by Laxmi Natraj
Nakul’s ears pricked up immediately. He said, “You said that he purchased ready to cook fast foods and biscuits and dry fruits in large quantities! But, the people of the village where he lived are not the types who eat these types of fast foods!”
Kamath said, “Sir when you are mentioning this, even I am surprised. I was not seriously thinking at that time. Maybe he distributed them to some beggars or people living on the platform etc.”
Nakul said, “You do me a favour Kamath. You please pull out all the bills of John’s purchases and get me the print outs of all of them.”
Kamath said, “Ok Sir, but it will take some time. Hope you don’t mind.”
Nakul said, “Absolutely no problem. I will wait. This is a very important point for my investigation.”
Kamath pressed the bell and as the assistant entered, ordered for coffee and started his work. Shifting from the records backward he started getting the print outs of John’s bills from the 3rd week of January. Long sheets of printouts started coming out of the sleek printer attached to the computer.
The coffee came and as Nakul started with his coffee he said, “Sir, John had taken two different bills. He took a separate bill for his hospital medicines and separate ones for the confectionaries and fast cooking food etc. At that time somehow even I did not think much about these purchases as something odd. Maybe he was distributing these to the poor people in the village or in some other place.”
After one hour, Nakul left the shop with a large bundle of printed out bills and a small sense of achievement, that a tiny ripped paper had yielded so much result for him. Later in the office, Nakul and Utkarsh sat together and took out only the confectionary and dry fruits bills. With a yellow marker, they started rounding of only the dry fruits items. There were quite a large amount dry fruits in every bill bought at an interval of every 3 days.
Nakul looked up and said, “Utkarsh even taking for granted that John gave away the biscuits and fast cooking food to the poor, no one gives dry fruits to beggar or poor. Unless….” He stopped his sentence half way and both stared each other as realization dawned.
They burst out simultaneously, “ Oh No God! –NO!”-
Back in the village a voice informed over the cell phone, “I am informed that this police fellow had found out the medical store address and it seems he had collected copies of medical bills. We have to hurry up with our plans as he might zero in on us.”
Chapter 27
The Forest
The night was darker in the forest. Owls hooted once in a while. Tiny insects buzzing around made a continuous droning noise. Five shadows of men moved through the forest in the darkness. The thick vegetation growth underneath their feet was heavy and moist which sort of cushioned their footsteps. The five men walked on softly like cats, their rubber boots hardly making any noise.
They were dressed in total black colour and hence could hardly be distinguished from the thick sheet of darkness in which they moved. They wore black pants, tight black hooded shirts and their faces were further covered with a black mask. They had the latest brand laser guns slid over their shoulder. Two sharp knives were pushed into their socks. A silencer pistol was hiding in their hip pocket. They had night vision laser goggles and could see clearly in the darkness. Each one of them carried two bundles of some heavy luggage on their shoulders. The shoulder weight was sort of making their movement a bit difficult. After every five steps they stopped. Like nocturnal animals on the hunt, their ears standing erect, they listened carefully, for any minute movement. Then making sure that there was none, they moved again. In between, they stopped and at close quarters talked to each other with hand gestures.
After about forty-five minutes of such walking, their leader signalled them to stop. They stood in the pattern of a pentagon. Every member from the vertex started moving in a different direction carefully looking into their magnetic compass. For every one of them it was another walk of one hour, which had taken them to five scattered points in the deep heart of the thick forest. One of the men having reached his final destination stopped. He knelt down and moved his bundles from his shoulder to the ground very tenderly. He very gently pushed one of the bundles carefully in the needed place. In the same knelt position, he delicately searched with his hand all over his luggage and carefully checked something with his fingers. Satisfied with his search result, he got up and picking up his second load on the shoulder started walking, but now in a different direction.
After half an hour of walking he stopped. He shifted the second luggage from the shoulder on to the ground. He knelt down and once again searched with his fingers moving across the luggage, and checked the object. Satisfied he got up. Being relieved of his luggage suddenly his shoulders felt very light. He checked his latest Laser gun swung across his chest. He started retracing the path. All other men having moved in different directions were also following the same schedule.
Nearly after four hours all five of them again met at the same point that they had started. Their eyes used to the total darkness with their goggles, they signalled to each other about the completion of their plan with hand gestures. Finishing their reporting, they quickly changed from their own black dress into, their usual village dress, which they had kept hidden in their bags there. Now, all five of them, had changed into unsuspecting simple villagers, who were on their way for their daily work.
The sky had started turning grey. They hid their black dresses, guns and other things in the secret place they had made for this special job. Only one of the men walked out first and walked out quickly. After ten minutes the remaining started walking back to the village. They carefully left the forest at an interval of ten minutes difference from each other. As the last man entered his destination, the cock on the neighbouring house flew to the top of the roof and made a long morning call.
Four hours after the men had left their luggage in various spots in the deep jungle, there were some movements. Something inside the gunny bags, the sedated ones, opened their eyes. They started kicking and battling for their dear lives. They were desperately trying to come out of the bag which was purposely loosely tied to help them to come out.
