by UD Yasha
‘I have got it with me. Wait, I’ll show it to you.’ The tone of Meena’s voice had become steadier. She rummaged in her small purse and took out a plastic bag. This bag was slightly bigger than the one in which he had sent me Maa's earring. It was transparent and I could see paper inside.
‘There are two letters inside,’ Meena said. ‘One is folded into the other. The outer one was addressed to me.’
Meena handed me the papers she was referring to. I pulled a drawer under my desk in the garage and took out a pair of gloves. I put them on and took the letter from Meena.
Chapter Five
I carefully unfolded the letter.
Hello Meena,
It has been a long time since I have met you. I have been looking at you from a distance and I am thrilled to know the kind of woman you have become. Anyways, that's beside the point. I'm not writing to tell you that. I would not waste paper on it. Maybe one day I'll be able to tell you all the good things about you in person. Who knows? You, me and your mother could have a fun chat one evening. I remember her being a lovely woman herself.
Look at me blabbering. Please pardon me. I’m writing to you for a very specific reason. You need to give the other letter folded inside this one to Siya Rajput. I know you know of her. How could you not? She’s the one who caught me. But she’s also the one because of whom I’m breathing this fine air.
If you try to act smart and don’t hand the other letter to Siya, I assure you there will be consequences. I know where you stay. I know how your bedsheets smell. And I also know that you only eat half a pack of ice-cream on your cheat days, keeping the rest in the fridge. I must tell you that the butterscotch flavour you get home might be the best butterscotch I have had. I also love the way your mother screams every now and then in the night. I won’t say much, but just that there was one time when she did not scream because she had a nightmare—she might have actually seen me.
I won’t ramble along for much longer.
You know what to do.
Yours,
Kishore Zakkal
I tried to mask my outrage when I finished reading it.
‘He was inside my house, in my room. In my mother’s room. He could have…could have… you know,’ Meena said, her voice shaking again.
I knew how Zakkal operated. He stalked his victims, broke into their homes, watched them carry out their daily activities, even lived in their homes without them knowing and then struck when he could not control himself any longer. The entire process, beginning with stalking his target, was a part of killing someone. My first instinct was that neither Meena nor her mother were in danger. Zakkal would have killed them if he wanted to. He had only used them as a ploy to get to me. He had succeeded in that.
‘I’m going to ask someone I know to put a security guard outside your house. It’ll keep you safe for now,’ I said, knowing that I needed to speak with Kapil Rathod soon.
In my quest to find Zakkal and put him away for good, I knew I had to make him do things he would not have otherwise done. Zakkal was too self-centred to relay messages to me through other people. That he had to go through Meena meant that he felt he could not reach me directly. That also meant we were safe for now. And while I was almost certain that Meena was not in any danger, the security detail would keep her safe too. I also wondered about the other women that Zakkal had abducted, and how they would need protection too.
‘Here,’ Meena said, handing me the letter that Zakkal had written to me.
‘Thanks for sharing this with me,’ I said, accepting the letter. ‘Coming here and giving this to me must have taken a lot of courage. You have done the right thing. Going forward, I don’t think Zakkal is going to bother you.’
That seemed to comfort Meena only a little. But then, she was only going to feel comfortable when Zakkal was caught.
I turned my focus to Zakkal’s letter.
I held it in my hands. Right away, it felt heavier than the first. There was something else inside it—not just strokes of ink on paper. As I unfolded the letter, I had a fair idea of what it might be. When I had fully opened it, I saw a tiny plastic bag with a zipper pasted at the bottom of the page with some sticky tape. There was a small flower inside it, which I was sure would have the pollen grain of the place that Zakkal was directing us to.
I had first caught Zakkal by tracing him to a murder with the help of palynology—the study of pollen grains. By their very nature, being plants' sex organs, pollen grains attract other pollen, making it possible to trace their movements. Pollen sticks easily to everyday objects, including clothes and shoes. As each pollen interacts with its environment and other pollens, it provides a very accurate picture of where all it has travelled. Because of the seasonal changes, you could also get a reasonably accurate time-stamped location, making pollen grains nature's very own GPS.
Now, Zakkal was teasing us with a clue.
Above the small flower, Zakkal had written a message for me. I recognized the strokes of handwriting. It had not been long since I had last received a note from him. I read the message in my mind.
Dear Siya,
You know you're my favourite girl, right? I have tried to make you feel special so I hope you know how much you mean to me. There was a point in time when your mother was my favourite girl. But there's something about you that I can't put my finger on—but I feel like I'm drawn to you; in more passionate ways than I'm drawn to your mother or even your sister. I don't believe in destiny but dare I say, this just might be "meant to be". In these past few days, I have realized that love is a much more powerful emotion than lust. So, please come home to me. I’m waiting for you.
I’m going to keep this short because I would rather keep all the good things for when we meet. But here’s what I want to tell you. Everything that happens from now on is on you. All the blood, all the deaths, all the fun. It’s on you. Consider yourself warned.
Meet soon.
Miss all of you.
XOXO.
