Dreamy Red

Episode 39 - The Mystery Unfolds

Our Spiderman removed his mask slowly and dramatically. He was the man who outsmarted me very smoothly. It was Rahul. I smiled at him gently and I proclaimed on the mic, "Thank you for fooling me!" "Hah ha ha", he laughed wickedly. It echoed through the hall. He had a small mic attached to his shirt. "Finally the smart girl dared to find out who it is! But what's the use? The people I wanted dead are dead already! Done and dusted!", he stated. "Yeah, but at least I will do justice to their deaths by giving you the righteous punishment!", I retorted. "Hah ha. Do you think you can punish me? Hah haha", he laughed even more wickedly as he spoke. I gulped down as I feared that he was right and I would not be able to get hold of him. He was way far more intelligent than all of us and he had mastered hypnotism to such a level that he could put us all in a trance and get away seamlessly.

I took a deep breath and spoke calmly over the mic addressing him, "Before you can escape, can we talk in private for some time? I need a few things cleared!" Ravi twitched my hands. "What are you doing?", he whispered in my ears keeping the mic away. "He is anyways gonna escape and before that, I want a few things clear", I whispered back to him. "How did you guess it was him in the first place?", he asked me in wonder. I smiled gently and said, "I'll tell you when everything's settled. Not in this chaos. Release everyone."

*****

Karan and Rahul were arguing something inaudibly at a distance near an exit. All the people dispersed even though we allowed them to resume the party. The baba had got down from his throne and he walked to meet with Karan and Rahul. Nisarjan Baba and Mr and Mrs Sharma joined them too. They were having a family discussion, so I didn't want to intrude. Though Rahul was a criminal, I was sure that he would have some discipline to meet me before getting away.

Viku said that he felt nauseous and wanted to go back home. "What about you never letting me go?", I asked him sarcastically while he was about to leave. He sighed and said, "I know you will survive. I have that faith!" and he left home.

Ravi and I met outside the hall with Rahul still in view. Ravi was not able to take his eyes off Rahul. "No matter what you do, you can't catch him. He is a master hypnotist", I told him wisely. "That's very rude, Bibbi. We will lock the area. We won't look him in the eye and put him in a dark room as he did with you!" He said without even blinking or turning around to look at me. I grabbed him by the arms and tried to turn him around. Man, he was strong.

"Ravi!", I shouted. "Turn around. He's not gonna go, you can arrest him once I talk to him!", I told him boldly. Then he turned around to look at me. He then turned back again to check if Rahul was still there. "He will be there, trust me", I told him.

"How did you find out it was him?", he asked me checking on Rahul from time to time. He was obsessed with keeping him in sight. I told him my logic without a break. "The room where I found Samantha was not the Baba's, it was Rahul's because the bed was a little shorter for the huge Baba to sleep comfortably but it would fit perfectly for Rahul's height." Ravi listened with keen interest. "Good job, Bibbi", he told patting my shoulders.

"Not just that, when you break Samrahul, Sam stands for Samarstan, his Nana whom he loves more than his own parents and Rahul stands for Rahul himself. He had tonnes of books in his room mostly on hypnotism. One of the books had the author's name as Rahul Sharma. So it meant that he was a writer and that he had co-written the colour books or was in fact the author", I told him. "Wow. You did all these calculations right now or were you just surprising us?", he asked me doubtfully. "I had this thought once in a while, but I thought I could be wrong. I liked him, you know!", I said dolefully.

"Wherever I went, he would easily find me, which only meant that he had been stalking me all the time without my own conscience. When I went to his house, the watchmen told me that only Rahul and Samantha were in, so the baba couldn't have trapped us inside the dungeon", I explained. "Moreover the figure of the person whom I saw behind the trees wore a white shirt similar to the one Rahul had worn the day when he had come to meet me. And that day even Twinkle became so aggressive looking at him. I had never seen her like that. She must have been trying to tell me that he was the killer and I, stupid, did not realise that!" I banged my head with my palms as I said that. "Moreover, the body build of our Spiderman would match only that of Rahul and not of Arfaaz nor of the Baba." And I heaved a sigh. What was surprising was that Ravi had not turned back to look at Rahul all the while I was explaining.