by Varsha Dixit
“Oh, of course!” Aisha nodded understandingly.
How about moving out of the septic tank?
“I got Parth’s text. So, where is everyone else?”
“They are in the other room,” Vikas pointed at a closed door across from them. “They will out be in a few minutes. A top-secret conference call is going on. I was kicked out too!”
Aisha’s smile was wry. “And to think it is your house!”
“I will put these in a vase. I’ll be right back.”
“Sure. By the way, your apartment smells so much better than the outside.”
Smiling, Vikas disappeared in the hallway that faced the living room.
Aisha stared at the door where Parth and his team were working. Her cell buzzed. It was Kiara.
“Hi Kia!” Aisha whispered.
“Where have you been, Boo? I must have called you like twenty times! Rustom called up. He told us you were fired. Are you okay?”
“Sorry, Kia, my phone was on silent. Listen, don’t worry, I’m fine. We’ll talk when I get home.”
“Why are you whispering? Where are you?”
Aisha could hear the concern in Kiara’s voice. “I’m okay, don’t worry.”
“Where are you, Boo? Why aren’t you telling me where you are?”
“Oh gosh, Kia!” Aisha shook her head exasperated. “I’m at Vikas’s apartment.”
“What the hell! What are you doing there? And, again, why are you whispering?”
Aisha winced. Her niece’s voice was loud in her ear. “It’s a long story. I will tell you everything when I get back home. And I’m whispering because his cancer-ridden mom is sleeping, Kiara!”
“What bull cock! His mother died three and a half years ago. Around the time I joined the agency. It was December 2013, I think.”
Chapter 74
“Not funny, Kia.” Aisha said.
“I’m not kidding, Boo. December 2013, I’m positive. I and the other models were on a shoot and he was with us when he got the news. Vikas was very distraught!”
“Kiara, I gotta go.” Aisha ended the call abruptly. She felt her mouth go dry.
Why would he lie about his mother being dead?
And then something registered.
“Oh, good Lord!”
Aisha realized why Vikas’s flat smelled different from the outside.
Bleach. I’m smelling the same bleach I had smelled near the green van.
Aisha rushed to her feet. Her eyes fell on the front door. She saw the many bolts on it and the large gray lock that sat tight on the door.
He’s locked me in.
Aisha’s hands fisted at her sides and her stomach clenched painfully.
That’s why he made the typo and called Dr. Lorso a “he” in his text. Vikas did not know Dr. Lorso is a woman. Oh gosh, why did I not call Parth before blindly showing up? Where the heck is Parth? Aisha wiped the sweat off her upper lip. Don’t panic. Think, Aisha think.
Aisha tried to calm down her heart that was hammering between her ribs. Her ears were alert trying to listen to the teeniest of the sounds in the apartment. Some tinkering sounds came from the kitchen.
Vikas is busy!
Aisha glanced at the cell phone still in her hand. She dialed Parth’s number and waited. Muffled sounds of his ringtone came from behind the door Vikas had pointed at. Aisha ended the call after one ring.
Keeping her eyes on the hallway Vikas had gone in, Aisha took quick soft steps toward the closed door. She put her hand and pushed it. The door swung open with a low creaking noise.
Aisha’s saw the sprawled body that lay on the floor. It was Parth!
He had a head wound that was bleeding, turning a side of his face bright red even as the other half of his face was pale as chalk. Aisha covered her mouth, trying not to gag at the sight of considerable blood.
A strong push on Aisha’s back had her hurtling inside the room. As she fell forward, her head hit the edge of a table. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets as she passed out.
Chapter 75
“Ugh!” Aisha felt her head. It hurt enough to feel as if someone had run a car over it. The shooting pain would not let her slip into comforting unconsciousness. Aisha groaned because of the effort it took to open her eyes.
Something hard nudged her head. Groggily, she raised her head and felt the object with unsteady hands for her vision was hazy.
A shoe?
Raising herself on her elbows, Aisha blinked, trying to see beyond the shoe. A body and a face took form. “Parth! Parth!”
