by Laxmi Natraj
Nakul now cursed himself for the lack of immediate action on his part. If the very moment he had seen the goats, if he had managed to jump out and run across the bushes, he could have caught up with those two men in question. OK! The window was a bit too high. But jumping out is not impossible for a policeman.
Feeling very disturbed he muttered to himself, “This village is not so sleepy and innocent. There are men here with guns who dare to kill and leave the body in the temple without having the fear of being discovered. Now strange things like goats are being driven into the forest in the evening.”
There was a sudden spark of recognition in his brain. The familiarity he saw in those men. Yes! Those were the same ones he had seen in the hospital in the morning with so much injury, men moaning and groaning. But now, they were fit and fine to drive the cattle? He started fuming with anger. He decided to find out the truth at this very moment, without wasting even a few seconds. He came out, locked the hall and started jogging towards the hospital.
He had just jogged for about three minutes when a boy of about ten years, came riding a cycle in front of him. He was too short to sit in the seat and as all children do he was doing ‘monkey peddling’ inserting his leg between the crossbars and was pedalling by standing on the pedals. He was wobbling dangerously, unable to keep up his balance. Nakul did not know which side to move because he was driving zig- zag all over the road like a drunken man. Nakul stopped and the boy came straight at him and banging the cycle on him fell down. Nakul managed to jump out at the last minute and was not hurt. But the boy was caught between the cycle bars he started howling so loudly that the doors of many houses opened and people started coming out running.
Within two minutes a group of about ten men and women had gathered there. Nakul tried to pull the boy out from the cycle, but the boy was resisting his help and refusing to come out, but concentrated on howling louder. Time ticked on as Nakul looked around desperately. Shiva came running from somewhere and said, “Oh no! Krishna, how many times have I told you not touch my cycle! Now you have damaged my cycle’s cross bar! ”
The boy stopped crying and said, “No Shiva uncle, I have not damaged it. See this cycle is alright, nothing is broken! ” Saying, he now got up on his own, pulled the cycle up and showed him that the cycle was still in good condition.
Shiva laughed loud and said, “Now, tell me, Krishna, what happened to your big howling and crying? You were just trying to frighten Inspector uncle, am I right?”
Nakul was amazed at Shiva’s smartness in managing the situation. The people around talked something and after a few minutes, the boy’s mother went away, dragging Krishna with her and soon and everyone gathered around slowly left the place.
Shiva holding the cycle with one hand, asked in a surprised voice, “Sir, what are you doing here in the night? Where were you going? If you needed to go somewhere you could have called me Sir. I am your official ever-ready guard, Sir!”
Nakul started walking and Shiva walked along with him, pushing the cycle. Nakul briefly told him about the goats and the men.
Shiva said, “Sir, in the evening fading light you probably mistook those men. Actually, there is one cattle fair tomorrow in the neighbouring village. So many villagers reach there in the night itself. Just at the end of the road, there is a long sloping mud road which is a shortcut to go to the next village. As the goats went down the slope, they would have disappeared from your sight and you may be mistaken that they went inside the jungle. Which fool will go the jungle in the night, that too with their goats sir?” Though Siva’s explanation was very logical and authentic, Nakul was still dead sure of his own eyes.
They finally reached the hospital. The outer door was closed and Shiva rang the bell. Finding no response after two minutes he rang the bell again. After three more minutes the doctor opened the door and seeing Shiva first, started in an irritated voice, “What is this Shiva? I had just started my dinner now and you barge in and you keep on ringing the bell as if there is an emergency! Why do you have to be in such a. …?.” He stopped his sentence half way as he now noticed Nakul standing along with Shiva and said in an apologetic voice with a hurry, “Evening Sir. Sorry, I did not see you first. You wanted some medicine sir?”
Without answering him, Nakul almost pushed him and entered the hospital and walked in hurriedly. Pushing the curtain he entered the ward in one minute. He was taken aback. The two men with bandages all over their body were very much there, just like they were in the morning, quietly sleeping. The doctor following him now said,” These boys were in so much pain that I had to give both of them a sedative injection. Hence they are sleeping so soundly. Did you come to see them, sir? You wanted to question them or something?”
Nakul stood staring at the sleeping men. Their bandages were intact, the blood marks had dried up. They looked like men who were dead tired. They had some angry purple bruises on their faces and were sleeping like logs. He could not believe his eyes. That meant, for the first time in his life his eyes had fooled him. He had been mistaken about the two men with the goats!
He turned to Shiva and said, “Ok, Shiva let us go back. Sorry doctor! I disturbed your dinner.” He walked out very fast, cursing himself, without waiting for an answer. Shiva hesitated for one second and then joined Nakul. Finally, they reached the temple hall. One villager was standing there at the door holding a big tiffin-set[11]. As Shiva took the set from the villager, Nakul could smell the familiar pungent smell of the same hair oil, and he twisted his nose in disgust.
Chapter 16
Men in Black
As soon as Nakul and Shiva left the hospital, the doctor waited for a few minutes, standing at the door staring at their back till they disappeared at the end of the road. Then he closed and locked the main door and came in. He called out “OK boys, he is gone now.”
