Not Again

Chapter 16

Location - Airport Enquiry Cell

Suresh Babu, Shivraj, Vaidya and Ranjith were seated in the room. Vaidya started the conversation.

"Suresh Babu...You are aware that we had searched Robinson with all the resources that we had. We didn't find anything from him. How come are you sure that he was able to cheat us?"

"Mr. Vaidya... Robinson smuggled the two crore worth of diamonds, but he didn't carry that with him. It was with someone else"

"What do you mean?"

"Yes... Robinson took another person with him to carry those diamonds. And the other person travelled along with him. As we got the tip about Robinson, we just frisked only him and didn't bother about the others. That person left the airport along with the others."

"But, how can you confirm your statement? Who is the other person?"

"Ya sure, I can let you know about that. In the meantime, shall we all take a close look at the video footage, which we got during the immigration process? I mean, the moments when the passports are stamped by the immigration officials"

"Yes we can do that... We will be able to view that in the projector here. Let me talk to the technical team to provide that."

In the next few minutes, with the help of the airport technical team, the video footage started playing in the conference room's projector. The video showed from the time when the first passenger walked towards the immigration officer. The video also was showing the close-up grabs of each passenger.

Everyone in the room were glued to the screen and the video images. Suresh Babu was scanning each of the faces in the video. Minutes passed. At one moment, he hit the pause button while looking at the screen. The screen was showing a face of a person and Suresh Babu turned to the others in the room.

"This is the guy who had the diamonds"

They looked back at the screen again after listening to him. The person was around fifty plus years with a short beard and greyed moustache.

Suresh Babu turned to Shivraj.

"Can you identify this guy?"

He looked at the image for few seconds.

"No sir... I couldn't"

"Have a closer look... You can"

He took few more seconds and nodded his head.

"I am sorry sir.. I still cannot find out who this guy is"

"ok.. I will give you another chance"

He hit the play button again. The old man was in the queue behind few fellow passengers. In the next couple of minutes, it was the old man's turn and showed this passport to the immigration officer. Once the stamp was done, he picked up the passport, threw up a 'Thanks' and smiled at the officer. Suresh Babu hit the pause button once again.

"Shivraj... Can you please take a close look at this person? Don't tell me again that you cannot find out who he is"

Shivraj moved to the screen as close as he can. The screen showed the old guy smiling and he did notice a big gap between the front teeth. Shivraj turned back to Suresh Babu.

"Sir... this guy"

"Yes.. Go ahead"

"An hour back, he was the one who welcomed us in Robinson's home. Is my assumption right sir?"

"You nailed it Shivraj. When he was talking to us, I happened to notice the teeth and the gap. And I was able to recollect his face in the airport while watching the passengers. But there were small differences like beard and the shaved face at home. So my guess is that he would have got the diamonds from Singapore while coming with Robinson. Robinson would have taken his guy along with him just for carrying the diamonds. This is my assumption on this so far. Just awaiting the confirmation"

Vaidya looked surprised and smiled at him.

"You may be right Suresh babu. The next step would be to arrest this guy. "

"No worries Vaidya. I have initiated that already. Once I returned back from Robinson's home, I have ordered couple of our CID cops to take him into our custody, once he comes out of the home. Once they nab him, they will straight away take him to the commissioner office. I may get the news of his arrest at any time from now. "

Vaidya interrupted the conversation.

"Sir one suggestion here"

"Yes??"

"Why should we wait until the guy comes out? Why not we use a small force to enter Robinson's house and do a search for the diamonds. And we can arrest all the three red handed"

"Mr. Vaidya, I want to remind you that we are doing everything on our assumptions. Nothing is confirmed one yet and the person in target is not a simple common man. As an ex-chief secretary, David Prabhu knows how to tackle the situation. Moreover, Robinson might have already moved the diamonds to unknown resources from his place. So, In this case we have to act with caution and with patience"

While speaking, Suresh Babu's phone rang and it was inspector Sakthi from the CID.

"Sir... We have arrested the assistant to Robinson a while back, when he came out of his home and we are on the way to the commissioner's office"