Part 3 (Voices inside me)

Govind and Srikant sit in a roadside stall to have some breakfast and then rush to the office of the forensic doctor. Both of them are in grave looks and deep thoughts. Srikant looks towards the food being prepared.

"Why would the kid commit suicide?"

Govind sighs a bit and looks up. The roadside stall was under a huge banyan tree. He saw a leaf falling, slowly and steadily following a curvy turvy path to the ground.

"I have seen many teenage suicide cases. Either it's love or it's the pressure from the family members."

A huge crowd has gathered outside the food stall at all in order to have their breakfast.

"The family members?"

"All of them. Even though the suicide is no-one's mistake, everyone is at fault."

The leaf had made its way into a giant puddle of mud with other flowers and some dried leaves. The policemen got their food and after sometime they set rolling for the office.

It is a huge glass building with bikes and cars parked outside it. It is a govt. hospital and one of the biggest ones of the country. The two policemen briskly walk to the lift. They get out of the lift on the third floor. They walk towards a small cabin.

"Dr. Gaikwad? Are you there?"

It was a quite organised office. The zoology and botany books were tucked away neatly in a wooden cupboard. The glass desk had innumerable files stacked one above the other, which have bits of paper sticking out. Computers are also in one corner while another corner had a large microscope on a relatively small desk.

"Are you there, Mr. Gaikwad?"

"Yeah, yeah just a minute."

Coming out of another room of the cabin, is a stout, bald and brown man. His bald head is a bit huge with few long strands of hair neatly combed. He has a small face, which is half covered behind his huge glasses. He is wearing a white lab coat with Blue Jeans.

"Interesting psychopath,huh? Killing an alternate gender each time."

"Is there a transgender?"

"Not yet. Two boys and two girls. But there is something really strange here. Come with me."

Dr. Gaikwad leads the policemen into a much darker room, the only source of light being a dim blue light. The corpse is covered with a white cloth. The room reeked of medicines.

"In each of its victim's body, the murderer is leaving a mixture of weird symbols. See here."

Dr. Gaikwad wears gloves and pushes the corpse to expose his back to the gentlemen.

"Really clean murder," Dr. Gaikwad curves his lips as he now speaks with utter solemnity,"Maybe first contaminated the victim then slashed across the throat. Or carotid arteries, to be medically precise".

The victim's back has sixteen big symbols, grouped into four and carved into a line with some space between the four. Beneath those weird group of symbols were some normal day to day symbols like @,$,! etc.

"What the hell is this?"

Dr. Gaikwad looks at the policemen as they look at the symbols earnestly.

"Whatever the hell it is, it's on every victim's back. And mind you, the symbols are different on each back."

"Is it some coded message?"

Dr. Gaikwad seems to disagree

"I don't think so. The symbols are really random. Sometimes it's just a combination of zeroes and ones, sometimes it's currency symbols or other English related symbols. Then there these symbols above the normal ones, which are totally weird."

Govind nods his head slightly, maybe to indicate that he somewhat agrees with him.

"It's so beautifully carved into the skin. Must be with some thin,sharp object."

Srikant suddenly remembers something upon listening to Govind. He rushes outside the office and calls Inspector Pradeep.

"Hello Pradeep. Do you have the list of the people who were missing for a bit around the college campus? Is there... "

Govind and Gaikwad watch him through the glass door talking to someone.

"Have the children adapted to your situation?", Gaikwad asks.

Govind stays silent for a moment.

'When did I tell this guy about this?'

"Yeah somewhat. They dont understand what's happening. But we take our real kids and go for trips and walks. They will do someday."

Gaikwad sits on a chair and takes out his phone. A blue halo forms on his dark face from the phone.

"They will. Keep trying. You should also... "

Srikant runs franticly into the room abruptly stopping Gaikwad.

"It's the fucking tattoo artist. He carves tattoos for college students for cheap prices. Only that fucker has the finesse to do this shit so smoothly."