by UD Yasha
‘This was super helpful,’ Rathod said. ‘Anything else?’
Jay let out a sigh of relief. ‘No, that was it,’ he said and we hung up.
‘I’m very confused. I thought Vivek and dad stole what I think is the evidence from Coutinho’s safe. But then why was Coutinho giving that evidence to Kabir Ahuja? I don’t get whose side Coutinho is on.’
‘We’ll find out soon,’ Rathod said as he drove closer to Coutinho’s house. ‘I’m also wondering why that tape was present at the crime scene where Kabir was killed.’
‘I think the Viper’s men killed Kunte and thought that was the end of it. They believed that he was going to hand Kabir the evidence. So, when they went in to kill him, they didn’t even bother to look for the evidence. I don’t think they knew about Coutinho,’ I said.
‘Then the corrupt cops might have stolen the floppy disk from the crime scene. They would have seen what it was and then blackmailed the Viper, not knowing how nasty he was.’
‘But all this while, Coutinho had the original evidence. That’s the evidence that Mukund Dhar was talking about. An insurance against protecting the people involved.’
‘But how did your father get into this?’ Rathod said.
‘We’ll ask him when we see him,’ I said.
Rathod slowed the car to a stop outside an apartment building called ‘Gulmohar’.
‘Have you called your SWAT team?’ I said, seeing an SUV in the distance.
‘We’re breathing down the Viper’s back so I thought some reinforcement wasn’t a bad idea.’
With that thought, at almost nine thirty at night, we stepped out into the cool night air, eager to know what Coutinho’s house had to tell us.
Chapter Forty-Three
One man from Rathod’s SWAT team would stay outside the building near our car. Ready to drive us at a moment’s notice. Another was going to be outside Coutinho’s apartment. The third, a guy named Kuldeep Shankar, was going to be with us inside.
Roark Coutinho lived on the first floor of a standalone apartment building. Rathod and Kuldeep went ahead and made sure the staircase was clear. The third SWAT team guy was behind me to ensure we wouldn’t be taken by surprise from the back. Rathod had told them that the same procedure they had used for Vivek Saxena’s house had to be followed. First, to make sure there was no danger inside and then start searching.
The door of the apartment was locked. It had Roark Coutinho’s name on it.
‘Stay put. We’ll tell you when to come in,’ Rathod said after picking the lock.
He pushed open the door and went inside with Kuldeep. I heard their footsteps die out as they went further inside the apartment. The third SWAT team guy stood at the door.
Three minutes ticked by and Rathod came out.
‘It’s clear. Let’s go in,’ he said. ‘Even Coutinho’s apartment has been searched.’
‘They must be looking for the floppy disk 381. I wonder what the number’s significance was,’ I said.
All the lights in the apartment had been turned on. The living room had all the things you’d find in the average living room, except that Coutinho’s house had been flipped over completely. There were newspapers everywhere and various drawers had been thrown out of their sockets. The cushion of the couch had been slashed. Whoever was searching was desperate.
The apartment had only one room whose entrance was right down a narrow corridor. The queen-sized bed in the room had been lifted and hoiked up against the wall. Its bed sheet and mattress were on the floor. There was a small balcony to its left.
‘I don’t think they found anything here,’ Rathod said. ‘Otherwise they would have stopped looking. At least one part of the house would have been left undisturbed.’
A cool breeze lifted the curtains and entered the house.
‘There’s something on the balcony floor,’ I said, pointing at it.
We walked to it. In the corner, there were at least three to four sheets of paper. All of them had been set on fire, but had burnt only partially.
‘Someone was trying to burn those papers I think, but weren’t successful,’ I said.
I lifted the biggest piece. My hands went cold when I saw my father’s name on it. It was hand written and inside a large box that had dimensions like in the floor plan of a place.
‘What is it?’ Rathod said, reading the expressions on my face.
I showed the paper to him and put a knee to the ground to look for other pieces of the same one.
