Chain of Custody (30 page)

‘Do you have a picture of this fellow?' Gowda wondered if it was too early to pour himself a drink. He needed one like a bee needed nectar.

‘Get me a glass of water,' said Gowda, turning peremptorily towards Roshan. ‘Have you seen the photographs?' Gowda asked when Roshan was out of earshot.

‘No, Uncle.' The boy avoided his gaze. Then he added, ‘I saw two or three, but not everything.'

Roshan came back with a glass of water and a serious expression. ‘He is a sick asshole, Appa,' Roshan said.

Gowda frowned, wondering if he should ask his son to mind his language. But Roshan probably wanted his friend to see this as one of those man-to-man chats, and Gowda didn't want to show the boy up.

‘Do you have his address and his photograph?' Gowda asked. A friendly warning should do, he thought. ‘And one of your sister?' he added as an afterthought.

‘I'll send it to you, Uncle,' Suraj said.

Gowda glanced at his phone as Suraj's message arrived. For a moment, he couldn't believe his eyes. Suraj's sister was the girl who had come to meet the lawyer in the afternoon. The boy who had been blackmailing her had visited the lawyer the evening he was murdered. What were they up to? He didn't want to go further with that thought. Where did this end, this need to accumulate? Was nothing sacred any more?

Suddenly he felt he had to get away. Gowda looked at his watch.

‘I have to go,' Gowda said, rising.

‘He is investigating a murder case,' Roshan explained to Suraj. Gowda heard the pride in his son's voice, the subtext being, my daddy is bigger and better than yours. I wish I were, Gowda thought as he shrugged into a half-sleeved shirt and pulled on a pair of jeans.

What did Roshan actually think of him? And then Gowda was struck by the irony of it. All through his youth, he had worried about what his father thought of him. And now he was worrying about what his son must think of him. Did either his father or his son ever wonder what he thought of them? He didn't think so.

Gowda spritzed some cologne on himself and patted his pocket to make sure he had everything – phone, wallet, keys and cigarettes.

‘Don't wait up for me,' he told Roshan as he stepped out.

Gowda thumped the seat of his Bullet as if it were the rump of a horse. ‘Now, don't you dare stall on me,' he whispered sternly. He needed to feel the wind in his face; he wanted a pair of arms
to gather him in an embrace; he needed to feel for himself that love wasn't a commodity with a price. He needed to believe in happily-ever-afters at least for a few hours.

Urmila glared at him. ‘How do you know I'm not busy?'

‘Are you?' he asked, allowing the weariness in his voice to show.

‘No. But …'

‘Urmila, I am so tired. I am worn out in my head and I don't have the energy for this. Didn't Michael tell you what the child said?'

She nodded.

‘Do you want me to leave?' he asked, leaning against the door.

‘Borei,' she said and held him.

She poured him a drink and sat next to him as he drank his rum in silence.

‘Human greed,' he said after a long while. ‘Is it ever satiated?'

Gowda clinked the ice in his glass.

‘I would like to stay the night,' he said. She laid her cheek against his. It had never happened before. Neither had she seen Gowda in such a state before.

Urmila's phone rang just as they slid into bed.

‘Don't answer it,' he murmured against her neck.

‘No, I have to,' she said, glancing at the name of the caller.

Urmilla sat up and answered the phone. ‘Yes,' she said. Gowda watched the play of emotions in her eyes.

‘What's going on?' he asked.

‘A social worker I know. They've set up a raid and they want me to be a part of it.'

‘Now?'

‘Yes, now. Borei, why don't you sleep? I'll be back,' she said slowly.

‘I am the policeman here and you are the citizen,' he said.

She paused as she pulled on her clothes. ‘So?'

‘So I am going with you.'

10.00 p.m.

The two of them reached the meeting point that had been fixed by the NGO. Urmila let the car engine run as they waited. She called the NGO coordinator.

‘They are at the junction ahead,' Urmila said, switching off the engine.

‘Don't slam the door when you get out,' Gowda said quietly.

A dog barked. Another one took up. Urmila opened her handbag and brought out a few slices of bread.

‘Here, here …' she whispered, flinging a piece of bread at the side of the road. The dog snuffled as it wolfed it down.

It wouldn't have occurred to him to do that, Gowda thought.

The NGO coordinator, Tessa Martin, was short and stout. But she bounced with an energy that would make a rubber ball feel inadequate, Gowda thought as he saw her approach them. He tried to hide his frown as he saw Santosh and Ratna following her. What were they doing here?

