Vikash dada and Joe dada were sitting on a garden chair in front of a beautiful green colored house. with a swimming pool next to it. They were discussing something which was not audible to me. Abhinu was in the swimming pool. Tribeni Dadu was giving swimming lessons to him.
When Abhinu saw me approaching, he came out of the swimming pool and came running towards me. He raised his arm to hug me and said "It's been so long, I was missing you a lot. Look I am not a girl anymore." with a beautiful smile.
I was so happy to see him smile after a long time. I hugged him tightly and kissed him on his cheek and replied excitedly, "Of course sweetheart, I am so happy to see you happy. And the way I saw you swimming, you were amazing."
I saw Abhinu's eyes twinkle and then Tribeni dadu came and said to Abhinu, "Son, are you not feeling cold. You are all wet. Where is that girl?" and dadu gave out a shout "AAMAYA WHAT ARE YOU DOING INSIDE THE HOUSE?"
Aamaya didi rushed as fast as she could towards us with an overcoat on her hands and gave it to Abhinu. As he was putting it on, Tribeni Dadu raised his stick towards Aamaya di and shouted angrily at her, "We didn't rescue you to sit in the house. Your job was to take care of Monika and Abhinu right?"
Aamaya di was looking down and softly said: "Yes dadu."
"And why did I see my son wet and my granddaughter thirsty?" pointing his finger towards me.
"I am sorry sir." Aamaya di replied shakily with her eyes looking down.
"I don't think you really mean it. I think you might be doing this on purpose to tease my grand-children." Triveni dadu replied angrily.
Aamaya didi was standing too close to the swimming pool. All of a sudden Tribeni dadu raised his walking stick towards her to scare her, As his threatening gesture alarmed her and she tried to dodge his attack, she slipped and fell into the swimming pool.
Earlier dadu made it a point to always keep both her feet chained and made sure that the chain was long enough to only let her walk and not be able to run. Dadu wanted to make sure Aamaya di don't try to run away from there. We all had a hearty laugh watching her getting drenched and struggling to get out of the water. She was wearing a saree and with the saree getting wet and bearing her down, her attempts at swimming with her arms and legs flapping aimlessly around made a truly hilarious scene.
She requested "Please help me Abhinu dada. I cannot swim."
I saw Abhinu step forward to help her out of the water.
As Abhinu stretched his hand to help Aamaya, I felt like having fun and pushed him into the water.
Tribeni dadu looked at the 2 fishes in the water and shouted "WHAT... HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?"
I was woken up from my dream by noise and heard dad uttering the same thing loudly,
"WHAT... HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?"
I switched on the lights to my room to check the time. It was showing 3:30 a.m. Did I sleep for long, I pulled the curtain. It was still dark outside. I reminisced my dream, and wished if only it could be true.
As I rushed to the room to check, why dad was shouting, I saw mom snatching the receiver from dad.
"Who is this?"
"What, how did this happen?"
I couldn't hear what the person on the other line was saying, but hearing this exchange I could sense the news from the other side was not good.
Dad looked at me and said, "Monika, get dressed, we have to go somewhere right now."
I saw the worried look on my dad's face, Mom was still talking to the person on the other line.
"Dad, what's wrong. It's 3:30 in the morning?"
Dad came to me, picked me up in his arms and said "We don't know, anything yet. The person on the other line said that there has been an incident near the Station gate."
As dad was about to talk further, we saw the light of a car approaching our front yard. Dad put me down and went to open the door. It was Vikash Dada's car approaching our house.
Mom kept the receiver down and came out of the house. We saw Vikash dada, Nishi Jethu, and Master Kaku coming out of the car.
Master Kaku started, "Mrs. Christopher, I am sorry for what happened, Joe and Geeta are missing. Nishi sir has asked the district S.P. to look into the matter, and expedite."
Mom replied, "That's a relief... but I don't understand, how could something like this happen."
"At around 2:30 a.m. the child started to complain about severe head pains, and said that she was not able to feel anything below her waist." Nishi Jethu replied.
