Chapter 5: A City in Panic

With no more clues, Arjun decided to start with local missing persons.

A 10-year-old girl had disappeared after going out alone for her harmonium class.

Her mother’s pallu was clutched in trembling hands as she gave her statement to the police, voice breaking on every syllable of her daughter’s name.

Arjun investigated for four months, but found nothing.

Each night, he stayed up late in his tiny rented room, documents and photographs spread before him, the ceiling fan whirring uselessly overhead.

Four months later, the girl was found—

She lay dead about five kilometres from the music school, in a horrifying state.

Heavy winter fog had preserved the crime scene. The girl's skin was frozen blue-white, her body riddled with stab wounds, her chest and abdominal organs shredded.

The murderer had not only gouged out her eyes, but also cut off her genitals, torn open her abdomen, and removed her intestines and uterus.

The morgue reeked of Dettol and incense sticks, a feeble attempt to mask the scent of death. Even the hardened pathologist at the morgue wept silently, lighting a small diya for the child’s soul before beginning his grim work.

Arjun was both enraged and frustrated.

All his expertise—fingerprint analysis, footprint analysis, forensic investigation—was useless against this cunning foe.

He stared at the evidence, fists clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. He had to step away from the scene, his hands trembling as he clung to a rusting window grill, the distant sound of a temple bell grounding him for a moment. He felt the weight of the city’s fear pressing down on his shoulders.