YOU’RE NEXT, BUDDY
PRE-NOTE:
Kindly excuse correct the grammatical mistakes. Thanks
in advance. :-)
PART 4:
Sylvia widened her eyes. “Who sent it? I mean, surely,
Supriya did not…”
“Supriya didn’t send the book to Vasanth,” said Prashanth
calmly.
“Who did then?”
“Can’t you guess?”
“Well, so far, I can suspect Ayesha. Clearly she was tired of
her friend and so she decided to take a step that Supriya had no guts to.”
“Good. Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know.”
Something struck Sylvia and she brightened. “But who could
possibly know for sure that Neil Gaiman is Vasanth’s favorite author?”
When Prashanth was silent, she spoke. “His brother,” she
said. “What’s his name?”
“Prashanth,” said Prashanth who couldn’t hide the streak of
smile in the corner of his mouth. “He is an attractive personality, you know?”
“This is the story of Vasanth, isn’t it?” she asked
thoughtfully wondering whether she should enquire more about Prashanth and his
dart gun. A doubt that this tale had something to do with the scary serial killer
on town prickled her mind. But she didn’t dare to put in such a direct query
yet – not when she didn’t even know the name of this guy ‘Vijay’.
“Ah of course. This is a love story of Vasanth and Supriya,”
he assured her. That was when her cell phone rang again and she excused herself
when she saw the name on the display. “I gotta go, Vijay. My friend is joining
me today and I have to go pick her. See you soon.”
Thirty minutes later, Priya was unpacking her bags at
Sylvia’s rented apartment. “Sylvia, is that true that The Arrow is living in
this neighborhood? Or were you just screwing with me?”
Sylvia moved her rolling chair to her table, opened the draw
and pulled out the warning letter from The Arrow. Priya examined it and looked
at Sylvia seriously. “What do you think? Are you not scared?”
“No. I am waiting for you to begin the investigation,” said
Sylvia casually.
Priya laughed shortly while hanging her favorite actor
Shahrukh’s picture near her bed. “We’re not police. But still where do you
think we’re gonna do any investigation?”
“Why? At Vasanth’s place, of course!”
“We don’t know anything about this brother character.”
“It doesn’t matter. Ranjani aunt told me that after both the
boys left for work, she is left alone for 8 hours. That’s plenty of time for
us,” said Sylvia, watching her friend eagerly. She could not actually see
Priya’s face as she was busy arranging her books on her table.
“Well,” said Priya finally, turning around. “All right. But
if we get any real information, we’re going straight to the police, okay?”
“That’s cool with me,” Sylvia nodded in agreement. “So today
no work and all play, Ms. Priya Viswanathan.” She said with a huge smile
without realizing that she was letting herself into a trap.
************
From the corner of his eye, Vijay caught movement. Bhargav
was sprinting across the road toward him, racing the car, throwing himself at
Vijay in a flying tackle. His extra momentum flung them out of danger even as
the car swerved in a futile effort to nail them. Both Vijay and Bhargav tumbled
through the underbrush as the car roared down the road. Vijay got up, blinking.
Blocking their retreat was his own car, rear doors open.
“Get in, guys,” said Spadiha, looking around for the Nova. It
was nowhere to be seen. On the other hand, Raghav’s car was coming back. “What
the hell was that all about?” He asked, braking it so suddenly with a screech.
“No idea, Raghav, somebody just tried to hit Vijay,” said
Spadiha who still hadn’t recovered completely from shock.
“I saw the Nova. No number plate. So I am not sure whether we
can track it,” said Raghav. Half of his mind wanted to chase the car that hit
his friend and half of his mind wanted to stay with his friend.
Vijay looked at Bhargav, “Thanks, Bhargy. But don’t ever do
that again. What if you were killed mistakenly? What will I tell Indhu?”
“What will I tell
Indhu?” repeated Bhargav angrily. “That I watched you die? Come on, like
Nolan says, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a
villain. I’d rather die than carrying your death news to my sister.”
“Enough,” said Spadiha. “I think The Arrow is getting
impatient with all the security. That can’t be good.”