Santosh walked towards Gowda. ‘You didn't mention this to me,' Gowda said, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

Santosh held his gaze steadily. ‘Tessa called after you left to say that they were doing a raid tonight. I have to be here. It's under my purview. Ratna too.'

‘Which station?' Gowda asked.

‘Sampigehalli,' Ratna said, joining them.

The three of them walked quickly. Gowda realized they were unsure of having him with them. And yet neither of them dared say anything.

The inspector of Sampigehalli station had no such qualms. He frowned, seeing Gowda, and clenched his jaw.

‘Do you have a toothache, Inspector Narayanaswamy?' Gowda had his most genial expression on.

Santosh said hastily, ‘There is a missing-girl case we are investigating. Gowda sir is the IO.'

The inspector said nothing. He looked at his men.

‘Our volunteer is in there. The moment he calls, let's go in without any delay,' the coordinator said to Gowda.

The inspector growled, ‘Madam, this is my station, he is not in charge. I am.'

She snorted. ‘And you didn't know about the brothel. How far is it from here? One kilometre?'

The man frowned. Gowda grinned.

Ratna touched her arm and said, ‘When did your man go in?'

‘About twenty minutes ago.' The coordinator glanced at her watch.

‘When did you receive the tip-off?' Gowda asked.

‘Actually, Urmila was the one,' the coordinator said. ‘Someone called for her at the Bosco rescue unit in the railway station. Apparently he asked for her, saying he had information about minor girls in a brothel. And Urmila seemed to know who he was.'

And you didn't come to me, Gowda thought furiously. But he said nothing.

‘Madam called me late last night,' Santosh murmured. ‘I said this was outside our station jurisdiction.'

‘Tessa was the one I went to meet early this evening,' Ratna said. ‘We had to prepare the ground. We needed to find a pimp who could lead us here.'

Gowda felt Urmila's imploring gaze. But he avoided meeting her eyes. There would be time, he decided, to ask her why she hadn't called him. For now it was important to make sure everything went right.

A few minutes later, the coordinator's phone rang. ‘Now,' she said.

‘I suggest you wait here,' Gowda told Urmila.

‘No, we need her. We need as many women as we can get on an operation like this,' the coordinator hissed.

They walked down the narrow alley. Most of the doors of the tenements were shut and the windows were dark. As they approached, a man sitting on the doorstep got up and went in. He shut the door and turned off the light.

Inspector Narayanaswamy strode up the stairs, followed by two constables. The coordinator and Ratna ran behind them, followed by Santosh, Gowda and Urmila.

The shutters were drawn halfway down. The inspector pushed it up, making enough noise to wake up the dead in the distant cemetery. The coordinator and Santosh hissed, ‘What are you doing?'

But he sauntered in unheeding, calling out, ‘Police.' For effect, a constable blew a whistle.

Gowda felt the blood go to his face. ‘You fucking bastard!' he muttered as he saw the raid turn into a farce.

Half-naked girls; men with their briefs around their ankles; screaming and shrieking; the sound of upturned boxes; a few slaps …

A slender young man met Gowda's gaze for a moment and then began running. Gowda tried to dive for his ankles but the boy escaped his clutch and leapt towards the staircase. ‘Get him,' Gowda hollered and chased after him. The boy's feet barely touched the stairs as he leapt over four or five steps at a time.

The boy ran into the alley. Gowda followed him. He saw the police jeep parked at the end of the alley. Gowda leapt into it and said, ‘Follow him. We have to get him.'

The police driver looked at him questioningly. ‘Go man, go!' Gowda shouted.

The driver turned the key. But the engine wouldn't start.

‘What are you playing at?' Gowda said as the boy became a speck in the distance.

The jeep wouldn't start. ‘I am sorry, sir,' the driver said with a contrite expression. ‘I don't know what happened.'

Gowda stared at him and got out. He had been played. All of them were in it.

Then he saw Santosh run down the stairs and towards him. ‘Sir, she is here,' he said, his voice hoarse with excitement.

Nandita sat on the edge of the bed in a cubicle. She looked dazed. Ratna was sitting at her side. Urmila stood alongside. But Nandita wouldn't speak. She just stared unseeingly at the wall opposite. When she saw Gowda, a flicker of something showed on her face.

He went to sit by her. ‘Nandita, do you know me?' he asked gently. She nodded. ‘Shall I take you home?' he asked.

She nodded again. Then, as if struck by a thought, she said, ‘Amma will be angry.'

‘No, she won't,' Gowda murmured. ‘She will be happy to see you,' he said, gesturing to Urmila to take her.

