TRIAL AND ERROR!! Chapter 4

Hello friends,
Sorry for making and breaking my promises regarding the updates 😭😭😭😭 Sometimes, we're bound to go with the flow of life, which we can't help happening at one point in our life... Okay, I think this story will run for more days, so all I need is your encouragement and support. This time I may bore you... And now, buckle up for a long update... Shall I start then?
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CITY HOSPITAL:

ACP Pradyuman's faced turned pale after reading the letter. He remained quiet and never attempted to say anything. He was simply staring at Dr. Salunkhe, who looked puzzled by seeing his friend's reaction. The silence continued for another five minutes.

Salunkhe broke the silence by asking, "What happened Boss?" in a serious tone. Pradyuman simply handed over the letter to Salunkhe, and his eyes were moist, staring thoughtlessly at the ground.

Salunkhe took the letter and started reading it, since he didn't read the letter when DIG gave the envelope, as he didn't open it. His eyes got stuck at the letter, because the letter had something which was unexpected.

The letter was a memo of suspension. For a minute, Salunkhe couldn’t understand anything. He was wondering why DIG had to give suspension order in the name of medical leave. He asked in a shocked tone, “What’s all this Pradyuman? At first, you were told to encounter Daya, now you’re suspended? Why everything’s happening to be strange? I just can’t understand man!”, and dropped the letter with frustration. 

 

ACP Pradyuman, without lifting his face up, replied, “I shouldn’t have revealed you about the encounter. Did you people plan anything for Daya’s escape from the encounter?” Salunkhe, who was shocked to hear all these from his beloved friend, answered him in a frustrated tone, “Are You Mad, Pradyuman? How can you think such things? And, remember, if you had to take Daya’s life without our knowledge, I would have never forgiven you.”

Pradyuman’s eyes turned red and were filled with tears, and remained silent. Salunkhe patted on his shoulder and said, “Sorry, Boss. I shouldn’t have said like that. I know about you. You too know very well about us. When did we go against you Pradyuman? And the situation was not in our hands too. Sorry for being rude. I couldn’t control myself, witnessing everything that’s happening right now. Just tell me one thing. How did you believe that Daya is innocent?”

Pradyuman stared at Salunkhe, with silence. Breaking his silence, Pradyuman said, “I don’t know, whom I should trust and whom I shouldn’t. I don’t know anything about Daya. I am confused. I don’t know if I should trust myself. Because, I did my job properly and see what I have got” and paused. 

Salunkhe consoled him saying, “Don’t lose hope Pradyuman. Everything will be alright.” and took the letter. He added, "I'll try to figure out the reason behind your suspension." Pradyuman stared at him for a moment, and said, "What could you do? By the way, I don't want to know anything." Salunkhe said, "I'm not going to back off from my decision. I'll try my best to unravel the mystery behind this." Pradyuman never knew how to react, as he had seen his friend disobeying him and teasing him many times. But he is wondering now, because he saw Salunkhe, who's different, and lending his support at his hard times. Sometimes, hardships makes people understand life, and people around them and those who really care for them.

Meanwhile, Purvi entered inside the room and saw Salunkhe and Pradyuman, with their worried faces. She got startled, as she was about to reveal about the raid and after seeing them, her lips were hesitant to speak out her mind.

Salunkhe could recognize Purvi’s thoughts by seeing her facial expression. He could understand that there is a problem. Purvi managed to go near Pradyuman and asked, “Sir, are you fine?” With a fake smile on his lips, Pradyuman replied, “I’m fine.”

Salunkhe said, “Pradyuman, please take rest. We need you fit and fine.” And he left the room. As Salunkhe left, Pradyuman’s thoughts started rushing like wild horses. 

Pradyuman, in his service, had to mistrust his colleagues when they went wrong, only for his duty. But this time, he never knew the reason behind the suspicion on himself. He murmured, “I don’t know what’s happening with me.” Suddenly he was reminded of Abhijeet, his face flashed in his mind and his voice kept ringing in his ears…

“You don’t trust us every time when we get into trouble. Sometimes our bad time puts us into trouble. We are even ready to sacrifice our lives for your order, but you’re not ready to trust us. Even when you were in trouble, we never failed to trust you.” His eyes were filled with tears, recollecting that moment. He vowed, “I know about myself and my people. I will never lose my self-respect and my people at any cost. I’ll prove myself to this world, who I am.”

