For the new one's here,
Do read the first chapter in the MISSING series A Day Of Happiness if you haven't already.
Previously: After being missing for two years, Inara returns to her ex, Vinay, in a horrific condition. They spend the day well and Inara doesn't talk about whatever has happened in the last two years. Later that night, someone attacked Vinay and Inara is nowhere to be seen until Vinay runs from station towards police station only to find her at the sky-walk. Seeing Vinay, she takes a few steps back and jumps off the sky-walk on the highway.
“Am I dreaming Saab?” he asked, wide eyed.
“No you’re not. You haven’t the brains to make this up even in your dreams.” The head constable shifted uncomfortably to the retort, before covering his nose with handkerchief.
“I can’t believe it. Why would someone want to kill such a beaut—” he stopped midway as inspector Jayveer Pratap dealt him a sharp look.
“Get all the information you can about this girl. And you two,” he said pointing at the other constable and a sub-inspector, “send her body for postmortem and get the watchman at once and ask him what that addle-brain was doing while this happened. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” they said in unison.
“And get these fools out of here,” he pointed at the sky-walk, where a crowd of people were staring down at the body.
“Fortunately she is covered sir, or else they might have already shared her pic on their private adult groups,” the head constable let out a hearty laugh before the inspector yelled.
“For once, Gandhari, will you please shut your filthy mouth? Get back to work.”
Two of the lanes of Mumbai Highway were partially shut where the body was found that morning. It had only been a month that inspector Jayveer was posted here. Other than minor snatching and thievery cases, this was his first assignment.
He walked up to the Belpada bus stop before turning left to ask the local shop owners about the girl. “Have you ever seen this girl?” He held out his phone with the girl’s picture. The vendor shrugged in a no and so did the others around.
He walked up to the paan shop behind the Belpada bus stop. The boy handed him his usual taste of Marlboro cigarette.
“Why don’t you buy a packet Saab? No one else than you smokes a high taste here,” the boy said, handing him the lighter. “Are you here for the suicide case of the girl?”
“Oh come on Pramod! How can you even think of it as a suicide? Gashes and marks all over her body and all that stuff. She’s been tortured. Anyway, have you seen her anywhere around lately?” he asked, showing him the photo as he let out a thick blow of tobacco burn.
“Her face does resemble someone but, I’m not sure who she is. Many girls come to smoke here Saab, can’t say for sure.”
“Girls have become quite modern these days, haven’t they?”
Pramod smiled as he wiped the glass containers on the front shelf.
“By the way, why are you out here asking things? Shouldn’t you be at the station and the sub-inspectors and constables must come running to you with information?”
“Have been lying around all day of a month now, about time I get my ass moving before they transfer me to your shitty gaon.”
Just as he was about to lecture him on the topic they have always argued about, Jayveer’s phone rang.
“Yes Sudhir, what is it?” he said as he puffed out a smoke.
“Sir, a missing complaint was filed somewhere around two years ago in the name of Inara Rajan. The girl’s parents had filed the complaint.”
“How do you know it is the same girl?”
“Though the face was distorted, a tattoo on her back and a birthmark, as specified in the file, has matched the body.”
“Find out more about the case and make sure we do not get into wrong leads because of some tattoo. And if she is the same girl, call her parents and ask them to be here pronto. I’ll be right back,” he replied.
“Pramod, do you know anything about some Inara Rajan? Considering, you have been here for a long time and you have your contacts, have you heard about her?”
“Well, the name does strike a ring in my head, but I’m not sure who she is. Many girls come to smoke here Saab, can’t say—”
“Oh shut up man! Why am I surrounded by fools!” he said as he walked towards his car, pulling his last sip, up to the cigarette butt and left for the station.
A girl disappears without a trace, no suspects, no evidence. And suddenly reappears on the highway. Was she alive when they threw her on the highway? A kidnap, torture and then throwing her body on the highway and the culprit walks away without a trial. Who can be so gallant and sharp at the same time? What made the culprit so outraged to torture someone for two years before killing him?
With all these thoughts in his mind, Jayveer reached the station. A parade of salutes came his way as he walked towards his cabin. Sudhir was already waiting for him, scanning a file.
“Sir!” he said with a sharp salute.
“Calm down Sudhir, these saluting habits won’t stay long. Anyway, what about the girl, what was her name again?” he asked, making himself comfortable on the inclining chair.
“Inara, sir.”
“Yeah. Were her parents informed?”
