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Word Count - 3000

Audio Theme : Tu Hai Ki Nahi | Roy |

https://youtu.be/_Ufd60sTMK8

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23 | The Silence Before The Countdown Began

Present

9th May 2023 [1300 hrs.]

Perhaps, I am the only one who thought so,

That the place where shadows are deep,

that's where most of the darkness reigns,

A mirror beckons, a subtle frame,

And as you gaze into its depths,

Perchance a chilling presence crept.

Did the monster lurking there, 

with eyes that gleam and soul laid bare,

Cast a smile, a twisted grin, 

cloaked in shadows, veiled in sin?

As you shed your pretense, your mask, 

exposed to shadows, dared to ask,

Did the lurking monstrous form, 

find within you, something scorned?

When your smiles felt hollow and strained, 

and words felt sharp, with truth unchained,

Did the monster lurking slyly, 

find a kinship, dark and wily?

Was it truly a beast, unknown, 

or a reflection of your own,

In the depths of night's embrace, 

a haunting, fearsome, mirrored face?

So ponder, dear soul, and see, 

the monster in the dark may be,

Not a creature from without, 

but a shadow of your own self, devout.

- Hina

She swiftly capped the pen gripped in her nimble fingers as two crisp knocks resonated against the door of her office. Glancing at the fluttering pages of the leather diary on the table for one last time, she quickly closed it and then plunged it inside the left drawer of her wooden desk. "Enter."

The door unbolted to reveal the familiar tall and lean frame of her closest aide. "Jai Hind, Madam!"

"Jai Hind." She beckoned for him to get seated.

Pulling one of the visitor's chairs behind him, Bakhtawar comfortably settled himself down on it. "Didn't the I.G. discharge you of all your magisterial duties for this entire month? What are you doing here then?" He inquired.

"I later on requested him not to." Swiveling the chair around by ninety degrees, she picked up her satchel from above the filing cabinet behind and then unzipped it to fish out a notepad from it. Placing the notepad on her work desk, she kept her satchel back at its initial locus and then turned around to face her assistant again. "I am just a profiler; I don't need to be present at the SIT headquarters all the time."

Bakhtawar nodded his head while staring at the notepad, whose pages his boss was rapidly skimming through. "What is the matter?"

Hinduja instantly raised her eyes to look at him. "Any progress with that laptop we found in the store room behind the Purohit Villa?" She asked with her eyebrows knitted together.

"No." Bakhtawar sighed as he intertwined his digits neatly on the table. "I am trying to revive it, though. It's a 2013 model, and judging from the timeline, I guess it has not been put to any use since 2014. But surprising enough, all its parts are in really good condition except the motherboard and the hard disk, which means someone must have mistakenly left the laptop there in the storeroom itself. I deduce that someone from within the Purohit family only must have left it there in a hurry. It will take me a bit more time to bring it back to its original condition." He trailed.

"Time is exactly what we lack here, Bakhtawar; speed up." She said, her fingers finally tearing out one particular page from the notepad in her hands.

"Alright." He replied. "Now can we talk about the business you have called me here for?"

"Yes." Adjusting her specs with the tip of her index finger, she continued. "I need thirty-eight GPS trackers---those microscopic ones."

Bakhtawar's eyes widened as he gaped at the lady before him with his mouth wide open. "What?! Thirty-eight microscopic GPS trackers?!" He whisper-yelled. "What do you even require them for?"

"Just get them from wherever you can. I will explain everything to you later." She answered without a hint of emotion on her face.

Bakhtawar heaved out a ponderous sigh. "Okay, anything else?"

Hinduja nodded while passing the piece of paper in her hand to him. "I need all the details about this orphanage."

Keenly scrutinizing the words written on the paper, Bakhtawar trailed, "St. Christina's Home for Orphans?" He averted his gaze from the paper to her and asked, "Where is this place?"

"Uhm... somewhere in Kerala. I don't know the exact location." She shrugged her shoulders.

Bakhtawar had his eyes set on her in utter bewilderment. "What is going on, madam? You need thirty-eight GPS trackers, and on top of that, you expect me to find the details of an orphanage in Kerala? Plus, you are not aware of its exact location either. That's akin to finding a needle in a haystack." Shoving the paper inside the pocket of his jacket, he continued. "Are both of these things connected to the case?"

She feebly nodded.

"Madam, I am not able to get it. What are you planning to do? And you briefed me about that liturgical calendar and Syro-Malabar Church theory yesterday night. How do so many of the things that are connected to this case also have some or the other link with Kerala?" He voiced out his thoughts in consternation.

"You don't need to worry about all those things for the time being. Just fetch the trackers and try to get the details of this orphanage for me as soon as possible. We don't have time." Clasping her fingers together, she glanced at the desk calendar for a second and then said, "Secondly, what about the Purohits? Any intel about them?"

Bakhtawar massaged his glabella and then raked his fingers through his hair. "I have implanted some of my informers in Shimla. They are trying their best. Also, the properties that were mentioned in that real estate brochure you got from the Purohit Villa that night---- all of them are situated in a town called Mashobra in Shimla. I asked one of my men to discreetly check if the Purohits were there or not. And trust me, no one with the name Keshav Purohit or Nalini Purohit owns any property over there."

