Chapter 20

Sabari was stumped after he heard about Ananya from his neighbor Venkat.

“Venkat!!! Are you sure that it was Ananya?”

“Ya…”

“Did you see anyone else in the car?”

“I didn’t check inside the car.. But it was Ananya who was driving the car”

“Ok Venkat!!! Thanks for your concern and letting me know about this.. I will call Ananya right way”

“Need not thank me… Check Ananya first..”

“Will do”

Sabari disconnected the call and he looked worried. Sidharth, who was watching him a few feet away walked to him.

“Sabari!!! Any problem? Who was on phone?”

Sabari’s understood that he need to answer something and his brain reacted.

“hmmm.. Yes sir.. No problems actually.. It was my neigbour and also one of my close friends. He had asked for some monetary help due to his loss in business. I told him that I would arrange something today. But, I forgot that in this chaos. He is leaving to Delhi in the morning. He called me right now to check whether I can get the money before he leaves”

Sidharth took a deep breath and said, “ufff!! But.. Sabari!! He may be your close friend.. How sick is he to bother you at this time.”

“Sir… He is a nice chap.. Just that he is depressed in his tough times”

“So.. What do you wanna do now?”

“I want to leave now… And will meet you tomorrow morning in GH”

“Why in GH?”

“Sir!!! We need to get the post mortem report of Prathap”

“I don’t think it will happen so soon. We might have to wait until noon”

Inspector Mahadev who was listening to their conversation interrupted them.

“Sidharth is right Sabari… The postmortem might take longer than the usual as I have already termed it as ‘A Sophisticated Murder’. We might have to do prolonged detailed procedures. Those might help in getting some clues. So do you want to leave now?”

“Yes sir... I need to fix something else... “

“Ok... No issues... We will meet tomorrow”

Sabari bid bye to Sidharth and Inspector Mahadev and stormed out of Prathap’s residence. He jumped into his car and drove out through the gate. The questions started to eat his brain.

‘Why the hell should Ananya leave home at this time?’

‘To meet whom?’

‘If it was to meet Vasu, who is he to her?’

‘Why is the need to lie to me?’

Just then, Sabari decided to call her. He picked his mobile and called Ananya’s mobile. After a few beeps, he got a voice message that the phone was switched off.

Sabari tried couple of times more and got the same result.

‘Has she switched off the phone to avoid my calls?’

‘She sneaked out as I stepped out of home’

‘Enough of all these and now is the time to ask her what she is upto’

Sabari’s car zipped through the almost empty streets. The car slowed down in one of the bridges. After crossing the bridge, when he was about to switch the gears up, he saw a few people in the bikes on the way. There was a mini crowd.

Sabari moved his car window down, stopped at one of the bikers and asked, “Any problem?”

“The cops sir.. They are checking for Drink and drive cases”

Sabari waited in the queue for 10 minutes for his turn. A cop came over to him.

“Where are you coming from?”

“Kotturpuram sir”

“Your name?”

“Sabari”

The cop placed a breath analyzer and placed it in front of Sabari’s mouth.

“Can you blow?”

Sabari obeyed the order. The breathe analyzer didn’t show any warnings. The cop looked at him for a second and said, “You can leave”

Sabari closed the window and he picked up speed. His mind went back to Ananya and he started to prepare for the confrontation with her.

Just then, his mobile phone rang. He looked at the display and the call was from an unknown new number. His mind rang bells and he pondered about who could be the caller.

Sabari slowed down the car and attended the call.

“Yes?”

“Is that Sabari?” and it was the voice of a male.

“Yes.. Who is speaking?”

“Before I speak, I have a request for you Mr. Sabari”

“Ya??”

“As per the law, you shouldn’t be speaking over phone while you drive. Can you park the car over your shoulder? I can wait”

Sabari stopped the car towards the left of the road and continued the phone call.

“Done… Go ahead”

“That’s nice… Let me come to the point straight away. STOP working on the BIONIC project and work on something useful.”

Sabari was astonished at the demand. He was silent for a few seconds and continued.

“None can demand me. Who are you?”

“I have all the right to say that as I’m one of the affected person by the project”

“I don’t have time to solve riddles. Identify yourself or I will disconnect the call”

“Hmmm… I’m one of the three chimps deceased of your experiment.”