“Yes sir, they first lived in Kalyan, but after Inara went missing and as the case went nowhere due to lack of evidence, they shifted to Delhi. They will be here by evening.”
“Good, as soon as they come, take them to identify the body first, then talk further on the case.”
“Sure sir.”
“Anything else about her?”
“Yes, sir. Inara studied at NIFT. She is from the twenty-fourteen batch. Perhaps we could retrieve some information from her batch mates.”
“Great, go ahead with it! Also, if there are stabbing and cutting wounds on her body, there must also be a murder weapon. Search the sector 4 thoroughly.”
“Okay sir.”
When the watchman was questioned, the clock struck a quarter past two.
“I was there Saab, the whole night. I didn’t see anyone coming up with a body or anything. They must’ve thrown her from under the sky-walk, right below the crossing so that it seems to be a suicide,” he said in a clever tone.
“You seem to know too much about the murderers, don’t you?” The watchman straightened his face and looked down to the suspicion. “Are you sure you did not see anyone?”
“Yes, Saab. Quite sure.”
“Okay, you may leave.”
Jayveer drank from the glass on his table as his brain started making theories and possibilities to find clues.
“If they threw her, from below, there must be someone who has to see them,” he thought and it struck him. A ray of hope, a possibility of an evidence.
He walked up to the jeep, before asking the constable to drive to the Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate at Belapur. Perhaps the CCTV might have caught something.
By the following evening the rippled surface of water was stabilizing. When Jayveer was scanning the forensic reports, Sudhir burst in with two girls.
“Sir, these are Inara’s friends from twenty fourteen batch. I have taken their statements, but, I thought, you might have something to ask so I brought them here.”
“Don’t you have any sense Sudhir? You are not allowed to ask a woman to come with you after 6pm,” he said furiously.
“No sir, it is we who insisted to see Inara and wanted to help out as much as we can,” one of the girl said.
“What is your name?”
“Shruti sir. Shruti Tripathi. And this is Akshata”
“Hmm. Since how long do you know her?”
“We have been friends from the first year itself. She was best in our batch. Her sketches and designs were always adored.”
“Did you see her? That, Inara?”
“Yes sir. At first we did not recognize but, later we understood it is her by the tattoo on her back. The three of us made the same tattoo.”
“Okay. You were in the third year, when she disappeared, right?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” Akshata replied.
“Any significant event in the first three years? Anything that would tell us more about her nature?”
“Nothing as such. She was always happy and kept everyone around her smiling—”
“Except that she was troubled by her parent’s,” Akshata interrupted.
“Did she tell you anything about it?”
“No sir, nothing about her parents, but…”
“But?”
“There was this boy, who was head over heels for her. Their friendship was leading somewhere, until, they had a big fight. She was very upset about it. We wanted to meet her and talk to her, but, she insisted on staying alone for a day or two. And the next thing we know is she disappeared just two days after the fight.”
“Do you remember his name?”
“We can never forget. We used to sing songs on their love. And—”
“Please get to the point ma’am,” Sudhir interrupted.
“Uhh. Vinay. His name is Vinay. I don’t remember the surname. But he used to work at a stationary store beside the Union Bank behind our college. Something Durga or Dargah Stationary.”
“Thank you, you may leave. Can you please come tomorrow morning so that we can verify the culprit?”
“Yes we can. And Vinay is not the culprit sir. We know him,” Shruti said.
The four shared an awkward silence before the girls left.
“The forensics say that there were struggling marks on her body. Someone was forcing her into something. The girl has a fight with her boyfriend, and disappears and reappears on the sky-walk,” Sudhir said.
“The CCTV showed her running up on the sky-walk from the Mand Dhaba side. She runs towards the station, periodically looking back, as if someone had been following her. After she started running towards the station, nothing but her shadow was visible, moving back few steps, before jumping. Nothing seems clear here,” Jayveer said as they walked out of the station.
“We have to start from inception. All the evidences are shrouded by fallacies. We have to uncover it. This boy, get him here. Something in me wants to believe, he is the one behind all of this. What was his name again?”
“Vinay.”
Read the next chapter- The First Suspect.
Do Share if you liked the second chapter.
Next Chapter on 1st June 2019.
Is Vinay actually the culprit or are they getting on with the wrong leads? Who were the two girls? Are they framing Vinay or saving him? What has the fight got to do with her disappearance? Find out in the next chapter.
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Stay tuned to know how to story unfolds further.
Poster credits:
In-frame: Reference from Google.
Poster idea and edit: Dheeraj Deore.
Approved by: Akash Bagal.
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