Chapter 19: The Next Target

As the night fell, everyone closed their doors and soon by 9 o' clock everyone turned the lights outside their houses off and now the village was filled with darkness. Only the flashlights of the policemen and their patrolling vehicles were on.

Shiva sat on dining table with the whole family pretending to enjoy his meal but he wasn't. Thoughts of finding the killer clouded his mind.

" Delicious!, isn't it?," asked Girish as he served himself some rice.

" Really it is!," Mohan spoke.

" Guess who cooked today?," Geeta asked to Mohan as she playfully rested her chin on her hand.

" Uhh..., are you taking some sort of test of mine?,"

" No, I'm not, just tell me who do you think made the dinner?, me or mom?,"

" Yeah," Mohan tried to pull off a grin. " But why do you ask?,"

" Because you say it everyday, that I cook better than mom, and I'm expecting it to be a genuine compliment,"

" Oh, is that so?,"

" Yeah, so tell me who made it?,"

" Of course it's so delicious that I can tell you cooked today,"

Geeta looked at her mom and laughed.

" Hey what?," asked Mohan.

" Really?,"

" Ok!, I give up,"

" No smartness when Geeta's around," said Shiva pulling himself out of his thoughts.

Everybody laughed cheerily and then Ramkrushna's phone rang. He picked it up to see it was Varad. A smile crawled onto his face, he picked up the call and put in on speaker mode.

" Hey dad!, had your dinner?," Varad asked.

" Yeah, we are doing the dinner, everyone's here,"

" Oh, nice, hey Shiva what's up?,"

" Doing great," said Shiva.

" What about Mohan?,"

" I'm fine too," Mohan spoke.

" And Geeta?, what is she doing?,"

" Finishing up my dinner brother," said Geeta.

" Mom, are you fine?,"

" Yes, tell me about you, did you have your dinner?," Anjali asked.

" Yeah I had, what about Girish uncle?, how is he doing?,"

" I'm doing great son," said Girish.

" Nice to hear that,"

Ramkrushna took the phone at his side and spoke. " We are good here just take care of yourself,"

" Yes, I will, bye,"

" Yeah, bye,"

******

Raghav had just washed his hands when he saw the full moon through the window. It looked great.

" Raghav the dinner is ready," his mom called.

" Yeah, coming," Raghav said.

Raghav helped his mom serving and sat at the dining table and shortly his father arrived. Everyone sat at the dining table.

" How was you day?," asks Raghav's mother.

" Not that good, you know everything happening in the village, who would like to buy sweets at this time?," his father muttered.

" And what about the temples?,"

" Yeah, they are the only ones who are ordering the sweets now and I think that's enough for us," said Ranjit.

" Yes,"

" Uhh," Ranjit cleared his throat. " Raghav,"

Raghav knew what he was about to say." Yes dad?,"

" I'll be needing your help in the store tomorrow,"

" And?,"

" And you'll have to sit with me in the store,"

" But dad–,"

" No, I don't want to hear anything, you're grown up now so act like that, know what is good for you,"

Raghav couldn't argue, he would never win, he had to say yes. He silently nodded his head.

" That's like my boy, you'll learn a lot of things," said Ranjit merrily.

Raghav gave a fake smile and that was all that he could do.

******

The sun rose and spread its ray all over and the birds were chirping. Shiva woke up, he had a good sleep and there was no nightmare today. He looked around, Mohan was not there.

" Seems like he woke up," he thought.

Just then Mohan enters the room.

" Hey, seems like you had a nice sleep," Mohan spoke.

" Yeah," Shiva got up from the bed. " No nightmare today,"

" That's nice,"

" You freshened up already?,"

" Yeah, you were sleeping soundly so I thought not to disturb you,"

" Oh, I'll go get ready then we'll go to Raghav's house,"

" Yeah,"

Shiva brushed his teeth and freshened up. Shiva and Mohan had their breakfast and headed straight to Raghav's house.

They made their way through the busy market streets. It was only 10 am and already the people were visiting the market mostly to buy flowers and vegetables as no one liked to go out in the afternoon.

Shiva and Mohan reached at Raghav's house to see that he was opening up the shutter of their sweet store. The boys waited for a while expecting him to come to them once he opens the store but Raghav didn't. Instead he took a chair and sat next to his father's chair.

Shiva and Mohan were wondering and just then Raghav saw them. He stood up and walked to them.

" Hey guys," said Raghav hesitantly. " You here?,"

" Yeah, let's go to our spot to discuss about our today's plan," said Mohan.

" Well..., actually,"

" What happened?," asked Shiva.

" Ah, sorry guys I will be unable to join you today,"

" Why?,"

" My father wants me to help him in the store and learn about the business,"

" I see, okay, then we two shall leave,"

" Yeah and do tell me what did you guys find, we'll meet tomorrow,"

" Yeah sure, bye,"

" Yes,"

Raghav went back to sit at his store, then his father arrived and soon they become busy doing their work.

