“Just give me a minute,” Danny said and rushed to a shelf nearby and played a compact disc on the music system. As the song, What do you do if you fall in love?…I (‘ll) never fall in love again’, from the movie, Austin Powers: the spy who shagged me, played on, Danny took outstretched his hand to Shalini; she could not help but give out her hand to him and in the soft music, they both danced slowly in the kitchen. Danny’s face was contented and resting just under Shalini’s neck as his hands were on her waist. “Danny, I have got to talk to you,” she whispered amidst the music.
“Shhh!” he said putting a finger to his mouth and again rested his face on her neck with closed eyes.
After the song was over Shalini gently parted from Danny. She was a little taken aback when she saw Danny looking at her with the love of the whole world in his eyes. She nervously adjusted her sari and took back her chair beside the dinning table and drank Pepsi from the can. Danny checked at the food, closed the gas burner and pouring himself another drink sat on his chair.
“Danny?” Said Shalini.
“No use Shalini,” he said softly,” I hate to spoil the mood, but I simply would not testify against Rudolf. I’m very thankful for you to have danced with me but I am afraid that I cannot return your favor with that.”
“But why Danny, why? Why are you so afraid of Rudolf? If you want Police can give you round the clock protection; trust me, you would be in no physical danger from Rudolf.”
“I am afraid I have already made up my mind, but before you leave, I want you to make a promise to me, for my sake as well as your own sake.”
“What?” Shalini asked suspiciously.
“No matter what you friend Payal does, you yourself would not come directly before Rudolf. I implore you for your own good; you may not be able to stop your headstrong friend but you at least, you make sure that you don’t cross that evil man’s path,” urged Danny.
“I’ll keep that in mind; thank you for the drink,” she said rising up.
“What, you leaving, so early! Why don’t you join me for the supper? Believe me, I am a very good cook.”
“Some other time,” Shalini said smiling.”
“I don’t want to end this on a sour note, so I won’t say anything in response. If you would not join me at the supper, then at least give me another dance, please!” Danny requested her earnestly.
Shalini could not help but grant him his wish, seeing the desperation on Danny’s face. The dance continued for three consecutive songs, one of which was, Tera mera pyar sanam, wada hai kabhi hoga na kam, ban ke dahadkan o mere janam tu rahe dil me mere by Bombay Vikings. Both of them danced slowly with closed eyes, holding each other; when she finally pushed away Danny, he urged her to wait for a minute and ran away inside the bungalow. He came back with a rectangular cardboard box, which he handed over to Shalini.
“What is it?” Shalini was surprised by his gesture.
“A present, open it in your house. Whenever you will wear it next to your skin, I would feel closer to you,” he said in a sincere and loving voice.
“I admire your sentiments, but I can’t possibly accept this Danny,” she hesitated.
“But it is only a token of our friendship. We can at least be friends, can’t we? Or are you not willing to accept me even as a friend?” Costello said in a desperately sad tone.
“It’s nothing like that Danny, and you know that very well,” Shalini hesitated in accepting it happily. But her host’s insistence made her overcome her initial resistance.
“I hope we will meet again when we don’t have the ominous shadow of Rudolf to spoil our togetherness,” said Costello being suddenly jubilant at her consent.
“I hope so too.”
“I’ll wait for that day, no matter when it comes.”
Shalini was so touched that she stopped for a second and kissed Danny on his cheek gently, leaving him gasping with half-closed eyes, she went out of the bungalow. She went to her car parked outside the gate of the bungalow and opened the lock of its door. Sitting behind the steering wheel, Shalini opened the cardboard box; it contained very expensive imported pink colour silk Lingerie. She could not help but smile when she found out that Danny had made no mistake in judging her correct size. Thanking him in silence for his kind and loving gesture she drove away.
One the next hearing, Inspector Uday Thakur’s testimony did not go very well. However, the rudest shock for the prosecution came from the laboratory report from Hyderabad. It stated the following:
(a) The sample of hair (picked at the farmhouse and car) matched with the subject (Payal’s) hair sent alongside.
