The Phone Call - Part - 1

The Nokia ring tone rang on his phone. An unknown landline number flashed on the screen. He pressed the receive button.

“Hello.”

“Ajay! Ajay this is me.” A female voice said from the other side. “Ajay, four people… in a van… out of the office, they drugged me… like a huge warehouse… sea outside.” The female voice continued to speak in between sobs and moans.

“But listen…” he tried to say something.

“Ajay… hands legs tied… don’t know what… someone’s coming…”

“Hello, hello!”

The phone clicked on the other side leaving behind a constant beeping noise.

He pressed the call back button, the line connected and the phone started to ring. It rang for exactly one minute and disconnected.

“What the fff…”

He dialed again. The phone rang for a minute and then died in to a beep.

‘What if the men who had kidnapped the lady had heard the phone ring and killed her? No that can’t be if they were there they should have picked up the call.’

He checked the phone screen the time was 8:36. He dialed a number. The phone rang twice.

“Yeah”, the voice from the other side said.

“Ravi, I just received a call from this unknown number.” He told Ravi everything about the phone call.

“Call the police and tell them about it man, it’s that simple.” Ravi replied.

“What if they try to hurt the woman?”

“They probably don’t even know she called someone, just tell the cops and let them handle it.”

“Ok, I will call the police. Bye.”

The line died.

He opened his twitter profile on the phone and typed.

“Anybody knows any website where I can track the location of a Mumbai landline number? Pls RT.”

He dialed a number. It connected.

“MIDC police station.” A deep voice said from the other side.

He narrated his conversation on the phone with the woman, to the constable.

“So Mr. Ajay, what is your full name and what is the name of your wife who has been kidnapped?” The constable asked as he scribbled on a battered register.

“Sir, my name is not Ajay. My name is Kumar.”

“Then why would your wife call you Ajay?” The constable asked, speaking as if his mouth was stuffed with paan.

“Sir that was not my wife, most probably it was a wrong number she had dialed and it connected to me.”

“Most probably… hmmm… so you are not sure whether it was a wrong number?”

Kumar was now losing his head.

“Sir, it was a wrong number can you please lodge a complaint?”

“How long has she been gone?”

“How would I know? I don’t know that woman. She said she had come out of the office when she was kidnapped so must have been at around 6 in the evening so must have been 2 hours back.” Kumar replied.

“What place did she say she was calling from?”

“She did not tell me the name of the place.”

“When you don’t know anything then why are you calling us? Next time when she calls take all the details and then call us.” The line went dead before Kumar could respond.

‘What the fff…!!! What should I do now? May be she called again and got through the correct number and spoke to Ajay whoever he was? May be police was already on their way to rescue her along with Ajay.’

Thoughts raced his mind as he starred at the television set which was showing a movie but the sound was muted. He checked the phone for his twitter updates. Someone had posted a link in his mentions section which could help him track the locality of the land line numbers.

He keyed in the number into the search box of the website. The window opened a Google Maps section showing a pin on a location near Hinduja Hospital.

‘She had said she could hear the sea outside.’

He dialed a number.

“Yeah”

“Ravi, I’ve found her location.”

“What? Who’s location?”

“The woman who had called, she had called from a number in Matunga near Hinduja Hospital.”

“Did she call you again? Did she tell you? Did you call the police?” Ravi fired without giving Kumar a chance to speak.

“No she did not tell me, I Googled the number. And the police said they will not take the complaint as I don’t know her.”

“Call the police and tell them that you think the location is in Matunga.” Ravi said.

“I don’t think I am sure its Matunga but that’s what this site says. And I don’t want to call the police. I don’t think they are interested.”

“Then go to sleep. By now she must have called up the real Ajay and she might have been rescued by now.”

“I think we should go and investigate.”

“What at this time? It’s already nine. And what the fuck do you mean we? You got the call, you go if you want to. I am not coming.” Ravi replied and disconnected the call.

Kumar dialed again.

“Ravi, let’s go man. Somebody might be in the need of our help. I will take my bike, we will investigate the place from outside and if we see anything fishy we will report to the police. That’s it.”

