Chapter 19
25th December 2019
Paul's POV:
We were all in the control room as all the officers were working busily in their systems. I had asked the Sub-Inspector to get me the call log details of Noel immediately. Officer Venkat was tracing the exact location where Noel's last call got disconnected. He typed away furiously in the keyboard as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
I leaned over the desk and wondered how Noel had managed to find the place where Catherine was held when none of us were able to get even a lead. If only he had called us instead of Renita, it would have been a little more productive.
"Sir", Venkat called as I instantly turned on my heels to look at him, "His last call has got disconnected in Pollachi ten minutes back, which is one hour from Coimbatore", he said pointing at the cursor in the screen which I paid no attention to anyway.
"Pollachi... Share his location to Officer Mathews quickly!", I said staring at the screen at nothing in particular when Venkat nodded and proceeded. Suddenly the SI stormed into the control room and marched towards me.
"Sir, Noel's call log", he said handing a file with pinned sheets inside to me as I went through the list of names that Noel had contacted last. I focussed on the last ten calls.
"
Renita Hart Outgoing call 4:17 pm
Renita Hart Outgoing call 7:33 pm
Renita Hart Outgoing call 7:54 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 7:57 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 7:58 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 7:58 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 7:59 pm
Vasudev Kishan Outgoing call. 8:00 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:01 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:01 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:02 pm
Vikram Khanna Outgoing call. 8:02 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:03 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:04 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:04 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:05 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:05 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:06 pm
Renita Hart Missed call 8:06 pm
Vikram Khanna Incoming call 8:07 pm Renita Hart Missed call 8:07 pm
Renita Hart Incoming call 8:08 pm
After going through the list what I deciphered was, Renita didn't seem to have settled until Noel attended her call and explained to her what he had found. If I was him I would have blocked her already. I turned to the SI pointing to the sheet I had.
"Check who Vasudev Kishan and Vikram Khanna are", I said circling the names with my fingertips. He nodded and took the sheet from me and scurried out of the control room. So two new people have entered the plot.
I took a seat beside Venkat wondering who the new people were and where exactly Noel was now. At least we got to do something in this case finally. After a few minutes, my phone started screaming its ringtone. I grabbed the phone from the desk and looked at the caller ID, It's Officer Mathews.
"Yes, Mathews?", I said sticking the phone to my ear.
"Sir I checked all the tollgates. Noel hasn't left Pollachi. Either he is still in Pollachi or he has returned back to Coimbatore", he said in a muffled voice as loud noises of the traffic behind him disturbed the conversation.
I stopped drumming my fingers on the desk as the realization of a new problem bubbling up struck me. "Are you sure Mathews?", I asked standing up from the stool.
"Yes sir", he said strongly.
"Okay then check whether he returned back to Coimbatore", I said as he agreed and I cut the call before the SI came running towards me.
"Sir Vasudev Kishan is Noel's colleague who works in the same IT department of the KMCH hospitals where Noel is also working. He is saying, he once told Noel that he failed in his car driving test and one of his friends in the RTO helped him to bribe and get the driving license.
Noel had remembered it and called Vasudev a few hours ago to ask him for the contact number of that friend of Vasudev who worked in the RTO office. Then Vasudev had given Vikram Khanna's number", he briefed as I nodded sincerely,
"Okay then?"
"He had then called Vikram Khanna and introduced himself as Vasudev's colleague and requested him a favor. He had given him a car registration number and asked for the address of its owner. Vikram had agreed and asked Noel to wait for few minutes while he collected the information that he had asked for. Then he had called back Noel after five minutes to give him the details of the owner", he said fumbling with the sheets he had.
"Did you note the details?", I asked stretching out my hands having already known that he would have collected.
He nodded and handed me a piece of paper.
'Owner: Victor Anand
Contact number: 8754132348
Address: 1/150-2, Joshua Street,
Marthandam,
Kanyakumari'
So this is where Noel was heading to. Explains why Noel was in Pollachi. But where did he go after that?
"Folks, get ready for a ten hours travel. The girl is most probably held captive there", I said slapping the paper against the palm of my other hand.
After we were officially granted permission for the journey from the higher authorities we also received an arrest warrant for Victor. The SI had asked me how I was so sure that Victor is the captor just because Noel said so. But I just feel it in my guts, the department called it my seventh sense. It has proved to be helpful in many previous cases that I had handled.
Before we set off to Kanyakumari I called up Officer Mathews to feed him the new information that we had gathered and also about our suddenly planned trip to Kanyakumari. I asked him to check Coimbatore thoroughly for Noel and asked him to do a thorough investigation of both Vasudev and Vikram before letting me know.
After which I called Renita and asked her to inform me if Neol contacted her again and also told her that we were going to resue Catherine Velt. She became upset once I told her that Noel seems to be missing but anyway she thanked me before she hung the call.
Why thank me? All thanks to Noel.
HAPPY READING!