by UD Yasha
‘She is a better shooter,’ Rahul said.
Rathod tossed it to Radha and said, ‘Here are two extra rounds for it.’
We put on the headbands and clipped our torches to it. Rathod told us about a switch that could change the light beam’s strength or completely turn it off.
‘Let's do this,' Rathod said. ‘We don't know what's inside. So, don't hesitate to shoot if you think your life is in danger. We want to know what's inside, but our priority is to come back alive. Be alert constantly. Radha and Rahul,' he turned towards them, ‘Your job is to only engage if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you will only be watching. Do you understand?'
‘Yes, sir,’ the two of them replied in unison.
‘Follow my lead throughout. If I go down, Siya takes over. If she goes down, the two of you try to get the hell out of here and report it to the CBI, the CID and the local police. Then go back home and stay safe. I’m telling you all of this because we have no idea what to expect. Eyes on me everyone. We need to understand this is a rookie team and far from ideal for such an operation. So, we will try to stay together.’
Rathod led the way. I was at the back with Radha and Rahul between us. Radha had memorized the rest of the way. She directed Rathod. We first hung a left, entering an even narrower path that our car would not have been able to get through. The maize around us was tall.
Three minutes later, the land cleared. A massive area, about the size of half a football field, lay in front of us. It was surrounded by fifteen-foot maize plants. The leaves around us fluttered ever so slightly.
There was a big house in the middle of the clear land. It had a big porch and an even bigger sloping roof. Square windows from two bedrooms faced us. The house was completely dark.
Rathod and I exchanged glances.
A chill ran down my neck as we started for it.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Our torches painted away the darkness as we moved forward. The still air made us conscious of even the slightest of sounds. We walked slowly. The dry maize crunched under our feet ever so softly.
‘Stop here,’ Rathod whispered.
He broke away from us and approached the house. The porch creaked when he stepped on it. He swirled his fingers, asking us to split up and move to either side of the porch.
Rathod examined the door of the house. ‘It’s locked from the inside,’ he said in a soft voice. ‘Someone should be in there. Check if there’s a back door.’
I lowered the beam of my torch and began walking to the back of the house. Plants were growing wildly around it. The person who was looking after the maize was not paying attention to the shrubbery and flowers growing around the house. I peeped around the corner first and then turned at the edge.
No one.
There was no door at the back either. I completed a full circle around the house just to be sure that a door was not present anywhere else.
I reached the front of the house and gave a thumbs down to Rathod. He slammed his fist on the door and said, ‘Is there anyone inside? I’m from the CID. I have reason to believe that something illegal is happening inside. I’m going to count to five. If you don’t open the door, you will leave me with no other choice but to break it down.’
Rathod motioned us to stay put by holding his palm up.
Five,’ Rathod yelled.
No movement.
‘Four’.
A bird chirped somewhere. It was time for them to get up. Or maybe we were disturbing them.
‘Three.’
I inhaled deeply. My gun was ready to take a shot. I turned to Radha and Rahul. They were together on the other side.
‘Two.’
Dead silence resounded. Even the birds had gotten used to the disturbance.
‘One.’
I watched the door for any movement. It stayed closed.
‘Your time is done,’ Rathod said, stepping back three paces. He lurched forward and kicked the door. It was old. One solid tap was all it needed.
The lights in the house turned on the moment the door was broken down. A man stepped into the door frame.
‘Put your hands up,’ Rathod yelled, aiming his gun at the man. ‘Who are you?’ he screamed. Part of it was to induce fear, the other part was adrenaline.
‘Jaggu Shelar,’ the man said, putting his hands up.
‘Come outside. Take slow and small steps,’ Rathod said.
Jaggu followed the command. He was probably around forty years old. He was thin and of average height. He was wearing a T-Shirt and a dhoti.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I look after this house.’
‘Who does it belong to?’
‘I don’t know. I just work here. I get paid every week.’
‘Stop lying to me.’
‘I’m telling you the truth.’
‘Are you alone at the house right now?’ Rathod said.
Jaggu looked back, rubbing his hands involuntarily.
‘Don’t look back and answer my question. Are you alone?’
Jaggu said nothing. Rathod marched to him. Jaggu sensed what was in store for him and he stepped back, shivering. Rathod grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him to the nearest pillar. It had hooks for a swing. Rathod pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pockets and cuffed Jaggu to the hook.
He turned to me and jerked his head towards the house. ‘Let’s go in. I wonder what he’s hiding inside.’
I followed Rathod inside. I looked around. The ground floor had a big living room and an open kitchen. It had the usual furniture you would find in a house. Rathod moved towards the first and only door he saw. It was open. Rathod peeked in first and then stepped inside. He came out twenty seconds later.
‘Clear,’ he said.
There was no other room on the ground floor. A spiral staircase led to the second floor of the villa. We saw two doors as we climbed up. One was open while the other was closed. Rathod walked towards the open door.
‘Wait here,’ he said under his breath and crossed to the open door.