“Yeah, guys, let him kill me slowly. Why are you trying to
make it quicker?” said Vijay, massaging his neck and gesturing Spadiha to step
away from the driver seat. Raghav removed the key in the ignition quickly and
said, “No, no, no, Vij. You’re coming with me.”
Vijay knew that his protests would be useless and so he
climbed onto his car. Raghav speeded and Spadiha followed him. “This time, I’ll
be more careful,” said Raghav.
“House arrest?” asked Vijay, making himself comfortable in
the front seat.
“More or less,” said Raghav. “I don’t want this case solved.
I want…”
“I get it,” said Vijay shortly.
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re overreacting.”
“Shut up.”
Vijay chuckled. “Sorry. I promise that I will stay inside.
But can I see those videos?”
Raghav regarded Vijay suspiciously but agreed that he would
get what he wanted and would run some errands for him if necessary as long as
he wouldn’t run into danger. Once they reached the commissioner’s place, his
aunt welcomed all of them fondly and Vijay didn’t show any immediate interests
to go after The Arrow. Still Raghav made sure that he was within his limits.
Even when Raghav complained to Ravindran that it was his fault that Vijay’s
life was at stake, he simply shrugged and began playing the piano.
Bhargav slipped into a seat next to him. “You decided to quit,
Vij?” He asked slowly.
Vijay drummed the piano softly. “He has a weapon.”
Bhargav grinned. “Indhu?”
“Yep, he would run to her and it’s not good. I don’t want to
antagonize her and I don’t want her to come back.”
Bhargav crossed his legs. “Now I have a way to blackmail
you.”
“Like she will listen to you,” said Vijay lazily when Raghav
came to him and dropped a pendrive on the piano. “Here you go, Vij. The videos.
And don’t do anything foolish.”
“Certainly not,” said Vijay, smiling. He waited till Raghav
got out of the house and then quickly switched on his laptop with Bhargav and
Spadiha on either side. Spadiha couldn’t get past the first video fully as she
watched James Alwin screaming in pain. “You know, guys, I am gonna pass.” She
left the men alone.
Bhargav said, “We know that it’s not the Arrow’s place. It’s
Alwin’s – so no need to watch out for the surrounding. Apart from that, what
sort of clues were you expecting to find?”
“Nothing much. I just wanted to know whether this guy really
has any purpose for torturing these people or he is just enjoying it as a
sadist.”
“Well?”
“Listen, he is talking.”
“No, I can only hear the wailings of a victim,” said Bhargav,
yawning pointedly. “It’s like watching a psycho movie after muting the psycho’s
voice selectively.”
“Precisely the point,” said Vijay.
“Huh?” Bhargav looked at the laptop quizzically and then
looked at Vijay with a puzzling expression.
“He is talking,” said Vijay again.
Bhargav rustled his hair out of frustration. “I can’t hear,
can you?”
“No. But the point is that he is talking. Meaning that it is
personal. I am trying to make out a conversation from what the victim is
saying.”
“Well, so far the victim has said things like ‘what’s wrong
with you?’, ‘what do you want?’, ‘don’t do it’, ‘oh my god’ and then eleven
‘please’. Good luck,” said Bhargav sarcastically.
“Yes, the victims are clueless just like me. They don’t
understand why they’re getting killed.”
“Brilliant, Vij,” said Bhargav, his voice full of irony.
Vijay swatted him playfully before loading the next video into his media
player.
“The last video of Juhi Sinha’s death definitely throws some
light,” said Vijay after some time.
“Yes, she shouts ‘you’re mad; you’re insane; you’re crazy’
every time he hit her. That definitely does make some sense.”
“She also shouts at one point ‘punishing people doesn’t bring
anything back; let it go’. So there is something that connects all of us. And
then ‘you didn’t deserve THAT; but we don’t deserve this either.’ And after
that she tries to give us a clue.”
“Bad luck that he had muted that part.”
“We can lip read. We can’t see him but we can see her in full
view.”
