My meeting with the Director of the major crimes division of the CBI was a complete mess. I was caught off guard when she showed up in Bangalore unannounced, she ordered me to meet her at a park by the lake. I met her by a lake known as Sankey Tank, it was a beautiful lake and that was the one thing I loved about that city the lakes. The meeting was a major turn-off when compared to the atmosphere.
"Ma'am, this is a surprise I didn't know you were coming to Bangalore?"
"I am here to discuss a very important issue here with you."
"What is it, ma'am?"
"The people in the parliament feel that things in Bangalore and Karnataka, in general, might escalate and they have decided against my advice to provide you with more funding."
"That is great but what is the catch, they don't do something like that just for one major crime in the state not until they see a pattern that must mean that they might have some clue about who might have done this serious crime."
"You are a shrewd man Rajendra, that is the catch that you drop this case."
"You know I won't do that ma'am."
"Don't be stubborn Rajendra!, this is something way over your head I am trying to protect you and your team here."
"Protect my team and me, we are not kids Shalini, we don't need your protection."
"This is an order! detective, not an offer."
"I am sorry ma'am l got carried away, but you and I both know that I can't let this go."
"Rajendra you owe me for the f**k up in Delhi. Don't pursue this case and drop it. You don't want what happened to your old team to happen to the new one right."
"Is that a threat ma'am?"
"A threat or a warning call it whatever you want but you will not pursue this case anymore. I have another case for you, a college student has gone missing in Hubli the local police have not been able to find much, the case is yours know get working on it."
"I will have my team working on it."
"I am sorry Rajendra but let me deal with the politics leave the case alone he was a nobody who would have had a pretty crappy life if he was alive."
"I don't particularly care about how his life was but the man who did this to him is a threat to society that is my target. That is all I have to say."
Saying this I left the place. I informed the team about dropping the case and asked them to head for Hubli. I had Abhishek and Esha take the lead on this case while I had Krithi and Damini head for Mysore to meet the victim's parents.
While they were there I decided to take care of some business in Bangalore.
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I got an update from Abhishek about their situation and asked Damini to head over to Hubli to help with the case. At the same time, I asked Kirthi to head back to Bangalore and support them from here. Once she arrived in Bangalore I decided to head over to Hubli.
I arrived at Hubli at around 6 in the evening and contacted Abhishek and Esha to pick me up. Damini was doing more research about the college in the station.
"Good evening Sir," Esha said as I got in the car.
"Good evening guys I am insanely tired and hungry, the meetings with the head office were taxing, let us get something to eat first."
"Sure Sir" Abhishek responded.
We headed to this small restaurant near the hotel we were staying. Our hotel was in this crowded area and the restaurant was this dingy little place where they served some Delhi-style food, I knew exactly where I would be eating lunch and dinner every day for the time we would be here.
"Give me the updates on the case."
"The missing boy's name is Kishore Naryanswamy he is a third-year student studying MBBS."
"He was kidnapped 5 days and the local police have not been able to find anything about him," Abhishek added.
"The kidnapping took place in his hostel room, the room was a mess so we know there was a struggle but the door was not damaged so it is most likely that the victim knew the kidnapper and let the unsub in the room."
"From what we know there were better places to kidnap him but he chose to kidnap him amidst the chaos of a party that was taking place during that time."
"So the unsub knows his or her way around the campus, and what do you mean by less secluded area was he not there at the party?"
"No sir he was at the laboratory at the other end of the campus doing research till about 11."
At this time Damini arrived at the restaurant.
"Good evening, Sir"
"Good evening Damini. Did you have something to eat?"
"No sir I am starving."
"Let us order you some food."
We ordered food and Damini filled us in about what she found.
"Sir there have been a few petty crimes in and around the campus pickpocketing, small stuff stolen here and there but nothing more than that. But there was one thing that caught my eye was that there was this case about an attempted kidnapping that was redacted later, after doing a little more digging I found out who filed the case. Her name is Shreya Hebbar she said some guy in a mask tried to kidnap her but her friends came at the right time so he ran away but a week later she redacted the case."
"What did the campus security do about this."
"The management set up more personnel within the campus and more night watchmen to keep guard."
"Ok, then our next course of action will be to find out if there are any more incidents like this within the campus, if it is the same unsub most likely this is an escalation there might have been more attempts that might not have been reported we need to find out every rumour and the gossip of this college. Abhishek, follow up with Krithi and see what we can find from the security footage."
I sent Damini to find out if there were any more unreported cases and to find and see if there were any rumours. While Damini was looking into this, Esha and I headed to the campus to find the girl and talk to her.
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We arrived at the campus at around 10 most of the students were in class I mainly chose this time as I wanted to talk to the people who listen to everything but are ignored by the teachers and the students, the cleaning staff and the peons. I asked Esha to go and find the girl while I spoke to them.
"Hello Sir, I am Ravindra Kumar and I'm writing a story about the boy who went missing can you tell me more about him"
"Yes sir, how can I help you."
"What can you tell me about Kishore?"
"The boy was really smart but at the same time he was also very arrogant about it, he was always thought of himself as the smartest person in every room of this college, there is a reason why he works alone in his genetics class and his partner left his research as well."
"I heard that there was an attempted kidnapping on a girl a few months ago?"
"The college swept the whole thing under the rug, they said they hired new security but that was all just for show, the moment she took back her complaint they fired the extra security guards."
"Do you know why she recanted her complaint?"
"No idea sir, for that you have to ask Prateek sir he is the one who supported her when she sent the complaint the first time, but when she took back the case he did not say anything about it."
"Thank you for your time."
After this, I caught up with Esha at the library.