The two men, who were so far sleeping like logs, now sprang up from the bed and sat upright.
One of them said “Oh God, What a narrow escape! This man must have the eyes of a hawk! Standing at his window he was able to spot us from about 80 feet away, and then he came back here to verify. Now we have to rush to the forest. We had left the job with the goats half way, and had to come back here running when we got our leader’s message.”
With lightning speed, they pulled out all those ready-made bandages, carefully off their body. They quickly changed into their own black outfits, hidden under the bed. They pushed in their revolvers safely, one in the pant pocket and the second one inside the socks. They inserted two sharp knives one inside each one of the long socks. They picked up their backpack heavy with ammunition and said “Ok Sir, now we make our move.”
The doctor said in a commanding deep voice, “Now take this K- ration of yours, dry fruits and water, meant for three days. Maybe you have to hide for more than three days if needed. But at any cost do a perfect job. While crossing the village just now, go crouching through the bushes and keep your head very low. Be very careful when you cross the temple hall, where he is staying. For all you know, this fellow may be still standing there watching through the window.” Both the men saluted the doctor and jumping through the window, disappeared in the darkness. The doctor looked around carefully to see if they had left any evidence by chance, and collecting the soiled bandages, went inside the store room and dropped them in the special hidden bag.
Back at the temple hall, Shiva insisted on serving Nakul food and talked about some general topics about the village. As Nakul finished, he collected the tiffin box and took leave. Nakul latched the hall door and came to the same window and looked again. Somehow he was dead sure, that those men with goats were the same men he saw in the hospital. If they had reached the hospital, before he could even reach the hospital to check so quickly back, then it only meant that they were informed by someone. Who? It proved that it was not just one, a lone killer on the loose as he first thought, but there were more than one, at least three or four men who had killed Julia and were still very much aro
und in the village. But, what could be their motive for this? Shiva says the temple is a Sanyasi temple. Definitely, there was no ornament on the deity. People steal antique, ancient idols or deities. But, definitely never heard about a Lingam being stolen! Then this lingam was so huge that no one could dream of even budging it an inch, let alone escape with that. What was the mystery of this Lingeshwar temple which had brought Julia to this village? Even after the murders, three or four men were still wandering around hunting for something! Hunting for what?” After hours of tossing in his bed he, slowly, fell asleep.
He had hardly slept for two hours. Suddenly, he woke up. As his eyes opened he remained still, concentrating on his surroundings, trying to focus. This time nothing stirred and there was no special smell of hair oil. He got up and sat. Some memory had woken him up from his sleep. What was it? He stared out into the darkness, wishing for an answer to appear with the grace of Lingeswar. But there was nothing.
Chapter 17
Unexpected Clues
Nakul sat upright on his bed and took a deep breath. He started thinking seriously, trying to solve the zig zag puzzle running in his brain. John lived in this room. After he was killed someone rushed to this room, and cleaned it up, collecting his laptop and some papers. But they had not taken his passport. Maybe they did not have that much time. That meant that they would not have searched the room, like a policeman would have searched! It was therefore possible that there could still be some evidence in this room, which had not been removed by those people.
He jumped up from the bed and started looking around. Taking the pen torch from his bag, he went down on his knees and carefully looked under the bed. There was nothing. Then, one by one, he started searching underneath each and every piece of furniture which had some gap below. As he searched under the big clothes closet, he could see a white piece of something fluttering underneath. Lying flat on his stomach, he crawled and stretched his hand to its full length and after a few minutes of struggle, he could reach the object with his fingertips. With some more struggle, he finally managed to pull out a tiny, crushed ball of paper.
He sat near the table and carefully spread the totally crushed and blackened paper. There were two bits of paper in the ball. One was an odd piece of a bit of triangular paper, which looked like it was a ripped corner of a medical bill. On the top, there was the first letter of the printed name of the shop which was ripped in half. A part of the name of the medicine purchased was also seen in the paper.
The next one was a white piece of paper which looked like a part of a letter but was again ripped half way. The written part had a few strange, unknown collections of letters as follows.
XWEE........... PKKT........ TSS........... RPMSEY...
Three times such meaningless letters were written in the different permutations and combinations , cancelled many times and rewritten. Nakul’s breathing quickened and he started sweating. Though he could not crack the incomplete message on the paper, he could easily make out that it was a part of a coded message. This trail of three lines showed that the person who wrote this was trying to send a message using their code language, using a coding book.
A Coded message from John’s room!
The information from the US had said that John had already been arrested once on suspicion of having links with ISI. Now from this bit of paper it could be concluded that John did have links with terrorists! Or was it Julia who had tried to write this message? Either one of them or both of them, were here in this sleepy village only to hide away from the world’s eyes. Julia was his companion, and both were killed. That means the few men hiding in this village were not just criminals but possibly the ones who were connected with terrorists! Oh, God!! He whistled softly.
