Prey On The Prowl A Crime Novel Read online

  Chapter 4 Rags to Riches

  Kavya, a child prodigy, was the only offspring of a financially hard-pressed couple from Kovvur. As her parents went to lengths to groom her well, she began to live up to their expectations, and that prompted them to shift to Hyderabad to cater to her bigticket talent. While her father became a clerk in a real estate firm, her mother took to cooking for a 'working women's hostel', she strained her every nerve to top the school. But coinciding with her entry into the college, her father ventured into the real estate business, which by the time of her graduation in arts, grew into Oasis Builders.

  Soon her parents made her marriage their dining table-talk; her mother, wanting her daughter to have a better start than she herself had, was bent upon a well-heeled groom but her father, still smarting from the snubs of his poor-groom days, vowed to give her hand to a 'nobody', who showed promise to become somebody. Un-enamored of riches, as Kavya sided with her father, he soon zeroed in on Ranjit, and bowled by his looks, she batted for him against her mother's objections. However, in deference to her mother's wishes, she married Ranjit in the precincts of Lord Balaji, at Tirupathi, but sadly, in the return journey, as her parents were killed in a road mishap, the Oasis Builders too landed in the groom's lap.

  By the time Ranjit finished the recap of his life and times with Kavya, as they reached Road No 69 leading up to Spandan, Dhruva brought the Esteem to a halt at the street corner. Letting Ranjit walk down the desolate road, Dhruva stayed back to ensure that none followed him, however wanting to be alerted on the mobile just in case. Soon Dhruva too made it to Spandan, but before entering the compound, he focused his

  torch on the road nearby but once in, closing the gate behind them, he scanned the rain-drenched lawn and said that Kavya had left home when it was still raining, and might have unwittingly hired an auto-rickshaw, lying in wait for her.

  Stepping into Spandan proper and having scanned the insides, Dhruva asked Ranjit for a picture of Kavya, and when he was given her photo album, struck by her stunning looks, he felt that her photogenic features could be the indices of her stunning persona. While trying to envision the poise of the vivacious woman, who would have become his assistant in the normal course, Dhruva wondered whether her kidnapping would be the loss of his lifetime. When the impropriety of holding on to the album dawned on Dhruva, he handed it back to Ranjit with the assurance that she would be back in her husband's arms before he started missing her.

  Soon, after revealing the opening moves of the Operation Checkmate to set Kavya free from her kidnappers, Dhruva left Spandan, and even as he got into his Esteem, he called up Shakeel, on his mobile, wanting him to set the informers behind the usual suspects. However, as the latter broached the topic of nailing Radha, recalling the mysterious trespasser, Dhruva wondered if the temptress was indeed Radha and whether she would venture again back to 9, Castle Hills. When Shakeel insisted to know about his plans to unravel her mystery, Dhruva said that the clue about her whereabouts might as well lie in her destiny.

  Back home, after a quick shower, with his favorite Old Monk with Thums Up for company, Dhruva began working on various moves of the endgame, and soon succeeded in affecting a mental checkmate of her captors. However, the thought that Kavya might not have any stomach left for the risky endeavors of a sleuth made him feel like he was back to square one in his quest for a capable hand. After an unappetizing dinner as he retired to bed thinking about both the women in the same vein, he wondered if the woman 'at the gate' was indeed Radha, and felt that it was difficult to imagine her as a murderess. He thought what if Shakeel had showed him her photograph that Pravar gave him, and wondered why he failed to ask for it himself? Maybe Radha could be a seductress to rival Mithya, and he thought in the same vein, what of Kavya, a rare beauty, well, could there be temptresses like her! Besides, won't Kavya be an invaluable asset even if she were half as cerebral as her husband pictured her? Would she like to join him after all? When it suits him to have either Kavya or Radha to assist him, what bonus it could be if both of them join him. Won't it be real fun with both of them around but given the attendant jealousies, it could as well be a hard grind for him.

  What with the myriad thoughts about them storming his head; he had a disturbed sleep that night.

