When He Finds You

by UD Yasha

  ‘You heard him,’ Tanya said. ‘Let’s go.’

  We got in the car. Rathod took the wheel. Tanya and I sat in the back. Rathod had handed me his gun and I was holding it steady, close to me and pointed at Tanya. We had missed the backup that Rathod had called for, so there was no way the police were going to find us. We were on our own, just what Zakkal had wanted.

  ‘You heard what Zakkal said, right? In case you missed it, he said “don’t you dare lay a finger on her”. That’s how a man treats his woman,’ Tanya said.

  Neither Rathod nor I thought that speaking to Tanya was of any use. We said nothing on our way to my old house. It was a standalone bungalow as well. Back then, we used the proceeds from the sale of our old house to buy the one we stayed in currently. As he drove into the lane, memories of Radha, my elder brother Kunal and I playing cricket on the roads along with our friends came back to me. But that was the only good memory I could think of. Soon, as we pulled over just before the house, the night that Maa had vanished played out in my mind.

  Dad was a cop so the entire road was flashing in blue and red because of the police cars and ambulance present. Radha and I, being the youngest on the crime scene, were asked to wait in a car. We had stayed inside for two hours before we were taken to our aunt's house by our dad. Everyone around us thought we were kids and we didn't realize what was happening—but we could see and hear everything. Since that night, Radha and I had never spent a day apart.

  With a newly found resolve, we walked into what once used to be our front yard. A single white light was on under the veranda. The last time I had walked up the steps was with my aunt and the police who were investigating Maa's kidnapping. It was about six months after she had disappeared.

  Once we were at the door, Rathod turned to me.

  ‘Are we supposed to ring the bell?’ he said.

  Tanya stepped forward and knocked on the door twice. She rummaged in her purse and took out a key.

  Of course, she had a key.

  The door unlocked with a click and it swung open inside. I remembered our living room being extremely large as there was no bedroom on the ground floor. The light inside was on.

  My eyes searched for Maa and Radha the moment the door opened. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw them. They are still alive. I can still save them. Their hands and legs were tied. Zakkal was next to them with a knife in his hand. There were six more women on Zakkal’s other side. All were on their knees with their hands and legs tied. Each one of them looked terrified. I could not see Sudha Barve.

  ‘Welcome Siya, welcome home!’ Zakkal said. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

  Zakkal’s hair had grown longer from the last time I had seen him in jail. It was combed to one side. His beard was heavier than a five o’clock shadow and the new scar near his eyebrow was prominent. He was wearing trousers, a shirt and a blazer.

  ‘I see you have brought your friend Kapil Rathod too,’ Zakkal said. ‘Toss your gun my way, Pune City’s Finest.’

  Rathod hesitated for a fraction.

  ‘I’m not going to say it again. Toss your gun my way. Let’s make this easy. Here’s a blanket order for the rest of this glorious night. If you don’t follow what I say right away, then I’ll kill Radha and Naina Rajput. If you try anything fancy, then I’ll kill Radha and Naina Rajput. If you question my authority, then I’ll kill Radha and Naina Rajput. It’s simple.’

  Rathod removed his gun from the holster and tossed it towards Zakkal. In one quick motion, Zakkal dismantled the gun and tossed the parts away.

  'Now, lay on your stomach and stretch out your arms and legs,' Zakkal said. 'Don't say a word. Pretend you don't exist.'

  Rathod followed what Zakkal had to say.

  Once he was on the floor, Zakkal said, ‘Siya, how do you feel being here? Isn’t the feeling wonderful?’

  I clenched my teeth. I was getting pumped up on every second that I had spent in our old house.

  I was not going to allow Zakkal to take someone I loved ever again, not just from this house but anywhere else. I was not going to let Zakkal get away again. This was going to be the end. All the scenarios that I had thought about in the past two years had ended with me killing Zakkal if he ever came back for any of us.

  ‘The mood is ripe to end what you’re doing, Zakkal,’ I said.

  ‘You seem to be in a feisty mood, Siya,’ Zakkal said. He turned to Tanya and said, ‘Hey sweetheart, why don’t you come here and stand next to me?’

  As Tanya joined him by his side, I had a feeling that something was wrong. Zakkal had been speaking to me in a very different way. It was not the words he used, but the tone and excitement with which he was speaking. He had hardly even looked straight at me. For all the excitement that he had expressed before meeting me again, he hardly seemed happy to see me.

  ‘Sweetheart,’ Tanya said. ‘I have a request. You had once told me that when this day comes when all of us are present in the same room, you’d allow me to pick a woman and kill her. Can I do that today?’

  I was closely watching Zakkal’s face to see if his body language and expressions changed. I could make out that he grimaced ever so slightly when Tanya spoke to me.

  ‘Of course,’ Zakkal said and handed her a knife that he pulled out from a waist holster.

  Tanya accepted the knife and glanced at all the women one by one, including Maa and Radha.

  'In some time, Tanya. Not right now,' Zakkal said. 'I know you have been practising some skills on Sudha Barve.'

