Chapter 14: The Field Visit

The sun came over the mountains and the night had ended. The silence was overcome by the chirping of birds and bustling of people. Shiva woke up and looked around then he wake up Mohan.

Both the boys got ready, had their breakfast and made their way to the Library and Raghav was going to met them there.

" So today we're going to finish the work of writing the names of the people who were close to both Mr. Deshmukh and my dad and then we'll be going on a field visit," Shiva spoke.

" Field visit?," asked Mohan.

" Yes, we'll be going to the Mr. Thackeray's godown one more time,"

" But why?,"

" So that we could see if there are any changes in the godown,"

" What kind of changes?," Raghav asked.

" Like the placement of the things and all, basically we're searching for the place where the killer could keep the victims and I think the godown is the only place in the village,"

" Got it,"

The boys entered the Library and found the Librarian, Mr.Joshi reading a book.

" Oh, you also read!," said Shiva playfully.

The Librarian looked at boys." Oh It's you!, welcome,"

" Why are you like this?, didn't you bath?," asked Raghav.

" Oh this, I didn't went to my house yesterday," The Librarian grinned. " And I slept here, in the Library.

" So," Mohan giggled. " For how many days?,"

" What?,"

" Your stay in this Library,"

" Oh, she must've cooled down by now,"

" I see, that's great,"

" Can we have the Vasupur Journal?," Shiva spoke.

" Sure, just a second,"

The Librarian opens his drawer and picks out the Journal.

" Thanks,"

" Why don't you keep it in the bookshelf like before?," Mohan questioned.

" Because no one reads it and if by mistake it gets misplaced then it will be hard to find it, so I keep it here,"

" That's so thoughtful of you,"

" Mention not,"

The three boys sat on the place where they would sit everyday.

" Only some names are remaining, we shall finish this and then go to our field visit," Shiva looked towards Raghav.

" Yup, let's finish this," said Raghav.

" You remember on which page did we stopped that day, right?," Mohan asked.

" Yep, I do," said Shiva. " I noted it in my diary,"

" And also let us overlook all the names that we previously wrote,"

" Yeah,"

The boys then started reading the book. Each one of them had different works, Shiva noted the names of those who were close to his dad, Raghav would write down the names of those who were close to Mr. Deshmukh and Mohan was given the work to note down the places that seemed important for their investigation.

Within half an hour the boys had completed their work and now were cross checking.

" Great!, the work finished earlier than we expected," Shiva closed his diary.

" Yup, we were quite fast," Mohan said.

" By the way, Raghav, do you know how Mr. Thackeray looked?, I mean his appearance,"

The Librarian immediately looked towards the boys as he heard the name and this time he was trying to hear their conversation closely.

" Umm..., No, I have no idea, I don't remember much now,"

" Okay, let's try to find his photograph in his godown," said Shiva.

" His photo?, why?," asked Raghav.

" Don't know why but I'm getting this gut feeling that we should gather some more information about him,"

" I see,"

" What are they trying to find about Mr. Thackeray?," the Librarian thought.

Although he was sitting at a distance but his age didn't seem to affect his hearing capability. Just then his assistant came in and diverted his attention.

" Shiva," said Raghav. " Did you notice that the writer has described his friend named Bhaskar and he said that he was very close to him,"

" Yup, that's what I was thinking, in order to find the writer, we'll have to find this Bhaskar," Shiva said.

" That's right!,"

" So should we include this in our investigation too?," Mohan questioned.

" No, I don't think it's that important for our investigation and also it will take much time, so instead of that we'll be focusing on finding the third person for now,"

" I think you're right, this could be done later," said Raghav.

The three boys picked up their things and proceeded towards the godown. The boys took the route that went through the woods so that no one could notice them.

" Carefully," Shiva said.

" Yup,"

" Mohan, you look around and we'll open up the shutter, okay?,"

" Got it,"

The boys opened the shutter carefully and went inside without making a single noise.

" So what do we do now?," asked Raghav.