The CBI officer lay prone on the ground. Aisha held his ankles and dragged herself closer.
“Tsk! Poor Aisha!”
Aisha froze at the voice. She swung her head. Vikas sat cross-legged a few feet away from them, swinging a gun in his hand.
Aisha’s eyes fixed on the gun.
“Not my favorite weapon to kill.” Vikas mimicked a sad expression. “I prefer my hands. It is more personal. Choking the life bit by bit from bodies that are beautiful from the outside but as ugly as the pus-filled spores on a leper’s body on the inside.” He smiled slowly.
Her head continued to pound, yet Aisha managed to sit up partially and face him. “You killed all those girls? Why?”
Vikas continued to hold the gun lightly. “Because I have seen the ugly side of beauty. My own mother, she was very beautiful. She had a mole right here. A beauty spot.” He pressed the gun on his jaw.
Hope the damn thing goes off! Aisha watched him. Didn’t I have my cell phone in my hand when I passed out?
“Tell me about your mother!” She pleaded. She felt around her, under her skirt.
“Why? So, you can find a way to stop me from killing? Are you that good a shrink?” Vikas chortled in glee like a small child.
“I’m not a shrink.”
Vikas moved the gun from his face and aimed it back at her casually. “Are you honest?”
“There is no point in lying.” Aisha’s smile was glum. “I don’t think I’m getting out of this alive.”
“You are smarter than you look.”
Sarcastic and armed! Some people have everything.
Aisha changed tactics. “The police were sure they would catch you.”
Vikas’ nostril’s flared. “Police are a bunch of baboons. They will never catch me. You saw the van and this cop indulged in too much digging. You two are the only ones who know about me and look where it brought you both.” He pointed the gun at Aisha. “Right in front of me.”
He wants to talk, otherwise I would be dead by now.
Aisha steered her eyes from the chilling barrel of the gun staring at her, straight between the eyes. “Why do you think Parth hasn’t told anyone else about you?”
“Do you see anyone else here besides him?” Vikas’s smile was coy.
“But how did you figure out I was involved? Nobody knew that. Not even my family!” Aisha made sure to sound amazed.
Vikas gave a smug smile and flipped his hair. “From this idiot’s cell. You sent him a picture of the van.”
He slithered forward. Aisha had no time to react. He pushed the barrel on her forehead.
“Oww!” Aisha shrieked as the cold metal pressed down on an already throbbing bruise. “Understood! Understood.” She gritted her teeth, clamping her jaw tight and fighting the pain.
Vikas removed the barrel and moved back to his prior position.
Aisha again changed her tack. “So, your mother . . .” She stuttered. “Do you think she would be happy with what you are doing?”
“Stop talking about her!” Vikas screamed. Aisha jerked. “She would not care. I was a mistake!”
“A mistake? No mother can think like that?” Aisha made her face sympathetic.
“My mother, the hooker, can and did! She thought she could be a heroine. But she could not resist men. One man after another! Her body was like a revolving door. Men just went in and out, in and out, in and out.” He made a crude gesture with his hands. “She
had no idea who my father was. She tried to abort me. But she went to someone cheap. They messed up, so I survived.”
Aisha stared at him. “That’s awful! I’m sorry! Where were you when all those . . . all those men?”
“She would stick me in the shoe closet. A smelly dark tiny closet! I would sit there for hours like this!” Vikas pulled his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around them. “And if I made the smallest sound then she would hit me with the closest shoe.” He relaxed his pose. “I call smell a shoe from a distance.”
That explains the shoe fetish!
“Sorry you had no one who cared for you, but—?”
Vikas punched his knee with his free hand. “Yes, there was. She came around and saw me. Truly saw me.”
Aisha blinked, confused. “Your mother?”
“Not my mother. My darling mummy even threw her own son at the men, just to have them stay!”
That explains the rapes. He too was a victim.
“I’m very sorry for what happened to you. No child should have to go through that.”
“Your niece is also very beautiful! She reminds me of my mother. I will cut her uterus out.”
