by UD Yasha
‘What can you tell us about the hearts?’ I said.
‘As I suspected, they have been embalmed. I’ve finished conducting tests on one heart. The person died about seven years back.’
‘When Zakkal was still out.’
‘I can’t tell how the person died. Not without a body. But the heart is in very good condition. He has preserved it ever since he killed the woman. There’s very little post mortem degradation and damage to it.’
‘Where was it stored?’
‘In a deep freezer. He embalmed it first.’
‘Alright. I’ll let you get back to your work. Thanks again,’ I said.
‘I’ll need the entire day to conduct full tests on the hair and the hearts we found. I’ll inform you as soon as I’m done.’
I zipped through the stairs to go up. I was excited to tell Radha that maa was still alive. I pushed the waiting room door. One glance towards me and she knew. She ran towards me and hugged me tightly.
‘She’s still there. I can’t believe we can still get her,’ she said.
I rubbed her back. Despite the bout of energy injected in me in the bathroom, my eyes became moist. It always happened whenever Radha showed emotions of any kind. My sister was my fulcrum of strength and energy. We sat quietly for a spell, holding hands.
I stepped out of the room after some time. The only way we could get maa back was if the case was solved. Ranjit had made it clear that the Bedroom Strangler and Zakkal knew each other for many years, most probably from their childhoods—the one phase of Zakkal’s life that was completely blank. Even then, I wondered how they would have kept their friendship a secret in the following years. They would’ve had to meet somewhere. Just like Zakkal would’ve had to communicate with the Bedroom Strangler from Yerwada. I strongly felt Karve was responsible for setting up basic contact at least. But how could that be proved? I made a mental note to ask Rathod to get the log of Zakkal’s movements in the past six months. That way I would know exactly where all he went inside Yerwada.
As I picked up my phone to ask Rathod to ask Warden Shetty to expedite the process, it buzzed in my hand. It was an email from Rathod with exactly what I was looking for. I opened the file.
Zakkal had met a total of four people in the past year. The number increased to ten during his second year in prison. Twenty people visited him in his first year when the excitement around him was at its highest.
The four people Zakkal met in the previous year were Warden Shetty, the jail doctor, a diabetes specialist and me. He met the jail doctor, a man named Tushar Shankar, once every six months to get a check-up because he had a mild form of diabetes. He had met the diabetes specialist only once, about eight months ago.
The first and second years again included Warden Shetty and a slew of journalists and researchers. I recognized two names on it. First was Devaki Sharma, the woman who had published the fake story on me. And the second was Ranjit Kadam. Like Ranjit had told me, he had met Zakkal twice at Yerwada after he had been arrested.
I closed my eyes, hoping for a few moments of silence and peace. I had not meditated for the past three days. A voice in my mind told me I had to take care of myself as well. I did not like it one bit, especially as the same time could be used to investigate the case. I found it hard to concentrate on my breath.
A minute later, my phone buzzed in my jeans. It was a text message from Rathod.
I have secured a warrant to search Zakkal’s house. Be ready. I’m coming.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I saw Rathod pulling over at the main gate of the CID office just as I walked out. Four officers got out of his car. ACP Shukla stayed inside. Rathod beckoned me in.
‘Zakkal’s wife doesn’t like you,’ Shukla said the moment I got in. ‘I would’ve asked you to stay away from her house in ordinary circumstances. But this isn’t one of those times. We’re going to get her to talk. More lives are in danger. We’ll threaten her with arrest if she doesn’t cooperate. Seeing you will flare her up and that may cause her to divulge information that she doesn’t mean to share.’
I was taken aback by this sudden change in Shukla. Even Rathod was surprised. I could see his eyebrows go up in the rear-view mirror.
‘But Siya, this doesn’t change anything else,’ Shukla said.
On cue, Rathod put the car into gear and we were on our way. Kishore Zakkal used to stay in Model Colony. It was down the University Road, about fifteen minutes from the CID office. However, after Zakkal’s arrest, his family could not afford to live in the same house anymore. Stones were thrown inside and hateful messages were painted on the house walls, making living there a nightmare. So, his family moved to a standalone bungalow in Kondhwa. It was far from their earlier place. Last I checked, the Zakkals owned both the houses.
Zakkal's first lawyer had sought a confidentiality agreement regarding the new house address wherein it would not be revealed to the public. His wife, Manasa Zakkal, had reverted to using her maiden name ‘Mohan' to avoid further torture. She had made two public appearances since Zakkal's trial. She had claimed Zakkal was innocent both times, leading to more public backlash. For the sake of their children, she had shied away from the media after that.
It took us more than an hour to reach Kondhwa. Rathod knew the exact location of the house. A ten-foot walled fence around it ensured privacy. There was a bell next to the main gate that had a camera and a microphone. Such a security system was not common practice in Pune, or even in the locality of Kondhwa when we looked around at the other houses. Clearly, Manasa Mohan wanted to keep away unwelcome intruders. Rathod pressed the bell and faced the camera.
There was some static and then a woman’s voice that I recognized as Manasa’s. ‘Who is it?’ she said.
‘CID. I’m Senior Inspector Kapil Rathod. I’ve a warrant to search your house,’ Rathod said and held the warrant in front of the camera.
Silence.
‘We’ll have no choice but to arrest you if you don’t let us in,’ Rathod said. ‘All we want is to search your house.’
The main gate unlocked two beats later. We pushed it open and walked down a paved path. The house was two-storied with a garden on all sides. All walls were painted a faint shade of blue. I noticed Rathod put a hand back on his gun that was in his waist holster. Manasa, dressed in a pink kurta and white salwaar, walked out in the veranda. She noticed me first.
‘It’s you again,’ she yelled.
‘We’re not here to cause any harm. As I said, all we want is to search the house,’ Rathod said, holding up his hand.
Manasa shook her head, more in hatred than disobedience and moved away from the door. ‘Can I look at the warrant?’
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. The son had Marfan Syndrome, but was too young then for its symptoms to show. Both kids would soon be old enough to be reading stuff about their father 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 closet behind a mirror. 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 fo
und 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 treasure 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 that were placed inside jars. 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 five women he had taken are still alive. ‘My mother’s one of them. He has 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 pieces of jewellery he gifted you were taken 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’s one way to find the truth. There will be traces of DNA on the jewellery that your husband gave you. Ideally, the DNA should only belong to you and your husband. But, if Zakkal indeed took the jewellery from his victims, we’ll also find their DNA on it.’
‘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 my father. 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 those things are driven by greed, while other times by pleasure.
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. She put them on. One by one, she began to stack them in two piles. She took ten minutes to sort it out. 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 jewellery separated by Manasa 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 would be examined for DNA regardless. I just wanted a starting point of some items that Sonia could test first up. If any had DNA of Zakkal’s victims, I would take it along with me when I went to see 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 get away in the first place. We reached the CID office at a quarter to four.
‘I’m sorry that took so 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 back home. I wondered throughout how long I was going to be able to protect 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. Their ankle bracelets would not protect them from the Bedroom Strangler. They would only be useful to track them down 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 up 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. 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 so
me pressure off you.’
The problem was that we could not tell how long the Bedroom Strangler 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 that to 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. Zakkal’s two pen pals—Shaam Pundlik and Manoj Bedi. Pundlik was still missing. Manoj Bedi was being watched. So was Smart Tech’s Anil Verma. Zakkal’s lawyer 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 had 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.
