When He Finds You

by UD Yasha

  Chapter Thirteen

  As I said the words, energy rippled in my body like waves rising during the start of a high tide. I thought there was finally something to pursue. My new-found energy reflected in my voice.

  'Zakkal is predicting how we would behave. I'm going to try to put myself in his shoes. So, if I was in his place and had just escaped prison, what would I do? There are three broad options. One, he stops killing and seeks redemption. I have seen the look in his eyes when he has spoken about killing people, including threatening me. So, I know that isn't happening. Talking about killing me, number two would be that he goes on a rampage and kills everyone in my family because he is obsessed with us. That hasn't happened either. That leaves us with the last option—he bides his time, makes a plan and acts on it.'

  ‘Do you think he would have the patience to wait for two years before striking?’

  'I'm inclined to say no. But who knows? He might very well have killed people in these past two years. You have got to remember that he went for years without even being suspected of killing anyone. He has done this before. He's smarter now. He can do the same but in an even better way. In fact, he only made a mistake when he killed a woman the first time. He hasn't faltered after that.'

  Saying those words out loud dampened my spirit for a flash. I could see the same happening to Rathod.

  He said. ‘So, what next?’

  ‘I keep going back to this, but I feel very strongly about this idea. He’s got someone helping him. He could not have survived his initial months out of prison without it. I have been thinking about this since you dragged me downstairs at Dr Barve's house. The more time I've had to ruminate on this idea, the more likely it seems to me that he's got help.'

  ‘You’re thinking Nana Shirole?’

  ‘Yes, and no. I think Shirole helped him with the logistics of the escape. Shirole’s main game is drugs. He wouldn’t handhold Zakkal as he runs rampant in the city killing women. That’s risky for his business.’’

  ‘So, you’re thinking of someone like Ranjit Kadam?’

  ‘Yes. But Zakkal and Ranjit were close friends…practically brothers. I’m thinking about someone who is fascinated by Zakkal.’

  Rathod’s eyes lit up as I said that because he knew where I was going with this.

  I said, ‘I remember that several people wrote to Zakkal in prison. They were in awe of him and asked him all kinds of questions about the murders he committed and their own fascination with killing.’

  ‘You’re thinking it could be one of them?’

  ‘They’re the low-hanging fruit.’

  ‘I remember we had spoken to a couple of them and they were creepy as hell.’

  ‘You’re being kind when you describe them like that,’ I said and paused. ‘Some of those people would jump at the opportunity of working with their dream superstar. It’s like a young kid getting a call from Roger Federer to join him on a fully-paid tennis training program.’

  'I think you're onto something here. I don't know Zakkal the way you do. If you think that this could be something, then it's definitely worth exploring. We had made a list at the CID of people who have written to Zakkal and showed tendencies of being potential killers themselves. I'm sure I can pull up that record as everything is digital now,' Rathod said and began walking back into the building while I followed him.

  Once we were inside, I sat in the waiting area outside the main office. I watched Rathod go to the cubicle of an officer I didn’t know. He returned ten minutes later with a stack of papers in his hand and a grin on his face.

  He said, 'I've made two copies of Zakkal's letters that correspond with people who were either asking him about his murders or wanted to learn about killing. We'll go through it on our end too. It'll be faster that way.'

  I thanked Rathod, took the papers and walked back to my car. Before I headed back, I had to do something else. I returned to the CID building and went to the top floor. It housed the make-shift guest quarters where Dr Barve was sleeping for the night. I remembered going there the previous year when a murder suspect I was representing had been shot by a sniper while I was speaking to him. The client was not guilty, and in fact, the evidence he had gathered had led us to the real culprits.

  Just like him, even Dr Barve was a brave man. I saw him through the small window on the door. He was lying on the bed but his eyes were wide open. A plate of uneaten food lay on a small bedside table.

  I knocked on the door once.

  Dr Barve looked my way and then rose slowly.

