Predator (18 page)

‘Yes! Yes! I’m sorry … Inspector, it’s not just one semen sample. There are five different semen samples on the clothes. It means Grace has been gang-raped. I suspect she’s being held captive and may be physically and psychologically damaged,’ whispered Dr Pinto looking down on the floor. It was shameful for him to even say it.

His hands trembled as he wiped his forehead. He got up from his chair, gulped down a glass of water and leaned back. He needed a real drink.

Inspector Khan felt the blood drain from his face. He felt sick. The thought of Celina being savaged by these devils briefly flickered in his mind. He could only imagine her agonized screams of pain while she was subjected to the inhuman torture. He could see those tiny fingers as they lay motionless after hours of brutality.

If Celina were alive today, she would have been as graceful and pretty as Grace. She would have blossomed from a bud into a radiant flower full of life. Inspector Khan would have been a proud father.

Something deep inside him snapped. He had to save Grace at any cost. Not just for the sake of avenging his daughter’s death, but for those countless girls who they had butchered. Taking a deep breath, Inspector Khan realized that he wasn’t thinking like a top-cop, the father in him was taking control. He would have to put his paternal sentiments on the back-burner for the moment and focus if he had to find the rapists. On some level he felt he also owed it to all the bereaved parents who had lost their daughters to the Predator.

However, to stand up in court, they would need more than just this piece of evidence to arrest the malefactors. Composing himself, Inspector Khan rubbed his chin and said, ‘Well, at least we have a lead here and I’m glad that the tip-off about the clothes from the laundry is connected to Grace. Help me create a watertight case here, Doctor.’ He was fairly certain that it was only Chris who would be asinine enough to have left such a tell-tale clue at the cleaners.

‘I agree, Inspector, it may not be treated as enough evidence to nab them. Fine, we may have found blood and semen stains of five culprits, but to conclusively link it to Grace’s disappearance won’t fly in the court,’ said Doc Pinto softly, fully aware that this would not be something that Inspector Khan would like to hear.

‘Damn you, Doctor! You know the problem; now tell me the solution. Not only have I got to find and convict them, I know Grace is alive but her time is running out,’ said a furious Inspector Khan, knowing fully well that his friend and colleague had a valid point. Time and again, he’d seen offenders go scot-free and repeat their crimes, all for lack of sufficient evidence to satisfy the law. His cop instincts were convinced that Joe, Chris, Ram Singh and Prince were the prime suspects, but they could slip through the net somehow.

Was nothing conclusive with science? Was it still full of probabilities and variables? wondered Inspector Khan. He was so close, and yet so far, if he went by the book. The periodic disappearances of women had something to do with the vineyard and nothing to do with the devil.

He needed a Plan B to overextend the arm of the law with some help. He had to be more circumspect about his plans. Jonathan Jones, owner of the vineyard, had the power to grease palms with silver and make new friends.

‘Well, here’s the last bit that my forensics has picked up from used underwear, hairbrushes, toiletries and the other stuff belonging to Grace. I noticed a yellow stain on one pair of jeans and am now trying to match up the DNA from her used underclothes with the one dumped in the laundry. If Grace’s DNA profile matches both, we have a chance to build a case. I’m trying, Khan, for the love of God, pray for the poor child,’ said Doc despairingly.

‘Surely, there are other ways to bring the culprits to book, tell me there are’, hissed Inspector Khan, as he fumbled to find his wallet. Fishing it out, he flipped it open and said, ‘you remember my daughter, don’t you, doctor? This DNA shit you talked about then. How much more have you learnt since then? Your bloody, useless science is yet to get her justice! Help me save Grace!’ Finally, he had blurted out what he really felt in his heart, and not his mind. The words hit home and Doc stared at Inspector Khan wondering if he should explain other options to him.

Inspector Khan rubbed his chin, lost in thought. He hated himself for the outburst. Maybe, with age, he was becoming more emotional and less clinical. Or perhaps the loss of his daughter, gnawing away at his insides for too long, had finally broken the dam.

‘Look, don’t blame me, Inspector. I know exactly how you feel, but my hands are tied. Every person has a unique genetic makeup, and we use DNA typing or genetic fingerprinting to identify DNA profiles. DNA profiling should not be confused with full genome sequencing. If you let me bend the rules a bit, then maybe, I can try something,’ said Doc lowering his voice and glancing around to make sure they were alone.