‘It looks like the layout of some place,’ Rathod said.
I found more pieces that were probably a part of the same paper. We sat on the ground and started sifting through them, trying to find and match the right pieces. Amongst the burnt papers, there was a handwritten letter as well.
‘That’s my father’s handwriting,’ I said, recognizing it from his notes and diary.
‘I’ll take the layout pieces and you try to put the letter together,’ Rathod said.
I quickly realized that the letter’s right-hand side had gotten burnt. There was enough there to give me an idea of what it was about. I almost had it together.
It read something like:
Mr. Coutinho,
Sorry, I broke into your saf...after seeing the affidavit…hanks for protecting the families …miss them… I have the tape…the Viper down together…have the people…have a plan….you at 11 pm.
Best,
Aniruddha Rajput
‘Coutino is not the bad guy here,’ I said, trying to make sense of the letter that dad had written.
‘The letter is kind of a mystery. Your father apologized to Coutinho for breaking into his safe. And then thanked him later. Just like we thought that he was hiding the evidence for the Viper, maybe your father thought so too.’ Rathod said.
‘Yeah, it looks like it. He was expecting to find just the evidence in the safe. But he also found an affidavit along with the tape.;
Rathod said, ‘I’m guessing it was something to do with protecting the families involved. I don’t know whose.’
I remembered what Mukund Dhar had told me about the evidence being used as an insurance. ‘Coutinho had the evidence. Maybe he had brokered a deal with the Viper to keep us out of it. But if Coutinho had the evidence, why would he not expose the Viper himself?’
‘It may not have been easy. Something would have stopped him. That’s why he did the next best thing by making sure the families were safe.’
‘Dad must have gotten in touch with him after finding the affidavit.’
‘Clearly whoever searched Coutinho’s place didn’t bother to clean up these papers. They weren’t here for the papers. They would have been looking for the evidence…the tape.’
I turned to Rathod’s side of the floor. Even the layout was half burnt. But that was enough for us as it gave us the name of the building and even the floor. Paradise Heights, Camp Area – Penthouse. We had the address and name of the place. My eyes kept moving to the room with dad’s name on it. Was he there?
Rathod put a hand on my back. ‘We’ll do everything we can to get him back, Siya,’ he said.
Silence.
My phone began ringing. It was Radha.
‘I just found out Jane Doe’s identity,’ Radha said. ‘Her real name is Namita Dhingre. And guess who she worked for earlier? Motilal Ahuja. She was his secretary at the time of Kabir Ahuja’s murder. Then, she was suspected to have died in a fire that broke out at her house a few days later. She was never found after that and it was believed that she died.’
‘How did you find out about Namita?’ I said.
‘Kedar Sathe told me that two of three surgeries whose details I had sent him had been conducted on the same person. Namita used a fake name each time—Namita Ashwin and Madhu Dhingre. Her real name is a combination of the two. Niyati Jathar might have been in on the entire bit. Maybe Namita told Niyati that she was in danger, or she told her a part of what had been happening.’
‘Top-notch work
once again, Radha,’ I said.
‘What’s the update on dad?’
‘We’re going to get him back. We just found a clue and we might be close to locating him,’ I said before hanging up.
I said, ‘First, the clerk who worked for Motilal Ahuja died, and then his secretary disappeared. All around the same time Kabir and Sheena Ahuja were killed.’
‘Talk about coincidences that are far too convenient,’ Rathod said.
‘Do you think Motilal Ahuja is the Viper?’
‘To think that a man killed his own son…’ Rathod’s voice trailed off.
‘If someone can kill their own son, then they will have no mercy to kill anyone else.’
‘We need to find that evidence, Siya. Our biggest lead is Roark Coutinho and this place in the layout. Let’s go.’
At that exact moment, a bullet ripped into the wall next to me, missing my face by centimetres.
Chapter Forty-Four
‘Duck and get inside,’ Rathod yelled.