  ‘I’m sorry, Siya,’ he said as he held the door open partially. ‘I don’t have anything to say to you. I can’t do this. Sudha was my entire world and now she’s gone.’ His voice was a tad spiteful. ‘I know you didn’t know what was going to happen but it has. Please let me be on my own tonight.’

  My mouth turned dry. The guilt I had felt before resurfaced with a deadlier vengeance.

  ‘I promise you that we’re going to get her back,’ I said.

  Dr Barve’s face was expressionless. He closed the door and walked back to his bed. I stood outside his room, watching him for a few more minutes before heading for my car.

  When I reached home, Radha sensed from my body language that something was wrong. I told her everything that had happened since I had reached CID’s office.

  ‘You look dead. You should eat something,’ she said and put up a cup of tea for me.

  ‘Is Maa okay?’ I asked, wondering at what point we would have to tell her that Zakkal had returned.

  ‘Yes, she has been sleeping since you left,’ Rahul said. ‘Radha was with her in her room throughout. Even Shadow’s sleeping on the floor under her bed.’

  A part of me felt relieved but another was crippled with anxiety. Maa's sixteen years of captivity was split between Zakkal and Ranjit, with the last five being under Ranjit's supervision. Her therapist had told me that she did not remember much about her time with Zakkal. It was like her brain had shut out that period of her life. He had told us to be careful when it came to talking about Zakkal. According to him, there was a chance that Maa would remember those years, and if that happened, it would open a very vulnerable and sensitive part of her mind.

  It was almost three at night when all of us returned to our bedrooms. I lay awake on the bed, staring at the fan going round and round. I knew time was of the essence and did not want to waste even a single minute. But my eyelids were heavy and couldn't form a single straight thought. Somewhere in the next few seconds, I fell asleep. Right before that, Dr Barve’s crestfallen figure flashed in my mind.

  I knew Dr Barve’s team was working on finding the area that matched with the pollen grain that Zakkal had sent me. I wondered where it would lead us to. Soon, all thoughts drifted away, except one: I had no choice but to catch Zakkal soon because everything was going to get much worse if I didn’t.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kishore Zakkal swore under his breath as he approached Sudha Barve’s room. Everything had gone exactly as planned till then. But Sudha was a nasty old woman. He did not like old ladies. They had wrinkles and always seemed keen on giving people unsolicited life advice.

  But he had not taken Sudha Barve for the same reasons for which he always abducted women. It was more about showing Siya Rajput what he was capable of. He found himself grinning when he pictured how the scene had played out. It was as if Siya was a puppet and he was pulling her strings.

  This is just the start.

  It did not bother Zakkal that he had not decided what to do with Sudha yet. He had killed old women before, so he knew he would enjoy the act. But something told him keeping her alive was going to be beneficial to him in the long run. For him, she was irrelevant. She could be bartered later on for something…or someone more promising.

  He was about to say hello to Sudha but then decided against it. He was going to meet his lover soon and did not want to be in a bad mood for that. So, he turned around when he was inches away from her door. T
here was absolutely no way she was going to escape from here.

  Zakkal turned around to go back to the other woman he had kidnapped a few days ago. She, unlike Sudha Barve, was a spectacle. He knew her name but still called her Neeta.

  He had studied her daily routine from a distance for a week. He would have liked to stay back at her house for longer to watch her up close and personal. Over the years, he had realized that people were extremely different when they knew no one was watching. By being present in those moments, Zakkal thought he got to know them at a deeper level than anyone else and understand their true beauty.

  He had absolutely enjoyed every bit of the process of abducting her. Like every time before this, he knew he would kill her the moment he stopped thinking she was beautiful.

  Thinking about that, he remembered a small mistake he had made. Two years ago, while he was at Yerwada, he had accidentally let the reason behind him killing women slip while talking to Siya. She always had that charm about her, which is what scared him. He had always been immaculate at executing his plans but his weakness for Siya had given him away once before. That had resulted in Ranjit being caught.

