"I don't know Sathya. " said Suriya in a stoney voice.

"Who would have killed him here? Or is it a suicide? It can't be a suicide since he didn't have any knives with him nor there was any here" muttered Sathya looking at the corpse.

"We don't know that. Now just take this body to autopsy and ask Mr. Kumaresan to come here while you are gone. It's been more than four hours since he left from Pandian's house. And ensure that this matter doesn't go out, especially to the people in the slum. " Suriya finished and went downstairs.
He looked as calm and determined as ever.

"That killer better stay safe, if he is caught then I'll show him hell! " Sathya talked to himself as he prepared to call Kumaresan after he had placed the corpse in the ambulance.

"Hello sir. It's Sathya. Are you finished with the autopsies? " he asked over the phone.

"Yes. I'm on my way back with the reports. It has something interesting regarding the murders. I'll tell you guys once I'm back. " came the reply from the other end.

"We have something grave happening here. " said Sathya.

"What is it?! " asked a scared Kumaresan.

"Its James. " said Sathya.

"Did he confess it? Or you guys managed to find out? " asked an eager Kumaresan.

"No. I meant to say that he is dead. We found his body in the room to left of the stairs in the first floor. " said Sathya.

"What the?! " exclaimed Kumaresan
He continued "Don't tell me someone killed him inside the station! "

"Apparently it is. He was stabbed twice in the throat and was left to bleed to death. " said Sathya.

"What did Suriya sir say? " asked Kumaresan.

"He wanted you here and told me to take James's body to the hospital. Will you be here now? " asked Sathya.

"Yeah I will. " said Kumaresan.

"What were you going to say earlier?" asked Sathya as he sat in his bike.

"What? Oh about the reports, eh? " asked Kumaresan.

"Yes the interesting thing you told about. " told Sathya.

"It seems that the murders took place sometime in between 2:00 a.m. & 3:30 a.m. today, that is the early hours of 4th of September 2016. Atleast we can be sure of the cause of deaths. Both of them did not die of wounds caused by stabbing. Jacob died of excessive loss of blood due to the cut in his throat while Pandian had his face covered by a plastic bag causing him to suffocate to death. Both of these happened after they were stabbed in their stomachs. " explained Kumaresan.

"What's interesting here? " asked Sathya as the ambulance began towards the Stanley Government Hospital in Georgetown.

"There's more. It seems both of them were drugged before they were killed. They both were administered a dosage of Sodium Thiopental. " said Kumaresan.

"That name seems familiar to me! I have heard of the it somewhere, but I don't remember what it is. " told Sathya.

"Don't worry, I have already got information on it. Sodium Thiopental is also known as the Truth serum. " said Kumaresan.

-------

( 8:13 p.m. September 4th 2016 )

"Are you sure about this, Ila? " asked a skeptic Ameer.

"Yeah I have seen the school from the inside and the huts are balanced by having that wall as a vertical base on the outside of the school" said Chezhiyan pointing to a wall straight ahead of them.

They were inside the St. Anne's Girls School. The mini slum was was established around the walls of this school. The fact that the school was connected to a Church on the main road enabled the boys to sneak in. They stood in front of the canteen area where that wall was present. On the inside, the wall supports  several wash basins while on the outside the huts were present with this wall acting as a vertical support.

"We'll climb up the wash basins and get down on the otherside to the transformer. From there we'll easily get in through the fence separating the slum and the transformer. Then we'll have to find a way to get into Jacob's hut. " said a confident Chezhiyan.

"So easy to say for you. But we've come this far, might as well get in and see. But regarding that 'finding a way to get into Jacob's hut' won't there be anyone in the slum, now? " asked Ameer.

"We're going to sneak in to slum from the backside where they have nothing but the wall. They obviously can't see us moving through the narrow path connecting the transformer and the Electric Junction box on the entrance of the school. So we're safe till Jacob's hut. But I am not sure of what's inside. " said Chezhiyan.

"What do you mean not sure? So there might be someone inside? " asked Ameer as climbed the wall after Chezhiyan.

"Most likely there will be someone inside to guard the crime scene from getting manipulated, in that case we'll just click some photographs of the interior as elaborately as possible. If we're lucky, then we might get a hands on experience! " said Chezhiyan as they both entered the path leading to the Junction box from the transformer.

"This is Jacob's hut! " said Chezhiyan pointing to the 7th hut from the transformer. It was covered with plastic banners of political parties and huge plastic rice bags.

Once he finished saying, Chezhiyan started to climb on to the small extension of the hut that protruded into the path. These extensions were common in such huts of the slum. They usually act as a bathroom.
Chezhiyan managed to stand halfway on the hut's extended portion and saw inside.

"Macha, there is an opening on the other side of this extension on the narrow passage. We should be able to get a good look inside from there. " said Chezhiyan.

They both walked to the other side of the extension and viewed the inside of the hut through the opening. There was no one inside the hut.

"We're lucky brother! " exclaimed Chezhiyan.

"Wait. We'll see for sometime from here and once we make sure that no one's inside, we'll go in. " opined Ameer.

"Sounds like a plan. " accepted Chezhiyan.

After some 20 minutes of watching inside, both of them climbed onto the opening and entered the hut.

"Remember not to touch anything with your barehands. Use your handkerchief if you want to touch something. " instructed Chezhiyan.

"What am I supposed to look for? " asked Ameer.

"Anything related to that number we heard on that day. Some written link or something similar associated to that number. And also look for anything suspicious " explained Chezhiyan as he began to scan the entire hut.

"Uh.. Can you be a bit more elaborate about the suspicious tag? " asked Ameer.

"Yeah... look for anything that seems out of place or anything missing from its place " said Chezhiyan who was busy searching.

"Uh.. how about this - whenever I sense something is not right, I'll show you and you decide whether it is what we are looking for? " suggested Ameer.

"Yeah and don't forget to photograph the entire hut. " said Chezhiyan as he examined the lone cot present in the hut.

"Sure" said Ameer who was also searching by then.

Chezhiyan saw a tiny bottle under the cot, the kind used for storing insulin. He instinctively picked it up with his handkerchief covered hand.

The label on it read two words.

Two chemical terms.

SODIUM PENTOTHAL...