The COMPLETE Siya Rajput Crime Thrillers (Books 1 to 4)

by UD Yasha

  ‘All these theories point to the woman being attacked by someone else,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, because if you had attacked her, I’m sure it was purely in self defense. I know there’s no way you would stab and kill someone for no reason. Your own life would have had to be at stake.’

  ‘I like the angle of a third person being present,’ I said. ‘They could have very well been the person I saw.’

  ‘But we don’t know whose side they are on,’ Rathod said.

  I sensed he wanted to say something else. ‘What is it?’

  Rathod’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m only not calling this in because there is a chance that corrupt cops are involved. We’ll see how it goes over the next twenty-four hours and then review the situation.’

  ‘Sounds fair,’ I said.

  Rathod’s phone began buzzing on the dashboard. Bhalerao’s name flashed on the screen. Rathod pressed the green button on the touchscreen on the car’s console.

  ‘We’re back at the office,’ Bhalerao said, sounding tired. ‘How’s your mother?’

  ‘She’s better now, thanks. I was just about to head to the crime scene,’ Rathod said.

  ‘Sure, take a look. Dr. Sonia and her crime scene technicians are still there, collecting samples.’

  ‘I’ll see you back at the office and help you with the paperwork. Don’t worry,’ Rathod said, affording a smile.

  He ended the call and turned to me.

  ‘Thanks for everything today,’ I said.

  ‘Please don’t be a fool next time, and ask for help,’ he said before I started for my house.

  Chapter Nine

  It was almost eight o’clock when I knocked on the door of our house. Radha opened it right away. Her face had turned white. Shadow ran to me. I could sense he was going to jump onto me but then he sensed something was not right so instead he nudged my knee with his nose. I petted him once.

  Radha said, ‘Where were you? What happened?’ Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets.

  Rahul, her fiancé, was next to her, with a hand on her shoulder. Even his eyes bore worry.

  ‘Your cheek…,’ Radha said, taking a step towards me and putting a hand on my face to see what had happened.

  ‘I’m okay—’

  ‘Don’t you tell me you’re okay. You go out somewhere in the middle of the night, leave me a cryptic note and then come back with a large cut on your face. And to add to that, a CID officer calls and tells me that my sister is safe,’ Radha said, the pitch of her voice increasing with every word. ‘You better not tell me you’re okay.’

  ‘Is maa sleeping?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, she had woken up but her head began to hurt so she slept again.’

  I gulped. I was going to share everything with Radha and Rahul but I didn’t want to tell maa anything just yet and get her expectations up. The thing about hope is that as long as it exists, even somewhere in the distance, you are okay because a part of you can still believe that things will work out in your favour. But once that possibility is completely shut off, you feel like you're left with nothing. With that comes crushing pain, one that may take a long time to go away. That’s why I had not told Radha or anyone else at home anything about dad. But I knew I could only keep the calls away from Radha for so long. While recovering from the trauma post Kunal Shastri, she had seen me at my rock bottom. My face then bore no expression for months. Nothing excited me, and everything made me feel guilty and angry. It was a deadly cocktail of emotions. It was Radha who had pulled me through everything. She was the one person who could see through me. It was reassuring and uncanny at the same time.

  ‘I’ll tell you,’ I said and sat on the sofa, taking Radha’s hand to drag her next to me.

  I told her everything from how Rathod and I came across dad’s name in Sitaram Mule’s register, to the events of the morning. She was concerned when I told her I had blacked out and didn’t remember what had happened for about twenty minutes.

  She hugged me tightly. I remembered how I had felt when I had seen dad’s name in the register. Radha would be going through the same emotions. It was a mixture of hope, frustration, anxiety and anger. A part of us also felt betrayed at the chance that dad was corrupt. I held Radha closer and stroked her back.

  ‘It’s going to be okay,’ I said, not just saying it for the sake of it, but actually believing in it.

  Everything that had happened since our childhood had shaped that belief. I had learnt to adopt it from Radha even more after I had stopped practising law. But as it so happens, sometimes, we forget that life goes on no matter what. Especially in the midst of turbulence.