“Wow,” Bhargav sounded curious as he leaned forward and
pressed the rewind button.
“Bhargy, pause it right there.”
“Yes?”
“It’s all mute but she is looking straight into the camera. I
think she already figured out who is going to get the video – she is talking to
them directly now.”
“You’re right.”
Vijay tried to mimic her. “I am sorry, Ayesha dear. Be
strong; stay strong!”
“She is passing a message to her cousin.”
Vijay shushed him and continued, “Don’t think that it’s your
fault. I’ll always be around you even when I am gone. I love you.” A final blow
to her head at this point made her head drop to one side. Vijay closed his
eyes.
“That’s cruel,” said Bhargav, shivering a little. Suddenly he
remembered something and put the first video back on. “Vijay, in this, James
Alwin is saying at one point, ‘It’s just an experiment.’ Did you notice?”
“Well, he is a doctor. He must’ve conducted… wait a minute!
Also Badrinath said something like that he wasn’t involved. And Gokul…”
“Not clear but he said at one point that ‘it was a little
help’. Gosh, what did you do, Vij? What experiments did you conduct?”
Vijay flushed, “Why would I… never mind. This guy must’ve
mistaken me for someone else.”
“Absolutely. I’ll find what you did in another one hour.”
“You will?” Vijay looked amused.
“You bet!” said Bhargav, taking the laptop and walking to his
room.
After an hour, he came back and asked Vijay, who was trying
to compose a tune in the piano, “Vij, who is Priya Viswanathan?”
************
Vasanth’s handsome face broke into an attractive smile. “This
says that you’re in love with me. Is it true?” He displayed the front page of
his favorite book to Supriya. She considered telling the truth but she was
simply watching him with parted lips. She couldn’t move her lips – he didn’t
ask her whether the book was her gift or not. He was asking her whether she was
in love with him. She could not decline and could not lie to him deliberately.
Vasanth laughed at her stunned reaction. “You’re really in a
shock, aren’t you? I think either you’ve got some naughty friends or you’ve got
some worse enemies. Stop it whoever it is.” He talked on and on, and she simply
sat back and listened, more entranced by the source than the information. “You
didn’t speak a single word to me today, Supriya,” he sighed, consulting his
watch. “You have a class and I have a class too.”
It pained her that he was leaving. “To tell the truth,” she
mumbled finally. “I don’t care. I really don’t. Will you please say something?”
He bit his lips, looking amused. “Say something to you? It’s
your name on the book and so I’d expect that you should say something to me.”
“That’s it. More please. Yahweh, thou hast given me the peace
that passeth understanding. I want to…”
He frowned, looking anxious. “Are you ill? Or…” He came little
closer to her and she’d have hugged him if she had enough guts. “You’re drunk.
Drunk!” He gave her an unbelievable look. “Drunk!” He punched his table and
went out.
“I…” That was all she could say before she fainted.
***********
“What did you mix in my drink?” Supriya was on the verge of
tears – she wanted to shout at her friends but her voice went down
considerably.
“It was Ayesha’s fault,” said Sandhya, pointing at her. “She
wanted me to mix it.”
“You did a great job, Sandy. I wish you were part of our
gang,” said David, opening the red bull can carelessly.
“She is,” said Ayesha. “Don’t treat her like my maid, guys.
I…”
“Enough,” said Jhansi. “I think you guys should apologize to
Supriya for what you did.”
David jerked his head up and pouted. “Stop condescending,
Jhansi. Riya, at least with all the power of alcohol, did you tell Vasanth that
you love him or not?”
Supriya buried her head in her hands. “I didn’t. He was
totally freaked out that I am drunk. He… He hates me.”
“No, he doesn’t,” said Jhansi. “Love is all about…”
David rose, raising his red bull arm up high. “Oh oh oh! You
girls bore me a lot – I am gonna find Rocky.”
Sandhya hoped that somebody would change the topic as well as
Supriya’s love life didn’t interest her a bit. She asked David hopefully,
“What’s he up to? Why is he not here?”
