Shyam got himself back as he entered Chamber of the chief. The chamber was big with a metal table, three chairs and two big LED TV screens on the wall, right across the chair of the head. One of the screens were showing footages of the whole building, another was reading headlines from four leading new channels, that screen was divided into four section, each showing a news channel.
Both the screens were muted when they entered.
Charmi got a seat right across the chief.
Shyam waited till the head offered him a seat, “Have a seat young man.”
He thanked him and adjusted on a chair, next to Charmi, thinking how kind that officer was. Even a lower-ranking policeman tries to show his power while that high-class officer was mild and polity, maybe that’s why he was in the high position.
“I have studied your whole interrogation.” He said.
Shyam just nodded his head. Words failed him, he couldn’t decide what to say.
“Some facts are still unsolved.”
“What?” this time he managed to ask.
“From the day you and Charmi escaped from the kidnappers, Archana is missing.”
“What?” it shocked him, “how?”
“She had gone to her friend at Delhi. She stayed the night at her friend’s house but never returned.”
Shyam shivered, hearing Archana had never returned from her friend’s house.
“Have you tried to call her?” he asked.
“Her phone is out of coverage. We have got call details of her number. The last call on her number was from a public phone booth.” The chief said, “Still the location of the sim is reading Delhi but we can’t trace exact place. Maybe she had switched it off and threw away somewhere or someone else had.”
Someone else had made Shyam shudder, again.
“Have police get call recording of the conversation of the last call?”
“No one has tried.” The head handed him a file.
Shyam opened it and read it, flipping pages, his face tensed.
It was reported from Delhi police. It includes FIR reported by Archana's father, her friend’s statement at whose house Archana had gone, and last months call log of her phone.
He looked up, “can police find anything?”
“They haven’t tried. Statement of her friend is also useless. The whole report is prepared by an inexperienced policeman. Archana had gone to Reema’s house before she went missing and still there isn’t cross verification of Reema in the report.”
“That’s the way of our police.” He threw anger through his words.
“Archana has been missing since midnight of 12th. Today is 17th and no progress from police,” Charmi said, “we need call recordings.”
“I also think so.” The head said, “Tomorrow I will send a request to BSNL, as per rule they will provide us with recordings of 12th and 13th.”
“And you should have Reema’s statement again, by an experienced policeman,” Shyam suggested.
“I’ll but first we need call recordings so we can make her cross verification.”
“Our kidnappers will be the same. I have succeeded to escape so they kidnapped Archana.” Shyam sighed, “they want something from me.”
“But what?”
“I don’t know now,” Shyam said, “but we will know as soon as they try to make a deal.”
“A deal?” the chief said, “For what?”
“If the kidnappers are same, they know every detail of Archana, every detail about me. They knew I am here. They will contact us if they have kidnapped her.”
“And what if Archana is missing by her own wish?” the chief doubted, “she has disappeared somewhere.”
“Can a handicapped girl do this all?” Shyam said, “I don’t think so.”
“I, too.” The chief said, “But we can’t think her innocent without any evidence. In the military, we do doubts on all.”
“I can understand,” Shyam said.
“And more thing,” the chief said, “Preetu has tried suicide the day you and Charmi escaped.”
“What on the earth is happening around me.” Shyam sighed. He couldn’t understand anything. All seemed like a mystery movie but there wasn’t any filmmaker to get him a happy ending.
“She is alright now.” The chief continued.
Charmi grabbed him a glass of water, “get relaxed.”
“Why did she do so?” Shyam said after emptying the glass.
“Her mental condition isn’t good. She isn’t able to tell anything. You can see in the police report.” The chief handed him another file.
The report had nothing except statements of Preetu’s hostel mistress. They had found her unconscious in her room.
“No statement of her family members.” Shyam frowned.
“We’ll.” The chief said, “The case seems me complicated.”
“Who would be behind all?” Shyam questioned.
“No assumption, “the chief said, “but one thing is sure.”
“What?”
“In it, Archana, Pritu and you are involved, somehow.”
Anger flashed on Shyam's face as he understood what the chief means. He said indirectly Shyam was involved with kidnappers, he had disappeared Archana, then compelled Preetu to commit suicide and now he was in army headquarter to get some data from there.
“Do you doubt me?” Shyam said, angrily, “do you think I am a criminal?”
“Not, actually,” the chief said, his voice still calm, “charmi has killed one of the kidnappers and if you were with them why would you give her chance to kill your own man?”
“Then?”
“I trust on you Mr Shyam but I am sure you trio are involved in the case, no matter how but you all are.”
“Thanks,” Shyam said.
“For what?” the chief cocked an eyebrow.
“To understand me,” he said, “if I was in the police station they would have sent me behind the bar even without hearing me.”
“But here we give you food and not behind the bars but in the canteen where we all eat.” The chief smiled.
“Believe me I have only this place,” Shyam said, “I have no money or nowhere to go.”
“Don’t worry, Mr Shyam. Stay with us and help us. We need this case to be solved.”
“I’ll try my level best.”
“I hope so.” The head said, “Now I’m sharing something with you that are very confidential.”
“Promise.”
“From Hariyana Home minister’s laptop, some files have been stolen. Some of them have sensitive data from political leaders and high officials. Data by that one can blackmail them. Some files had criminal data”
“Which type of data?”
“A secret agent of Haryana government had prepared data about criminals involved in human trafficking.”
“Is this agent was Malik?” Shyam asked.
“Yes.”
“The kidnappers have misidentified me as Malik.” Shyam said, “Everything is clear now. Just we need to talk with that agent.”
“Agent is missing from months.” The chief shocked him again.
“Oh! No.” he sighed, “what will we do now?”
“Archana and home minister had a family relation. We doubt Archana had some connection with this stolen data.” The chief said, “we need to find the connection.”
“Charmi has told me the files were impossible to steal. That laptop wasn’t allowed to connect with the internet and no one had access to it.”
“And still the data has been stolen.”
“I think we should ask the home minister if anyhow Archana had access to connect that laptop with a net. If the answer is yes then we have an answer.”
“What answer?”
“Archana would often bring that laptop at home. But that was a simple laptop on which she worked for home minister, I don’t think it could have confidential data inside it.”
“What if the home minister has connected his secret laptop with Archana's laptop to data transfer?” the chief doubted.
“You should ask such question to a computer expert.” Shyam smiled.
“I’m trying to call our hacker.” The chief said, “Thanks, due to you now we have a clue.”
“Welcome.” Shyam didn’t miss honour this time.
“Now you are free to eat and drink at the canteen.”
Shyam thanked him and left the chamber.
*
Shyam felt the heat inside his eyes. He fought his tears back but when he reached restroom, tears overpowered him. he was crying. He was sure Archana couldn’t be criminal. She was kidnapped and kidnappers must be the same and she would be facing same torture there. His stomach churned and his lungs burned.
Maybe they wouldn’t torture her. He hoped. They would use her as a bait.if they wanted some info from her they would have kidnapped her earlier, instead of him or with him.
He was so busy in Archana's thoughts that he was unaware Charmi entered the room.
“She will be all right,” Charmi gave him courage, seeing him crying.
She forced him to the canteen. He wanted to call her family at Gujarat but he couldn’t. The chief had told him that would be risky for his family. Kidnappers could know about them.
He ate rice with stripped vegetable and retreated to the restroom. The disappointment was covering him from inside.
He tried to sleep but couldn’t. he glanced at the clock. It read eleven of night. He went back to the canteen. The canteen owner had slept. He sat in a corner booth and lit a cigarette, thinking about Archana.
***
To be continue...
