Within Her Threads- A Murder Mystery

Chapter 14. The Explosion

The sky...I have to reach the sky...I'm trying, trying my best to swim to the surface but more I try, farther I get pushed in the darkness...pitch-black darkness...there is nothing to hold, nothing to stop me as I am falling down in a deep, dark gulf... I jerked up on my bed, drenched in sweat. I gasp and take deep breaths but I couldn't stop trembling. I took the jug from the side table and poured the entire water down my throat. It was half-past five on the wall-clock and my head was about to get a dose of headache. I got up from my crumpled bed and walked to the study table. It was a habit of Shuchi to write things- sometimes to organise them, sometimes to learn and sometimes to analyse- pros and cons. It always helps; she used to say when your head is all muddled to put everything on paper. There was lot of information in my head and I thought this was the good time to write. I switched on the study lamp and thus started the first draft of the story that I am presenting to you right now. From the time I had the first dream to Shuchi's ethereal visit in London till the evening I spent on the bridge with Bhaskara, I jotted everything down in bullet points on the paper.

On the bridge, when I gained some vigour I asked Bhaskara about the man who was killed by the gang.

'He was an undercover operative, who worked on this case since Kolkata days. He was inside the group but someone got fishy on him. His throat was slit and his body was dumped in the old shipping yard in Bandra...ten days ago,' said Bhaskara disgustingly.

I was flabbergasted when he told me about Swastik Pandit's fiancée Saanvi.

'Saanvi, our Saanvi? She was Swastik's...? And after his death she went to Orissa where this gang- Black Swan operated two years ago? But why? Did she have any clue of them? Did Swastik tell her anything?'

'I don't know. We fixed the meeting at Diamond mall today evening, but she didn't show up.'

Why didn't she come? What was she hiding? My mind had just started rattling with the notion of Saanvi being a potential criminal when Bhaskara received a call. It was the call that forced us to leave the bridge immediately.

'Saanvi had an accident. She got hit by a car,' Bhaskara said as he hung up.

We both sprinted across the bridge and in an astonishing time reached the city hospital. It was her mother who had made the call to Bhaskara. Bhaskara confirmed that she was supposed to meet him at the mall but she never showed up.

'But that's strange. Because I myself left her at the mall,' said Saanvi's mother.

The bigger mystery now was that if Saanvi came at the mall why didn't she meet Bhaskara?

'I was supposed to see a patient nearby and so I dropped her off. I asked her if she want me to pick her up but she said that you will drop her back. And then when I returned home, she was there before me, all sweaty and anxious. She said she'll meet you in the morning. And then the watchman called on intercom asking her to come down as someone wanted to meet her. She went down and this...'

It was quick as making coffee for Bhaskara to get the details from the alleged watchman. But he was shocked when the watchman said that the man named- Inspector Bhaskara called for her downstairs. Bhaskara's face, I remember clearly turned pale white. The accident just turned into an attempt to murder. The last I knew the watchman was in the police station giving the facial details to the sketch artist. This is all that happened until last night. I didn't get any time to discuss anything with Bhaskara but his face held a myriad of emotions and new questions. What happened at the mall that made Saanvi anxious enough to send her home? Who called Saanvi downstairs on Bhaskara's name? Most importantly, why Saanvi? What did she know?

My pen stopped at the big question mark when I heard a vague tinkling sound from the hall. I was about to get up to check when the latch of my room turned, noiselessly in a careful manner. I switched off the lamp and picked up the solid crystal paper weight off my table, ready to throw it on the intruder when mom peeped in.