Salunkhe who came out of the room, along with Purvi. Purvi was completely anxious, because everything happening around them was completely shocking. Salunkhe asked, "What happened Purvi?" Before Purvi could say anything, a team of officers rounded up the hospital. Freddy, who was waiting at the entrance of the hospital, was puzzled to see the group of officers who entered into the hospital premises.

The group was headed by Rajashekar, Senior Superintendent of Police in CBI, followed by Rakesh, Additional Superintendent of Police in CBI and his teammates. Pankaj, who reached the hospital premises, startled to see the officers, as he got some information about them from his journalist friend, Kamal, as they were the officers who were involved in the raid at ACP Pradyuman's house.

A NURSING HOME

The nursing home was functioning in an old bungalow, as the bungalow was donated by a rich person as a part of his charity, before his death. The bungalow had around 20 to 25 rooms, and had a typical hospital setup. The nurse was moving around the corridor in the ground floor, as she was in rounds. At one point, she had stopped suddenly, and found something that astonished her. 

She immediately ran to the doctor's cabin. As some patients were sitting outside the cabin and waiting to consult the doctor, they were surprised to see the nurse running.

She rushed into the doctor's cabin and her breath was fast. Doctor who was puzzled by the nurse's entry, asked her, "What happened sister?" The nurse, replied with her fast breath, "Doctor, please come to room no. 112, immediately". 

Doctor got up with a confusion, and started walking fast along with the nurse towards room no. 112. When they reached the place and got into the room, they found the bed to be empty and the table near the bed, was moved from its place, and things were scattered here and there. 

"The patient in this room was admitted here yesterday, right?" The doctor asked the nurse to reassure the same. The nurse nodded her with approval and said, "Yes, sir... The person who admitted him asked us to take care of him. But I never expected that he would go missing." 

Doctor asked with irritation, "Why are you so careless? A patient is missing, now who is answerable and responsible for this?" The nurse replied in a panicked voice, "Sir, two hours ago, I had given him sedative. I don't know how he had woke up." Doctor shouted, "Don't say anything. You might have given him a low dosage. I don't know, if anyone questions, you're going to answer" and left the place. The nurse stood like a statue with a facepalm.

INFINITY SOLUTIONS 

Time 10:00 PM.

Siddharth was staring at his computer, with his tired eyes, as he had to work day and night for a project. Something was wrong in his system, as the code had delivered something else from what he expected. He got irritated and threw a bunch of papers on his desk out of frustration. After a hectic day, he decided to take a break by sipping a coffee. The cold air in his cabin, urged him to move to the washroom.

Siddharth is an average man in his late twenties, whose appearance reflects a typical middle class man. He is known to be one of the brilliant software engineers in the company. 

Being a skillful software engineer, he had built numerous apps. Introversion and straight forward attitude, define his character, the best.

CITY HOSPITAL

The team of CBI officers led by Rajasekhar approached faster towards the room, where ACP Pradyuman had been admitted. Rajasekhar was in his late fifties, who was six feet tall, wearing a black coolers and had his moustache twitched. His hair appeared partially grey. He wore a light yellow colour plain shirt, formally tucked into a black pant. His shoes were shining with the copper brown polish.

Purvi, Salunkhe and Tarika were completely speechless out of shock for a second, witnessing their arrival. Purvi said, “Sir, everything is happening, which I never expected to happen.” Salunkhe couldn’t understand what Purvi meant by saying that. Rajasekhar who came towards Salunkhe, stood for a moment and stared at him for a while. Salunkhe was looking at him silently, as Purvi and Tarika did. He proceeded towards the dean’s room.

DEAN’S ROOM

The door outside the room had board fixed to it, which read, Dr.Ajay Chandrapal M.B.B.S., M.D., F.R.C.S. the dean was in his early sixties. His head was partially bald, with few strands of hair of snow white, running along his ears like silver linings. His spectacles had a dark black frame, which is made of thick fibre. He was keenly checking an x-ray with a lens in his hand. “Excuse me, may I come in?” Asked Rajasekhar who was standing at the entrance and entered inside the room without waiting for a second. The dean got irritated by his entry, stood up from his seat, and with a frown on his face, he shouted, “how did you enter into my room, without my permission?”

Rajasekhar said with a smile on his face, “hello, Dr.Ajay Chandrapal. Please relax. I’m Rajasekhar, senior superintendent of police, CBI” and shook his hand firmly. Dean replied in an embarrassed tone, “I’m extremely sorry. Please sit down, sir.” Rajasekhar sat down in the chair opposite to the dean and said, “We’re here for an enquiry. If you need any information, kindly tune into the news. I’m here to take custody of ACP Pradyuman. So, our team will be here to monitor him. Here’s the order” and took a letter and showed it to the dean. 

