by UD Yasha
Shukla said, ‘Your father was a suspect in your mother’s disappearance.’
‘Kishore Zakkal was behind that.’
‘Are you sure?’
I said nothing. I glared at Shukla.
He continued. ‘Your father has been missing for the past sixteen years. He vanished himself three months after your mother was taken. He was a suspect then. With this new murder, he is a suspect once again. You’ve to admit it’s a real possibility.’
Silence.
Shukla said, ‘Anyway, keeping our personal differences aside, I feel you should be careful. Zakkal’s victims were of a similar age as you. From the looks of it, the Bedroom Strangler also targets the same age range. Because you’re so close to this case, make sure you keep an eye on your sister as well.’
I tried to stay calm. Anger boiled inside me. I wanted to ask Shukla to get out right then. Before I could say anything, he helped himself out.
‘I need to go,’ Shukla said and turned to Rathod. He turned to me to say something but stopped just as he opened his mouth. He shook his head and headed out.
I wondered why he had come to visit me if that’s all he wanted to say. Maybe it was because he felt the need to exert his dominance or show off his power.
Just then, Rathod got a message. He said, ‘Supriya Kelkar’s husband and children will reach Pune in an hour. We were going to speak to the husband. You can come if you want. We’ll go to Yerwada Jail directly from there.’
I nodded.
‘I’ll pick you up in thirty minutes then,’ Rathod said and jogged out to meet Bhalerao who was already waiting outside the gate in the CID van.
As I watched them go, I knew this case was going to take every ounce of courage, determination and will that I had in me, all the while the cloud of my family’s security hanging low.
Chapter Thirteen
I realized we needed to ramp up the security at our house. CCTV cameras, a lock on the main gate and higher fences would be useful. Shadow was a barker when he saw or smelt someone new but apart from that, he was not much of a guard dog. I called the security contractor whom I knew from my days of working with Santosh Wagh.
Radha and Rahul also needed to be secured. They would both be heading out for work in some time. Even Shama would be back soon after meeting Karan.
I had two ankle trackers from the days of first investigating Zakkal. Santosh was adamant that I put one on. I had kept them with me, eventually forgetting about them till now. I found them at the back of my cupboard.
‘You’ve to put these on,’ I said, holding the two trackers.
Radha took them. ‘But what about you?’ she said.
I had also pulled out my Glock 9 from the cupboard while looking for the trackers. I removed it from my waist holster and showed it to Radha. ‘This will be useful for me. I’m also downloading an app on my phone that transmits my location to you two at all times. There’s an emergency button in the app that alerts you and the police if it is turned off.’
That seemed to satisfy Radha. I went to the garage. Shadow followed me out. He had never been to the garage so he sniffed it around. I settled into a reclining armchair. The high from the previous night was wearing off. I massaged my temples.
I needed to be alone. I also needed to answer three questions. Firstly, how Zakkal knew the Bedroom Strangler? Secondly, why had the Bedroom Strangler chosen Supriya Kelkar as his victim? And thirdly, why had Zakkal revealed after all these years that maa was alive? What was his end game? Answers to these questions were at the crux of the investigation. I understood I was important to Zakkal and thereby to the Bedroom Strangler.
I could not help but think that Zakkal had a bigger agenda by putting maa’s hair at the crime scene. I also wondered why he would have kept her alive for sixteen years. Did that also mean that his other victims were alive too?
Shadow got up from the floor and let out a growl. The gate made a sound a moment later. I pushed a curtain to see Rathod at the gate. I waved him in. He had been to my garage office once before when I had handed over the evidence I had collected to the CID.
I said, ‘I think everything he’s doing now was planned in advance. He has just initiated the plan now. We’ve only seen the first step. Zakkal obviously knows the Bedroom Strangler. We’ve to figure out how and from where. Zakkal trusts him enough to tell him where he has hidden his victims. They could have also been communicating in some way even after Zakkal went to prison.’
