Patang (21 page)

‘Don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence that this… what is it called?’

‘Drone.’

‘Yes, drone…that it lost control and found its way directly into the man’s chest?’

‘Not at all. In fact, I think that was most likely.’

‘Why?’ Aditya was perplexed.

Rathod stopped and turned towards him. ‘If my guess is right, I think we’ll find that the camera was aligned to the principal axis of the drone…’

‘In English, sir, please?’

‘Think of it as a miniature plane, with a camera facing the nose of the plane.’

‘Oh, okay.’

‘Yes, and in that case, after the first visual of the body was picked up by the camera and shown on the screen, the girl’s inquisitive mind would have subconsciously wanted to find out more about it. And, under such circumstances, it is perfectly possible that, unknown to herself, she steered the drone directly in line with the body just to have a better look at it.’

‘Oh God! Is that what you think happened?’

‘The desire to look at something that horrifies you is a very potent urge, Aditya. Haven’t you seen young children watching horror films even as they peep from behind their fingers?’

‘Yes…yes…I used to do it too.’

‘Well, it’s the same principle. Do you know what we human beings are most scared of?’

‘Umm…no…’

‘That which we cannot see!’

They had reached the cordoned area where the balloon was now being deflated. Rathod spoke to a few people, and soon, the two of them were being escorted to the spot where the body was being examined.

28

‘What the hell is going on?’ Mule’s voice had a stern and no-nonsense tone and Rathod realized that the commissioner was very unhappy with how things were turning out. He glanced briefly at DCP Singh and realized that, despite the fact that he may have been enjoying watching Rathod’s shakedown, the deputy commissioner himself was under tremendous pressure. Rathod knew Mule must have given him a piece of his mind as well.

‘Sir,’ the DCP was saying, ‘in my opinion, these murders are in no way related to those committed by Tony Matthew. He is behind bars. Despite all the hype and hoopla about him being involved, you and I both know that it is impossible for Tony to step out of his cell even for a second. In fact, he is under constant watch.’

‘In that case, who is feeding the media all this nonsense?’

DCP Singh looked at Rathod, making him feel very uncomfortable. Rathod sat up straight and said, ‘Sir, truth be told, we have very little control over what the media says or does. That is the ground reality, sir. I don’t think anyone from our department is feeding them anything.’

DCP Singh raised his hand to interrupt Rathod. ‘Wait a minute, you mean to say…’

‘I mean to say that we are dealing with someone very dangerous here.’ Rathod had no qualms about telling them the truth. Mule and the DCP looked at him curiously.

‘Although we are currently unable to think of a possible explanation as to how this could have happened, it is not unreasonable to say there may be some truth to what the media is saying.’

‘What?’ the DCP exclaimed. Mule also looked surprised.

‘Let me finish, please. In both the Shantinagar steel mill murder and the Powai grounds case, the underlying motif of kites is undeniable. I was at both the scenes, and I saw it myself. At the mill, the victim was hung from two poles like a kite and his spine was broken into two when he was exposed to a high-speed cooling fan, which is exactly what happens to a kite when it is hit by strong winds. In Powai, the victim was simply left to soar high up in the sky, just like a kite, where he had a cardiac arrest…’

‘I thought the man died when a drone pierced his chest?’ DCP Singh asked.

‘No, I spoke to the coroner who declared the time of death. The man was dead long before the drone hit him. Rigor mortis had set in several hours ago.’

‘So the girl had nothing to do with it?’

‘No.’

‘But Tony is in jail. How can he be connected to these murders? He cannot walk through walls, for heaven’s sake!’

‘Just because we can’t explain something, doesn’t mean we can’t accept what we clearly see as the truth. Having said that, I must also tell you I do not believe that he committed these murders himself.’

‘Then who did?’ DCP Singh asked, impatiently.

‘Could be one or more people, a totally different set. They may or may not be connected with Tony.’

‘You mean, like copycats?’

‘It is possible.’

‘It is possible,’Mule repeated what Rathod said as he watched him keenly, ‘but that’s not what you think happened, am I right Rathod?’

Rathod hesitated, and Mule noticed his hesitation. He had known Rathod long enough to not miss the subtle nuances of his restless behaviour. Something was playing on his mind. ‘Why don’t you tell us what you are thinking, my friend?’ Mule insisted softly.