"The on-call doctor ordered to do radiography and an NMR(nuclear magnetic resonance). However to perform N.M.R. they had to take the child to Gopalpur hospital. On the way, someone attacked the ambulance and kidnapped Joe and Geeta."
I was shocked at what I just heard and only hoped that I heard it wrong.
Mom suddenly stepped forward and caught hold of Bikash Dada's collar and started shouting "YOU... YOU CALL YOURSELF JOE'S BEST FRIEND..."
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING..."
"HOW CAN YOU LET HIM GO ALONE..."
"YOU KNOW FULLY WELL... BEING NEAR THAT CHILD IS NOT SAFE FOR ANYONE..."
I found dad stepping forward and pulling mom away from Vikash dada...
He was bowing his head down in shame and replied softly "Kaki maa, I am really sorry, but when Geeta was taken to the ambulance, Joe insisted that he wants to go with Geeta. I told him, not to get into the ambulance and that we will follow it on my car, but he was so blinded by that Banerjee's eldest daughter Aamaya, that he would not listen to anyone and went into the Ambulance."
Dad suddenly asked "AAMAYA... did you say Aamaya was in the ambulance with them."
Vikash dada replied "Yes uncle, today Aamaya was in the hospital with Joe, as Mr. Banerjee had to go to Kolkata for some work. Joe convinced Aunty to go back home and be with the kids."
"And what happened to her then," Dad asked.
"When Geeta was being taken to the other hospital, Master da and I decided to follow them. We tried to maintain the speed of the ambulance. However, there was a police check-post and our car was stopped. When we were cleared, we followed the road leading to the Gopalpur hospital, we took the shortcut from the station gate, with the hope that we would make up the lost time."
"As we approached the station road we saw that there was a pile-up. 3 SUV's had met with an accident. The ambulance was also in flames, and the rear door was open. However, there is a piece of bad news. We found, the driver and the paramedic lying unconscious by the side of the road, Joe and Geeta were missing. We also found a dead body that we believe belongs to Aamaya. A forensic team is trying to figure out whose body it is."
"Nishi Sir has assigned the case to the S.P. and investigation has already in progress."
Without saying another word, I saw mom stepping out of the house and rush to Banerjee aunty's residence. Dad, Vikash Dada, Master Kaku, Nishi Jethu and me followed her.
Mom kept ringing the doorbell, however, there was no answer.
Suddenly Nishi Jethu, who was standing in a corner raised his hands over a window and was trying to peep inside the house.
All of a sudden I saw him take out his gun shouting: "BREAK THE DOOR..."
"What" asked master Kaku.
"I SAID...COME ON... BREAK THE DOOR FAST... FAST..." and he approached us with his gun still clutched in his hands.
I was totally confused seeing what was happening, and then Dad, Master Kaku, and Vikash dada started pushing at the door with all their might.
Nishi Kaku was still pointing his gun towards the door, and Mom caught hold of me and pushed me behind her to shield me in case something untoward happened.
After a lot of pushing and kicking at the door, they made their way into the house.
I tried to peek inside to see what they are doing and saw Nishi Jethu race towards the room with his gun pointed towards the house...
At the same time, Master da shrieked "MRS. BANERJEE" and ran inside the house.
Hearing his scream, we all stormed into the house... As we entered into the hall, what we saw scared me out. It was something out of a horror movie dad and Joe was watching the other day on TV.
The sight in front of my eyes shook me to my core. The bodies of Darika and Garima were lying lifelessly on the floor with their faces down. Vikash dada and Dad rushed to pick them up to check their pulse and whether they were breathing.
Mom kept pushing me behind her shielding me from the horrifying scene.
I could only hear Dad speaking out the dreadful words, "I cannot feel any pulse on her. She is gone." As dad tried to remove the blood ridden hair covering her face he shrieked "WAIT A MINUTE… I think she has been shot to the face."
I heard Vikash da's voice saying, "Garima has been shot in the face too."
Aunty Banerjee was taking the support of the pillar and was bleeding profusely. Her face and clothes were soaked in blood. It felt like she was trying her level best to hold on to dear life. Master da caught hold of her arms with both his hands and tried to make her comfortable and tried to apply first-aid.