The dean took the letter and read the details in it. He ascertained, “yes, you can proceed with your job. We’ll extend our full cooperation. But I need an assurance that there won’t be any disturbance to other patients in the hospital by this enquiry.” Rajasekhar replied, “I assure you that there won’t be any nuisance by us. Thank you for the permission, doctor” and got up from his seat and shook his hand once again, and left the room.

A Dark room

A man was monitoring a set of events in his place through CCTV cameras. Suddenly his mobile rang, and he picked and laughed like a devil. He asked, “Hello, is everything going according to the plan?” The voice on the other side replied, “Yes, boss. Now no one can stop you from doing anything.” The man laughed even louder than earlier. He continued, “But I’m not completely satisfied. I couldn’t destroy Daya, I don’t know if he’s dead or alive. But I need him dead”, and banged his hand on a table. He continued, “I won’t leave ACP Pradyuman. Kill him by 12. Because he’s even more dangerous. Make his murder to be a suicide. People must believe that Pradyuman committed suicide, as he couldn’t bear the false accusations on him. The voice on the other side replied, “I have an immediate plan. In the darkness, ACP Pradyuman will breathe his last. The light will only reveal his corpse” and laughed loudly. The man replied, “I don’t know, but if ACP Pradyuman dies, Daya will come to see his dead body, if he is alive, right?

The voice on the other side said, “You will definitely hear a good news.” And hanged up the call. The man repeated his devilish laughter and said, “Destruction is my motto and none can stop me from doing it” and fired with a volley of bullets, at a statue outside his room, which looked like ACP Pradyuman.

CITY HOSPITAL

The hospital was surrounded by the team from corner to corner, to monitor ACP Pradyuman. Rajasekhar who came out of Dean's room, reached the entrance of Pradyuman's room. Salunkhe, Purvi and Tarika were still sitting outside, with a silence for a long time. Purvi had informed Salunkhe about the raid in Pradyuman's house. Pankaj and Freddy were waiting near the gate of the hospital. Freddy murmured, "Pankaj, everything is strange around us." Pankaj replied in a low tone, "Sir, somebody is trying to trap ACP sir. We have to find the culprit as soon as possible." Freddy wonders if he should take out the note he got.

Pradyuman's Room

Rajasekhar entered into the room, that was completely silent. Pradyuman was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Rajasekhar sat on the chair next to the bed. 

He called out in a soft tone, "Pradyuman!"

ACP Pradyuman slowly opened his eyes and figured out Rajasekhar's face slowly. 

Rajasekhar spoke, "I never thought that, I would meet you in this situation." ACP Pradyuman was moved by those words, thinking that he had come to visit him as he was injured. So he smiled at him and said, "I'm alright, sir". Rajasekhar gave a sarcastic laugh, and said, "You have received a huge amount of five hundred crores through illegal transactions. These are the evidences we got from your house" and showed a file which had evidences against him. He continued to speak in a sarcastic tone, "What would you like to say about this, Pradyuman?" 

The smile on his face faded away, and his eyes turned furious. In a second, he had experienced numerous emotions, which cannot be described in words. 

He asked Rajasekhar with an angry tone, "Is that the price you fixed for honesty?"

This answer enraged Rajasekhar, and he shouted, "Are you trying to be too smart?"

Pradyuman sat on the bed, and with a smirk, he replied, "I am not smart enough to be corrupt." 

Meanwhile, a doctor barged into the room and shouted, "Will you please stop this nonsense? I can understand your situation. But that doesn't mean you can disturb a patient. Please don't interrupt in our duty of treating our patients. Please have your enquiry in the morning. Kindly leave this place for now." 

Rajasekhar who was frowning after hearing doctor's words, said in a low tone to Pradyuman, "Pradyuman! Let's see who's smart enough, soon. Have a good rest. Good bye." and left the place.

OUTSIDE THE ROOM

Salunkhe, Purvi and Tarika were sitting and their faces were quite serious. All they could do was to stay silent, as they can't raise their voice against the officials. Rajasekhar, who came out of the room, walked towards Salunkhe and in a satirical tone, "We're here to take care of ACP Pradyuman. So there's no need to worry about your boss. I hope you people won't misuse your powers to save your officer. I request you to leave this hospital premises immediately. If you have to visit him, you need to secure permission. If you're really concerned about your officer,  only one of you can stay here. But you're not allowed to communicate with anyone. And the choice is yours." Salunkhe was staring at Rajasekhar as if he would burn him alive. Purvi and Tarika were trying to avoid the eye contact, but were equally enraged as Salunkhe.

