Episode #4

The wake-up call

EXECUTION..! When I heard this word I certainly didn't know how to react. Obviously no one knows. It was already 16 days after that cruel accident which took my wife away from me. But still neither me nor anyone else could figure out how or why the accident took place. Police just concluded it to be a 'hit and run' and as usual the police investigation in finding the careless driver of the car will go along with their search for the other 50,000 'hit and run' cases in the city. Everyone thought it is just an accident which usually happens in a city like Chennai. But in my case at least I should have noticed something that day, but I was stunned and was only able to cry all these days. Dhilip does know something, even though he wasn't in the scene. I already told that he is a different and practical man, who never gets caught up by the situation. But 'how he knows it?','what does he know?' and 'why we are here!?!....' These are all the questions which were scrolling on my mind. On the inside, I was expecting him to answer all these questions. And finally he did open his mouth.

Dhilip told me that he was roaming around that bus-stop for the past 15 days. He was really upset for what happened to me and he was seriously determined to know what actually happened on that day at the bus-stop. He was talking to all strangers who were there at the bus-stop, to know what actually happened. I was really blessed with such a great friend. He has taken everything in his own hand and has worked relentlessly to find this out.

When he was talking with everyone, who commuted daily from that bus-stop, he repeatedly heard the same sentence from everyone "A big black car!"

Its was pretty obvious that everyone remembered only the colour but nothing else since the number plate had a lot of designs and it was hard to make out in all the melee following the accident .

As a part of his investigation, Dhilip headed to the tea-shop which was half the distance between my home and the bus stop, but commanded a clear vision of the accident spot. There he got a bit of a different answer. Apparently, a similar black car used to follow my wife daily!

I don't couldn’t even hazard a guess who might that be. Obviously not anybody I knew or suspected. But there might be someone out there, who I might not have noticed all these days. But there must have been a chance for her to notice it, since it is said to have happened daily. But why she didn't tell me any such thing. Who is this Mr. Bloody Black car? Did Dhilip find who it was and is that why we came here? 

Finally I got answers to all my questions. He said that he was fortunate to have one of his old friends at that bus-stop, on the day of the accident. His name is Chandru. He gave him the valuable information about the culprit who trashed my life. There are always people who show much interest in cars and automobiles and Chandru is one among them. In addition to that he is an automobile engineer too, who works with the automobile company, FIAT. He helped Dhilip to find the car's number by giving the car's model name. It’s an Audi Car. And he also remembered the number as it was a fancy one. He said "The number is...."

Suddenly the RTO officer came into the room. Dhilip stopped his conversation with me and started looking at the officer. Probably he was going to ask for the address of the car number to which it was registered. I knew why we were there. The officer opened the long dusty note book scanned over all the pages in order to search the car owner's identity. We both were curiously looking at the officer and finally the officer came to a conclusion that a page was missing, which I know was a pretty usual twist in all these kind of scenarios, similar to movies. But he told us that there was a possibility of a backup store of those details on the computer system at their office in Thiruvanmiyur. "Probably, we can't get it by today because it is already late and for the next two days, being weekend, we won't be a working", he said. So we need to wait for two days to know who the culprit was.

Dhilip, after all his efforts, sighed in frustration at this sudden speed breaker. I was also feeling the same that time, but more than that I was just confused with the sudden unfolding of this ‘car following daily’ twist to my tragic tale. Suddenly, I turned towards Dhilip and asked him the car number. He passed me a piece of paper.

It was TN 01 JM 719.

Oh My God!

It was her!?!

No way!!!

May be... But…..Why!?!!!!

My shocked outburst caught Dhilip by surprise. He asked whether anything struck my mind. Did I know the person?

With agony in my eyes, I uttered "Jessica Magnus!”

to be continued...