He took both pieces of papers carefully, and folding them kept them safely inside his wallet. Once again, he searched among John’s clothes, looking into the pocket of each and every dress. From the inside pocket of a coat, he got a small photo. Examining it under the table light he could make out John’s face. It was a family photo. John and a lady were smiling broadly holding between them a boy and a girl. The boy looked about ten years old and the girl looked like his twin-sister. The background was a typical American house. The colour photo was totally faded and creased and a date on the side of the photograph was not readable. John was looking very healthy in this photo while the other day his dead body looked very thin as if he had lost a lot of weight. But for it, the photo looked not much older than three or four years.
Nakul searched for two more hours very patiently and methodically. But nothing new was found. No papers or photos from the cupboard of Julia. Nakul could not go back to bed or sleep again. He looked at his watch. It was nearing 4.a.m.
He splashed some cold water on his face to wash off the remaining traces of sleep from his eyes and changed into his uniform. He checked his room once again and picking up his bag came out and locked the hall. He started walking towards the Purohit’s house. A dog on the road barked. But luckily it did not chase him. He had reached a spot just twenty feet away from the Purohit’s house when he came to a sudden halt.
He could make out the shadow of two human figures standing very close to each other near the porch of the Purohitji’s house. A very mild light from the half closed window outlined their forms. He stood very still without moving and watched them.
They seemed to be engrossed in some animated conversations, totally unaware of the world outside. Nakul’s adrenaline spiked and his brain worked at jet speed. If he needed to see the faces of those two, or listen to their conversation, he would have to move at least ten more steps closer. But his police boots would make a noise and they would flee in no time.
Deciding on his action, he started moving sidewise like a crab. Cautiously, very slowly, inch by inch, on his toes, he moved to the side of the road. Reaching the end of the road he went down on his knees, and going behind the bushes started crawling through them. The bush was all thorns and the growth was tightly packed, and his movements were very painful. Holding his breath and with determination, he crawled inch by inch, about eight feet and then his body involuntarily froze. . He was in for a great shock, as he realized who they were !
They were none other than was Shiva and Netra. But now, as if they had heard something, they abruptly ended their conversation and Netra scurried back inside her house. Shiva waited in the same place for a few seconds and then walked back to his house. He opened the door and went inside. Nakul got up from the bushes. Brushing off the mud from all over his uniform , he walked to the Purohit’s house and rang the bell.
Chapter 18
Back to Town
Shiva opened the door and looked genuinely surprised. He said, “Inspector Sir? Good morning! You are here so early in the morning? And you are dressed in uniform too! Are you going back?”
Nakul replied with an impassive face, “Yes, I am going to town for some urgent work. I might come back in the evening. But I am not sure.”
Shiva said, “Sir, one good thing is that, just now, Netra has brought fresh milk. I will make fresh tea for you in a minute.”
Nakul asked in half surprised voice, “Why did Netra have to bring the milk so early in the morning?”
Shiva said, “Sir, in this village, everyone has their own cattle for milk. But we have no cow here. So just for Purohitji, Acharayaji’s family had been supplying milk for many years. They have one help who generally milks the cow in the morning and brings it. But since Netra is here, she brings the milk every day now.”
Nakul said with mischievous smile, “Oh! So in that pretext, she could exchange a few words with you also! Is it right Shiva? ”
Shiva, for once, did not deny the statement, but gave a mild smile and said, “One minute Sir, Please wait Sir, I will get the tea.”
Nakul wondered, “Shiva did not hide the fact that he was talking to Netra. Was that a simple friendly meeting or had he guessed, that there was quite a possibility, that I could have seen them, and hence h
e quickly made up the milk story?”
Shiva came out with hot tea, and it was a welcome one for Nakul. His head was throbbing with so many questions and from lack of proper sleep. Finishing his tea, he got up and thanked Shiva. He walked out briskly and getting into the car, he straight away stepped on the accelerator and the car raced ahead. Shiva stood there for a few minutes watching him disappearing at a distance.
The early morning was still dark as Nakul rushed away in his car. The shadow standing near the school building reported in his cell phone, “He has left the village for the time being. Some relief for us.”
Chapter 19
Replacing the Treasure
Flashback -2nd May, 3:15 a.m.
The third man, who was present on the murder scene, sat all alone in the dark meeting room deep in thought. In spite of his best efforts at covering up the crime, the police seemed to be relentlessly digging for evidence from John’s room beyond his expectations. He was dead sure that he had cleaned off every single bill and papers from John’s room. The police was becoming a big hindrance to his team’s work and then ‘D’ day was very close by! What happened that night, just ten days ago, the entire episode of the murder scene in the temple, came flooding back to his memory.
That dark night, as soon as John had opened his door, unknown to him, the hidden infra camera concealed by the third man behind the door, started sending a signal. The buzzer near the man’s pillow had beeped and alerted him. He had rushed out immediately, ready with his gun. Standing hidden in the shadows, he had seen John walking away first towards the temple with a heavy bag. After a few minutes, just as he expected, Julia came out and started following John. Waiting for a few seconds, he started silently tailing both of them. From the secret video camera, placed in John and Julia’s room, he already knew that the lady wanted to have the bag for herself.
