Chapter 2: 'A Date?'
Chapter 3: 'Football'
Chapter 4: 'Friends!'
Chapter 5: 'A Night'
Chapter 6: 'Meeting'
Chapter 7: 'The Murder(s)'
Chapter 8:
May 8th 2009, 11:10 AM
A man in mid 40's, laid back in his chair, received a notification -- "1 new mail".
He clicked it --- mail to the research group --- he was interested to see the mail, though he was tired from the student meeting he came back from minutes before.
The mail read:
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from: Madhu
to : xyz-research
Subj: B'day Celebrations
--------------------------------------
The professor rocked back to his chair, shook his head in disbelief. He knew that Madhu was a close friend of Rahul, and he obviously knew that Rahul is not among them anymore. But it wasn't any of these that worried him; though he himself was upset at the happenings in the campus over the past few days. He was surprised to find that despite this situation, Madhu was in a position to arrange a B'day Celebration!
He questioned himself now "Is she okay with it?"
His inner-self said "May be she has dealt with it, already."
Real-self : "I heard she had cried all day, yesterday. hmmm...."
inner-self: "Yeah, but that was yesterday -- may be she is moving on, good for her."
Real-self : "Move on! So soon?" He was thinking hard and his face showed it clearly -- making weird shapes and scar-like shapes on his forehead. "Nobody can move on so quickly. Not so fast, anyway." he shouted loudly this time.
inner-self: "So what are you thinking?"
Real-self : "May be she's involved in the previous killings, or did she herself kill Rahul?" he frowned, looked more upset than tired, and said "Is there more to know about both of them than we already know?"
He clearly was facing a mental battle, just then the entire mail opened-up. He cursed the network for being so slow, especially today. But soon he was surprised with his mouth wide open.
The body of the mail read:
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from: Madhu
to : xyz-research
Subj: B'day Celebrations
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Dear friends,
'I hate nobody' guy of our lab, our sweet friend Rahul was born today. I would like to arrange a small celebration (as Rahul doesn't like celebrations). Do come over and greet him (and munch on the fine cake!), one last time before he graduates at the end of this year.
Be on time, 8 PM Sharp.
Happy B'day Rahul :-)
-------------------------------------------------------
From the first time he read the mail, which was over an hour back now, he was still staring at the mail. He now had no words, no thoughts, no mental battle to fight. He probably understood what she was going through, but still couldn't comprehend.
He began to believe that all is accounted for if Madhu is suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
May 8th 2009, 12:17 PM
"1 new mail" his laptop beeped. He was worried now, to even have a peek at the mail, but he drew courage to see it.
It read:
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from: Abhinav Mishra
to : all-students, faculty, staff
Subj: [LOST] Laptop - HP :-(
-------------------------------------------------------
Prof Raman sighed with relief. Like everyone else, he wouldn't worry about a lost laptop today. Not today. He deleted the mail.
Rahul's Birthday.
Rahul never likes to celebrate his Birthdays but Madhu always wanted it to be special. This year she had been preparing to surprise him, by arranging a birthday bash followed by a special dinner for the two. Today, she cannot.
The Nights
Epilogue
Two weeks later...
The campus had just begun to forget the incidents that happened in those 2 days. It was never easy for anybody to recover from such incidents, especially because nothing happened after that. Students were now scared and weren't willing to go out of hostel alone. They had no reason for them to be singled out but they don't know why Janni was killed either, nor could they find a clue to Rahul's murder, all untimely. Of course, all murders are untimely. Nothing was reasonable for them, nothing they believed in. They stopped trusting their thickest of friends and have now started moving in units of 4, at least.
7.45 PM
There was only one person in the TV room. He aged in mid-thirties and was seated in a half broken chair of the last row of chairs in the TV room of the boys hostel. He was reading a newspaper that hadn't been opened since morning. It read...
No update on the 'half-a-dozen' killings.
Reported by Sanjay Srivastava.
Hyderabad, India.In the mind-boggling crime story at Gachibowli-Hyderabad, police is yet to recover any clues. Two weeks back 6 cold-blooded murders took place within a span of 48 hrs, leaving no trace behind. Police believes this might not have been done by students as they would not have had the guts to be so calm this long.
Students and Faculty of the institution are heavily depressed by these happenings, and 3 senior faculty members have announced voluntary retirements a week after the incidents. The fate of this otherwise remarkable institution's future growth and the affect these incidents would have on the upcoming admissions for UG and PG students is unimaginable. The top-management and the state government has unconditionally granted high-security premises till the culprit gets caught or the case is solved otherwise.
Crime experts believe, however, that such high-security zones or security checking from time to time wouldn't aid in identifying the killer. They say "He is going to be dormant now. He wouldn't come out to public. He has no reason to do that. He is such an intelligent criminal that he wouldn't make a mistake now. It is just not worth trying for him, but as a formality we have to do all we can do." Another group has a different opinion, they say "It might be more than one person actually, you know. One or more performing the killings and the other(s) cleaning up the mess. But for this to be the case they must be experts on forensics which is least likely for these young students. Either way we are only guessing, we don't have any evidence to back us up."
This case has nailed everybody down, from Cyberabad Police to Forensic experts, everybody is confused and are going nowhere in their investigations. Though, on paper none of them are willing to give up the case, mentally they all know they have already given up on this peculiar case that has not a single clue or evidence or motive so far.
Somebody somewhere must have been grinning...
After reading the news story the guy sighed a bit and said "Too bad!".
"Yeah, too bad", said a voice from behind. And before the guy could turn back towards the voice, the person was leaving.
The mysterious person had turned back, walked out of the TV room and gave a wicked smile to himself... It was "Vinayak".
================ Story Ends Here ================
PS: Wasn't exactly the way I intended to end it this time. There are a lot of gaps, I know. But please bear with them. Sorry to have disappointed you, again!