Another bullet screamed past me as we dove into the bedroom and rolled further inside. Kuldeep heard the shots and moved closer to the balcony and peeped out. A bullet hit where his head had been a second earlier.
Rathod said, ‘Now we know that the Viper wants us dead.’
‘About time,’ I said. ‘Where are they shooting from?’
‘There’s one shooter in the building to our right,’ Kuldeep said.
‘Are you sure it’s just one?’ Rathod asked.
‘At least one has revealed his position.’
Rathod and I went deeper into the apartment, towards the door. Our SWAT guy at the door had realized what was happening. ‘I’m clearing the way downstairs,’ he said and rushed out.
We stood just inside the door frame. I had my Glock ready in case I had to use it as well. I saw the shadow of our SWAT guy coming up the stairs.
Just then, a bullet hit the door. We stepped back as Kuldeep came yelling out, ‘All the buildings are connected from the top. The shooter came across our building.’
One more stray shot hit the floor.
‘I don’t think he knows we have backup,’ I said. ‘He wouldn’t have attacked us here otherwise. Let’s not give away that advantage until we can delay it.’
The shooter was advancing. We could hear his footsteps as he walked towards the apartment.
BANG. It was followed by a muted thump.
Rathod and I exchanged a look, knowing that voice far too well. A bullet had hit raw flesh. We were just hoping that the shooter had got hit by our SWAT guy and not the other way around.
Rathod peeped around the wall. He was shaking his head as he turned back in. ‘He hit Soumitra, our guy. It’s the same shooter who shot Sonia. I recognize him from the video,’ he said in a low voice. BANG. A bullet grazed past Rathod’s head.
I whispered to Rathod, ‘Ask our guy in the car to go over to the neighbouring building and then come down into ours. The shooter will be taken by surprise. Kuldeep and I will keep the shooter distracted till he comes.’
‘Are you sure?’ Rathod said.
‘Yes, make that call,’ I said and moved closer to the edge.
The buildings had just three floors so I knew the guy would take about two minutes to come. Kuldeep had heard what I had told Rathod. He joined us after making the call. We took turns to fire stray bullets at the door by ducking out ever so little. The shooter returned fire.
Our guy should be here any moment, I thought.
A loud bang erupted outside and the shooting stopped.
Our SWAT came inside. ‘The shooter is dead,’ he said in a matter of fact voice.
Rathod walked up to Soumitra’s motionless body. He had been shot once in the head. The pool of blood around him was still getting bigger. Rathod bent down and closed Soumitra’s eyes by drawing a palm over his face.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
While we got in the car, Rathod asked the rest of his SWAT team to join us at the address Rathod gave them. The two guys who were with us at Coutinho’s house joined us in Rathod’s car.
Rathod said, ‘I remember Paradise Heights from another murder investigation a few weeks back. It was a straightforward case. The investigation is done, the accused is in jail but the court case is still on. Two builders were involved, that’s why their current projects have been stalled. Paradise Heights is one of those projects.’
I wondered what we were going to find at Paradise Heights. A lot of thoughts were racing in my mind. Most of them were about dad. Was he actually alive? The thought still seemed so unreal. There were many questions as well. Why did Coutinho have the layout of a building that had dad’s name in one of the rooms? Did that mean that dad was at Paradise Heights? It was an abandoned construction site. Why would dad go there? Was he being held there against his will? And where was Coutinho now? If he had the layout, there was a high chance he would have already gone there.
‘From the dimensions on the layout, this place doesn’t seem to be that big,’ Rathod said. ‘It’s a decent size for an apartment, but too small for being the centre of any big illegal activity,’ Rathod said. ‘I don’t know what we’re going to find but it’s definitely going to be worthwhile. The Viper had been sitting on the fence till now. We now know we’re very close because he attacked us on getting to Coutinho’s house. Maybe, now we know too much and he had no choice but to kill us.’