  ‘I know, I have you and everyone else around me,’ Radha said.

  I felt Shadow rub his nose against Radha and my knees, as if he wanted to console us as well.

  All of us sat in silence for a while. Rahul made adrak chai and a large omelette for us and boiled eggs for Shadow. Rahul’s omelettes never failed to smell divine and put a smile on our faces. We ate without saying much. I had one eye on the staircase to see if maa had woken up. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Aakash Pande, had put her on a new medicine for the PTSD she suffered from the prolonged kidnapping. He had warned us that she might sleep more because of it.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Rahul said as we were taking our final bites of the omlette.

  I told them about the plan to check the factory once and get back the car. Just as I was going to call Rathod, my phone started ringing.

  ‘I have asked a person from my SWAT team named Harshvardhan Kuhad to accompany you guys to Stan Mills,’ Rathod said. ‘He should reach your house in fifteen minutes. He was also there when we rescued Rucha Sinha.’

  ‘Great, thank you. We’ll collect the samples and have them sent over to you.’

  ‘Just give them to Harsh. He’ll hand them to me,’ he said and clicked off.

  ‘Even I want to come,’ Radha said.

  I had decided after she had been shot to not include her or Rahul in any part of the investigation that involved stepping out of the house. I had no choice but to take Rahul. There was no one else I trusted who had forensic expertise.

  ‘You need to be home with maa,’ I said. ‘Even Shama isn’t here right now.’

  Shama, my sister-in-law, was visiting Kunal, my brother—a member of the Indian Army—in Kashmir. Kunal was supposed to come home for Diwali. But that plan was scrapped after his posting in the Kashmir valley was extended when the Indian Government scraped Section 370, a law that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state had seen a lot of turmoil and unrest. When internet services stayed shut for a month, Shama had started to feel anxious. She soon joined Kunal and had been with him since November. Even the rest of us were relieved as they were with each other. We were further elated as the Supreme Court of India had ruled for the internet to be reinstated in Kashmir.

  ‘It makes sense,’ Radha said in a resigned tone.

  I turned to Rahul. ‘We need to be careful and wear bulletproof jackets. I’m hanging one for you outside my room, I’m heading for a bath.’

  With every step I climbed as I headed upstairs, the urge to take a shower grew exponentially. I stood under the hot jet of water for five minutes, watching streams of red trickle away from me, getting fainter every second. Once I was sure I had rubbed off all the blood on my body, I applied a peach scented soap to drive away the nasty smell. Finally feeling fresh, I stepped out with newfound enthusiasm.

  I picked a pair of black jeans and a T-Shirt so that my mobility wouldn’t get affected. I slipped into a black jacket that had multiple pockets. I clipped my guns; my go-to Glock 17 that went in my chest holster and a Glock 42 that went into my ankle holster. The latter had saved Radha and my life six months back.

  Sitting up on my bed, I tried yet again to remember who I had seen at Stan Mills. I wanted to scratch my brain. It was as if the answer was right there and yet remained elusive. Before I spiralled into my thoughts, my phone vibrated next to me. It was a message
from Harshvardhan Kuhad, telling me he had reached.

  When I went downstairs, Rahul was ready. He was wearing black jeans and a blue shirt that Radha had gifted him for New Year’s. I could see the outline of the bulletproof jacket under his shirt. He was also carrying a black bag that he took to work.

  ‘Let’s do this,’ he said to me and then turned to Radha and planted a kiss on her cheek before we headed out.

  Chapter Ten

  Rathod was glad that street side chai and coffee tapris had opened because he needed more caffeine in his system. He pulled over his car by one street vendor next to a large tree around which a footpath had been made. The tapri was outside a large office building. Rathod was glad it was just eight twenty. Half an hour later, at least twenty people would be around the tapri to enjoy a few cigarettes before the stress of office work hit them hard.

