Let's End Your FEAR

Chapter 1

8 months back......

March in Mumbai was always unpredictable, but once every decade or so it was downright sadistic, fluctuating wildly between tantalising promises of spring and the last angry death throes of stubborn Summer that had no intention of going.

Mumbai was out of force cherishing the temporary solution that the state was actually habitable to.

Inspector Nakuul Shetty far stretched out on chair on his front porch, newspaper in one hand, a mug of coffee in the other. He hadn't forgotten about last week's drama in his office about a petty robbery case, sipping his coffee he watched, as the neighbourhood engaged in all manner of personal torture, huffing and puffing and sweating furiously against the hot climate.

He was on a second cup of coffee and almost to the sports section when a Volvo station wagon pulled into the driveway. Viraj Yadav hopped out with his enormous cooler and a bag of chips ,his belly fitted the generous limits of Tommy Bahama shirt and a beefy legs poked out from a terrible pair of plain Bermuda shorts.

"Hey Nakuul" he jumped of onto the porch and dropped the cooler. "I come bearing gifts of animal flesh and fermented grains with chips."

Nakuul lifted a dark brown" At 8 o'clock in the morning? Tell me this means Anjali finally kicked your sorry ass out so I can call her and propose."

"You should be so lucky. This is charity. Anjali folks took her and the kids to some craft thing at the mall so I had a free Sunday thought I could liven up your so called life."

Shetty got up and looked into the cooler. "What's the craft thing?"

"You know this places with all types of booths with people make houses out of old grocery bags and stuff like that"

Shetty pulled out a package of sickly looking plump grey white sausages, "What are these things that look like your legs?"

"Those are uncooked brats imported all the way from Nepal you food pygmy. Where's your grill?"

Nakuul gestured towards a rusty old Weber in the corner of the porch.

Viraj nudged it with his foot and it collapsed. "We are going to need a duct tape."

Nakuul shifted a suspicious looking dark Orange break of cheese,"12 year Cheddar? Is that legal?"

Viraj grinned. " That stuff will make you weep with joy I promise. Got it at great little cheese house in Bangalore somebody forgot about a wheel in the cellar and found it 12 years later covered in about of foot of mold. Nirvana my friend. Pure Nirvana. It's amazing what a cow and some bacteria can do."

Nakuul sniffed it and cringed." Oh yeah everytime I see a cow I think, Heyy, wouldn't it be great to get some bacteria and really do something with this thing, And why do you have a file folder in the cooler?"

"It's a cold case."

"Very funny!"

Nakuul sat down on the chair and open the folder "Victim is sort of a plumber right."

"That's the one. Shot 7 times 3 of them in places I don't even want to think about."

"Plumbers charge too much."