For the next fifteen minutes, as we drove to Paradise Heights, Rathod and his team strategized how to go about neutralizing any force that they would encounter. Paradise Heights was not as tall as the name suggested. It had just six floors. Our target was the top floor. Rathod and his team decided that they would clear one floor at a time.
‘For some strange reason, only the walls of the penthouse have been built,’ Rathod said. ‘But it works to our advantage as we can clear the lower floors faster.’
Rathod’s SWAT team had already reached our destination by the time we got there. We pulled over behind them, about fifty metres from Paradise Heights. I saw the building from across the road. It was mostly dark, except for some lights hanging from construction cranes next to it. The building itself was on a main road with plenty of traffic and people around it. Rathod was right. This was no way the main or even temporary operation centre. It was very public and the top floor, by itself, was not that big.
Rathod used a pair of binoculars to see if there was anyone outside the building.
‘I think we’re okay to go,’ he said.
One by one, all of us stepped out.
‘We’re dealing with dangerous people here. Kill them on sight,’ Rathod said.
All of us stepped out. There were seven of us, including me. The SWAT team and I put on earpieces to communicate with each other. We broke into two groups and decided to enter from either side of the gate. I was with Rathod, Harshvardhan Kuhad and a guy I didn’t know. Rathod took the lead once again. There was a small flickering lamp inside the compound wall that gave us enough light to find the staircase. As we stepped closer to it, my heart beat faster than it had in a long time.
Dad, are you here?
Chapter Forty-Five
Like all modern buildings, Paradise Heights had two staircases. We divided ourselves again and decided to take either one. We took slow and deliberate steps, not making any sound. As Rathod moved closer to the upper stairs, he ducked up and swept a glance across the floor.
‘Clear,’ he whispered.
He waited for a confirmation from the other staircase in his earpiece.
When he heard that the other side was okay too, the entire contingent moved up. Then we moved up again. Together, quietly and slowly. Once we were close to the top floor, we stopped as Rathod went to the edge of the stairs and panned his vision across the floor.
‘Clear,’ he said, almost at the same time as the SWAT guy on the other side.
We started moving up again. While walking to the stairs, I looked around. A small lamp was casting enough ligh
t to reveal the rest of the floor. It was empty and had no walls, just columns that formed the skeleton of the building.
What was happening?
Two floors were empty. I began to wonder if leaving the layout at Coutinho’s house was a ploy to lure us to this building. I realized I had let my emotions run the show when I saw my father’s name on the layout. I felt a nervous energy starting to creep up.
Had we made the right call by coming to Paradise Heights?
We got to the third floor. It was empty as well. We stayed still for a spell, trying to pick on the slightest of sounds. But there was nothing apart from our breathing and our beating hearts. There was no sign of any activity.
Rathod wanted to pause.
‘We need to regroup,’ he said.
All seven of us gathered near our side of the staircase.
‘Please stay alert and vigilant. This could very well be a tactic to make sure we slacken,’ Rathod said. ‘We have to be even more cautious than we were before,’ Rathod said, and we split into two groups again. Kuhad was with us while Kuldeep led the other.
We followed the same process for the fifth floor. Once again, there was nothing. Just more flat spaces.
We were about to start climbing the stairs to the sixth floor, when Rathod raised his hand.
We stopped.
‘Guys, there is a booby trap here,’ he said into the microphone.
The ground shook heavily and an explosion erupted on the other end of the floor. The other staircase had gone off. The other group had not seen the tripwire and had set off the booby trap.
Dust and smoke swept our way. The columns kept the structure in place. Within just one second, half our team had been wiped off. Now it was just Rathod, me, Kuhad and another SWAT guy. We were too stunned to say anything.
‘I have a plan,’ Rathod’s voice buzzed in our earpieces. ‘We need to move quickly. Jump over the tripwire. We have about three seconds before we can go upstairs. Once we’re on top, I’m going to trigger this trip wire as well.’
