Chapter 3.

𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘, 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙡𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.

- 𝙃. 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙙

***

   Crime reporter Kiran Upadhyay sat in his chair scratching his head as he held the papers in his hand, and then looked at the papers scattered over his desk. He sighed, the exhaustion seemed to be growing as he had chased the news of the infamous serial killer who had now taken the name Kali. He rubbed his face which even in his late twenties looked like he was in his forties already. A few of his dark brown hair had gone grey, his skin had turned like brown leather, but all this hadn't affected the sharpness of his brown eyes. He groaned loudly as he eyed the article in his laptop again and then scratched his messy hair. He pushed himself closer to his laptop and started typing and editing when his colleague, Surya entered hurriedly.

   "Kiran!" Kiran jumped at the sudden intrusion bringing up his pen holder as a weapon, glaring at the intruder but relaxed once he saw Surya who came in.

   "God, Surya I told you not to barge in my cabin like this." He said, and Surya walked up to his friend.

   "Man, look at you. When was the last time you had your sleep?" He asked, and eyed the cup of coffee on the desk.

   "I don't remember." He groaned.

   "If you stay here cooped up for more time then the cleaners would mistake you for the furniture of the room instead of a man." Surya joked, and Kiran rolled his eyes.

   "But this is driving me crazy." Kiran grunted, pulling his hair making Surya hiss in pain and lean over his shoulder to look at his article.

   "Ah, her again." He remarked, and slapped Kiran's hand off his hair. 

   Kiran leaned back in his chair closing his eyes.

   "It's been so long since you're chasing her, had you chased someone else you would have got yourself a girlfriend." Surya commented smiling, and Kiran opened his eyes to look at the man who leaned near his shoulder.

   "I don't need a girlfriend if I already have someone else." He said, and Surya's face fell a little but then Kiran smiled grabbing a handful of Surya's hair making him squeal in pain.

   "Ow, let go!" He shouted, and Kiran laughed.

   "Come on, Suri. I'm working tell me what happened?" He asked, and Surya's eyes gleamed as if he finally remembered what he was there for.

   "Ah! There's a news!" He said, and Kiran raised his eyebrows.

   "It's related to your Kali." 

   "What?"

   "Here." Surya gave him a paper in his hand, and Kiran looked at the paper his eyes bulging out of their sockets.

   "Go soon." Surya said, patting on Kiran's shoulder before he jumped to his feet grabbing his jacket and bag hugging Surya once.

   "Thanks Suri." He said in a rushed tone before running out of the cabin.

   "Idiot." Surya sighed as he looked through the glass wall as Kiran ran into a few people nearly toppling them over as he rushed off. Surya's hand rested over Kiran's chair for a moment as he watched the empty chair and then he left the cabin.

XXX

   "He-He accepted our request?" The joint director of CBI asked, bewildered at the information. The Director nodded as he folded his fingers on his desk over the thick file with the title Kali over it.

   "He'll be here in two days or so." Director Chatterjee mused, and joint director Sehgal sighed heavily.

   "Finally, I lost hope of finding that son of b*tch after she killed our three best officers." He said, his shoulders slumped.

   "Its not even begun yet, Sehgal. After Zero's arrival I don't know what this Kali would do?" Chatterjee replied, concern lacing his voice.

   "Let's just hope that he catches this Kali and we'll all be free." Sehgal said and Chatterjee looked down at the file under his hands.

   The team assigned to the case of the heart stabbing serial killer had been working tirelessly for half a month now and the pressure was immense on the team leader, Shivaay Sinha. His team had been cut down just because three of the overconfident officers looking for fame and promotion overstepped their boundaries and kept their investigation a secret from the rest of the team. The betrayal in the team was what Shivaay hated the most, he couldn't bear the notion of one comrade hiding things from other.

   "What?!" The chief investigator Shivaay Sinha asked.

   "Yes, sir, officer Viraj's brother, Viren has gone missing for four days now." The other officer Ali Qureshi said, Shivaay gripped his graying brown hair as frustration grew on him. 

   "Those idiots kept their evidences and findings a secret, damn them." Shivaay growled and banged his hands on the desk, making Ali jump.

   "Sir, we have a situation." Another officer, Sandhya came rushing in the office. She didn't say any further but just switched on the television in the room.

   "The man dead in the alleyway is said to be Viren Desai, further according to police reports Viren is said to be the brother of one of the dead CBI officers Viraj Desai's..." The lady reporter spoke and the grim silence hung in the room as no one dared to speak, although everyone were thinking of the same thing.

   "This is her work." Shivaay said through his teeth breaking the silence.

   "You mean Kali killed Viren?" Ali asked.

