Wiping away his tears, Vishal got up and called Dhara on her phone.
"Dhara, did you see..." he began as soon she picked up.
"The video," she cut him across. "I've seen it, just now. I am getting down to track it. It must have been uploaded in the same pattern. Give me some time. I will track this scumbag."
"Thank you. I owe you a lot."
"Don't," she said strongly. After a moment's hesitation, she asked, "Is she alive? Or was this video shot before... you know..."
"Alive, I believe. We have to probe carefully," Vishal replied honestly.
"I want to hope for the best. But Vishal, you should see the online discussions happening about this video. It is so conflicting and derogatory. You guys should be very careful while interacting with the media and public. Of course, I needn't tell you this. You would know what to do," Dhara sounded worried.
"Thanks, Dhara. I will see about it."
The call ended. Vishal swiftly walked to Raghavan's desk where Raghavan and Basava were both engrossed in a deep discussion. They cut short their talk as Vishal stepped up to them.
One look at their disturbed faces spoke volumes of what was going through their minds.
"Can we ask DSP Sandeep to come over now?" Vishal asked. "There's a lot to discuss."
"Yes, I was about to call him now," Raghavan answered.
As they waited for the whole team to gather, Vishal sat in a corner reading the public opinions springing up on various social media platforms. People were as divided as they could ever be.
There was a glaringly huge curiosity of public over the victim whom Mitra had allegedly left to die. Some flagged Mitra as an evil and cold-hearted girl who deserved the situation she was in, given that she had let another girl to die. The self proclaimed moral-police came up to voice really strong judgments against Mitra.
The people with better rational minds pointed out that the statements in the video had no authentication, that none of them knew the actual story of what happened, and that it was all the words of a murderer who has another victim in his hands at the moment. To them, Sashi was a mad man spewing some story to tip the scales of public opinion and justify himself while having a woman shackled, God knows where, and staging her murder twice now. Sashi wasn't someone to be trusted.
Vishal prayed for the public opinion to be positive. People shouldn't judge Mitra; none of them knew the truth. Having a negative view of her could influence the case and later on Mitra's whole life, if she made it out alive, in irreparable ways. It could even warrant an indirect encouragement towards Sashi's torture of Mitra, egg him towards hurting her more, and feed him with a false vindication that he was right to be the executioner of Mitra.
Sandeep had literally rushed back to the station a mere hour after leaving it. As the team assembled in his room, Vishal could sense that he was going to be bombarded with questions.
"First things first, what do you think? Is she alive or was this video shot before he killed her?" Sandeep questioned his team for their opinions.
Vishal could read his conclusion and concurred, "Alive. At this stage, if Sashi wanted to provide any justification for his actions, he would have done so more meticulously and grandiosely than this. He could have turned over her body to us with his statements emboldened for everyone's view."
"Agree. Now the question is, Vishal, what is he exactly talking about?" Sandeep pierced him both with his gaze and words.
Vishal knew he had to speak the truth. At least to some point.
"Mitra was the witness in a rape and murder case twelve years ago. The victim was our classmate in high school, named Lekha. Mitra had seen her talking to some guy on her way home, late in the evening after our study hours at school. She assumed they must be acquaintances and just left. The next morning, they found Lekha's body near the lake on the outskirts of our town. It was a very ghastly incident and investigation revealed there were three culprits. The police couldn't identify or catch anyone. There were no other witnesses than Mitra, and she cooperated completely with the police to find the culprits. It's a cold case now."
Shades of assumptions and speculation shifted in Sandeep's face. "Is that all?" he asked pointedly.
"Yes," Vishal replied, his tone strong, expression stoic and gaze unwavering.
"You need to be completely honest, Vishal. That's the only way we can get to the bottom of this and find Mitra before it's too late."
"You can check the investigation records. Lekha's family was politically powerful in our town. They made sure the investigation was done thoroughly. Mitra bore the brunt of the enquiry process for a long time," Vishal answered with a strong conviction.
"Then why was Sashi saying Mitra wilfully ignored the victim?" Sandeep didn't seem to buy his answers.
"I wouldn't believe a word he says," Vishal pronounced.
Sandeep still prodded, "He said he has been watching Mitra since she was six years old. If he was connected to her in the childhood, through all these years, you should have noticed him too; at some point of time. Can't you think of anyone suspicious?"
Vishal breathed in a lungful and said, "I can't think of anyone. But the way he was talking about Lekha's incident is quite suspicious. I believe he is one of the culprits, or maybe he knows them. That's the only connection I could make sense of."
"He said Mitra befriended him."
Vishal scoffed in disbelief. "Mitra didn't fully settle in our hometown till the start of ninth grade, when we were thirteen. Up till then she used to visit her grandparents there during summer every year when she was a child. And once she settled in our hometown and joined our school, I was her only friend. She had a hard time making friends with anyone. If she had befriended someone other than me, I would have known it ages ago. Sashi must be a stalker and nothing more: a psychopathic stalker who one-sidedly fancies her as his "friend". There are many cases like that, of psychopaths like him, and you know how the culprits in such situations think."
Sandeep kept staring at Vishal, without acknowledging the facts of the past he heard. Vishal realized he needed a stronger affirmation. He leaned forward banging his hands on the table sitting between him and Sandeep.
"Mitra doesn't know him, neither do I. Had she known him I would be aware too. Besides, there would have been some kind of indication about it in the earlier videos." Vishal put in as much intensity in his assurance as possible.