‘I have already requested access to all the letters, messages and any other form of correspondence Zakkal has had with the outside world since he was arrested. There could be something there that connects him to our killer. The authorities will keep it ready by the time we go to visit him.’
The thought of seeing Zakkal in sometime sent anger rippling through me. I tried to push it away. I said, ‘From what I know of Zakkal, he’s a control freak. He would like to have some sort of influence over the Bedroom Strangler even from inside the prison. That meant, he also had immense trust in the Bedroom Strangler. Zakkal had to have known him from before he was arrested.’
‘Let’s see what he tells you.’
I suppressed the rising anger again.
Silence.
‘First, we have to meet Supriya Kelkar's family,' Rathod said. ‘I've also asked for patrol cars to pass your house for the next three days.'
‘Thanks,’ I said to him as we got into his car.
We reached Supriya Kelkar’s house in half an hour. Her husband answered the doorbell and let us in. Seeing him, I forgot about everything else. I could make out he had been awake for a long time, probably crying when he could afford to when his children were away. I knew visiting a murder victim’s family was one of the hardest jobs of any police officer.
‘Mr. Kelkar, we’re very sorry for your loss,’ Rathod said. ‘I’m Senior Inspector Kapil Rathod and this is Siya Rajput. She’s a private detective.’
‘Please call me Subhash,’ he said. ‘I am here to help you in any way possible.’
He guided us to the living room. I recognized it from the photos I had seen last night.
‘Thanks Subhash. I know this must be a hard time. But I need to ask some questions that will help us in our investigation. Do you suspect anyone who could have done this?’
Subhash shook his head. ‘No, no one at all. We are…we were simple people, officer.’
‘Did you notice anything odd about Supriya of late? Did she mention anything?
‘No. I don’t know why anyone would do this to her. She was an honest woman. She did her job well. She was superb with the kids. She was the best wife anyone could have…’ his voice trailed off.
Rathod waited for a spell to allow Subhash to recover. I went to the kitchen to get him water. When I came out, I saw an elderly woman coming down the stairs.
‘That’s my mother,’ Subhash said. ‘She has come here with me. My kids are with my father. We’re going to stay with them for a few days.’
I gave him the water and he downed it fast.
‘Who all knew Supriya would be alone at home this week?’ Rathod asked.
‘Apart from both our parents, her colleagues. They’re a close-knit unit.’
‘Did she have any complaint whatsoever about her work?’
‘None. She didn’t have any job pressure as well. She was weird that way.’
I made a mental note to check with her company later. It also got me thinking on another tangent. Supriya’s profile was similar to Zakkal’s victims. If his protégé had been guided by Zakkal, he could have also told him his method. Zakkal stalked his victims. I wondered if the Bedroom Strangler did the same.
‘Do you mind if I use your restroom?’ I asked Subhash.
‘Please,' he said. ‘There's an Indian style toilet down this corridor. We've a Western-style pot upstairs.'
By the time Rathod proceeded with his questioning, I was already upstairs. Supriya’s bedroom was cordoned off with yellow police tape. It
was off limits. But I was not interested in it. I went down the corridor, past the restroom and to the balcony of the third room. The balcony itself was bigger than some houses I had seen in Mumbai. I looked around from the railing. The house had three floors. It looked really posh. There was a garden full of flowers around it with a small play area for the kids with slides and swings. The terrace was sloping, probably not accessible. The other houses in the locality were big as well. Some had tall fences. Even without them, the distance between the neighbours was quite a lot. The roads around the house were also quiet. He had picked his victim well. I wondered how the killer got in and out.
I finally went to the restroom. I did not see a hot water boiler anywhere. I guessed there was a solar panel for heating water on the roof. I went up the stairs leading to the terrace. Only a narrow path was free to go up as more than half of the staircase was blocked by all kinds of objects. There was a cupboard, a full shelf with items that were coated with a thin layer of dust and big boxes filled to their brims.