(b) The blood samples (picked up from the altar, idol, and robe) were not human blood; it was a mixture of the blood of pigeon, cock, and lamb.
(c) Since there were no traces of human blood, the D.N.A.matching with subject (labourer’s) blood sent alongside was not possible.
d) The mud (picked from the suspected site of the grave) sent for detailed chemical and microscopic analysis showed no traces of human or animal flesh, skin or bones.
Inspector Uday Thakur and his deputy questioned the constable in the forensic department, in whose custody the samples had been kept before they were sent to Hyderabad. Had he helped the accused in switching the incriminating samples with innocent samples? But the policeman denied any wrongdoing on his part and despite grilling him for hours; Uday and his team were unable to extract a confession out of him. Despite suspecting the connivance of S.H.O. Joginder Singh, who could have given the name and address of the constable to Rudolf Schönherr and his friends, the Crime Branch Inspector could not prove anything for want of evidence, which was greatly frustrating for him.
On his advice, the prosecution continued dilly-dallying on the issue of the report, until Anjali procured a duplicate copy of it somehow and showed it to the Public prosecutor Kathuria. She also obtained a court order, making it mandatory for the prosecution to submit the report it had been sitting on for a month. The tragedy for the prosecution was that despite knowing what mischief had been done; they could not raise any doubts about the authenticity of the report from the laboratory. Since they themselves had picked up the samples, ordered their analysis and touted the report as the ultimate, undeniable and conclusive evidence of the case. Never had it occurred to them that it would backfire on them and strengthen the opposition and both Kathuria and Uday would be left with egg all over their faces.
Tantrik Bharoo Shah Bengali was smoking a bidi, sitting in the backseat of an auto-rickshaw with Twinkle, going towards the flat of Colonel Narang in Dilshad Garden, who had called him urgently. The journey from Panchkuian road to East Delhi had been completed in silence, as the blind man was lost deep in his thoughts and his companion was timid and untalkative. They asked the driver to wait and went upstairs to the flat, with Twinkle holding the hand of his master.
Colonel Narang’s nurse Harish opened the door in answer to the doorbell and took them to the ailing man, who possessed a bold and irrepressible spirit. Bharoo greeted the old man and sat down on the sofa with Twinkle. Harish served them with Fanta and sat back in his chair. There was tense silence in the room, as they awaited the Colonel to speak.
“I am very disappointed with you Bharoo!” He said.
“Why Colonel sa’ab? What happened; did I make a mistake?”
“It’s not your actions Bharoo, but their absence which is the problem. How long will you remain a mute spectator, Bharoo? Until Warlock’s hands reach your neck?”
“You are an intelligent, experienced man my master,” Bharoo said in a humble manner, “but your knowledge regarding Tantra (occult) is severely limited, we tantriks are not stage-magicians, who can pull a rabbit out of a hat. Mine is a dangerous line of work, where success is never guaranteed and even little mastery of the craft comes after years and years of Sadhna, hard work and practice, too with the blessing of Guru, the favour of supernatural powers and our patron deity and guides.”
“Are you incapable of
handling this work? Are you a weak Tantrik, as compared to the enemy, or are you getting cold feet?”Asked the Colonel candidly.
“It’s neither sir,” Bharoo explained patiently, “I understand the responsibility which has come on my shoulders, by the great trust you have put in me. The mastery of the moothkarni power – which I had mentioned earlier – my ultimate weapon against my enemy, it will still take some more time.
“And how do you plan to prevent Warlock from reviving his powers?”
“On the contrary, I am actually waiting for him to make that attempt; I’ll give him the shock of his life,” Bharoo said with a mysterious smile on his lips, and told the Colonel regarding his plan.
