BANG!

BANG!!

Two gun shots in quick succession broke the eerie silence of the night.
There, Arul stood in utter disbelief. He could not trust his own eyes. Slowly the incidents dawned upon him.

As he tried to stop Sathya from catching Subbu, he saw the latter loading a pistol through the corner of his eye.

Just as he grabbed Sathya's arm, Subbu fired the pistol. A bullet pierced Sathya right through his left eye.

Sathya fell like a chopped log on Arul's chest. Not knowing what to do, Arul pushed him away. Sathya fell down lifeless in a single thump. Blood was all over Arul's shirt and for the first time in his life he flinched on seeing a man die.

All this while he was in a complete state of horror. To add to his woes, he heard another gunshot. This time it was behind him. He had a bad feeling about this but his gut told him to turn around.

Feeling scared, Arul quickly acknowledged his gut instinct and turned around. He saw Subbu lying on the road. Without even realising what he was doing, he rushed towards Subbu with tears in his eyes.

He tried to kneel down but his legs won't budge. With a Herculean effort, he managed to get down. He most certainly didn't expect to see his close aide like that.

The well built figure of Subbu lay motionless. Subbu was dead. He had committed suicide.

Arul was left with a void. He was confused as he didn't know what to do next. He felt like he was being sucked down into the earth. He could feel his heart racing, at the same time he was completely aware of the fact that he shouldn't stay there much longer. He made up his mind to leave the place.

He had to force himself to move away from Subbu's body. For some reason, he wanted him to be back alive. Subbu seemed to be smiling as he died. This made Arul feel even more guilty. With a heavy heart, he moved away to the car. He got in and ignited the engine. In a swift move, he drove the car towards the Madras High Court.

On his way to the apartment, he stopped by the Fort Railway Station.
He could not digest the fact that his ally for eight years is no more due to a stupid decision. He was swearing at his dead buddy.
Even though he had planned to kill him after the mission ended, he felt bad due to his sudden death. He thought about their days together after college, How they started it all.

Arul wanted to scream out loud with as much intensity as possible. But he resisted the urge to do so. Being a self proclaimed cool head, he didn't allow the emotions to get the better of him.
He wanted to know why Subbu took the decision to kill himself.

After thinking all the possible solutions, he came to a conclusion that he would get all the answers from DOT. He wanted to get in touch with him.
He searched for Subbu's mobile phone in the car. It was kept inside Subbu's bag. He opened it with the password that he already knew and saw the last text message received from DOT.
It was about the way in which DOT wanted the cop to be killed.

I presume that you are in the location well prepared to carry out the task in hand. The guy in question is a junior sub-inspector and he is on his way back to the police station. He will be there shortly and I want him to be stabbed twice in his chest. You will also ensure that you leave the murder weapon in his body. Once you finish him off, I want you to leave your car in the same location and leave.
When I get the confirmation about the death, you will receive your payment as promised.

- DOT

Arul was completely blank on seeing the message. He thought he could get some answer for the unprecedented suicide of his beloved friend.
The only hope of finding a solution faded. Arul had no more patience left in him, he then decided to go to his  apartment.

On reaching his apartment he searched it so desperately for any clues.
All his attempts went in vain.
He felt nothing but his own thumping  heart.
He didn't know why so badly he wanted to find the reason that made Subbu to take the extreme step.
In reality, all he wanted at that moment was a damn reason to stop feeling guilty for the death of his friend.

He was not the type of guy to cry over the death of someone but he cried his heart out.

He was about to give up when his phone buzzed.

It was a text message from DOT.
It read :

I want you to do one last favour for me. This will also involve a murder. I know that this is not a part of the initial agreement we made, but it is needed to be done. The promised payment for the last two murders have been credited in your bank account and this last kill will fetch you the same sum you received for the previous deeds. Just intimate me your decision through a text message.
If you agree to this, you will receive another message with the details of the kill. The same message has also been sent to your partner and I'd be pleased if you both accept this offer.

- DOT

'This message doesn't make any sense to me! Why would he send the same message to Subbu when he is dead?... the only possible way for this to happen is if he is still unaware of Subbu's death. That means he has credited the amount without confirming the murder of that cop!
What do I do now? All this don't add up! ' thought Arul.

'So from these two texts it is clear that DOT doesn't have anything to do with the suicide of Subbu. No. I shouldn't come to any conclusions yet! I'd better accept this and try to get closer to this so called DOT. Even if he didn't have anything to do with the death of Subbu, it is worth checking out. ' decided Arul in his mind.

He then went on to send DOT, his acceptance of the offer along with the news of his friend's death.

Arul was, for the first time, about to work for something other than money.

-------

It was almost midnight.
But Chezhiyan was in no mood to sleep. He just lay in the couch aimlessly watching the television.

He came home after the meeting with Suriya and had dinner. Still he was a bit tacky about something. A little unrest was there in his mind ever since he met Suriya.
He tried to see through it but was unable to do so.

Almost an hour passed when he decided to go to bed.
Even after trying very hard to sleep, he stay awake. He then decided to go through the notes he made about the case in his mobile phone.

As he was going through it, a thought struck him.

' The facts that the notes were there in the first two crime scenes to grab the attention of the cops and Kumaresan was the one to confirm both their deaths only mean that Kumaresan is indeed the suspect.
Sathya doesn't know of the notes but he could still be the one who called Suriya if he was the actual killer and he was there when James was brought to the station, so it's highly likely that he was there when James got killed.
Either one of them is the killer or at least they helped the killer to commit these crimes.
The way to eliminate one of them from the suspect list is to catch the other doing something bad.
Or it can be done this way - let's assume that one of them is the killer and move the investigation in that direction while shielding information from both of them so that they are on the same ground. This means the information we know till now needs to be shared with Sathya. So if the person assumed to the killer is not found to be guilty then the other person will be. And if, like Suriya said, the killer wants to reveal his identity and play with the cops then they'll easily drop some valuable information.
But the only hurdle is that on what front to search for more clues?
At least I have got an idea worth of discussing with Suriya. He could have already thought about this but I might as well tell him. ' he thought.

He then messaged Suriya his idea and slept off.

-------

Suriya was returning to the station after talking with Chezhiyan.

As he was driving, he received a phone call from a new number.

He attended it.

"Hello? "

"Hello Mr. Doctor!  It's me again! " said the voice that had talked to him earlier.

To Be Continued!