Chapter 19

The constable walked to the corner of the room that had a huge two-door refrigerator and Inspector Mahadev followed him.

The constable opened both the door of the refrigerator wide open. The lights of the refrigerator brightened the compartments of the refrigerator. The first thing Mahadev noticed was that the shelves were designed differently that the usual ones. Most of the compartments had glass beakers arranged in order and each one of it had a red solution in it.

Inspector Mahadev looked at it for few seconds and turned to Parasuram.

“Parasuram… You need to check this out.. “

Parasuram walked to the refrigerator followed by Sidharth and Sabari. Mahadev took one of the beakers out of the refrigerator.

Parasuram looked at it and exclaimed, “What the hell is that?”

Mahadev replied, “You need to look inside”

Parasuram turned his eyes inside the refrigerator and was astonished to find almost close to fifty such beakers that had the red solution in it.

“Looks like there would be around hundreds of it”

 “Any guess on what the solution is?”

“Looks like blood to me”

“I don’t think so… The blood would be thick and dense. This one is lighter and moves just like water. May be we can check Sabari”

Mahadev turned to Sabari and asked, “Sabari… Do you know what these are?”

Sabari grabbed the beaker from Mahadev, looked at it for a few seconds and responded, “Sorry sir… I’m not sure what this is?”

“Come on Mr. Sabari… You are one of the close associate of Prathap and a research scholar too. This could be an easy crack for you”

“Inspector!!! This is absurd. I agree that Prathap is my boss. That doesn’t mean that I’m as knowledgeable as him. Moreover, I’m looking at this kind of solution for the first time. Hope that clears your doubts”

Sidharth came in support for Sabari.

“Sabari is right inspector. Though we all work in the same organization, Prathap is free to do whatever personal research outside work. We don’t have any policies to restrict anyone. All these beakers with solution may be part of such personal work.”

Parasuram came forward and turned to Inspector Mahadev.

“Inspector!!! Don’t worry about it. I can help you find out what this liquid is.. Right away..”

Parasuram walked to his kit bag and opened it. He took a glass container that had a liquid in it and a test tube from the bag.

“All I’m going to do is mix the solution in the beaker with liquid Ammonia. Once we mix it, in couple of minutes we can solve this puzzle”

“Please go ahead”

Parasuram took the beaker with the solution and poured it into the test tube. He then added liquid Ammonia into the test tube and stirred it for a few seconds. In the next minute, he just held it in hand expecting some chemical reactions.

Inspector Mahadev, Sidharth and Sabari eagerly waited for Parasuram’s finding. After a minute, Parasuram exclaimed, “My goodness”

Mahadev reacted to that.

“Anything wrong?”

“This liquid is not just any solution.”

“What is that then?”

“It is pure blood”

“But the blood should be thicker and dense.. No?”

“Yes it should be… But, in this case, the blood is made thinner by diluting it. Prathap did something by himself to make the real blood diluted”

Inspector Mahadev turned to Sidharth and Sabari.

“Does any of you have answer for this?”

Sidharth came himself forward to answer the question.

“Listen Inspector!!! I like to clear the air again. As a Managing Director of my company, I can answer only to the questions related to my organization and NOT for anything about the research done outside.”

“Ok… So!! You don’t have any clue about the beakers with blood?”

“That is absolutely correct”

Inspector Mahadev turned to Sabari.

“How about you Sabari?”

“Same with me too.. But…”

The last word from Sabari made Mahadev curious.

“But.. What?”

“The situation right now is compelling me to share something about Mr. Prathap”

“Sure.. I’m all ears… Go ahead”

“This happened a few days back. It is usual that I walk to Prathap’s room to provide any updates or to get clarifications about the project. Mostly Prathap would be available in his room. One particular day, when I went to his room, he was not present. When I was about to leave his room, I heard a mobile ringtone from his desk. It was an unusual ringtone. I walked towards his desk and found a gadget that almost a clone of a mobile phone. The ringtone originated from the gadget. I thought of ignoring it, but was tempted to attend the call. When I attended the call, I heard a lady speaking on the other side. She was speaking Japanese. Though I couldn’t understand what she spoke, she was spelling out Prathap’s name clearly. I responded to her in English that Prathap is not available, she disconnected the call. I left the phone on his desk and returned back to my seat.”

Inspector Mahadev who was listening keenly replied, “That is interesting… An anonymous Japanese connection for Prathap.. “

“May be”

“Sabari!!! Do you have any guess on what kind of connect Prathap had in Japan?”

“No.. Sorry”

“Didn’t you talk about this to your MD Sidharth?”

“I didn’t.. “

“Why?”

“That was a personal call and I don’t have any reason to discuss it with him. “

“hmm… Ok”

“On the other side, to answer your question, I think Prathap was researching something while working for our organization. But I’m not sure on what he was exactly trying to do”

Just when Sabari completed his statement, his mobile phone rang. He looked at the display to check who was calling. The display showed that it was his neighbor Venkat.

Sabari was surprised to receive a call from Venkat at the late hours. He walked away from Inspector Mahadev and Sidharth to attend the call.

“Yes Venkat??”

“Sabari!! Where are you right now?”

“Hmm.. I’m out for an urgent meeting in my office… Why?”

“A few minutes back, as I was not feeling sleepy, I came out to my terrace for a small walk. That was when I noticed a car stormed out of your compound gate. It was your wife Ananya, who was driving. Why such a speed? Any problem??”