Hidden & revealed - part ix

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Suddenly something struck my mind. ‘Yes, this idea could get me a clue.’ I thought.




The next day morning I went to the laundry and collected my clothes. At 9:00am I checked out of the hotel. Once I checked out, I went outside and peeped in through the glass window. The glass window was such that people on the inside couldn’t see out but people outside could see inside. I looked at him. He was on a call with someone. “Yes he checked out... (pause) yes okay... (pause)... I have done that already, nothing to worry...(pause).” He was speaking.

‘What did he do? What is he talking about?’

I imagined what I needed to do for the day. I first called up Sudha.

“Hi sudha. This is raghav. How are you?” I asked.

“Hey raghav, how r u? U never kept me posted.”

“Yes, I am sorry for that. Look I’m in hurry and getting intricate with some problems. I need to hurry up. I need your favour.”

“What happened? Yes tell me.”

“I am sorry sudha. Explaining things now are very difficult. I want a car here. Can you help me out?”

“I guess so. Wait a minute...” She said.

“Raghav, I will text you a number. Call to that number and the car will be arranged.“ She said.

“Thanks sudha, I need to go now. Bye.”

“Yeah okay. Call me and update when possible. Bye” She said.

“Okay bye.”
I received a text message two minutes later. I called over and arranged a car. The person who spoke told me to go to the garage, pay the deposit and take the car with the registration number DL-04-1611. It was a black colour Maruti Alto. He told me that the garage was behind Nizzamuddin Railway station. Shah’s Car garage was the name.

‘Behind Nizzamuddin Railway station? Again?’ I was thinking about the horrible incident that took place a couple of days back and my throat dried up.


‘I don’t have a choice. I need to find Anushka. I have to go.’

I took a city bus to the railway station. I wanted to call my mom and update her on things. Just as I dialled the number, I could hear some disturbance. The sound was like some interference like the sound when we place a cell phone near a fixed line telephone.

I called my mom. She was anxious that she didn’t hear from me for the past two days. I said that I was in a place which had no coverage. I didn’t want her to panic over the whole stabbing issue.

After fifteen minutes I hung up the phone. I reached the railway station in half an hour. I went to a super market to get something to eat. At the entrance, the security asked me to keep the bag outside. Only as I went inside I realised it was more than a super market. You name anything and the shop has it.

I just raced through the shop and bought some junk food for eating. Just as I was about to leave the shop, I noticed a section of the shop. It was a make up shop which had beards, wigs and stuff. I slipped into the shop and bought a beard and a wig. I wore them and for a second I couldn’t recognize myself.

‘You can’t do anything without my knowledge. Now I have changed my identity.’

I collected my bag at the security. He also couldn’t identify me. I gave the token and told him that I bought the beard and wig at the shop. He smiled at me. I asked him about Shah’s car garage. He told it was Shop No. 69. I started walking away towards the railway station.

The train which I was supposed to leave for Chennai was waiting at platform 9. I had a feeling that I was being watched by few people waiting at different points in the station. I got into the train. It was about to start by 11:30am. I waited till the train started. It was dead slow and in no time I could recognise three people who were peering at my compartment. They could have been seeing somewhere else but they had a walky-talky.

The train was moving slowly, I came near the exit. I looked on the platform those men had gone away. I immediately went to the rest room and wore the wig and beard. I got down from the train. I crossed the tracks to come across the market.

‘I hope no one finds me out in this identity. I need to be concealed.’

As I was walking I was thinking, ‘Anushka had gone to worship her deity. Her marriage was supposed to be today. Joseph Bharani went with their family but then something must have happened that Anu’s family stayed back and she went with him. There is very little chance that he could have murdered Mr. & Mrs. Patel. This has to be a team effort. 4 guys and 1 girl. Prospectives are Joseph Bharani, the shawl guy... There is a possibility that the girl could have been Anushka. Who are the other two guys? Mansoor went missing. Maybe he helped these guys. Who’s the fourth guy?’

‘If Anushka had gone to the village to worship her deity, then she would have been brought back by Bharani. If something wrong had happened then she would have given a call or at least her parents would ve been concerned. Now they are dead and still no news from Anushka. So there is a possibility that she could have been sedated somewhere else and kept as a captive. Or she could have been hidden inside the city somewhere.’ I was deeply thinking.

