Predator (24 page)
‘Do tell us more’, said Chief sarcastically, ‘are we to be the next set of sacrificial lambs in your elaborate scheme, Doctor?’
‘Get off your high horse, son. Your college reunion coincided with the sixth kidnapping, the final one, in the quota for the current spree. Joe has been very confident of winning the wine contest this year. Salmonella slipped up when she chose her best friend, Grace. It was the heaven-sent opportunity that we’d waited for so long!’
‘How do you figure that that was a snafu, Doctor?’ queried Goose, scratching his chin.
‘Matters of the heart, son, they can never be truly explained by a psychiatrist. She chose Grace because she, Salmonella that is, was always besotted with Derek. It’s a straightforward case of jealousy and she couldn’t bear the thought of Derek falling in love with Grace. She wanted the threat eliminated. Simple, isn’t it?’
‘Point taken, Doctor, do you have a plan?’
‘Now that Joe and Ram Singh are in jail, Inspector Khan will let Chris go scot free. That will send a message to Salmonella that she’s won. She will turn overconfident … and that’s where you guys come in … you need to host a party at the club as a celebration of life, to the end of madness. It must be done within the week. You need to show that we all now live in a world free of predators, minus Prince. We will plant a decoy. Dr Raman will help you on the technology front. Knowing Salmonella, I am positive she will take the bait.’
‘Fair enough. Of course, I have many more questions to ask you, Doctor, but I suppose … ’ Goose trailed off as Dr Screwalla’s phone rang.
‘Hello Khan. Yes, they’re here. Yeah, I know she’s dead, the poor child. She managed to give you a written statement, the brave girl … what? Are you sure? Oh my god! Yes, they’ll be there in an hour.’
Something was wrong.
Dr Screwalla took a few gulps of water. ‘That was Khan’, he said. ‘He wants to meet you guys right away. As you heard, Grace has provided her testimony. She’s named Joe, Chris, Prince, Ram Singh and … mentioned someone who is the main accused, the person who seduced Grace online. He’s someone called Suraj. His nickname is Manja … ’
Within no time, Motormouth was speeding back into the city with Goose at the wheel. It was a silent drive. Chief and Goose had a lot on their mind. They were worried for their friends’ safety. Salmonella was with them.
There are Predators online, you must stay aware
,
Lest you want to die like Grace, just beware
;
Everyone seems nice online, one cannot tell
,
Choose what you want, a life in heaven or a living hell!
The Predator is on the loose, respect your privacy
,
For many dangers lurk online, you don’t see what you must see
;
Heed me, O’ reader, there’s evil everywhere
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It’s time you set things right, time you were made aware!
—The Predator
Revelation
The empty roads were a boon and Motormouth zoomed through the streets like a low-flying plane under the radar, ignoring traffic signals and speed limits. After all, lives were at stake. Within an hour, they were back at the City Hospital.
‘Let’s spare Hound for now, Chief, he has a funeral to take care of. We’ll grab Derek alone and let Salmonella play nanny to Hound. It’ll keep her out of mischief,’ said Goose.
Inspector Khan was in the parking lot, leaning on his Jeep and chatting with Dr Raman, when Motormouth chugged up to them.
‘Good thinking, Goose, call Derek … tell him he is to tell no one he is coming here to meet us,’ said Chief, and climbed out of Motormouth and joined the top cop and the cyber sleuth. Goose immediately got on the phone. Within moments, Derek came running towards the parking lot.
‘Alright, Chief! Follow me in your SUV. Remember, we cannot afford to be seen around together,’ said Inspector Khan, and the jeep sped out.
Chief got behind the wheel, Goose and Derek piled in, and Motormouth followed the jeep out into the street. Goose brought Derek up to speed about their audition with Dr Screwalla. Derek was astounded by the revelations. He’d always considered Salmonella very level-headed, and they had shared some great times during their college days. To think she was behind the vicious rape and killing of Hound’s sister and many more innocent victims made him cringe.
They halted at Dr Raman’s office. Walking briskly through the cool corridors of the Cyber Crime Cell, Inspector Khan said sternly, ‘I hope you’ve had your reality check carried out by Doc Screwalla. We cannot talk in my office. We’ve got moles. You know of this main accused, of whose existence we were not even aware until this morning. Thanks to Dr Raman, we now have a plan. We cannot afford to mess this up. You got that?’
In the comfortable soundproof conference room, Dr Raman passed around piping hot ginger tea and biscuits, ‘Here, help yourselves, none of us have slept properly in the past few days. This should help.’
‘Right, let’s get to the point, Raman, the sooner we get started, the better,’ said Inspector Khan gruffly as he slurped appreciatively from his cup.
‘Alrighty then, here goes. Having hacked into Salmonella’s laptops and the network operator’s log files, which was quite a feat given the time constraints, my team and I managed to reconstruct the entire sequence of events and built the logic around it. I’ll put my techno-hat aside now, and speak English, Inspector Khan,’ said Dr Raman mindful that Inspector Khan had rolled his eyes.
‘Yes, son, that’ll help for sure. Can the crap and cut to the chase,’ said Inspector Khan in a condescending tone.
‘Aye, aye, sir. This fifth accused, the main one, goes by the name Suraj Sharma online. We didn’t know about his existence until we hacked into all of Grace’s social media accounts like GTalk, Facebook, WhatsApp, Cellphone records, Skype and email accounts. And then it was confirmed in her written statement before her death. He is a very clever man, he’s got no digital footprint and his accounts were created only for Grace. All the IP addresses point to Joe’s vineyard. We originally thought it was Chris, but now we know it isn’t him.’
