by Ruchi Singh
"The army files say that Negi is an orphan. And the nanny's file indicates that she is an only child and a child-less widow. No official records of her marriage exist, so we don't have information on her husband. The address given here is of a village near Ranikhet. There is no mention of any other female relative. So who is the other girl?"
"Maybe she is a friend or a teacher." The girl looked smart and well-groomed.
"Also, there are no phone records that connect Nagi and daija," Uday said.
"But the tattoo does tell us a story. I'm willing to bet my two eyes that the man will also have the same tattoo right where he had marked Vikram."
"I don't want you blind under any circumstance, Major." Vikram stood on the doorway looking at the new evidence on the board. He seemed to make peace with Esha's excursion last night. "What do we have here? You both seem quite elated."
Uday updated him on the progress they had made last night without taking names of any of the family members. The nanny, Shubha Thapar, and the man, Shivam Negi, were related somehow. Circumstantial evidence pointed to the fact that these two were involved right from his kidnapping. The motive, though, was still to be established.
"My team is also combing the train and plane records to see if he had travelled to Delhi, but I'm sure I'll not find any evidence under his official name. I've sent two of my men to the village in Ranikhet and by evening, we'll get some information on the Negi family. I think you should ask Mrs. Seth to come here." Uday added the last bit in a softer tone. "Maybe she can throw some light on the photograph or the names."
Vikram nodded and stepped to the board, taking a closer look at the photographs.
"We should put a trail on the nanny, Vikram," Uday said.
"Fine." Vikram kept looking at the board.
"Great. I'll come again in the evening for the next update." Uday nodded at Esha and left.
"So, are you happy?" Vikram asked still studying the photos.
"Happy? No. More like relieved. We now have a concrete lead."
"Do you know what this could do to my family?"
She couldn't understand his line of thinking, so she waited for him to clarify.
"If Jindal is involved, it'll taint my sister and my nephew's life." He still refused to consider the possibility of Vandana being involved. "If this is something related to my childhood, my mother will blame herself."
"Anything will be better than them seeing you dead."
He chuckled and turned towards her. "You have an amazing knack of driving a point home."
"Did it work?"
Looking solemnly at her, he pulled her to him and kissed her. She responded with equal fervor, her body hungry for his after that night.
"Let's go to my room," he whispered against her lips, as his hands pulled at her shirt tucked at the waistband.
"Lots of work here. Have to study the phone logs once more." She pushed him back, worried by the findings and tension of the investigations.
"Give it a rest. You have been at it for the past three days, not to mention the nights."
"Sooner the better." The sentence brought with it the realization that she'd have to leave after the culprits were behind the bars. She stepped back with a fresh resolve of getting back to status quo, sure that she would never be able to fit into his world.
Sensing her withdrawal, he released her and switched to his professional avatar. Sitting behind the desk, he took a full update on the investigation. In the end, he called up his mother and requested her to come there whenever she was free.
Asking Esha to call him when his mother arrived, he went up to his room to catch up on his own work, leaving her restless and edgy, wallowing in her own emotional conflict.
* * * *
Seths' Residence, Mumbai
3rd November, 1:00 PM
"What is it Esha? Let's get over with it fast, I have to go to—" Mrs. Seth froze as she saw the crime board. "Why do you have daija's photo here on the board? And who is the—" She staggered back when she saw the picture of the trio.
Esha rushed to support her and eased her onto the sofa. She handed her a glass of water and called Vikram over the intercom.
Mrs. Seth sat sipping the water at regular intervals, keeping her eyes averted from the crime board.
"Are you okay" Vikram asked the moment he entered, crouching beside the sofa. "Do you recognize anyone from the picture?"
She sighed and nodded, then closed her eyes.
"Do you want to discuss this now? We can do it later, whenever you feel up to it."
"No, no sweetheart. If it relates to that scum who is out there with a gun pointed at your heart, I'd rather do it now."
