BITTER & SWEET

Venky POV: Catfishing

"Hello madam, My name is Tanya Gowda and no. What we know is she plugged out the cables or somehow shut down the CCTV with the computer, or probably hacked it. " The IT girl said.

" If you have to put your finger on any one of them. Which one would you select?" I asked.

The lady superintendent of police turned back and scanned me from top to the bottom.

" Who are you ?" She asked.

" Oh, I am sorry. My name is Venkatesh Shetty. I am the negotiator assigned to your team."

Her black bedroom eyes locked eyes with me as if trying to catch any lie.

"Where is your badge?" She asked in her strict superior tone.

I put my hand in the blazer pocket and took out the not so amazing looking badge. It was practically like a college id card. Anyone on street can make that.

She took the id and tried to scan it too, at least that is what it looked like to me.

She passed it to Tanya, the IT girl "Give me a background check." 

I took a deep breath as I looked at the wristwatch and thought, what a beautiful day it was before I was made to come here.

Safely in one of the most secure areas in India, I was giving a lecture on the topic of negotiation with a suicide bomber.

I looked at the picture shown on the big monitor in the middle of the room with criminal written in caps.

Her name was written in small, I took out my reading glass as I walked towards the screen before a hand stopped me.

"You have not been cleared yet. Stick to your place." the lady officer said.

I smiled " Sorry I didn't get your name." 

"We will talk when you are clear, till then stand where you are told." She pointed at a chair in the corner of the makeshift war room.

I smiled as I put my glasses in my pocket and walked towards the chair.

Nobody seemed to care about me, probably because I am not cleared yet or they are really nervous about the situation.

I wanted to calm them down a bit, but I know that bullet will be put in my head if I open my mouth now. 

Just as I sat down, the main telephone line rang. Some looked at the phone and some looked at the lady officer.

She hurried towards the receiver.

"Hello" 

"Yes sir." We could only listen to one side of the story as she nodded, hummed, and listened with a worried face.

Tanya came towards me with my id card " You are cleared. Welcome to the team."

I put my id in the pocket and took out my reading glasses.

"Ok everyone listens closely to what I am going to say. It must not leave this room. This situation has turned into a national security threat level because Tamil Nadu's chief minister's daughter is there. " For some people, this would mean that some high profile person is stuck there but the lady officer understood the consequences of anything going south in this mission. This whole fiasco just turned political.  She added " We will approach this case more cautiously and every assumption we had about it has to be reevaluated but keep in mind" she paused and took a long breath  " we will not let anyone die, does not matter high profile or not."

Some people screamed a small yes and some nodded.

One thing for sure is that rumors about her define her perfectly.

She took out her mobile and briskly walked outside the room. 

"Welcome to the team sir. My name is Pawan Devegowda, Inspector." her junior said with a big smile. 

"Venkatesh Shetty, Consultant." I smiled back.

" Please follow me, sir."

Pawan briefed me about the whole situation including the whole dowry case.

"Do you think this is a suicidal attempt? " he asked me.

"No, I don't think so, because if she wanted to commit suicide, she would have gone to Nandi hills or something where she can die peacefully. Does she do any social activities?"

"Nothing that we know of. Her general schedule includes her cooking in the morning, going to office, and coming back to cook some more."

"Any club or sports, anything ?" I asked.

"No sir, But why are you asking that?" 

"If she was a social person, she would be doing this for attention or bring the attention of people towards some kind of subject, but since she is an introvert, it may have to do something with her family."

"I mean she is angry with her father-in-law and husband for sure. " 

"Tanya get me her recent photo and her social media profile if any. I hardly think she would be having a social profile and if she has, it would be mostly inactive, we would be lucky to find any clue from there." I told her.

She flipped some files and got me the recent CCTV photo from the bank.

I noticed the black bags under her eyes, the stitches above her eyebrow, clenched fist, sweating forehead but she was empty hand. She didn't have any bag or purse nothing. 

"She is not sleeping well and she is nervous. She is tired but she had this all planned with very fine detail but she is a first-timer." I told them.

"How can you tell she is a first-timer and fine details?" Tanya asked.

"She had this all planned but only the inside of bank part, if she was a pro, she would have avoided all the CCTV and wore a cap or something while entering the bank, but she didn't think of outside or city CCTV, her only and biggest worry was to execute the plan inside. Her clenched fist can mean she is nervous and doesn't want to die. That would mean she is doing this for a reason other than money, but if she chose a bank for holding hostage means she needs money but that is secondary, her primary worry is something else. Tanya, did you get the social profiles?"

"Yes but it's all inactive, her last post was on the Koo app, a poem about her mother."

"What was the tone of the poem? Was she angry with her mother or worried or sad or complained about anything? " 

"Ah...... I would say she was worried about her but didn't complain about anything. It was more of sad and worried." 

I asked Pawan " Where is her mother right now? Is she ill or have any disease ?"

Before he could reply, Chaya interrupted," We have to act fast and swiftly. Seniors are coming hard on me." She looked at me and said, " Do your job properly and I won't have to shoot a bullet else we are going in by the sun goes down." 

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