The inspector stood examining an account book he had found in a little cupboard. It was just a few days old. Gowda looked at it. ‘How convenient,' he said. ‘None of the major monthly payouts.'

‘What do you mean?' the inspector said.

‘You didn't buy this on your salary … I am not a fool.' Gowda tapped the heavy gem-encrusted ring the other man wore on his index finger.

‘Let's go,' Gowda said as Urmila walked out with Nandita.

‘You can't just take her like that,' the inspector protested. ‘There are formalities to be followed.'

‘Try me,' Gowda said, shutting his protests down with a stare.

‘Apart from Nandita, there are four girls here. Two are from Assam. One is from Gulbarga and one is from Bangladesh. Apparently she was brought in just this morning.'

‘Where is your volunteer?' Gowda asked, looking towards the NGO coordinator who was talking to the girls.

An elderly man stepped forward. ‘He is one of our staff members,' Tessa said. ‘He helps with the clerical work.'

‘These are the two guards,' Santosh said, gesturing to Daulat Ali and his stooge. ‘We should be able to get some information from them about who owns this place and how the operation is run.'

Tessa snorted. ‘They probably know nothing, which is why they didn't run like the one that got away. Anyway, they will be out or they'll esacape when being transported to the station. Isn't that how it happens?' She glared at Inspector Narayanaswamy. ‘When you grab a young man from the streets for some petty crime, you keep him in the lockup for a whole week before producing him in front of a judge. But then these scums walk free in twenty-four hours.'

Gowda looked away. Everything Tessa said was true. He looked at the girls. Not one of them was over sixteen.

‘Sir,' Santosh asked, ‘what will happen to the girls?'

Gowda took a deep breath. He hated having to be the one to tell Santosh, but he was bound to find out sooner or later.

‘The Gulbarga and north-eastern girls will go to the government shelter. Once the authorities in the places the girls are from are reached, the girls will go to a home there or, if they have a family to return to, they will be sent there.'

‘And so the girls will be home soon.'

‘No.' Gowda shook his head. ‘It might take anything from six months to a year. These things have a way of stretching out.'

Santosh's face fell. ‘What about the Bangladeshi girl?'

‘She will be sent to prison,' Gowda said quietly. ‘They usually have no papers and that's what happens to illegal immigrants.'

16 M
ARCH
, M
ONDAY

6.30 a.m.

G
owda could hear murmurings from the kitchen. Shanthi came into the living room when she heard the bedroom door open. Gowda blinked. He saw a shadowy form behind her. He had thought she wouldn't come in to work that morning.

‘Namaste,' he said.

‘Namaste, sir.' She smiled. ‘Would you like some coffee? I have put the hot water on for your bath.'

Gowda smiled. She had probably polished his shoes as well and laid out a freshly laundered and ironed handkerchief.

He walked to the front door and saw it was locked. ‘Shanthi, why have you locked the door?'

‘Nandita is with me.'

‘How is she?' Gowda asked.

‘She won't let me out of sight. She held my hand all through the night and wouldn't stop crying. I don't know what to do, sir.' Shanthi's eyes filled.

‘At dawn, she demanded I bring her here. She feels safe here,' Shanthi said. ‘But even here she is afraid someone will come and grab her. She wanted me to lock the door so that if anyone comes here, they'll think there's no one at home.'

Gowda nodded. He moved towards the shadowy form. ‘Don't be afraid, Nandita. Nothing will happen to you,' he said gently.

He hoped that the many million gods in the Hindu pantheon and Jesus and Mary would ensure that Nandita survived her ordeal. The scar tissue, he hoped, would form thick and soon.

‘Shanthi,' Gowda called out from the living room as he sipped his filter coffee.

She came to the door with a worried expression.

‘There are formalities to be followed. I'll ask Ratna madam to come here. It may not be easy for Nandita to answer the questions, but it needs to be done,' he said, as he walked into his bedroom.

The previous night, Ratna had gone with Tessa and the girls, while Urmila, Santosh and he had taken Nandita to her home in Gospelnagar. Shanthi had opened the door. When she saw Gowda, she had blinked in surprise. When Gowda moved aside and she saw who was with him, she had burst into tears. She had stumbled over the threshold to gather her daughter in a tight embrace even as she pressed kisses on the girl's face. The younger children came out at the commotion and so did some neighbours. From within the house, Gowda
heard Ranganna snoring loudly in a drunken stupor. Gowda had glared at the man in disgust. ‘Shall I go prod him awake?' Santosh asked.

‘Don't,' Gowda said. ‘He will beat his daughter, wife and children and create a scene. It will be all about him and I don't have the stomach for it after the day we have had. I may end up breaking his nose …'

Santosh had smiled and the two men waited while Urmila reassured Shanthi that Nandita was unharmed.