However every time Kaku tried to put the cloth on her face to remove the blood she kept on moving his hands away and mumbling,"Please protect Geeta and Aamaya from that monster."
"Monster? Whom are you talking about?" Asked Master Kaku.
"So... Soam... soam..."
With these words, I could hear a deafening silence fill the room as Aunty's struggling breathing sounds came to a halt and she took her last breath.
Even though at times I had wished death upon Darika and Garima because of the way they treated Abhinu, but I never imagined that their lives would be ended this horrific way.
Nishi Jethu picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, this is IG N.N. Chief Crime Branch, I want you to send whoever is in the station to 35 Netaji Road, right now."
"There has been an incident and I want a forensic team to be sent here urgently right this moment."
Nishi Jethu requested mom, Dad, and Vikash dada to wait outside as this is an active crime scene.
30 Minutes Later.
2 ambulances and a couple of police jeeps approached the house and stopped near the entrance. A group of police officers got off the jeep. One of the officers approached Nishi Kaku and saluted him. I saw them discussing something, however as we were standing at a distance, I could barely hear them.
2 of the officers were putting on yellow stripes all over the house, and on those stripes, it said "CRIME SCENE DO NOT ENTER"
A few minutes later, I saw Nishi Jethu approaching us. He looked at us and asked: "Does any of you have the number to Mr. Banerjee's mobile."
Suddenly Vikash dada replied, "I do..."
Everyone started to look at Vikash dada shockingly.
He raised his eyebrow and looked at us "What..." with his both his hands raised, he replied "Oh... come on... don't look so shocked"
"I met Mr. Banerjee, 6 years back. I went to meet him on behalf of S.A.I. to recruit a child called Aarohi and Abhinu for the National basketball team. I got his number back then."
Nishi Jethu smiled and replied "We were just looking at you." and all of a sudden his tone changed and he growled, "GIVE ME THE NUMBER RIGHT NOW."
Vikash dada didn't say another word and quietly gave him the number.
Nishi Kaku took the number from him and called Uncle Banerjee's cell phone. I was unable to hear what uncle was saying on the other line. However, all I could hear was:
"Is this Mr. Banerjee from 35 Netaji Road."
"Mr. Banerjee, I am Inspector General of Police N.N. I am calling from your Purulia residence. There has been an incident at your home, and you need to arrive here as soon as you can."
"Please come soon. This is something that cannot be discussed over the phone."
By the time Uncle reached the house, it was already morning.
Uncle was looking all over and could see only the yellow stripes that said "CRIME SCENE DO NOT ENTER" all around his house and a group of cops doing their investigation.
He approached the first uniformed officer he could lay his eyes on and asks him "Can I talk to Mr. N.N. please?" and he points him towards Nishi Jethu.
I saw Nishi Jethu approach Uncle Banerjee and shook his hand and introduced himself.
Uncle asked looking a little worried with all the cops around his house "I believe you are the one who called me a couple of hours ago. Is everything alright?"
Nishi Jethu bows down his head, places his right hand on Banerjee uncle's left shoulder and tells him "I don't know how to say this, but there has been an incident at your house." he paused and continued, "Someone has murdered your family."
Uncle suddenly tried to run into the house and dad swiftly caught hold of him and stopped him from entering inside.
At that moment the forensic team was bringing out the lifeless body of Aunty, Garima, and Darika on a stretcher. Nishi Jethu let him see his family one last time before they were finally taken away by the forensic team.
There was an eerie silence as we took in the ghastly scene of the lifeless bodies of the 3 of them being taken away.
Suddenly Uncle Screamed "NO-NO-NO... THIS IS NOT HAPPENING... WHAT HAPPENED?"
Mr. Banerjee couldn't control his emotions and stepped forward to hold the lifeless bodies of his 2 children and his wife.
He dropped to the ground shakily and started hitting his forehead with his hand and kept muttering "I am sorry my child... WHY-WHY-WHY..."