I almost missed it. I leaned forward to confirm what I was seeing.
My body started shivering and eyes bulged out in terror when I realized what it was.
I noticed that one of the bigger boxes had been moved. A five-inch area in front of one box had a lighter shade of dust. The box had been pulled a little ahead. The dust on the floor would have been wiped when it was moved forward and then pushed back again. I clicked photos of the floor and the box on my mobile phone. I put on latex gloves and moved the box ahead again. A whiff of a strong smell hit me. I knew what it was right away. Bleach. The floor behind the box also looked sparkling clean. Someone had cleaned it very recently. My mind went back to the bedroom that had been wiped with bleach. I ran downstairs. Rathod, Subhash and his mother turned my way, surprised to see me wearing gloves.
‘Did you move one of the boxes on the stairs leading up to the terrace?’ I said to Subhash.
He appeared confused. ‘No. Not unless Supriya did it when we were away. The area is very messy. We’ve been talking about cleaning it for the past six months but haven’t got around it.’
I beckoned Rathod to come upstairs. I showed him the pictures I had clicked as I told him what I had found. I took him to the staircase.
Two heartbeats of silence. Rathod understood what that meant.
‘The killer stayed in the roof of Supriya’s house before killing her,’ I said and the hair on my neck quivered.
Just like Zakkal, I thought.
Chapter Fourteen
We got a confirmation from the medical examiner, Dr. Sonia Joshi, that bleach had been used on the staircase as we headed to Yerwada to meet Zakkal. She was going to check if it came from the same batch of bleach that was used to clean the crime scene. We had no idea how long the killer had been at Supriya’s house. I had come to know that Zakkal stalked all his victims only days before he was caught. In fact, he was caught red-handed while stalking, and that eventually led to a case against him. Knowing he had been at our house, hearing and observing us, had made me vomit. He had been so close all along.
Six guards at the main gate of Yerwada Jail checked our credentials. They were expecting us so we got inside the jail premises in five minutes. All the eyes inside glared at me as we were taken to the jail warden’s office in the large flat admin building. I was the only woman inside as far as I could see.
I had been inside Yerwada several times to speak to my clients while working for Santosh Wagh. But at that moment, I felt the way I had when I had first come to Yerwada. Its enormity had swallowed me up then, just like it was doing right now. Noted Indian freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and Bal Gangadhar Tilak were imprisoned in Yerwada by the British during their rule of India. More recently, in 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only 26/11 Mumbai-attack terrorist caught alive, was hung to death at Yerwada.
We went to one of the larger offices in the admin building. The jail warden was a man named Manohar Shetty. He looked north of fifty and even though he had no hair on his head, some coiled out from his nose and ears. He walked into the office, joined his hands and said, ‘Namaste saheb. What will you have tea or coffee?’
Rathod introduced me. Shetty’s eyes stopped on me for a second longer than usual.
‘We’re good. We’ll like to see Zakkal right away,’ Rathod said.
Shetty jerked his head in my direction. ‘Are you sure she can handle him?’ he asked Rathod. ‘I know he killed women like her.’
I clenched my fists. I knew men like Shetty did not take women in general seriously, but I had forgotten how outright they could be about it.
‘I’m the one who caught him,’ I said.
Shetty’s eyes narrowed and he looked away. He bit his lip. He changed the topic. ‘Zakkal has been in good spirit since you came this morning,’ Shetty said to Rathod, avoiding my gaze.
He got up and stepped for the corridor. We followed him into an underground walkway. We passed several corridors that led to different jail cells. We finally turned into one called ‘Chamber Number 12.’ We went into a small office before the corridor.
‘Zakkal has not seen a woman since his arrest,’ Shetty said, organising papers on a desk, still not looking at me. ‘I don’t know how he’ll react to you being there. Please don’t carry anything that can be weaponized. Don’t go near the bars of his cell.’