Esha mentally applauded the woman for her strength and objectivity.
Vikram patted her shoulder, as Meera Seth took a deep breath again and began, "That woman in the center worked for your father as a junior secretary and..." she threw half a glance at Vikram and Esha, then continued, "...and your father had an affair with her. I got to know about it and had a huge row with your father. She was sent packing immediately after."
Vikram frowned, staring at the woman in the picture.
"What's her name? When was this?" Esha asked when saw a speechless Vikram reeling with the impact of what he had heard.
"Saraswati Negi. This was before Vandana was born."
"Negi! Thirty-eight years!" Esha couldn't help but say it out loud. This didn't make sense. "The surname matches with the man. He could be her younger brother. We can get her personal information from the office records, but... Mrs. Seth were you aware about any of her family members or where she had gone?"
"No. I haven't heard from her in so many years. Oh my God, is she taking revenge? From me? After so many years? Oh God... your father's name... our family name... it'll be all over in the newspapers!"
"Calm down, Mrs. Seth." Esha crouched in front of her. "We won't let the media get a whiff on it. But do you remember anything else? Any minute detail... anything will help."
"Stop tormenting her, Esha." Vikram took her hand between his. "Don't worry, mom. We'll handle this. It's okay. Just relax. No one gets to know, I'll make sure." He took her to the family's rooms upstairs.
Esha glanced at the photo again and added one more event to the timeline. Thirty-eight years! The span of events didn't make any sense to her, assuming that they were in this together. So the woman was ditched in year zero and they had tried to kidnap Vikram after fifteen years, when he was nine. Here the question was why him, why not Vandana. She wrote the question on the board.
After this, Vikram went to the US. Assuming that the trekking incident with Nikhil was not an accident, the first attack happened when he was twenty-seven, the second attack happened in Delhi after five years, and the third happened in Mumbai, soon after the attack in Delhi. While the first one was made to look like an accident, the other two were blatant assassination attempts. They or he was getting desperate. He no longer cared for himself.
But why only Vikram? Why not Vandana?
The landline rang displaying Uday's number on the screen. She picked up the phone.
"Oh no. Goddamn."
"What happened?" Vikram entered the room.
"Daija is missing."
He pursed his lips. "I have to go to the office."
"Why?"
"I need a file from the office safe."
"I'll bring it."
"No."
"Can't you ask Koel to bring it?"
"No, she doesn't have the code," he said.
"But you can't go. The old woman has gone underground. They must have sensed something."
"For the same reason you can't go too."
"Come on... it's my job, I'm one of the PAs. They don't know about me."
Raking his hair with his finger, he exhaled. "Okay fine, but take Jay and the guards with you."
"I'm only taking Jay and Uday's man stationed outside. More than that will arouse suspicion."
"What the hell! Okay fine.
"
* * * *
November 4th
Seth Towers, Mumbai
4th November, 11:30 AM
"Oh, you are here! To work? I thought you are earning your salary by warming his bed," Koel said the moment Esha entered the office. "I can't understand what he sees in you. Emaciated, ugly bitch." She continued her tirade as Esha stepped into Vikram's office.
Koel looked a little dull and dejected—maybe she was missing Vikram. Ruthlessly putting Koel and her disposition out of her mind, Esha entered the digits on the electronic panel of the safe and found the file. Closing the door, she smelled something sweet and turned to find Koel standing right in front of her.
Before Esha could react, Koel sprayed something on her face and Esha collapsed in dead faint.
* * * *
Suburbs, Mumbai
4th November, 4:30 PM
It was cold.
The first thought that came to her mind as Esha gained consciousness was that she was cold and weak. The second thought brought in acute panic. Though fully clothed, she was drenched with, what seemed like, water. But she couldn't move. Memories came rushing, overwhelming her senses. Koel was his accomplice! Goddamn! Fear made her stomach churn and her skin broke into painful goosebumps.
