It was 1’ O’Clock in the night. Almost since 3-4 days John locked himself in the house. As if he lost track of the time and passing days. But today he got to his senses not because of passing time but because of his exhausted whisky stock. As he got to his senses, all his sensations became alive. He recalled all his moments spent with Anjeni...
Artificial respiration given to her and as if it was harmonization of his breaths to hers..
Uneasiness of his heart to meet her..
Even if tried hard his turning footsteps towards her house...
His first date with her..
Their passionate, pure first love making...
The warmth of her breaths..
The shower and warmth of her love...
The vacation spent with her ..
The glimpses of her naughty, innocent gestures..
The moments when he proposed her, bringing the ring overnight...
Her hug tight acceptance..
Her continuous motivation to bring him out of despair..
And..
And.. her brutal murder..
His eyes welled up. Tears rolled over his cheecks.
He accused himself and felt responsible for her death.
When the secret of the murder was revealed, he would have realized that after fifth murder the sixth one would be of her beloved Anjeni...
He would have realized it..
But to avoid fifth murder he was so engrossed in the investigations that he didn’t even think of the sixth murder..
He cleared the tears with his wrist. Still he was not able to believe that she had left him alone in such a way. He looked around in the house.
The house was looking strange and eerie ...
Was it the house eerie or his thought made it ...
He looked to the front door.
The news papers slipped by news paper boy were lying in a heap since 3-4 days. He felt like those news papers were also teasing him peering down under the door. He got up, went to the door. For a moment he thought of going out in a fresh air. But no.. now he was feeling comfortable in the room, all alone. He pulled the newspaper bunch, went through them standing there. Everywhere he could find the news none other than riots, arson, and baton charge. Not only that, in India also the riots had been started. It means the situation outside still was not normal. Americans seemed to be vowed to send away not only Indians but also those who belonged to other countries. And Indian people had started street marches to abandon the American companies. He threw those news papers in the corner in irritation and went to the chair where he sat before. On the table ahead the empty whisky bottles where heaped up, and beside an empty glass was resting alone. John switched the TV on, picking up the remote from the table. He skipped the channels one by one. He didn’t feel like to stop to any particular channel as everywhere there were all news of riots, arson, and baton charge. In irritation he switched off the TV pressing hard the remote button and threw the remote on the coach.
He was now realizing that he must come out of the depression.
But how?..
That was the thing he was not sure about.
If I engage myself in some work...
Yes it’s the best way to come out of depression...
But department had also stopped him backing up. He was still not permitted to go on work..
And it seemed impossible at least till the situation cools down..
He got up and started strolling in the room.
Still if I could catch the killer..
At least it will help to cool down the environment that is disturbed outside. But the killer is possibly an organization rather than a single person. But even if it's organization, what difference does it make?...
If I could catch a single member of the organization, it will help to reach to the roots of the organization..
No.. I should do something...
He went to the window, stared outside, just in void. His palms started to turn up in fists.
At least I should do something for the sake of Anjeni, to rest her soul in peace...
But where I should start from?...
It's easy to extinguish a single tree if it catches fire... But here the whole jungle is set ablaze...
Again he started strolling and recalled the case right from the beginning.
May be we should have missed some important clues...
First murder..
Second murder..
Third murder...
Suddenly a thought flashed in his mind-
During third murder a corpse which we found below the building, it must be somehow strongly related
to the case...
Subsequently we raided the house... There it was strange that we were not able to find a single finger impression..
The hard disk of the computer was also missing...
That means it was strongly related to the case....
The house was still in police custody. Nobody till date had claimed the house.
Its here I could get some missing link...
Suddenly John felt enthusiastic as he had got something to do.
If I inspect the house again...
But the keys were with police...
Come on.. let's get out of here first...
Rest of the things I will decide later on...
He shook off the depressing thoughts from his mind and went out of the house with a firm resolution.
Continued …
Original Novel by Sunil Doiphode
English Version by Mugdha Apte
No comments:
Post a Comment