   "Viraj must've told his brother about his suspect and he must've confronted her and ended up getting killed." Sandhya Watekar mused, and Shivaay hummed in agreement.

   "She's killing anyone who manages to know of her identity." Shivaay hissed.

   "We have tried looking for Viraj Desai and other officer's evidences, but we never confronted their family members, maybe if we search their houses we might have a clue of finding the Kali." Ali suggested and Shivaay perked up instantly.

   "Didn't I ask you to go and check those officers' houses?" He asked, and turned to face his other officers Isha Shukla and Ajay Pandey. 

   "How was it? Did you find anything?" He asked, Isha looked at Ajay and they shook their heads.

   "What?" Shivaay yelled.

   "It seems like someone had wiped out all the research and documents from Viren's house, like with the three officers' houses, everything." Ajay said.

   "The evidences are all gone and so cleanly that the robber didn't even leave any fingerprints or clue behind, we searched entire houses thoroughly." Isha said with disappointment lacing her voice.

   "That son of a- she's one step ahead of us." Shivaay growled.

   "It looks like I'm here at a bad moment." A new voice spoke, and everyone's heads turned to look at the newly entered person.

   "Hello, gentlemen and ladies." The man in his early forties looked at everyone, and stepped ahead with a white tab in his hand.

   "I am Raghuvendra, pleased to make your acquaintance. I am here on account of Zero." The last word sent shivers down everybody's spines.

   "Ze-Zero?" Shivaay stammered.

   "He's here?"

   "Wasn't he going to come tomorrow?"

The investigators talked among themselves and Raghuvendra cleared his throat gaining everyone's attention.

   "Zero himself isn't here. But I have been sent here by him." He said.

   "Sent by him? Where is he?" Shivaay asked.

   "He is currently at a safe place, I'm afraid his whereabouts are to be kept secret. But he still wanted to have a word with you so, I'm here." He said, and rested the tab down on the table nearby with its screen facing upwards.

   The investigators walked closer to it, the Tab's screen was brightly lit with an image of private ID over it, the number wasn't displayed.

   "Hello." The voice as cold as ice flowed out and the rest investigators flinched.

   "I'm Zero, I'm sorry for the inconvenience but it's the way I deal with things for my anonymity." He said, a wave of murmurs went among the officers.

   "You all are dealing with the Kali case? Can I speak to the lead investigator?" Zero asked, Shivaay stepped ahead.

   "Yes?" He spoke in a monotonous voice.

   "I need you to submit the file of the investigators on this case to Raghuvendra and also of all the victims of Kali." Zero commanded.

   "How do we know if it's really you and not Kali demanding it?" Shivaay asked.

   "Raghuvendra." He spoke calmly, and Raghuvendra shoved his hand in the black jacket of his suit and pulled out a white envelope. He handed it to Shivaay, who warily took it and opened it.

   "A letter from Director?" He squeaked.

   "Is this appointment letter enough or do you need some more things to convince you?" Zero asked, his voice impassive but the coldness evident.

   "This is enough, Ali get the files." He said and Ali moved, his movements robotic as he grabbed files and placed them in a sleek metal briefcase.

   "I'll require at least a day to look over and select some of you to work with me over this case." Zero said, making everyone gasp.

   "What?" Shivaay hissed.

   "He'll select the team himself?" Ali whispered silently.

   "I'll send the chosen ones the address and time where they're supposed to come." Zero said.

   "I'll see some of you soon. Good day till then." Zero finalized and the Tab's screen went bright blue as the call ended.

   "I'll take your leave now." Raghuvendra said politely, as he picked up the tab and made his way out of the room.

   "What is the meaning of this? He maybe a top notch detective but that doesn't mean he can belittle us!" Shivaay banged his fists down angrily.

   "He will select some of us, so there's a great chance that I won't be there." Ali said with a disappointed tone.

   "Don't worry, Ali." Sandhya silently consoled him.

   "I'll go and talk to chief." Shivaay said as he stomped out of the room walking towards the end of the hallway.

   After two controlled knocks Shivaay was called in, he entered the neat and tidy office cabin of the chief Chatterjee.

   "Mr. Sinha?" Chatterjee asked as Shivaay entered and stood in front of his neat desk.

   "What is it?" He asked.

   "Sir, Zero's acquaintance just came by." Shivaay said, and Chatterjee sighed.

   "I got a word from him, he came in early to select a team for himself."

   "What? But sir, he can work with the team we already have placed."

   "He has this tendency of selecting the investigator body who can work precisely over the given case, he's extremely careful not to pick the people whom he thinks are out of place. He would lead your team, Mr. Sinha." Chatterjee said, making Shivaay's anger rise.

