by UD Yasha
Rathod handed it to her. She moved her gaze sideways and up and down. ‘The kids are home. I’ll call them to the living room,’ she said and went in.
She called her kids down. A boy and a girl, both a little above ten years old, came down. I could tell from their faces they knew this was about their father. By now they would be picking up on cues. They would soon be old enough to be reading stuff on the Internet. I wondered how they felt about their father. Was he so cunning that even his children believed he was innocent? I felt sorry for them. They had no control over choosing their father. I had seen so many families get destroyed because of the greed or cruelty of one of its members. It was always the children who suffered the most.
‘Please tell me where you keep your jewellery,’ I said to Manasa.
‘Upstairs. My room's the one to the right. There's a mirror behind which there's a closet. You'll find it there,' she said.
I moved up the stairs. Rathod accompanied me. We slipped on our gloves as we entered Manasa’s room. A family picture of the parents and kids taken just before Zakkal was arrested was kept by the queen-sized bed. The house, from what we had seen, was minimalistic. It was well kept and there was little furniture.
The closet was easy to find. I opened it and found all kinds of perfumes and beauty products inside. There were also four jars in the shape of a treasure chest. I opened one. It contained earrings and safety pins. I opened the next one. It had bracelets. The third one had bangles. The fourth had necklaces.
Rathod held open a large evidence bag. I put the small chests in it and sealed the bag. Sonia was going to have a lot of testing to do.
‘Let’s check the daughter’s room,’ I said.
‘Seriously? He would’ve given his daughter something he took from a person he killed?’
‘Ranjit Kadam said he could’ve given it to anyone in his life who was then causing him some sort of agony.’
We turned to the children’s room. There were two beds on either side along with a large bookshelf. It also contained a computer. The shelf also had pen stands, toys, puzzles and a small chest. Similar to the one in their mother’s bedroom. I opened it. It had two erasers, pen caps and one pair of earrings. I put the box in another evidence bag.
‘You want to look around more?’ I said.
‘We can search every inch of this house, but there’s no need right now. We can always come back later if we suspect anything.’
We went downstairs.
‘What all have you taken?’ Manasa said.
‘Just some of your jewellery,’ Rathod said, stepping forward.
‘You can’t do that,’ Manasa said and covered her face.
The burden of being Zakkal’s wife was finally weighing down. I could make out she was sobbing. She wiped her tears.
‘Please go upstairs. Play with something,’ she said to her children.
They exchanged a glance and followed their mother’s instructions.
‘Why are you taking them now?’ Manasa said. ‘Haven’t we suffered enough already?’
Rathod said, ‘Did your husband give you any item of jewellery?’
‘I don’t have to answer that. I know my rights.’
‘It’ll just make our job easier.’
‘Why should I care?’
‘Your husband gave us a clue from the prison,’ I said. I saw Rathod shake his head in my peripheral vision. He was not pleased I was divulging case information. I had a plan. I continued. ‘That clue led us to a place where we found human hearts. They’re confirmed to be of the women who Zakkal claimed to have taken. Some are not from that list. We also found evidence that the five women he had taken are still alive. ‘My mother’s one of them. He’s kept her alive for all this time. I need to get her back.’
Manasa mimed a laugh. ‘So, you're saying my husband held these women captive for so many years? How the hell could he have managed that from inside the prison?'
‘There have been new murders. You might have heard of the Bedroom Strangler on the TV. Zakkal admitted to knowing the Bedroom Strangler.’
Silence.
Manasa looked up at me. ‘How’s that related to my jewellery?’
‘We knew very little about your husband before. The new murders have thrown light on his personality and mind. We've a strong reason to believe that some of the jewellery he gifted you were picked by him from his victims.'
Manasa’s eyes bulged out. ‘No way.’
‘You’ve been saying all along that your husband is innocent. This is your chance to find out.’
Mansa shook her head. ‘You could’ve easily planted the evidence.’
I could not believe the level of trust Manasa had in her husband. Ranjit’s words came to me. He’s also highly intelligent. He can hide or tweak his emotions to manipulate you. ‘There’ll be traces of DNA on the jewellery that match with your husband and his victims. There will be your DNA on it as well.’
‘You’re lying,’ Manasa said and started crying. She hid her face with a pillow this time.
I glanced at Rathod who was still shaking his head. Our gaze met and he made a ‘what are you doing’ gesture with his hand. I wanted to push Manasa more, but I gave her a moment. This was hard for her. She had been told repeatedly that her husband was a monster. Her love and trust for him had stood strong. She knew a different Zakkal. Automatically, I thought about dad. I was convinced he would never harm anyone or walk away from us. Was I also being blinded by my love for him? One thing that my profession had taught me was that people can do unimaginable things. Sometimes it is driven by greed or pleasure. Other times it is simply an urge. It’s unbelievably strong and can drive a person to insanity if not acted upon.
My trail of thoughts was broken.
