Patang (28 page)

‘That’s not true. I saw…I saw Inspector Mathur…’ Rathod was finding it difficult to breathe.

‘Who
is
Inspector Mathur? I don’t know any Inspector Mathur!’ Ananya screamed, reaching the end of her tether.

‘Of course you don’t,’ Rathod screamed back. ‘I mean, you don’t know his real name…no one knows who he is…but he was here…I saw him…I saw – ’

The doorbell rang in a shrill pitch, making him nearly jump out of his skin. A startled Rathod turned towards the door, aiming his gun at it. ‘There he is! That must be him!’ he whispered, his eyes wide in sheer terror. He had never been so frightened in his entire life.

Ananya looked at him curiously through puffy eyes. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked.

The doorbell rang once more, and Rathod took several steps
away from the door, putting his finger on his lips and gesturing towards Ananya to remain silent.

‘He must have come back!’ he whispered.

‘Who?’

‘Aditya Mathur! The Patang Killer!’

Ananya looked at the door. Rathod thought she too looked shocked and scared. It was quite natural, after all – she would want to warn her lover that the man inside the flat had a gun pointed at him.

‘Sir?’ Rathod heard Aditya’s voice outside.

‘There! There, there he is!’ Rathod said, trying to take cover behind a sofa. He began to tremble uncontrollably. He remembered how the voice had sounded idiotic to him at first; how he had thought of Aditya as a blabbering sycophant, a bumbling fool. But here, tonight, in this bizarre situation, the same voice sounded menacing.

‘Open up, sir, I know you’re in there. Your Gypsy is parked outside.’ Aditya was insistent.

‘No! Don’t open the door. He’s standing right outside,’ Rathod whispered to Ananya.

‘What are you saying? There’s no one outside,’ Ananya whispered back.

‘Can’t you hear the voice?’

‘What voice? Wait, I’ll show you…’

Rathod watched in horror as Ananya dashed towards the door to let her lover in. He pleaded once again, but Ananya did not stop. He couldn’t allow her to open the door.
No!
He
had
to stop her. When she was inches away from the door, Rathod fired.

The force of the bullet’s impact flung Ananya towards the door. She banged her head against it once before crumpling to the ground. The bullet had gone straight though her heart, and
through the wooden panel of the door. His limbs trembling, Rathod watched as her body crumpled to the floor, making a few gurgling sounds and spitting out some blood before slowly wilting away. Ananya didn’t look afraid anymore – her face was calm and beautiful as her eyes slowly shut forever.

‘What have you done, sir?’

Rathod turned around wildly to see Aditya, still wearing his impeccable khaki uniform, leaning against the sofa behind him. He could have sworn there was no one at that spot a few seconds ago. How had he come into the apartment? Or had he been inside all along? Had Ananya lied? But that couldn’t be, because Rathod had heard Aditya’s voice from outside the door moments ago. And he had seen him leave earlier on.

Rathod aimed his gun at Aditya. He thought the man would certainly attack him after seeing Ananya dead but, strangely, Aditya made no move at all; he merely continued to lean against the sofa. A few moments later, he said calmly, ‘You killed her. You killed the poor girl.’

‘Don’t you make a move, you bastard! I…I’ve got you, I’ve got you now.’

Aditya looked at Ananya’s lifeless body with a sad expression. ‘Why did you have to kill her? She loved you so much!’

‘Shut up! Shut your mouth. She didn’t love me. She loved you. I saw everything.’

‘Me? How could she love me? She didn’t even know me.’

‘You can’t fool me with your bullshit anymore.’

‘It’s not bullshit.’

‘It
is
bullshit. You’ve been one step ahead of me all this while, but I’ve got you now, you bastard!’

Aditya smiled calmly and said, ‘Tell me something, who do you think you were trying to call all day?’

‘You, I was trying to call you. Where the fuck were you?’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course. I was trying to call you, but…’ Rathod stopped short.

‘Why don’t you take a look at your phone?’ Aditya said softly.

While keeping the gun aimed at Aditya, Rathod somehow managed to pull out his cellphone and look at the call log.

