The Captive - Episode 9

STORY SO FAR: Kruthi, who was kept active for twenty days murders one of the captors and runs away. While she is treated in the hospital, an investigation is happening. Police have enough evidence that this is not an isolated case but in fact, there are serial killings. The investigators could not find a clue that links the other two serial killers with Anthony Pastor, who was killed by Kruthi in an attempt to save her life.

Tara Devi tied a black thread on Kruthi's wrist and blessed her. She kissed her on her forehead while a drop or two became visible in her eyes. She wiped them and sat next to Kruthi. Kruthi's mother was thankful. This woman had called the police, gave Kruthi first aid and did all that she could to keep her alive till the police and ambulance arrived. And now she was here to check how Kruthi was doing.

She thanked again and again, but Tara Devi refused to accept any more. She had done what she was supposed to do. Her heart felt so much for this poor girl who was surviving such a big mishap in her life. Tara Devi was extremely happy to see that Kruthi was recovering. She would do anything to get this girl back to a healthy state.

'You will be alright, Haan. Don't worry. They will catch them. Dhananjay, here, is a good police officer. He will catch them.' She looked at Dhananjay who was standing next to her and looked again at Kruthi. Kruthi looked doubtful but Tara Devi didn't. Over the years she had developed her own mechanism of recognising people. And she was mostly right. She spoke with confidence, 'I trust him'.

Dhananjay placed his hand on Tara Devi’s shoulder and squeezed a bit. 'I think we should go.' At that moment, Kruthi looked him in the eye, and that moment was something that Dhananjay never forgot in his life. That look asked him thousands of questions? That look screamed justice. At that very moment, Dhananjay felt that they had failed every woman. Where women had to be protected, instead they were allowed to be raped, and the police department did nothing.

In life everyone has this moment where all of it just jumps at you, it screams at you. It was there before and it would be there after - the ugly truth. But at that one moment, it suddenly feels heavy, unable to bear, and that was exactly that moment. It was right there in front of him. He didn't feel so helpless all his life. It wasn't that he did not see rape cases, murder or theft before. But this one made him weak, helpless.

A girl of twenty-one, she would never be a girl again. Survivors of rape rarely became normal in life. The nightmares would haunt them forever.

Before leaving the hospital, he checked for security, and everything seemed fine. There was a change in shift, and everything was monitored well.

His mind went back to the crime scene. Today, a dig was being carried out. It should have already started by now. There will be trained hounds which will look for human scent, and they will excavate the earth based on the hound’s pick up of the scent. A separate CID team was assigned this task. He hoped that Madhuri mam got the permission to search and excavate the properties adjacent to the house. They cannot leave out any possibility at this point in time.

This is something that he will not wish on regular days, but today, he wished badly that the dead bodies of all the missing people be found in the property of the crime scene and the four adjacent plots to it. Let the families of the missing people get some closure.

After Dhananjay and Tara Devi left, Kruthi went back to sleep. Her mother looked at her broken doll and wondered how she will ever fix this. Only, if she had not given permission that night for the party. Only if she had fallen ill and Kruthi and her fiance, Nishanth would have stayed back. So many possibilities. She felt helpless as a mother watching her daughter go through all of this. She wept slowly not disturbing Kruthi. She thought of Nishanth who was dead and his body was buried somewhere. Hope they find his body. At least the boy gets a proper cremation.

Kruthi dreamed of Nishanth kissing her, hugging her, a tear rolled down her cheek. She prayed for his body to be found. He deserved a proper burial. And the murderers deserve death, she wanted to see them begging for their life just like she had begged them to let her go.