Spies & Spice (Completed)

Chapter 25

South Coast of Goa.

District Hospital

"Rajiv, I must warn you that the Morgue here doesn't have the best facilities. But I have asked them to keep the body as much preserved as possible. The post-mortem has already been done by the local police surgeon. And we are positive that this guy is connected with the shoot out at the villa." ACP Savlekar explained, as he led Rajiv towards the morgue.

The attendant at the morgue saluted to ACP and led them inside. The stink inside was overwhelming in spite of the freezing conditions. Rajeev pulled a perfumed kerchief that he brought along, in anticipation of such conditions.  As the attendant wheeled out the body on the stretcher, Rajeev forgot all about the smell and concentrated on the dead man's features. There wasn't much to go by the swollen face but the overall features definitely matched what Victor described about Raju.

"Can I have a copy of the PM and his photos?" Rajiv asked as he removed the sheet covering the body and looked at the bullet wounds.

"Not a problem. Should we go out now? I am feeling sick!" ACP Savlekar rushed out to get some fresh air and Rajiv followed him gladly.

As they drove back to the local police station in the Jeep, Savlekar explained, "the local fishermen found his body floating on a chunk of wood. PM report says that he died due to loss of blood and hyperthermia  which means he died sometime after he was shot. The surgeon cant say exactly but the bullet wounds seem to be few weeks old which matches the time of shootout at the Villa. The local police alerted all the stations along the coast, for any missing person or boat,  and one of the Inspectors reported back that  they had a boat go up in flames near their coast but found no bodies. My guess is that this guy was shot and dumped in that boat before it was set up to burn. How this guy managed to survive in spite of all that is a mystery, but poor bastard eventually ran out of his luck and died after few days.  And here's another interesting thing. A backpack was found at the beach near the same village a few days after,  and it had a gun in it."

"Okay.. let me guess. The gun matches the bullet  in Nanda Sir's body! Am I right?"

" No, it matches the bullets in Victor's body actually.... The bullets in this guy's body matches that of JP Nanda. The bag and gun were pretty damaged due to the sea waters but the ballistics do match. But may be the other gun was there too in that bag and got lost in the sea."

"That means it is Victor's gun!! Part of the evidence at the crime scene at the Villa!! How did it end up in a backpack and found exactly where this guy's body floated to... what the hell is happening Savlekar??"

Rajiv had enough!

"I know Rajiv.. I know. There's someone within our own department who is trying to tampering with the evidence and misdirect this investigation. All the secrecy regarding the shoot out at the Villa is not helping us either. The gun looks quite rotten, as if it had been in sea water all along, so it must have been taken from the evidence room sometime ago. I am vetting everyone in my team and trying to find who betrayed us. Unfortunately Sharath Nair has half of our department in his pay check so I am waging a tough battle there!" ACP Savlekar let out his frustrations.

" I am under a lot of heat from the top to get this case resolved Rajiv. Unlike IB, we don't have the luxury of hiding all our case details from public. Everyday some press reporter or other keeps hounding me about police failures." ACP Savlekar fumed.

"I understand Savlekar Sir. Let me speak to Doval Sir and I will request him to speak to your commissioner,  if it helps. Meanwhile please start the inquest and your usual processes. Who is this Raju guy, who killed him and why ?You might be resolving one case partially but you got a new case now." Rajiv sighed.