My number

My number

My number

My number

My number

My number

My number

The entire log was filled with his own number! He remembered getting a busy tone on Aditya’s number throughout the day…but, that meant…

‘You do understand what this means, don’t you?’ Aditya asked, as though he had read Rathod’s mind.

Rathod’s head was spinning. He said nothing as the man before him continued, ‘Haven’t you realized it yet, sir?
You
killed Imtiaz Raza in the steel mill.
You
killed Dr Nayak by sending him up with that balloon.
You
killed Mrinalini Pande in the church by crucifying her. Me? I don’t even exist. I’m a figment of your imagination – I just live inside your head!’

Rathod broke into cold sweat. As his hands trembled, the gun felt astonishingly heavy. ‘No…no, that’s not true. You’re playing with my mind!’ he whispered.

‘I’m not playing with your mind.
You
are playing with your mind. Don’t you see? I’ve always been with you, and yet has anyone seen me?’

As Rathod’s heart thumped inside his chest, a series of incidents flashed through his mind, like a monochrome film reel.

Mrs Billimoria saying, ‘Crazy!’, on seeing Rathod argue with Aditya in the corridor.

The people seated at the tables surrounding them looking on curiously while Rathod had a heated discussion with Aditya at the cafe.

The officer at the Powai grounds saying, ‘Everything all right, sir?’, on seeing Rathod and Aditya talking to each other.

The IIT student’s silence when Aditya had introduced himself to her: ‘Miss, I’m Inspector Aditya, this is Mr Rathod. We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.’

As Rathod stared at Aditya in horror, he saw a soft smile spread over the younger man’s face.

‘I’ve got a friend in your department,’ Ananya had said.

‘He is right in front of your eyes, Mr Rathod. Trouble is, you just aren’t looking hard enough,’ Tony had said the other night.

‘Only a genius can recognize the work of another genius’ – Tony’s words when Rathod had met him after Imtiaz Raza’s murder.

‘It’s a family thing,’ Ananya had told the crowd in the local train that day.

Rathod felt sick. He was trembling so much he had to use the wall to support his weight. Aditya went on, the soft smile still lingering on his lips.

‘After you caught Tony, you felt empty, just as you had when you caught the Professor. A detective’s biggest reward lies in solving a crime, not in the absence of it. You wanted an archenemy, a nemesis, a super-criminal! You wanted a series of great crimes, something that the people of Mumbai would never
forget, and something that only
you
could solve. A superlative exercise of the brain! But there was no one who could challenge you with such a puzzle. So you were left with no other option but to create the puzzle
yourself
. And, yet, you could not bring it upon yourself to actually commit these crimes. How could you? You’ve devoted your entire life to solving crimes. How could you actually commit one?’

Rathod realized that a strong force from within him was about to send the contents of his stomach up his throat. He tried to cover his mouth, but threw up on the floor. Unfazed, Aditya went on, ‘Your mind split into two parts. One part badly wanted to commit a crime. Another part wanted to solve it. And, from this duality, you gave birth…to me.

‘I’m everything that you didn’t want to be. I am a police officer. I am not as smart. I have more belief in the supernatural than in logical deductions. I am a sycophant. I talk too much. In fact, you gave all the traits you hated to the fictitious criminal you created –
me
. But the same fictitious criminal had to commit some of the most brilliantly devised crimes the city had seen. How could this be possible? You had a solution for that too. You began to believe, in your subconscious mind, that all the things you hated about me were just my external traits, and that, in reality, I was a highly intelligent and notorious serial killer, who had the guts to pull off one of the most daring series of murders without arousing any suspicion… Except yours. Ah, yes! No matter how smart you made me, you still had to win, didn’t you? That idea of leaving the Megaminx behind at the church – I must say that was an excellent example of how brilliantly your mind works. But you, even
you
, the brilliant Chandrakant Rathod, made
one
mistake.’

‘I fell in love!’ Rathod whispered. Sadness overcame him as he looked at Ananya’s calm, beautiful face.

‘You fell in love,’ Aditya repeated, ‘and that was the end of you. Your impression of yourself is that of a man who doesn’t understand anything outside his line of work. Yet, in a whimsical twist of nature, you fell in love. And the moment you realized this, you panicked, and in your panic you tried to project your feelings for Ananya on to me. But therein lay your second mistake. The force of this projection was so strong that you actually began to envy me! Which is why you saw what your mind wanted you to see earlier today.’