  Chapters Dhruva's Dilemma

  Waking up early in the morning and quickly finishing his chores, Dhruva stood in the portico; staring at the gate incessantly, he was at loss to comprehend his obsession for an unknown woman, possibly a murderess. But weary of a long vigil and wiser to the hopeless wait, as he retreated into his study, he was lost in fine-tuning the Operation Checkmate of Kavya's captors. When Raju appeared at the lunch-time, Dhruva wanted to be served in the study itself; and after his siesta, grabbing the mail that Raju brought, he found the expected one from Kavya and an unexpected one from one Radha Rani, C/o Begumpet post office.

  'How ingeniously inviting; is she the alleged murderess?' he thought, having read Radha's letter. 'But then Shakeel was referring to her as Radha and not as Radha Rani; maybe he gave a damn to the superfluous Rani, akin to the vainglorious Devi suffixed to many a name. Sans the suffix, can Radha be the real one or her namesake? Isn't the duality of the possibility intriguing? Whoever it may be, can she be as good as Mithya where it matters? What would come of it if she were to be a willing plain thing? Surely she would spare me the perils of attraction in the portals of proximity for the serene company of an un-alluring dame is good for the peace of mind than the flirting tryst with an evasive temptress. But then, without the tumult of the heart, can there be life in the life; oh, how the absence of woman is killing!'

  Given her eagerness for the job, Dhruva felt that Radha might be right up there at the post office waiting for his interview call, and so he penned a call-letter post-haste and hurried Raju on the errand wondering what the future had in store for him. However, seeing Raju's back, as he readily picked up Kavya's letter, he was amused at his fickle mindedness for having given precedence to an unknown woman over someone he himself had fancied.

  'Added to the stream of boldness, isn't there a strain of rashness to Kavya's persona?' he thought folding her letter. 'If not for the fiasco, wouldn't she have filled the gap that Mithya's death had created in his professional life? Why foreclose the option, as all it takes is to see that my interview call greets her on her return to Spandan, and who knows, after the dust settles down, she may not be averse for a positive response. But Ranjit should be cautioned not to let her know about my involvement in the Operation Checkmate. Even if I were to click with Radha, nay Rani, why shouldn't Kavya provide the second string to my investigative bow? What if I fall in love with her as well? So what, that would be the second one to the Cupid's thing, what a welcome prospect that would be; why place the cart before the horse, when life would take its own course anyway.'

  When the clock struck four, Dhruva, attired in black trousers and a white shirt (he wanted to dress like Ranjit, and be present nearby the Tanesha statue every day till the D-day to let Kavya's captors take him to be a regular) stepped out of his abode to step into an auto. Reaching the Tank Bund shortly thereafter, he got down from it at the Nannaya statue and walked up to the nearby Siddhendrayogi's; finding Ranjit at the Tanesha's, he himself settled on the lush green lawns where with a book in hand, and seemingly engrossed in it, he kept a hawk's eye on the traffic and the passers-by alike.

  Around five, a white M aruti Zen, driven by a twenty-something guy, slowed down as it neared the Tanesha from the Ranigunj side. Before it was six, as that car of Karnataka registration made two more rounds in like fashion, Dhruva thought the one at the wheel could be the driving force behind Kavya's kidnap. As he came alone to pick up Ranjit's signal, Dhruva had reasoned that at least two persons could be involved in the kidnap, and that the other, possibly the woman who penned the ransom note, may be holding Kavya captive. Though Dhruva suspected that the Zen could be a stolen one, yet he called up Shakeel to pass on the vehicle number, after which he
left the scene leaving Ranjit alone.

  Back home, as Dhruva awaited Rani's anticipated arrival, Shakeel called him to seek his helping hand to close in on an inter-state counterfeit-note racket that came to the fore. Though he was disinclined to leave home lest he should miss out on Rani, if she were to show up, yet his proclivity to face professional challenges got the better of his need for courting the woman he enamored; so, briefing Raju as to how to deal with the expected visitor, in case she turned up, Dhruva left for the Saifabad police station.

