Patang (17 page)

‘What did your husband do about all this?’

‘He tried to calm him down. Iliyas was his younger brother, after all. I believe he even offered him some money.’

‘Did that help?’

‘On the contrary. It only made Iliyas more upset.’

‘Hmm. Please continue.’

Amina sighed. ‘One day, without my husband’s knowledge, I went to meet Iliyas and tried to talk some sense into his head. But…’

‘What did he say?’

‘He…he was just not ready to listen to me. He kept saying that he really loved and respected me, but that he had reasons to believe that…’ Amina paused, and Rathod and Aditya looked at each other.

‘Reasons to believe what, Mrs Raza?’ Rathod prodded softly.

‘It’s too cruel!’ Amina said, her eyes welling up. ‘He said that Imtiyaz had killed his father and forged his will. But that’s not true, Mr Rathod, that’s simply not true. You have to believe me.’

Amina looked at Rathod imploringly but Rathod didn’t respond. Instead, he asked, ‘Did Iliyas say anything else?’

‘No, he simply said his head was in a mess, and told me I should leave.’

‘Did you speak to your husband about this?’

‘Yes, I did. I confronted him later and asked him if it was true. Within my heart, I knew that it wasn’t, but I still needed to hear it from him. But I know now that I shouldn’t have.’

‘What did your husband say?’

‘He wasn’t the least bit pleased that I had met Iliyas. He seemed extremely upset that I had spoken to him, and blamed me for not trusting him. He said it ached his heart to see his
brother accusing him of killing their father. That was the first day when I saw him weep, Mr Rathod. He said…he said he felt
lonely
.’

It was clear to Rathod that Amina was finding it increasingly difficult to speak.

‘So I did what I thought I should do. I stood by him. And now…he’s gone and I…’ Amina’s voice choked. She buried her eyes in her handkerchief, while Rathod and Aditya waited for her to regain her composure. After a minute or so, she said, ‘You’ll have to excuse me, Mr Rathod. I would like to be by myself for some time.’

‘Sure, Mrs Raza. But before you go, I have just one more question for you.’

There was something in Rathod’s voice that made Amina Raza look up at him. Rathod took his time to choose his words and frame the question.

‘Do you really believe that your brother-in-law was responsible for your husband’s death?’

Amina Raza looked at Rathod for a while, her eyes filled with a sense of angst and hurt. The wrinkle that had now formed on the otherwise flawless skin of her forehead was a sign of the storm that was raging inside her underneath the calm surface. She opened her mouth to speak several times, but every time she swallowed her words. Finally, she seemed to make up her mind. Clutching the seam of her handkerchief in her fist, she firmly said, ‘No!’

In the late afternoon, Rathod and Aditya entered a small cafe near Parel to grab a quick bite. ‘What will you have?’ Rathod asked the young officer.

‘I’m not hungry, sir, you go ahead,’ Aditya replied.

Rathod clicked his fingers to call a waiter and placed his order.

‘What do you think?’ Aditya said after the waiter had left.

‘Nothing concrete…very few leads,’ Rathod remarked.

‘Do you think what Iliyas is saying is true?’

‘What do you mean?’ Rathod asked.

‘You know…that his elder brother murdered his father?’

‘There’s no reason to believe either way yet.’ Rathod took a sip from the glass of water in front of him.

‘The lady seemed like she knew something,’ Aditya speculated, ‘but didn’t want to divulge it.’

‘If I’m not mistaken, she is an exceptionally strong woman,’ Rathod said, even though he seemed lost in his thoughts. Aditya watched him closely, but didn’t dare to disturb him.

‘Can I ask you something, sir?’ Aditya asked hesitantly after a minute or so. ‘If you don’t mind, that is?’

‘Yeah, go ahead?’

‘What was Tony Matthew like?’

Rathod looked at Aditya curiously. ‘Why do you want to know?’

‘I don’t know. He…he interests me…’

‘Does he?’

‘Yes, I think so…’

‘And
why
does he interest you?’