Rathod frowned and rubbed his hands restlessly. ‘Sir, my hypothesis is that Tony Matthew has an accomplice…’

‘Go on…’

‘This second person may or may not have been active during the first set of murders. But now that Tony is in prison, he has taken over.’

‘What nonsense!’ DCP Singh scoffed condescendingly.

‘Uday!’Mule reprimanded him. ‘Please! Let us listen to what he has to say.’

‘But sir, this doesn’t make any…what he’s saying is absolutely…’

‘Please!’ Mule raised his hand. DCP Singh shook his head in disbelief but didn’t say anything.

Rathod continued, ‘I will not go into the details, but I have reason to believe Tony is connected with these murders. In fact, he has himself indicated that he may have an accomplice.’

Mule closed his eyes for a moment. ‘Humour me with specifics,’ he said calmly.

Rathod realized he was in trouble. He would have to divulge information about things he had done that neither Mule nor the DCP would like, but there was no other way out. He decided to tell them the truth. He described his meeting with Tony, first at the Juhu station and then at the Arthur Road Jail. The DCP’s face became scarlet with rage, but Mule seemed unperturbed. Finally, he said, ‘This clue that you’re talking about – are you sure it points to Tony having an accomplice?’

‘I am positive, sir.’

‘You could be wrong. Or he may be trying to mislead you,’ the DCP interjected caustically.

‘Why would he try to mislead Rathod if he had nothing to do with these two murders in the first place?’ Mule rose to Rathod’s defence.

DCP Singh replied, ‘Simple – to take credit for something he hasn’t done. He knows he is going to hang, so what difference does admitting to two more murders make? The media has made a God out of him now!’

‘No, you’re not seeing the point here, Uday. How would Tony have known, when Rathod met him in Juhu, that there would be more murders? There’s only one way he could have made that claim – if he did have an accomplice, and if he knew that his accomplice would carry his work forward. I’m with Rathod on this one.’

DCP Singh didn’t like the way the conversation was moving forward. He continued to grumble, but Mule ignored him and turned to Rathod. ‘But, my friend, I have to say this – I’m not happy with the way you snuck into the jail using God-knows-what connections. You do realize that it shows us in very poor light, don’t you?’

Rathod hung his head and said softly, ‘I’m sorry, sir.’

Mule rose from his chair and stood next to Rathod, who rose to his feet. Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, the commissioner said, ‘That’s all right. Let’s just avoid such mistakes in the future.’

Deep within his heart, Rathod knew he had to see Tony again. But he also knew there was no point dwelling on that urge now. So he simply nodded and said, ‘Sure, sir,’ but even he couldn’t keep a fleeting impression of hesitation from flitting across his face, which didn’t escape Mule’s sharp eyes. However, Mule didn’t say anything further.

As Rathod emerged from Mule’s office, Aditya walked up to him.

‘Any updates?’ Rathod asked.

‘Yes, quite a few.’

‘Good, let’s talk on the way.’

As Rathod’s car sped through the streets of Mumbai, Aditya briefed him. ‘The victim has been identified as Dr Madhusudan Nayak.’

‘Madhusudan Nayak?’ Rathod frowned. ‘You mean the famous cardiologist from Breach Candy?’

‘Yes, do you know him?’

‘No, but I’ve heard about him. He is a reputed surgeon, no?’

‘Absolutely. One of the best in the city.’

‘Hmm…continue…’ Rathod’s frown had deepened.

‘He was just a few months short of 61 when he died. His wife passed away several years ago, and he has a daughter who is now married and lives in Pune with her husband and two children. At around 9 p.m. yesterday, soon after dinner, his servants were surprised to see him getting ready to go out. In fact, he rushed out in a hurry, which made them think that perhaps he was attending to an emergency at the hospital. The servants waited
until this morning, but Dr Nayak didn’t return. They then called up his daughter, who called the police. Soon afterwards, his body was discovered at the Powai grounds.’

Rathod was thinking hard. He felt an itch at the back of his mind, like he was missing something, but didn’t know what it was. Deciding to worry about it later, he chose to voice another thought that had been bugging him. ‘Have you noticed something, Aditya? In both these murders, the killer hasn’t killed the victims directly. He has left them – or, rather,
introduced
them – to a situation where their deaths were caused by natural forces.’

