by UD Yasha
He had agreed because of two reasons. First, the GSR test she was conducting was the first one of its kind, at least at the CFS Lab in Pune. That excited Gandhar. And second, he was young and eager to learn from her. So, she had arranged for the GSR sample to be delivered to Gandhar. She had kept the communication off CID records, but had taken precautions to file it into the system in case the evidence needed to be produced in court. She recorded a statement that said she had a reason to believe that putting the procedure in the system might cause her personal harm as she felt threatened.
Now, two hours later, she was back in her CID Lab, awaiting the results of the test. Even though the CFS had advanced equipment, they had to use an ad-hoc assembly to test the isotopes and elements in the GSR as the exact one was not available in India. As far as Sonia knew, only four forensic centres in the world had it, as the technology was still new. It meant they were going to need more time to find out if Jane Doe was responsible for the triple homicide.
Sonia was glad that she trusted Rathod but felt guilty at the same time. Even after she had told Rathod that she would test what he wanted her to, she had thought of reporting him to the ACP. But she had not, thinking she would give him the benefit of doubt. Her reason was based on her perception of Rathod. He was amongst the few officers who treated everyone with dignity and respect. Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, especially the higher up you went, was hard and rare. Amid all that, men like Rathod were scarce. He had never looked down upon her just because she was a woman. Her gender didn’t matter to him. He was just with everyone. That he trusted Siya Rajput so much also told her he had no issues taking orders from a woman, as long as they had the same vision.
While she waited for the result, she thought of conducting the ballistics tests on all the bullets from both the crime scenes. The task that Rathod had originally asked her to do.
Sonia knew that any kind of forensic testing in India was a problem. The crime scenes or the evidence gathered was often harmed because of improper handling. When she had joined the CID four years back, she had trained her staff for two whole months on proper methods to collect samples.
That’s why Sonia wasn’t happy with the way the two bullets from Stan Mills had been collected. Yes, granted it would be classified as a part of the anonymous tip. But a defence attorney could tear open the case simply based on proper procedure not being followed. It had occurred to her when Rathod had asked her to conduct the tests but she had let it pass, thinking Siya would know more about its admissibility in court. From what Sonia had gathered, Siya wanted to get to the bottom of knowing what happened to her father and such details were the least of her concerns if corrupt police officers were behind his disappearance. The anonymous tip would definitely help with it being admissible but it would still depend on the public prosecutor’s skills.
That was not her concern. So, she let it go and started with the bullets retrieved from Stan Mills. The logic behind such a ballistics test was simple. Each gun made unique marks, or striations as they were called by forensic experts, on any bullet that was fired using it. So, if two or more bullets have the same striations, they were fired from the same gun. Striations of all known fired bullets were recorded in a central system in India that was maintained by the Directorate of Forensic Science Services (DFSS).
If the firearm was retrieved and not the bullet, the process was elaborate as a bullet had to be discharged from the weapon. With just the bullets available, it was all about observing and recording the striations.
She watched the bullets under a microscope and recorded each striation. After ten minutes, a device beeped twice, confirming that both the bullets from Stan Mills had the same striations, meaning they were fired from the same gun. She next uploaded the pattern of the striations to the DFSS database. She wanted to keep it out of the system but there was no way around this. Once it was uploaded, she set up a search to see if the same gun had been used for any other known crimes.
There was no point in waiting so she started examining the bullets from the triple homicide. As she got the hang of the pattern under the microscope, she grew more confident that all the four bullets had been fired from the same gun. It was different to the one used at Stan Mills. After ten more minutes, her device beeped twice again to confirm what she already knew. She fed those striations into the DFSS database and set up a search for them as well.
Sonia sat back in her chair. It had been an exhausting day and she could not wait to go back home. She felt better knowing that her husband would be there to give her a nice back rub. She would then apply some Amrutanjan on her forehead and go to sleep to face the world of murders again the next day.
She whistled the tune of her favourite Arijit Singh song as she waited for the search to be complete. The software didn’t tell her the progress but she knew from experience that it could take up to an hour.
As the minutes ticked by, she felt relieved because the software always first checked the new entries against the most gruesome crimes like terrorism-related or horrific and unsolved murder cases. The crimes got lesser in intensity the further the search ran. She glanced at the clock. It was ten thirty-two, fourteen minutes since the search for the bullets from Stan Mills had started. It would be getting to lesser intensity crimes soon.
Just as she thought that, the software beeped once. It said:
1 Match(s) Detected.
EXPAND NOW.
Sonia stopped whistling and jumped from her chair. She stood in front of her computer. It had to be a bad one for the software to go off so fast. She had not expected it to.
She clicked the ‘EXPAND NOW’ button. A case file popped up. It was handled by both the Mumbai and Pune Police in 2002, which she found odd. She had not come across a case where two police forces were investigating it together. The case itself was of the unsolved murder of a woman named Sheena Ahuja. Why was the Pune Police also on the case? She read the case number. M-31222. She pressed another button to get the case summary.
A movement to her right and her attention was drawn towards her door. She could make out that someone was outside the opaque glass wall. She thought it was someone from her staff so she looked back at her computer.