  What the hell is he talking about?

  ‘Where is Sudha?’ I shouted.

  ‘Calm down, Siya. She’s alive. She’s running a high fever so I kept her in the bedroom,’ Zakkal said.

  ‘I need to see her alive. I don’t care how ill she is. Get her here.’

  Zakkal looked at Tanya and said, ‘Why don’t you bring her out? You’ve taken her under your wing.’

  As Tanya went upstairs to get Sudha, Zakkal turned his focus to me. For the first time that night, he looked me in the eye for longer than two seconds. He said, ‘So, Siya, do you know why I called you here today?’

  I noticed a flicker in Zakkal's eyes. It had been missing before but was now back. I had seen it every time that I had visited him at Yerwada. His voice was brimming with excitement again.

  I had a wild thought. Could the sudden change have been triggered by Tanya’s absence?

  Just then, we all looked towards the staircase. Sudha Barve was in pain as she came down. She was limping and Tanya was supporting her from one side.

  ‘Why is she limping? What did you do to her?’ I said.

  ‘We did nothing. She fell on her own. Tanya nursed the wound. You should thank her,’ Zakkal said.

  The moment she was praised, Tanya's face lit up. Something was going on. I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Tanya tied Sudha Barve's hands and legs and made her sit next to Maa. Tanya went and stood behind Radha. My heart raced.

  Had she chosen Radha as her target?

  With Tanya so close to Radha, I knew I had to play this well. I chose my words very carefully. I said, ‘Zakkal, you asked me if I knew why you called me here today. You wanted to show me how you’d love and respect me.’

  The fire in Zakkal’s eyes had wavered for a fraction while Sudha Barve had been brought.

  The spark in Zakkal’s behaviour returned the moment I spoke. ‘Let all these women go and we can have some time together,’ I said.

  What I was trying to do was working because I noticed Zakkal’s face flushing ever so slightly. He was holding a knife in his right hand and the fingers of his left hand were jittery.

  ‘Tanya,’ I cried out loudly. ‘Do you still think that Zakkal loves you? Look at him swoon over me.’

  ‘She’s talking out of her ass, Tanya. Don’t believe her,’ Zakkal said.

  Tanya stepped closer to Radha. She glanced at me and Zakkal. Talking logically with her had not worked. I wanted to get her emotionally. She had already revea
led her weakness, which was not being loved back by Zakkal.

  ‘Have you ever seen him dress up for you? When was the last time he put on a suit? I’m sure you don’t remember,’ I said.

  ‘Our love isn’t driven by material stuff. What we have is something extremely special,’ Zakkal looked at Tanya and said, ‘Don’t you agree?’

  For the first time since coming to our old house, I noticed Tanya’s shoulders dropping. Had she also noticed the way Zakkal’s demeanour had changed when he had spoken to me?

  ‘Answer me,’ Zakkal said to Tanya.

  She nodded her head ever so little.

  ‘Here’s something that will prove to you that Zakkal is attracted to not just me, but also my mother and sister. I bet you that upstairs, in the left-hand side bedroom, he’s kept a special piece of jewellery somewhere near his bed. The left-hand side room was where my mother slept. It should be in the drawers of the bedside table. It would be inside the drawer because he’s been hiding it from you.’

  ‘Tanya, my love, do you really believe that?’ Zakkal said and I noticed his forehead crease and eyes narrow for the first time that evening. He was getting worried.

  ‘What’s the piece of jewellery?’ Tanya said, her eyes transfixed on me.

  ‘You can’t be serious, love,’ Zakkal said.

  ‘It an earring that my mother had kept next to her bed the night Zakkal took her. I then gave that pair to him in Yerwada Jail by carrying it in my underwear. He was aroused by the thought that it had been on both of us, both the women he admired the most in the world. Zakkal had gifted one earring from the pair to me on my birthday six months ago.’

  ‘You gave her a gift?’ Tanya squealed. ‘Why did you never tell me?’

  ‘I have the other earring with me,’ I said. ‘It’s right here in my pocket.’

  Zakkal’s forehead was sweating. I was on the right track. Zakkal had the earring somewhere in the bedroom. I had guessed it to be the bedside table as it was most easily accessible to him. After seeing my wigs, lenses, hair products and clothes at the water tower hideout, I was sure Zakkal fantasized about me. The earring in his possession was the only object he had of mine.

  ‘Please don’t believe her,’ Zakkal said. ‘Our love is not so weak that some stranger can come and shatter it?’

  ‘Can I check your bedroom?’ Tanya said.

  Silence resounded.

  Zakkal rubbed his stubble with his free hand and said, 'Of course. Please go. If that's what it takes to prove my love for you.'

  In one smooth motion, Tanya flicked the tape from Radha’s legs. ‘You heard the conversation. You also know how this earring looks. Go upstairs and look for it.’

  ‘My hands aren’t free. How will I look for it?’ Radha said.

  ‘You need to open the fucking drawer. Use your feet. Come back right away. If you fail to return in two minutes, Kishore is going to kill your mother,’ Tanya said.