‘Well, he…’ Aditya paused because the waiter had come to the table with Rathod’s food. After the food had been served and the waiter left, Aditya continued, ‘He is a genius, you have to give that to him. There’s no doubt that he has done something horrible, but he is extremely intelligent. A super-criminal.’

‘A murderer!’

‘A man with superior faculties.’

‘Sitting in a jail cell now.’

Aditya smiled and said, ‘That’s because of you…your genius is superior to his. You outwitted him.’

‘But that’s not the point, Aditya,’ Rathod raised his fork just like a teacher raises his pen. ‘People like you glorify such men and make them into something they are not.’

‘Which is?’

‘Heroes! You turn them into heroes, goddamn it!’ Rathod’s voice rose several decibels and he slammed the table with his palm. Aditya looked around and Rathod followed his glance to find several people staring at them from the tables nearby. Feeling a little embarrassed, he lowered his voice to a whisper, yet the intensity with which he wanted to make his point hadn’t reduced one bit. ‘It’s downright shameful! Everywhere you see – in movies, in books, in the media, in public discussions – everyone is discussing the serial killer. In this case, too, people are only talking about Tony Matthew…this…this…what is that you called him?’

‘The Patang Killer,’ Aditya said calmly.

‘Yes, the “Patang Killer” – imagine! I mean come on, he is a criminal, for crying out loud! Why is no one talking about Harish and his team – those who were on the beach that night? Do you know each of those men have families back home? Wives, children, parents to go back to. They risked their lives and caught the killer, but is anyone talking about them?’

‘Oh no, sir.
You
caught him,’ Aditya smiled sheepishly.

‘I didn’t do it alone. The credit goes to the entire team in the operation. The point is, no one is congratulating them. Everyone is busy talking about the killer, because everyone loves talking about spicy scandals. Give them a reason, any reason, to pull
off a heist and everyone will be cheering for them. Give them a suitable background story and they can happily slit people’s throats and shoot them in the head in the name of revenge. Disgusting!’

Aditya fidgeted with the salt dispenser. He didn’t comment, but neither did he apologize. Rathod dug into his omelette once again. After some time, and with some amount of hesitation, Aditya said, ‘Sir…you know what I think?’

Rathod didn’t respond. He continued eating quietly.

‘I think you should meet him once.’

Rathod looked up.

‘Meet who?’

‘Tony,’ Aditya said calmly.

Rathod looked at him sharply and said, ‘Listen, Aditya, get it out of your head that Tony Matthew is somehow connected to Imtiaz Raza’s death. He is locked up in Arthur Road Jail, for heaven’s sake.’

Unknown to himself, Rathod’s voice had risen again, and Aditya shot a glance around them, making an assuring gesture with his palms to try and calm him down. Rathod looked around and saw that several people, including the waiter who had served him, were once again stealing furtive glances at them.

‘I’m not saying you need to go in there and accuse him of killing Imtiaz Raza,’ Aditya said quietly. ‘But, at the same time, you can’t deny that the entire crime scene had “Tony Matthew” written all over it.’

‘Why do you think so?’

Aditya shrugged and said, ‘Do you expect me to believe that you didn’t notice the kite motif?’

Rathod was impressed despite himself. Clearly, the young man was much more capable than he had been given credit for.
In fact, and Rathod was quite surprised to discover this, he was perhaps the most observant police officer that he had met in years, despite his youth.

‘The kite motif?’ he still asked, just to test the clarity of Aditya’s thoughts.

‘Well…I may be wrong, but sometimes, when a kite is flawed, and it’s flying in the sky, a strong gust of wind can tear it apart and break its spine. I don’t know about you, but that’s what I felt when I saw Raza and the entire fan thing, especially the way he was tied up.’

A spark of appreciation twinkled in Rathod’s eyes. Aditya was looking dangerously confident of his tall claim. In that instant, Rathod liked the promising young man for the first time. Perhaps because he saw a bit of himself in him. At his age, Rathod had also been super-confident and had no qualms about making his point in a clear, logical manner.

‘Even if you are correct, and if there was a motif of a kite used in the murder – how is it possible that Tony killed him?’ he asked softly.