  After Shakeel had detailed him about the conflicting leads to the evasive racketeers, burning a lot of midnight oil, Dhruva developed a blueprint of the Operation M oolah for Shakeel to act upon. Having left Shakeel to fine-tune the logistics of the operation, when Dhruva reached home fearing that he might have missed the date with Rani, Raju told him that none came to see him.

  'How I hoped that this Rani would fill the void caused by M ithya's death,' he thought. 'Am I flattered to be deceived?'

  What with his obsession for Rani that accentuated the pain of his yearlong loneliness occasioned by M ithya's death growing by the hour; he became pensive thinking that she might have developed second thoughts about joining him. Soon, as his thoughts insensibly turned to Kavya, he felt that had Oscar Wilde espied her, he would have paraphrased his smoking quote as an ode to her - the perfect example of a perfect beauty - and wondered what would have happened had she, instead of being kidnapped, made it to 9, Castle Hills.

  Dhruva began to imagine the possibilities and that kept him awake for long until his tiredness induced him to sleep.

  Chapter 6 The Gatecrasher

  While Dhruva was still lounging in his bed, Raju announced the arrival of a middleaged woman. Wondering whether it could be Rani, Dhruva asked Raju to make her feel at home in the study before he could receive her. So, while Dhruva took his sweet time to put his best foot forward, Raju began lifting him to the skies before her, and when he heard approaching steps, he left the scene to make way for his master's entry.

  Sensing the import of the moment, even as she stood up in all eagerness, realizing at the threshold that she was the one he was craving for, Dhruva turned ecstatic in his approach; as he ogled at her unabashedly, she, enamored of him, turned coy, making him covetous. Bowled by his masculinity, as she seemed willing, he advanced towards her, and as if to quench their common thirst in the sands of lust, she too rushed to him as one would towards an oasis in a desert. While he opened his arms impulsively, parting her lips sanguinely, she sank into him with alacrity, and as if to cement their union, he closed in on them passionately. Seemingly induced by his ardency, as her femininity came to the fore, as he was feeling that his dream came true, she unlocked his lips as if to regain her breath, and he crooned into her ears that ever since he saw her at the threshold of his domain, he had a premonition that she would come back to him. Averring that she tried to test the waters before she ventured into the whirlpool of his romance, she reached for his lips all again.

  Gripping her in his ardent embrace, when Dhruva asked her if she was Radha, the alleged murderess, having crooned into his ear that she was Rani the man-eater, she bit it coquettishly. Writhing in pain, as he told her that he fell in love with her as Radha the killer, turning coy, she said that she came for the kill and so he was better on guard against her ambush. Feigning alarm, as he withdrew from her, taking his arm enticingly, as if to reassure him, she said that he might as well banish Radha from his mind and engage her with his ardor; and as he hugged her endearingly, smug in his embrace, she said coyly that she craved for a live-in with him. When he told her in jest that he needed to take the consent of Raju and his wife Vimala, who attended on him, she said teasingly that she would beg them to 'let her in' so that she could 'let him in'. Winking at her, as he said that it shouldn't be a hassle for Raju was a retired constable who was ever devoted to him, she said in half jest that she hoped to be blessed with a like devotion

  from his master; and as if to demonstrate his intent, going down on his knees and hugging her at her declivity, he assured her more of it. Enthralled by his romanticism, as she lifted him to her bosom, he led her to his room, where, giving herself in coition, she goaded him on to their orgasm.

  After a sensually fulfilling time followed by a sumptuous lunch, when he went into his siesta, she left for her dwelling to fetch her belongings.

  Waking up at three, he left for the Tank Bund and as soon as he sat with a book in hand at the Tanesha statue to monitor the moving vehicles, he noticed a blue Santro slowing down; noticing that it was the same guy who made rounds in the white M aruti Zen the other day, he could discern his puzzled look at finding a different character in the stipulated dress code. However, after making a couple of rounds as the guy sped away towards Ranigunj, at five, Dhruva left the place in satisfaction and reached 9, Castle Hills, in expectation.