‘I’m all ears, tell me. I’ll cover for you,’ said Inspector Khan, willing to clutch at straws. ‘Just help me find Grace first, screw evidence!’

‘See, I need to do some familial DNA searching around the Jones’s family if we need to be absolutely positive in the court. I can’t help you locate Grace; however, you need to bring those bastards to justice. With the concept of familial DNA searching, I can create a DNA database using specialized software to analyse your prime suspects and establish a familial relationship to build a family tree. You can help me populate information from public records and criminal justice records to give us the closest familial DNA profile and have partial or complete matches to the stains found on the clothes we confiscated from the laundry!’

Inspector Khan looked at Doc with deep affection.

‘OK, what’s the big deal? Go for it, I got your ass covered, Doctor,’ said Inspector Khan, not fully comprehending the technical jargon that Doc had just spouted.

‘The big deal, my friend, is that I have the DNA profiles of all the dead girls who were found in the graveyard including Monica, the Swedish tourist, etc. Also, I have the DNA profile of … Celina … ’ Inspector Khan’s eyes narrowed. He stood transfixed as Doc continued, ‘I need the DNA sample of your suspect list immediately. Can you get that for me?’

Inspector Khan glared at Doc and asked, ‘You want their blood samples? Six hours. You’ll have it, by hook or by crook, even if I cannot obtain a court order!’

‘If not a blood sample, Khan, get me anything. A used coffee mug, a nail clipping, a piece of biopsy tissue, hair strands, saliva, blood, semen – any biological sample will do even if it’s surreptitiously obtained if your law holds you back!’ Doc said.

‘What do you want, Doctor, if you need the best sample?’ said Inspector Khan, his calm tone belying the subliminal rage that he’d bottled up for many years since Celina’s demise.

‘I want a buccal swab as this method reduces the possibility of contamination of the sample and will hold good in the court of law. Can you get your suspects to the police station within the next few hours and I’ll do the swab test the way I did with everything else?’ asked Doc.

Without missing a beat, Inspector Khan replied, ‘pick up your kit. We’re going to the police station. I’ll line up that human garbage within the hour,’ said Inspector Khan and he punched in numbers on his mobile. ‘Control Room? Officer Amar Singh? I want Joe, Chris, Ram Singh and Prince in my office asap. You got that?’

‘Yes, Sir. You got it, By God!’ said the voice at the other end of the line promptly.

Doc got his equipment together for collecting his samples. He knew Inspector Khan always meant business. Only this time, it was more personal than ever before. As he went about getting his kit ready, he hoped that the law’s eyes would not be masked by emotions. Inspector Khan lit a cigarette and let his mind wander as he waited for Doc.

Sometimes, the eyes only see what they want to see while the truth lies elsewhere. Perceptions could be mere smoke screens or illusions of the chimera of evils that lurk deep beneath the surface.

The clues could be mere diversions, he thought – perhaps he would have to change the approach. He would need to think like a criminal to catch one. As he stubbed out the cigarette, he knew exactly what to do.

Doc knew what to do as well. He would swab saliva from their mouths and, with the samples, he would create DNA profiles of those on the suspect list and firm it up with the genetic matches. He had no doubts about Inspector Khan’s ability to interrogate, coerce and convince. He just hoped that everything went as per plan.

He would soon have the DNA samples of the four suspects. It reminded Doc of his childhood, growing up as a farm boy when his father would wake him up at 4 a.m. to milk the cows. This work was no different, just that this experience would be far more pleasant and easier than milking four cows in the wee hours of morning.

Cyber Cell Shockers

It was close to 1 a.m. as Inspector Khan and Doc reached the cyber crime cell by the police headquarters, where Inspector Khan ruled the roost. Inspector Khan waited for a few minutes in the vehicle and then followed Doc into the crime branch offices.

Having established Grace’s digital footprint with Salmonella’s help, followed up by the cyber cell successfully overriding the firewalls in her laptop and mobile phone, the new challenge was to assess the contents of the laptop found in Chris’s room. He fervently hoped that the cyber sleuths had some good news for him.

