Chapter 18: Hurry Up!

Mohan and Raghav came near Shiva and stretched their head forward.

" As we can see here," said Shiva as drew a square with some circles and triangles in it. " This is a rough map of some part of the village,"

" And?,"

" Here," Shiva pointed on one of the triangles. " This is our house, this is the market, the Vasusthala Temple, the Library and the forest,"

" Preety good map," said Mohan.

" So, as Geeta said, she saw the man from the terrace of our house and said that the man was going in the west," Shiva moved his finger from his house to the west.

" In the west....., that would mean that he must have gone towards the Library," said Mohan.

" Yes, and from there Mr. Joshi saw him,"

" Are you sure about it?," asked Raghav.

" Yes, because," said Shiva pointing on the other triangle. " See, this is the library and this is the Vasusthala forest, the man went towards the west, and Mr. Joshi told us that he saw him through the window, and as far as I know there is only one window from the west in the library and that is near his table and from that window we could see the Vasusthala forest clearly,"

" That confirms that the man went inside the forest," Raghav spoke to himself.

" That's right,"

" You said that we can find that man, but I still can't see how,"

" It's quite simple," said Shiva moving his finger back to his house." If Geeta had seen the man near our house that means he came from the south as there aren't any houses at the east and there is another forest in the north,"

" From the south....,"

" You mean that the killer lives in the south of the village?," asked Raghav.

" Exactly,"

" Hmm..., but there are many houses in that part,"

" Isn't that the area where Mrs. Thackeray lives?," asked Mohan.

" Yes, it is," Raghav told.

" Then what shall we do now?,"

" We'll go to the Forest," Shiva spoke.

" Again?," asked Raghav.

" Yes, we might find something there,"

" Okay, as you say," said Raghav.

The boys secretly made their way into the forest. Being careful about the insects and reptiles, they walked with quick steps.

" The area is clean," Shiva spoke as he covered his nose and mouth with his handkerchief.

Mohan and Raghav did the same, it was the stench of the dead body that stayed here till morning from the night.

" Yes, seems like the police went back from the scene," said Raghav.

" They cleaned the area and took the body," Mohan said.

" We shall get out of here quickly, before the cops come back,"

Shiva moved around the place observing it. He mainly focused on the directions and made some notes in his diary.

" Are you done?," asked Raghav holding Mohan who was almost going to faint by the stench.

" Yes, let's go,"

The three boys hurriedly exited the forest and on their way back they saw a group of policemen talking near the fenced wall of the ground, their faces wore a worried look.

" Wait," said Shiva as he saw the policemen at a distance.

" What happened?," Raghav asked.

" Those cops, we need to here what they're discussing,"

" Yeah, they seem to be worried," said Mohan.

" But we can't stay near them for a long time," told Raghav.

" Yeah, we can't," said Shiva then he looked around and he got something." Stay here and act like you guys are talking,"

" And you?,"

" Just see,"

Shiva went some steps back and and went inside the ground which had the walls surrounding it. He came to the spot where the policemen stood from the other side. He took the help of the tree to look over the wall, he hid himself behind the branches and leaves, he stayed there and listened the cops discussing.

" Yeah man, I can't believe what happened with Mr. Joshi, it was terrible, " said one of the policemen.

" He was a really good man," said another one.

" We too should be careful when we patrol at night," said the third cop.

" Patrol?, now I'm no more patrolling,"

" Why?,"

" Mr. Pandey will be taking my place from today, his leaves are over,"

" Oh, that's great,"

" Yeah,"

" Have you guys heard about Mr. Deshmukh,?," one of them asked.

" Mr. Deshmukh...., that teacher, right?,"

" Yeah,"

" He's out of town, what about him?,"

" A week has passed he haven't returned yet, and the Sarpanch said that he isn't accepting any calls, there's no contact with him,"

Fear flooded Shiva's mind. If the killer had got Mr. Deshmukh, then they'll have to hurry up and find the third person.

Shiva lowered himself a bit to listen the cops.

" I hope that he'll be safe," said one of the policemen.

" But the spirit is in the village, how can he get Mr. Deshmukh, he is out of the village, right?,"

" That's right but the Spirit hunts the people belonging to this village no matter where they live," one of them told.