" We'll find the photograph of Mr. Thackeray,"

" Okay,"

Shiva observed his surroundings carefully then he took out his phone and searched for any differences in the current surrounding and the photo that he took that day.

Shiva put his phone in the pocket." Okay, now we search for the photo,"

The three boys scattered around the place and searched for the photo careful not to misplace anything as it would then cause them trouble.

" Be careful not to misplace anything cause if there really is a killer and he hides in this place then he'll know that we came here," said Shiva.

" Okay, got that," said both the boys.

While searching for the photo Shiva came across a table with a few drawers. He opened them all one by one and found something in one of those.

" Hey Mohan, Raghav, come here and see what I found,"

" Woah, what is it?," Mohan asked.

" Looks like a file regarding this godown," said Shiva.

" Let's open it then,"

" Yeah,"

The boys went through the file and shortly they got what they were looking for.

" Woah!, got it!," exclaimed Mohan.

" Yes, and here is the name, ' Prabhakar Thackeray',"

As the three boys were celebrating their discovery they heard a noise and realized that somebody was standing in front of the shutter then the man started knocking on the shutter rapidly. The boys immediately hid behind the wooden boxes and barrel and shortly the shutter was opened.

" Shit!, who could it be?," Raghav spoke.

" Was someone following us?," Mohan questioned.

" Don't know man but if he finds us then we're damned," said Shiva.

Just then they heard the sound of closing the shutter.

" Hey kids, I know you're here," The unknown man spoke.

It was clear that the man tried to change his voice while he spoke.

" Who is this?," Shiva spoke.

" The voice sounds familiar," Raghav said.

They could hear the footsteps approaching in their direction and then the man stopped.

" It must be killer," said Mohan.

" We don't even have any weapon or something," Raghav let out.

" Calm down guys, we're three and he's only one,"

" Yes, yeah that's right,"

Then the man spoke." No use of hiding kids, I know you're here, now get up and show yourselves,"

Just then something struck the boys, the voice grew more familiar and now they guessed who it was and they stood up.

Everybody was shocked to see that it was the Librarian standing in front of them.

" What are you doing here?," asked Raghav.

" You scared the shit out of us," ranted Mohan.

Shiva looked at Mohan.

" What?,"

" Didn't knew that you got that much scared," Shiva giggled.

" No, I mean,"

" And what are you doing here Mr. Joshi?, how did you know that we are here?," asked Shiva.

" When you were leaving the Library, I heard what you guys were talking," said the Librarian.

" But why did you followed us?,"

" You kids may not know that but it's not allowed to visit this place and those which were burnt in the fire, if the police finds out then they would take strict actions against you,"

" Don't worry, we came here by the forest route, no one would see us,"

" But what are you doing here?, it's not safe in here," said the Librarian.

" We can't tell you that, I think you should leave, if someone sees us here then it will be a big problem,"

" But what are you guys doing here?,"

" I said leave, you'll get us in trouble,"

" I would get you in trouble?, I came here to help,"

" Please you leave,"

" I know you guys are investigating about the spirit, I can help you,"

" No we don't need any help,"

" But–,"

" Okay," said Shiva in frustrated voice. " If you want to help us then go in the Vasusthala Forest in the night and click some pictures of the spirit,"

" What!?,"

" Would you do that?, if no then leave us alone and get out of this place before anyone sees us, do you get it,"

" Yes," said Mr. Joshi seemingly upset.

The Old man leaves the place and Shiva collects the photograph from the file and keeps it in his diary.

" Let's get out of here," said Shiva.

" Yeah,"

After leaving the godown the boys sat discussing near the Mango tree.

" What did just happened," exclaimed Mohan.

" We were so careless," said Shiva.

" We would've been damned if it was the killer,"

" We gotta be careful now,"

" Relax," Raghav spoke." He's Mr. Joshi, he's our friend, he just came there out of concern,"

" I don't think so," said Mohan.

" What?,"

" I noticed something,"