Arun returned to the department to find his colleagues struggling to cope with the mounting pressure of handling an unprecedented surge in crime.
Accustomed to a city where the appearance of a dead body was a rare event, his team was ill-equipped to deal with the sudden onslaught of more than thirteen dead bodies in the last twenty days, a stark contrast to the mere two they had encountered over the past two years - one of which had been a suicide.
The gravity of the situation was palpable, leaving them all feeling helpless and out of their depth.
The team was desperate for a ray of hope, a glimmer of evidence to ease their stress. Despite reaching a dead end, they clung to the hope that they might find something, anything.
Officer Arun held onto a glimmer of hope, yet remained hesitant to share his thoughts, as the recent bizarre incidents had made him cautious.
As soon as he entered his office, Amit walked up to the window and scanned the surroundings, making sure no one was keeping a watchful eye on him.
Despite his thorough search for five minutes, he couldn't spot any suspicious individuals.
The unsettling feeling of being monitored never left him, and he couldn't shake off the nagging question in his mind - why was someone always keeping tabs on him?
Arun eventually gave up on searching outside and resumed his usual work. However, after a minute when he glanced at the mirror on the front wall, he saw a mysterious person standing on the terrace.
Even though he noticed, he pretended to ignore it so that that guy would continue to stay there for a while.
After a minute, Arun made the decision to leave his office, but his true intention was to apprehend the person he had spotted in the mirror.
With a clear understanding of the figure's location, he ran towards it at full speed as soon as he exited his office.
The sudden departure of Arun left his colleagues bewildered. Amit trailed after him to see where he was headed. Arun walked into the building situated right behind his department. From the terrace, Arun had spotted the figure watching him, which indicated that the person must be present in the building at the moment.
It would take at least three minutes to come down, even with the aid of an elevator.
Arun scanned the building's surroundings and noticed that the elevator was on the ground floor.
He became confident that the person he was looking for was still inside. Just then, Amit caught up with him.
Arun instructed him to block all exits and not let anyone leave the building. With a gun in hand, Arun headed for the terrace, meticulously checking each floor along the way.
Through searching each and every floor he found no one except a deep silence.
As he was approaching the terrace, his heart starts racing with immense speed, although he was in full control.
The gate of the terrace was opened, and he took a deep breath while pointing the gun in that direction.
Arun took his first step and came face to face with a man standing still showing his back. "Don't move!" Arun's voice boomed, his pitch heavy with authority. "Put your hands up in the air!" But the man remained motionless, offering no response.
As Arun moved closer to him, the man stood silently, seemingly unfazed by the confrontation. "Get on your knees, now!" Arun shouted, his frustration mounting. But once again, the man refused to react, his demeanor remaining unchanged.
"I said on your f*cking knees" Arun shouted.
The man finally showed his reaction, he took a step back and in the very next moment, he ran and jumped over the building.
Arun didn't waste a single moment and ran after him but when he reached there and looked down to take a look at his dead body which was probe-lily lying on the ground which is exactly what he thought at that very moment.
Arun's eyes were wide open and his body was in complete shock, as he couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.
There was no dead body lying on the ground, and everything was back to normal as before. Amit appeared, and Arun tried to compose himself, but he was still in a daze.
He left without a word, returning to his office where he told Amit about the person who was spying on him. However, he didn't want to dwell on the mysterious figure and instead tried to shift the conversation to a different topic to distract everyone.
"Take a look at this photo," he said.
"Who is it?" Amit asked.
"I recently met a chemist who revealed that a student from their university had been caught stealing some precious chemicals," replied Arun.
Arun held out a photo to Amit. "Look at this guy," he said.
Amit studied the image. "So what about him?"
"The chemical we found on the corpses," Arun explained. It matches the chemical stolen by the student in the photo."
"I see," said Amit.
"Look at the guy in the middle of the photo," Arun continued. "Doesn't his expression look familiar to you?"
Amit examined the photo more closely. "I'm not sure," he admitted.
"Compare him to the man who was found hanged," Arun suggested.
Amit squinted, trying to see the resemblance. "I guess they do look a bit similar," he said.