As her eyes focused on her surroundings, Esha found herself in a small, eight by eight room that had a single, narrow iron bed and a chair at the foot. Yellow glow emanated from the earthen lamp on the floor and the fire in the havankund.
The massive life-size black idol on the wall opposite to her and the Mahakaali yantra pattern on the floor didn't surprise her, but fear knotted her stomach as her gaze landed on the man clad in a loin cloth, sitting cross-legged in front of the havankund. He muttered something under his breath as he put something in the fire at regular intervals. The pallor of his skin matched the fake skull garland around the deity's neck. Thank God she could make out that they were fake.
The flickering shadows from the crackling fire, and the massive, sharp knife kept on side of the pattern sent slivers of fear cascading down her toes.
Clamping the feeling of doom, she concentrated on the room. Since when she had been lying here? There was not a single opening in the room through which she could make out the time of the day. Stark white walls and the crude cemented floor told her that someone who didn't have much skill in masonry did it.
She was tied on an iron bed—she judged from the rods cold against her arm. Her left arm was tied to a crude wooden scale and jutted out from the bed. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the positives. She could move her fingers and toes, an action that ruled out any extensive injury. But her arms ached. The injured shoulder had become stiff and the left arm had a series of cuts. She craned her neck and spotted a brass vessel kept below her arm that collected the blood. Her blood!
Some cuts had stopped bleeding and blood had coagulated leaving ugly maroon welts, but some bled with varied speed. No wonder she felt weak. The bed squeaked as she struggled against the nylon ropes tying her.
The man opened his eyes and turned towards her. Recognition dawned. Shivam Negi looked older yet sturdier than the photograph Uday had unearthed from the army records. Again, she wasn't surprised. Now that the moment of suspense was about to be over, she waited for the man to start the conversation.
He was to be feared, she had known the first time she had spotted him near the guard room. Of course at that time she didn't know who he was. But now that she knew, it took all her will power to mask her fear.
"Don't worry. He'll be coming soon. Your role will be over the moment he's here," he said smiling and poured something in the holy fire. The firs hissed and sputtered making the shadows dance on his face and all over the room.
"What's the point?" She hoped he didn't hear heart drum.
"You'll know soon. Have patience. I've kept my patience for such a long time."
"Really? How long?"
He chuckled.
"How many years?"
"Inquisitive, aren't you?" He smiled, the expression more like a grimace. "Since the day he was born, of course. You didn't even exist then."
"What if he doesn't come? Why would he come for me?" Esha hoped Vikram called his bluff.
"Oh, he'll come. I know him too well. He'll come for any of his servants loyal to him. And you are more than that. You are not mere staff. I know. The attraction of flesh. He'll definitely come. I have sent him a sweet looking picture of yours and a message. And to his mother too. Wanted his father to witness this day when they'll lose their precious son, but the bastard died too soon and too easily. But the bitch will pay."
"Why?" she frowned. "Why him and not Vandana Seth?"
"Didn't madame tell you all? One conniving old woman our Mrs. Seth is."
He poured ghee in the havankund, the flames sputtered and rose higher.
"Why?" Esha asked again ignoring the theatrics.
He glanced at her and sneered.
"Vandana is our blood. Seth Sr. and my Sara's daughter."
"What! Who is Sara?"
"Quiet!" he screamed and picked up the knife. "Don't take her name with your filthy mouth."
Esha throat dried up as the blade glimmered in the glow of the fire.
"Vandana is family, our blood. My Sara's daughter," he clarified when she kept quiet and kept the knife down.
Next second it hit her. Sara was Saraswati Negi. Esha reeled with the revelation. Not in a million attempts would she have guessed this fact. And why did Mrs. Seth hide this information when she had identified Saraswati Negi?