Chapter 28
A Shocking Fact
Nakul and Utkarsh walked to the ACP’s office the next day. Nakul placed the pile of bills on the table and briefly described their previous day’s adventure. ACP took the bills and silently went through them very carefully. Seeing the bold yellow marking on the dry fruits, he lifted his eye brows and looked at Nakul’s face.
Nakul nodded in affirmation and said, “Yes Sir, Dry fruits, and in a very large quantity, every fourth day.”
The ACP again studied the bill and said, “Nakul. you boys have done wonderful work. A glaring proof of terrorist activity is right here in front of our eyes. Why should a doctor living alone, who was served lunch and dinner by the Purohit’s family, buy so many dry fruits and fast foods? Even if we imagine that he was buying these for distribution to the poor on the road, even then no one gives dry fruits to the beggars! We can’t forget that the ISI Pakistanis who attacked the Taaj-hotel and Cama hospital in Mumbai, four years back, had survived only dry fruit packets for days together. Thus, the dry fruits had become the signature of Pakistan sponsored terrorists. If the anti-terrorists department is exhibiting its apathy in not wanting to listen to us, it is their headache. You two are on the right track, and should go ahead with the investigation here.”
It was hard for Nakul to suppress his grins at this praise, and outwardly he said politely, “Thank you so much, Sir, for having so much faith in us and encouraging us.” He turned to Utkarsh and winked to show his happiness.
The ACP, still studying the bills continued, “Nakul, did you notice one more thing? The dry fruits bills had started from the second week of January this year and stopped at the third week of April. There are no more bills of purchase from that date till the 2nd of May when he was killed. Why he did not buy these dry fruits later on?”
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bsp; Nakul said, “Sir, he might have thought of avoiding some one’s attention on the bill. Hence he might have bought these medicines from the medical shop but then would have bought the dry fruits from different shops.”
ACP thought for some time. Then he said,” Could you tell me that since when did he start buying the blood cancer medicines?”
Nakul had looked into the bills so many times that he had almost memorized them by heart. So he answered instantly, “Sir from the first week of April onwards”.
The ACP looked up and said, “So the time he started buying cancer medicines he stopped buying dry fruits. Do you see any pattern here Nakul?”
Nakul thought for a moment and said, “No Sir, I don’t find any connection. The possibility is that he could have started buying from another shop. But just looking for dry fruits bills, which could be bought in bulk from about 40 thousand shops from the town, is impossible to process.”
The ACP passed the bills back to Nakul and said, “OK Nakul for the time being you leave this bills issue. I am going to give you bonus information which will make you jump up in happiness.”
Nakul and Utkarsh looked at each other with a puzzled expression. The ACP opened his left side drawer of his desk and pulled out a single sheet. He looked at the sheet once and said, “Nakul I am giving you the contact of one of my special man. He had earlier worked with the military coding and decoding section of signal messages and is familiar with all types of codes. You two meet this man and take his help to decode the piece of paper with the coded message you got from John’s room.” He extended his hand across the table and gave an address paper and the coded message paper to Nakul.
Nakul was really excited. He took the paper and his eyes ran madly through it. There was a name ( Ex Major.) Ravikanth Singh, and below the name, there were three mobile numbers.
The ACP said, “He completed his short service commission in the military and then had taken voluntary retirement and is now running his own security services. I have already briefed him about the case and about you two to him. First give him a call and get in touch with him. He would be a world of help for us.”
Nakul said, “Thank you so much, Sir. This is really a great help.”
The ACP waved his hand gesturing them that they could leave and picked up the phone. Nakul and Utkarsh clicked their heels as they saluted him and came out. As Nakul was just reaching his bike, his cell phone started ringing.
Looking at the unknown land line number he looked half confused and answered indifferently
“ Hello”
The voice of Shiva, “Good morning Sir, Shiva here” surprised him beyond words. He turned to Utkarsh and said “Could you believe it? It is Shiva, why in the world he is calling me now?”
As Utkarsh shrugged his shoulders, he started talking in the cell, “Yes Shiva, surprising that you are calling me! Don’t tell me there is another murder in your village.”
Shiva answered in hurt voice, “Sir, please, don’t joke like that Sir, our village people cannot take another murder. The reason I called you is that, I had come to your town to buy the medicines for the hospital. I am calling you from this medical shop. Since John is not there Dr Netra gave me a big list of the needed medicines and I came to purchase them. If you are free, I thought I could meet you.”
Nakul was so far talking a bit uninterested and casually. But now he suddenly stiffened and said, “What! You have come for the hospital medicines? Which is that medical shop?”
He listened to the answer and said, “Oh, the same ‘Get Well Soon Chemists’ only? That is just super. I came for some work and just now finished it. Luckily I am just five minutes away from the shop. Please do wait for me. Let us all have some coffee together. Is that OK with you?” He disconnected the line.
Utkarsh rolled his eyes in mock surprise and said, “Sir, What a big bluff! We are half an hour drive away from the shop. How can we ever reach there in five minutes?”
Nakul inserted the ignition key in the bike and said, “Utkarsh, learn one thing. A policeman should never tell the truth. But he should always make others tell nothing but the truth.” Then laughing at his own statement, as Utkarsh sat on the pillion, he accelerated his bike.
