Though Meghali had done a tremendous job digging up facts, it was always an excellent option to involve an official. So I hired a local investigator who assured me that he would find the culprit before the latter could strike again. I took leave from the office and devoted my entire time to assist the investigator in solving the case. It was not an easy task as we had no solid evidence, to begin with, in the first place. Almost a fortnight passed, with us being buried in piles of documents and newspapers, and yet we were very far from having any solid documentation.
"I checked the database for the records of cars recently being sold and narrowed it down to the ones which were Scorpio and black." the investor told me one fine day, "It raised my suspicion when one of them used a different name in the register of the car dealer."
"Are you sure about that?" I wanted an explicit confirmation.
"Ya, I'm 100% sure that he's the guy. He introduced himself as Thomas, but signed as Mark R. Also, that huge amount in cash is always a warning bell in this era of digitalisation!"
I tried to recollect but failed, "I am not aware of anyone with that name. Any more clues?"
"As the entire amount was paid off in cash, we do not possess any card records that could lead us to the person. However, we do have an address, luckily."
"What are we waiting for then?"
"I am yet to receive the warrant approval from my seniors. We'll move once we receive that!"
"Can I note down the address?"
"Ya sure. Be careful if you decide to go!"
I arrived at the address to find an old apartment, somehow standing firm. I wondered how it had been surviving because Assam lies on the earthquake belt. I went in to see the room, whose address I had jotted on the piece of paper I was carrying alongside. As I took the stairs to escalate the floors and reach the third from the ground, I was astounded to find my investigator sitting on the top row of the stairs.
"I thought you didn't have the warrant!" I told him.
"It came as soon as you left my office." he paused before speaking again, "I hurried to reach here only in vain!"
"What do you mean by that?" I was puzzled.
"Well, you know, there is no room no. 15 on this floor or any of them. Each floor has got on 12 rooms each. I checked myself and confirmed with the inmates."
"This sure is our guy then!" I remarked.
"Sure, indeed. But how are we going to catch him if there is no clue of his whereabouts!?"
Once we were back to his chamber, he blurted out, "There is sure to be something that we are missing here. No matter how clever the criminals become, they will always make a mistake somewhere or the other. We need to find that!"
"Do you not have CCTV footage from the shop of the day of purchase?"
"Yes, we do! I went through it a lot of times. But I don't think it will help because his back was facing the camera for almost the entire duration. He sure did come up with a solid plan. There was a fraction of a second when he removed his mask to take a puff, asthmatic patient, I suppose, but that wasn't enough to sketch him completely. We got only half his face."
"Can I take a look, please?"
"Ya sure, follow me."
He skipped the video to the time frame when the mask was lowered momentarily. Though it was a side angle, I knew who it was, and I couldn't believe what I just witnessed!
When I saw the face behind all this, I was startled, for he was someone not included in the suspect list that I made. It was Roderick, about whom I had entirely forgotten because he didn't date back to my extreme past, the period I focussed as my 'Past'. Meghali, too, missed his name as I never mentioned him to anyone. He's from my recent past, just around the time I got my job.
He was a local guy from Palashbari who applied for the same post I'm now designated as in Ajanta Pharma. He was waitlisted as I was a better choice for the role, and once he got to know that I was not a localite, he began threatening me and asked me to resign from my post. Which, however, I didn't do and stood firm on my intellectual rights, ignoring him! And I always thought that the issue had been resolved, for I never heard back from him, one month after joining! But I was wrong, and my delusion had been rectified at last.
"I know him," I finally informed the investigator.
"What?" he was surprised.
"It's Roderick. I'm sure it is him. I know his address. Let's hope he hasn't fled." I was speaking cautiously.
"Let's go then! We can use the same warrant."
I knocked at the door, and it was Roderick himself who opened the door. He was shocked to see me, "Hey, Arjun, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you."
"Oh, come in then."
"There is someone who wants to see you too!"
As soon as he saw the investigator, he pushed me away from the door and locked it up.
"Open it, Roderick, else we have to break it." my companion told him, but there was no reply from inside.
We heard the back door being slammed and realised that he would have escaped via that.
