Esha Atwal - 3

We arrived at the college campus the following day and Rajendra asked me to find the girl who was the victim of the recent attempted kidnapping. I approached one of the board members when they told me that she didn't attend the college regularly after the event and would stay in her room most days. So I went and found Rajendra sir, we met up and headed towards the dorms slightly off the main campus.

On the way there,

Rajendra sir said, "The college has a habit of sweeping things under the rug, so most likely the college lawyers would have given her a fixed story to give us when we talk to her, she might not share all the details so we might have to probe her a little."

"I disagree, sir if we try to probe her she might completely shut down and we might not get anything from her."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Let me do the talking."

We entered the girl's hostel and went up to the room of the young girl that was the previous victim of the attempted kidnapping. I knocked on the door, and her roommate answered the door.

"Hii, I am Detective Atwal and this is Detective Prasad we are with the special division of the CBI could we ask your roommate some questions?"

"yeah I know who you are, come in."

We entered the room, the room was pretty clean on one side, while on the other was a massive pile of clothes on the bed.

"Where is your roommate?", Rajendra Sir asked.

"She is under the pile of clothes, she has been like this since that day." The roommate replied.

We moved the pile of clothes to find the girl lying face flat on her bed. I woke her up and made her sit and then we gave her a juice box that I usually carry with me in case of emergencies.

"What is your name? young girl." Asked Rajendra Sir.

"My name is Sarika."

"Hii Sarika, I am Detective Atwal, this is Detective Prasad. You can call me Esha. Can we ask you some questions?"

Sarika nodded her head, yes.

"So what can you tell me about your attempted kidnapping?"

"It was late in the night I was walking back to the hostel from the library when suddenly this black figure jumped at me out of nowhere and grabbed my mouth and started shoving me to the ground. He turned me around and started tieing my hands and legs with a rope."

"Then what happened?"

"I think he got spooked or something he just left me there tied and ran away. A few minutes later a Security guard came by and helped me I think he heard the security coming by and left."

"Is that why you took back the complaint that you gave?"

She nodded yes again. She added, "And it was useless as they were not going to do anything about it anyway."

"Ok thank you for your time, if you need anything or anything else happens just give this number a call." I give her my card.

As we were leaving, Rajendra Sir who had stayed silent for so long suddenly asked a question.

"Dear don't mind me asking what is your height and weight?"

"Sir you shouldn't ask like that!!"

She replied, "I'm 5'6 and 53 kgs."

"Thank you so much."

And we both left the room and walked back to the car in complete silence when we sat in the car I couldn't hold it in anymore and asked.

"Why did you ask her height and weight like that?"

"Tell me something why do you think she took back the complaint?"

"She told right because the college was not going to do anything anyway."

"She lied about a lot of things in her story."

"What do you mean?"

"Why would a class president who was elected as the class president because she would voice her's and her peer's opinions unbiased to the college, why would some with such a sense of responsibility take back a complaint that could harm her reputation even more."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I went through her file before coming here today."

"If you went through her file then you must know her height and weight then why did you ask that?"

"You tell me."

"To catch her in a lie ?"

"bingo!!"

"Did you get what you wanted to know?"

"Yeah, that I did, I will tell you in today's meeting."

We all gathered in the restaurant where we would have dinner and sat to discuss what we had discovered.

We sat down to eat, we ordered food.

"Damini what have you found?" Rajendra sir asked.

"Sir, there have been a total of 4 such other cases all of them girls around the same age as our latest victim but none of them lodged a complaint. They were all kidnapped in different parts of the campus and but all around the same distance from the library."

"What about their height and weight?"

"They all are around 50 to 60 kgs and 5'5 to 5'7, that is odd."

"They were not victims but more like test subjects of a very crude experiment."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"All will be explained, just be patient."

"Krithi where are all the locations of all the security cameras within the campus."

She opened a map of the campus and then showed all the places where the cameras are placed.

"See if I were to kidnap students on this campus I would mostly do it in places that I won't get caught a more secluded place but on this campus, the secluded places are covered by the cameras as the drug deals would go around these parts of the campus so to stop that they set up cameras in these places, this is why our kidnapper chose a place with a little more foot traffic but he would not be caught on the camera."

"A calculated risk," Abhishek said.

"Exactly! this is why I believe our suspect knows the college very well and is able to keep track of all the happenings of the college."

"This doesn't explain the girls?"I asked

"This does, the weight and height of all these girls is the same as our victim. The unsub was testing to see if he or she could kidnap and they did it in multiple locations on the campus as well. "

"So the unsub is slightly more powerful than an average girl. He had to be sure that he could overpower our victim."

"That is all fine but that doe not explain the fact that our victim was kidnapped in his own room."

"Yes, that is the only thing that is out of place, something in the unsub's plan changed at the last moment."

"That was our last victim Savitri, she complained so the college added additional security on the campus for a few days but our victim was desperate so he made his move in the room."

"The unsub did not expect that."

"Yes, so the person who pushed her to take back the complaint is our kidnapper!"