Killer 5

“Tell me, John, why did you kill him?”

His question echoed across that small room, turning me silent.

"You have to answer," said he, in a polite tone.

Though I didn't want to answer, but since I was being investigated, I had no other option than to answer.

"It all started after that case," I said while staring at the desk.

                                               

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22nd November 2015

I rushed to the meeting room, where Harish was addressing the entire team. The room's environment appeared tense.

"Like I was saying," continued Harish, "three naked female bodies;  all badly bruised were found dumped in Hebbal Lake, in 1995. After this incident, the people around that area gave the killer a nickname- HEBBAL LAKE KILLER. By the end of 1998, the count raised to thirteen dead women, and, eight missing."

"Any arrests or suspects at that time?" asked one cop.

"NONE," said Harish. "He was very smart, as he cleaned the victim's bodies before discarding.  By 2001, more than forty dead women cases had queued up on our desks."

"Any evidence, lead or pattern?" asked another cop.

"Only one apart from bruising, " he said while running the victims pictures on the projector. The skin around the thigh area of all victims had been peeled off.

"In 2005, the DNA matching technique was launched in India. We felt with technology by our side, we were more advanced in catching him, but the tests neither revealed any clue nor even a single fingerprint on the victim's bodies."

Everyone's face reflected with a baffled expression, which was followed by a low, but unsatisfied murmur, from the cops. I was standing in a corner, fascinated with this case.

"Then comes the second shock about this case, all the killings stopped in 2006," said Harish.

"That means the killer ran away?" said another.

"We believed yes, as no-one reported any cases related to missing women and dead women bodies for about a year-and-a-half. But last month, four women bodies were found dumped in A.B.M.P garbage burial zone, near Yehalanka, and they seemed to like this," he said while displaying them on the projector screen.

The pictures were of the decayed bodies, but all showed a similar pattern i.e. bruises as well as the peeling around the thigh.

"The wounds and peeling match, and, I feel that there is a possibility that our long-lost killer is back. So we have re-opened the Hebbal Lake Killer case, coz I feel it's been a high time since this sicko is running free on streets. Let's get him."

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It was 10 p.m, and I was at Harish's residence. He had invited me over for dinner, so as to congratulate me on my previous case. 

He handed me the case file of Hebbal Lake Killer and sat beside me. While I was glancing over the case history, he started sharing his insight about it.

"So you won't relax, as I find you have started with your next case," said he.

He knew me very well.

Before I could answer, I found an adolescent little girl (7-8-year-old), hugged him from behind. 

"You got scared," she said joyfully and later started jumping all over the place. This indeed made everyone smile. Harish gave her a chocolate and guided her inside. 

"That was Anchal, I found her last month in an orphanage. She lost her parents at a very young age. I didn't want her to feel like an orphan for the rest of her life, so I adopted her."

I knew he was a good man.  

"This home appears vacant without Suhani," he said, in an emotional tone.

After his wife's death, he took responsibility of his real daughter- Suhani. He loved her- both as a father and a mother. Though I never met her, but last I heard, she got a job in a top-notch IT firm, last year in Germany.

"Anyways, what you feel about the case?" he asked.

"It's an interesting case and I would like to be a part of it. But I beg to differ with you one thing."

"What?" he asked.

"I don't agree with the theory- that he ran away. I feel, he was always amongst us, from the very beginning."

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