He disappeared inside for twenty more seconds and came out shaking his head. ‘It’s empty,’ he said.
We walked to the closed door together. When we got near it, we saw it was bolted shut and had big a fat padlock on it.
Silence.
‘That guy…Jaggu…he might have keys on him,’ Rathod said to me.
I ran down. As Rathod had said, I found a bunch of keys clipped to Jaggu’s dhoti. I took them upstairs and handed them to Rathod.
‘Stand back, lower your weapon but be ready to take a shot at the same,’ Rathod said to me in a low voice.
He inserted a golden key into the padlock. Turned it. The door swung open to darkness.
Rathod and I stepped in. I saw a small yellow night lamp burning to my right. My hand found a switch on the wall next to the door. I flipped it on.
The room was massive but our eyes fell on something right in front of us. A gasp escaped my mouth when I realized what the room was being used for.
Rathod stepped forward, but I put a hand on his back. He turned around.
‘I’ll take it from here,’ I said and goosebumps spiked up all over my body. I wondered if what I was looking at was real.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Further inside the room, a girl was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. She had a thin quilt on top of her. Her body rose and fell steadily.
I recognized her right away.
Natasha Gill. I recognized her from her picture on the Ad Astra file. I hoped she was dreaming about something nice. She looked even more innocent in real life than in her picture. Why was she held captive here?
The girl no one had reported missing had been found.
I walked up to her and tapped her on her shoulder. ‘Wake up, Natasha,’ I said. ‘You’re safe now.’
Natasha opened her eyes wide and stared at us. She moved back suddenly. Her breathing turned haywire.
‘We’re here to rescu
e you,’ I said.
But Natasha moved backwards once again. She did not want me to come near her. I stood still. Her eyes had turned red and her face had become white. She covered her ears and started crying. I remembered that the doctor had given her very little time to live. She must be scared. Was she feeling sick?
I turned to Rathod who was also wondering what was happening. Natasha was terrified to see us. My heart went out to her. What had she seen to feel so afraid? I raised my arms, hoping she would understand that I did not mean any harm. Given the way she had reacted before, I did not expect her to. She kept crying and ran away from us, deeper into the room.
‘What do you want to do?’ Rathod said.
‘I have never seen a child be so scared. Maa might know,’ I thought out loud, wondering if what maa had experienced would enable her to handle such a situation better.
Anything was better than what was happening. Natasha sat far from us and buried her face between her knees. She was still covering her ears.
I nudged Rathod and conveyed to him through actions to not make a sound. We stayed still. Silence resounded in the cool night air. Stepping on my toes, I gradually walked up to Natasha.
‘I’m walking towards you but don’t worry I’m going to stay away,’ I said.
I did not go near her, because the last time I had tried to she had broken down. She was silent now but still in the same position as before.
‘I know you are afraid. I know something bad has happened to you. I am going to make sure you do not ever get hurt again. Do you understand that?’ I said.
Natasha did not respond.
‘I’m going to stay here. You can take as much time as you want. I’ll keep waiting for you until you’re ready. I’m not going to leave you, Natasha. I’m here only to keep you safe.’
Natasha still did not move. I felt a hand on my back. Rathod was calling me. I did not understand what he was saying. I shifted my focus on Natasha again. I had promised her she could take as much time as she wanted. But I needed to know she was able to understand me. I waited for five minutes watching her. She had not moved even a bit.
‘Natasha, if you can hear and understand me, please convey that to me in some way,’ I said.
She said nothing. Just as I was starting to lose hope, she tapped her leg once.
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I’m waiting. Take your time.’
Rathod returned ten minutes later with a glass of water. I shook my head. I went up to him and whispered in his ear, ‘She’s responding to me. But she’s very scared. I don’t want to break her trust by doing something other than what I promised.’
I looked at Natasha once again. I leaned forward to confirm that I was not imagining things. She tapped her foot once. Is she trying to say something?
‘Are you calling me?’ I said.
She tapped her foot again.
I made sure to walk slowly without making any sudden movements. ‘Alright, I am coming near you. I am not going to touch you. I will be standing away.’
She tapped her foot once again.
I was getting through to her. Somehow, I needed to maintain whatever trust that had been established between us.
I stopped four feet from her. ‘What do you want to tell me?’ I said.
Natasha looked up at me. Her eyes were a deeper shade of red than earlier. They had swollen up more from the last I saw them twenty odd minutes back. Thankfully, she was not crying anymore. I considered that to be a good sign.
‘I’m here for you, okay?’ I said.
Natasha tapped her foot again.
‘Do you want to go somewhere safer?’
Natasha tapped her foot again.
I was not sure what the tap meant. But she seemed to be getting along with me. I took the tapping of her foot to mean a ‘yes’. I was winging its meaning. I felt better, knowing that she was okay. She seemed to be breathing okay.
‘Let’s go to a safe place,’ I said. ‘Come with me.’