‘I’m not sure yet…but I think you can find the answer to that in a cell at Arthur Road Jail.’

Rathod thought for a few moments and said, ‘Even if I were to agree to meet Tony, no one will let me see him.’

‘Ah, there’s a way,’ Aditya said. He glanced around, tilted his head towards Rathod and then said in a low voice, ‘Do you remember Satham Sir?’

Rathod frowned. ‘Satham? You mean G.K. Satham?’

‘Exactly. The senior inspector at Chembur years ago, in your early days. It was a long time ago, and I wasn’t even in the force back then. I’ve heard that you two were close – that he, in fact, mentored you. You also worked on several cases together.’

‘Yes, but what about him?’

Aditya beamed. ‘Well, he is now the chief warden at the Arthur Road Jail!’

‘Oh yes!’ Rathod exclaimed, the fork almost dropping from his hand. ‘I had heard this sometime ago. I wonder how it slipped my mind.’

Aditya smiled cheerfully. He seemed happy to have been of assistance to his hero.

‘But,’Rathod said, ‘how do you know so much about Satham Sir and me?’

‘I told you earlier, sir…perhaps you didn’t notice – I am a big fan of yours. I’ve followed
all
your cases very closely.’

A soft, appreciative smile appeared on Rathod’s face. He had been thinking of Tony Matthew ever since he had seen the crime scene at the mill and had been convinced it was impossible to meet him. But the bright young officer in front of him had just shown him the way.

24

He was walking through a dark and damp alley when he saw a man hunched over next to a fire burning in a drum at the end of the lane. As he drew nearer, the man looked up. His heart galloping, he saw that it was Tony, and that he was hunched over a chessboard. With a sinister smile, Tony raised his blood-covered hand and dipped it inside his jacket to bring out a claw-hammer. Then, raising the claw-hammer over the chessboard, his eyes shining in the dark, he said, ‘Checkmate!’ and brought the hammer crashing down.

Rathod woke with a start. For a few seconds, he couldn’t remember when he had returned home and dozed off. He had
broken into a sweat. As he was taking his shirt off, he realized that his phone was buzzing insistently.

‘Hello?’

‘Rathod? This is DCP Singh.’

‘Yes, sir, how can I help you?’ Rathod asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

For a few seconds, there was no response. Then the DCP said, ‘So you haven’t seen the news yet?’

‘What news?’ Rathod sensed the urgency in the DCP’s voice. ‘What happened?’

‘Turn on your TV. It’s everywhere. Call me back on this number.’

Rathod rushed to his living room and turned on the news. An anchor was reporting from the field – Rathod recognized her as Maya Taneja. Wasn’t this the channel Ananya worked for?

‘Citizens of Mumbai had just breathed a sigh of relief after notorious serial killer Anthony Matthew, also known as the “Patang Killer”, was apprehended by the Mumbai Police after brutally murdering as many as three individuals in shocking and bizarre ways, when a sense of dread descended upon the city yesterday as a fourth body was discovered in an abandoned steel mill near the Shantinagar industrial area in north Mumbai. The victim, a man named Imtiaz Raza, is believed to have been murdered in a gruesome manner, which has all the signs of a murder committed by Tony Matthew. We have learnt from reliable sources that although initially the victim’s brother had been considered the prime suspect the police are now considering the possibility that the murder may have been caused by the Patang Killer himself. We remind our viewers that Tony Matthew is still in jail. In this bizarre, almost supernatural turn of events, various questions are being asked by the citizens
of the city. As you can see, we are reporting live from the steel mill in which the victim’s body was found. Let us ask a few people gathered here. Yes sir… Do you think this murder was committed by Tony Matthew?’

A middle-aged man with his shirt buttoned all the way up to his throat looked directly at the camera and said, ‘Yes, only he could have killed in this manner.’

‘But Tony Matthew is in prison.’

‘Everything is possible for him,’ the man said with dangerous confidence, and a few young men and children behind him smiled and nodded.

‘But how? How did he escape from prison and commit the murder?’

‘That I don’t know.’