Sunday, April 15, 2007

Chapter Twenty Seven

Shakthi went over to the office of the service provider of the number from which Shiva had received the message. He explained to its head the complexity of the situation. The man hesitated at first. Then Shakthi’s repeated request melted him. He agreed to do it. And it would take at least that evening to have the snooping device in place. And he wanted Shakthi to get some sort of approval from someone higher up in the echelon. Shakthi agreed to that.

Three hours after he had called his friend in Mumbai, he got the call back from him. His friend was a police too in Mumbai. He had questioned the money lender and it had turned out that the money lender had threatened them just to make Mr. Rao pay. He had even sent them a letter of apology to them after they reached Chennai but that letter was returned back to him. The money lender, Rishi, had shown Shakthi’s friend that letter. And the threats on Mr.Rao’s family were made with the help of a man named Pankaj. He was an occupant of Rishi’s house and was used at times to scuffle up people who refused to pay their loans in time.

But Pankaj too had left the place a month after Mr. Rao moved out. And Rishi hadn’t heard from him since. Shakthi’s friend, Inspector Kumar, managed to get a photo of Pankaj though. It was a photo Pankaj had taken with Rishi. And Kumar agreed to have it faxed to Shakthi’s police station.

Shakthi was very pleased with the developments that morning. He got the feeling he was closing in on the suspect. The rest of the day was not as fruitful as it was in the morning.

Shiva in the meanwhile continued thinking of the good times with his friends and Shweta. And was also thinking of the prospects of seeing her again and how he would react when he sees her.

Shweta in the mean while was being transported to Cochin along with Pankaj. Her hands and feet were bound and her mouth gagged. She had eaten heavily that morning. Fatigue was consuming her. But she didn’t want to give up. She felt someone would come to her rescue. And she needed to take care of herself before that.

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