The car swerved as it approached Vignesh and nearly avoided colliding with an oncoming bike. The rider dared not stop, even though no fault of his and sped away. The black Scorpio stopped next to Vignesh and the inspector beckoned him inside. As soon as he was seated, the car accelerated ferociously and picked up speed as it went towards the Thillai Ganga Nagar subway. The constable waited in silence, for his superior to speak first. The tall inspector spoke after a lengthy silence.
“You should’ve checked the footage, no matter who or what had stopped you.”, he said with an air of finality, speaking to Vignesh without taking his eyes off the road. His statement didn’t seem to be meant for answering so the head constable kept quiet. Only when they reached the subway did he speak.
“Sir, where are we going?”
“Where do u think? We’re going to that house in Adambakkam.”
“But sir….”
“No buts, we’ll go there , check out the footage and see what is there to find.”
Vignesh remained quiet for the rest of the journey. After leaving the long MRTS road, the car took a left onto Adambakkam main road. From there a left turn was taken from a clinic and proceeding on the straight road up to Gas Godown street. There after passing a crossroad junction, a white apartment appeared on the right. Parking the Scorpio haphazardly, the inspector got out, threw the keys to Vignesh, who caught it clumsily and proceeded to park the car, shaking his head from left to right in exasperation.
The inspector, on the other hand, took the stairs and climbing to the second floor, rang the bell of the apartment on his right. After not getting a proper response for a while, he banged the door hard and waited while his gaze fell on the opposite flats door. It was open slightly and it looked like someone was peeking out. He ignored it and continued banging, till he heard a noise like a lock being opened and saw the door being opened by a familiar person.
“Inspector?...You…..? Is there a problem?”, the young girl, who was wearing a yellow salwar kameez, asked warily. Literally barging inside, the inspector looked around.
“I just need to see some footage, from last night. Do you have it?”, the girl hesitated, then she went towards the computer in the Hall and switched it on.
“Do you want the footage from the inside or the outside?”, she looked at him
“The outside is enough. The one facing the road.”
“Ok”, the girl said and opening a folder, scrolled to search for the particular one. After sometime on finding it, she told the inspector to have a look. The inspector came near, sat on the chair and leaned forward, looking carefully at the footage.
“What time is this?”
“9:46 pm, sir”
“Show me the footage from 10:30 pm.” , the girl obliged. The footage was quite clear and it showed an empty street, with minimal traffic. At 10:34, an auto came up to the frame from behind of the camera and stood halfway, blocking most of the parts of the passenger side from view. Then inexplicably the footage went black. There was almost nothing, on fast forwarding it to, 10:44, the footage came back and now the auto was missing. The inspector had a very vague idea who was in the auto. He turned to the girl and asked,
“Some parts of the footage, the one especially that I was looking for is missing, can you say anything about it?” , the girl didn’t respond. She looked guiltily at the floor. The inspector snorted in anger.
“You’ll be called to the station, for a statement. Don’t go anywhere, without informing.” , then he turned and left the apartment.