   "Then I call an out of it." He declared, Chatterjee looked up at him astonished.

   "What are you saying, Mr. Sinha?" Chatterjee rose his voice.

   "I can't work with that kind of man, so I'm taking myself off from this case, excuse me." Shivaay said and turned to leave.

   "Shivaay?" Shivaay stopped at the door as he heard his chief first time addressing him by his first name.

   "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, it could be all new thing inside." Chatterjee said, Shivaay gritted his teeth.

   "I'm not taking you off this case, rather, you would work with Zero and catch this Kali." Chatterjee said using his superior chief tone, Shivaay clenched his teeth in frustration as he exited the room and walked back.

XXX

   "Hey, Maya. How do you think those three managed to get a hold of your real identity?" Jay asked all of a sudden as Maya sat on his couch with a new document in her hand. She turned her head, resting the paper and her hands on her perched up knees. Her wide eyes assessed Jay for a while before she let her head fall back.

   "The three went thoroughly researching about the killings and also about the tracks that I left as I traveled from Jaipur to here and even had a lot of evidences. They managed to make a list of the people who had entered the Mumbai city in the two month time span and got a track of me." She calmly explained, making Jay gasp in shock.

   "What? They even got evidences?" He asked and she nodded.

   "They got through your history and all, even about your sad excuse of a marital life. He, he." She giggled and Jay slumped in his seat.

   "Don't worry buddy you'll find the right girl for you." She said with a smug tone which he noticed.

   "I'm not worried over that, Maya... Besides, how do you know about all these things?" Jay asked, frowning.

   Maya grabbed her satchel and placed the paper down as she rummaged in her bag. Pulling out a thick stack of papers haphazardly folded and torn at ends, she stretched her hand out in Jay's direction. Knowing well that she wouldn't walk up to him, he stood from his chair and took the papers from her.

   "What is this?" He asked as he looked at the papers, his eyes widened and his hands slowly shook as he stared at the papers and a large map kind of chart with bulging eyes and then at Maya who was laughing loudly rolling on his couch.

   "You look so stupid." She laughed loudly, while he could only stare at her.

   The papers were the research papers of the three CBI officers, it included a few pictures of Maya and her spotting places, which included Singh office building and also a lot of candy shops, ice cream parlors, library. The list of the people entered Mumbai city in two months, there were only five, four men and one woman, Nandini Singh who changed her name as Maya Singh and among the four men was Jay Singh. However, Nandini's name changing was suspicious so they decided to dig into Maya's history and found some shocking things. Keeping a track of everything they formed a map and pinned the locations the dead were found and Maya's spotting.

   "How- How did you?" Jay managed to ask through his clutched throat. Maya looked at him as she pulled herself to a sitting position, her palms resting over her knees.

   "Miracles happen, putra*." She grinned.

   "Oh my, Mahamaya*, please tell me how did you do this?" He joined his hands before her bowing his head in prayer.

   "As you say, my dear bhakt*." She giggled showing her palm as if to give him blessing.

   "I went to pay the three officers a visit." She said and Jay looked at her dumbfounded.

   "You stole it from their houses? When?" He shouted and Maya winced lightly.

   "Four nights ago." She replied.

   "And you didn't feel like telling me?" He asked.

   "I forgot." She casually stated as she shrugged her shoulders and stared at the man's face and bio data in the page in her hands.

   "Kailash Solanki." She murmured as a sick grin spread over her face her eyes crossing the minus temperature, Jay felt cold chills run up and down his spine as he looked at Maya's eyes.

   "Oh, what was that?" Maya suddenly spoke, her grin disappearing instantly as she looked at Jay with slightly narrowed eyes and then a sly smile grew on her face.

   "Jay?" She said and he blinked confusedly.

   "Yes?"

   "Did you just fart now?" She asked and he stared at her, perplexed at her words.

   "Wha-" she bursted out laughing loudly rolling on his couch again.

   "Hey! I didn't fart!" He yelled as she laughed her head off clutching her sides.

   "Stop laughing, Maya! Hey stop it!" He yelled, blushing bright red as he tried to stop the girl.

   "Oh my... Oh my... Phew." Maya sat up breathing heavily, Jay watched her as she lifted her head, her cheeks swelled and she bursted into another fit of laughter. Jay felt embarrassed.

†**************************************†

•𝙋𝙪𝙩𝙧𝙖 - 𝙎𝙤𝙣.

• 𝘽𝙝𝙖𝙠𝙩 - 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙚.

• 𝙈𝙖𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙖 - 𝙈𝙖𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙖 𝙞𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘿𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙤𝙙.