The man had a flowing white beard and wore a white dhoti with his upper body covered with an orange cloth and wearing Kolhapuri sleepers was proceeding towards them. It was the Pandit. No one had expected him to be here as he was supposed to be out of the village.
" Pandit?," said a surprised Mr. Ranjeet.
" You said that he was out the village," Ramkrushna asked.
" Yeah, he was, but..,"
Once again the murmuring and whispering of people had started but this time it was not of stress or fear but of hope and relief. The Pandit was the mystic of the village.
" The Pandit..," said Raghav as he stood near Shiva.
Mohan swept his gaze around and spoke. " Everybody seems to relieved,"
" The villagers, they trust him," said Shiva.
" Yes, he was the one who calmed the spirit and seized it twenty years ago," stated Raghav.
" You said that no one knows where he came from," asked Mohan.
" Yeah, he came out of the blue and helped the villagers and in return, they give him a job and a place to live here,"
" Interesting,"
Shiva had a mixed feelings about this man. His behavior was very difficult to understand.
The Pandit went to Mr. Kadam, talked with him and then he addressed the crowd.
" My dear villagers, I was very shocked to hear about Mr. Gokhale. But don't jump on any conclusions right now. We are not sure what has really happened. The police have started their search and investigating and if there is anything to be concerned about then they will inform us. But for now don't worry and pray to Goddess Vasusthala for the wellbeing of Mr. Gokhale,"
Raising his voice from the murmuring of crowd, a man asked. " What about the ritual Panditji ?,"
" Yes, please tell us the date of the ritual," another man spoke.
" We need to do ritual quickly," said one of the villagers.
" Yes, that's right," others agreed.
The Pandit raised his hand and signed the crowd to silence, then he spoke. " As we all know today we were going to gather at Mr. Gokhale's house for the meeting to decide the date of the ritual. But now that there is no contact with Mr. Gokhale we cannot take any decision without him. So in my opinion, we should wait for some time as I'm sure that Mr. Gokhale will come back soon," then he looked at Mr. Kadam.
" Yes, he is right. We are not sure what really happened to him. He must be here in the village. The search team will be doing their work, so no need to worry, we will surely find him," said Mr. Kadam.
Then the Pandit continued. " And after that we can decide the date for the ritual, are there any doubts?,"
The murmuring and whispering began once again. Many of them had some questions but they thought better of it. The Pandit was so respected in the village that no one would question his decision.
" Okay," said the Pandit. " And if there are any questions then Mr. Kadam is here,"
" Yes, of course Pandit ji," said the Senior Inspector.
" I shall leave now," said old man to Mr. Kadam.
" Don't worry, we'll find him," Mr. Kadam assured.
" Really?, will you be able to?," asked the Pandit in a rather cold voice.
" Huh?," asked a baffled Mr. Kadam.
" Find him, the villagers need him, he has a lot of work to do," the Pandit spoke as he changed his tone with ease.
" Don't worry, "
The Pandit left and the Senior Inspector watched the old man leave with a puzzled look.
" What did he meant?," he mused.
The crowd was no more now and Ramkrushna and Mr. Ranjeet had also left for their works.
" That Pandit....," said Shiva.
" Yeah?, what about him?," asked Raghav.
" He's weird, the way he talks, the way avoids the questions with ease, apart from being a priest he has a lot of skills,"
" Are you thinking that he...,"
" No, no, not at all, he can't be the killer,"
" How can you be so sure about that?," Mohan questioned.
" I know he's not the killer, he's got all the skills, but no, he's not,"
Mohan gave a puzzled look to Shiva and before he could ask any question Shiva cut him off with a wave.
" Now, we have to find this Bhaskar," he said.
" So," Raghav spoke. " From where do we start?,"
" From the Library,"
The boys headed to the Library, they knew that now they had to be quick. They have their plan ready but it cannot work without finding the writer and in order to find the writer they have find his best friend, Bhaskar.
On their way to the Library, the boys passed by Mrs. Thackeray's house where she was watering her plants and flowers. To Shiva's surprise, she looked absolutely normal this time. Shiva found that weird but he didn't had time for this, they had to find Bhaskar.
The boys reached the Library, from the quite passage they saw Devashish, he was busy with a pile of old files and huge books scattered on one of the tables which seemed to be the records of the Library.
" Hey Devashish!, going busy huh?," asked Raghav.
" Yeah, got a lot of work today," replied Devashish.
Shiva looked at the shiny new mobile of Devashish and said. " New phone huh,"
" Yeah, bought it yesterday,"
" What are you doing by the way?,"
" Nothing just finding out some old documents of Mr. Joshi related to the Library," said Devashish as blew the dusty files.
" Mr. Joshi's documents?, why?," said Shiva as he tried hard to keep himself from sneezing.
" Oh, sorry about that,"
Shiva pulled out his handkerchief and rubbed his nose. " Why Mr. Joshi's documents?,"
" Now that he's not here I'll have to give his documents and details to the Library and after that they will appoint a new Librarian,"
" I see,"
" Where's the Vasupur Journal?,"
" As usual in the first drawer, go and get it," said Devashish as he grouped the registers and files.
" Okay..,"
Raghav went to the table and bought the Journal.
" You won't mind if we sit here?," Shiva asked referring to their table.
" Yeah, no problem," said Devashish with a wave.
The boys sitted at their table and they didn't had to worry about Devashish as he was four tables away from them and like usual they kept their voice low.
" So, we'll read this book again–,"
" Again!?," repeated Mohan.
" The whole book?," Raghav asked.
" Relax," said Shiva. " Not the whole book but only those chapters that I've sort out,"
" Okay, that's cool,"
" Wait a minute, is there a chance that Mr. Joshi knew who wrote this book?, I mean it's in this Library and he was the Librarian," suggested Mohan.
" Have you forgot what Mr. Joshi told us when we asked this same question before,"
Mohan tried to recall but he couldn't.
" I don't remember exactly uhh," he said.
" He said that this book was parcelled here with a letter of request to keep this book in this Library with no mention of writer," Shiva explained.
" Ah yes, I get it now, Mr. Joshi said that the writer wanted to be anonymous,"
" That's makes it difficult for us to find him," said Raghav.
Just then they heard something. It was sound of the collapsed mountain of records and files which Devashish was trying to move to the other table.
The boys stood up and went to help.
" Hey man, carefully," said Mohan as he picked up the files.
" Shall we help in this work?," asked Shiva while collecting the books.
" No, no, it's fine, give it to me,"
" Yeah," Shiva handed over the pile of books to Devashish.
" Oh man, it's too hot in here," Raghav spoke and he looked up at the ceiling fan, it was doing its best.
" Just a second," saying that Devashish opened the huge window.
As he opened the window, a soothing breeze passed by.
" Yes, great," said Raghav.
" Are you sure you don't need any help?," asked Shiva.
" Yeah I'm fine,"
" Okay,"
The boys went back to their table and sat reading the book. And once again a wind blew but this time it was a violent one. The wind passed from one window near Devashish to the window at other end and it carried away some papers which went straight on Mohan's face.
" Catch them!," Devashish spoke.
Mohan jumped to catch the papers while Shiva and Raghav collected the rest of the papers.
" Don't worry, we got them," said Raghav as collected them.
Shiva's eyes fell on one of the paper and a few letters drew his attention. The letters were B-H-A-S-K-A-R.