The summary of the case took over her screen.
Sheena Ahuja had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the torso. The case had gone on for over four years before it was officially declared unsolved. The Mumbai Police had first rights over it. The Pune Force had joined a few days later. Just as she read the reason why both were jointly investigating the case, her attention was again drawn towards her door.
The person outside her office still had not moved. Sonia tried to play down the growing uneasiness that was creeping up on her. She didn’t realize what caused it. Seconds ticked by. The person outside had not moved. Who was it?
As she took a step away from the computer to see who it was, her door swung open and the person came in.
It was a man. Tall and well-built. He had grey hair that was cut short. She could not recognize him as he was wearing a black mask.
She froze.
Before she could take her next breath, the man raised his arm and pointed a gun at her. The next instant, two bullets, fired in quick succession, sliced through the chilled morgue air and hit Sonia in the chest.
A stinging pain ripped through her body even before she fell to the ground. She saw the blurred figure of the man walk up to her table and take something from it. The bullets, she thought helplessly. Maybe something else. How had security not stopped him? Before that thought could go out of her mind, she saw the man walk out from the same door he came.
At that moment, Sonia was only sure of one thing. She had a few seconds to live. She knew the dynamics of a gunshot wound to the chest too well. At times like these, knowledge was a bitch. She had conducted a lot of autopsies of a similar nature. She had seen the way arteries had burst open, causing internal bleeding and the heart to go into shock. She could almost feel her body and
mind collapse.
She somehow reached her phone which was clipped to the loops of her pants. Rathod had called her just a while back, so his name was fortunately on the ‘Recent Calls’ list. She put the phone on the floor. She heard a faint ring go through and then it stopped. She hoped with all her remaining life that Rathod had answered because the next words were going to be the last to ever come from her mouth.
She yelled, or at least she thought she did, ‘The bullet is a match. M-31222.’
Chapter Twenty-One
I got back home at almost ten in the night. My two hour-session with Komal had flown by. But it had been fruitful. I remembered her words. This is a victory for you, Siya. I had started to believe it the more I thought about it while driving back home.
Rathod arrived a few minutes after I arrived. We had varan, rice and sabji from the morning for dinner. While eating, I told Rathod, Radha and Rahul about my session.
When I finished, Rathod’s phone began ringing. He was surprised to see it was Dr. Sonia Joshi. Both of us looked at the clock. It was forty past ten.
Rathod answered the call. He said nothing and then got up suddenly a few seconds later.
‘Sonia, are you there?’ Rathod said, his voice stricken by panic. He called out her name again, and it appeared like he wasn’t getting a response. He tried again but got nothing. Then the line went dead.
‘What’s the matter?’ I said, realizing that something was very wrong.
‘M31222,’ Rathod said out loud to us. ‘Note that down.’
Radha typed it into her phone. ‘What happened?’ she said.
‘Sonia said the bullet is a match and then gave me that number, which looks like a case file number. That’s all she said’ Rathod said and then got up, picking up his keys from the dining table. He pulled out his phone and I saw him call Sonia again. ‘She’s not reachable,’ Rathod said and tried again. He ran to his car.
‘I’m coming with you,’ I said, following him outside.
‘Don’t right now. I don't know how long I’ll take at the CID office,’ Rathod said as he opened the door of his car.
‘You’re not driving alone right now. I can come back on my own,’ I said. ‘If Sonia’s not reachable, then try the CID Lab landline,’ I said.
Rathod had it saved on speed dial. He tapped the number and put the phone on speaker.
‘Get in the car, I’m driving,’ I said.
Rathod got in on the side seat. I put the car in gear and zoomed forward. Rathod swore under his breath because the call wasn’t being answered. Even if it was late, there had to be someone at the lab because of the triple homicide investigation. The call almost rang out before being answered.
Rathod said, ‘This is Senior Inspector Kapil Rathod. This is a potential code red situation. Check Dr. Joshi’s office and see if she’s okay.’
A woman’s voice said, ‘I will. I’m heading to her lab.’ We heard her loud footsteps as she dashed towards it.
I had been to the CID basement twice. So, I knew its basic layout. The Medical Examiner’s office was at the start of the corridor, away from the morgue, staff desks and the lab.
‘CODE RED! CODE RED! I repeat CODE RED!!!’ the trainee yelled out. ‘Officer down. I have to attend to her. She has been shot,’ the trainee said and the line went dead.
I drove as fast as I could, tearing past other cars and bikes. Rathod made a series of phone calls to the CID security desk and the Night Shift Incharge, a man named Kaushik Dabri. He asked them to close all exit and entry points, alert the CID officers who were outside the premises when the shooting happened to come to the office right away and register their entry at the gate. Dabri told him that he was gathering all the officers in the building in holding rooms on the second floor. Rathod also asked a Rapid Response Team to secure the CID building and search it, in case the killer was hiding inside.
We reached the CID building in eight minutes. I pulled over on the opposite side of the road.