INFINITY SOLUTIONS

TIME: 11:00 PM

Madhurima took a file from her desk and reached Siddharth’s cabin to clarify her doubts. As she reached siddharth’s cabin, she was shocked to see the chair empty. She saw Siddharth walking towards washroom. His absence was suspicious to her, as she never saw him return to his cabin. She immediately called her friend Vinoth through the intercom.

Vinoth was typing codes for the programme. His phone started to ring suddenly, and he attended the call without lifting his eyes from the desktop. Madhurima on the other side spoke with panic, “Hello, Vinoth” and explained everything about Siddharth. Vinoth said “okay” in a rushed voice and hanged the call.

Vinoth clapped his hands to gain attention from his colleagues nearby his cabin and gestured to follow behind him. His colleagues were totally confused and followed him towards the washroom. The door was completely locked. Vinoth had to break the door, and he entered inside to check whether Siddharth was inside. He searched the entire room. No one was there. 

Vinoth came out of the washroom and said, “Siddharth is not here. Let’s search for him in this entire building” and the team rushed out to search him in the building, only to find him nowhere. Everybody assembled at a place and exchanged that Siddharth couldn’t be found anywhere. Vinoth wondered, “What if Siddharth had got kidnapped or got murdered?” Everyone was stunned to hear such a sentence from Vinoth.

ON THE ROAD

Salunkhe, Purvi and Tarika moved towards their car, which was parked a few feet away from the hospital's entrance. Freddy and Pankaj were already sitting in the front seats of the car. The women and Dr. Salunkhe, occupied the back seats of the car. Pankaj started driving the car towards All were silent for a moment. Every person was thinking about his or own memories with those three officers of the team. 

The names Pradyuman, Abhijeet and Daya had their own life, power and magnitude. But now, they are crushed down to earth, as death, conviction and ill reputation, got replaced. 

Few minutes ago, Pankaj, who had come to start the car, received a message in his mobile from a private number, which was strange... But he was unaware of it.

"SUN CAN BE HIDDEN BY THE CLOUDS, 

BUT WIND IS ENOUGH TO BLOW THEM OFF"

Freddy said, "I got an information from an informer that Mukesh's dead body has been found. Purvi asked, "Is he the same officer, who received a medal few months ago in the conference and worked with ACP sir in a case?" Pankaj said, "Yes, he was the same person. Freddy sir, who's investigating the case now?" Freddy said, "This case is being handled by CBI, right now." Something stroke in Salunkhe's mind. Salunkhe said in a hurried tone, "Stop the car, Pankaj." I'll get down here. Pankaj asked, "Why sir, what happened?" Salunkhe replied, "Nothing, I have an urgent work" and got down at the middle of the road, near a shop.

Pankaj dropped Freddy, Purvi and Tarika at their houses. Freddy got down and was walking towards the entrance of his apartment. He took his mobile and saw time. The lock screen had his recent selfie with his wife. He looked at the wall near the entrance had a CCTV camera fixed to it. Suddenly he got an idea about the strange note he got....

Pankaj who reached his home, was feeling terrible about the situation around him. When he took out his mobile, he read the strange message, and his eyes popped out of shock...

CITY HOSPITAL

TIME 11:45 PM

The hospital was completely dark, as the power supply was cut. The atmosphere of the hospital was chaotic as people over there were sweating. Dr. Mukund was the incharge of that time. But what if he was getting ready to kill ACP Pradyuman with a poisonous injection? A mysterious call, informed him about his daughter’s kidnap, and to get her alive, he had to kill ACP Pradyuman.

Even the generators did not have enough diesel to provide power supply. Dr. Mukund got ready to get into the risk of killing ACP Pradyuman. Only five minutes were allotted to him, as the plan required the next ten minutes to create a crime scene of suicide.

Dr. Mukund, wore a headgear with a torch and prepared the poisonous injection. He walked fast through the darkness towards Pradyuman’s room.  Only two minutes were left. As he entered into Pradyuman’s room, the torch’s light went dim. He stepped towards him, the torch completely went off.