So we went behind and saw him running away. Though I was not good at running, it was a different occasion today, and it felt that I borrowed Usain Bolt's legs. I outpaced my ally and was soon within an arm's reach of Roderick. On and on we ran, along the road lining the bank of the Brahmaputra, a breeze from the river accompanying us. I finally caught him by his neck and tangled him down. Soon, we were two against him and held him captive, despite his endless efforts of getting himself free.
"I'll kill you, Arjun, I'll kill you," were the words he uttered when my investigator cuffed Roderick and dragged him.
"Calm down, you're not going anywhere." he was replied firmly by my investigator.
"This is not going to end well, I tell you." he was still very hyper and tried all his might to attack me.
"See you in court, mate!" I cut him off, following which he was put in the backseat of the van, and we drove off.
In a week from arresting him, the trial began with my lawyer putting up all the instances of attacks on me and linking them with Roderick.
It was a bit strange that Roderick didn't appoint a lawyer to defend him, nor was he attempting to counter the points against him. It felt as if he had given up his hope of coming out clean and acknowledged that he was to be punished.
"Do you, Roderick Thomas, deny committing this heinous crime of attempting to murder the man standing over there, Arjun Kashyap?" The judge asked him.
This was the moment I got to know his surname for the first time.
"I do not deny!" he was bold.
"Do you have anything to add in your defence?"
"No, nothing." he sounded dull.
His relatively short statement was followed by calling up Priya and other people to the witness box and getting their testimonies. I was relieved that none of them made up stories of their own but only confirmed the actual happenings.
"Keeping in view all the pieces of evidence and the statements of witnesses, I state my verdict and condemn Roderick to be guilty. As a punishment, he will be serving six years in prison and pay the other party a compensatory amount of rupees two lakhs. I, at this moment, declare the case to be closed!"
There were claps and applause from all around the courtroom.
Just as we were having a good chat with my lawyer, one of the policemen came running in, panting.
"What happened?" I questioned.
"It's Roderick!"
"And what is wrong with him?"
"He escaped."
"What do you mean he escaped?" the Sub Inspector accompanying us got furious, "you just had one simple task, and you failed to accomplish that too!"
"Sorry, sir. We don't know how it happened, but somehow he managed to unlock himself and moved out of the van. He then hijacked a nearby car, threw the owner out and raced the car away. We deployed a team to follow him, and they should be informing us about the same anytime now."
His phone rang, and he picked it, "Tell me, what is the status?"
Though I couldn't hear what was spoken from the other end, it was clear to me that they have an estimate as to where he had been heading.
Once the call ended, he informed us, "He's headed towards the Shillong route. The team is trailing him, and I suggest we should go too!"
I nodded and hurried into his car.
We almost reached Jorabat when a large gathering of the crowd obstructed us. The Sub Inspector got off the car and went to inspect what had happened.
He came back and informed us, "You wouldn't believe what just happened!"
I was puzzled, and so was Priya, who was in the backseat with me.
He continued, "Roderick lost balance, and the car crashed off the road into the valley. A crane is lifting the vehicle, and it is suspected that he didn't survive the crash."
It took a while for me to sunk in the words. I finally got off the car and steered my way through the crowd to get a better view. Indeed, he was dead, for I saw his lifeless body being strangled in the front seat of the car being craned up. Though I should have felt happy that the person who wanted to kill me had been wiped off, I was far from being content. Because I wanted answers- answers as to why he had to choose this dreadful route when we could have settled the disparity over a cup of tea. I wanted to know what exactly went wrong with him that turned him so vicious. Though we didn't end our last conversation in friendly terms but conspiring for my death- that was not something I would have expected out of him or anyone else for that matter.
"How did this happen?" I heard the Sub Inspector questioning one of the policemen.
That caught my attention, and I came out of the thoughts going on in my head.
He began, "Within minutes of cutting your call, we chased him and were crossing Khanapara in no time. We announced over the speaker to slow down, but he paid no attention and continued driving. We trailed him and almost reached the Meghalaya border when he skidded off, and the car crashed."
"That is tragic," Priya remarked. I was so lost that I didn't realise Priya got off the car too.
What a sudden end to the story it has had! I always felt there is more to the tale than it meets the eye. Maybe, I was wrong. After all, instincts are not always correct!
"I'll take that to be the ultimate test that our love was experimented with!" Priya hugged me from behind and whispered in my ears.
"Did we pass?"
"We didn't just pass, Arjun. We excelled it!"