X: The Hunt Begins Page 8

  He ignored her, striding over to the television. It was already on. He grabbed the remote and turned to the news channels. The same news was being discussed on every show. The selfie killer had exposed himself.

  He left a rising sense of fury as he stared at the man standing next to the Police Commissioner in the picture. This was the man everyone thought was the selfie killer? This loathsome, reptilian mouth breather? He didn't look like he had the brains to tie his own shoelaces, let alone plan and execute the selfie killings!

  “I was talking to Lata on the phone.” His mother was telling him as she settled on the sofa. “Her daughter is coming to visit her from New York. She married a surgeon, you know. They have a house with an indoor pool.”

  He ignored her, flipping through the news channels to discover any more information about the imposter.

  “Lata said she's bringing her a mink coat that's been prepared specially at Tiffany's.”

  There it was again. The face of the man who was stealing credit for the project he had slaved over. His hands balled into fists until his knuckles whitened as he stared at the dull eyed visage onscreen.

  “I asked her where she would wear a mink coat to in India, but she said it's the thought that counts-”

  “OH SHUT UP!” He roared, dashing the remote to the ground as he rounded on her. “I don't care! I don't care what that whale of a woman said or who's bringing what for her. I don't care what your friends said or what their children are doing, or what they think about me. I DONT. CARE!” There was a tingling in his arm as he stared down at his cowering mother. She was staring up at him with a mixture of surprise and terror, for once at a loss for words. He felt something he had never felt in her presence before. A euphoric, overwhelming sense of power. It would be so easy... But no. He had to make plans. He couldn't let this unexpected development make him sloppy. There would be time enough to deal with his mother once he'd shown the world the real selfie killer.

  He stalked out of the room without a word, leaving his mother to turn her trembling gaze towards the broken remains of the remote control on the floor.

  * * *

  Operation Selfie was the largest covert operation in the history of the Delhi police station. Usually, as with the case of security for a visiting politician, the public was made aware of the police's involvement. But this time they needed to stay underscover and hidden. Officers from surrounding districts were called in and sworn to silence. Plainclothes officers in unmarked cars were stationed at strategic intervals around the area marked out by Aditya. The resources and manpower staked on that one day were immense.

  On the day of the operation Aditya sat with Payal in her apartment. They were waiting for Virat to get ready and join them. A police car was waiting at the intersection to take them to their designated locations for the day. The Selfie Killer interview was going to air that night on Payal's newschannel.

  Aditya had filled Payal in on what they knew about the killer, and the police's preparations for the day. Payal stared at Aditya as he told her about the list of suspects. “There are eighty seven potential serial killers in the city I grew up in?”

  Aditya studied the table while he considered his words. “No, there are far more. These are just the ones who match the profile of the Selfie Killer. The human brain is an incredibly delicate instrument. Doesn't take much for something to snap. And of course, there are those who are simply born without that little voice in their head that says no to performing certain acts.”

  Payal nodded soberly. Virat entered the room and looked at the two. “Everyone ready?”

  “Sure.” Aditya said as he and Payal rose to their feet. “Let's go.”

  They left the apartment and made their way through the street to the intersection. Houses ranged on both sides as they walked down the street. Children played outside their homes and an elderly neighbour nodded and smiled at them as he passed by.

  “It all looks so peaceful.” Payal said in a low voice. “And to think the selfie killer probably grew up in a colony like this one.”

  “The most peaceful environment can have a violent person living in it without anyone knowing about it until something happens.” Virat said. “You can't chase after the criminal without the crime. That's what we're trying to do today, too.”

  “Where have you been stationed for the day?” Payal asked him.

  “I'll be in a surviellance van, keeping an eye on Aditya.”

  “You know, van duty's going to be pretty boring.” Aditya remarked to him. “You could've followed one of the other suspects.”

  “So could you have.” Virat said. “But you chose this guy. And I think it's because you consider him the prime suspect.”

  “I do.” Aditya admitted. “I have no actual evidence that makes him more qualified for the spot. But I found his case file paticularly interesting. Something tells me he's our man.” He shrugged. “Maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe this whole exercise will turn out to be a waste and we'll just have another murder on our hands. But we'll find out soon enough. Now there's nothing to do but to get to work.”

  “Let the karmath have his day.” Virat remarked, and Aditya grinned.

  “Exactly.”

  * * *

  The streetlamps on the outer perimeter of Banto park shone like beacons in the moonless night. A few stragglers still hung around the park. A couple whispering together, holding hands. A man in an overcoat sitting hunched on a bench and dozing off. A young, bespectacled man intently playing a game on his mobile. It was a little after ten at night, and the park was even emptier than usual. There was a television shop across the road which was broadcasting the Selfie killer interview, and a crowd had gathered around it.

