by UD Yasha
‘What’s happening?’ Radha said, her voice full of concern.
Natasha brought her hand down from her mouth. She stopped shivering. She tapped her leg again. She took five sharp and short breaths.
She opened her mouth. Was she okay?
The doorbell rang. Radha ran to open it. I could make out Dr. Pande’s voice when he spoke to Radha. Natasha opened her mouth again. She froze and could not close it. She touched her cheek with her hand.
‘Come here fast. She needs medicine,’ I said as Radha arrived with a glass of water as Dr. Pande ran towards us.
A sound came from her mouth. I could not make out what it was.
And then Natasha Gill spoke for the first time.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Natasha spoke each world clearly: ‘He has a golden tooth. I do not know anything else.’
She started crying again. She buried her face in my stomach. I patted her back.
‘Thank you so much,’ I said. ‘You’re a brave young girl.’
Everyone was stunned. Rahul and Atharva had also come downstairs. All of us exchanged glances. I patted Natasha’s back. She was sobbing uncontrollably. Dr. Pande stepped forward to examine Natasha. Radha got his attention by tapping his shoulder. She took him to the other end of the hall and spoke to him in a hushed voice.
Twelve minutes went by before Natasha calmed down. She was holding me tightly. She loosened her grip after a spell and let go of me. Everyone around us stepped away so as to not scare Natasha.
‘Do you want one more chocolate?’ I said.
Natasha stayed still for five heartbeats. Then, she tapped her leg.
Relief flooded through me. She was back. My heart thudded against my chest. I went to the fridge and got one more bar of KitKat.
‘Here you go,’ I said and handed it to Natasha.
I checked the big wall clock to my right. Nine thirty. We had got a valuable piece of information. Now, we needed to act.
I realized maa was trying to get my attention without Natasha knowing. She tapped herself twice and then did the same thing in Natasha’s direction, telling me that she would look after Natasha. Maa had also been upset just a short while back. I did not want her to go through the same emotions again. But Dr. Pande, who was standing behind maa, gestured for me to take her word. I felt relieved for a beat, knowing that he was here. Radha used to call him a God-sent gem.
I turned to Natasha. She was still having her bar of chocolate ‘Is it okay if I go for some time? I said. ‘My mother will be here with you.’
She tapped her leg with the bar of chocolate in her mouth. I planted a kiss on her forehead and went upstairs. Radha followed me up. Rahul and Atharva were already in my room. To my surprise, Dr. Pande followed me as well.
‘What’s the matter with her?’ he said the moment the door closed.
I told him about everything. It was nine forty-five in the evening.
‘I can examine her,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t tell her I’m a doctor. Not so long ago, I worked in the paediatrics department at Sasoon Hospital. I got along well with kids.’
‘Yeah, I was going to request you to do it. I’m just very concerned that her health is deteriorating and we don’t know about it.’
I turned to everyone else. ‘She remembers a man with a golden tooth.’
‘We haven’t met or spoken to anyone who has a golden tooth,’ Rahul said.
‘The girl uttered eleven words. That’s it. It has to be important. What is a golden tooth anyway?’
‘Is she using some sort of a metaphor?’ Radha said.
‘I don’t think so. She’s not even ten,’ Atharva said. ‘But she might have heard someone say it. And then it could have got stuck in her mind.’
‘I think she described a person. A man with a literal golden tooth,’ I said.
‘Like a tooth capping,’ Dr. Pande said.
‘Exactly. But who is she describing? The person who took her?’
‘Does Jaggu have a golden tooth?’ Radha said.
Radha had a point. Her last captor was Jaggu. I called Rathod.
‘Can you please check if Jaggu has a golden tooth?’ I said.
‘What?’ he said.
‘Yeah, long story. Please check and tell me.’
‘I don’t think he has one. I would’ve noticed it otherwise. I punched him several times last night and today morning to get the truth out of him.’ Rathod paused. ‘What’s the matter?’
I told him what Natasha had said.
‘I’ll look up our database for convicts with a golden tooth. Tell me if anything else comes up,’ he said and hung up.
The very next moment, just as I brought my mobile down from my ear, it started buzzing again. Someone was calling. I looked at the screen. Jay Parikh. I pressed the little green icon and put the phone on speaker.
‘Siya, I have cracked it. I have cracked the accounts file.’
Chapter Forty-Nine
Heat rose from my face in anticipation. We are so close. I remembered Rucha’s smiling face from the photo that Atharva had shared with me.
‘Please go on,’ I said.
‘Radha shared with me the code that she wrote that told for certain that the funds from their accounts had been used to buy Bitcoins,’ Jay said. ‘I got timestamps of when the transactions were made. I then cross-referenced it to the payment made to the chatroom Bitcoin wallet. I considered a lag of two days between the two. Let’s call this sample set A. I made another list of all payments made to the chatroom based on the location from where the payment had been made, which was easy because the chatroom stored that data.’
‘What did you find, Jay?’ Rahul said.
‘Sorry, I got carried away. I found that Sumeira Gill and Malini Sinha were paying the chatroom in Bitcoin.’
‘What were they buying?’
‘They were buying medicines from the people who controlled the chatroom.’
