Chapter 23

25th December 2017

Victor's POV:

Just like how I had hacked Lisa's microphone before I kidnapped her and listened to whatever she spoke to people in person or by calling, I had also hacked Renita's after kidnapping Lisa to keep an eye on how things went with the police in the task of finding me. LOL.

Today, the whole day was totally shit. Those three new guests in my home and Lisa, that bitch had put me into so much trouble. At least after the punishment, I had given her just before I left the house, I hope that she learns her lesson.

After what she tried doing to me with those three morons, I didn't feel the love for her like I always did before. Whenever I think of her all that comes to my mind is hatred and betrayal. Though mom's voice kept reminding me that 'I have to forgive her, she is a small girl after all and she will learn to behave soon. She will learn to love me soon'. I never disobey my mom.

I dumped Imran's corpse into the basement amidst the other decaying corpses. I also tied Nicole and Mishelle down there just like how I had tied Lisa earlier in front of their friend's corpse. Let them watch their friend rot. I didn't drug them too, I let them succumb to their wounds, hunger, and the odour from the rotting bodies around.

As I was busy looking after all these people I had failed to notice that Noel had started tracing me. The moment I found that Noel was close to finding me I set out to finish him off but things went a little bit out of hand.

Even though I was able to kidnap Noel without leaving any trace, the police somehow caught wind of the information he gathered and resumed what he started. It won't lead them to where Lisa and I were now but it pains me that the police would have already learned my bitter bitter past. It was something that has to be buried deep down and not be dug out and dusted again.

Since my car and its registration number is now known to every single police in Coimbatore, I had taken the blue truck of the photographers'. So now no policemen stopped me and checked inside the vehicle. Though it took me all night to take Noel and move past the policemen carefully that had been standing everywhere in the city now.

*

25th December 2019

Cathy's POV:

I didn't know how Victor escaped Nicole's gun. When I heard Mishelle scream and turned she was already lying on her own pool of blood in a semiconscious state. Victor continued to hit her with an iron rod brutally. She wailed in pain and begged him to stop as I did the same. I didn't dare to near him and so I stood crying by the window, all the newly born hope and happiness vanishing like it never came.

Her wriggling slowly stopped as her whining died down. She became still as her half-open eyes stared at him. He dragged her by her hair out of the room asking me to wait for my turn in a few minutes. I stood backed against the wall filled with dread and terror, wondering whether he is going to hit me just like how he hit Mishelle.

Suddenly he barged into the room before slamming the door shut behind him. He strode across the room towards me before grabbing me by my hair and thigh and tossing me over the bed. A sharp pain immediately shot up my head as it hit something hard. He towered over me with a knife in his hand. He wasn't wearing his wig but his face was still covered under the mask.

He started cutting me in multiple places, in arms, thighs, hip, cheeks, and many more places that I failed to notice in immense pain. I screamed my larynx out unable to bear all the pain at once.

"I trusted you! I trusted your words, your smile, your kiss! But you little whore betrayed me just like how my father betrayed my mom", he roared slicing the knife across my left breast. I whined as tears spilled out of my eyes nonstop.

"I am giving you one last chance. Try to get your behavior straight and get ready to spend the rest of your life with me", he said stepping out of the bed, "And one more thing! I am not going to dress those wounds at all, they will remain as open cuts. I want you to feel the pain"

*

26th December 2019

Paul's POV:

By late evening after a good amount of rest, we set off to the address we got this morning from the Tirunelvi department of police. It was a two-story building and it was very obvious that two different families lived there.

We noticed the tolet board hanging on the door of the house upstairs and so we walked up to the bottom one and knocked on the door. It didn't take long before a man in his late fifties opened the door and looked at us questioningly.

The moment we showed our IDs to him, he started shaking from top to bottom as he held the house door wide open for us to get in. It was an average-sized middle-class house. We walked in looking around taking every possible detail in and sat on the sofa in the living room.

A lady slightly younger than him, probably his wife, peeped from the kitchen.

"Do you want anything---", he started, noticing his wife as we refused immediately saying we were in a hurry.

"Your good name sir?", I asked him though I already knew to start off the investigation.

"Ram Kumar", he said taking a seat in front of us.

I handed him the sheet which had Vijay's picture and details below.

"Do you know this guy?", I asked as I studied his reaction.

He saw the picture carefully holding it closer to his gold-framed spectacles. "Yes, he is Vijay Anand. He rented our house upstairs and stayed only a year, long back", he said returning the sheet to me.

"Who all stayed with him?", I asked passing the paper to one of our men who tucked it inside the case file.

"He and his daughter", Ram Kumar said shocking us.

"Daughter?", I asked as my head started spinning.

"Yes, daughter. Her name was....", he squeezed his eyes shut and tapped his head in thought.

"Lily", his wife said in a small voice from the kitchen.

"Haa yeah! Lily", his eyes sprang open as he nodded.

I turned to look at the SI who was jotting down the information in a notepad. He had stopped writing and looked at me in confusion. I shrugged, "Note whatever we get"

"How old was she sir?", I asked.

"Fifteen I guess. Wasn't she Savitri?", he glanced back at his wife who nodded in agreement.

"Fifteen? Was she going to school?", I asked.

"No, she was working somewhere", he said quickly.

"Why didn't she go to school? Vijay was a wealthy man is what I heard"

"Sir we don't know anything about them except their names. We never really spoke to them much. They always stayed away from other people. We don't even know where both of them worked", he said purely not interested to cooperate with the investigation.

"Is there anyone who would know?", I asked not wanting to pester them with more questions.

He shook his head confidently, "Not a soul"

"And you have no idea where they went after vacating your house?", I asked my last question for him.

He shook his head again. I looked up at his wife whose eyes were burning on me all this time. I handed my business card to him, "Call me if you get anything to tell"

He got the card and nodded. I knew for sure that he won't call but his wife would. Because the way he answered all my questions immediately after I asked was quite fishy. Why would they still remember one of their many tenants even after fifteen years so well? And he tells me he never really spoke to them much. With which seemed like a dead-end again, we prepared to return back to Coimbatore.

HAPPY READING!