Chapter 29
Tea with Shiva
In twenty minutes they reached the shop. John’s car was parked just near the medical shop and Shiva was waiting in front of the car. Nakul parked his bike and both of them got down.
Seeing them Shiva walked towards them and said, “Good morning Sir, nice to see you again”. Nakul smiled broadly and said, “Why are you always bluffing Shiva! Who on the earth will be happy to see a policeman?” Laughing together, they all walked towards a small coffee house. Nakul ordered tea and some snacks for all of them and started a casual conversation with Shiva and asked him about the temple and Purohitji.
Shiva said, “After the Suddhi Puja we have now opened the temple again Sir. But, still Purohitji’s health is not so good and hence he had asked Acharyaji to look after the puja for the time being. He had requested for two more boys from the Matt, to look after the puja rituals hereafter and help him at home. Luckily these boys have already come.”
Nakul mentally, though, ‘Two more new boys had entered the village’ But he kept a straight face and said, “Oh, that is a good news. Where are those boys staying? Are they also staying in the temple hall?”
Shiva said, “No Sir, they are staying with the Purohitji in our house itself. Purohitji is teaching these new boys about the special Puja Vidhi of Lingeshwar. Hence we have hired one of the village man for cooking at Purohitji’s house itself. This way Acharya’s family is not unnecessarily taxed for cooking extra food for so many people. In fact today for the first time in my life, I had purchased some groceries too for the kitchen.”
Nakul said, “Good training for you, Shiva, tomorrow when you are married to Netra this training will be useful.”
Shiva shrugged his shoulder and said, “Sir, both I and Netra are only good friends. You are imagining all sorts of things which are not true. Secondly, Acharyaji will cut me into small pieces and feed me to the dogs even if I look in the direction of Netra.”
Nakul burst out laughing and said, “Good, Fathers of girls should be like that only. But in your case, I can make some special recommendations if you want so that…”
Shiva folded his hands in a mock salute and said, “Sir, please I beg you, leave me out of this joke.”
The tea came with hot snacks. They started with their snacks. As Nakul nibbled at the snacks his eyes were scanning Shiva. He noticed that Shiva had lost much weight since he had seen him just a week back at the funeral of the Americans. There were large dark circles under his eyes. Is he still not recovered from his friend John’s death? He wondered.
Then as if remembering something he said, “Shiva, do these medical fellows give you regular computerized bills? Sometimes when you buy medicine in bulk, they may lure you by saying that they will give you a big discount if you don’t claim the bill. Then they may dump their old medicines whose dates might have already expired.”
Shiva looked genuinely surprised and said, “Oh! God, I hope he had given me the correct medicine! I don’t have any medicine knowledge. How will I check now? I had already purchased them?” Saying, he pulled out a big role of medicine bill from his pocket, and handed it over to Nakul.
Nakul went through the bill and said, “Simple, Shiva, see here, for each and every packet of medicine, he has given the batch number. It is the proof of that medicine box, he had given. Definitely, it will not be the expired dated medicines. Anyway to do a double check, you can ask any one of the doctors like Netra, from the hospital to check by reading the date of expiry on each and every medicine box before you start using them.”
As he was talking his eyes were quickly sweeping through the stock of things purchased for the hospital. There were dozens of sugar-free biscuit packets for hospitals but there were no items like dry fruit, fast cooking noodles etc. N
ot a single item from anyone of them was there. He returned the bill and said, “Quite a long bill! This would have cost you a fortune.”
Shiva took the shop bill and rolling it said in a soft voice, “All because of the greatness of John Sir. Because of the money he had deposited in the bank, we are able to buy all these medicines for the poor villagers. In the present day situations, who gives away all his property to villagers Sir?” Nakul nodded silently.
Shiva asked, “Are you coming again to our village for any further inquiries, Sir?” Nakul shook his head and said, “No, Shiva, the case is almost closed. The chances of my coming back are ... nil.”
After some more light conversation, all of them got up and moved to their own vehicles. Shiva went back to his car and Nakul picked up his bike. As they went back to their police station and parked, Utkarsh said, “Very clever of you to look into the bill to see if Shiva had purchased dry fruits. You really looked so concerned about the expiry dates of the medicines.”
Nakul laughed aloud. “The very reason I asked Shiva to wait, the meeting and taking him to tea all of it was all an elaborate plan, meant only to see the medical bill. Otherwise, how can I see the bill, snatch it from him?” Now Utkarsh also smiled.
Chapter 30
Major Ravikanth
Next day morning both Nakul and Utkarsh quickly attended to their duties in the station. Just before leaving they called the Major on his cell phone and made sure that he was in the office. Though they had already taken an appointment they wanted to be sure that he was in his office.
The office of the Major was not too big but looked like a well planned compact one. About five youths were working busily, each one in a separate glass cubicle. As they entered the front office one of the boys came out and said, “Good morning Sir. The Major is waiting for you. Please walk straight ahead. The last cabin is Major Sir’s Cabin”. Nakul thanked him and walked to the cabin. They knocked and entered.