“I don’t know. But if he is not flirting at this moment, I am
gonna bite myself,” David grabbed his bag and put it on his shoulder before
giving a big wave.
“Davy, can I come with you?”
“Ah, jump in, Sandy. You surely don’t want to hear the messed
up story of Riya, do you?” They both left leaving the three girls behind on the
university’s stairs outside the big library.
Ayseha gave a you-poor-thing look at Supriya and turned to
Jhansi. “You’re not running away like them?”
“No, I just wonder if any of us didn’t send that book to
Vasanth, who did?”
“I bet it’s Rocky…” Supriya suggested.
“I doubt it, Riya. He’s kinda all muddled that his new
software is not coming good. Let me see that book. There must be a clue in it.”
“I can’t believe that he gave it back to me. You should’ve
seen that look on his face. He hates me.” She pulled the book from her bag and
handed it over to Jhansi.
“God, stop being a cry baby,” said Ayesha irritably.
Jhansi examined the present carefully. “Those wrappings –
I’ve never seen such a royal thing anywhere. A silky velvet bound cover? Who
does that these days? It’s kinda old-fashioned.”
Supriya’s eyes widened in fear. “But it’s creepy because I
saw it in my dream.”
Ayesha shrugged. “But I’ve seen it only in another place –
The Purple Penchant.”
“You mean that creative magazine?” inquired Jhansi.
“Yes, they actually conduct a competition every week and the
winners get their prize wrapped around one of those velvet covers as far as I
know. I’ve heard that it was imported all the way from Boston because the guy
who owns it is from there.”
“That’s cool. How do you know all about that?”
“I know Vijay – the CEO of The Purple Penchant.”
“Ah, you really know lot of elite people, don’t you? So can
you make an arrangement with him and so that we can ask about this book?”
“Sure,” agreed Ayesha. “What time will suit you?”
Jhansi rolled her eyes. “Are you really that close with a CEO
that he will agree to meet us on our free time instead of his own?”
Ayesha looked offended. “Oh, you don’t believe me? Why don’t
you two pack your bags and come with me right now?”
“What?” Supriya’s voice sounded half excited and half scared.
“Could you… You could…”
“Yes. Why don’t we fix the appointment while we’re on the
way?” Ayesha ran towards the parking lot and Jhansi and Supriya exchanged one
look before running after her.
Like she promised, as soon as Jhansi hit the road, she
scrolled through her phone and found the name ‘Vijay’. “Here we go.”
Supriya’s jaw dropped. “That’s a cell number. How on earth…”
“Yes, I have his personal number. Jealous, guys?”
After a few moments of chat, she smiled at them triumphantly.
“We’re meeting him.”
“Oh my god!” Jhansi screamed from her driving seat.
“He is a detective too, right? Will he investigate this
little mystery for me?” Supriya asked with an innocent grin.
“I’d be really glad if you won’t open your idiotic mouth when
we will be with him. He hasn’t got time for a lovesick bird like you.”
Supriya looked hurt and went calm but only till their car
entered the campus of The Purple Penchant office. “Wow!” She looked around and
admired the beautiful campus before Ayesha nudged her and took her by her
elbow. But unlike she expected, there weren’t any hardworking people who stare
at their computer monitors. People sat in group laughing at their own jokes
while they discussed the next week’s magazine. Around the corner, a girl was
interviewing a popular artist with a cup of coffee in her hand and a guy was
taking photographs casually.
“This place is amazing,” said Supriya, whistling. The most
surprising of all was that there was no personal secretary that stopped them
before meeting the CEO. Ayesha simply sauntered towards the door that had the
name ‘Vijay’ without any designation written under it. After a knock, they were
invited in. Supriya pinched herself before extending her hand to Vijay.
Vijay welcomed Ayesha with a hug. “So Ayesha, how do you do?
How is your boyfriend?”
“No complaints – we’re doing well. I am not here to lodge a
missing persons’ complaint.”
“No kidding,” laughed Vijay. “So what brought you here? If
this is about Indhu…”
“How is she? I hope she is not giving you a hard time.”
“She never did.”