  Back home, as the thrill of finding Rani-in-wait made him reminisce about his times with M ithya, Dhruva told her how he looked forward to her filling the emotional void in his life. When Rani teased him that after having had his fill with her, he might as well be craving for a refill with his Radha, leading her to the liquor-cabinet, he told her that she could fathom his mind by keeping him high. What with Rani's company affording him a regular night for the first time after Mithya's demise, he had gone into deep sleep thinking about the regular day to follow.

  Having had an exhilarating day with a doting live-in, he, in the evening, took her along with him to the Tank Bund, and as she strolled around the place, he sat near the Tanesha, waiting for the rigmarole to begin. When the guy, this time in the white M aruti Zen, slowed down near him, Dhruva could clearly see that he was puzzled by his presence that day as well. However, after making a couple of rounds, as that chap drove away for the day, Dhruva joined Rani and took her for a boat-ride in the abutting Hussainsagar. Though she wanted to hear about the nitty-gritty of the Operation Checkmate in the making, so as not to spoil their joy-ride, he said that she might as well see the drama unfold itself on the D-day the next day.

  Chapter 7

  Operation Checkmate

  It was 4 P.M the D-day. As Dhruva was raring to go, Rani was in no hurry to desert her dressing table; but when he began hurrying her, as she hastened down the stairs, she slipped on the staircase. Though she said that she was fine, yet he drove her to the Hyderabad Nursing Home, where the doctor ruled out a fracture, but ignoring Rani's pleas to betaken on board, he sent her home with Raju, who came in tow with them.

  Walking up to the nearby Tank Bund, Dhruva soon reached the Siddhendrayogi statue, and seeing the white M aruti Zen in the parking bay, he realized that the game was on though there was none to be seen around. But even before he could settle down on the lawns aside the majestic statue, Ranjit drove his Audi into the same parking bay. Alighting from his car with two bulging travel bags, a visibly nervous Ranjit passed by Dhruva towards the nearby Tanesha statue. Soon, beginning in trickles, as people started flocking to the place to occupy vantage points on the sprawling lawns as well as on the tank-side benches, as if on cue, a handful of fast food vendors descended upon the scene to spread all over; even as they were trying to induce those present to have a bite, the toy-wallahs, who followed them, did not lag behind in tempting the kids with fancy playthings.

  When a fast food vendor, apparently in disguise, posited his chaat basket near the Tanesha statue, seeing him ill at ease in the calling, Dhruva knew that he was indeed the one to be marked. As the sun began to set on the Hussainsagar Lake, the vendor went up to Ranjit, and preparing some chaat for him, he began to chitchat with him; soon, handing over the stuff in a paper-plate to Ranjit, the imposter, on the sly, passed on his mobile to him. With a satisfied look on his face as Ranjit unzipped both the travel bags, elated, the guy took away the mobile from him and having connected it to someone; he gave it back to Ranjit, who seemed relieved as he held it to his ear. As Ranjit tended to hold on to it, the guy withdrew it from him and wai
ted in the wings without taking his eyes off him; and when it got a little darker, he signaled to Ranjit to go down the staircase in the backside that led to the road below. When Ranjit picked up the bags and ventured into the vault of that staircase, the guy called someone on his mobile; soon abandoning his wares as is where, as he too followed suit, Dhruva reached for his mobile.

  Shortly thereafter, covering her face with her pallu, as a young woman emerged from the staircase and walked towards the Maruti Zen, discerning excitement in her nervous gait, Dhruva knew that she was the accomplice of Kavya's captor. As arraigning her was not part of the Operation Checkmate, he let her drive away in the car; moreover, without espying her visage, yet he had experienced an unusual empathy for her. Soon, as Ranjit too passed him by with Kavya, his eyes followed her all the way to the Audi; what with her glowing persona and pleasing poise, even in that dull setting, appealed to his romanticism, he could not help but divine her provocative figure in her evocative gait; and finding her enchanting in her state of confusion he began wondering how enticing she could be in the moments of her excitation. So, when Shakeel called him to inform him about the capture of the kidnapper, he was still under the mesmeric spell of Kavya's unusual charms that he had earlier visualized from her photographs. However, it was the breaking news from Shakeel that the culprit turned out to be Pravar that diverted his mind to the mysterious Radha, the suspected murderess.