Patang by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay Page B

you’re so sure of yourself, why don’t you catch him?’ Rathod growled back, and the two took menacing steps towards each other.
    ‘What was the funnel for, I wonder?’ Mule interrupted calmly from the other side of his desk.
    The two men stopped in their tracks.
    ‘Sir?’ asked DCP Singh, as he turned to look at his boss. Rathod was looking at the commissioner, too.
    ‘The funnel? The large one that was found in the victim’s mouth? What was it for?’ Mule repeated.
    The DCP looked at Rathod, who had checked his temper by now. He said softly, ‘I haven’t seen the post-mortem reports yet, sir, but it seems the killer put some sort of liquid into the victim’s mouth. I’m assuming it was some sort of a poison – snake venom, perhaps.’
    Mule said, ‘So your guess is that, this…Tony…was trying to punish Rudolph by giving him a dose of the same poison that he had given his friend?’
    ‘Yes…but, of course, the assumption is that he could get hold of the poison.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Mule with a chuckle, ‘they wouldn’t sell it at the local chemist store, I suppose.’
    ‘No, sir, and even if he did get it from the underground market, it would be quite expensive. Tony Matthew works as an assistant librarian in Andheri. I don’t think he would have that kind of money.’
    ‘Hmm…so, let’s take stock of the situation, shall we?’ Mule gestured towards the two chairs in front of him.
    The two men took their seats somewhat apologetically, looking embarrassed. Secretly, both men admired the way Mule had handled a situation spiralling out of control.
    ‘What do we do now?’ asked Mule.
    ‘Sir, I have a suggestion,’ the DCP said, glancing at Rathod for his views as well. ‘We now know what Tony Matthew lookslike. I suggest that we launch a massive manhunt for him. No holds barred. We flash his photograph on every channel, on every newspaper, on every social media platform. We also alert all airports, highways, bus stations, railway stations, petrol pumps – everyone. We alert all our informers too. Sooner or later, he will get caught.’
    Mule looked at Rathod, who was deep in thought. ‘What do you think, Rathod?’
    ‘Well, let us hope for our sake that it’s sooner rather than later, because in the state he is in right now he’s extremely dangerous. He’s like an arrogant child. He’s decided that he wants something, and nobody can talk him out of it. You can’t scare him, because you can’t get to him. You can’t coax him out of it, because he isn’t greedy. He’s a child possessed by an idea. And he will get to his goal.’
    ‘What is his goal?’ asked DCP Singh.
    ‘Do you remember his words from the first letter?’ Rathod stared at the ceiling, as if he was visualizing what Tony Matthew was doing right at that moment. ‘His goal is the successful completion of the task he has set for himself. And there’s only one thing that remains to be done to complete that task – the fourth murder.’
    ‘Hmm,’ Mule said gravely. ‘Consider the situation carefully gentlemen: if we launch this manhunt, and if , despite the manhunt, he commits the fourth murder, you do realize what will happen, don’t you? We will be shown in very poor light. The media will tear us apart. The man on the street will make him a hero…in fact, a God! Such is always the case with serial killers. So we need to tread very cautiously. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the situation is quite tricky.’
    ‘I agree, sir,’ said DCP Singh. ‘Nothing sells better onTV than police failure! But what else can we do, given the circumstances? The previous three murders have all happened in intervals of…what, Rathod?’
    ‘Three days,’ Rathod said.
    ‘Yes, precisely three days. He is a methodical man; he will, in all probability, commit his fourth murder three days from the third one. And that leaves us…what?’
    ‘Twenty-four hours,’ Rathod said.
    ‘Exactly! Twenty-four hours to catch him.