PS- I hope you liked the birthday gift I sent you. I never heard back from you. Where are your manners, Siya?
Yours truly,
Kishore Zakkal
I did not feel any emotion as I finished reading the letter. It was as if the months of being subconsciously afraid had prepared me for this moment. There were two parts I focused on. Everything that happens from now on is on you. All the blood, all the deaths, all the fun. It’s on you. Consider yourself warned. He wanted me to do something. I wasn’t sure what it was though. Was he asking me to surrender myself to him? Surrender Maa or Radha? I wasn’t sure. But one thing was clear. He was coming after me, and for Zakkal, everything else was collateral damage. Secondly, I plucked out the plastic bag containing the flower. I would have to get it analysed immediately. For all I knew, someone might be in danger.
‘When did you get this?’ I said.
‘I found it in my drawer today afternoon,’ Meena said and paused. Her next words answered the question on my mind. ‘Zakkal must have come to my house sometime yesterday. My mother and I had gone out for some time. I wouldn’t have missed the letter the way it was kept in the drawer.
I glanced at my smartphone. It was seven forty-five in the evening. The sun had completely set and the moonlight was beaming down on us.
‘What time had you gone out yesterday?’ I asked.
‘We had stepped out for dinner. We must have been gone between eight and ten at night.’
So, it was almost twenty-four hours since Zakkal had dropped this message. I turned to Meena and thanked her again for sharing the letters with me.
‘Do you think we should contact the police?’ Meena said.
‘Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do now,’ I said. ‘It might take time for them to go through this and give you a security detail. Do you have any friends or family whose house you can crash at for the night?’
Meena nodded frantically. ‘Yes, my cousins stay in Pune. I can go to their house. It’s a big family so there�
��ll be strength in numbers.’
‘That’s a good idea. Please do that. Zakkal is not an idiot to harm you in a place he’s not familiar with. Please don’t hesitate to call me if anything comes up. I’ll be in touch with you regardless.’
‘I hope you get that son of a bitch,’ Meena said and got up to leave.
I watched Meena walk out slowly through the main gate of our house. I sat silently for a few minutes, wondering what my next steps were going to be. I wanted to get in touch with Rathod.
The last time that I had got involved in an investigation with the CID, I had been asked by ACP Sidhanshu Shukla to stay away from all their cases in the future. Rathod had been suspended for assisting me.
Luckily for me, my relationship with Rathod had not been affected during the entire ordeal. He had a strong moral code, and helping me had seemed like the right thing to do. So, he did not hold anything against me and had taken the suspension in his stride. I felt guilty about it, knowing how much he loved being a police officer. He did not express any ill-feelings towards me, but I knew he hated being on the sidelines. We had met a few times in the past six months but had never discussed the prospect of working together in the future. In the past, when I used to practice as a lawyer and private detective, Rathod would often assist me unofficially. Post his suspension, I did not want to put him in harm’s way again. I did not want to be the one that stopped him from doing something he loved so much.
I weighed my options. Kishore Zakkal was a wanted serial killer. The police had been trying to get leads on his whereabouts for more than two years without any success. I had informed the Pune CID about the contact he had established six months ago but even that had led to a dead end.
I took a deep breath. I was in no mood to ask Rathod to help me unofficially. I dialled the number of Dr Raghav Barve. He was the palynologist who had helped me catch Zakkal seven years ago. Dr Barve was now an old man, but he still studied his field like it was his first day at school. I had last spoken to him when he had analysed Maa's earring that Zakkal had given me; he had not found anything on it then.
'Siya, it's good to hear from you,' Dr Barve said when he answered the call.
‘You too, sir,’ I said. Hearing his voice reminded me of the very first conversations we had. Back then, it was the first time I felt real hope in being able to catch Zakkal. ‘I’m calling with not such good news though.’
‘Let me guess. Zakkal has given you something that you want me to go through?’
‘That’s right. He’s sent me a flower.’
‘It should be rich in pollen grains.’
‘I have a feeling that we’re going to find a match against Zakkal’s known locations that we have on record,’ I said, referring to the places where we knew Zakkal had visited because of the pollen that had led us to him in the original investigation.
'Send it over,' Dr Barve said. 'I won't harm the pollen so you can hand it to the CID once I get the profile of the sample.'
‘I’ll ask Rahul to bring it to you,’ I said.
‘That’d be wonderful. I’ll take what I need and ask him to bring the sample back with him. Since he’s coming, I’ll also ask him to take me to my office. I generally don’t drive at night these days.’
‘He’d be more than happy to do that,’ I said. ‘Thanks a lot for everything.’
‘Of course. Even I want to see that madman behind bars again. He’s caused enough damage. Happy to help in any way,’ he said and hung up.
I ducked out when I heard footsteps approaching the garage. It was Radha and Rahul. I could also see Shadow on the veranda, making sure we were alright.
‘Is everything okay?’ Radha said.
‘For now, it is,’ I said and then told them what had happened. ‘We don’t need to worry yet. But we need to be careful.’
‘What about Maa?’ Radha said.