Chapter 76
“Kiara is nothing like your mother.” Aisha strove to control her fear.
“Oh, she is. I have seen it in her eyes. Kabir follows her like a puppy. I almost killed her that night, but you got in the way. That night I went outside and then sneaked right back in the house through the front door. Right under all your noses! See how clever I am?” Vikas chuckled.
Aisha could not hide her panic. “Kiara is nothing like your mother, I promise. You can do what you want with me. But please, promise me you won’t hurt Kiara.”
“I’m not going to kill your slut niece for me. I’m going to kill her for my love. My true love who sees me for who I am. She connects with me here.” Vikas touched his forehead. “And here!” He touched his chest.
He hears voices.
“Vikas, please listen to me, your mother is dead. The cancer killed her three and a half years ago. She can’t hurt you anymore.”
Vikas scratched his chin. “Only her body is gone. Karma is a bitch or in her case, cervical cancer. That’s what she had.” He smiled manically. “You know I made her suffer. I begged the doctors to give her the strongest chemo dosage. The loving son who can’t do without his mother! And I took away her pain killers. She would yell and scream in agony, but I never gave her the prescription painkillers. She would scream, scream all the time, rotting in her own filth. That’s why I moved her in here. Everyone here is deaf!” He waved the gun all around him.
Aisha watched the gun warily. She glanced at Parth who still lay inert. The blood from his wound had stopped flowing. She hurriedly moved her gaze away from it. “So, she is gone then, right? Dead.”
Vikas leaned close as if sharing a secret. “No! She is not dead. She keeps coming back. Every time I kill her, but she keeps coming back. She loved Goa. That is where I go to find her. But don’t tell her. Otherwise she will run away to some faraway place and I don’t have a passport.”
Aisha watched Vikas’s child-like demeanor.
A groaning sound interrupted them.
Parth was coming around.
Vikas scooted back and pointed the gun at him.
“Please don’t!” Aisha slid protectively over Parth’s legs.
“You want to die first?” Vikas questioned, his smile mocking.
“Aisha . . . move!” Parth weakly pushed at Aisha’s shoulder.
Vikas got to his feet and pointed the gun down at Aisha and Parth.
“Vikas, I’m so amazed at all that you have done.”
“Move, Aisha!” Aisha felt Parth’s legs under her outstretched arms.
“Parth, stop. Vikas was telling me about—”
A sudden click Vikas fired the gun.
Chapter 77
Aisha screamed. The gun shot was deafening; it felt like a bomb had gone off in her head. Her ears rang with the noise.
Parth’s yelp cut through the buzzing noise. Aisha glanced down and saw the front of his shirt turn a brazenly crimson. “How could you?” Aisha screamed at Vikas who watched the writhing form of Parth with fascination.
Parth twisted in pain yet he tried to say something to Aisha.
“Aisha!”
Someone was pounding on the front door.
Kabir!
Adrenaline shot through Aisha’s body.
“Open the door!”
Thudding sounds came from the living room. Kabir was throwing himself at the door.
For a second, Vikas appeared confused. He turned sideways, toward the front door.
It was all the time Aisha needed. She yanked Parth’s right trouser leg up and smoothly pulled out the compact Glock 26.
Aisha grabbed it with her right hand, firmly inserting the grip of the gun in the cup of her hand. She placed her left hand to steady the gun. She knew she had mere seconds.
She aligned the tip of the barrel to the back of the cylinder and aimed it at Vikas’s head.
The killer spun to face her.
“Like the view?” Aisha said through gritted teeth.
Vikas’s eyes widened.
“Cops often carry concealed weapons. I should know! My brother was a cop.”
“Don’t you dare touch her!” Kabir kept throwing himself against the door. The thudding was loud. The door was beginning to creak.
Vikas’s little-boy expression altered to a menacing rage. His lips pulled back to show his clenched teeth. “I was feeling sorry that I had to kill you, bitch.” He raised his lowered hand. The hand with the gun!
“Please put the gun down. Please!” Aisha pleaded. It was one thing to hold a loaded gun and another to fire it to kill. She also knew Parth was slowly dying right next to her.