I put aside my phone, purse and keys. Rathod opened his case to wire me with mics and an earpiece.
‘I wouldn’t take that in if I were you. He could choke you with the wire,’ Shetty said.
Rathod put the case away. Shetty turned to me, finally meeting my gaze. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked me.
I nodded and felt sweat gather on my neck.
‘It’s the last cell on the right at end of the corridor. Be careful when you go because there are cells on either side with bars that open in the corridor,’ Shetty said.
The corridor was sparsely lit with a yellow light on the ceiling at regular intervals. At that moment, as I took the first step, everything around me faded. My vision blurred and all the sounds around me came from a distance far away. My mother's smiling face flashed before my eyes.
The light at the end of the corridor revealed Zakkal’s cell to me. It was larger than other cells, primarily because it had two sets of bars to prevent anyone from being within Zakkal’s grasp. I gulped when I saw his silhouetted figure. He was sitting on a chair, his back was towards me, and he appeared to be holding something like a book in his hands.
‘It’s good to see you again, Siya,’ he said when I was still ten metres from his cell.
Zakkal turned around when I reached it. He was in the shadows but for a shaft of light slanting on his face. He was smiling. I felt a cold breeze on my neck. I knew it was only nerves. Just like compassion, no breeze seeped into Chamber Number 12.
He said, ‘Happy birthday, Siya. This reminds me of the first time I saw you. You had turned thirteen that day. Do you remember I had wished you? You were celebrating in the park with your parents and siblings. I had walked across and shook your hand.’
‘What do you want Zakkal? I said.
‘Where are your manners, Siya? We’re meeting after such a long time.’
Three beats of silence resounded.
‘You ask me what I want. The answer is simple. I wanted to see you.’
‘Did you kill a woman just to see me?’
‘That wasn’t me. You know it.’
‘What do you know about her?’
He paused for a long minute. ‘I lied,’ he said eventually.
‘What?’
‘I lied when I said I wanted to see you. I actually wanted to see your mother. See the thing is, you two look similar. Especially now, when you're all grown up.' Zakkal emerged from the shadows and I noticed his eyes; they were still pure evil, especially when he smiled. ‘And wasn't I right? You are a carbon copy of your mother. I know you're the same age as her when I found her.'
The mention of maa sparked anger inside me.
‘I’m sorry you thought your mother was dead all these years. But I thought you were smart enough to have known otherwise. But you see she is a very special woman. I love the way your mom smells. And now, seeing you here, reminds me of how lovely she smelt. It enriches me. I cannot wait to hold her close again. I would have never killed her. I miss her, Siya. And that’s why I called you.’ Zakkal smiled again. ‘You two look the same. She smiles a lot more though. She also -’
‘Where is she?’
‘Now now. Wouldn’t that spoil all the fun?’
‘What about the other women?’
‘What about them?’
‘Are they still alive?’
‘You’ll find out soon.’
‘Have you killed them?’
‘The first thing you should know about me is that I really don’t like to kill. I do that as the last resort. I finish them only if they stop being beautiful.’
‘What about Holly Summers?’
‘She was a mistake. One that was very costly. Wasn’t that the case that set you on the path to find me? It was a big mistake. I should never have gone near that woman. But I was inexperienced then and my excitement was bursting out of me. I had to do something about it.’
‘Was my mother the first woman you kidnapped?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Did you kill others in the United States?’
‘I don’t remember.’
Silence.
I said, ‘I know you trained Supriya Kelkar’s killer yourself.’
‘Now why do you think that?’
‘He stalked Supriya as well. He lived in her house.’
Zakkal laughs echoed in the corridor. ‘I knew he was a good one. He has to be. He has learned from the best.’
‘Do you think the protégé can better the teacher?’
‘Not if the teacher is me.’
‘Do you miss your wife?’
‘Depends on whom I’m with. And right now, I’m in elite company. So, no. I don’t miss her right now.’