‘You mean drugs?’ I said.
‘No, medicines. Not branded but generic medicines. They have all the properties of a proper medicine but are priced cheaper because they’re locally produced.’
‘Why were they buying medicines from the Dark Web?’ I said. ‘Even normal legitimate pharmacies had generic medicines if they wanted cheaper alternatives.’
Radha said, ‘Why would they buy medicines? It doesn’t make sense. I spent six hours going through their financial records. I know they spent a lot on them through proper pharmacies. Are you sure it’s not something else?’
‘Do you know the names of the medicines they bought?’ Dr. Pande said.
‘Yeah, I’ll forward you the list of medicines they purchased,’ Jay said. ‘I found forty different users paying a similar amount to the chatroom. I used Radha’s code to get them. I’ll forward their names to you. Four of them, including Malini and Sumeira, are from Pune.’
‘Great work, Jay,’ I said.
‘That’s not it. I found a video file in the data as well. I’m very close to decrypting it. I’ve cracked the code to fifteen per cent of the pixels. I’ll send it to you as soon as I am done,’ he said and cut the call.
‘This doesn’t make sense. I thought the chatroom was something bigger,’ Radha said.
‘We’re missing something,’ I said. ‘Mule entered the chatroom by paying two crore rupees. He wasn’t a fool.’
‘Maybe even he was expecting it to be something else,’ Rahul said.
‘He wouldn't have kept working on it if it was a drugs marketplace—even the hard kind like cocaine and heroin. There’s something much more than just generic medicines,’ I said.
‘I know pharmaceutical companies have insane profit margins,’ Radha said. ‘It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. They could be testing out a new product or maybe even selling it a premium on the Dark Web. It’s entirely possible to have a parallel black market of legitimate medicines on the Dark Web. Maybe Mule was trying to expose a scam to loot innocent people who bought these medicines.’
<
br /> I considered Radha’s point. It was possible. Pharma companies across the world spent hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying to make sure their profit margins stayed intact. My phone buzzed in my hand again. It was a message from Rathod.
No hits on the golden tooth.
I read the message out loud. Radha’s laptop chimed. ‘Jay sent me the names of medicines that Sumeira and Malini ordered,’ she said.
‘I’ll have a look,’ Dr. Pande said.
Radha handed me her laptop to give it to Dr. Pande. He put on his reading glasses and squinted his eyes as he read. He put the laptop on the bed.
‘You told me Natasha has Atrial septal defect. Have I got that right?’
I nodded.
‘Can you tell me what symptoms she reported?’ Dr. Pande said.
‘A vast array fatigue, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Just two months back, her cardiologist told her mother to take extra care of Natasha. The blood pressure in her lungs was high,’ I said.
‘What about the girl who is still missing?’ Dr. Pande asked. ‘What’s her name?’
‘Rucha Sinha,’ I said. ‘She was a premature baby. She was a kilo and three hundred grams when she was born.’
Dr. Pande’s eyebrows went up in surprise. ‘That’s very low. An average baby weighs twice as much. What symptoms does she report?’
‘She has bronchopulmonary dysplasia which causes lung inflammation. She has had asthma since birth and has been generally weak since then.’
Radha said, ‘Her immune system has been weak since birth. She had to be hospitalized at least fifteen times till she turned five. Even now, she falls ill with the slightest change in the weather. She has a range of other health issues from constant cough and common cold to high fever.’
‘Can you tell me more about their parents?’ Dr. Pande asked.
‘Sumeira Gill, Natasha’s mother, was raped by her husband. She was conceived at the time of one such instance of abuse. He died from a heart attack. Manohar believed Sumeira killed her husband because she could no longer take his abuse. We only have circumstantial proof as of now. But Manohar seemed to have accepted my answer before he was shot. We’ve got a warrant to exhume her husband’s remains. An autopsy will tell us what exactly happened to him.’
‘What about Rucha Sinha?’
‘Malini Sinha had a good marriage. She was a well-known doctor before she had Rucha. But then she stopped practicing after Rucha was born.’
‘Why?’
‘Malini had a tough pregnancy. She had to take care of herself as well as Rucha. She began working again once Rucha was slightly older.’
Dr. Pande put a finger to his mouth. ‘They both had complications around the time of the birth of their child.’
‘Do you think that is connected to what is happening?’ I said.
‘I thought so too,’ Radha said. ‘But there’s nothing they have in common apart from having issues around their pregnancies. Their doctors were different. The hospitals were not the same. Even the exact issues they faced were different.’
Dr. Pande joined his palms in front of his face. I had seen him do the same thing when maa asked him for his opinion. I had been present for their early sessions. His face was determined as he narrowed his eyes.
Finally, he brought his hands down. He looked at me. ‘Siya?’ he said.
I stepped forward, raising my eyebrows.
He said, ‘Can we please talk privately?’
I nodded. ‘Sure,’ I said.
Dr. Pande said, ‘Let’s go to your mother’s room. ‘I think I may have figured out what’s happening.’
Chapter Fifty
I followed Dr. Pande to maa’s room. My heart thudded against my chest as I stared at him, wondering what he had learnt.