  He stood watching the huddled mass outside the television shop, wondering how they could fall for the imposter's pathetic stunt. He was curious to see what kind of a story the man was trying to sell, but first he had work to do. Very soon now, a new selfie was going to emerge online, and then the world would know the real Selfie Killer was still at large.

  He spotted his prey. A restaurant manager who worked nighttime in a cell phone call center, and took the short cut through the park to save time.

  He moved out of the shadow of the tree and began to follow his prey. The man was hurrying through the park, an eye on his watch, oblivious to his surroundings. Soon he would walk through the tunnel beneath the decorational bridge to the side of the park. He would go in through one side of the tunnel, but would not come out the other.

  Suddenly, a loud cough broke the stillness of the night. The man with the hunched shoulders and overcoat was walking slowly over the bridge and coughing into a handkerchief. His prey jumped, then turned. He had managed to stuff the knife into his pocket in time, but something in his expression seemed to have alerted his prey. The man had the same expression on his face as his mother had earlier. He gave him a single terrified look, and abruptly changed direction, practically running towards the northside of the park.

  No no no no no no NO! He watched his prey making his way to the gate he had come through earlier. A few more seconds and he would emerge onto the street. He could see his oppurtunity slipping out of his hands. It was all going wrong! With every passing second his carefully arranged plan was coming unravelled.

  But no. There was still time to salvage the project. The other man, the one in the overcoat going deeper into the shadows under the trees of the park. He could take the place of the man he had unwittingly saved. There was still time to meet the deadline, expose the imposter, and present his greatest creation to the world. Before his mind could argue, he had moved swiftly into the shadows after the hunched man.

  There was absolute silence in the moonless night as the two lone figures left the noise of the nearby street behind. They might have been the last two people on Earth. The distance between the two was rapidly closing, and he was no longer making an effort to stay silent. The knife in his hand was rising in the air, as a tingling sensation ran up and down
his arm. The other man stopped walking and turned in time to see the figure bearing down upon him, the blade of the knife glinting in the faint light.

  The knife swung in a deadly arc. And then his hand was stopped midway, his wrist siezed in a grip of iron. Another hand gripped his shoulder, and as he struggled to get loose, his backpack was wrenched off his back. A foot shot out at explosive speed, catching him in his midriff, the force of the kick sending his body flying. His back hit the tree trunk and he collapsed to the ground.

  The hunched figure in front of him straightened, and the heavy overcoat was dropped to reveal a muscular physique. A pair of glasses glinted in the faint light and the man picked up his fallen backpack while he lay panting on the ground.

  “Interesting thing, a backpack.” Aditya remarked, opening the zip and peering inside. “It tells you quite a lot about the personality of it's owner. So does the modus operandi of a killer.”

  The figure in front of him scrambled upright. In the faint light, he could make out a tall, thin youth with large hands and feet. The face did not seem to have decided yet whether it belonged to a child or a man. A weak chin was covered with a stubble that grew in uncertain patches. The cheeks were scarred by acne. But the eyes looking back at Aditya were dark and merciless.

  “Not a very convenient place for a photo session, is it?” Aditya asked, taking off his glasses and placing them in his pocket. “But I imagine it's hard to find a place in the city that's suitable for selfies as well as murders.”

  His mind was in a freefall, his heart hammering in fear as his former prey continued to study him. The man knew! He had known all along. It was a trap! How could he have been discovered?

  His hand found the spare knife in his back pocket and he charged, swinging wildly at the man. His former prey ducked and stepped to the side. A leg rammed into his shin, causing him to stumble. Again his hand was held and bent back at an excrutiating angle. The knife dropped, and he was gripped by his collar behind his neck and back and flung bodily away.

  He got up then and ran, blindly and in no particular direction, not

  realising that he was not being chased. His attacker had taken out his mobile and was speaking into it.

  He burst out of the park onto the street. Passerbys stared at him as he ran in blind fear. Cars honked and stopped suddenly as he appeared in their path. And then a van stopped directly in front of him. The door was pulled back. Inside sat men in police uniforms. The man in front wearing plainclothes stared at him grimly.

  “Hello, Abhimanyu.” Said Virat. “Why don't you come with us to the police station? We'd like a picture with you, too.”

  * * *

  Aditya, Virat and Payal sat in Payal's apartment the night after Operation Selfie was completed.

  “Here's the brief on the operation.” Aditya said, handing the file over to Payal. She opened it and scanned the front page, which held a picture of the Selfie Killer in lockup.