‘What stops us from thumping Chris, Joe and Ram Singh to find out who he is?’ asked Derek.
‘Done that. I’ve appointed Officer Amar Singh to personally extract this information from them by hook or by crook. He’s already on the job. It’s just that we don’t know if Manja is dead or alive now,’ said Inspector Khan, as he took another noisy sip from his cup, ‘Continue, Raman’.
‘Well, Suraj or Manja – this guy met Grace at the Club for the first time and floored her with his charms instantly. We’re dealing with a smart, intelligent and handsome man here – a consummate smooth operator. Limited CCTV footage from the Club only show a lot of painted faces, and they all resemble Prince. It is practically impossible to pinpoint someone from the crowd especially when the Club is very cagey about the privacy of its guests,’ said Dr Raman as he roughly sketched out the layout of the club in the air with an imaginary pencil.
The puzzled expressions made Inspector Khan interject, ‘There are no CCTVs near the dance floor or at the porch where he spent time with Grace. We’ve analysed the entire guest list of that evening and there is no one who can be considered a suspect. Every guest is photographed surreptitiously only when they enter the lounge area where we know they sell drugs. They do it for their personal reasons. The other areas are largely not covered. This is a small town, you see … ’
‘That’s right. Anyway, after Manja met Grace on the porch, they shared a cup of coffee which made Grace feel lightheaded and she gave him her cell phone number and social media addresses. After a brief conversation, they began their online rendezvous. Manja created a fake profile and connected with Grace across all major social networking sites. By midnight, they were flirting freely online and he made Grace strip down to the bone. We have the pictures accessed from her laptop and mobile phone. All this happened within a couple of hours since they met. Grace kept this meeting a secret from Salmonella – or so she thought!’ said Dr Raman, and added, ‘All this is based upon my conclusions from Grace’s chat transcripts and her email records.’
‘He sure seems like one conniving smart cookie, Doctor. Which are the common networking sites he used to prey upon her and why did she give in to a total stranger so easily?’ asked Chief.
‘He used GTalk and Skype for her live video strip-down; GTalk, WhatsApp and Facebook for chatting her up and getting her pornographic images. Since he posed as a wine expert visiting Joe’s vineyard, he flaunted his connections with Joe, Chris and … hold your breath … even the four of you … However, he didn’t seem to know Salmonella,’ said Raman.
‘The sly sonofabitch! He’s definitely someone who we all know but I just cannot put my finger on the slimy bastard. It could be one of your friends at the reunion party,’ said Inspector Khan and thumped the desk making the teacups jump.
‘Whatever. So now what’s the plan?’ asked Goose impatiently
To Catch a Criminal
‘It’s simple enough. The key is to catch them in the act so it makes a watertight case. As Dr Screwalla may have told you, I’m letting Chris walk free, right? I just did. The bastard is back in circulation. We want Salmonella to get complacent and drop her guard. We will need a decoy. Dr Raman, can you fill us in with the details of the plan, please?’
Raman switched on the projector and the whiteboard substituted as the screen. ‘Yes, sir. As Inspector Khan said, we need a decoy. That is someone to play a potential victim for Salmonella. If Manja is still alive, he will make his move. We have identified a young, good-looking executive from a BPO agency. Her name is Nikita. She’s also into theatre. She fits the bill of a potential victim – all of twenty-two, very attractive, has a great voice and is IT savvy. She will be our bait for Salmonella’s next move,’ said Dr Raman, and the picture of a very attractive woman with wavy, jet black hair, almond-shaped eyes and full lips appeared on the board.
‘Sweet! I like the plan, so why would Salmonella pick her, Doctor?’ queried Derek, unable to tear his eyes away from the image of the gorgeous woman on the whiteboard.
‘You, Derek. Salmonella will pay attention to her because of you! From Salmonella’s social activity, I can safely conclude that she still has a crush on you. She’s been very actively monitoring your online activity, your posts, your friend list, your pictures, tags and what not. You’re the highest rater in her most wanted list, Derek. We will use you to make Salmonella take notice of Nikita … ’ said Dr Raman with all the diplomacy of a geek.
Derek went beetroot-red and Goose grinned. Chief said, ‘More details on the approach please, Doctor? Dr Screwalla did mention something about “matters of the heart” this morning. It sounds like a good plan so far!’
‘Thanks, Chief. Now, Derek needs to make Salmonella jealous by liking Nikita’s posts, posting a few pictures with her, conversing with her on the wall and all that dumb stuff with hearts and smileys. Nikita’s been briefed, and will do the same on his wall. She’s already been added to your friend’s list, Derek, and you’ll see your Facebook wall plastered with her posts,’ said Dr Raman.
‘Sweet God! You hacked my account! How could you! That’s unacceptable, Doctor!’ fumed Derek. Inspector Khan grinned.
‘Yes, yes, I’ll apologize later, Derek. This is all a part of the plan. What’s more, we have been monitoring Salmonella’s online activity and I can tell you that we have her attention already. She’s been on your wall five times in the past couple of hours, Derek. Please understand that for a strong, independent and intelligent woman like Salmonella, given her psychological profile from Dr Screwalla, we have concluded that only jealousy pushes her buttons. We have to mess with her mind, you see,’ explained Raman, and Derek simmered down.
‘I understand your feelings, Derek’, said Khan, ‘but it must be done. Salmonella is quick off the mark! I suppose she will try to reach you soon enough and try to understand what’s brewing between you and Nikita. Also, I must say, Nikita is a very attractive young girl,’ and the sound of laughter lightened the atmosphere in the conference room.