"Madame was unable to have a child and Sara was pregnant with her husband's child." It seemed he wanted to talk. Keeping the secret for such a long time, he wanted to be heard. "So she made a bargain with my innocent Sara. A one-sided bargain, where madame got her husband and a child, and Sara had to leave the city, never to return. All our hopes, aspirations, and poverty-free future died with Sara's one signature on that document." His eyes had a glazed look and his lips had curled, he was on a roll. "My Sara could never recover from the heartbreak. I had to leave school. Shubha had to work in houses like a maid. We had made our peace with that, thinking that at least Vandana will get everything. But then suddenly, the junior arrives and once again Vandana is sidelined, married off to that scum."
He picked up the knife and made another cut on her arm. Esha winced. Her blood trickled into the brass vessel that he had shifted under the fresh wound. She wanted to drift off into blissful sleep again. But that was not a choice. To fight the pain and dizziness, she concentrated on his story.
"Was that the reason you kidnapped him first?"
"Yes, I didn't want to kill an innocent child."
"Then you tried to kill him during his trek, since he was an adult and Vandana was married?"
"You figured that out?" He raised his eyebrows, then smiled. "Admirable. Don't talk much woman and surrender to the divine."
The next moment, Esha heard Vikram's voice over the speaker phone. Her heart drummed into different fear-inducing beats. A moment later, Vikram's face appeared over the monitor.
'No, no, no.' Esha shook her head to focus clearly. Why did Vikram come here? Didn't Uday drill some sense into him? He was playing into the hands of this madman.
"Oh, he is here," Negi squealed. "Wonderful."
He went to the microphone. "Vikramaditya Jr., I see you. Welcome to my humble abode. Remember I have eyes on you. No one else approaches the door or your sweetheart dies," he said, then crackled with insensible mirth. He flicked a switch. "Now open the door, step inside, and close the door. No one else approaches the door," he repeated.
'No, no, no.' Against her wish, Esha saw Vikram follow the instructions.
Negi pressed the switch again. "Very good, now keep the gun, and all the arms that you have in that basket at the beginning of the stairs and come down. Oh, by the way mind your head!" He again laughed uproariously at his own joke.
A few minutes later, Vikram appeared in the doorway
. He gasped when he saw her on the iron bench and took a step towards her. "What the hell!"
"No, no... stop right there." Negi waved his gun. "You can't touch her. I have purified her, she is for the divine. Sit down on that chair."
"Vikram, you moron." She struggled feebly against her shackles, wanting to stand with Vikram, stand in front of him—it was her place, her duty. Nikhil would have been so disappointed.
"What the hell have you done to her?" Vikram snarled and stepped forward.
Negi placed a gun on Esha's temple. "I can shoot her right now if you don't cooperate."
The threat froze Vikram where he was, and his hands fisted by his side. "You are surrounded from all sides. You know you can't escape."
"Do you think we care?" daija said appearing in the doorway.
Esha closed her eyes. Great, the team was complete. They were going to die along with the madman and the old woman, Esha was sure. She desperately tried to find a weak knot, but couldn't. She was losing consciousness even though the blood had reduced to a trickle from the fresh gash on the arm. She forced her eyes to open and think of some way to save their life.
"You are going to drop the gun and we'll not press any charges," Vikram said.
Negi hollered like a maniac and kept laughing.
"Do you think the police, arrest, charges matter?" he shouted suddenly. "Do you even have any idea what your father and mother did to Sara... to us?"
"Who is Sara? What have my parents done?"
"Shut up and stand back. Don't take Sara's name like that. She is Saraswati for you... a Goddess, a pure soul." Negi poked the gun at Esha's temple and Vikram sat down on the chair.
Esha gave up all hope of coming out alive from the room.
"Aditya?"
The stern yet soft voice jerked Esha awake from the faint she was sinking into. Esha's unusually calm heart began hammering again to see an old woman standing at the end of the stairs with Vikram's gun in her hand. With grey hair hanging down her shoulders, she looked like a doll who has aged in the tattered pink salwar suit. A smile broke on her face as she looked at Vikram. Hope glimmered in the dim room.