Purvi’s home

Purvi was feeling restless. She started recollecting everything that happened in the hospital. She was sitting in her reading room, and staring at the white board in the room, which had been filled with the words in the strange note she got…

“EASY AS IF SAID – REMOVE THE EYES” 

She had begun to decode the mystery behind those words…

IN A DHABA NEAR HIGHWAY

A man walked from the dhaba tired, after eating two aloo paratas. The vendor asked him, “What else would you like to have brother? You look so tired. Money is not an issue. Kindly eat something.” The man said, “I had enough to live” and started walking continuously. He went near the drum filled with water. The water reflected his dull face and his bleeding heart. He splashed some water over his face, and started walking aimlessly towards the road. 

A strange place

An old man was lying on the cot. Suddenly he woke up as if he woke up after a nightmare. He started to wonder about the place he was lying. He got up and started looking in and around. It was a tent built in a dark part of the jungle, and the place was lit up by a pile of fire woods. The man got completely startled, after he realized that he had been kidnapped from the hospital. He could also find his badge lying somewhere near the cot. The badge was the prestigious badge of CID, and it belonged to none other than ACP Pradyuman. It was an astonishing moment, as he felt like, he had been lost in an unknown path. He could also find a piece of cloth, which was a white handkerchief, that was drenched with blood, which had dried in course of time.

Pradyuman got puzzled and murmured, "What's this?" and tried to check if he could find any detail in that kerchief. At any situation, one cannot kill the innateness of an officer. He checked for details and got to find something written upon it, with blood wet fingers.

After some keen examination, he found the word to be "HEXAGON" and suddenly something flashed in his mind like a lightning.

PURVI'S HOME

Purvi was fed up with the note, as she couldn't see any possibility in decoding it. Her room was littered with many torn pieces of paper. She just got up to have some water from the fridge in the living room. Her laptop displayed a page which displayed the list of anagrams of the letters in the quoted text "EASY AS IF SAID". Anagrams are list of words, with or without meaning, than can be formed in given set of letters. 

Purvi stood for a moment, five feet away from the laptop, showing her back. As something flashed in her mind, she turned towards the laptop. And her eyes got stuck on the word, displayed in the laptop.

"IDAYAISSAFES"

Her eyes widened and she murmured, "What if "EYES" is "I" and "S"', and wrote it down in a paper, "DAYA IS SAFE" Purvi raised her eyebrows reading it. 

HIGHWAY

The man who was wandering on the road, suddenly stood at a place when he heard someone calling him "Daya". The road was deserted and empty, and was completely dark. The voice that called was like his beloved brother. When he turned around to see if anyone was there, but only to find no one. Everything appeared like a dream that was completely shattered...

"Daya, No one in this world will never have a friend like you." These words were ringing in his ears again and again. He knelt down at the middle of the road and screamed, "Abhijeet", and cried out loudly as if his soul would get away from the pain and his voice would shatter this world, burning it to ashes... Even his tears, were like the lava erupting from a volcano... What if agony turns a person to be furious? 

DARK ROOM

The man was eagerly waiting to hear ACP Pradyuman's death. He received a call from a private number. He took the phone with curiosity and whispered a hello in an eager and sarcastic tone. "Hello, boss, kindly tune into the news channel." 

The man with a cunning smile, tuned into one of the leading news channels, which reported the breaking news, 

"ACP Pradyuman goes missing from City hospital". 

The man got astonished by the news, as he could sense the failure in his plans. He shouted at the man over the phone, "What's all this?" The person on the other side laughed like a devil  "hahaha......" This enraged the man here, and he shouted, "Who are you?" The voice on the other side replied with a devilish smile, "Death never dies... So am I, call me Amar..." and hanged the call. The man was wondering, what was really going on.

CITY HOSPITAL

Time 2:00 AM

The team was enquiring every individual in the hospital. But no body had any idea about the incident. Even CCTV footages never arised a suspicion. But there was something else, that was completely suspicious and shocking to the team.

The wall of Pradyuman's Room had something inscribed on it with blood.



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So I have revealed some, and many things are left to be revealed... Who's Siddharth? Who's Amar? Hexagon? Daya's future plans? Every question will get its answer in time. Stay tuned to know the rest.

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Finally, I have done the chapter. I hope it was not boring, and something dragging. I won't say I'm the best, but just a beginner attempting something. My next update won't be soon, as I have my studies and exams. Need your blessings and support. You will have to wait for a month atleast. Sorry for mistakes in advance. Kindly drop in your comments and feedback. Because that's going to keep the story alive. Love you loads friends... 😘😘😘😘😘 See you soon 😊😊😊