  There was still a chill in the air, which made the steaming coffee that much better. That it cost just ten rupees made Rathod feel even better. A new Starbucks had opened further down on the same road, where a similar cup of coffee would cost thirty times more. He thought absently about everything that had happened since morning as he observed a few elderly people around him, sitting on metal chairs, reading the morning newspaper by a newspaper stand. Rathod felt much better with two cups of coffee in his system. He got back to his car and drove to Natraj Meadows, the crime scene for the three murders. It was less than five minutes away.

  Dr. Sonia Joshi was standing with her hands on her waist when Rathod rode up the shiny elevator, put on the plastic overalls and stepped into the apartment.

  ‘Bhalerao told me about your mother,’ Sonia said on seeing Rathod. ‘I’m glad everything is okay.’

  ‘Thanks. I’m relieved as well,’ Rathod said. ‘Can you brief me about what you have found?’

  ‘As you know three people have been murdered. All were shot. I’ll walk you through what we have found. Let’s go inside the room,’ she said, starting for the bedroom.

  Rathod followed her. The apartment now only had two crime scene technicians and Jadhav apart from him and Sonia. The technicians were dusting the rest of the place for fingerprints, clicking photographs and collecting all sorts of samples. Jadhav was by Rathod’s side.

  Rathod swept his gaze across the now empty bedroom. The bodies had been taken to the morgue and there were three chalk outlines of where they had been found. The room would be cleaned much later so there was still blood everywhere.

  Rathod put his hands in his pockets and wandered in the room. He wanted to get a feel of what it was like to be in the room. He stood behind the bed and tried to work out the angles. There was a large window next to him. Its curtains were drawn.

  ‘Was the rest of the house clean?’ Rathod said.

  ‘Yes, at least on the face of it. But I’ll have to analyse all the samples we took before saying anything.’

  ‘What was the time of death?’ Rathod said.

  ‘All the bodies are not at peak rigour mortis levels yet, so they were killed less than twelve hours back. Based on their body temperature when we got here, I would say they were killed between ten and twelve at night.’

  ‘Can you tell me what you know about the couple?’

  ‘As Bhalerao told you earlier, both of them were doctors. The man, Malhar Jathar was a gynaecologist while the woman, Niyati was a cosmetic surgeon. If my guess is right, I think Niyati herself has had her nose and cheeks done. I noticed some tell-tale signs when I saw her. My suspicion was confirmed when I…wait, I’ll show you’ Sonia said, and pulled out her phone to show Rathod Niyati’s photo on her Facebook page. She shuffled to an older picture from her marriage. ‘And now see this,’ she said.

  Rathod narrowed his eyes. He could see a clear difference between the two pictures. Niyati, in her recent pictures, looked more like the sibling of her older self.

  ‘You’ll be surprised but there hasn’t been much of a change in terms of her face or bone structure. In cosmetology, subtle changes can drastically change the way someone looks.’

  ‘How old are the Jathars?’

  ‘Bhalerao found their driving license, Aadhar cards and marriage certificate. Malhar is fifty-six and Niyati is fifty-three. They got married twenty-four years ago.’

  ‘Any update on identifying the third man?’ Rathod said.

  ‘Not yet. His fingerprints are not in the system so it will take time,’ Sonia said. ‘But from his bone structure, teeth and body I can tell you that he’s around forty years old. There are no other particularly distinguishing marks on his body but I will get to know more after conducting an autopsy.’ Sonia paused and referred to her report. ‘And one more thing. I almost forgot about it. There’s a large cut across his abdomen. I cannot certainly tell you what it is from, but my initial observation is that the man had gotten one of his kidneys removed.’

  ‘What?’ Rathod said and his eyebrows went up in surprise. He knew how big the black market of organ donation was. Could the murders be about some organ donation scandal? The other people murdered were both doctors. Some of the most eye-opening scams he had come across had been medicine related.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Sonia said. ‘I’ll be able to tell you more once I conduct an autopsy.’

  ‘Is there any way we can check if he has donated his kidney?’

