Read the previous part here

It had been a few days since the incident had occurred. Life in the Dutta household was slowly limping back to normalcy. Roohi was much better and she had resumed going to school. Naina’s loss had left a void in the Dutta family’s home. It was hard to fill in her shoes. Tara had taken a few weeks off until she could set things back to like earlier. She must have called God only knows how many agencies for a full time maid but had no luck. Some were down right too expensive, some dumb! Some even down right snobs and some who could not handle the sight of children. She was getting tired of the kind of people she met every day. Her office work suffered but then it was her home which was her priority.
When Naina was around, she had taken care of just about everything. Right from preparing breakfast for the family to getting Roohi ready and seeing her off to school. Things were so very different now. Roohi was no longer a kid. She had her own problems as well. Tara and Roohi had never spoken about it. Things had gone so very out of hand that Roohi was now a lot closer to Shekhar than her. He knew all her likes, dislikes, her friends and foes. Everything. Tara was having a tough time being a mother. The road from a career woman to a mom was a long one and it had a lot of learning to be done along. If only she had paid a lot more attention to her home earlier.
On the other hand, Java was getting restless with every passing day. He had not had any kind of a break through even though he had run every detail of the case and the interrogations done through his mind several times over. He was going crazy. He had dispatched off teams to all the corners possible to check the antecedents of Jenny and Cyrus. Jenny had been to several places before coming down to Mumbai. The last known location that she had mentioned was Delhi. What would a Malayali born down south do in a land so very up north? Then he remembered, that she had mentioned being brought up in the Gulf. So very typical.
Cyrus was the thorn that kept hurting him. Why would a law student, born and brought up in Delhi, leave the place and come down to Mumbai. That too in the middle of a term. Something here was not right. If he had probably once said that he had been interested in acting but had been forced in to studying law by his parents, he would have bought it once. But he had said nothing of that sort. He in fact had no reason to be here and provided no reason either. Even the ones that he did, were not concrete.
A furrow formed over his brow. He had been thinking too much. He itched it in desperation and called out for another Sulaimani Chai. This was his staple diet since last few days. The boys were well aware when their boss would ask for chai so they always stood by in stand by taking turns. The usually calm demeanor had been replaced by an easily agitated and short tempered one.
He called for the evidences and photographs of the site to be brought to him. The file had never seen the dark room where all the records went after a case was closed. This case did not appear to be closing fast. On one hand, both Roohi and Tara had mentioned about Naina wearing Tara’s clothes and a fight happening around it. But this was no reason for anyone to kill Naina. Forensic reports had shown Naina to be a virgin. He could not have pointed to Shekhar for probably having violated her and then killing her because she got pregnant. In this case, pregnancy appeared too far-fetched a thought. The package had been returned unopened to the sender he smirked.
He looked through the photographs at the crime scene and the evidence collected. He had grown so accustomed to those that he lazily flipped through them. That’s when his eyes fell on the forensic report about the presence of a skin in Naina’s nails. She had tried defending herself, did she? Should he get the skin samples identified? He thought for the better. He called the forensic team over the phone and asked them to pick up samples from each of the suspects bodies to test. He called the suspects individually and asked them to co-operate. Suspects are known to turn hostile. After a little haggling, all complied. Thank fully, nobody gave him any more gyan on their rights.
Just then, his team who had been dispatched to probe Jenny had returned. She was clean in this matter. However, local police stations in Bengal where she had said to have frequented often reported several cases of trespassing. The matters had been serious. Most of the reports being filed by the Forest Department for having entered the Sunderbans without permission. Although she had not killed any animal, this was still considered a serious offence. He was willing to dismiss this case as that of being haughty by age.
Checks on Cyrus had instead not been smooth. He seemed to have pulled all strings to ensure that it would be difficult for him to place a check. His Law background had seemed to be helping him. However, he had now finally crossed that step and had an official search warrant against him. Cyrus could do nothing now. He would personally go down and investigate and search.
Shekhar and Tara had appeared fairly harmless right from the start, although he had once thought about Shekhar having a major role to play. Their interrogations had shown no success. Their antecedent checks had been completed fairly smoothly and fast enough. They had nothing to hide. Even if he did not want to, he had to spare them. He had absolutely no evidence to keep them under the suspect list but he could not leave them yet.
Java had a clear inkling. There was a missing link and that had to be found. It was really not possible that a murder could happen and there be no clue left behind. However smart a thief would be, he would leave behind some clue. Some evidence. He just had to look for it – in the right place and on the right person. He had to go back to the crime scene. He had to look around. He was not sure how accommodating the Dutta folks would be, but it was all a part of his job.
“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs‘ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”
Read the next part here.