  That poor soul. He did everything he could for me.

  When Zakkal had killed his father, he had not just ended his mother’s suffering but also Ranjit’s, as his father had sodomized him when he was just six years old. While his relationship with his father ended that day, his friendship with Ranjit had just begun.

  Zakkal realized his mind was all over the place. He blamed some of it on the high of taking Sudha and spending some time with Neeta. But a large part of it stemmed from being uncomfortable with Siya out in the world, looking for him.

  He also hated how she made him feel about the other women in his life, including his lover, His lover. While he did not cherish any one of them as much as he did Siya, at times, Siya still sucked out the joy of admiring them. He had always thought that Siya’s mother was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. All that had changed when a grown-up Siya had walked down the corridor of Yerwada Jail and spoken to him.

  He had big plans for Siya, but he knew he had to be very careful because she had always managed to get under his skin and make him reveal more than he would have liked.

  Zakkal cursed once again when he realized he was no longer in the mood to meet anyone. He walked back to his car and drove home to His lover, wondering if this was the night he was going to finally kill her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Kapil Rathod woke up at eight-thirty in the morning. He felt his body ache from the previous day. While he had continued to work out and keep himself fit during his suspension, the exhaustion of an actual day in the field was both mental and physical—the kind that could not be replicated anywhere else.

  Two active cases, competing against each other for severity, also meant that Rathod couldn’t expect to get any more than five or six hours of sleep. He spent a few minutes in his bed before having a bath and slipping into black trousers and a crisply-ironed blue shirt. Being in sharp and clean clothes always made him feel good about himself. Through experience, he had learnt that that sharpened his instincts, which made him a better police officer. He had also learned from experience that he should eat as much whenever he got a chance. So, he had a simple but heavy breakfast—a bowl of upma along with a two-egg omelette and some coffee.

  His mobile phone chimed when he was halfway through his coffee. It was Bhalerao.

  Heading out now. Should reach the office in twenty minutes. I’ve got your favourite samosas as a welcome gift.

  Rathod could not help but smile. There was a small takeaway-only restaurant near Bhalerao's house that served fresh and hot samosas. They were the only branch of the restaurant. In fact, it was just a small place where a husband-wife duo made two hundred samosas each morning and evening. On most days, they got sold out in a few minutes.

  Rathod caught his mother looking at him in admiration.

  ‘I’m glad you’re back, son,’ she said.

  Rathod went up to her, bent down and touched her feet with one hand. It was an Indian way to show respect to elders and seek their blessings. As he faced her, he had the horrendous thought of Zakkal coming for his parents, especially his mother. There was an officer standing guard outside their house. But Rathod couldn’t help but feel unsure. Zakkal could outsmart one officer without a doubt. It’ll be even easier for him if he’s working with the Shirole gang. In police complaints, he had read horror stories about the heinous crimes that the gang had been accused of committing.

  ‘Can you both stay at Maushi’s house today?’ Rathod said, referring to his maternal aunt’s house. Their family had several members.

  Rathod had told his parents about the abduction of Sudha Barve the previous time. He had never requested them to do anything like this before.

  ‘We’ll go there,’ his father said as he emerged from his room. ‘If it’s going to make you feel better, we’ll go there.’

  'Thank you,' Rathod said, feeling some of the tension fade away. 'I'll ask the officer standing outside to also relocate there. In fact, I can drop you along the way while I go to the office.'

  Rathod’s parents exchanged looks. His father nodded his head ever so subtly. Within the next few minutes, they were on their way. Soon, Rathod had dropped them off at his maushi’s house and was striding into the CID building.

  Rathod felt a buzz within him as he walked to his cubicle. With his parents safe for the time being, he could divert all his attention to solving the case at hand. He suspected that they would have gotten the warrants to access the CCTV footage from the many shops in Sudha Barve’s neighbourhood.

