Chapter 21: The Traitor

The Policeman hung up the call and rushed toward the Senior Inspector's cabin.

" Hey, relax, what happened?," asked Mr. Kadam.

" Sir, the villagers are saying that Mr. Gokhale is not in his house and there's no contact with him,"

" What," Mr. Kadam stood up and by now the easy going look on his face had disappeared.

" The villagers are worried if the spirit...,"

" No, we will find him, get the vehicles ready and where is Mr. Pandey?," asked Mr. Kadam urgently.

" His duty will start in half an hour,"

" Call him now at Mr. Gokhale's place,"

" Yes sir," said the Policeman

Unaware of what's going on in the village the boys were lost in their discussion.

" How can you say that the writer of the Journal has the fifth part?," Raghav questioned.

" It was very simple, every clue was right in front of us and what I did was to collect those clues, like my father used to say, 'everything is connected, we just have to find the connecting strings',"

" And what were the clues?,"

" Remember the incident written in the book in which the writer said that one day he visited my dad and there was no one in the house, the door was open so he went inside and saw my dad with a man who seemed to be a sculpter by the tools he had,"

" Yeah, I remember that,"

" So this incident came to my mind and following it were some questions. First question was what was my dad doing with a sculpter in our garden. And just then I remembered what the writer has written in the book,"

" What?,"

" That the writer saw a square shaped stone in my father's hand ,"

" That must be the key," said Mohan.

" That's right, he had the key and he had called the sculpter to–,"

" Make a duplicate of it?," said Raghav as he realized.

" Exactly, to make the duplicate but not of the whole key just one-fourth part of it,"

" Yes, that could be,"

" So now we know that the writer has the fifth part but how do we find him?," asked Mohan.

" In order to find the writer, we'll have to find Bhaskar,"

" Yes," said Raghav as he remembered. " Bhaskar!, the writer has mentioned him as his close friend in the book,"

The area where the boys stood discussing was quite and rather peaceful than that of Mr. Gokhale's house where the stressful murmuring of people was soon accompanied by the wailing of police sirens.

The Senior Inspector got off from the police jeep and hurried towards Mr. Gokhale's house.

" Inspector Kadam!," said Mr. Ranjeet.

Ramkrushna and Mr. Ranjeet halted towards Mr. Kadam but stopped at some distance as the Inspector signed the crowd to maintain some distance.

" I hope they would find Mr. Gokhale," said a worried Mr. Ranjeet.

" I hope too," Ramkrushna said.

" Have you tried to contact Mr. Gokhale?,"

" Yes, but there's no response,"

" No, that's not good,"

Meanwhile at the other side of the village, while the boys were talking, their attention was drawn towards Mr. Pandey who rushed on his motorcycle with a speed he would never do.

" That's so fast," whistled Mohan.

" Why he's in so hurry?," asked Raghav.

" Where is he headed to?," Shiva enquired.

" To the north,"

" To the north?," Shiva thought and soon he realized something.

" What happened?," asked Mohan as he saw the change in Shiva's expressions.

" Mr. Gokhale!, we'll have to Mr. Gokhale place!,"

" But why?," asked Mohan.

" Do you think...," spoke Raghav as he realized.

" Yes....,"

The crowd stood back and Mr. Kadam had started his investigation with questioning some of the villagers.

" Okay, so today there was a meeting held at his house, right?," asked the Senior Inspector.

" Yes," said the man. " It was to discuss about the date and time of ritual,"

" Okay," said Mr. Kadam as he noted it. " And it was to be held at what time?,"

" Around 10:30pm,"

Mr. Pandey arrived with his roaring motorcycle, it was roaring not because of its speed or power but due its degraded state. Mr. Panday got off his old motorcycle and rushed toward Mr. Kadam.

" What happened sir?, you've never called me so urgently before," he asked.

" Mr. Pandey, the Sarpanch seems to missing and the people fear that the spirit has got him,"

" Mr. Gokhale?," the Head Constable gasped.

" Yes, and I'm making you the incharge of the search team to search in the forest, are you okay with that?,"

" Yes sir, of course,"

" Great, I'll handle here and you get ready with the other cops, we'll begin the search,"

" Okay sir,"

The boys had arrived now. Raghav and Shiva strided towards the crowd while Mohan payed the auto driver.

Fear flooded Shiva's mind as he saw the crowd. Mohan joined them, they saw Ramkrushna and Mr. Ranjeet standing and went near them.

" What is happening here?," Raghav asked to his father.

" Mr. Gokhale seems to be missing and there's no contact with him,"

" What!?,"

" Yes, and the police will be starting the search operation now,"

The boys looked at each other meanwhile someone was watching them hidden behind the trees.

The boys moved away at some distance.

" We've failed," said Shiva.

" The killer is one step in front of us but how?," Raghav spoke.

" I think my theory was right," said Mohan.

" Your theory?,"

" Yes, that there is a traitor among those four persons,

" Perhaps it may be right,"

Ater a few minutes the boys' attention was drawn when the murmuring and whispering of the people was suddenly stopped at once. Everyone looked in the same direction. Shiva went a little forward to see what happened and he saw a man with a flowing white beard, wearing a white dhoti with his upper body covered with an orange cloth, wearing Kolhapuri sleepers was proceeding towards them. It was the Pandit.