The Right Note

His Sunday was now a bust. When you have been on the force for the last 18 years, you begin to realize the futility of expectation. Crime never sleeps and it doesn't let you sleep either. Grabbing his overcoat to fight the morning chill, he quickly set out to what was to be a long day. He didn't know it yet, but by the end of this day he would be pleased.

The body was found dumped by the lake. Multiple stab wounds marred what was left of a handsome man. The guy was probably around his mid forties and looked like someone who had seen better times. Actually, that would be true for any corpse, but this one was different. "Inspector, we found this on him. Its pretty surprising that he had the energy to write it. Can't make sense of it though." Ranvir smiled at the young police officer who looked eager to make an impression. " Okay. I trust nothing else has been touched around the crime scene. We don't want our work stretched by some stupid mistake." Ranvir had seen such cases before. The guy was probably attacked by thugs. Since there were no belongings on him, it could be simply credited to a mugging gone gross. He silently reviewed the crime scene and then signed off on the body allowing it to be taken to the morgue. Yawning, he directed the young cop , Satinder , to stay till forensics had finished up. " I'm going to the office. Have the autopsy report on my table as soon as we can get it done." he directed. Waking up the morgue officials and pushing things was another pain, but Satinder was always eager to make an impression. Ranvir smiled.

It was when he reached into his pocket to take out change for the depressing breakfast that he just had, he realized that the slip of paper that Satinder had given him was still there. He looked at it. Eagle three. That is what it said. That's even more unhelpful, Ranvir silently muttered to himself. Why would someone dying write something so unhelpful. Shaking his head, he went to the office putting through occasional phone calls to his wife apologizing and giving out free but empty promises. When he entered his office, an hour later, he was surprised to find Satinder smiling like he just found a pot of gold.

" Sir, the autopsy isn't complete yet. But, preliminary tests show high amounts of alcohol in his system.Also, two fingers were missing from the victim. A previous injury. I'm thinking construction worker or a heavy machines operator. I'm pulling strings to see if any in the area have been missing so that we may identify the victim at least." Satinder beamed. For someone who just stated obvious facts, Satinder was looking very happy with himself. Still , he was young. Ranvir exhaled , " Check for the John Doe's fingerprints. Try matching it against the databases that we've got. Maybe we'll get lucky there. I mean, if the guy himself was a criminal, we've got a list of possible enemies don't we ?" Satinder smiled again. " Already on it sir! The results should be out soon." He left. Ranvir was still struggling with the note. He picked up the phone and dialed a number.

By lunch time things were already looking up. It so happened that there was a possible eyewitness. Problem with eyewitnesses is that their stories can never be ratified. However, this one was respectable and he was on his way to his apartment from a call center when he saw what he saw. On top of that , according to him, everything happened under a streetlight. So it wasn't much of a problem to get a description. When that was done it was just a matter of time to get the perpetrator.
Ranvir smiled at this fortuitous occurrence and thought there was a God after all. Indicating that he had a lunch appointment, he left the station and drove all the way to the other side of the city to meet an old friend.

"Hmm. Eagle Three. Really doesn't ring any bells. But it definitely sounds military. Lucky for you old boy, I still have some connections in that area. I might be able to dig it up for you. No charge of course. After all you're paying for the lunch." Ranvir smiled at his friend. Harsh was and will always be one of the finest sleuths he would know. Too bad he left the force for civilian pastures. " By the way , have you given any thought to my offer ? The pay is almost thrice of what you make and the conditions are way better" said Harsh as he sipped the wine. " Ranvir, you've already reached as high as you can get.Its time to think about the future." Ranvir couldn't defy his logic. Another two years though, and he could retire from the force with a pension. Maybe then. " I'll think about it. You have to look into that note though. " " Yeah Yeah, will do. will have the details by tomorrow." Harsh waved him off.