He caught hold of Nishi Jethu, crying uncontrollably and kept saying "What did my children do to deserve something like this?"
"Please tell me you will find the person responsible for doing this."
Nishi Jethu replied "I promise. I will do everything in my power to find the people responsible for the gruesome death of your family. Justice will prevail."
Uncle suddenly started to look around, by the looks of it, it felt like he was searching for Aamaya di or Abhinu.
"Do you know where my Aamaya is?... Please tell me is she all right?"
I was completely thrown off by his complete lack of concern about Abhinu at that moment, he only seemed to be consumed by an overwhelming worry of his one and only surviving daughter Aamaya. I couldn't help but think at that inopportune moment about what Abhinu once told me. "No matter how much you care about someone, your own blood will always come first."
Nishi Jethu interrupted my thought and continued in a worried tone "I... I am really sorry but I don't know how to say this, there was an accident near the railway gate..." he paused and replied "Your daughter was being taken to the Gopalpur hospital for treatment, on the way, there was an accident, the driver was unhurt but the paramedic accompanying her is serious and is unconscious. A severely burnt and unidentifiable body has been located near the ambulance. Based on the initial investigation by the forensic team the body is believed to be of a 15-year-old and the gender is confirmed to be female. Since the body is burnt beyond recognition, our investigative team has reached a dead end in their inspection with regards to the identity of the corpse."
Hearing the death of Aamaya didi, uncle went into a state of catatonia. I know the feeling of losing someone whom you hold dear. I was nearly broken when I heard the news of Aarohi's demise and today uncle was probably going through the same with the loss of his family. Uncle really loved Aamaya di more than any of the other members of the family.
Uncle looked at NN Jethu, touched his hands and requested "Please, can I atleast see the body of the girl you found in the accident site. I just want to know if that is my Aamaya."
"I think that could be managed," said Jethu and he raised his right hand and pointed towards the jeep. "Let's go..." and they left on one of the jeeps parked there...
It was already 10:30 a.m. waking up so early in the morning is giving me a headache, and drowsiness, as if these ailments were not enough, my tummy has also started to growl. I just wanted to rest my head on dad's shoulders.
I felt like God heard my prayers, dad came to me and picked me up in his arms, I laid my head on his left shoulder and felt his hands patting me softly on my head. I love it when he does that. It has been a very long time since I had felt the security and warmth of my dad's shoulder.
Dad started walking somewhere, it felt like he was walking towards Aamaya didi's residence but I was too engulfed by the warm comfort of my dad's embrace to focus on my surroundings.
He asked someone, "Can we leave, we have been here since 3:30 a.m."
"Yes... Christopher Sir... you can leave... your child might be feeling sleepy."
We started to move towards our house, I still kept thinking where my brother and best friend are.
As we reached the house, dad told me to sit on the couch while he helped mom get the breakfast ready.
It took them about 15 minutes, all I could hear was the sound of the grinder. After a while, dad brought 3 glasses on a plate to our living room. It was my favorite Strawberry milkshake. I was so hungry that I didn't wait for anyone and started gulping it down.
All of a sudden mom suddenly said: "Sweetheart, I want to tell you something, until we find out where Joe is you are not going to school."
"But mom..." before I could say another word dad interrupted and said "We are doing this for your safety." Dad paused a little and said, "the way the family was killed brutally, with Joe and Abhinu being kidnapped within the span of a night I strongly suspect that you or your uncle Banerjee might be in imminent danger."
"I don't care about that man but I sure do care about the 3 of you."
Finally, mom said, "You must be exhausted, why don't you go off to sleep."
"Your dad and I are going out to talk to the cops, I have asked Koushik to keep a watch on the house."
Mom gave me a kiss as I retired to my room to get a nap. Even with my many years of learning yoga, the sight of Darika and Garima's lifeless bloodied body was giving me the shivers.
I turned on my walkman and played my favorite song "Coward of the County". The only thought in my mind was "Who killed everyone in the family and where is my brother?" with the lingering thought and the soothing voice of Kenny Rogers I finally went off to sleep...
TO BE CONTINUED...