SHORT STORIES FRIDAYS (35)

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (6)

SI Gautam led Asha to a safe house and asked her to stay hidden until further notice. He received an urgent phone call from the hospital stating that Inspector Vishwas was missing. Gautam was shocked. He rushed back to the hospital and found that Shalini was sobbing incessantly. He tried to reassure her and asked her how Vishwas disappeared. He was in a ventilation and couldn’t afford to move on his own. She cried and replied, “Vishwas was showing signs of improvement and I went to fetch the doctor but when I came back, his bed was empty. I didn’t see anyone linger here.”

Gautam was lost in thoughts. He consoled her saying, ” Don’t worry. We will find him. Meanwhile, please don’t go home now. If possible, stay at your parents’ overnight.Don’t call anyone from the landline or speak aloud about Vishwas sir. I have a reason to believe that your house is bugged and fit with spy camera. I will send my technicians to find and disable them. “

He reached the police station and contacted his technician friends. He handed them the keys to Vishwas’ house and asked them to search for the electronic bugs and hidden spy camera. They saluted him and went on to do their jobs. He was surprised to find Constable Ram Prasad missing in action. ” Oh my God! ” He complained, ” Now what’s that black sheep upto? I can’t tolerate too many disasters on a single day.”

He stepped out of the police station to have a cup of tea with light snacks at a nearby restaurant. He thought of paying a surprise visit to Kunal Mehta because he was the prime culprit. A meeting with him was inevitable. He finished his sandwich and tea and paid the bill. No sooner did he enter the police station, he heard someone scream. It was a lady constable Sheila Verma who called her colleagues’ attention to a single cell where Constable Ram Prasad’s body was hanging. He left behind a note :

” I can’t live with a guilty conscience. I am solely responsible for the recent spate of suicide cum murders and the attack on Inspector Vishwas. Therefore, I am ending my life.”

Shock waves engulfed the entire police department. They could not believe that one of them could commit such a heinous crime and then end his life inside the prison cell. Gautam was sure that this was a pre-meditated murder committed by Kunal Mehta. He immediately called his men and went to Kunal’s house. There was no one in his apartment. He went to the backyard and to his astonishment, the door to the house was ajar. He summoned his men and they wore gloves to avoid disturbing any fingerprint. The living room was ransacked. It looked a tornado had hit his house. His master bedroom and closet was empty. “Damn it! ” shouted Gautam, ” It looks like the bastard is absconding. How in the hell does he know our every move? He is as slippery as an eel but this time he can’t escape the punishment from law. He and his worthless father have made mockery of the justice system. I will make him pay for his sins or else I will resign from my job.”

He searched the whole house for any kind of incriminating evidence but in vain. He started tapping the wall for a secret entrance. When he knocked at a corner, the wall slid away leading to a wooden door. He turned the knob and entered the secret room. He was shocked with the sight of the naked pictures of women with a red Cross. There were 25 such pictures and six of them were, Poonam and her friends. How could any husband stoop so low? He opened the drawer of the wooden table. It contained, CDs, Pen drives, and film rolls.

He bagged them for the evidence and noticed a laptop. He turned it on and luckily it wasn’t password protected. He saw more porn stuffs and a folder named crazy for blood. He clicked it on and the entire crime record of Kunal and his father displayed on it. The father-son duo had a weakness for women and often frequented brothels in 2005. But they stopped visiting them after January, 2006. His father hired girls for his company and manipulated them into sleeping with him and Kunal. They died under mysterious circumstances and their corpses seemed to vanish from the face of the earth.

The more he read about the crimes committed by Kunal and his father, the more he had an urge to shoot them both to death. Monica had threatened to expose them to the police. So, the father and the son shamelessly raped her and murdered her. Monica’s mother died heart broken over the loss of her dear daughter. Inspector Vishwas just happened to pass the crime scene and tried to intervene but they brazenly bought some corrupt police officers and the medical examiner who gave the false medical reports to implicate Vishwas. Vishwas’ father begged Dipak, Kunal’s father to spare his son and that he was willing to take the blame. Vishwas’ father committed suicide in prison while Vishwas was let scot free.

Then, Kunal bragged about his clever handling of getting away with the murders of his wife, Poonam and her friends. He had made them sound like they were characterless bitches but in fact they were completely innocent. They had resisted his advances and had to pay with their lives. He had an extra Pendrive with him and copied the whole file. He turned off the laptop and took it with him. This time, Kunal was a goner.

Gautam had gathered sufficient evidence to send him and his father to the gaol. Meanwhile, he had to track the missing Inspector and dig the dirt on the errant officers on law to punish them for their misdeeds. Will Gautam be able to catch Kunal and his father alive? Will Inspector Vishwas survive the ordeal of his kidnapping?

Watch out for the sensational drama next Friday.

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