" Yes, the same thing happened with Mr. Thackeray twenty years ago,"

Shiva's ear stood up like a rabbit's. He didn't knew why but he had a strange feeling about this Mr. Thackeray who passed away twenty years ago.

" Yes, I know, his car was burnt with him sitting inside,"

" Yes, although being the richest in the village, he was a very good man,"

" I just hope that we'll get rid of this spirit quickly,"

" Yeah, everyone's looking upto the Pandit, but he's not ready to give the date for the ritual,"

" He says that it's not the right time,"

" Only God knows when the right time will come,"

" May Goddess Vasusthala bless us and end this problem,"

" Yeah, I hope so,"

" Let's go, lunch time it is,"

" Yeah, I'm quite hungry today,"

" Yes, same here,"

The policemen went away and Shiva carefully came back to the ground. He was glad that he had decided to listen their discussion. He went to Raghav and Mohan.

" Any new information?," Mohan asked.

" Yeah, and this is a concerning one," said Shiva.

" Just tell us,"

" Let's go to our spot first,"

The boys were now under the Mango tree, Raghav and Mohan waited while Shiva was drawing the map of the village that he had drawn before.

Shiva stood and gave a brief sigh." Mr. Deshmukh haven't returned yet and there's no contact with him,"

" That's bad, what do we do now?," asked Mohan.

" We find the third person now,"

" Okay, what's the plan?," asked Raghav impatiently.

" So let's divide in the group of two, I will search for the clues in my diary, the names that I've written from the Journal and you and Mohan will try to search for any suspicious person in this part," said Shiva as he pointed in the map towards the south region of the village.

" Hmm..., sounds right,"

The boys then became busy in doing their respective works.

The sun that stayed high on head was slowly going behind the mountains that stood at a far distance. The bright blue sky had turned into a yellowish one. The boys had their works done and met under the tree and sat watching the dusk.

" Beautiful, isn't it?," asked Mohan as the orange rays brightened his face.

" Yes, it is," said a mesmerized Raghav.

The two boys were enjoying the beauty of the sunset while Shiva kept worrying about their next plan of action. Raghav looked at a worried Shiva.

" Buddy," said Raghav as he kept his hand on his shoulder.

Shiva looked at him.

" Don't worry, we'll take our revenge, we'll find him, we will hunt him down," Raghav spoke.

" Yeah, he'll have to pay for the sins that he has done," said Mohan.

" Yes" said Raghav. " But for now, enjoy the beauty of the sunset.

" Right," Shiva said as he looked at sun which was slowly going behind the mountains.

A cold breeze swayed past them and Shiva felt as if all his thoughts were carried away with it. He felt relaxed.

The boys stayed quiet as they watched the setting sun. It was almost dark now and Shiva finally broke the silence.

" Have you guys got the names?," he asked.

" Yep, just a minute," Mohan said as he put his hand inside his bag and took out some papers.

" Here it is, the information of each and every person living in the South of the village," said Mohan handing the papers to Shiva.

" Great," Shiva said as he took them.

Shiva briefly swept his eyes over them.

" These papers, they contain the information like age and occupation of the person. We thought that would be helpful," said Raghav.

" But from where did you guys got this much information?," Shiva asked in amazement.

" Raghav got the work done easily," said Mohan as he winked his right eye.

" You guys really did a great job,"

Mohan thought for a while and spoke." Hey guys, I think there's a traitor,"

" Traitor?,"

" Yes, a traitor among those four persons who have the parts of the key,"

" You mean to say that one of those four people is the killer?," asked Raghav.

" Exactly,"

" Yes..., that could be," said Shiva.

" Because no one knows about the keys except those four people, so there's a chance that one of them is behind all this,"

" Your theory is great, and if we go according to your theory then finding the third person could lead us to the killer or maybe it could be that he's the killer," Shiva spoke.

" Right,"

" So what's next?," asked Raghav.

" Now, I'll check both the informations, the one that you guys have provided and the one that I've obtained from the Journal and try to find some clues,"

" Hmm..., okay, let's meet here tomorrow,"

" Yeah, bye,"

Shiva again looked at the setting sun, he felt relaxed but he knew that they gotta hurry up, the killer has got half part of the key and now only two parts remained, time is ticking, their enemy seemed to be a step further from them, he is smart, smarter than they thought. But Shiva, he wouldn't give up, he has a hope that solving this mystery would unravel the mystery of his past too.