by UD Yasha
‘There’s no reason why Zakkal has not involved both of them. I still can’t think of why Shirole would help Zakkal, knowing how nasty he is. From what I know, Zakkal has always liked working independently. Despite being close to Ranjit Kadam and trusting him immensely, Zakkal never involved Ranjit in the actual act of killing women. That’s why, Zakkal involving Shirole for an abduction is tough to understand,’ I said.
‘I get your point. But that means Shirole’s men being present first near Sudha Barve’s house and then near the canals on the same night as Zakkal abducted a woman is a coincidence. That’s too big a coincidence.’
‘I know. Everything about this is strange,’ I said. ‘It’s worth meeting Shirole once though. I want to look him in the eye and ask him if he has been helping Zakkal.’
‘I might have a way in mind to get in touch with Shirole,’ Rathod said. ‘It’s not going to be peaceful though.
Right then, Meghan Mathew walked up to us. ‘Bhalerao is on the line for you,’ he said, glancing at the telephone on Rathod’s desk.
Rathod looked confused for a beat before going to his cubicle. He put the phone on speaker.
‘I’m here. Tell me what’s happening,’ Rathod said.
‘You need to come to the basement now to the forensic department. Dr Sonia has found something that changes everything.’
‘But I thought Dr Sonia was working on the Farmhouse Killings Case right now,’ Rathod said.
‘You’re right. She is. Exactly why everything changes. Come downstairs, now,’ Bhalerao said and hung up.
No matter what the situation was, I had always perceived Bhalerao to be a jolly person. So, when I heard a slight uneasiness in his voice while he spoke to Rathod, I knew Dr Sonia had found something alarming in her autopsies.
I felt a thin layer of sweat gather on my forehead and palms as we stepped into the forensic department, even though the temperature inside was several degrees lower. Rathod led the way through the corridors, turning right twice and opening two secure doors with his fingerprints.
The layout of the forensic department had changed since I had last visited it. I reckoned that the CID had increased security after the incident where Dr Sonia had been shot.
We reached a large room which had a long table and a projector at the far end. ACP Shukla and Bhalerao were sitting at the table. I found it a bit strange since usually, for meetings where autopsy results were presented, the entire investigating team was present.
‘What’s the matter?’ Rathod said, probably thinking along the same lines as I was.
'Please take a seat,' Sonia said as she sat at the table.
She pressed a button on the remote she was holding and the screen next to her lit up. It had a picture of the crime scene from the day before. Six bodies were laid out on the terrace of the farmhouse.
'I've found something deeply concerning,' Sonia said. 'I had told you yesterday that I could tell with certainty that two of the six women had been strangled. I did further investigations. I found that all women suffered injuries near their larynx. Their hyoid bone was either fractured or badly bruised.' Sonia paused for a beat and inhaled deeply.
‘What did you find out?’ Rathod said with a touch of impatience.
‘I’m coming to it. The strangulation marks are prominent in the latest victim because there’s less decomposition. I managed to create a model of the hands of the murderer based on the length and size of the hands that gripped the neck. I found a match.’
Before Sonia uttered the next words, my stomach slowly turned to ice because I knew what was coming.
‘My system suggests that based on the strangulation marks, the hands that killed this woman are a ninety-nine percent match with Kishore Zakkal’s hands,’ Sonia said.
Chapter Nineteen
Dr Sonia changed the screen behind her to a comparison of two images from different crime scenes. I recognized the picture on the left-hand side as Holly Summers, Zakkal’s first real victim after his father. Holly’s murder had led me to Zakkal so I had seen this image thousands of times.
‘How certain is your system?’ I said.
‘Finding a match for hand or finger marks on the neck can be tough. It’s a technology that’s still in development. But it’s extremely unlikely for two marks to be so similar, hence the ninety-nine percent likelihood,’ Sonia said. ‘It’s my job to present the findings to you. Let me tell this to you straight.’ Sonia pointed at the screen behind her. ‘That is the work of Kishore Zakkal.’