“I am not sure that it will succeed,” said the master-strategist, “but it is certainly worth a shot. In the meanwhile, continue with your efforts at mastering the demonic powers, which you need to destroy the evil warlock, and keep me abreast of all developments. Remember at all times that our primary aim is to protect Payal and her family from the threat posed by Rudolf Schönherr and his occult powers, and this should take precedence over everything else. As much as you can weaken Warlock, as much secure would Payal become and if the elimination of that evil man be necessary to that end, I would not hesitate or flinch from my responsibility,” he said like a General marshalling his forces and expressing his resolve for total victory by the annihilation of the enemy.
“I understand it sir, and I will spare no efforts to achieve that,” Bharoo assured him.
“Harish, give the Tantrik fifteen thousand rupees to cover his expenses,” ordered the Colonel.
After Bharoo and Twinkle had left, he told Harish to call Payal. In his telephonic conversation, he informed her of his meeting with the Tantrik and of their efforts to contain Warlock. For her part, she expressed her gratitude to her Uncle Narang and promised to remain in touch.
She chooses, however, not to tell her husband about it all, knowing how much he detested Tantriks, black magic, and occult-related activities. Little did she know, that her desire to insulate Abhay from the truth could have the reverse effect; or that her sworn enemy could exploit her ‘little secrets’ for his benefit.
On the next hearing of the case, a small girl came in the witness box; she was the sister of the child that had gone missing in the Rajkori forest after a man had attacked her. Prompted and encouraged constantly by the public prosecutor, she gave her statement in the court. Describing how she had been attacked, when she had gone to pick up stray wood in the forest and how her baby-brother had been missing since that day. However, she refused to identify Rudolf Schönherr as the man who attacked her.
In the absence of the body of the murdered child, and coming after the damaging lab report regarding the forensic evidence, which exonerated the accused, the turning hostile of their witness had taken to bottom out of their effort to charge Rudolf Schönherr with abduction and sacrifice of a child. They were practically left with only the charges of illegal confinement and attempted murder of Payal, to obtain the conviction of Rudolf Schönherr.
The public prosecutor declined to cross-examine Rudolf Schönherr. Which was as well, since both Rohit and Anjali were unsure whether the red-eyed and only half-sober Rudolf Schönherr would have able to face the barrage of questions and emerge unscathed. Acting promptly his defense counsel got up from her chair and said, “Your honour! The defense requests the permission to call as its next witness Doctor Roger Wilson, Professor of Psychology at the Minnesota University, who is also Emeritus Consultant at the Government mental Asylum in Agra.”
“Permission granted!” Said the Judge in a serious voice.
Doctor Wilson was a 56 year-old man with scarce gray hair on his bald head; he sported a French cut beard and moustache and was always well dressed. He wore thick spectacles and his intelligence, vast knowledge and experience showed on his face. A genial man of mild manners, seldom given to passion; he was of Naga origin.
He had an impressive academic background and had obtained multiple degrees in various branches of applied Psychology from the most prestigious Universities in England and America. He had spent nearly half his life abroad and was also a visiting Professor of his subject at various foreign Universities. His credentials were as impeccable as his vast knowledge and his personality impressive and invoking respect.
Anjali briefly informed the Judge about the witness of defense, before she turned to the Professor, “Doctor Wilson; you had been provided with the details of this case, including the statement of the complainant. I request you to tell the court of your opinion on the mental state of Ms. Payal,” she requested him.
“First of all let me state that it is not common practice for me to try and analyze the behaviour of a person and attempt prognosis without meeting him or her face to face.”
“But surely Professor, academics like you also study the cases of dead people, who are not available for a personal meeting, do you not?”
“Quite true; but we prefer a meeting whenever possible, to accumulate first-hand knowledge and observe the person’s behaviour and his/her response to various stimuli. Only when it is not possible for a variety of reasons, do we attempt to study a case on the basis of written records and other cooberative material. While the prognosis may not be incorrect in such cases, it is admittedly handicapped, for lack of close study, which a series of meetings can provide.”
“Your Honour!” Anjali said turning to the Judge. “The defense had requested the prosecution through the court to make Ms. Payal available for psycho-analysis by Dr. Wilson, which they had declined for reasons unknown.” After a pause, she said, “Dr. Wilson, I request you to please inform the court of your opinion of Ms. Payal.”
