A Dozen Ways To Kill

"Little Timmy says Hi"

"So, where were we?"

Sourav put away his phone back into his pocket, as he looked up at Paul again. It was almost noon.

Sourav and Adithya had gone through the files on the first murder. Everything that Paul had said so far seemed to be correct.

Just then, the door opened and Vikram appeared again, this time with an extra chair and a couple more files which he had been asked to get from the car.

"It's drizzling outside" said Vikram as he sat down and handed over the files to Adithya. "Quite unusual for this time of the year."

"Yeah absolutely" said Sourav. "It's been pretty cloudy for a couple of days now."

"Well as long as it keeps the heat down, I don't really mind" said Adithya as he opened up another file. "Vikram, any news from the station?"

"Nothing in particular" said Vikram. "The other cops are handling it pretty well."

"Well good" said Sourav as he pulled over the voice recorder which had been off for a while now. "Ready to go again, Paul?"

"Sure" said Paul with a smile which seemed to be slightly out of context. "Let's get going."

Sourav nodded as he turned on the voice recorder again. He glanced at his file and looked up again. "So, the second murder Paul. Tell us more about it."

"Ah the second murder" said Paul as he grinned again and eyed Sourav. "That's a simple one as well, Inspector Sir. It was a man by the name of Salim Muhammad."

Sourav looked down at his file to verify the name. He nodded at Paul. "How did do you know Salim?"

"Well, it was another case I was dealing with" said Paul. "I was approached by a woman and her husband after their daughter was reported missing. Their daughter apparently had been offered a nursing job in Dubai. However, after she reached there, she just went off the grid; no forms of contact, nothing. Unusual huh, Inspector Sir?"

Sourav didn't reply to that question. "Continue."

"See Inspector Sir, Salim is pretty good at one thing" said Paul. "And as it turns out, that's what he does full-time as well. He is pretty good at human trafficking."

Sourav took another look into his file. Yes, what Paul was saying seemed to be accurate.

"He has successfully got around 10-12 women abroad" Paul continued. "And he earns a hefty sum for each one of them. He knows the game pretty well Inspector Sir, and he's pretty good at it."

"How do you know that he has smuggled out 10-12 women?" said Sourav as he scanned the file. "It's not even there in our records."

Paul smiled. "What does your fucking police records have anyway. A fucking 8-year old can find out more about a criminal than what you guys do!"

"That ain't true" said Sourav. "But my question is, how did you find out?"

Paul leaned forward and looked deep into Sourav's eyes. "You see Inspector Sir, you can find anything, if you know where to look."

Sourav sighed as he gave Adithya a look. "Fine, Paul. That's great" he said as he looked at his file again. "As far as we know, he was absconding from the police even when the related case was going on. The police were after him, but he never turned himself in. So, how did you track him down Paul?"

"I won't reveal how I tracked him down, Inspector Sir" said Paul. "I have certain talents Sir. What value does a trick have, if a magician reveals the secrets after he does 'em tricks" Paul said with his signature wink.