They found their guy in a rundown section of the city. He was a dweller. Meaning that he stayed wherever he could find a place and robbed people at night. All of 27 years and a total scum. It so happened that there were a couple of other unsolved murders that he could go in for. Satinder's team made no heavy weather of his arrest and by eight, he was arrested. Ranvir was pleased. When he came back to his office, his good mood vanished as he saw the public defender sitting across his table. By law, he couldn't touch the lowlife now. He swore under his breath and greeted the man across. "So, you've gotten the news. I have to run a tighter ship around this place from now on." Ranvir scowled. " No matter what you say inspector, the law is the law. And I well know that if I hadn't shown up now , I would have received my 'client' is a bruised, semi-conscious state. Now, if you will allow me to see the scum that needs defending." He smiled with a wink. Wow. Look at that. A good man after all. Ranvir extended his hand introducing himself. " No need inspector. Your reputation precedes you. My name is Inderjit Sharma. You may call me Inder." he said as he took Ranvir's hand. " Although the law is quite clear. You may not touch my client. I will however see to it that he get 'defended' accordingly." There was that wink again.

In the next few days, Ranvir got busy with his usual work. Thieves, robbers and petty thugs. He lost touch with the case which was normal and he didn't remember it till the time a court summons landed on his desk asking him to appear for 'Mr. Bhushan Yadav a.k.a Bunty' 's trial. He gave himself a quiet chuckle as he knew how much he would enjoy the judge nail him. So much time with the law had given him that callous side as which all cops carry, that enjoy seeing a man getting what he deserved. Short of a confession, the case was fool proof. An eyewitness, a murder weapon and the victims wallet, though minus the cash,and an 'understanding' public defender ensured that this guy was gone.He should have just confessed.

His delight however was short lived. When he was called to the stand and was quizzed by the defender, he had that ugly pit in his stomach tighten as he realized that the defender was actually defending the accused. He was puzzled. He thought that he had the Inder's motives figured out that day and suddenly everything was going haywire. Inder cleverly asked him all the right questions that cast a shadow of doubt on every one of the police statements and deductions. The eyewitness account had already been showed to be flawed given the call center stress syndrome that was making its way through nightcrawlers at such places. The weapon was discounted as circumstantial for lack of forensic evidence. And on top of it the victim's wallet was just a coincidence and was found on the street by the defendant who swore that he was going to return it to the owner the next day.And since it just had a few credit cards and an identity card when found upon the him, the claim stood all questions. Ranvir couldn't believe his ears as Inder decimated his entire case.

Judge Shourie was a newbie. This was only his fifth case. Ranvir hoped he had some sense and would at least consider the circumstantial evidence and would give this criminal a 7 day remand until facts were found out. Even 2 days would do. Hell right now, an hour with this criminal and Ranvir would pounce on him and get his confession. It did not happen. The judge striking his mallet gave the 'defendant' a clean chit and allowed him to go scot free. As they exited the courtroom, Ranvir ran to Inder and blurted, " What the hell was that? I thought there would be a bit of charade but you let this guy out! He is a killer and you know it. You know what? The next life he takes, It's on you ! " Inder put a hand on his shoulder and said " Mr Ranvir, I am a defender. My job is to defend. Law is pretty much black and white when it comes to this. You didn't have the proper evidence. You didn't do your homework and thought that I would go about destroying my stats of cases just because I think he's guilty ? You should've known better. All lawyers are like this. Tell you what. The next time bring fingerprints on the weapon, some bloody clothes and something more than an inexplicable note and maybe I'll take up a challenge. For now, you're done." Smiling, Inder walked away leaving Ranvir frustrated as to how the lawyer slept at night.

In the following days, Ranvir went to his work with the normal sense of purpose that he always had, but soon he realized that his vigor was gone. Inder was right. Law was grey. And for all purposes it wasnt the law that mattered, it was all about the evidence. The next weekend , he called up Harsh asking if the job offer was still open. Harsh took him to lunch this time.

