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

the superiors about this accident, so that legal action could be taken in this matter,” Avinash said.

“Oh no, don’t!” exclaimed Erik opening her eyes. “We don’t want any legal action. I am completely fine, and if Sawant knows about this, he would just pull me off this case,” she added.

“You do know the extent we had to go, to re-open this case on such short notice. Can’t jeopardize that now” she said, still holding her throbbing head.

“Okay, if that’s what you want. We will not do that,” said Avinash

“My father wasn’t a good man. I just kept blaming myself for what I put him through” Erika started abruptly, staring up. “It was his fault. All this time, I thought that I had let him down, and that I owed him something. But no, I do not owe him anything. He got what he deserved. I am going to get to the bottom of this and unearth the truth,” she added, now looking up at Avinash, tears rolling slowly down her brown cheeks.

“Even I want that Eri... I mean ma’am,” consoled Avinash.

“Only Erika is fine too, I guess,” she said half smiling. “We need to go to the mental institution where Richa was admitted. I think we might find something there.”

“I don’t know what makes you think that I am going to trust you on that, but we will do that tomorrow. I will get the warden of that institution online tomorrow so that we can video chat with him,” suggested Avinash. “Traveling in this condition is not advisable for you”.

“I am fine though. It’s just a head injury,” Erika said.

“We are a team, right? So do trust me on this matter.”

The next day no one in the villa spoke a word to Erika as they saw her come out of her room. They just stared at her and walked past her as if she were just one of the tenants in the villa and not a police officer in charge of a homicide case. Everyone had a sense of fright on their faces as they were clueless as, who must have tried to harm Erika. As planned, Avinash connected with the warden of the ‘St. Mary Rehab Centre’ over a video call.

“We are from the goa police, and we would like to ask a few questions about a homicide case,” said Erika.

“Sure. We will be glad to help the goa police in whichever way possible,” the warden replied.

“Does the name Richa Malegaonkar sound familiar to you?” asked Erika, directly getting to the point.

“Richa...Oh yeah, Richa,” said the warden, trying to recollect.

“Yeah, right, we just had a few questions about her,” Avinash said.

“I am afraid, without a warrant, we can’t share any details related to the patient. Strict privacy policies,” said the warden.

“Okay, so how about any incident that might have happened or anything peculiar that made Richa stand out?” Erika asked.

“This is a rehab centre, ma’am. All incidents that are considered abnormal in any other institution are considered normal here,” replied the warden.

“Yeah, but anything that might even be remotely surprising for you guys?” asked Avinash. “Anything that she said or did? Something that might help us know anything about her, maybe?” he added.

“We need to know something about Richa. She is an integral piece in a puzzle. Please understand,” pleaded Erika.

There was a silence for few minutes as the warden sat there thinking and going through Richa’s file that he had pulled up on his computer.

“Yeah, there were a few complaints about her telling people that she could talk with the dead,” he said.

“But isn’t such claims normal for a psychologically disturbed person?” Erika said.

“Yes, it is. But “actually” talking to the dead, now that isn’t normal,” he said. “Richa had been caught conducting black magic in her cell four times. Photos were found in her personal belongings. Few being personal and few being of the relatives of the other cellmates, who might have smuggled them in with the hope of talking with their dead relatives,” he added.

The duo was taken aback by this new piece of information.

“When did she stop doing that, though?” Erika asked.

“We did take strict action against her by putting her into solitude. But she continued to carry out the black magic. And then one day, she suddenly stopped,” informed the warden.

“Any particular reason why that might have happened?” Erika asked

“Well, we don’t know because whatever we tried to do wasn’t helping. But I guess it stopped after that visitor who came to see her a few months back,” said the warden. “She never had any visitors, but yeah, it was definitely after that visitor came by,” he added.

These were some new revelations in the case.

“Apart from this, is there any other peculiar thing that you might like to add?” Avinash asked.

“I am afraid not sir. This is all I have,” answered the warden.

“You said you had confiscated a few photographs,” Erika asked.

“Yes, we had”

“So could you show us those by any chance?”

“They are in the system now. We have everything digitalized now. So I couldn’t show it to you even if I wanted to right now,” said the warden. “But I could email them to you if you are okay with it,” he added after a pause.

“Yeah, that would be great,” said Avinash giving the warden his email id.

“And also could we get the names of all the visitors she had till now, that would be great,” said Erika.

“Thank you, Mr. D’mello. We appreciate you for giving us your valuable time and co-operaton,” greeted Avinash and hung up.

“We might have something here,” suggested Erika reclining on her chair.

“Yeah, I hope we do,” said Avinash as his phone chimed.

Chapter 16

“This case is taking way more time than expected,” said Ishaan. “I thought this was an open and shut case. All the pieces are right in front of you,” he added, as Kaajal passed him the clean dishes.

“I know. It feels like she is onto something. She has interrogated us at least a dozen times