It was two of noon and again all were in the interrogation room.
“So Mr Shyam we are listening,” Patil said, now his voice also friendly, “we are dying to know your love story.”
“Okay,” Shyam said, “after Dipawali Archana shared her quarter with a college girl.”
“Paying guest?”
“No,” he said, “she was the daughter of her uncle’s friend.”
“Detail us about her.”
“Her name was Preetu. Her parents had divorced and she was with her father. She was a student at Delhi where she had some problem so her father sent to Chandigarh. All I know about her is what Archana has told me. I’m not sure it’s all true or not.”
“Why she left Delhi?”
“I don’t know. I have never asked Archana or Preetu. I don’t have a habit of poking in other’s personal life.”
“I see,” Divya said.
“Preetu got admission in a college of sector-11. I don’t know how she got admission in the running year. Maybe she had some link with high-class people.”
“Hmmm…” Patil nodded.
“Preetu started to take more interest in me. I never expected her interest but she would often buy gifts for me. Once she gifted me a jacket and the next day she told me she wished to have a boy like me but I neglected her behaviour as childish.”
“Then?” Divya asked as if Preetu’s behaviour didn’t seem him unusual.
He told them about Preetu’s dog.
“Blackmail?” charmi shocked.
“Not actually like blackmail. She had paid me back.”
“So what was the point?”
“She started to talk against Archana behind her back which I didn’t like. I warned her I love Archana from my heart and you can’t make me doubt on her. Yet she never missed a chance to talk against her.”
“Then?” Charmi got interested.
“Once she proposed me. I tried to explain to her I love Archana only but she replied can’t a boy love two girls?”
“Interesting,” Patil said.
“Oh! Thanks but if you have faced then you know.” Shyam smiled, “now she started to call me during my office time. I tried to explain her to stay away from me but she didn't.”
Shyam pushed, he took some sips of water and continued, “once Archana took Preetu’s phone and saw call-log. She doubted on us. we had a fight over it and in anger Archana broke her laptop, throwing it down. I had no way to convince Archana. I had to do what I never wanted to do.”
“What?”
“I never wanted to ruin Preetu’s education but that day I did so. I had an auto call recorder on my phone. I made Archana hear all recording and Archana called preetu’s father to take her back. Preetu’s father took her back and sent her into a girl’s hostel.”
“Do you know anything else about Preetu?”
“I don’t think she can be with kidnappers.” He said, “She was a teenage girl with lack of sense.”
“You have news, Mr Shyam,” Patil said.
“About what?”
“We can’t tell you before the interrogation finishes.” Divya interrupted, “tell us without missing a point. You know sometimes big crimes can be solved if you consider small details.”
“I know, I have read many suspense books.” He said, “Agatha Cristy is my favourite.”
“Mine too,” Divya said.
Shyam couldn’t understand if she was joking or saying fact but he continued, “Preetu’s father was a primary teacher. Her cast was Jaat.”
“Do you have her photo?” Patil asked, “Or do you know about her college?”
“I don’t know about her college but I had her photos on my phone but I had deleted them as soon as she left our house.” He said, “But you can find her photo in her facebook profile.”
Divya hit the buzzer.
The same peon came inside.
“Bring me a laptop,” Divya ordered.
In no time Divya had a laptop in front of her on the table. Wi-fi was connected in it. She slid laptop towards Shyam.
Shyam opened facebook; it was logged in with Nancy.
“It’s showing Nancy’s profile.”
“You search in through this profile.” Divya said, “We can’t open your facebook account.”
Shyam typed ‘Preetu’ in the search bar. Some profile with the same name popped below. He fumbled through them but none was of that Preetu.
“I can’t find it.” He said, “But I’m sure she had one.”
Divya took the laptop.
“You can’t find her profile with the first name alone.” She said, “her last name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must,” Patil said, “try to remember.”
Shyam tried to remember but couldn’t, “she was Jaat but I can’t remember her surname.”
“Bajava,” Divya said.
“No.”
“Deol.”
“No, if it was Deol I wouldn’t have forgotten it. Sunny Deol is my favourite.”
“Look in this list,” Divya slid laptop back to him, “Google has the whole list of surnames of Jaat caste.”
Now Shyam got there must be something subtle about Peetu otherwise these officials never take so much interest in her.
Shyam glanced over the list and after five or six surnames he found ‘Nehara’. It shone his eyes.
“She was Nehra.” His voice excited.
He typed Preetu Nehra in the search bar and her profile was on screen at the next moment, the first in the list.
“She is Preetu.” Shyam turned laptop screen towards Divya.
Divya stared at the photo for a while and hit the bell.
Peon came again.
“Give it to Rinki Ma’am.” She opened Preetu’s profile and handed him the laptop.
As peon left the room Divya dialled Rimpy and ordered her to get details of Preetu’s account.
“Okay,” she said, “Mr Shyam, can we go ahead?”