It seemed like the temperature dropped even more when Sonia said it again.
‘What else have you found?’ Bhalerao said.
‘I haven’t been able to complete the autopsies yet. But I can share some more information that will definitely help you. There’s no other injury that I have found yet apart from the damage to the victims’ necks. All women were between twenty-five and forty years old when they died. The most recent death would have happened between five and ten days ago. The remains of the oldest murder indicate that the death happened twelve months ago. So, this must have started then.’
‘That is a year after Zakkal escaped from prison,’ Rathod said. ‘Any chance you can identify the women?’
‘Yes, I have done that for one of the women. The body of the second murder victim is the most interesting. The woman had breast implants and each breast implant has a lot number as well as a serial number.’
Sonia changed the picture of the screen once again to reveal what I could only guess was the implant. But it did not look like what I had imagined.
‘The woman, Jane Doe, had a silicone-based implant. They are made from an element called silicon, which you’ll find at number fourteen on the periodic table. The implants are nothing but silicone cases filled with silicone gels. The picture doesn’t look like an implant because the vultures would have ruptured the silicone case while scavenging on the body.’
‘Was there a medical reason for her getting the implants?’ I asked.
'So far I have no sign of any disease like breast cancer that would warrant a breast reconstruction which would, in turn, require a breast implant.'
‘Is the serial number visible?’ I said, leaning forward.
‘Yes, but partly. The good news is that the woman had two implants, so that gives us two chances to get the breast implant serial number as both will be from the same lot.’
Sonia changed the slide to reveal a super-zoomed-in image of the breast implants. The entire picture appeared to have a shade of blue. I could see some markings on it just under the manufacturer’s name.
‘I dyed the implants to be able to read the serial numbers better.’ Sonia changed the picture again to show just one implant. The numbers on it were clearer than the previous image. ‘Using combinations from the implants, I know that the manufacturer is Genova BioTech. The batch number is 135409MK. The registration number is usually a ten-digit number. I have got nine.’ Sonia turned to us and smiled for the first time that afternoon. ‘It could have been worse. Except for the last digit, the registration number of one implant is 989829325, while the other is 989829325. The last digit could be any number from zero to nine.’
‘Put me in touch with Justice Chandra,’ Shukla said. ‘We’ll seek a warrant from him to get the information from Genova Biotech.’
'Those are my findings for now,' Sonia said, switching off the screen behind her. 'I'll complete the autopsies and give you more information about the women who were murdered…by Zakkal. I've also asked for a complete facial reconstruction of five of the six women. It'll help us identify them.'
‘How long do you think that will take?’ Rathod said.
‘The person has already started the work. I’d expect to get the reconstructed image by evening today,’ Sonia said.
'I'll get on it,' Bhalerao said. 'I was already looking at a missing-persons list and cross-referencing it with the height or built of all these women.'
‘How many women are on that list?’ Rathod a
sked.
‘It depends on which areas we’re looking at. If it’s just Pune district, then twelve thousand women have been reported missing in the past eighteen months.’
Silence resounded.
Despite all of us working in law enforcement, the enormity of some numbers never failed to stun us.
Sonia finally spoke. ‘I’m in touch with Dr Barve’s lab and I’m relaying the information we’ve found to them. I haven’t yet told them about Zakkal’s involvement in the bodies we found at the farmhouse,’ Sonia said and left the room.
'I need a word with you all before we go,' Shukla said. 'There's a reason I didn't call the entire team for this.' He turned to me. 'Devaki Sharma called Rathod earlier today. Someone from our team is leaking stuff to the press, or more specifically to her. I hate that we've a leak but what I would hate even more is for Zakkal to get a whiff that we've stumbled upon his personal graveyard. This development stays within us for now. We can't keep this hidden forever, but let's keep it to ourselves till we know more. We need someone to stake out the farmhouse in case Zakkal comes back to stash another woman. So, I'm going to assign Meghan Mathew on this. Out of all the officers we have, I trust him the most. Having said that, he won't know the details.'