" Without even any of our member it is no fun," said Mohan as if he complained.

" Fun?," Shiva narrowed his eyes.

" Yeah, I mean, wasn't it fun?, going around in the village, searching for the clue, digging up the past and all the things we did,"

Shiva couldn't help but smile." Yeah, it was,"

" And on the top of that we have a purpose,"

" Yes,"

" So what do we do now?,"

" Nothing in particular, we have all the things that we could get and now we just have to use our heads,"

" So now?,"

" I was thinking of taking a round of the village and observe people,"

" Okay,"

" And make sure that you don't act like we're in search of something,"

" That goes without saying," Mohan said as he tapped on Shiva's shoulder.

The two boys were now roaming around the village. Firstly, they went through the market place and wandered around in a nearby residential area.

The boys now came across Mrs. Thackeray's house, in the southern region of the village. The old lady was standing in her garden staring the flowers.

" Let's not go in front of her," said Shiva.

" Yeah, I remember the last time," Mohan chuckled.

" We are in the southern part of the village, right?,"

" Yeah, I remember it by the house of Mrs. Thackeray,"

The boys were now in front of an old house which was burnt and only the concrete part had remained. It was the house where Shiva used to live with his parents, twenty years ago.

" Your house–," Mohan was about to say something but he didn't, he saw Shiva getting lost in his memories.

Shiva stared at the house for a while. It was hard to tell what he was feeling right now, it looked like he had a flood of emotions in his heart.

Shiva finally managed to shift his gaze from the house and looked around and his eyes fell on a small room next to his house. He recognized it. It was the room that his family used to store things. As he opened it, he was welcomed by some cockroaches and spiders which ran outside and then dust entered his nostrils to make him sneeze.

" Be careful," said Mohan.

" Yes,"

Shiva then went inside the room. Although it was not very big but there were a lot of things in there. At the corner, he saw a small bicycle. He decided to take it out.

" Is that yours?," asked Mohan.

" Yeah," Shiva smiled." It was first ever bicycle that I got on my 6th birthday,"

" I see,"

" I remember when my dad brought it, I was contended with joy but at the very same time I was scared,"

" Scared?, of what?,"

" Scared of falling off from the bicycle, Although I was happy that I got the bike but I would hardly try to learn it,"

" Hmm..., I get it,"

Shiva then looked at the bicycle." Then my dad, he said ' fear of falling keeps us away from achieving new heights.' At that time I didn't understood what he meant but now it's all getting clear, he helped me to overcome my fear and I finally learnt to ride a bicycle,"

" I'm sure that there is something going on in your head, am I right?,"

Shiva smiled, he looked at the rusty bicycle and then at Mohan and gave him a smile as he nodded.

" So," Mohan said. " What's the plan?,"

" We'll have to overcome our fear,"

" What do you mean?,"

" What is the greatest fear now in the village?,"

" The fear of spirit,"

" And?,"

" And...," Mohan thought." Fear of getting out at night?,"

" Yes, that's what I'm talking about,"

" Are you saying that we....," said Mohan finally getting the clue.

" Yes, we'll go out at night and catch the killer,"

" But how?, how do we know when he's gonna show up?,"

" I have my plan ready,"

" Then when are we going to do it?

" We can't do it without Raghav, we will have to wait till tomorrow,"

" Alright,"

******

It was night now, once again the village was filled by the ghostly silence, every door of the village was closed and everyone was asleep.

Everyone in the house was asleep but Shiva was still up with the Diary on the table.

He eliminated the names of all the persons who weren't close to both Mr. Deshmukh and his father. Only a few were remained. He also made a separate list of some who were close to only his father, there were a very few of them, then he observed all the names carefully.

Suddenly he realized something and his eyes were left wide open.

" If he's the one then...,"

On the other side, at Mr. Gokhale's house, his phone rang, it took several rings to draw him out of his sleep. When his sleep was finally disturbed and he took the phone, he saw that the number was unknown.

He picked up the phone.

" Hello?,"

There was no reply from the other side and after a few seconds, he heard someone breathing hard.

" Hello, who's there?," said Mr. Gokhale.

The man finally spoke." It's me, Deshmukh,"

" Deshmukh!?,"

He recognized the voice now and got up from his bed.

" Where are you?, and why are you panting so hard," Mr. Gokhale said.

" I'm near our village, a man is following me, he wants to kill me,"

" Does he know? "

" I think so,"

" Where's that third piece?,"

" It's safe in my cupboard,"

" And where are you?,"

" I've reached the forest near our village, come there quickly,"

" Yes, don't worry, I'll inform..."

" No, don't tell him anything, I think he's the traitor,"

" What!?,"

" There's no time to discuss, come here as quickly as possible,"

" Yes, I'm coming,"

Mr. Gokhale lived alone in his house so he had no one to ask him questions, he wore his footwears and rushed toward the forest.