  Payal's help had been invaluable to the operation. It was she who had helped set up a meeting with her news channel and had got the head to agree to assist the police in setting up the dummy interview. In return, Payal and her channel would get first hand information about the entire operation upon it's completion.

  “He's so young.” Payal said in wonder as she stared at the picture. “He looks like the kid who comes to fix my cable.”

  “That's because he is young.” Virat said. “His name is Abhimanyu Saxena. He's twenty one years old. Barely more than a teenager. A sociopath, according to Aditya.”

  “Among a bunch of other things.” Aditya said. ““He was an IIT student of computer science. Top of the class, and captain of the ethical hacking club. Everyone predicted a bright future for him. He was offered a spot with Google to work for them after college , but he dropped out in the middle of his third year to create his own startup. He started a company designing software translating english and hindi phrases for call center employees.”

  “Things worked out for a while. But then the mltinational corporations started shifting call centers from India to the Philippines. The company started sinking. Investors began to panic. Abhimanyu tried to rally his team, but was accused of being tyrranical and bullying. He'd always compensated for his lack of social skills with his intelligence, but that suddenly wasn't enough. One by one, his employees left him. His investors withdrew funding. His company broke apart, and he spent his shares paying off the debts he'd incurred setting up his offices. He had no college degree, and no option but to work at the call centre he'd once supplied software to.”

  “And so there he was, at the age of twenty one, stuck at home with a bossy and deeply disappointed mother, working a job he loathed for a pittance. Meanwhile, his friends from IIT got jobs with six figure salaries, while others got married and started families. Abhimanyu would go on facebook to see them posting pictures of foreign trips, newlyborn babies and job promotions. His sense of injustice and self loathing increased.”

  “So then he got up one day and just started... murdering random people?” Payal asked with a frown.

  “No, first came the depression.” Aditya said. “We've had a look at his online history, and he seemed to have quite the fascination with crime, specially murder. There came a time when he quit all forms of social media and started finding solace in visting the sites of famous serial killers. Slowly the idea of the selfie killings came to his mind. They combined his fascination with murderers with his burning desire to become famous. He started plotting the murders and selecting victims in his spare time to escape the drudgery of his personal life. One thought led to another. What started as a fantasy started looking more and more plausible and attractive. And then one night it started.”

  “Then later he became jealous of Rajat taking credit for his crimes?” Payal asked. Rajat Pahwa was the sub constable who had agreed to appear as the selfie killer in the news pictures and on the interview, in return for a medal and a handsome check from the Delhi Police.

  “This was always a crime motivated by Abhimanyu's frustrated ambitions.” Aditya said. “He wanted to live up to the potential his career had once possessed. When he couldn't have money or fame, he decided to settle for notoriety.”

  Payal fell silent again as she flipped through the rest of the report. Outside the window the night sky shone full of stars.

  “It's a relief to know the selfie killer won't be out hunting tonight.” Virat remarked, watching the sky.

  “But what about the other eighty six suspects?” Payal asked suddenly, looking at Aditya. “How do we know one of them won't become a killer next?”

  “We don't.” Aditya shrugged. “And so we do the only thing we can. We wait and watch. And we stay ready.”

  Chapter 4 : ESP

  One morning found Payal at Virat's apartment. She had come to borrow milk, and seeing the burnt toast that Aditya was bravely trying to bite into, had taken pity on the two and was preparing a proper breakfast.

  “So, what did you two think of my article on The Selfie Killer case?” She asked.

  “I liked it.” Aditya said. “Not too sensational. Sober enough with the facts. And thanks for keeping my name out of the report.”

  “I really didn't want to.” Payal said. “But because you insisted, I only took Virat's name, since he was technically the one who caught Abhimanyu.”

  “Publictiy is bad for Aditya right now.” Virat said. “Which means I get all the credit for a case I didn't solve.” He looked at Aditya with a degree of guilt.

  “Don't worry about it.” Aditya said lightly. “You know I'd rather not have my pictures in the news at the moment.”

  “Why not?” Sheetal asked with a preplexed frown. “You know, you never actually gave me a reason for why you wanted your name kept out.”

  “He's shy.” Virat said. “And he thinks he never gives a good picture. Vanity issues.”

  Aditya grinned. “That's exactly it.” Payal was silent for a moment while she busied herself with the stove
. She was aware that Aditya was not being completely honest. As frank and open as he was in general, there was an element of smiling reserve he maintained about certain parts of his life that no amount of questioning could get him to divulge. And Payal was a good enough friend to take the hint and leave the matter well enough alone.