THE CAPTIVE_Episode 6

Story so Far: A captivated girl kills her captor, escapes and runs. She collapses unconscious in front of a brick house. The residents of the house call the police and ambulance. The girl has been taken to the hospital. The police find the house where she was kept as a captive. And investigation begins.

This episode:

Madhuri spread out the map on the table, and she crossed the places, where kruthi was kidnapped and where Kruthi was held, hostage. The distance was about 100 km between the two spots spread out on either side of the main city.

Dhananjay and Aryaveer stood to her right and Saran, her assistant and a CID executive to her left. All of them poured into the map while Madhuri kept highlighting the places she thought were important to the investigation.

‘This was where the party was going on, the entrance road to the farmhouse, a couple of turns, um, any turn could be a wrong turn.’ She spoke as if she was thinking aloud, more to herself, holding the highlighter in her hand and then fidgeting with it.

‘All the other turns cave out to a dead-end except this one and this one which is actually leading further inside into the farmlands.’ Aryaveer put forward his conjecture.

Madhuri nodded and circled both the narrow turns. ‘They must have taken either of these paths. I need more information about this area, the other guest houses, the lands, details of owners, anything that might be useful.’

‘All that you need is here.’ He gave a thick yellow file to Madhuri which he was holding and waiting for the time to hand it over.

Madhuri flipped the pages and started going through them scanning through the pages. She was a quick reader, and she grasped information very fast. Saran, her assistant, too glanced through the pages with her while Dhananjay looked over. He had to talk. This file was of no use to them. It just listed the maps, the neighbouring lands, the names of the owners, the square area, all unnecessary and frivolous details.

‘This particular area,’ he spoke pointing his finger at the crossed area from where Kruti was abducted, ‘has a nasty reputation of girls, women missing over the past one year.’ Everyone looked at him. ‘Here is the file, there are details. Some of the cases were not even recorded, all unsolved.’ He handed over the file to Madhuri.

As Madhuri flipped the pages, she looked at Aryaveer, ‘Why isn’t this information in your file?’

‘I do not think they were related.’ Aryaveer fumbled.

Once she had scanned through the pages, she summed it up, ‘ there are at least five cases of women gone missing in this area. One of the case histories was incomplete so I could not include that. Few of the vehicles were found. Few weren’t.’

She shut the file and gave orders to Aryaveer, ‘I need all the case details by tomorrow. All the crime, all the missing cases in and around this area.’ She drew a circle with her fingers emphasizing her command.

‘Go. Get on that.’ Aryaveer was dismissed from the meeting. He had hoped to impress the CID Madam, but again Dhananjay stole the show. Damn, the boy, he muttered as he walked out of Madhuri’s office.

She then patted Dhananjay, ‘Good job. Do we have the details on the area where she was found? The blueprints, the details of the owner, everything.’

‘Still combining. I will need today to complete.’ Dhananjay responded.

‘Okay. Go now. I need them by tomorrow then.’

‘Yes Mam.’ Dhananjay saluted and left the place.

‘The boy is really good.’ Saran remarked once Dhananjay was out.

Madhuri did not say anything. She was lost in her thoughts. She sat on her chair brooding, playing with the highlighter.

‘Saran, do you know what Kruthi said, that she was safe indoors, at that party.’

‘Do you think that this was a random abduction, a serial crime?’ Saran felt a lump in his throat suddenly. The case was moving completely in a different direction.

‘I had considered that but now I am becoming sure especially when I read the summarized file that Dhananjay gave me. It does not have complete details. But if we go by that file, this area is the hunting ground of three psychopaths to abduct girls, hold them hostage and then murder them once they are done with.

‘It is big then.’ Saran slouched on his chair rubbing his bald head. ‘The question is where are the bodies?’

Madhuri looked at the map, pointed at the abandoned house where they found the body of Anthony Pastor, and spoke with almost confidence, ‘Here.’

Both of them looked at each other and that glance from Madhuri was enough for Saran to carry out the next line of investigation. He immediately walked out of the cabin. He dialled the forensic team and ordered a major dig up of the area surrounding the house. He had a confirmation for the dig up the day after. He immediately informed Madhuri on the intercom, who after putting the phone back to its place remembered Kruthi’s words, ‘It was outside that was not safe.’