LA RUMBA POOL PARTY

Chapter 15.Surya, a murderer?

Jan 2nd 2020

Thursday, Night 8PM

Surya’s room

"Surya! Let me know if the girls would like to come to pub?" Vishal asked Surya. His main intention was to spend time with Evy. After the Cycle ride, he became too infatuated about her. In fact, he named this infatuation as Love. Vishal couldn’t hide his feelings. He wanted to express. He expected this meeting with Evy would help him.

"Yeah! I will ask." Surya sitting in couch beside Vishal in his room. He took out his phone and messaged Evy.

"My friend was asking if we could go for pub."

In a minute he got a reply "I will ask my friends too and let you know" After a while Evy replied again "We are planning for pub. You people can join if you want"

"That's cool. We shall let you know"

"We didn't yet withdraw the cheques. We are out of money. We shall go to a cheap one" Evy messaged.

Surya texted a list of pubs. "You see these pubs have good reputation, good dance floor and serve good food at reasonable price." And showed Over-The-Moon restaurant.

"Well, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s go then. I hope it won't cost much. Now I understand why you took us there, last time" she winked.

"I will ask other friends to join. If you have any problem, we can help you later." Surya said.

"Awesome. We are ready" Evy texted excitedly. Surya threw his phone and relaxed in his sofa being excited. Again, something struck. He texted again. "We mean, we pay the extra money you can't pay, but you have to pay your own bill."

"But you owed your stipend party, right?" She asked bemused.

"I already gave the party in Over The Moon restaurant last time"

There was a pause. Evy didn’t reply for a while.

The phone pinged. Surya checked the message. "You better do not come, my friend. We will feel offended"

Surya was hurt with the rude message. He stayed still to control his hurt ego. He lost his temper and texted something impulsively... analysed the consequences and deleted the message.

He vented up all his frustration with Vishal. They both bought the wines in nearby wine shop, set everything ready and began a casual chattering about their recent events.

Vishal had a soft corner for Evy so he suggested Surya to forgive her.

Surya denied.

"Let’s change the topic. I heard that there was a psycho killer roaming around"

Surya gulped a peg out of shock.

"Don't you watch news? It's all over in media. Police found the remains of a woman in Ananthagiri Lake. An anonymous person called and informed about the body."

"Who the hell was that?"

"Police even tried to track the anonymous caller ID. Seems like the psycho is a tech savvy. His phone was highly protected. And can't be tracked or tapped"

"How did you tell the caller was psycho?"

"Don't you get it? Psychos crave for identity. They like seeing people frightened. That's the reason why they leave a signature after every murder. He intentionally informed the police."

"That's unbelievable. Did police find any evidence? There could be something. Did he r**e her?"

"Not while the murder."

"What do you mean?"

"The psychopath initially trapped the girls and somehow makes them to come to his place. Then he would commit the r**e. A week later he would call her again to kill them"

"He could have killed her the first day"

"You don't get the pattern. Initially he r***s her. Wait for a week. So, all the traces of r**e will be washed away. Later he would call his victim using some video he shot as a blackmailing tool. The next time when she comes, he brutally kills her with some weapon, tied her on the back. Gag her. Poke with a screw driver all over his head. Poke her eyes." He told with such an eerie tone that Surya immediately burst "Stop it! I can't bear anymore" Vishal broke into laughter.

When they got too drunk Surya looked back at phone.

"I was hurt" he messaged to Evy.

Surya became so angry on her slowly recalling the insult. It's around 11 pm. He couldn't bear it any more. He became impulsive and called Evy. She neither lifted the call nor replied to the message.

"Evy! I need to talk to you" He sent a voice message and kept drinking. His fury evolved with every peg. Eventually he called her an hour later.

Evy reached her hostel gate swaying along with her friend Estaf. She saw the call and lifted it. "Tell me why did you call?"

“I was hurt" He overwhelmed.

She stopped for a moment and waited her friends to leave. "I am Sorry" she told politely.

"I don't need your sorry!"

"What do you want?"

"I paid 10,000 in Over The Moon Restaurant. I want your share of 5000 in that. If you have self-respect"

She became annoyed but lowered her tone "Okay listen! I don't have money now. Will talk to you later."

"Then ask your parents and get them. You took me for granted. All long you wanted money you were with us. Now when I told to share money, do you behave rude with me? Do you know who work just for money? b***h"

She pissed off and shut the call. And went to her room. Again, Surya called her again and again. She ignored a few times. Later she lifted the call "Surya! Talk with respect! You don't even know my family. And it's not in our culture"

"What! Self-respect is not in your culture?"

"Mind your words! Returning money spent on a treat is not in our culture. How could you even ask that? I never thought you are so money minded."

