A Cut-Like Wound (30 page)

‘You look very preoccupied, Chikka,’ the corporator said eventually. ‘Something bothering you?’

Chikka looked up blankly. ‘What?’

‘I asked if something is worrying you,’ the corporator said. ‘You have not been yourself all morning. And you’ve hardly touched your breakfast.’

Chikka’s head drooped.

‘What’s wrong? Tell your anna,’ the corporator coaxed. It made him feel helpless to see Chikka so despondent.

‘It’s nothing. I have a bad headache.’

‘Too much to drink last night, huh? You were out late?’ Corporator laughed.

‘I was home before you,’ Chikka said defensively.

The corporator flushed. ‘Did you see me come in?’

‘No, but I heard you,’ Chikka said, pushing his chair back. ‘Where were you?’

The corporator followed Chikka to the washbasin. ‘I had a few things to do,’ he said, opening the tap and letting the water flow over his fingers.

‘Like what? I know everything that’s going on in your life. So I know there’s nothing that should keep you out that late,’ Chikka said, waiting his turn.

The corporator wiped his hands on a towel and slung it over his brother’s shoulder. ‘You think you know everything. That doesn’t mean you do.’

Chikka washed his hands and wiped them on the towel. Then he carefully folded it and hung it on the towel ring so that the dry end was closest to hand.

He walked to the living room. The corporator was feeding his fish.

‘Did you really mean that?’ he asked baldly.

‘What?’ the corporator said absently as his fingers opened over the fish pond and let a fistful of fish food shower over the surface of the pond.

‘That I don’t know everything that’s going on in your life.’

‘It’s my life, Chikka. I need my private time too,’ the corporator said. He turned to look at Chikka. What he saw made his face harden. ‘Some parts of my life are best kept secret. Knowing them will change things. It could even put your life in danger. So don’t start snooping around. Do you hear me?’

Chikka said nothing.

S
antosh was standing outside, speaking into his mobile, when Gowda rode into the police station on his Bullet.

Santosh ended his call in a hurry and rushed towards Gowda. He saluted and said, ‘I’ve been trying to reach you since six this morning. But your phone kept ringing. I sent one of the constables to your house. He said the door was locked.’

Gowda frowned. At times, Santosh sounded almost like Mamtha.

‘The bike needed some tweaking. I wanted to check the ignition points and timing,’ Gowda said as he got off and parked the bike. ‘There’s a chap, Kumar. KK Garage at
Kammanahalli. He’s a whiz!’ He pulled the phone out of his pocket. It was on silent and the vibrator alert was off. ‘My mistake. I should have remembered. What’s wrong?’

‘The control room reported a dead body near Nagawara Lake. There could be no connection. Or…’

‘There could be,’ Gowda finished for him. He glanced at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. ‘It’s not our station jurisdiction area. And the CCB’s probably already there. But let’s go anyway.’

The rush-hour traffic hadn’t yet settled. At Hennur Junction, they were behind a lorry that seemed to suddenly develop engine trouble. Eventually, it took them almost an hour to arrive at the scene of crime. An ambulance drove away as PC David found a place to park.

The police had managed to cordon off the area with raised voices and glares. Gowda thought again of Roshan’s
CSI
series. The IO and team were combing the area. The CCB men too seemed to have arrived. Stanley greeted Gowda with a scowl. ‘I was waiting for you. What took you so long?’

Gowda grinned. ‘Bike trouble!’

‘You should have asked your sidekick to deal with it,’ Stanley murmured, peering over Gowda’s shoulder at Santosh, who was talking to one of the team.

‘I don’t let anyone ride my bike,’ Gowda said.

Stanley made a face.

‘I know what you are thinking,’ Gowda said. ‘
It’s a bike, not your wife
. Other people have said it behind my back.’

Stanley tried to hide his smile.

‘You would never understand,’ Gowda said firmly. ‘Now tell me what you found.’

‘It seems your murderer has been at it again,’ Stanley said, showing Gowda the pictures he had shot of the body. He had
used his digital camera well. No angle had been forgotten. Like all the others, this boy too had a slit throat; a ligature had severed as it strangled. And the wound on the cheek, as though someone had ground something hard into the tissue, tattering the skin and flesh and splintering the bone. Death was never easy on the eye. This one only enhanced the horrific nature of it.

‘Anything else?’ Gowda asked, chewing on his lip.

They walked towards the tree beneath which the body had been found.

‘The cowherd who found the body was too scared to touch it. So nothing had been moved. Apart from the usual signs of death by strangulation, there was nothing strange. His legs were straight and his arms crossed on his chest. The assailant had very carefully arranged his limbs. He had taken his life, but didn’t want to leave a messy body lying around.’ Stanley sighed.

Gowda nodded, thinking of how Kiran’s body had looked like it had been placed on the chair. And Kothandaraman’s. A profile of the murderer was forming in his mind.

‘There were tyre marks on the grass to show a car had driven up as far as it could go, and do you see this?’ Stanley bent down and pointed out two strips of flattened grass that ran from the tyre markings to the foot of the tree.

‘The body was dragged from the car to that spot,’ Gowda said.

Stanley nodded.

‘The body has already been sent to the mortuary for the post-mortem. The dog squad will be here any minute. The case is off your hands now, Gowda,’ Stanley said as Gowda looked at the snaps all over again.

‘Stanley, right from the beginning, something about this
serial murderer has had me puzzled,’ Gowda said slowly, pretending not to have heard him.

‘We don’t know yet if it is a serial murderer,’ Stanley said abruptly.

