Chapter 01: Blood and Asphalt
Asphalt gleaned like thousand diamonds in
front of his eyes. A thin stream of blood mingled trickled from his forehead
and coated silvery bits red making them look like blood rubies. His collar
stuck to his neck as it perspired under hot sun and his body revolted as the
hot asphalt permeated through his khaki uniform and scorched his skin.
Obscenities rained around him making him close his eyes and count to ten. It
was his personal philosophy not to get angry but the two men laughing at his
fallen state had riled him up in a matter of seconds. He slowly picked himself
up from the ground dusting his Khaki uniform and checked his temple for the
depth of his injury. It wasn't too deep but it wasn't a scratch either. He spit
on the ground making it land only inches from one of the man's feet and was
tainted with blood. 'Screw moral code,'
he thought rolling his eyes and slammed one of the man on the hood of the car. Before
the second man could recover, he elbowed his lower stomach and clapped the backside
of his knees. When the man was kneeled over in pain, he used his forearm to hit
his lower spine. The man would be in enormous pain and he wouldn't be able to
pick himself anytime soon.
The man lying on hood of car was groaning
loudly when Arnav was finished with the other man. Arnav fathomed he was half
faking the pain but he didn't care. He walked back to his SUV and slid smoothly
and called in. Without giving the two fallen men a second glance, he drove away
from the deserted road.
A constable was dabbing cotton soaked in
Dettol when the call came. He checked his watch and looked at the inspector
sitting opposite to him.
"It took them forty minutes to scramble off
their ass and make a phone call sir. Well done," inspector smiled at Arnav with
pride. "Next time, make it an hour." He added cheekily. Arnav snickered behind
his palm and cleared his throat when he heard the terse voice of his boss –
police commissioner.
"You are an ACP for god's sake Arnav, stop
behaving like a hoodlum." The voice on the other end of the phone yelled.
"I wasn't acting like a hoodlum sir but I was
dealing with two of them." Arnav said caustic. Commissioner was under tremendous
pressure with general political tensions perpetual in their city and Arnav had
managed to rub shoulders wrong way with two most influential ones in city.
"Do you realize the kind of f**kery you
just did?" Commissioner was unnaturally hard on him. Arnav wondered if it was
due to failure in solving string of murder cases or was it because he had hit
two men whose boss was a good friend of the commissioner. In all honestly, he didn't
care shit about it.
"I happen to teach two men a lesson: what
happens when they hit an officer in uniform after harassing women on street."
Arnav's voice was hard and his face lost all ease it contained before. When
commissioner didn't reply, Arnav lost his cool. "Unless of course making your
friend happy is more important than life of your men. Well done sir." Again
there was silence on the other end of the line and Arnav knew then what was
going to happen.
"What happened to you, son?" Commissioner's
voice was laced with concern and mild apprehension. "You were the star of our
department – a role model for the other ACPs but look at you now: picking
fights with petty politicians, snapping at your superiors and indulging in fist
fights."
"Sir-"
"Don't let your failure to solve murders
come in way of everyday governance." Commissioner cut him off. "You are
suspended without pay for three months." He hung up the phone before Arnav
could defend his actions.
Arnav looked at the phone in his hand
bleakly and sighed deeply.
"What happened sir?" The inspector asked
noting his grim expression.
"What do you expect," Arnav said standing
up and tapping the bandage on his temple. His constable had done a decent job
at it. "I am suspended without pay for three months. There may be a temporary
posting in my place but I will recommend against it. Take charge of this
station for me," he said to inspector. Inspector nodded mutely, his expression
matching Arnav's. "And I need all the case files of the unsolved murders. Can
you arrange that?" Arnav asked.
Inspector nodded. He sighed when Arnav
turned around to give out last orders to other personnel and wondered what made
Arnav Singh Raizada such an honest and good policeman. The man was intelligent,
charming and extremely resourceful but the recent failures had taken a toll on
him. He knew his boss drank little more than necessary and his anger level had
exponentially increased but beneath it all was a good man. He was suspended yet
he would be thinking about the victims and the justice which they deserved
during this suspension time.
"Do you need anything else sir?" Inspector
asked Arnav. Arnav shook his head looking through contact list in his cell
phone. He had met with his childhood friend less than a week ago who owned a
resort somewhere in southern India. He had pestered Arnav to visit his resort
over the years and this time his friend had threatened to sever or his
friendship if Arnav didn't visit within a year.
"I am suspended." Arnav said as soon as the
call was connected. He rolled his eyes when his friend cheered happily and
shouted at his wife saying he had good news. "I don't know why you find my
suspension being any good," Arnav grumbled.
"At least now you will stop for a moment
and take a deep breath to look around. You have been working non-stop for thirteen
years. You are thirty six and still single. This doesn't look good on your
resume." His friend lamented.
"Doesn't catching criminals doesn't count?"
Arnav countered.
"Pshaw. When are you coming?" His friend
asked ignoring Arnav's comeback.
"I have to windup things here before I come
there. Where is your resort again?"
"It's in Mysore Arnav. Mysore."
If you need PM for this story, comment on the thread. I am emptying current PM list after Gravity is finished and for this FF, it will be a new PM list. Please help me out in this one.
comment:
p_commentcount