Later Surya argued a lot with her relentlessly under alcohol influence. “I poke your eyes, drown you in water, and bleed you to death...” Evy widened her eyes in terror with the description of his warnings. She immediately shut the call. She didn't believe what she heard. She tried to call someone but the network was out of coverage. She decided to meet the person personally.

Surya fed up with that all. He wanted to talk to her personally. He rode upon his KTM Duke bike and reached EFLU University in no time. When he reached there, he saw Evy snuck out from the small gate on her scooty. Surya suddenly hid behind the temple and kept peering over her. She looked both ways, covered under hood and went the other way.

Where is she going at this hour? He became curious of her activities and followed her sneakingly on his bike maintaining enough distance not to be caught.

She parked her bike near the gate of a duplex white house with an with a small lawn in jubilee hills and went inside. Surya followed her quietly and peeked into the room from the entrance door kept a little ajar. He was shocked to see the person who she met.

ACP Samar! What the hell was happening?

Surya couldn't fathom. Samar looked warily if anyone’s there out. Surya went behind a bush in the garden. After verifying he went inside Surya tiptoed on his foot to follow them. They went inside the room in the first floor.

I know this girl is a bitch

Surya followed them ensuring none was there. It's 12 Am and everyone was asleep except the two. He secretly peeked to listen to the conversation. He opened the phone camera to shoot; half expecting he could have s*x tape of ACP and Evy.

What shall I do with the tape? Yeah, I can blackmail Evy and at least extract my money 5000.

Idiot! You can extract as much as you want from the ACP.

He kept the phone near the door which kept a little ajar. Surya grinned.

"There's something suspicious about Surya" Evy told sternly.

Surya perplexed. Are they talking about me?

Instead of video there was only ‘audio’, and the conversation was about him. Did she try to complain against me? Surya looked terrified. He immediately pulled back his phone.

"What made you think the way?"

"I investigated his personal life to know any link with the mass murders. I targeted him as there were so many conflicts in his life. He recently posted an abusive post in Face book. He was an alcoholic and behaviour problems with girls. Now I intentionally pissed him off. He became so impulsive out of drunken state and warned me."

"What did he warn?"

"He exactly described the way the recent murders were happened in the twin cities. We are looking for a Surgeon, right? He could be the one."

What! I am a psycho killer?

I never thought I would be in such a terrible situation. Shut your mouth Surya!

"I can’t believe he is a psycho killer. I really appreciate his efforts on his first book and solved the mystery of the tattooed girl. He even exposed Raghuveer for his bioweapon trials. He could have heard in TV. How would you know that?"

"He exactly described his plans. He told that he would kidnap me one day and take to some room and make a video tape. Later after a week he would kill me. Exactly the way Pranitha was murdered. We could only deduce that she was r***d by the scars on her skin. And we didn't reveal about the r**e in the media. How did he know she was r***d?"

"Yes. We didn’t reveal her r**e and refrained media from telecasting it. If we reveal the psycho may become alert and never attempt r**e anymore but commits murder directly, we can never find him and the girls unnecessarily lose their lives." He paused "And Surya sounds suspicious too. Then we have to deal with him any cost."

She nodded. “Did you find anything more?" He asked.

She looked down upon her phone. She read a document

"In Pranitha case, a Neurosurgery Professor is a suspect. He called her home and tried to r**e her or something"

"What was he saying?"

"He told that he couldn't meet her that day. He was with his wife. He had a strong alibi. He tried calling Pranitha not to come to his farm house but she didn't lift the call."

"Is it true?" "Yes sir. I got call log of Pranitha's phone. There was a single conversation at 4 pm on Dec 7th and so many missed calls from him later." ACP nodded.

"We checked his farm house but there was no evidence of anything. I have a hunch. This watch man could have given a wrong address. The psycho killer might have bribed the watchman to do so. In that case he is our link. If we can find this person and get a sketch of the murderer, we can solve it"

"Anyhow you are suspicious about Surya. So, keep an eye on him"

Evy is an undercover cop? Now they are suspecting me? Hari Prasad sir’s curse is taking toll on me. Suddenly Surya heard some footsteps coming from the down stairs. Surya didn't understand what to do. He couldn't go down the stairs. Then he found the window. He slipped out of it and suspended to a pipe. He lost the grip of the pipe and fell suddenly. Loud thud was heard. The police became alert.

The moment they came near the window and looked down but there was none. Surya managed to escape from the window view and slid behind a bush.

"Nothing. Just a cat" ACP informed.

Breathing deeply for a minute, Surya lunged towards the wall, jumped and escaped from the scene immediately towards the bike. He looked for the side kick but the KTM bike he borrowed from his friend didn't have it. He self-started the bike.

Evy looked over the window. "Someone followed me."

"How do you say?" ACP cleared.

"The grass there was flat as if someone heavily fell over it." And she looked over the pipe. "So, he might have eavesdropped on our conversation till now" She heard the unique bike sound.

Surya knew about me?!