“Sure,” he said, “Preetu had gone still we had stress between us for a week. But time is a great medicine. After some days Archana forgot about her. We were again with each other, as we had been before. We decided to live with each other from May.”
“Then?”
“After April Archana gave me a bad news, she was suspended from her job. It made her disappointed.”
“The reason for her suspension?”
“Archana had told me her degree certificate or job application had some variation.”
“Then?”
“The authority applied an inquiry commission on her. And they suspend her till they got any decision. Our plan of living with each other disturbed by it. Her father was trying to cancel her suspension order and she didn’t want to disappoint her father until she got her job back. Now her father was staying with her mostly. I think he was with her thinking about her stress of losing the job. Her father would go to their village on the weekend so we could meet on that day but now Archana had been changed so much. She was disappointed. I would always try to give her courage. I had told her if she won’t get her job back then we will go to Gujarat.”
Shyam needed some sips of water here.
“On July 18, she told me her father had decided her engagement without asking her and she was going to engage in two days. She told me we should flee. I doubted she was making the excuse of her engagement to flee from the house.”
“Why?”
“She had no job now and maybe she had doubt I would leave her. She wanted to sure our relation.” He said, “But I had no issue with it. I loved her and always want to marry her. But where to go after leaving Chandigarh was a problem for me. I started cigarette in stress after years. I used to smoke in college but then I had given it up.”
“Did kidnappers give you cigarettes?” Patil asked.
“You have good humour,” he smiled, “since 18 July, I started smoking again. On 20, July, we fled. We hadn’t much money. Archana suggested travelling on a bus instead of train. We went to Sector-17. From there we got on the bus to Delhi. When we reached Delhi, on Kashmiri gate police was waiting for us. We thought Archana's father had got news and he had sent police behind us. We left the bus and got an auto and left Kashmiri Naka. Auto dropped us 8 KM away from there. We inquired people there and knew there was a small bus station from where we could get a bus for Rajasthan. We got in that bus, it dropped us at Pali (Rajasthan), then we went to Palanpur (Gujarat) and then to Ahmedabad. In Ahmedabad, I have a friend and I had planned to stay at his house but again the luck wasn't with us when we reached where my friend lived, the area was packed with policemen. Some of them were in turban so I got they were from Punjab or Chandigarh. We knew we were being chased or we can say they were one step ahead than us.” he said, unaware that they weren’t police but Victor’s men.
“Stop,” Patil said, “did Archana know which friend’s house you were going?”
“Archana knew we were going to Ahmedabad but about area she didn’t know. When we reached that area the police in turban told me they were hunting for us so we didn’t stop auto. We asked the driver to take us back. I have a house in my village. No one is living there for years. I thought to go there. When we reached to Income tax, a van stopped near us and a man from van snatched my bag.”
“Then?”
“I had three thousand rupees in my jeans pocket and remaining money in the bag, now we had no bag no money expect three thousand. Archana feared, she started to cry as they snatched the bag. When I was trying to calm her three police jeeps came there. Jeeps were from Gujrat but the men inside them weren’t from Gujrat. They were mostly Sardarji. I led Archana into Gujrat Vidhyapith before they see us. Police searched the area but luckily didn’t come inside Vidhyapith. Now Archana had lost courage. She thought her father wouldn’t let us live happily. She wanted to go back. I tried to explain to her but she insisted to go back.”
“Then?”
“I decided to send her back but I wasn’t ready to send her alone. I decided to go with her to Chandigarh and then return to Gujrat.” He said, “Still we had another bag. I sent it to my friend by courier.”
“Why by courier?” Patil asked.
“I had lost the bag which was full of Archana’s stuff. That second bag had all our documents, her broken laptop was also in it. I gave her her documents back and sent the bag to my friend by courier, fearing we would lose that bag too. And we wouldn't want more language with us.”
“Why you sent the laptop to your friend?” Patil asked, “I can’t understand why a pair of runaway lovers takes a broken laptop with them?”
“I had tried to repair that laptop in Chandigarh but repairing cost wasn’t affordable in that big city. We took the laptop with us so we could repair it in a small amount of money in Gujrat. My state isn’t as costly as Chandigarh.” He said, “we hadn’t imagined we have to go back.”
Patil accepted it.
“We went to Sarkhej in auto and from there we got a bus for Jaipur. In Jaipur, I used my debit card to withdraw money. Then we went to Delhi and then to Chandigarh.”
“When did you reach Chandigarh?”
“At eleven of night.”
“Where?”
“Satara.” He said.
Then he told them how he sent Archana home in an auto and how he kidnapped and rescued by Charmi.
“Okay,” Patil said, “if you want to take a break you can. After the break, the head will talk with you.”
“I really need it,” Shyam said and left the room.
*
Shyam went to the guest room. He washed his face there and then headed to Canteen.
Charmi was waiting for him there. They took tea.
When they finished tea Charmi just said, “The head is waiting.”
“Let’s go.” It was his only reply.
***
To be continue...