“On the basis of her statement to the Police and her testimony in the court; I am led to understand that she is a very ambitious, aggressive, stubborn person; who alternatively shows signs of an over-focused approach to the extent of fixation or obsession with a particular idea, goal or person. While on the other hand, she betrays signs of disorientation, depression, and anger when she does not succeeds in her goals or in carrying out her plans. People like Ms. Payal become over-jubilant when they succeed in achieving their target, while failure shatters them completely. Their uni-focal approach and ability for concentration on one idea at a time is their greatest strength and also their greatest weakness.”
“Can the failure of such persons in achieving their goal make them bitter against the things, phenomena or people, who they perceive as the reason for their failure? Instead of blaming themselves for lack of ability or hard work needed to put in to succeed.”
“Yes; it is quite possible.”
“If Ms. Payal is lying about Mister Rudolf Schönherr and his alleged crimes; what will be the psychological reason behind it? Presuming of course that she is not doing it to extract money from him.”
“Compulsive debilitating obsession; she had to be so obsessed with Mr. Schönherr and his perceived harm to her career and life that she would make up an elaborate story to convince her mind and try to repeat it with the outside world that he was a villainous character and was responsible for her failure and injury – real or imaginary.”
“And how is it possible for a person to see non-existent things, like ghosts?”
“This phenomenon is known as Hallucination; which can be visual, tactile, olfactory or auditory. Under the effect of Hallucination, a person can see and hear things that are non-existent in reality, but they appear so real to the person in question that she or he is convinced of their existence. Such patients often describe hearing voices that originate outside their heads, seeing ghosts and likewise,” explained Doctor Wilson.
“And what might be the reason behind such hallucinations? I mean what can trigger it?”
“The onset of Hallucinations is seldom sudden and arbitrary and the patient always has a past history of psychological disturbances; however it may have been so mild and infrequent that it had remained undetected. The causes may be vari
ed: biological, environment, an incident or a series of events in the childhood or adolescence of an individual, which may be responsible for such behaviour.”
“As for the second question; there is again a variety to stimuli, which can trigger hallucinations in an otherwise normal appearing individual, bringing his/her latent, but a previously repressed psychological disorder to the forth. It may be triggered because of a shocking episode, severe stress, and anxiety, fear of failure, phobia or if a person is suffering from Schizophrenia. I may add, however, that the last mentioned is a serious psychological disorder and I was not provided with the opportunity to interview the person or study her past history and evaluate her responses to different situations and stimuli. It would, therefore, be irresponsible on my part to diagnose her as a patient suffering from the said malaise.”
“Is it possible for an over imaginative girl, addicted to horror novels, who is angry at a person, to connote a story of his being a tantrik or Warlock, whatever?”
“I strongly object Your Honour!” Kathuria was on his feet. “The witness cannot possibly testify whether Ms. Payal had been telling the truth or not.”
“I am only asking for his learned opinion; which is not binding on the court in any manner,” Anjali explained. “I request that I be given some latitude in this matter.”
“I’ll allow it, the objection is overruled,” decreed the Judge.
“Thank you, Your Honour. Doctor Wilson?”
“If she was substantially angry and had seen or heard about the supposedly sacrificial altar, a demonic idol in a glass pyramid in the farmhouse of Mr. Schönherr. It is quite possible that because of her peculiar mental state, she became convinced of his being a devilish person with extraordinary supernatural powers and she saw elaborate hallucinations of ghosts, demonic beings and other such phenomena.”
“In my opinion, she should be considered a patient deserving our sympathy and understanding. That is of course based on the premise that she had seen all those things when her mind played tricks on her. And that it is not a case of her simply lying about it, to get a person falsely convicted in a court, a possibility you had mentioned earlier. As I had said in the beginning, the inability to interview Ms. Payal restrains me from giving a definitive opinion on the matter.”
Warlock Page 18