‘Yes, he gifted me jewellery,’ Manasa said, putting the pillow down. ‘Yes, he gifted me many things. I’ll tell you everything.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rathod spread the items from the four chests on the centre table. He gave Manasa a pair of gloves as well. She put them on. One by one, she began to stack them in two piles. She took ten minutes to finish. Rathod had purposely not shown her the chest we had picked from her daughter’s bedroom. She was cooperating finally, and we did not want her to go over the cliff right now. Rathod put the separated items in a different evidence bag. I helped him sealing the remaining items.
‘He gave them to me at various points of time. I always loved his choice,’ Manasa said. Then she looked me in the eyes. ‘And I’m only doing this so you’d get far away from here and realize that my husband is innocent.’
I said nothing. I had got what I wanted. There was still a chance that Manasa was lying. But it would not matter because all items will be examined for DNA regardless. I just wanted a starting point. Some items that Sonia could test first up. I had planned it through. If the item matched any of Zakkal’s victims, I would take it along when I went to meet him. It was high time I paid him a visit. He would have expected me to come by now.
We packed up and left Manasa with the demons of her own mind. I sincerely hoped she would soon accept her husband was a killer. Her recovery would only begin after that; just like mine had begun once I came to terms knowing that I had screwed up badly by letting Kunal Shastri getaway in the first place. We reached the CID office at a quarter to four.
‘I’m sorry that took long,’ I said to Radha and Rahul as soon as we reached.
‘We managed to get some work done,’ Radha said, shutting her laptop. ‘It’s Shadow who’s bored.’
We drove straight home. I wondered throughout how long I was going to be able to shield Radha and Rahul. This was the fourth day they had come with me. There were two weekends in the middle, so they had missed their work only for two days. Their lives had to go on. But that posed a direct threat, especially to Radha. She would not mind this, but I knew there had to be a more permanent solution. The ankle bracelets they were wearing would not help in the Bedroom Strangler not attacking them. It woul
d only be useful to track them if they were taken. The thought did not inspire much hope. I felt awful knowing that the Bedroom Strangler thrived on us feeling scared. I decided I would bring up the topic later that day.
I was exhausted from the day. I went for a shower after we reached home. The hot water streaming down my body felt mesmerizing. I stood under the shower for ten minutes.
After I got dressed and stood in the stairwell to go downstairs, the smell of steaming ginger tea wafted through the stairs. Radha was straining the tea when I went down. Rahul had fallen asleep on the couch. Shadow was also tired and had taken his usual spot next to the dining table to take a nap as well. I went to the kitchen and added a hint of milk to two cups of tea. I brought them to the dining table and sank in the chair.
‘I’m trying to find a more permanent solution instead of dragging you both wherever I go,’ I said.
Radha touched my arm and massaged it once. ‘Don’t worry about it. Let things calm down. I can trade and research stocks from outside my office as well. All I need is a laptop and a good internet connection. Rahul is managing his work remotely too. He’s taken the next two days off. Karan might be here as well this week. That’ll take some pressure off you.’
The problem was that we could not tell how long the serial killer would be out loose. Karan could not stay here forever. ‘Let’s take each day as it comes,’ I said, reminding myself while also telling Radha.
My eyes were heavy from the lack of sleep. I shook off the exhaustion by downing the warm tea. I headed to the garage. I turned to the murder board. I looked at the pictures of the four suspects on the murder board. Shaam Pundlik was still missing. Manoj Bedi and Anil Verma were being watched. Hardik Karve was still out there, free to do whatever he pleased. We could not touch him, not yet.
Out of all the suspects, Anil Verma was the oldest. Zakkal was eight years younger than Verma. Zakkal’s schooling had been done in Mumbai first and then Pune after his father’s death. I searched my desk for Vivaan Deshpande’s visiting card. I called his phone and as the phone rang, I could feel my heart beat faster.
‘Hi, this is Siya Rajput. We met two days back,’ I said.
‘Of course, I remember you,’ Vivaan said.
I noticed myself smiling. I said, ‘Can you please send me your file on Anil Verma? It’s for the investigation.’
‘Is there any problem?’
‘He’s a person of interest. He lied to me and the police. He doesn’t have an alibi either. I wanted to know more about him.’
Silence.
‘I'll send it to you,' Vivaan said. ‘Between you and me, I don't think Anil is capable of murder. He's in that in-between generation that can come off as weird to us, but he's a decent man.'
‘Thanks, but we need to follow up on every lead. I just need his file to get more information about him,’ I said, feeling sad, realizing that the conversation was going to end.
‘You’ll have it in five minutes,’ Vivaan said. ‘Is there anything else you need?’
‘That’s it for now. I’ll call you if I need anything more,’ I said and hung up.
I sat quietly for a spell, remembering Vivaan's tall frame and curly hair. I could vividly picture his smile. There was a charm in his conduct. I was grinning again. I snapped out of my daydream when my phone buzzed. I had never felt so light while talking to someone I knew so less. Was it because I had not met anyone for a long time? The only men I had interacted with in the previous year were either students who were at least five years younger than me or other professors who were almost twice my age. Something told me that was not the only reason for the butterflies in my stomach. I pushed the thought away. Guilt crept up inside me the next second. I could not afford to think about anything else right now but the case. Time was ticking. There will be plenty of time once I save maa.