‘This is going to take a while,’ Rathod said, stepping out. He ducked in through the window. ‘Head home. I’ll call you in some time once things calm down. Keep your phone with you. Don’t trust anyone but me,’
I watched him cross the road and enter the CID premises after showing his ID at the gate. I wondered how anyone could have slipped past security and the other measures and killed a CID officer inside their own building. Just a few months back, a client I was representing while finding a missing girl, had been taken out by a sniper through a small window in the interrogation room. I knew Dr. Sonia’s office had a small window at the ceiling to get sunlight. But that was too small for a sniper and the angles wouldn’t work out. To kill her, someone would have had to go to her office and then shoot her.
I heard an ambulance in the distance. Its sound grew louder with each passing second. Within the next minute, I could see it propel forward on the wrong side of the road. The security guards at the gate of the CID building probably had been told the ambulance’s number plate because as soon they saw it, the door opened and the ambulance swerved sharply into the CID premises.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rathod ran inside. Other CID officers were running in all directions. A loud chatter of conversation resounded. Amid all the chaos, Rathod saw Bhalerao speaking on the phone, asking the security guards if they had sealed all exits. He was off the phone by the time Rathod reached him.
‘What’s the news on Dr. Sonia?’ Rathod said.
‘It looks bad but I’ve been told she’s hanging in,’ Bhalerao said. ‘They have started an emergency-surgery on her in the forensic department itself. A senior doctor is on the way. An ambulance should be here any moment to take her to a bigger hospital once the operation gets done.’
‘How many people were present in the building when it happened?’ Rathod asked.
‘About thirty. The night staff, and three members of our team,’ Bhalerao said.
‘Can I tell you something quickly?’ Rathod said.
‘Yeah. What is it?’ Bhalerao said.
‘Not here,’ Rathod said and dragged Bhalerao into a small waiting room.
The door behind them sucked close, drowning out most of the noise. Rathod pulled a string to close the blinds. Just as he was closing it, he saw the members of the Rapid Response Team enter the building. They would search it from top to bottom for the shooter. They would also look for any clues the shooter had left behind that could reveal his identity or entry and exit plans.
‘I think I got Sonia shot,’ Rathod said.
Bhalerao’s eyes were almost going to pop out. ‘What? You? What are you talking about?’
Rathod told Bhalerao a condensed version of what had happened since morning.
‘She found something fishy, didn’t she?’ Bhalerao said after Rathod finished telling him.
‘I don’t know. She said the bullet is a match and then gave me a case number. I think just knowing that got her killed. Maybe the plan was to kill her if she found something. And Sonia is good. She did find something, she was always going to, if there was anything to be found.’
Bhalerao said, ‘You were right about someone high up the ranks in the police being involved. How else would they have got access to the building, let alone the information?’
‘I’m sure something is wrong with the CCTV tapes,’ Rathod said.
‘Yes, they are blacked out,’ Bhalerao said, shaking his head. ‘Somebody knew what they were doing. They also knew where to find Sonia.’
‘The timing was crazy. From the way she called me, it was as if she had just found out seconds before she was shot.’
‘One of the thirty people in the building has to be behind this.’
Rathod moved around in the room, feeling restless. He said, ‘Unless the killer found a way to get in and out. You said she called you soon after being shot. That gives the killer about a minute to get outside. Probably seventy seconds. Too short a time to go from the basement to outside the CID premises.’
<
br /> ‘The guards at the gate said that they didn’t see anyone go out for at least five minutes before the code red was issued and all exits were sealed.’
‘I have to tell the ACP,’ Rathod said. ‘There’s no other way. Without the information I have, this murder investigation will go nowhere for the CID. It will aid their investigation if they get to know how the evidence was obtained.’
‘You will be suspended. An inquiry into your actions will be set up. It can take months or even years to settle. You will be off duty till then. Even once you’re back, there’ll be a stigma. You would not get cases as you do right now. Your work will be restricted to filing reports and filling forms. Don’t do it, my friend,’ Bhalerao said and put a hand on Rathod’s shoulder.
‘But, Sonia wouldn’t get justice,’ Rathod said.
‘She will. You can still get to the bottom of all this. Didn’t you save the little girl six months back with Siya?’
‘I don’t know, Bhalerao,’ Rathod said. ‘I feel damn guilty. I put Sonia in that spot.’
‘I’ll look up the case number she gave you. Stay here,’ Bhalerao said, thinking a change of topic would do his friend a world of good.
Bhalerao walked out briskly to his computer and looked up the case. He came back to the waiting room five minutes later with a bunch of papers in his hand. He said, ‘The hit on Sonia indicates that someone very powerful is involved. So, I have taken a print out of all the documents associated with the case just in case they go missing.’
‘That’s great. Thanks. Do you have a soft copy as well?’ Rathod said, looking at the case summary.
‘Yes, here it is,’ Bhalerao said, handing him a sleek pen drive.
Rathod decided he would read the case summary later. His mind was preoccupied with what had happened to Sonia.
‘I know it sucks,’ Bhalerao said. ‘But there’s a chance that Dr. Sonia may live. You didn’t force her to help you out. She believed in what you told her. And that’s why she even made that call as she was dying. Have you thought about why she didn’t call her husband to tell him she loved him? Wouldn’t she have liked that? Obviously yes. But then, she called you. Because she knew that information would be useful to you.’