I reached Shah’s car garage and in fifteen minutes I was driving the Maruti Alto. I went to the place where the marriage was about to take place. The whole place was empty and the decorations were all removed. I remembered the day when I entered. I also remembered the shawl guy. ‘I have seen him somewhere.’ I thought.

I went straight to the office.

“Hi Sir, I am from the family whose function was to take place today.” I said.
“Oh. I’m sorry for the news. It was a great tragedy. Heart attacks are becoming common.” He said.

‘Heart attacks? Someone would have mixed tri chloro tetra acetate in the dokhla said Dr.Priya’ I thought.

“It’s okay sir. I just want to ask some thing.” I said.

“Yes please.”

“When someone arranges a marriage function here, who arranges for the catering? Is it you or is it someone external?” I enquired.

“We leave that option to them. We recommend people though.” He said earnestly.

“Okay. For the Patel’s family function who arranged? You guys or they themselves?” I asked.

“Well, they were comfortable with their own caterers so we didn’t want to spoil that.” He said.

“You have those caterers number?”

“Yes”. He said.

“Can you give the number? I need to arrange them for the 13th day function.”

“Okay fine.” He gave a visiting card of the catering service.

“Okay sir, Thank you.” He said.

I started leaving. I kept my cell phone on the table wanted. I returned back in two minutes and said “Sorry forgot my mobile.”

“No problem sir.” He said smiling.

I went towards the car and got into it. I played the voice clip which I had saved the conversation of the manager of the function hall.

“Someone from their family came and asked for details, I gave the visiting card... (pause) Yeah okay... bye... (pause).” And the clip trailed off.

‘Traitors everywhere. Is there no one I can trust? Why is everything being informed? There must be something really big that these people don’t want me to know.’

I went straight to the address which was there on the visiting card. The catering office looked a bit old. I went inside and asked for the owner of the catering service. He came over.

“Hello sir, I am bhajrang singh. How may I help you?”

“Actually sir, I come from Mr.Patel’s family. I want to see your team of people who served food that day.”

“Okay sir. But why?” He asked.

“Someone in the function hall helped Mr.Patel a lot. He told me to give him a fortune before dying. That’s why.” I said.

“He was such a nice man. Anyways give me two minutes to assemble my team.” He said.

“Sure Sir, Take your time.” I said.

The entire team had assembled outside the office. They stood in a line and I was like in a scene where a witness would be allowed to identify the criminal.

Suddenly, I received a phone call.

“Hello, Is this raghav?”

I moved away from the crowd to some distance.

“Yes I am. “ I said.

I heard the same interference disturbance which I heard on the bus while coming to the station.

“I’m the doctor calling from the Govt. General Hospital, Noida. The post-mortem report is ready. You can come and collect it.” He said.

“Oh okay doctor. I will come right away.” And I hung up the phone.

I moved towards the team of catering people.

‘I remember the small guy carrying the dokhla. He was wearing a black shirt which had a flying bird logo and a blue jean pant. He spoke in a stammering tone. He had hurt his leg and he was limping. He was of normal skin colour and had big eyes.’

But I couldn’t find anyone like that in this group.
I asked the owner, “Sir, have everyone come today?”


“Yes, everyone except two people.”

“Who are they?” I asked.

“One is a lady and the other is a small boy.” He said.

“But the small boy is of no use, he always limps and stammers. He couldn’t have helped Mr.Patel.” He said sadly.

“No! I exclaimed. He’s the guy. Mr.Patel told me that he limps and stammers.”

‘Yes, I ve got my clue. A clue towards my Anushka.’ I was totally excited.

“Okay sir, You can see him at his residence.”The owner said.

He tore a piece of paper and wrote the address. “Here sir.” He said.

“Thanks. Thanks a lot.” I said.

“Don’t mention Sir. Anything for Mr.Patel’s family.” He said.

I started walking away. I reached the address in twenty minutes. I reached his residence. It was more of a small plot which had no room for even three people to sleep.