  Bhalerao walked over to Rathod and handed him a samosa. Despite having had a heavy breakfast, Rathod took a large bite off it and enjoyed the flavour burst in his mouth.

  ‘Don’t expect this royal treatment every day,’ Bhalerao said.

  ‘We returned home at three yesterday. I doubt you woke up at seven to get them. How did you manage it?’

  ‘Let’s just say they owed me a favour and were more than happy to make some fresh ones for us,’ Bhalerao said. ‘And that’s my time. I need to get going.’

  Bhalerao had been assigned to work on the case of the six bodies found at the farmhouse. It had been dubbed the ‘Farmhouse Killer Case’ by the CID.

  ‘Any leads on the case so far?’ Rathod said.

  ‘Dr Sonia said she would be ready with the autopsy reports on the bodies after lunchtime. I'm hoping we can get something useful from it. I'm hopeful because it looks like the killer never meant for those bodies to be found in the state we did. That could mean that he left behind something, which might lead us to him. We're speaking to the wife of the owner of that farmhouse. A woman named Sneha Raheja,' Bhalerao said and then left for the mission-centre of the Farmhouse Killer Case.

  The next moment, the phone on Rathod’s table started ringing. It was a landline and the person calling him had access to his extension. He put it to his ear.

  ‘This is Devaki Sharma speaking from News Twenty-Four Seven,’ a familiar woman’s voice said. ‘Am I speaking to Senior Inspector Kapil Rathod?’

  Rathod was already dreading answering the call. ‘Yes, you are,’ he said.

  Devaki Sharma was the journalist who had written the fake story with Siya’s quotes in it when Zakkal had been originally caught.

  ‘I have been told by a source I can’t disclose that Kishore Zakkal abducted another woman yesterday night. Is that right?’

  Rathod was experienced enough to handle media questions but he was concerned about Devaki not stopping at just this phone call.

  ‘We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation. We’ll issue a press release if there’s something that the CID wants to share,’ Rathod said in a matter of fact tone.

  ‘But if someone as dangerous as Kishore Zakkal is killing again, then don’t the women of this world deserve to know? They need to be safe.’

  ‘As I said, the CID c
annot—’

  ‘My sources have seen a police presence outside the houses of the five women who had been saved from Zakkal two years ago. This only means that the police feel their lives are in danger. How else can you explain that?’

  ‘Look, Miss Sharma. I cannot comment on any of that. I understand you’re doing your job. Please let us do ours,’ Rathod said and hung up.

  Rathod was aware that several media houses had made truckloads of money from the Kishore Zakkal story the last time. But that was the age of newspapers and a few websites that were cropping up. Now, with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and news apps dominating people's attention, Rathod only imagined how the media would lap up every small chance they got to create some kind of explosive content from it. Having an idea of Devaki Sharma's moral compass, Rathod thought how he would not be surprised to find their phone conversation leaked online with a click-bait headline.

  Rathod’s phone chimed. It was a message from Siya.

  I have started going through the people who wrote to Zakkal while he was in prison. Will soon have a list ready. Let’s pay them a visit?

  Rathod responded with a 'thumbs up' emoticon. Although Siya's message had distracted him, the call from Devaki had left a sour taste in his mouth. He needed a change of scene. He walked across to Mathew's desk and asked him for access to the footage from the cameras around Sudha Barve's house.

  ‘You know how it works with CCTV footage, sir,’ Mathew said to Rathod. ‘It seems like a never-ending maze until you find what you’re looking for.’

  Rathod returned to his cubicle. He drummed his fingers on his desk while his computer got the videos he had asked for. He was trying to think of the best way to avoid spending potentially fruitless hours going through CCTV footage.

  That’s when he had an idea.

  He used the landline phone to call the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Metro Construction Wing. The metro line in Pune was under construction. Rathod asked the authorities for two details. Firstly, the status of the underground section of the metro line, and secondly, any other old underground tunnels from the British era that they had come across while digging for the metro.