'We won't tell her anything. Not right now. Let's wait. She's been doing very well of late, especially considering we recently got to know that dad died.'
Rahul got up. 'You two stay put. I'll give Dr Barve what he needs and get the flower back.'
‘Have you spoken to Rathod yet?’ Radha said.
I shook my head. ‘I’m planning to call. I want to make it official. No more putting him in danger to assist me.’
‘And I’ve a feeling that given it’s Zakkal, and you’re the person who knows most about him, ACP Shukla would want you on this case,’ Rahul said.
I remembered how the ACP was raging when he had told me to stay away from CID’s cases. I handed Rahul the small plastic bag containing the flower and then picked up my phone to call Rathod.
Chapter Six
The red and white lights of the ambulance strobed the night air as Rathod and Bhalerao watched the forensic team do their job at the farmhouse. They had taken a walk around the estate to look for any clues about the killer.
'It's good to see you, Doctor,' Rathod said to Dr Sonia Joshi, the Chief Medical Examiner of Pune CID.
‘I hear it’s your first case back too,’ Sonia said and began scribbling on her notepad.
Rathod was happy to see her. On his last case before his suspension, Sonia had been shot while she was working in the CID building. Her life hung in the balance for a few days but she had recovered completely and was now back at her job. There was no one better than her who knew how good that felt.
Sonia’s forensic team had finished clicking pictures and gathering samples from the terrace. Four of the six bodies had been moved into an ambulance. The fifth was being brought down.
‘What can you tell us?’ Rathod asked when she looked up from her notepad.
'The most recent body was the one closest to the entrance of the terrace. My initial guess is it's been there for about a week, or probably a bit less,' Sonia said. 'Apart from the most recent two, only bones are left in the others. All of them have a comparatively smaller skull, more rounded frontal forehead bone and eye-sockets, pointed chins and an obtuse-angled jawline— indicating that the sex of all the bodies is female. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that they were all women.'
‘That opens up a slew of possibilities,’ Bhalerao said.
‘I can give you more data soon. The ACP has asked us to work on these bodies on priority,’ Sonia said. ‘But there’s one thing that I noticed on some of the skeletons. The hyoid bone, which is the U-shaped bone in the neck, was broken in three of the six bodies. That indicates that they died from strangulation.’
‘What about the others?’ Rathod said.
'I won't rule out them being strangled either. It's just that the hyoid bone's breaking was prominent in three of the bodies. They were also relatively cleaner as most of the flesh was not present. Their hyoid bone seemed to be intact. But even if it's not broken, the women could have still died from being strangled. Its breaking depends on a host of factors.'
‘Any idea about when the women farthest away might have died?’
‘That’s one of the most difficult questions to answer if I’m being honest. I’ll need more time with the bodies during the autopsy to know that.’
‘What about how old the women were when they died?’
'This, I can tell. Based on the development of the skull and the epiphyseal union, I can say that the first four women were around the age of thirty when they died. For the other two, as some flesh was present, I haven't had a chance to examine the skeletal remains.'
‘Young women strangled. That’s a popular MO and target for most known male serial killers,’ Bhalerao said.
'There's no sign of sexual trauma in the latest two victims. Although, like always, I'll confirm that after the autopsy.'
Sonia turned to the staircase and saw the sixth body being brought to the ambulance. She gave Rathod and Bhalerao a firm nod of the head. ‘That’s my time, guys. I’ll see you back at the CID. You know my extension. I’ll tell you when the autopsies have been conducted and my team is ready to present the findings.’
; Rathod thanked Sonia. As he walked along with Bhalerao to return to their cars, his phone started buzzing in his pants pocket. Looking at the name on the screen first made him happy, but a flash later he felt the reluctance to take the call on a crime scene. Yet somehow, he found himself swiping the screen up to answer the call.
Chapter Seven
‘You’ve great timing,’ Rathod said.
‘Why’s that?’ I said across the line.
‘It’s my first day back on a real crime scene.’
That’s stellar timing, Siya.
‘What’s the matter?’ Rathod said.
‘I understand this can get tricky so I want to be upfront about it. I want to officially report a crime.’
‘Shit, is everything okay?’
‘Yes… Well, no. Not really. I got a message from Kishore Zakkal.’
‘What? When?’ I could tell that hearing Zakkal’s name had quickened Rathod’s pulse.
‘Just now. Do you remember a woman named Swapna Kiran?’
Rathod subconsciously pressed the phone harder into his ear as he tried to remember. ‘The name seems familiar.’
‘I know. She was one of the women Zakkal had abducted before he was arrested. We found her hair in a jar that night.’
‘Of course. She was alive and we rescued her from Ranjit Kadam.’
Then I told him what had gone down in the evening.
It must have taken Rathod a few seconds to take it all in because he fell silent for a spell. He said, ‘I’ll try to see if I can manage to arrange a security detail for all the five women we had rescued.’
I sensed some hesitation in his voice. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘There’s…there’s…I’m at a crime scene right now. It’s a bloodbath. I was trying to mentally place how many personnel we have free.’
It was my turn to take it all in.
