Into The Shadows by Aayush Borulkar (smart ebook reader txt) 📗

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Then would you tell us his new address or which place has he shifted to maybe?” asked Avinash intently.

“We don’t know. He just vanished 20 years back. Never returned,” said the father crying again.

This statement shocked both the officers, and they looked at each other in disbelief.

“He went out with the car for the night shift and never returned,” he continued. “I should not have let him go out for the night shift. It was the biggest mistake of my life,” he added as he wept.

“At what time did he leave?” Avinash asked.

“Don’t remember the exact time, but it was late-night. Around eight or nine,” the father answered.

“Which car did he take that night?” Erika asked

“I don’t remember the model but I remember the number. It was “GA 03 MJ1011.” If I am not wrong,” the father answered in a cracked voice.

“What time was he usually home by?” Erika asked

“By 5 or 6 in the morning.”

“Did he call you that night or tried to get in contact with you somehow?” Avinash asked.

“Did not hear from him after that night. He just called to tell me that he had a customer for Pune and he might be late. After that, no contact,” replied the father, now looking at Mrs. Silvi.

Erika stood there, folding her hands, thinking hard and trying to process all this in her head. There were a lot many theories that were popping up in her head but were baseless without evidence.

“Did you file an FIR about this matter?” asked Avinash.

“Yes, we did, but we don’t have the FIR copy anymore. We went to the police station every week to check but no luck. Gave up after two years,” said the man in a cold voice.

“We are here for you, and we are going to look into this matter from a new angle and surely find your son,” said Erika pacifying the couple.

“Maka porga dhundhun deo”* 1 cried out the mom for the first time, pleading to Erika with folded hands.

Erika was overwhelmed with emotions and did not have anything to say. She put on her shades and walked out of the house, followed by Avinash. None of them uttered a single word until they got into the car and set on the journey back to the villa.

“Do you think there is a connection?” asked Avinash breaking the silence.

“This case is not a straight line and not even a circle. This is like a doughnut,” said Erika. “You ever had a doughnut? Odd little dish with a hole in the middle. Just like this case. A doughnut. One central piece that is missing. The non-existence of a single piece is keeping this case afloat and makes it different from other cases. How that one piece, if found, will just bring everything into perspective,” continued Erika.

“I don’t think I am keeping up with you,” Avinash said.

“Let’s revise. A murder, six witnesses, a suspect, a convict, a closed case, and then the note sent to me with some serious cash. No motives have been established for any of the suspects for killing the victim and a missing driver. Either there is one important ingredient missing in the recipe, or all of the ingredients are wrong,” said Erika in a mysterious tone looking out of the window.

Avinash couldn’t quite keep up with Erika but chose not to interrupt her flow of thought and kept on driving through the empty roads.

At around 9pm, they slowly entered the driveway of the villa. The villa stood there silently in the dead of night with a thousand secrets etched on it’s walls that could not be seen by the naked eye.

Erika got off from the car and stepped on loose soil, sinking her leg, ankle-deep in the mud. She was disgusted by it and stepped out of the vehicle, sinking both her feet now. She turned on her phone’s flashlight to check how deep her legs had sunk. As she stood there waving her cell phone over the soil, she noticed something odd. There was a garden with plants on both sides of the driveway, but the part of the garden she was standing on was barren with no plants or grass. She made her way out of the thick mud onto the driveway. Then she again used the flashlight and found out that the whole garden on either side of the driveway had lush green grass and flowers. But only a small part of the garden’s left side had wrinkled flowers and no grass. She kneeled to have a closer look. She observed that even the soil was unevenly spread.

“It did rain quite a bit in this part today,” said Avinash getting out of the car after searching for his wallet in the car all this while. He was surprised to see Erika kneeling and examining the soil.

“Do you find something peculiar about this?” he asked.

“Oh no, it’s just that this part doesn’t have any grass, and the flowers are wrinkled, so I was just wondering what could be the reason. It’s probably nothing,” she answered, getting up. As she was getting up, she glanced at the window that faced the garden and found Richa standing on the other side of the window staring right at her with zero expressions as if she had been hypnotized. She waved at her and smiled awkwardly, but there was no response from Richa. Erika then got her boots cleaned, and both the officers walked towards the villa.

As they entered, Erika noticed that Richa was still at the window, staring right out at the garden with the same expressions as earlier. Avinash went to his room while Erika walked up to Richa and asked, “You like the view, huh?”.

But there was no response from Richa as usual, and she just stood there staring out of the window. Erika stood behind her. She saw that Richa was directly gazing at the exact spot where she stood with her legs in the mud, a few minutes ago. This