Rathod’s head was reeling but Aditya wasn’t finished. ‘Inspector Soorti had discussed one of his unsolved cases with you several years ago, and had lamented at his inability to solve it. You yourself had been deeply affected by the fate of the innocent little girl, and your deep-seated hatred of the system came to the fore when you were profoundly moved by Tony’s words at the Juhu police station. Within the confines of the law that you yourself had vowed to uphold, you couldn’t lay a finger on the culprits of the little girl’s case, but once you had created me there was no stopping you. You avenged the little girl’s death.’

‘Rhea,’a stream of tears began to roll down Rathod’s cheeks. ‘Her name was Rhea. She…she was just 10 years old!”

Aditya hung his head and said sadly, ‘Such is the nature of this job, sir. You hunt down monsters long enough, and you become a monster yourself.’

Rathod collapsed on to the floor, sitting with his back to the wall next to Ananya’s body, tears streaming down his face. The gun lay in front of him on the floor. He pulled Ananya’s bloody body towards himself and placed her head softly on his lap.

‘She loved you very much, sir.’

Rathod closed his eyes and wept silently. He finally remembered all those wonderful moments he had spent with her
in this room. Her smile of peace and contentment; her beautiful eyes watching his face and caressing it with love; the way he held her in his arms; the way she buried her face in his chest – everything. The moments came flooding back through the doors of his memory, as Rathod cried for everything he had lost.

After several minutes, when Rathod had calmed down a little, he heard Aditya’s voice again.

‘I don’t know if my saying this means anything, sir, but you are indeed one of the most remarkable men I have met, and I want you to know that I have always been and will always be a big fan of yours.’

Rathod opened his eyes and found Aditya sitting by his side, smiling appreciatively at him.

‘But I don’t understand one thing, sir,’ Aditya said. ‘Every now and then, the human mind comes to an inflexion point – a crossroads, if you want to call it that – where it has to choose between good and evil. At what point did you reach such a crossroads and why did you choose evil?’

Rathod sighed. Then he said, his voice now calm, ‘You know, in the olden days, the maharajas used to go on hunting trips sitting in their howdahs on top of elephants through the jungles, and hundreds of men used to follow them. But the tiger would be shot by a hunter on the ground below, who would risk his life and confront the majestic animal, and then shoot him down. The animal would then be brought into the open, in front of the elephant, and the maharaja would shoot the dead animal once again, just to satisfy his ego. And it would be the maharaja who would then hold a rifle in his hand, put his foot up on the tiger’s corpse and pose for photographs, which would later adorn the walls of his palace, so that he could show them off to his guests. Meanwhile, the poor hunter was not even allowed to come out
of the forest. Everyone would forget him. In fact, they would shun him – in fear of the maharaja, no one would speak to him or pat him on the back. He would get paid and be sent home, where he would sit in the dark and nurse his bruised pride.’

Aditya listened to the words with great reverence.

‘Imagine what must be going through the hunter’s mind, Aditya, when he sees, hiding from behind the trees and bushes, that the tiger he has hunted has been so easily passed on as someone else’s kill?’

‘So you wanted the police to give you credit for catching Tony?’

‘If not that, then the least they could have done was to let me meet him? They could have given me my 10 minutes of pride and dignity? Was that too much to ask for? Instead, I had to sneak in like a thief and confront him, and even
he
mocked me. It was then, at that moment in that dingy Juhu station, that I thought – if all my hard work, my dedication, my honesty and my intelligence had brought me to the back door of this police station by the side of a foul-smelling open ditch, then what have I achieved in my life? What am I doing this for? Perhaps it was then that I decided to commit those murders. And it was then that I created you.’

Aditya said, ‘Tony saw me, Aditya Mathur, speak to him inside that interrogation room. He realized there were two personalities within you. That’s why he warned you. And that’s why, later in his cell, he gave you that clue.’

Rathod pulled out the kite-shaped flake from his shirt’s pocket. ‘Yes, the clue! At first, I thought it meant there were two killers, and that Tony had an accomplice. But
you
…you disagreed with me. You knew what Tony really meant.’