Sipping a cup of piping hot tea, Inspector Khan and Doc did their best to comprehend what the lanky geek had to say. Dr Raman amused Inspector Khan and he often wondered what the world was coming to with youngsters fresh out of college, calling themselves ‘cyber sleuths’. Raman, however, carried himself with a confidence and panache that belied his twenty-five years or so. He knew his job well and had had no trouble at all joining the team in the cyber cell upon his return to India following a very successful academic career overseas.

Dr Raman reckoned that with the dawn of the new age and the proliferation of electronics, crime fighting also needed to move into a new mode and not have to rely on dinosaurs like Inspector Khan and mere flatfoots. After all, predators didn’t need windows or doors to encroach into private spaces and bedrooms of the young and vulnerable. They had no qualms about satiating their sexual appetites and psychotic needs; they hunted like arachnids on the worldwide web using the innumerable social networking sites.

Perhaps Celina had been a victim to such paedophiles who were at large. However, that was then, this was now. Celina had shuffled off this mortal coil a long time ago. E-progress had skyrocketed since then and the fallout had been both very good and very bad depending on human nature. Now the same paedophiles had an entire new arsenal to lure children into their traps.

The sick minds used their negative intelligence to spy on their prey. Nobody is ever really alone, privacy being a thing of the past; we all live in glass houses now. People were oblivious to the strategically positioned hidden cameras in girls’ changing rooms, hotel rooms and toilets, and allowed predators to jerk off and jizz all over them. They picked their victims and knew exactly who, how and when to strike because these kids were naïve and gullible, and were completely clueless about the baser basic instincts of man.

Chat rooms are filled with cyber filth that watch pornography day in and day out. The same human sewage had permeated into the cyber world and Grace was one such victim of her folly. But what wrong did Celina do? She was a mere child then. She was so innocent. As these thoughts filled Inspector Khan’s mind, Dr Raman patiently stood by waiting for Inspector Khan to return to
terra firma
and give him his full attention.

‘We managed to crack open Chris’s laptop and have found some very disturbing material that you may wish to know about, Inspector’, said Dr Raman.

He braced himself to explain the pornographic content of what he had to report. He was aware that Khan was given to knee-jerk reactions, and needed to ensure he managed to tactfully, at the same time, comprehensively, lay out the facts before him, so Khan didn’t fly off the handle or take off at a tangent.

Inspector Khan’s eyes bored into him, and Dr Raman shifted uneasily in his chair. ‘I can tell that Chris or someone attempted to destroy his computer’s hard drive – that’s the disc that stores and retrieves data. It took me a while to fix it; but as the damage was quite severe, it was very difficult to recover all the data. Fortunately, a few magnetic platters were still intact; probably whoever attempted to crash the computer was in a hurry, Inspector.’

‘Cut the cackle and come to the point, kid. What did you find in that bastard’s laptop?’ said Inspector Khan impatiently.

According to Raman, the laptop had been taken to the State Police Computer Crimes Unit, and more than a dozen technicians had helped gather digital forensic evidence. The laptop search included obvious things like websites visited and photos downloaded. Other data included pinpointing every location where the laptop had been used, the timing of the activity, and the technical ‘artefacts’ laptops maintain as a matter of course. Even some deleted material can be retrieved with relative ease provided the damage to the hard drive is not too severe.

‘Sir, the digital forensic evidence recorded over 150,000 images of child pornography, nude images of young girls having sex with under-aged boys or old men, and over 10,000 nude images of young girls which seem to have been taken surreptitiously in washrooms, closets, changing rooms, hotel rooms, malls and other public places. Although that’s not the disturbing part … ’ said Dr Raman trailing off, realizing too late that he’d put his foot in it.

‘That’s not wrong, kid? Am I in the wrong world or are you like them?’ thundered Inspector Khan. Doc patted his shoulder to calm him down.

‘OK, kid, tell me what, in your opinion, is wrong with what you found in Chris’s laptop?’ said Inspector Khan sarcastically.

‘Well, sir, we found thirteen movie clips of young girls, some even underage, being gang-raped. The graphic violence we analysed in them was hard-core, gory and extremely savage. The brutality shown in the video clips reflects a very dangerous, criminal and psychotic mind. The voice analysis proves it was Joe who was giving the instructions … ’ said Dr Raman.