Within Her Threads- A Murder Mystery

Chapter 9. Raghav, The Peddler

In the darkness, that can swallow,

On the roads that are hollow,

I am riding all alone,

In the journey unknown,

La la la lala la la la la....

The mystery of the darkness is strange to behold.

It holds charm only for the one who embraces it for its lore.

My mind rhymed, I rhymed. We both were enthused to get out of the confines of my sleepless room. Tonight the roads were unusually vacant. Normally, the night life of Pune isn't quiet like this but maybe because it was amavasya (new moon night). In the dancing shadows of the streetlight, I crossed the urban parts of the city. Like a good citizen at every signal I stopped and on almost every turn the street dogs trailed behind my bike barking their displeasure out, saying a word or two of what they thought of my latenight sojourn. Bhaskara didn't tell me a thing about his abrupt call; I phoned him once when I was putting on my shoes but the call went straight to his voicemail. Bhaskara, what you have in store for me, god knows but I am hoping that you have found something crucial to get me out of bed, I mused. I was turning around the corner of the Dhuan colony when all of a sudden another bike joined me on the road. I was taken by surprise and a hundred menacing theories floated inside my head, when the other biker lifted his helmet.

It was Bhaskara. Why doesn't he ever wear his uniform?

'Where did you come from?' I asked, by opening the lid of my helmet when Bhaskara signalled me to stop.

I stopped behind him and he asked me to park the bike in the shade of a large tree. 'What?' 'Never-,' said Bhaskara in a low voice, '-scream in the dark. The voice travels faraway.'

Fair point! I had almost forgotten that at one am in the night, we were not meeting for an excursion but a confidential job. Bhaskara asked me to lock the helmet on the bike, mute the mobile phone and then follow him.

We had just crossed two blocks when a man, hiding between the walls of the two buildings slinked in with us. I turned sideways to see him but I couldn't grasp his features very well as he was wearing a cap and the road that we had taken was barely lit with the street light. However I can tell you, the man was taller than both me and Bhaskara and had an awful tobacco breath. One could smell the nicotine from two miles away for sure. But he walked like a black cat, silent, creeping and absolutely aware of his surroundings. Twice I saw him gesturing to Bhaskara as a result of which we stopped, his eyes moving in all directions, his ears on full alert; only when he was fully convinced we retrieved our walk. By judging the gravity of the situation, I didn't ask a single question from Bhaskara but followed him wherever he took me.

After walking a distance of almost two kilometres we stopped in front of an 'under-development' building. The board in the front of the building said- 'work-in-progress' but it seemed that for last six months, no man ever set his foot on the god forsaken site. The slinky black cat pointed towards the run down second-star hotel besides the building and murmured- second floor. I looked at the dim yellow light in the open window he was gesturing to, there was a bluish-white glare in the room which I suppose was coming from the television. I turned to see his next move but to my great amazement both Bhaskara and black cat had vanished. What? Left and right I turned my head when I heard a hiss. It was coming from the pillar in the front which was completely in dark. Following my instinct, I sprinted soundlessly towards it and found Bhaskara hiding behind the pillar.

'Be quiet...,' he whispered, '...for next ten minutes, just follow my trail.'

Before I could ask him about whatever is going on and whereabouts of the black cat, another man, short & bulky, jumped out of the shadows, beckoned Bhaskara and without warning they both sprinted through the man-sized gap in the boundary wall. I ran to catch up and squeezed in after them, following their heels as closely as I could. They entered the back of the dilapidated hotel, bounded up the stairs and without any warning smashed open the door of the room 204. The sole inhabitant of the room was not given the time to adjust to the shock caused by us as the other man bolted the door behind us.