‘Quit playing devil’s advocate. You know it is as well as I do. The MO, the positioning of the body, all the victims are males… you know what they say, don’t you?’ Gowda turned his gaze to Stanley.

‘Two times is a coincidence, three times is a pattern,’ Stanley said.

‘So what are we waiting for? A high-profile victim? Will that make it an important case?’ Gowda’s nostrils were pinched with rage.

Stanley rubbed his palms absently. ‘That’s unfair…’

Gowda scratched his forehead. ‘I know. I apologize. But sometimes I feel like I am slamming my head against a wall. No one seems to be taking this seriously.’

From the road, there was an almost constant blare of horns and the hum of traffic. Gowda took a deep breath and stared into the distance. A cow with a crow perched on its back walked across the grass, oblivious to the goings-on in the adjoining field. A giant mound of garbage had been dumped by the path. A black plastic bag fluttered and rose from the heap and came to rest at Gowda’s feet. He kicked at it viciously but it only tangled further into a clump of lantana. ‘Bloody BBMP… can’t they do something about this garbage-dumping business? This state is going to the dogs.’

‘Have you had anything to eat?’ Stanley asked suddenly.

‘Why? And no…’

‘That explains your mood. Get something to eat and I’ll call you when the post-mortem report comes in.’

‘I want to be there when the post-mortem is done,’ Gowda said.

Stanley sighed. Fine. It’ll be early evening. Get something to eat first, Gowda. You are useless and a bloody nuisance when you are like this!’

Gowda smiled. They went back a long way. Stanley could say things to Gowda that no one else would dare.

Gowda called for his vehicle. Santosh looked at Gowda’s profile. He was deep in thought. ‘You were outside the eunuch house up to what time?’ Gowda asked suddenly.

‘About eleven fifteen, sir,’ Santosh said. ‘There’s only one door. I went back and checked this morning. So the eunuch was there as long as I was there.’

Gowda grunted.

‘I don’t understand.’ Santosh’s face was downcast. ‘There was no way that the eunuch could have… I was there, tailing her all the time.’

‘What about the companion?’ Gowda asked.

‘Oh, she left at about eight in the evening. She and the eunuch went to the temple and they separated there. You don’t think it was her… How could it be?’ Santosh spluttered. ‘A woman! She seemed a timid woman at that!’

‘I don’t know, Santosh. But I think we’ll know once we see what the post-mortem throws up.’

Gowda didn’t speak as they drove. He motioned to PC David to stop at a Darshini. He didn’t particularly care for these short-order restaurants that seemed to have a great ability to erase every dish of any distinct flavour or taste. Sameness ruled. But they were reasonably clean and you could be sure that they would serve you food from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Santosh followed him into the restaurant. The tables were
being wiped clean by a boy in grey shorts and a shirt, with a cap on his head. The cloth in his hand was filthy with many wipings. Gowda glowered at the boy. ‘That cloth looks older than your grandfather,’ he said. ‘Use a fresh one. Now.’

Santosh grinned to himself. He had overheard some of what Stanley had said to Gowda. The man’s irritability was fun to watch as long as it was not directed towards him.

The boy rushed towards the kitchen and came back with a fresh wiping cloth. Through the serving hatch, faces peered. They saw the uniform and looked at each other. Policemen were always a nuisance. This one seemed to be even more so.

Santosh went to the counter and placed his order. Gowda had said he should eat as well.

Santosh came back with a tray heaped with food. Gowda said little as he ate alternately from his khara bath and kesari bath. He drank the tumbler of filter coffee in one gulp and then he gazed at Santosh and smiled. Santosh almost choked on a piece of oily uthappam he had just put into his mouth.

‘You know something,’ Gowda said. ‘I think we need to break this into parts. Let’s start looking at the deceased. Each one of them was a male but not of any specific age or type in terms of looks. The murderer was not looking for young men in particular. It seems to me that the murderer found them as and when. Alcohol and the promise of sex was probably how they were lured.’

Gowda’s phone beeped. It was Stanley. Gowda finished the call and put down the phone. His face was grim.

‘The dogs found a trail until the Ring Road and then it went cold.’

‘Do you think the eunuch’s companion is connected in some way?’ Santosh’s eyes glittered with excitement.

Gowda nodded. ‘That’s precisely what crossed my mind too.’

‘But how? A woman? And she didn’t even seem particularly strong.’

‘Maybe she’s not a woman.’ Gowda’s voice was even.

‘How is that possible?’ Santosh put his arms on the table, leaning almost into Gowda’s face.

‘A transvestite, perhaps?’ Gowda shrugged. ‘Men who like dressing up as women. And some of them are prettier than many women I know.’

‘No wonder the eunuchs I talked to denied knowing anything about the one with the earring. She wasn’t one of them.’

‘Well,’ Gowda said, taking a sip of water, ‘even if they recognized her, they wouldn’t admit to it. They are very loyal. Besides, you haven’t been to the house in Hennur, have you? You need to speak to them as well…’

‘So, where do we start looking for this criminal? It could be any man out there.’

‘No, you forget we have some idea of what the murderer looks like. We have a photograph even if it is hazy and you have seen her, even if from a distance… I am going to have to tell Stanley. He’ll be able to get a portrait drawn from what we have. We’ll have more than just a shadowy image of the murderer.’

‘And then?’ Santosh asked curiously.

‘And then, we’ll have to see,’ Gowda said, getting into the Bolero. Santosh followed, his mind buzzing.

What if he had followed the eunuch’s companion? He would have apprehended the murderer before another murder had been committed.