“Hard to believe that considering the fact that she is a
person who is very hard to please and very easy to displease.”
“Oh please. You don’t even know her,” Vijay smiled a little.
“Enough of my story. What can I do for you?”
“This cover,” she placed the book on top of the desk. “Isn’t
it a special gift for your weekly winners?”
“It’s not just special but it’s also unique. You don’t get
this anywhere in Chennai.”
“Cool. Meaning that this got out from your place. I’d like to
know more about the ones who received it.”
Vijay did a quick inspection and then nodded to himself.
“Interesting. It’s just last week – as you can see, it’s brand new and we
didn’t wrap anything in green for a long time before last week.”
“Good, can we have the address of the winner?”
“Sure,” He pressed a few keys on his laptop before he turned
it to show it to Ayesha. “There you go.”
Their next stop was the particular address that led them to
an empty ground.
***********
“Priya Viswanathan?” Vijay repeated, looking thoughtful. “I
don’t know.”
“She sent you a message saying that she wants to meet you
immediately and I am surprised because I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“A message?” Vijay looked at his cell phone and his eyes
narrowed. “What are you talking about, idiot? Get some sleep.”
“In Facebook.”
“I am not in any social networking site,” said Vijay with an
apparent bewildered look on his face.
Bhargav grinned. “I just created one. See?”
Vijay snapped his forehead. “So when you said that you’ll
find out about my past, you were planning to create a fake account?”
Bhargav made a face. “Not fake – I am not using your name to
earn money or something.”
“You…”
“Let’s have this fight later. Look what I did. I have posted
some old pictures to cheer up the memory of people. I even put a status like
‘Hey guys, remember all the evil things that we did in the past?’ from your
account. And there were replies.”
“I don’t know whether to hit my head against the desk or the
desk against my head.”
Bhargav pressed his lips hard not to smile. “There is one
reply from a Carla Threlfall ‘Remember our prom night, VJ?’ Who is this Carla?”
“A school friend from Boston – she happened to be my dance
partner in prom. Don’t give me that look, Bhargy. She is just a friend.”
“Wow, Vij. I wish I could see Indhu’s face now.”
“Now you had found out that it was useless, can you close
that account that you created in my name?”
“Whatever it is, it’s hardly useless. There is another
comment – ‘Carla, you’re right. You two were a couple of evil kids back then’.
This was from a certain Tricia Hofnagel.”
Vijay tapped his forehead. “Interesting. Because she was the
girl that I killed and buried in my garden after my prom night. How could she
probably use FB from her grave? Oh no, maybe she had a stupid brother-in-law
too.”
Bhargav laughed but persisted with his question still. “So
you’re sure that you didn’t do anything wrong on this prom night?”
Vijay smiled broadly. “I was sixteen and I was in USA. This
guy Paul in my gang wanted to kiss Tricia and so we helped him by switching off
the lights. Now they two are happily married. Now that you know that’s the
evilest thing that I’ve ever done was switching off the lights…”
Bhargav heaved a deep sigh. “It’s useless.”
“Right. Go get some sleep.”
“But who is this Priya Viswanathan?”
“I told you I don’t know,” said Vijay, sounding annoyed.
“Hang on, she is… she is…”
Even Bhargav suddenly realized who she was from her profile photo.
It was the girl who tried to warn Vijay in the airport.
Vijay looked a little surprised. “How could she have found me
in Facebook when I wasn’t there before an hour?”
“She must have tried to find me. I gave her my mail id at the
airport. And then she’d have realized…”
“Alright, message her back. Ask her where I should come.”
At the same time, somewhere in a dark
room…
“He is asking where he should come.”
The Arrow turned around. “Well, how about
his own house? Eventually that’s where…”
“He will get alert, if you know what I
mean.”
“Oh yeah, he isn’t a fool. How about
Phoenix mall?”
“How on earth are we going to kidnap him
in a crowded mall?”
“We’re not. He will never reach Phoenix
mall. I know when and where to strike.”
To be continued.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. :-)
For previous parts, kindly check
Thanks & Regards,
Lavanyaa
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