Before getting into the car, however, Vishal paused and studied the crowd of onlookers that had gathered in front of the shopping complex.
If there's a pattern criminals follow, especially arsonists and the psychopathic ones like Sashi who seek attention for their doings, it is that they stay back at the scenes of crime to watch the spoils of their work.
Yes, Sashi might have uploaded the videos from café. But truthfully, he wouldn't have been aware of the place being cracked down by the police. The odds that he would come over to watch this whole drama were low.
Still, what if he was there?
The people gathered around were the average onlookers you get every time there's an incident in public. Passersby, stores' owners, kids who had been playing around on the street, ladies from the neighbouring houses who had stepped out hearing the commotion - everything was normal.
Vishal tried to see if anyone stood out in the croud, someone with an anxious or triumphant look on his face, someone trying to avoid eye contact with the police, someone sticking to the shadows. He scanned and rescannedthe area without any success. He took out his phone and shot a video of the people who had gathered there, covering every corner and shadow he could.
Once he was done, he got into the police car with Raghavan and left.
A head spun to the sideways in the crowd towards the direction of the building, where two constables were standing guard at the entrance of the Internet Café. There was no significant expression on the face of this silent spectator. He had come walking to the café to check on his protégé, a weekly routine of inspecting the store's operations, and instead witnessed the first productive step Mitra's boyfriend and the police had taken towards him.
Sashi stood there in a very nonchalant manner, reliving the moment of Vishal's scrutiny of the onlookers. There was another of the similarities he had noticed between Mitra and her boyfriend: he had taken a video of the crowd, just like Mitra always did.
And Sashi had been caught in it, again.
Sashi turned back on his heel and walked away. He knew Pritam wouldn't talk; the poor man didn't have any idea of what had transpired in his Internet Café. Pritam had too many liabilities in his life and fears in his mind to open his mouth. He was frail, easily scared, yet fiercely loyal towards his family and Sashi, who had provided him a job as a saving grace to put three meals a day in front of his family.
A smile played on Sashi's lips as he made his way to the main road via a convoluted route. He had to walk two more blocks to reach his own computer repair store. The thought that Vishal had looked at him without any recognition pleased him.
He wondered if Vishal would suspect him if he stood right in front of his face with a devilish grin. Vishal was supposed to be smart, yet he had skipped over the very man who had kidnapped his girlfriend.
This was fun.
Would he identify me from the video he shot of the people? It would be fun if he can. How would he search for me then?
The smile widened on Sashi's face.
###
There was not any leading information the police could extract from Pritam. He was terribly shaken and had kept repeating the same statement out aloud, that he didn't know anything about the videos and didn't see anyone suspicious.
Raghavan had observed him tear up amidst the constables' rough, blood splattering investigation of Pritam and calmly remarked, "What makes you think a suspicious man would be the one to walk into your café and uploaded the videos? It can be someone you know perfectly well, someone whom no one would suspect, someone who seems completely normal, maybe even someone who seems like the sweetest person around you. It can be one of your regular customers whom you wouldn't spare a scrutinizing glance. Now, tell me everything you know about such people too."
Vishal had been watching over from a corner in the room. "What were you doing around nine PM on the seventh of this month?" he asked Pritam.
"I... I was on my way home. I close my shop at nine, sharp. Sometimes a little early even."
"Why? Don't you care about business?" Vishal prodded.
"My mother and sister would be alone at home. It's not safe to leave them alone at night. So, I always try to go home by nine. The major customers I have in the evenings are school kids who come for playing games. They always go back home by eight. The rest of my customers are people who come for getting photocopies, scans of documents, for applying for some paperwork or civil documentation works online, and they all come in the daytime."
The videos had all been uploaded after nine in the night. If the store was closed at that time, someone should have broken in to do that. The store didn't have any shutters, just the normal sliding doors that cosy one-roomed stores have. It would be easy to pick the locks of the door and get in.
There was a back entrance to the shopping complex building, just next to the café, which led out to a tiny backyard used as a dumping space for trash. It was outlined by a short compound wall. Had anyone entered the building and in turn entered the café through the backdoor in the darkness of night, chances of anyone noticing the intruder were very slim.
"Did anyone ever break into your store?" Raghavan asked, fearing a new problem.
"No sir, never."
"Are the remaining stores in the building open after nine?"
"Sometimes."
That would make it difficult for the neighbours to notice intruders. the stores weren't exactly stationed with their doors facing each other and if people were walking in and out of the complex, it would be easy for the shopkeepers' to assume they were coming in to go to some shop that wasn't theirs.
"Does anyone else have access or key to your store?" Vishal continued his line of questions.
"No sir, no one other than the owner." Pritam was visibly shaking at this point
Vishal and Raghavan both startled from their idle standing postures.
"Who's the owner?" they asked, intercepting each other's voices.
"An old man named Nitish Naik. He lives in Mumbai and came to visit only twice," came the answer.