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ACK and Flipkart have come together to bring for you an association that all of us needed badly. We have all grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha and Uncle Pai’s words but somehow missed these when we grew up. Enter Comic Con and all our childhood characters and superheroes have come to life. This year, Comic Con is happening in Bangalore from the 12th of September until 14th of September. ACK and Flipkart have setup 12 stalls and have lots of stuff happening there. A brief highlight below. Do visit their stalls and win exciting stuff when you buy from there!
  1. 12 Stalls at Comic Con 
  2. Puzzles, Contests, Quizzes and more at the stalls
  3. Storytelling Sessions 
  4. ACK Ultimate Collection on Display. This contains 315 titles + 10 Special Collections. This is exclusively available with Flipkart. Buy the big bad box set at the Comic Con and stand a chance to get the 7 inch Digiflip Pro Tablet worth Rs. 5999 for Free!
  5. Photo Booth to get photographed with all your favorite characters!
  6. An entire stall built in the shape of a fort – The Flipkart ACK Fort. 
  7. Kids get to participate in raffles, quizzes, photo ops, storytelling and book reading.  They can even give their archery skills a shot at a booth that tests the “Pandava Arjun” in them.

Team Potliwale Baba

Chapter – EL – 2
Read the previous part of the story here

Beads of sweat trickled down her neck as she swatted another mosquito on her hand. She had been waiting for him since the last 3 days, but she hadn’t caught a sight of him. She had got a tip by a friend who in turn had received the news from a localite about finding footprints. “Uff, these local people! Always in a hurry,” she thought. Although she had covered her dusky body with a mosquito repellant cream and had food to last her two more days, she had begun losing hope of seeing him ever again. She had last seen him in flesh when she was just a giggly, jumpy, and a bubbly 10 year old, at which time she was with her grandfather. “Patience favors the brave,” he often said, “and patience is what you will need if you have to see him” he continued.
The season had been just right for the sighting. It had stopped raining just a few weeks back, and there was abundance of water and greenery all around her. With the help of some local boys, she had built a machan, a good height from the ground hidden away from the view. However, she could still look out. The boys left ever since, and she was sitting here alone reminiscing about the way life has moved over in the past few months.
Taking another bite from the cold roti that was left with her, she couldn’t help but feel seething hatred inside for her boss, her boyfriend, and everyone in general. “Jerks!” she muttered, “they underestimate the wrath of Jennifer, Jennifer Joseph.” She lost her job after she refused the advances that her boss had made towards her, and soon her parasitic boyfriend left her alone as well. She still had plans on how to survive. She had an iron grit and was determined to make a cut in the world of photography, now that she was out of the corporate world.
She checked her camera and lenses. All in order. Her mind drifted back to her childhood, “Grandpa, how long does it take to see him? How does he look like in real?” she quipped for the nth time. “Have patience, darling. When you look at him, you may not have the heart to take your eyes off him. The offering that we have kept is just to appease him.”
She did exactly the same thing. When she arrived at the Godhkhali, she picked up a goat and packed it off into the rear of the pickup truck that she had hired. She then contacted her local contact and he brought her in here, to Sunderbans. She had herself seen the pug marks. Going by the marks, the tiger should have been around 4 years old and definitely in the heats given this season, it should be coming around. She immediately set a camp there and tied the goat to the tree.
Tonight, the goat appeared restless. It kept bleating incessantly. She knew what it meant. He was around. However, it was not until late in the morning that she heard him. His throaty growl affirmed her that she had been right about him. She straightened herself and picked up her camera making it ready for action. She liked tigers so much since the first time she had seen one. She liked them so much that she had inked her right hand with a tiger tattoo. It always reminded her to be patient and strong.
Leaves rustled somewhere. The goat was now silent, in terror. It knew that its end was near. In just a few minutes, it would all be over, the goat, the photography session, and the tiger’s walk in the jungle. She looked around with her binoculars. He was hiding exactly on the opposite side of her. He may have come from the other side of the swamp. No wonder, she did not hear him earlier. It was one of the most beautiful creations on the earth. Bright yellow with jet black stripes. William Blake’s poem just struck her then,
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

How very true had he been! She focused her camera on the Tiger. She briefly felt his eyes stopping on her just as she stopped on his. Beautiful brown eyes. And then, came the roar, and the smell of blood flooded her nose.

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs‘ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”


Read the next part of the story here.


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