I rang the bell. There was no answer. The door was locked from inside. I tried ringing the bell again. There was no answer.

‘Only one option, break the door.’ I thought.

I ran straight into the door and broke it open.

“Oh my god.” I shouted.
I ran towards the guy to see him dead on the ground. There was poison bottle near him and he had died. I called the police and informed them.

‘He was my only hope. There’s no way I am going to find out what’s happening. All my efforts are going in vain. Isn’t there a way out from all this? Every moment there’s danger for my Anu. I’m losing a lot of time. These cold blooded murderers can even murder Anu. Or is that what has already happened?’

My heart began to beat faster as I was imagining these things.

‘You can’t do anything without my knowledge. Even the walls around you have ears. If you don’t leave the reason why you came here will be lost.’

The words rang again and again in my ears. I was there helpless.

‘There’s no way out. No way can I find my Anu.’ I thought.


I was startled after the murder of the young boy. I had cancelled my hotel room, been in disguise and tried to find a clue but all my hopes and efforts are now in vain.

I had no place to go also. I had to find a place. I drove the car to the nearby village and then parked the car behind a huge banyan tree. I walked through the dimly lighted streets of the village. There was no one in the streets. It was night 10:00pm.

‘People do sleep very early here’ I thought. There were small houses down the road. I went down the road to some distance. An old man came out of his house to throw away waste. I immediately went near the old man.

“Hi Sir.” I said.

He looked at me wearily. “Yes.” He said.

“I am coming from Chennai sir. I have no room to stay tonight. Can I sleep at your place and leave tomorrow morning?”

He thought for a while and then said “Okay fine.” I shook hands with him.

We both started walking towards his room, when my cell phone rang. It was Shiva. The old man grumbled “No cell phones in the house.”

“Okay sir.” I said and cut the call. I went inside. Though it looked bucolic from the outside, it was neat inside. There was big hall, one small kitchen and two rooms. One room was locked with a latch at the outside.

The old man said “You can stay in the room till morning 6:00am.”

“That sounds fine. Thank you sir.” I said and started walking towards the door with the latch. Just as I took the hand near the latch, the old man said “No not that room, you can take the other room.”

I was about to leave to the next room when I heard sounds from the locked room. Those were sounds of pain and agony. I looked at the old man.

“It is my daughter. She is mentally upset.” He looked down with a sad face.

“Oh okay sir.” I went to the next room.

“Good night sir.” I said.

The old man waved his arms and he went to his resting chair. I locked the room from the inside. I removed the wig and the beard. I lay on the ground and started thinking.




It was 2:00am early morning and I wanted to find my anu desperately. ‘Every moment I waste danger might creep in closer to Anu.’ I thought. ‘But there is no lead or no clue towards finding here. There is no one to help me out and everyone here is a traitor.’ Just as I was thinking I could hear the old man’s daughter scream with pain. I had a great doubt that it would be Anushka.

There was a brick wall in between the rooms and there was no window or door to peep through the wall. There was a cupboard in the room. I went towards it and tried to open the cupboard. I tried hard and finally it opened and a key fell down from top of the cupboard. It had three shelves and all the three were empty. I took the key from the floor and when I bent down I saw the third shelf. It had a sliding door drawer. It was locked.

I opened it with the key and slid open the drawer. It had a cover, saw, hammer and a screw driver. The cover had couple of dresses. Just as I was about to open the cover, a heavy thunder came down. It struck the transformer and the entire street had a power cut. The room was very dark and I couldn’t see anything. I took out my cell phone and only then I realised instead of cutting the call, I switched off my mobile. I switched it on and used the torch light in the mobile. I saw the dress inside the cover. It was blood stained. The saw was also blood stained. It was horrifying.

There was one window on the back of the room. I was wondering whose dress it would be and I feared whether it would be Anu’s dress. My heart began to beat faster, it was like as though I knew where Anu was but was not able to find it out. I was looking at the window on the back of the room. I switched off the torch light in my cell phone. I couldn’t see anything. Just as I was looking near the window, a lightning flashed. I could see someone with a hat standing near the window. It was raining heavily. I stood up and went near the window. I wanted to see who it was.

To my shock it was . . .

To Be Continued . . .