  I felt something was wrong once again. Zakkal had allowed Radha to go. Had I got it wrong? Did Zakkal not have Maa's earring in his room? But he had looked shaken up when I had talked about it. What was happening? I counted the seconds in my mind. Zakkal was appearing more confident by the minute. I heard Radha come down the stairs.

  ‘What happened? Did you find it?’ Tanya said.

  Radha said nothing as she walked back to the living room. Everyone's eyeballs followed. Except for Rathod. He was glaring at me and trying to indicate something to me. Something is up.

  ‘Tell her. Did you find it?’ Zakkal screamed.

  Radha was now only three feet from Zakkal. Tanya was right next to him. For some reason, Radha was bidding time. It wasn’t clear to me why she was doing that. But I needed to help her out and take the attention away from her.

  I pulled out the earring from the pair that was with me and held it in the air. 'This is the one that Zakkal gifted me,' I said, emphasizing the word 'gifted' because that had irked Tanya.

  Zakkal and Tanya turned to me. I made sure Tanya got a good look at the earring.

  The very next moment, Radha said, ‘Yes, I’ve found it,’ she said, holding up the other earring from the pair. ‘It wasn’t in my mother’s former bedroom, but instead in the side table drawer of the bed where Radha used to sleep.’

  I suddenly realized what had happened. I had told Radha to check Maa’s room, and Zakkal was sure that Radha wouldn’t find it there. That’s where his confidence came from. But that I knew he had held on to it had made him nervous. Somehow, Radha had the foresight to go to the room that we used to sleep in and check there too.

  While my thoughts were unravelling, Zakkal’s attention was divided. He first looked at Tanya because he knew his lie had been caught. Then Radha, with her free and long legs, launched a kick in Zakkal’s direction. At the same time, Tanya was enraged. She had a knife in hand.

  As Radha’s leg crunched into Zakkal’s stomach, Tanya’s knife ripped across his neck. It did not matter what Zakkal's blood pressure was, as Tanya had slashed his carotid artery, a blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain, neck, and face. Blood sprayed from his neck.

  Tanya was angry. She didn’t stop there. She elbowed an already out-of-balance Zakkal. She pushed him on the floor and stabbed him over and over again in the chest.

  ‘Tanya!’ I yelled as Rathod and I pulled her away.

  ‘He lied to me,’ she said and started crying.

  Rathod took her knife away and held her away from everyone.

  I stared at Zakkal’s dead body as the pool of blood around it got bigger with every heartbeat.

  I ran to Radha and Maa and hugged them tightly, feeling light with relief and happiness.

  ‘We’ve done it, my girls. We’ve done it,’ Maa said as tears streamed down all our cheeks.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  SIX MONTHS LATER

  Against the setting sun with the beach in the background, Radha and Rahul stood on a stage to have their first picture taken as a married couple. I couldn’t help stop smiling as I looked at them. Radha was my rock, and seeing her happy and marrying the man of her dreams was deeply satisfying. We had decided to have the wedding in Goa, a popular tourist destination for those who loved the sun, sand and beach.

  The last six months had gone by in a flash. Only when Zakkal was no longer a part of our lives had I realized how much of my mental energy had been consumed by him. The world was a better place without Kishore Zakkal. We had found out that he had rented our old house and another apartment close to our new house using some fake papers. He had paid for all of it by killing three men for the Shirole gang. His lover, Tanya Thomas was safe from Zakkal, but the scars of what he did to her would take time to heal. She was in a mental institution for treatment. The women that Zakkal had taken, including Sudha Barve, had safely returned to their homes.

  ‘Hey, don’t you look happy,’ Maa said, nudging my side. ‘That smile looks very good on you and you’ve been wearing it for a long time.’

  ‘Senior Missus Rajput, I have got that smile from you,’ I said.

  ‘Someone was looking for you,’ Maa said.

  I raised my eyebrows, not sure what she was talking about. She pointed towards Rathod, who was sitting by himself on the beach.

  ‘Siya,’ Maa said. ‘One psychopath has influenced everything you’ve done in life. And I don’t blame you. I was kidnapped when you were fourteen years old. You matured fast, held the family together and turned into this beautiful and fascinating woman. During all these years, you’ve not let yourself free. I understand why. You always had so much to take care of around you.’ Maa put a hand on my shoulder. ‘Beta, this is now your time. You need to go out and enjoy yourself. Loosen up a bit. One thing that we’ve learnt over the years is that life’s too short to not enjoy it. So, promise me that for the first time, you’ll put yourself first and think about what would make you happy.’

  I held Maa’s hand and squeezed it gently. ‘Thanks for everything. I promise that to you,’ I said and
got up and walked towards the beach, thinking only about all the happiness that awaited me.

  Thanks for reading my book.

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  About the Author

  Born in Pune, U.D. Yasha graduated from Symbiosis International University with an undergraduate degree in Economics and a minor in International Relations. His love for reading pushed him to write. He lives with his family in Pune, India.

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