‘Yes, that’s true. It had occurred to me as well.’

‘This strengthens my hypothesis of Tony having an accomplice.’

Aditya didn’t seem convinced. ‘Why do you say so?’

‘Because Tony didn’t kill his victims, either. He just left them to die…so to speak.’

‘But not in the case of Father Patton.’

‘Hmm, true, not in case of Father Patton. His punishment was…
instantaneous
. It could be an exception.’

‘I somehow think if Tony wanted to continue his string of murders in a particular fashion, he would have done that, come what may.’

Rathod didn’t respond.

‘Also,’ Aditya continued, ‘The way the doctor was killed… it seems a bit…strange to me. I don’t know if leaving a person hanging 300 feet in the air is a sure-fire way to kill him. I mean, what if he hadn’t had the heart attack?’

‘Excellent point. We need to find out more. But you don’t support my theory of an accomplice being involved?’

‘Umm…no. I have a different theory.’

‘Tell me.’

‘I think it’s Tony.’

‘What?’

‘It’s Tony. He’s the killer.’

‘You think he’s been getting out of his cell in the night, killing his victims in an elaborate manner and then going back and locking himself up? Does that make any sense to you?’

‘Sir, I know it sounds impossible to you but, as you know, there are quite a few things in this world which are beyond our comprehension, beyond the realm of our current understanding.’

Rathod stared at Aditya. He couldn’t believe his ears. Finally, he said, ‘Are you suggesting that there’s some truth in what the media is saying? That Tony has this…this…ability to somehow leave the prison undetected?’

‘I’m not saying anything…it’s just…’

‘Are you out of your mind?! I can’t believe this. I really can’t. You are a police officer! How can you possibly believe in such mumbo-jumbo bullshit?’

Aditya seemed a little hurt. ‘Sir, if you really think it is impossible, why did you go and meet Tony in prison?’

‘I went to meet him to see if he could give me any leads,’ Rathod stated. ‘Not to see if he could walk through walls! What the hell is wrong with you?’

Aditya didn’t respond and looked away as Rathod drove on, fuming. He could tolerate almost anything, but he couldn’t stand his intelligence being insulted. A little while later, Aditya asked to be dropped off near the Victoria Terminus police station. He was clearly not happy with the way Rathod had spoken to him, but Rathod couldn’t care less. When Aditya stepped out of the car, he drove away without exchanging a parting greeting.

Rathod felt disappointed and frustrated. An educated fellow,
otherwise bright, intelligent and promising – why would Aditya believe in such crap? He felt his headache stirring. Suddenly, he saw Ananya on the road, walking towards Victoria Terminus. As if in a flash, something struck Rathod as being very odd. Who
was
this mysterious girl? How did she know so much about the Tony Matthew case? Why was it that, in this city of millions, Rathod kept bumping into her? How had she known about the operation on Juhu beach that fateful night? And what had she been doing wandering around the Shantinagar mill area that evening?

So many questions to which he didn’t have any answers.

She was beautiful, no doubt, but she was also extremely mysterious. In a fraction of a second, Rathod turned his car around and started following Ananya, keeping his distance from her. She was walking on the footpath on the other side, so every now and then, a series of vehicles would pass by and she would disappear from view, then reappear soon after. As she made her way towards the station, Rathod realized that he was going to lose her in the crowd. He decided to park the vehicle and shadow her on foot.

By the time Rathod had parked the car and returned to the spot where he had last seen her, she was gone. He looked for her frantically, but she was nowhere to be seen. The spot was one of the busiest places in the city, which made it virtually impossible to locate one person in this ocean of humanity. But Rathod continued to scan the surroundings closely, his eyes looking for a bright yellow kurta…
there
! He had found her just as she was walking into the station.

Rathod ran inside and reached the platform. Although this wasn’t exactly rush hour, Victoria Terminus station was nevertheless teeming with people. Maintaining a safe distance
from his mark, he continued to follow Ananya. He was determined to see where she went and, more importantly, who she met. When she boarded a train, Rathod boarded the adjacent compartment. He would have to move closer to her without her noticing him, so that he could keep an eye on her and get off at the same station as her.