" Is that all? One case and you're willing to give it all up ? Whatever happened to the police force and the dedication that was Ranvir Singh ? C'mon man. Don't tell me its because one of them got away. Shit happens all the time. Quit thinking about it." Harsh said. Taking a long drag from his smoke, Ranvir shook his head, " I cant do it anymore man. And its not this one. Its every idiot who managed to walk away. Rich kids, political connections, right lawyers, everyone of them." Harsh was sad to see his old friend suddenly so down. " Pick up the guy again. You said it yourself, the guy has priors. Pick him up. Open all your old files. Find something that might stick with him. Then grill him. Off the record. If you want , I can help you with this. Piece of cake. No one will ever know. Once we have his confession, use it to nail his ass. If this is what it takes for you get closure, do it."

Harsh's words made sense to him. He stopped by the office and started digging up the file on the guy. He couldn't find it. He walked to the storage unit and checked there, and he couldn't find it there either. He called Satinder and asked him where the file was and after hours of the entire precinct being searched, the file didn't turn up. Ranvir was puzzled. In his anger he decided to break the law for once. He grabbed a couple of men and made his way to the shanty where 'Mr Bunty' was always seen. On a thorough search, the man was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, he slammed his fist into a door and then placing 2 men for surveillance around the area, he left for home. Sleep came lightly to the man who was troubled but soon he felt drowsy enough.He slept.


His Sunday was again a bust. He got a call from satinder early in the morning and he made his way to the same lake where another body had been found. He checked his messages on the cell and found he had one from Harsh. He would call him later. At the lake, there wasn't much activity as there had been at the same time a few weeks ago. The body lay almost exactly there. It was 'Mr Bhushan aka Bunty'. His stab wounds were severe but not nearly fatal. The job had been done by an expert. The knife wounds were made to suffer. Not to kill. Parts of his fingers were burnt and there were a few missing toes. Nothing that would kill the man. There were burn marks on the body as if someone had taken the time to do this. Even as Ranbir was feeling very good this morning, he secretly hoped he didnt have a serial killer on his hands. Smiling at satinder, he asked " Anything else? " as his phone rang. " Yes sir. There was a note beside him. Similar to before." Satinder replied. "Get it." Ranvir instructed as he picked up his phone. It was Harsh.

" Where are you ?"

" At the lake . Same place I was a few weeks ago and there has been a murder. Guess what? I'm happy ! "

"That's alright. Good to find joy in your job. even though it reeks of sadism. I called because I have something for you. The note you found next to the body. The last one. It said Eagle Three right? "

"umm ... yeah... I think so.... what of it ? "

" Well, I did some digging. Turns out Eagle three is a call sign. The ones army guys use.. you know..."

"uh .. huh... "

" Well... the funny thing is that nowadays they use Echo, not eagle. Eagle was discontinued after the army got out of Sri Lanka. In that war, Eagle team was a special forces unit operating out of Thimavillu , somewhere behind enemy lines. It was an 8 man team that had been inserted to destroy an enemy supply depot. They were all named Eagle one to Eagle eight. I reckon your man was one of them."

" What are you saying ? This man was targeted by someone from Sri Lanka? Some sort of vendetta killing?"

"Hardly. Sri Lanka happened twenty years ago mate. And I do believe I have the time line correct, then your guy was eagle three, a Paratrooper Yeshwant Mehra. It took some finding and a lot of work , but I found out that apparently it was believed that the entire Eagle team perished behind enemy lines till one day three of them were found by an ambulance unit just before the army was pulling out of the country."

" I really don't see where you are going with this."

" You will. The other two members were a Capt Inderjit Sharma and a Lt Col Umesh Shourie. They were half dead when they were found. Apparently Yeshwant had saved them both. That's all I know. Sound familiar? Look I've to go now. I guess you can look for your closure elsewhere now."

The click on the cellphone resounded like a cannon on his eardrums. He was so dazed that he couldn't even hear Satinder talking to him. "......... just like the one before.What do you think sir? " Satinder shook Ranvir to wake him up from his reverie. " What ?" Ranvir asked as he took the note and read it.

"We Will Never Forget. Regards Eagle one and Eagle two. Out."

Bastard. He should have just confessed.