We dispersed after that. When we were in Rathod’s cubicle, he said, ‘You said Zakkal didn’t make mistakes.’
I could not contain my smile. ‘Yes, I did. In fact, I had even said he’s made just one mistake in life so far, and it led me to him.’
‘He’s made his second now.’
‘And we’re going to get that bastard because of it.’
Chapter Twenty
While I was quietly happy that Zakkal had made an error, I was deeply concerned that he had been killing all this while. Usually, serial killers got more aggressive and confident the more they killed. Zakkal had not killed anyone in the five years he was in prison so I guessed he would have had a lot of pent up anger and excitement. Killing again after escaping from prison would have possibly felt as good as his first kill because it had been so long.
Even during his first spell of murders, we believed he had killed or abducted about twelve women. But that was over a span of more than twelve years. Now, he had killed six women in twelve months. He had also just started taunting me.
‘You seem awfully quiet,’ Rathod said.
We were in the car, driving to a place where Rathod felt we would be able to meet Nana Shirole himself. He had not told me how or where it was going to happen. We had reckoned that it would take at least a couple of hours for Justice Chandra to issue the warrant so we decided to pay the people on our list a visit.
I shared my concerns with Rathod.
‘He’s becoming aggressive but that’s why we’re going to get him,’ Rathod said.
'Zakkal did not mean for those bodies to be discovered, at least not now, and especially not in the manner they were found. I'm hopeful that Dr Sonia is going to find something in her autopsies that will take us a step closer to finding Zakkal. The clues we get from it will be the searing hot leads.'
‘And we’ll hopefully get something from Shirole now too.’
We were driving from Pashan, where the CID office was located, towards Koregaon Park. We had already crossed Sancheti Hospital and the Pune Railway Station. Rathod had seemed confident that we would be able to meet Shirole with the plan he had in mind.
‘Have you got any updates from Dr Barve’s office regarding the pollen?’ he asked.
I checked my phone to make sure I had not missed anything. ‘Not yet. Based on my experience of the time usually taken to find a match, I’m guessing we’ll get a location from them by today evening.’
We drove in silence after that. We were in Lane Six on the South Main Road when Rathod slowed the car as he looked for a spot to park. Usually, Koregaon Park was always packed but we managed to find a space large enough for Rathod’s car to slide in.
‘We’re going to a bar called Hoit Toit,’ Rathod said. ‘It’s owned by Shirole’s company.’
I knew it was a place that a lot of youngsters and college students frequented. ‘And how do you know he’s here?’ I said.
‘I don’t. In fact, I would be surprised if he is here.’
‘What’s the plan then?’
‘Wait and watch,’ Rathod said as we walked closer to the bar.
We could hear music and a buzz of conversation right outside Hoit Toit, even on a weekday at two-thirty in the afternoon. The place was packed with people who seemed to be having a wonderful time. Because of my experience with practising law, I could tell this was the perfect front for an illegal business. A lot of transactions would be happening in cash and alcohol was involved. Such setups were the easiest to wash black money and convert it into white.
‘Act like we’re a couple,’ Rathod said and linked his arm in mine.
I felt warmth emanate from my face but I tried to push it away.
‘Do you have a reservation?’ a happy-looking lady asked us at the door.
‘No, but we know the owner,’ Rathod said with a smile that even I thought was sincere. He extended a hand and slipped her a note of five hundred rupees.
The lady narrowed her eyes and the hospitable grin on her face faded away. She seemed unsure of what to say but accepted the note from Rathod.
‘I can call Nana Shirole and ask him to speak to you,’ Rathod said. ‘But I don’t think you’d want me to disturb him for such a small request.’
The lady considered the request. There was something strange in her demeanour. She wasn't afraid or intimidated by Rathod's request.
I hoped Rathod’s game plan was not simply to claim knowing Nana Shirole and barge in. Even if it was, what were we going to do if we got in? Shirole was most likely not inside.