Vikas flashed a familiar coy smile. “You won’t kill me. You can’t kill me. You buy flowers for strangers, you mother a child who is not your own.” He chuckled. He jerked the gun up.
Vikas aimed the gun at Aisha’s face.
Aisha did not waste a fraction of a second.
She fired.
Chapter 78
The beauty killer collapsed to his knees. A red wound appeared on his tanned forehead. He fell forward and hit the ground. And stayed there.
Aisha dropped the gun and turned. “Parth! Parth,” she shook him. Parth did not react, he stayed still. Blood had seeped through most of his shirt.
A pair of masculine hands touched the base of Parth’s neck. “I can feel a light pulse.” It was Kabir. He had got through.
“Have to save him! He can’t die.” Aisha’s face was ashen. Her voice shook.
“Get me a towel! Anything to keep the pressure on the wound to slow the bleeding. The police are on the way.”
“What?” Aisha could only gape. She could feel her mind shutting down.
“Aisha,” Kabir hollered in her face. “You have to move now to save your boyfriend.” He reached out, squeezing her arm. Kabir’s touch got through the numbness that was covering her mind. “Go!”
Aisha went out, her movements erratic. She noticed the front door swinging loose. Ironically, the old door had broken from the hinges. The locks and bolts still held it upright.
She rushed into the first room that she came upon. It was a room with a mattress, a closet, a table, and pictures—several pictures lined up on the wall. Under them, a line of women’s shoes were displayed—a single shoe instead of a pair. Aisha cupped her mouth as bile rose in her.
His shrine!
As Aisha rummaged through the drawers of the closet, she kept glancing at the pictures of Komal Das, Aditi Kavuri, Thoi Elviz, Julie Fernando, Nafeesa Khan, Sandhya Arora and some more girls.
Their pictures were plastered all over the wall. Some taken as Vikas held them captive and others taken after their death. Aisha averted her eyes just as her hand settled around a rough terrycloth-like fabric.
I shot him. I avenged all the
ir deaths!
Aisha grabbed the towels and ran out of the room.
A second later, Aisha came back inside.
What the hell!
She stared at a girl’s picture on the extreme left corner of the wall. Shivers broke out on Aisha’s body. She was staring straight at a face she had seen recently.
Lavina. Kabir’s late wife.
Chapter 79
“Here, sip some coffee. This should warm you up,” Kabir sat down next to Aisha and picked her hands from her lap. He gently wrapped them around a thin plastic white coffee cup.
“Thanks!” Her hands weren’t the steadiest and she spilled some hot liquid on them. Aisha flinched.
“Here, let me,” Kabir took the cup from her hand and held it to her mouth. “Have a sip.”
Aisha saw deep concern for her in Kabir’s eyes. Bending her head, she took a sip. The sweet coffee went down her throat.
“Thank you,” she sat back, pulling the blanket provided by the hospital tightly around her. The hospital chairs weren’t the most comfortable.
“He’ll pull through,” Kabir reassured her, alluding to Parth who was in surgery.
Parth had weak pulse but he was still breathing when he was rushed to the hospital. He had been in the surgery for over two hours.
Two police men were standing nearby and several others were in the waiting room down the hall. A CBI officer was one of their own.
“Why don’t you try sleeping for a while?” Kabir suggested as Aisha took another sip.
“I can’t sleep. Not now.” Aisha sighed.
“Why were the policemen questioning you?” Kabir was referring to the meeting Aisha had returned from twenty minutes earlier with a DSP and his team.
“Because till Parth doesn’t wake up and gives them a statement, I’m a suspect. I’m the only one walking out of the three in that apartment.” Aisha sighed, resting her head against the wall.
Kabir had not left her side for more than a few minutes since he had broken into Vikas’s apartment.
“Maybe I should call a lawyer for you, just in case.” Kabir began to pull out his cell from his pocket.
Aisha shook her head. “Please don’t. You have done enough. You are the reason I’m alive.”
