The Secret Weapon (Part V)

Here’s The Secret Weapon (Part V), for today. I wrote this story for a course; I was doing in the 1990s.

The Secret Weapon (Part V)

Kartik, meanwhile, was on the way to his quarters when he thought he would drop in at his sister’s office. He knew that Radha would be working late, that night. Kartik was well known to the guards, so he was not stopped outside the office building. When he found his sister, she was busy on her computer in her darkened room with Ravi and Rashmi. He knew the husband and wife from a previous case when Rashmi had gone missing.

Radha started viewing the first memory card from Ravi’s office. Initially, nothing happened. Slowly, they saw a figure near the field of the camera, which moved to the other side, stealthily looking right and left as if in fright. The man was wearing a tight black dress with a black mask covering his entire head. His hands were also covered with black gloves. The moment he touched the door of the windowless room, the alarm rang. The thief panicked and bolted off.

In the second set of memory cards also, they could discern a similar scene. Only in the third one all they could see was the empty rooms.

“The man must be very clever. He has not left a clue as to how he fixed the pictures of the room. Did you lodge a complaint at the nearest police station?”

“Yes.”

“Who is the concerned officer? I will talk to him personally later.”

“Inspector Sudhir,” replied Ravi.

“What did the police say? No fingerprints were found?” Kartik pulled up a chair while he got a negative answer from Ravi. Kartik sat down, thoughtfully. “Tell you what? Ravi, can you get the memory cards from the other cameras from the building?”

“I have them right here. I thought they would come in handy.”

One by one, Ravi set about displaying the memory cards from the first camera, which caught you as you enter the building. Many people entered and left. The building housed several other offices, too. Therefore, it complicated things a bit, since the thief could have come to some other office, stayed back and entered Ravi’s at night.

Now, Ravi put a memory card of the camera in the lift. Suddenly, Kartik told Ravi to go back a bit.

“What is he doing here?” Kartik asked pointing to a man, who had entered with a couple of others? “This man was called Alex. He died a few days back. It was a gruesome murder. And what is Dattar doing with him? Dattar is the prime suspect in the case. Radha, give me those memory cards I will further investigate on my laptop in my quarters.” Now, they were all blank on the further course of action.

To be continued…