Natasha’s body began shuddering like she was being electrocuted. Seeing her like that made the hair on the back of my neck stand. Seriously, what had she experienced in her life? She looked at me, wiping her tears. Her breaths were short and loud. I waited. She got better ten beats later. I tried not to look scared.
‘You can take your time,’ I said, trying to sound as calm as possible.
A thought entered my mind: if I was so affected by just seeing her shiver so violently, what would she have felt herself?
‘I’ll wait here,’ I said.
Six heartbeats later, she got up and walked up to me. Her gaze met mine. Her face was expressionless. I needed to take her away from the villa. She would have bad memories of being held there. I took a step towards the door. Natasha followed me. I smiled.
‘Don't worry. I'm going to make sure nothing bad happens to you,' I said, hoping that I would be able to follow through on my promise because this girl did not deserve any more pain or suffering.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I walked with Natasha down the stairs. She held the railing tightly and was always half a step behind me. I realized she wanted to be as close to me as possible without making contact with me. I was okay with that. I was thinking about something else. Natasha would have to be introduced to Radha and Rahul. I hoped that Rathod had taken Jaggu some place Natasha could not see him.
As we reached halfway, I said, ‘Let’s rest here for a minute.’
I sat on the staircase. Natasha sat a step above me.
I turned to her slowly and said, ‘I need to tell you something. But before that, I need you to know that I will always have your best interests at heart. I am going to be here for you.'
Natasha tapped her leg. I had noticed that through this entire process, her mouth was partially open and her eyes did not bear any expression.
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I am going to take you with me to a safe place. To go there, we need to sit in a car.’
Natasha did not move.
‘You don’t want to?’
Still nothing.
‘I live far so we need to use the car to get away from here. Is that okay?’
Natasha tapped her leg.
‘I came here with my sister and her fiancé, along with the man you saw in the room earlier. They are my friends. They would also protect you. I have told them to be friends with you as well. Is that okay?’
Natasha tapped her leg again.
She flung her arms towards me. I was taken aback. I had only been scared of children once in my life—the first time when I had held a seven-month-old baby. It was my client’s child. She had stepped out of my office and her baby girl had started crying. I was too afraid to hold her then, but I had eventually managed to pick her up and rock her in my arms. Now the same feeling came over me with Natasha, even though she was much older. I did not want to cause her any discomfort by not holding her properly.
I closed my eyes for a beat and wrapped my arms around her.
We stepped out of the villa together. Everyone was waiting for us some distance ahead. I wondered what had happened to Jaggu. I was sure Rathod would not leave him behind without getting some answers from him. I turned on the torch of my headband and followed Radha, Rahul and Rathod who were walking twenty feet ahead of me.
Even before we reached the car, I heard Natasha snore ever so gently. I got into the car, being careful not to disturb her. Once I was inside, I brought her forward to one side by supporting her head with my right hand and her back with my left.
She opened her eyes when Rathod started the car. I was afraid of her beginning to shake once again.
‘It’s just the car starting,’ I said.
Natasha said nothing. She stared at me with her emotionless eyes. I wondered what she was thinking. I wondered if she knew anything about her captor. I had been so preoccupied with making her feel comfortable that I had not even thought about why Manohar would have taken Natasha. Wasn’t he supposed to be innocent? And not just that, but
why had he then told me about Sitaram Mule, when he knew that we would come here and rescue Natasha?
Radha passed her phone to me. She had typed something out on it. The screen brightness was the lowest it could be. In addition to that, she had activated night mode that further blunted the brightness.
I read the message.
Jaggu is in the trunk of the car. Rathod sedated him and put him there. He wants to ask him more questions. Here’s what he has told us so far. Manohar brought Natasha to the villa a month back. It belongs to his friend Vijay Krishnan.
The usual caretaker of the villa is a man called Hardik Shah. He has worked for the Krishnan family for many years. They trust him. He had to take leave because someone died in his family. Jaggu is Hardik's nephew. He is here as Hardik’s replacement for fifteen days. Rathod spoke to Hardik on the phone. He confirmed the story. Hardik also told Rathod that Manohar had brought Natasha to the villa to protect her. He had given strict instructions on how to treat her. When Hardik was around, she was well-taken care of.
Apparently, she has been scared from the first day. Hardik described what we saw. He told Jaggu how to take care of Natasha but he seemed to have not gotten it. Instead of love, he used force and locked her up in the room.
Also, Rathod checked the rest of the vila. It was empty. There was no sign of Natasha’s mother Sumeira Gill. Rathod is also trying to get in touch with Vijay Krishnan.
Rage bubbled through me. I wanted to kick Jaggu in the balls. The very next instant, Natasha moved a bit in my arms. Before I panicked I realized she was just turning in her sleep. I did not know what made her feel secure with me. But I was glad that a child as sweet as her was finally feeling safe—like every child should.
We reached home at almost five thirty in the morning. The night air was still cool. Rathod dropped us home and left. He was going to take Jaggu back to his place and lock him up there to keep his arrest and our visit off the grid.