  ‘Official records are sealed. It’ll be tough to get a judge to open those records. It will set a precedent and then soon there would be requests from a lot of people. Where do you draw the line?’

  Rathod went through a mental checklist. The lock on the house door had not been damaged and there was no sign of forced entry. The house had not been disturbed. At the same time, the Jathars were in their bedroom with another man. They might have been sitting in the room outside when the man had gone to the bathroom. All of it meant that they knew and trusted him. They had let him into their house. The thought of the man being a male prostitute occurred to him for a fraction of a second but he did not give it much traction. The man was in unclean clothes and had grease on his body. It was highly unlikely that some weird sexual fantasy was being played out. He nonetheless made a mental note to ask Bhalerao to check. The grease on his body told Rathod that he might have worked in a garage or car shop.

  ‘Based on what you saw, can you give me your initial impression of the unidentified man or John Doe’s lifestyle?’ Rathod said.

  Sonia said, ‘I can tell you that he was a long-term tobacco chewer. His teeth have stains and smelled like some paan masala. He also has stains on his right hand that he must have habitually used to put the tobacco in his mouth. He wasn’t well groomed and it appears he spent a lot of time outdoors as he has a distinct tan.’

  Rathod sighed. He knew it was a hard one. He called Bhalerao.

  ‘I was just about to phone you,’ Bhalerao said. ‘We have initiated a search on anyone matching the description of the unknown dead man. A sketch has been prepared and we’re showing it at local garages.’

  ‘That was quick,’ Rathod said. ‘Also search him against known and suspected male prostitutes.’

  ‘I will do that. Are you coming to the office?’

  ‘Yes, I’m almost done here,’ Rathod said and clicked off.

  He thanked Sonia for her time and then exited the apartment. He wanted to check the couple’s finances once. But he was almost certain that if they were involved in something illegal, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to use their own bank accounts. Money and paper trail were strong evidence and if they were into organ smuggling, they would be more sophisticated.

  As he got behind the wheel of his car and started driving to the CID office near Pashan, the clockwork of his mind began ticking.

  He once again wondered how John Doe could have managed to sneak into such a posh and well secured residential complex without being seen. If he had come in the same clothes he was wearing when he had died, then he had to have stood out. And that he would have changed into soiled clothes after entering t
he apartment did not make sense. The man’s greased face flashed behind his eyes.

  Rathod had an idea. He turned his car around and went back to the residential complex. He returned to the apartment that now had one hawaladar and two crime scene technicians. He found a key holder and saw two car keys. One had Honda’s insignia while the other had a Maruti Suzuki logo. He took both the keys and went to the underground parking lot. He found where the Jathars parked their cars.

  He unlocked the Honda City first. Its cabin light turned on. A fresh lavender smell greeted Rathod when he opened the car’s door. He ducked inside, unsure of what to expect. The front seat was pushed all the way back. Rathod wondered if it was Malhar’s car as he remembered him to be tall. He opened the glovebox. It had the usual stuff like the car’s registration, PUC certificate and insurance papers. He shut it and ducked to check the back seat. A narrow rug had been placed on it. He lifted it. The seat under it was clean. He popped open the boot and then went around to check it. It was clean as well. No sign of anything suspicious. He double-checked the front and back seats to see if he had missed out on anything. Satisfied that nothing was amiss, he locked the Honda City.

  Next to the Honda sedan was a Maruti hatchback. A black Baleno. Its locks clicked open when Rathod pressed a button on the key. He went through the same motions. First the front row and the glovebox. There was nothing alarming in it. He got back out and opened the back door.

  That’s when he saw it.

  The seat covers were beige. So, the grease on it stood out. It was on the headrest and also the actual seat. Rathod dialled the number of one of Dr. Sonia’s technicians who was still upstairs and asked them to come down to collect samples. Apart from the grease, the back seat had a thick blanket. Rathod was sure that there would be grease on its fibres as well, but he didn’t want to soil any evidence so he waited for someone from the forensic team to arrive. In the meantime, he checked the car’s boot. It was empty except for some old newspapers from a year ago.