‘I’ll call him to make sure,’ the woman said.
A blast of the cold air-conditioning and the noise from inside hit us for a flash as the lady opened the door and went inside. Rathod could make out I was confused.
‘Trust me,’ he whispered under his breath.
We stood in silence for a minute until the lady got back outside. She had a cordless landline in her hand. She covered the mouthpiece and said, ‘Who should I say is at the door?’
‘Tell him it’s his old friends Kapil Rathod and Siya Rajput,’ Rathod said. ‘Since you have taken the efforts of calling him, I can even say hello to him.’
The woman mumbled our names into the phone. I was closely watching her expressions but they didn’t change much. She handed the phone to Rathod a few seconds later.
‘Good to speak to you again, my good old friend,’ Rathod said and then paused while I guessed Shirole spoke.
Still linked through our arms, we walked as Rathod continued to stay silent while nodding his head. When we were out of the reception’s earshot, Rathod said, ‘Look, I know you’ve paid cops and the tax officials to not look into what goes on at Hoit Toit. But let me assure you that if you don’t meet us, I’ll rein down the police force on you. The CID does not directly fall under the jurisdiction of the Pune Police. So, I can make life very miserable for you for a week at least. Given your contacts, I know that you’ll go scot-free and my career will be ruined. Believe me when I say that I have thought through everything. But if you’re shut for a week, you’ll lose revenue from all the drug sales that happen inside. It’s up to you. Do you want to ruin my career or lose tens of crores of rupees? And it’s not just about the money. Your loyal and high-paying clients will be afraid to buy their drugs from Hoit Toit the next time. The damage could last for years.’ Rathod paused. ‘A simple meeting will make sure that none of those things happen.’
I had felt Rathod’s arm tighten while he spoke. He went silent again for a few seconds. I could make out that Shirole was speaking across the line. Then Rathod grunted once and said, ‘I’m glad we could reach a desirable conclusion. We’ll see you in thirty minutes.’
We returned to the reception. Rathod handed the phon
e back to the lady.
‘Change of plans. The boss invited us to his house so we’ll have lunch there instead,’ Rathod said and we walked away.
‘How did you manage that?’ I said once we were outside.
Rathod said, 'I know this place is one of the biggest centres of drug trade amongst the elite of Pune. Shirole would never come here but a lot of his activities are financed by what goes on inside. He's a difficult man to reach. I could have gotten through to him via the official channels but that might have taken many weeks. So, the only way to meet him was to threaten a crackdown on this place.
‘What if he hadn’t taken up your offer?’
‘Then, my career would have ended this week and I would have had to find something else to do,’ Rathod said. ‘Fortunately, I’m not going anywhere and we got our meeting with Shirole.’
I once again felt a bout of guilt creep up through my stomach. ‘That was very risky,’ I said. ‘I’m glad it worked out but it could have ended badly.’
‘It was a calculated risk and it has paid off. Let’s go now. We don’t want to be late when the city’s most powerful gangster has invited you to his house.’
Chapter Twenty-One
Nana Shirole lived on JM Road in a standalone bungalow that had a large garden. It was secluded and heavily guarded, making it clear that it was not possible to enter the house unless Shirole wanted you inside. It also told us that you possibly couldn’t exit it unless you had Shirole’s blessings. That it was five minutes from the Mula-Mutha river piqued my curiosity.
The house seemed to have two compound walls and two layers of security checks. We were asked to park our car in the parking lot in the outer periphery. It started drizzling when we got out of the car. Luckily, Rathod was carrying two umbrellas.
A bulked-up security guard searched Rathod while a female guard checked me for any weapons. Rathod declared off the bat that his government-issued weapon was in his car. Once satisfied that we were clean, the bulked-up guard led us into the inner compound of Shirole’s home. It was a massive structure that had been built using blood money. I had always wondered how criminals could sleep peacefully at night. It was probably not the right time to ask Shirole that.
