks back towards the car. Shukla stares at me blatantly without an
expression on his face.
"Oh,
shut up." I huff in annoyance. A smile creeps on his face and disappears
soon.
"Try
not to come back to station." To any observer it's just words. Only I can
dissect the emotions behind them. I shrug noncommittally and walk to the car.
She is standing by the passenger door
waiting for me. Under moonlight she looks like someone from centuries ago
manifested in modern day. She lacks the accessories that women tend to
associate themselves with. Everything about her was natural.
Then why have I started to get this feeling
that something was terribly out of the place?
Why this feeling that she was hiding
something really important from me?
Reader commendation: P4rveen12 - Your comments are always a ray of sunshine. From giving your perspective on update to thanking for the PM you received. Really, I should be grateful for the continual support since I started writing Gravity. I know that I do not answer all your questions because many times you ask questions which are necessarily the crux of the plot. I must apologize if you thought I have you ignored or put it in back burner. Trust me, it isn't so.
Thank you so much for your comments.
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