"That's okay." Scratching her left earlobe, Hinduja said, "Just continue with the searching. We need to find their whereabouts as soon as possible, that too at any cost."

Bakhtawar assented and then got up from the chair. "I will take my leave then." He bowed and turned around to leave her chamber.

"Wait."

"Yes?" He about-faced to lock gazes with his boss.

"In case the seller asks you for your identity proof while purchasing the trackers, what are you going to do?" She quizzed with her right brow raised.

"Show them my ex-serviceman card or national identity proof. Why?" He explained.

Hinduja stared at him in disappointment. "Tsk. tsk. tsk. Bakhtawar, I need you to do everything confidentially. Don't use any of your identity proofs."

"But how will I even purchase the trackers without showing them my identity proof?" Confusion marred his face as he scrunched his brows together.

In return, Hinduja just flashed a lopsided smile at him.

His eyes went agape as realization dawned upon him. He lifted his left hand up to scratch the crown of his head. "You want me to buy them from the black market?" He whispered.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I absolutely fail to comprehend you at times, madam----really." He muttered, half amused, half shocked. "Anyways, in that case, if I need to buy the trackers in black, then I think I have to purchase them from Tulika Bazaar. I know a man who can sell them to me at reasonable rates."

"Who?" She questioned.

"Shera Daaruwala" Bakhtawar folded his arms across his chest. "He has a shop over there."

"That history-sheeter?" She voiced out while playing with the paperweight kept next to the pen stand.

"Yes---- him."

"By the way, on an estimation, how much will it cost in total?" Hinduja put forward her next question.

"Roughly, one lakh twenty thousand for all the thirty-eight trackers, I guess." Bakhtawar shot back.

Immediately, a grimace embraced her phizog. "That's.... expensive." She trailed. "Anyways, just get them as soon as possible. I will transfer the amount to your account."

He nodded, and then finally turned around to strut out of her office.

She sighed as she picked up her phone to switch it on. Dialing a familiar number on the dial pad, she pressed the phone to her right ear.

The person on the other end received her call after eight rings. "Hello, Suzanne?" Hinduja called out.

"Yes, Hinduja? Now, this is a really pleasant surprise. I never expected you to call me on your own."

Hinduja chuckled. "I am sorry; actually, I need your help regarding something."

"Yeah, tell me."

"The thing is, a friend of mine wants to make a documentary on the proceedings of a church. She has just shifted her base to Delhi, so she is not aware of the workings of the church here, and even I am not aware. The day before yesterday was the first time I had ever visited a church. So, can you please provide me with the contact information of anyone from the church? I'll pass it on to my friend so that she can contact them later." She got up from her chair and strolled towards the window on the right side of the chamber.

"Oh, sure. I have the phone numbers of Bishop Anoop Philip and Father Emmanuel Alberto. I'll text them to you after half an hour, as I am a bit occupied currently."

Clutching the window seal tightly with her fingers, she focused her gaze at the dark clouds hovering around in the sky. "I am so sorry, Suzanne, for disturbing you."

"Oh, come on! It's absolutely fine."

"Alright then, please carry on with your work. I am dropping the call."

"Bye, sweetheart!"

"Bye."

Shortly after she disconnected the call, it began to rain. The first harsh, sparse, swift drops rushed through the leaves and across the ground in a long sigh, as though of relief from the intolerable suspense. Those drops were as big as buckshot and as cold as the silence that prevailed around her.

The silence before the countdown began.

Later in the evening, when she wended her way into the living room after keeping her umbrella in the store cabinet outside, she found Mahadevan and Karim sitting together on the sofa, engrossed in a deep conversation.

Discerning her presence within their vicinity, both of them turned around to look at her.

Karim immediately lowered his head as a mark of respect.

She reciprocated his gesture. "Good evening, Karim Bhai."

"Good evening." He replied with a faint tugging on his lips.

Mahadevan, on the other hand, had his eyes fixated on the pale blue kurta-garbed figure of his wife, the digits of his right hand scratching his clean-shaven and chiseled jaws in an attempt to hide the blush forming across his cheeks.

What was wrong with his face? The damn thing was heating up like a freaking gas stove in her presence all the freaking time!

Averting her gaze away from Karim, she finally looked at him with a smile. He grinned.

Karim silently witnessed the exchange between his boss and the boss's wife, a comical mien engulfing his visage.

"Should I make some tea for both of you?" Hinduja asked while surmising the funnily contrasting expressions of the two men before her.

"No need." Mahadevan got up and then advanced a step towards her. "You have just come back from the office; go and rest." He said.

"Okay, where is Ani?"

"Taking a siesta in the bedroom after chucking down an entire bowl of strawberry-flavored cereals." Mahadevan shot back amusingly.

She chuckled.

Nodding her head, she ambled towards the vestibule area in order to access their bedroom.

Vaulting over the threshold of the bedroom, she fleet-footed towards the slumbering form of the toddler, crouched down to his level, and then pressed a feather-light kiss on his forehead. "Mamma loves you, Laddu." She faintly whispered into his tiny earhole.