Still unsure, they decided to visit the morgue to confirm if the person in the photo and the dead man were the same.
As soon as Arun arrived, the lab expert Raghav began to inquire about the case. Although Arun had initially planned to discuss the matter only with Amit, the gravity of the situation compelled him to reveal the photograph to Raghav.
After examining the dead body, they concluded that it was possible that the person in the photograph and the deceased were the same individual.
However, Raghav dismissed the connection, saying, "Even if it is the same person, it's still pointless." He added, "This is just another dead end."
Silence permeated the room, tinged with a hint of disappointment, but Arun refused to let go. He ventured another hypothesis, declaring, "There's another peculiar thing you should be aware of."
"What's that, boss?" Amit inquired nonchalantly.
"Well, he mentioned a professor, the very one who quit his post only six months after that student's suspension."
Arun instructed Amit to file for a legal court order to gain access to information pertaining to both the deceased individuals.
Arun had a hunch that there must be some sort of connection between this guy and the Professor, but obtaining the necessary information would take at least fifteen days.
While Amit was on his way to the court, Arun had somewhere else to visit.
The new mission for him was to locate the old man's location in that area although Doctor Lavanaya had not the exact information that where he currently used to live.
He finally stumbled upon the latest crime scene.
As Arun stepped out of his car, an eerie feeling descended upon him.
The deserted street was devoid of any signs of life as if the entire neighborhood had evacuated.
The windows were tightly shut, the doors locked, and there was not a single soul in sight. Despite the odd atmosphere, Arun pushed forward with his mission to locate the old man.
He knocked on the doors of every house in the vicinity, but to his dismay, none of them yielded a response.
"Hello? Is anyone in there?" he called out, but his words echoed back to him in an eerie silence.
As he approached the last house, he couldn't help but feel a sense of hopelessness. However, he mustered the courage to knock on the door, hoping for a response.
To his surprise, the door creaked open and a figure appeared before him.
As Arun opened his mouth to speak, the stranger's icy glare bore into him, and before he could utter a word, a barrage of foul language assaulted his ears.
FU*K OFF
The door slammed shut in his face, leaving him stunned and filled with rage. He couldn't contain his emotions and unleashed his fury on the door, causing a commotion in the quiet surroundings.
As the commotion drew the attention of the residents, they began trickling out of their homes, their faces twisted into expressions of lifelessness.
Amid the chaos, a figure emerged from the back of the crowd. "Hey, Arun," a soft, gentle voice cut through his rage. Doctor Lavanya had arrived after hearing the commotion, and she was taken aback to see Arun yelling in front of the house.
"What brings you here?" she asked sharply.
Arun, feeling frustrated, replied, "I came to find that old man you mentioned earlier. But when I knocked on the door, this guy slammed it in my face."
"He no longer lives here," she added, and Arun was taken aback. "What do you mean, not anymore?" he asked in surprise. "I'm not sure, but perhaps you can ask his son," she replied,
"And where I can find him?"
She nodded in the direction of the very house where Arun had vented his frustration.
"Wonderful," he muttered sarcastically.
Arun contemplated attempting to negotiate once more with the house owner, but eventually, he dismissed the idea.
As they were about to leave, the door opened
"What you want, officer?" The man emerged with an aggressive tone, confronting Arun.
"I have no intentions of causing any harm. All I want to know is where I can find that old man so that I can talk with him," Arun explained calmly.
"Ah, you wish to speak with my father," the man acknowledged.
Arun's heart raced with excitement as the man offered to take him to the elusive old man. Doctor Lavanya followed closely behind as they were led into the depths of the house.
The man led them to a closed room tucked away in the far right corner of the house.
Arun stood before the closed door with a deep sense of curiosity and hope.
He had come a long way to find this old man and now he was just a few steps away from getting some answers.
But as he asked the man to open the door, he was met with a strange request.
The man asked him to open the door by himself. Arun felt a little uneasy about this, but he decided to follow the man's instructions.
Arun turned the handle of the door with caution, and as he pushed it outward, the sight that greeted him filled him with a deep sense of disappointment. It was evident that he had lost again.