I checked the notification on my phone. It was an email from Smart Tech’s HR manager as per my request. I opened the PDF file on Anil Verma. It had a detailed summary of his life, including his CV and other certificates. I scrolled down all the way to his schooling days. He attended a school in Delhi and then came to Mumbai for college. His first year in Mumbai coincided with Zakkal’s last year in Mumbai. Did they meet then? Zakkal was ten and Anil Verma was eighteen. They lived in different parts of Mumbai as well. It was improbable, but not impossible.
For now, I moved Anil Verma under ‘cooler’ suspects. I was waiting for Rathod’s officers to find Shaam Pundlik. Manoj Bedi and Hardik Karve remained under ‘warm’ suspects. I thought back to my conversation with Ranjit Kadam. I began thinking about my theory that Supriya Kelkar was not the first victim of the Bedroom Strangler and that he had killed before. In that case, I wondered why he had chosen Supriya as his first public victim. I felt answering that question could lead us to his identity. We could then work backwards how he knew Zakkal.
After thinking for a while at my desk, I went back to my murder board. I made a list of what we knew about the Bedroom Strangler.
1. He’s friends with Zakkal
2. He’s smart
3. He’s manipulative
4. He’s physically strong to strangle over and over again
5. He appears to be normal
6. He has killed before (?)
The change in sedative given to maa popped up in my head. Not every layperson knows about the usage of Propofol. Sonia had said that it could be obtained from the black market at a higher price. I looked up Propofol's price in India. There were generic equivalents to it available as well. The cheapest generic substitute you could buy in India was for one hundred and fifty rupees. That fact that he had spent that kind of money for five years week in week out, told me the Bedroom Strangler was financially comfortable. Was he using the same drug on other victims as well? I wanted to call Sonia and ask her. But she was already swarmed with work. She would tell me as soon as she found out. Instead of calling and disturbing her, I left her a text asking the same once she got to know.
Obtaining Propofol was one aspect, having the knowledge and expertise to administer it was another. I also remembered Sonia telling us that the needle insertion for the blood taken from Supriya was smooth.
I looked at my list and added three more points.
7. He’s rich
8. He has medical knowledge
9. He’s a doctor (?)
One of our four suspects was a doctor. Shaam Pundlik. He had lied about his whereabouts to his family and was still missing. I called Rathod.
‘Did Sonia perform tests on the items we recovered from Zakkal’s house?’ I said.
‘Not yet. She’s busy with everything we found today morning. The ACP wants to know who is still alive amongst those women.’
‘What has she found so far?’
‘Hair of two women Zakkal had not claimed to take is also there. We're exploring if the Bedroom Strangler took them. We're trying to find a match for one of them. We've located the other. She stays in Magarpatta. She went missing eighteen years back.'
‘Same profile as the others Zakkal took?’
‘Yes. She also disappeared into thin air like the others.’
‘Can you please ask Sonia to check the jewellery against Zakkal’s known victims?’
‘I will do that. But it’ll take time. She’ll only do that once she finishes testing all the hearts and hair we found today morning. There could be something there helps us get to the new killer.’
‘Then at least let me meet Zakkal before. He’d be dying to know we’ve found his treasures. I want to see his reaction when I show him one of the earrings he picked from his victim.’
‘There’s a high chance he’ll try to make a barter of some kind. The ACP is talking to authorities higher up to see what we can offer him. They’re discussing.’
‘What's on the table right now?'
‘Just some upgrades to his cell. But he’ll want more. They’re deciding what our upper limit is. Meanwhile, we’re also broadcasting a public advisory. The
new killer is on the offensive so we’re advising all women to stay safe, even if they’re indoors.’
‘That’ll cause havoc and spread panic.’
‘I know but it might also save a life. Better be safe than sorry.’
‘While I wait, can you please send me Zakkal’s movement logs within the prison from the past year?’
‘I’ll ask Warden Shetty. He’s cooperating with us so you should have it soon.’
‘He has no choice. His prison has been breached,’ I said and hung up.
I sat in silence for a spell. Shadow noticed that I was free so he walked up to me and made me pet him. I gave him a treat from the jar I kept next on my desk.
My eyelids became heavy. It was just six in the evening. I saw the sunset through the half-open garage window. The curtains fluttered ever so slightly. I felt like sleeping for a while. My head had become numb from exhaustion. I wondered if a twenty-minute power nap could energize me.
I was suddenly wary of stepping out. I peeked out and then ran to the door. I immediately locked the doors after me. I sat in the living room for a spell to get back to my senses. I do not know what had scared me.
Radha and Rahul were both probably sleeping. I went to my room and drew all the curtains to make the room dark. I collapsed on my bed. I pulled the quilt up to my neck and snuggled a pillow. I set an alarm for thirty minutes. Before I knew it, my eyes shut into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Shit, I thought as my eyes opened. What time was it? How long had I slept?
It took me a few beats to realize that my mobile phone was ringing. I flipped in my bed as my hands searched for my phone on the side table. I covered my face for one last time before I would have to wake up. I eventually found my phone. I realized then that it was not my alarm. I was getting a call. The harsh brightness of the lit screen made me squint my eyes. It blurred my vision, but even then, I could make out the name of the person calling me. Kapil Rathod.