‘Wait here for a minute,’ he said as he exited the room. ‘I need to confirm my theory. I’ll be back.’
He went downstairs. I went to the stairwell to try to hear what was happening. I heard him talking. But his voice was too soft for me to make anything out. Two minutes later, I heard Natasha start crying. Just as I started for the staircase, Dr. Pande returned. He held up his hand.
‘She’ll be alright,’ he said.
‘What happened to her?’ I said.
Dr. Pande did not answer my question. Instead, he went inside maa’s room. Only once I was inside well-lit bedroom did I see that Dr. Pande had gone white. His forehead glazed with a thin layer of sweat.
‘You should sit for this,’ he said.
‘What’s the matter?’ I said. ‘You’re freaking me out.’
‘I’m also freaking out right now. I don’t know what’s going on or what to believe.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Those medicines that they ordered from the Dark Web…’ Dr. Pande massaged his temples. ‘I had heard about it. But I never thought I would ever see it actually happen,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘You thought you’d never see people ordering medicines from the Dark Web?’ I said, confused. My heart drummed faster with every passing second.
‘No, not that,’ his voice trailed off.
I had never seen him Dr. Pande this upset and uneasy. He was the epitome of equanimity.
He continued. ‘The medicines ordered from the Dark Web are far from the right medicines you would give to children who are suffering from all the things you told me they had. ‘In fact…’ He stopped halfway and sat on the armchair next to the bed.
He took off his glasses and placed them on his lap. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and and dabbed his forehead with it. He said, ‘I don’t know how to say this. I’m sure of it though.’
‘Dr. Pande? Can you please tell me what’s happening?’
‘Those medicines don’t cure the ailments that those children have,’ he said and paused. He turned away and looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot. He said, ‘Those medicines are the reason those children are so sick.’
‘What?’ I was confused. What does that even mean?
‘The mothers…both of them, they’re poisoning their own kids. It’s a disorder. The condition is called Munchausen syndrome by proxy.’
It has a name?
My stomach sank. I could not feel my hands and legs. What was Dr. Pande talking about? Jay Parikh’s words came to me. You will come across hell on the Dark Web.
Dr. Pande said, ‘I know it exists but I never thought I would actually ever see it.’
Silence.
‘I checked Natasha’s blood pressure right now. It’s normal. Eighty by one twenty. She doesn’t have a high blood pressure problem. One of the medicines Natasha’s mother bought off the Dark Web was a blood thinner. Even if you give one tablet every two days to a child that young, her blood pressure will hit the roof. With regards to Rucha Sinha, her mother was buying a medicine called amiodarone which is used to treat abnormal heartbeats but a dosage of more than four hundred grams per day can lead to toxicity that causes scarring of the lung tissue. Her mother was a doctor, right? No way would she have given amiodarone to her child. I’m sure Rucha Sinha was weak at birth. But her mother made sure that she remained weak. Hell, she had made her weaker. Both the girls will have to go through a thorough medical check-up to find out exactly what was being given to them, what damage it has caused and how it can be reversed.
More silence.
‘The mothers,’ I said. ‘I can’t believe it. Why would a mother harm her own child? What’s the condition called again?’
‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy.’
‘What causes it?’
‘No one really knows. But there are theories. Mothers or caretakers could do it to get attention—as crazy as that may sound. When they harm their child in some way, they rush to get medical care for them. By taking them to the hospital, or telling other people about it, they feel like they are the centre of attention. Apart from that, they like it when people sympathize with them and praise how nice they are to be taking care of their c
hildren. People call such mothers selfless and loving. Little do they know….’ Dr. Pande’s voice trailed off.
He was pacing fast from one end of the room to the other while speaking. He went on. ‘Why would a mother harm her child? It’s a difficult question to answer. There are theories. Many times, the mothers who harm their own kids have been abused in some way. There are other risk factors like complicated pregnancies, physical harm and mental torture. These are just guesses made by psychiatrists like me. Studies have been conducted on the topic. But no conclusive reason has been found. It’s the darkest side of the human personality. The person who is supposed to protect you and love you unconditionally is the one who starts hurting you. The children are helpless. In many cases, they can’t even tell right from wrong. They don’t realize that something unusual is happening. They just listen to their mothers. Believing your parents, especially mothers is embedded in our genes. It’s true with all animals, not just humans. But when a mother is suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, children are in serious danger when they are around their own mother.’
My face felt hot. I wanted to scream out loud. A mother hurting her own child? A mother causing harm to her very own offspring. What sort of a world was this?
‘We’re lucky that Natasha and Rucha are still alive. There have been instances in Munchausen syndrome by proxy where the children die as a result of the abuse,’ Dr. Pande said.
My stream of consciousness was broken. Something that Jay said came to my mind. There were four other women from Pune who ordered medicines from that Dark Web chatroom. There were forty more women outside Pune. Were all these mothers harming their own kids?
I scrambled to reach my phone to call Rathod. This needed to stop right now.
Just then, my phone began buzzing in my hand. It was Jay. I answered the call right away.
He said, ‘I’ve found the location of the massive building in the blueprint. It’s huge. Like a mammoth warehouse.’