As she gazed at him with affectionate eyes, a sturdily built set of fingers grasped her slender arm and turned her around to face their owner.

Earthy pools fought against their sable counterparts in a trice.

"I also want one." Mahadevan tapped the tip of his forefinger on his forehead. "I also want a kiss on my forehead."

Gobsmacked, she stood with her eyes wide open and her cheeks a deep shade of carmine.

"Please." He implored in a desperate tone.

Obliging to his words, she rose on the tip of her toes and then tenderly brushed her lips against his forehead. He clamped his eyes shut in comfort as an intimate blanket of warmth cocooned his whole body. He pulled her closer to himself, with his eyes still shut. She gasped as he traced his lips across her glabella, then both sides of her brows and temples, and eventually her cheeks and chin. With a final intake of breath, he planted a kiss on her nose, opened his eyes, and then hastily scurried out of the bedroom like a child who was caught red-handed while stealing.

She stood there next to the bed, her astounded gaze still latched on his gait.

A quarter of an hour later, as she sauntered into the living room, dressed in a fresh pair of formal pants, a white kurta and a Bandhej dupatta, the doorbell orchestrated its familiar old tunes. Glancing at the two men in her vicinity for once, she ambled her way towards the main door.

As she unbolted the latch, the known frame of her elder brother towered over her mediocre-heighted self.

Instantly, an enlivening smile lightened up her face as she locked her gaze with him. "Bhaiya."

"Molu." He grinned ear to ear as he brought his hands up to pull her cheeks. "Is the Banyan tree home?" He cheekily joked.

"Shut up!"

As he entered inside, she closed the door behind him. He then quickly picked her up to twirl her around, his footfall advancing towards the living room in the process. Her loud giggles reverberated throughout the Dogra Abode.

Mahadevan's attention got redirected from the files before him to the jubilant pair of siblings playing around a few meters away. Karim followed suit.

Both of them sat in silence for a minute. Finally, Karim diverted his gaze from the brother-sister duo, who stood next to the giant grandfather clock, to set his eyes on the woebegone smile spread across the profile of the man sitting next to him. "What are you thinking, Sahib?"

Mahadevan looked on at the beautiful sight unfolding before his eyes. Hinduja's soft and incessant giggles echoed in the family lounge as her brother ruffled her hair and then took her in a side hug. "I was just wondering---not all of us are used to the idea of being loved without conditions. Are we?" He voiced out his thoughts sardonically, his fond gaze still fixated on the siblings.

Karim sighed as he placed his hand gently on his boss's shoulder. "Let it all go, Sahib."

In response, Mahadevan let out a scornful chuckle. "Only if it was that easy." He whispered, forcefully gulping down the knot-like sensation forming in his throat. "And unfortunately, it's always easier said than done, Karim."

Karim agreed with a vigorous exhale of breath.

Vijaypath and Hinduja eventually took heed of the audience in front of them.

Moving a few steps forward, Vijay shook hands with Karim. "Good evening, Karim Bhai."

Karim nodded with a gentle smile.

Vijay then diverted his eyes to behold his brother-in-law. "Good evening."

Mahadevan got up to give his brother-in-law a side hug. "Good evening."

"Official work?" Vijay probed as his gaze settled on numerous files scattered across the center table along with a laptop that was perched up on one of the files.

"Yes," Mahadevan replied.

"Okay, then, I won't disturb you much. I was just passing by this area, so I thought I could just meet her and then leave for home." He said, pointing his finger at his sister.

"That's absolutely fine."

"Alright then, carry on with your work." Glancing at the boss-employ duo for one last time, Vijaypath Rao took off to the terrace area with his sister.

Mahadevan sighed as he sat down on the sofa.

Karim on the other hand peered at his boss while stacking a bunch of sheets in a blue-colored hardbound folder kept on the center table. "Sahib?"

"Hm," Mahadevan hummed while scrolling through the Excel sheets on his laptop.

Clearing his throat, Karim said, "There is a rumor that has been circulating around in our circle for some days."

Mahadevan's brows automatically knitted together as he altered the position of his glasses with the tip of his index finger. "What sort of rumor?"

"The Sassoons are back in India." Karim answered back firmly.

Intertwining his digits together, Mahadevan lifted his left eyebrow up and stared at a distant place without focusing his vision on anything particular. "Just a rumor, or are there any concrete proofs in regards to this?" He probed further.

"Currently on it, Sahib. Our men are already looking into this matter."

Mahadevan nodded. "Yakub Sassoon has been out of the country for almost ten years now. Even if he did return, let's say, Why did he return so suddenly?"

"It seems to be something personal, Sahib." Karim rubbed his palms together while pondering upon the question raised by his boss.

"He has a son, right? I forgot, what's his name?" Shutting down the lid of the laptop, Mahadevan inquired.

"Abraham... Abraham Sassoon."

"Is he here as well?"

"We don't have any intel about him, Sahib. He keeps a really low profile, so far as to say that till date no one has seen how he looks."

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