‘I'll drop you both home and go back to mine,' she said as they got back into the car.

‘No,' he said. ‘I'll drive you back and return with my bike.'

‘I'll go with you, sir,' Santosh said.

It had been almost half past two when Gowda entered his bathroom for a quick shower before crawling into bed.

8.00 a.m.

‘Something has come up,' Gowda said when the team were all assembled. He looked at their curious faces – Santosh, Ratna, Gajendra and Byrappa. Between the five of them they would have to untangle the knotted mess of this case.

Gowda opened his phone and showed them the photograph Suraj had sent him.

‘This is the second visitor,' Santosh said.

They listened as Gowda explained to them about Rekha, Siddharth and their connection with the deceased.

Ratna kept shaking her head. ‘What's wrong?' Santosh asked.

‘At the NGO I was first with, there were cases of many such girls. Some who get into it because of their boyfriends … and some' – Ratna looked embarrassed that there could be women
who valued their bodies so little – ‘who do it for the spending money. The ones who came to us didn't know what to do. The boyfriends had probably disappeared and there wasn't anyone else they could turn to. And you know what, most of them wouldn't even remember what happened. Or even what the person who had been with them looked like.'

‘Rohypnol?' Santosh asked.

Ratna nodded. ‘Is he the one?' Ratna asked, pointing at Sid's photo.

‘That's what we need to find out,' Gowda said, looking at Gajendra's face. The head constable had been silent. ‘What do you think?' he asked.

‘Is it that simple? I am not sure,' the head constable said thoughtfully.

‘Exactly. But we will know only when we bring the boy in,' Gowda said, reaching for his phone as it beeped.

Last night, as they had driven back, Gowda had asked about the call that had come for Urmila at the rescue unit. ‘Could you get the number?' he had asked.

Urmila had promised to send it to him first thing in the morning. And so she had.

Gowda dialled the number. It was switched off.

He wrote the number on a piece of paper and gave it to Gajendra. ‘It's switched off. We need to trace it to see who it belongs to.'

10.00 a.m.

Santosh and Byrappa stood outside the house in Shanthi Nagar. The boy's address had been easy to locate. Except that there was a lock on the door.

‘Where do you think he's gone?' Byrappa said, staring down the lane.

From the corner of his eye, Santosh saw a tiny movement at a window. ‘I think he's here,' Santosh said.

Byrappa frowned. Then he walked to the door and thumped on it loudly. ‘You can either come out or I can drag you out. Which do you prefer?'

They heard a side door open. Byrappa hurried towards it while Santosh stood by the front door.

‘I didn't do it,' the boy mumbled. ‘I didn't do it.'

Santosh walked up to the boy, who seemed to have shrunk. He was all bones, eyes and an unshaven chin. He had a massive bruise on his face and his arm was in a sling.

‘Why are you hiding then?' Byrappa asked.

‘I am afraid they'll come for me,' the boy said, his eyes darting beyond Byrappa and Santosh to see if anyone else had followed them.

‘Who?' Santosh asked.

‘Can I go with you, please?' the boy pleaded. ‘Please take me away from here, please.'

Santosh and Byrappa exchanged a look. What was he so frightened of?

12.00 p.m.

Just another boy like Roshan and Suraj, Gowda thought, looking at the boy huddled in the interrogation room.

‘How do you know Dr Rathore?' Gajendra asked.

‘I didn't kill him, sir.' The boy turned towards Gowda. ‘He was already dead when I got there.' He rubbed his eyes.

‘Answer my question,' Gajendra growled.

The boy sunk his head in his hands. Then the words emerged; a sordid torrent of events. Rekha. The cucumber seller. The easy money. ‘It was just once, but she began having this fling with the lawyer.'

‘And so you decided to kill him?' Gajendra demanded.

The boy raised his head from his hands for a brief moment. ‘If I did kill him, why would I come here, sir?'

Gowda looked at Gajendra. It was time to move onto the next phase now that phase one of the interrogation had been accomplished.

He tilted his chin at Gajendra to indicate he was taking over. Gowda dragged the chair to the other side of the table so the boy would have to raise his head to look at him.

‘Sid,' Gowda said.

The boy's eyes widened.

‘Siddharth,' Gowda said again. ‘What did you do when you discovered Rekha – Rex, that's what you called her, right – was involved with the lawyer?'

‘I was angry, sir. I was furious that she was cheating on me. So I decided to set up another escort evening, get my money and fuck off …'

Santosh growled, ‘Watch your language!'

‘I am sorry,' the boy said. He took a deep breath. Gowda and the others listened: the call; the date that didn't happen; the beating.

‘You knew what that evening was going to be like …' Gowda said softly.

The boy nodded.

‘She was your girlfriend and you still went ahead. Are you a pimp?' Santosh said, placing his palms down on the table and glaring.

‘But she didn't go. And the man who set it up said it was all right. Except he didn't mean it. He had me beaten up.'

Gowda leaned forward. ‘And …'

‘So I called her and said I was going to upload our chats and pictures on Facebook and WhatsApp.' The boy's voice was defiant. ‘But she said she would go to the police. Everyone knows the police only listen to the woman's side.'

Gajendra boxed his ears at that. ‘It's usually because they are the victims …'

Gowda glared at him. ‘Go on,' he said.

‘I thought I would go to the lawyer and show him what his baby girl had been up to with me. I wasn't thinking straight, sir. I was angry at what she had done; and I was angrier that I had been beaten up because of her. She treated me like dirt. She …'

Gowda touched his arm to interrupt the boy's diatribe. ‘What did you see when you got there?'

‘The door was closed, but there was a glass panel by the door. I peered in and saw a man lying on the floor. When I saw blood, I fled.' Sid shivered.

‘You didn't think of alerting the neighbours or the security or calling the police?' Santosh asked from the shadows.

The boy shook his head. ‘I was sure that if I got involved, I would get into a deeper mess. I had mentioned to the man who beat me up that the lawyer was responsible for Rekha not going on that date. I thought they had got to him as well. Except that I didn't know they had killed him. I saw it on TV later that night. That's when I locked my front door and stayed inside.'

Gowda stood up. ‘Take his statement and keep him here since he is happy to be remanded.'

Gowda sat at his table with his hands laced beneath his chin.

‘Do you think he is speaking the truth?' Santosh asked.

‘We'll know when we do a fingerprint match,' Gowda said. ‘But I don't think he is lying. He is petrified of what will happen to him.'

The station was abuzz with activity. Mondays were always busy, but Ugadi was drawing close and pre-festival times saw a strange spurt of petty crime.

‘Have you got the postmortem report?' Gowda asked.

‘It's on your table, sir,' Santosh said. He had been afraid that he would need to go to the morgue again and witness a postmortem. The first one was still fresh in his mind and the taste of bile that flooded his mouth after. But Gajendra had gone in his place.

Gowda glanced at his watch. ‘Why don't you and Ratna finish taking Nandita's statement? She and Shanthi are at my place.'

And for once I can file an A-report – case solved and closed, Gowda thought ruefully.

Ratna and Santosh walked towards the police jeep. PC David was standing under a tree, rubbing his forehead furiously.

‘What's wrong?' Santosh asked, taking in the man's wan face.

‘Sinus headache. And not getting better. I think I have a fever too.'

‘But we need to go out.' Santosh's bike was at the service station. He didn't think Gowda would take kindly to him asking if he could borrow the Bullet.

‘I'll drive,' Ratna said.

‘You can drive a jeep?' Santosh queried in surprise.

‘I can drive anything except a train, tank and plane,' she said airily.

‘I don't think I can let you drive the jeep,' David said unhappily.

‘C'mon, PC David.' Ratna opened her palm to him. ‘It's just to Inspector Gowda's house. And you can sit in the jeep.'

David dropped the keys into her palm.

Santosh wondered if he should offer to drive instead. But he was curious to see how good a driver she was.

Ratna got into the jeep. Santosh followed and stopped himself from telling her to check if the handbrake was on. David got into the back seat and closed his eyes.

Ratna reversed defty and drove out of the gates with a fluidity that made David sigh in relief and Santosh look at her in admiration.

‘May I ask you a question?' He glanced at her face.

She met his gaze with a swift look. ‘Ask away!'

‘You chose to be an assistant sub-inspector. Why?' His voice was low. ‘You have a postgraduate degree. You could have joined at the sub-inspector level or even written the civil services exam.'

‘And do what? Push a few papers this way and that?' She smiled at him. ‘I wanted to be hands-on; haven't you seen how it is with women and children?' She spoke quietly. ‘I didn't want to be stuck with administrative work which any fool sub-inspector can do. I didn't mean you,' she added hastily.

He smiled. ‘I know what you mean, ASI Ratna. And what do you think now?'

‘I don't know,' Ratna said, turning into Green Fields. ‘It feels like we are at the visible end of the garbage dump; the rest of it is cloaked in darkness and deceit.'