“Okay but we will stay there for just five minutes and then we will leave no matter what.” Ravi replied in submission.

Kumar arrived at Ravi’s place in Dadar on his bike. They both rode to Hinduja Hospital. The Hospital looked deserted. They drove slowly along the road and looked around for a place which might look like a warehouse. They saw a big house surrounded by broken boundary walls. The gate, two huge sheets of rusty tin and iron hung limp from its hinges on the boundary wall. There was no light inside or outside the house.

Ravi softly tapped Kumar’s shoulder. Kumar drove the bike some distance ahead of the house and parked it near a kiosk on the opposite side. They bought a cigarette each and lit it.

“Boss, is there a warehouse around this place?” Ravi asked the paan wala.

“Yes that used to be a warehouse till a few years back.” The paan wala pointed to the dilapidated house. “But no one uses it anymore.”

Ravi and Kumar exchanged glances.

‘If nobody uses the warehouse anymore it would make a perfect place to hide someone.’

“Have you seen anyone coming into or going out of the warehouse today or maybe yesterday?” Kumar asked.

“I told you no one comes here anymore. Are you the police? Why are you asking so many questions?”

Ravi and Kumar did not say anything they took a puff from their cigarette and crossed the street leaving the bike behind. They crossed the building, looking around and there was no sign of life. They found a dark alley at the end of the boundary wall of the building.

“This must lead to the back of the building.” Kumar said pulling Ravi’s arm. Ravi did not protest, he was already feeling like a sleuth.

The alley ended on the beach. The waves were trying to devour the shore thanks to a high tide and the clouds building above. Still there was no light or any sign of movement inside. The roaring of the waves was deafening.

The building was quite old and looked as if no one has been inside it for quite some time now. The building was double storied and the roof was made of tin or asbestos. Most of the glass panes on the bottom row of the windows had been smashed, during stone throwing competitions.

“Let’s go inside and take a closer look.” Kumar said pointing to a broken portion of the boundary wall.

“But you said we will examine it only from the outside.” Ravi protested.

“There’s no one around, don’t be afraid come on.”

“May be the police already came and cleared the place up.” Ravi speculated.

“If the police had been here there would have been a crowd outside and the paan wala would have known about it.” Kumar replied and pulled Ravi by his arms. Ravi followed Kumar reluctantly.

Once inside the boundary they ran keeping their bodies bent low. They hid themselves behind a bush underneath one of the windows. Kumar took out his mobile and dialed the number from which he had got the call. The phone started to ring. They looked at each other’s sweat ridden face. They could both hear the shrill ring coming from inside the building. Slowly Kumar rose on his legs and peaked inside. The phone continued to ring, nobody picked it up. The ring died.

“Can’t see anything, it’s too dark inside.” Kumar said to Ravi crouching back down beside him. “Let me see if I can open this window.”

Kumar got up again looked around and inserted his hand inside the window through the broken pane. He felt around for the bolt and pulled at it. The bolt was jammed. He pulled the window but it did not budge.

He crouched back again, looked around and started to move towards the next window. Once under the window he pulled it, the window opened with a loud creek. Shards of glass fell on the ground inside. Before Ravi could stop him Kumar was already scrambling to climb over into the building.

“Kumar don’t go in, there might be armed people inside.” Ravi shouted.

Kumar climbed the window and looked inside, it was pitch dark but there was no sign of life or any other movement. With a thud and crunch he fell onto the dark floor. Ravi looked around everything seemed to be dead still except the roar of the waves behind him. He jumped and held the ledge of the window and pulled his body up.

Inside, the building was eerily silent. The din of the waves outside was only a distant dull sound inside. Kumar was already up on his feet, as Ravi jumped in behind him. They looked around. Ravi took out his mobile phone it had a torch in it. It was a huge room. Wood, empty beer bottles and garbage lay strewn all around the floor.

At the other end of the room they saw a staircase. Kumar took the torch from Ravi’s hand and started to walk, trying to make as little noise as possible on the littered floor. The staircase was like a dark well. The light from the torch lit it to show a flight of wooden stairs in front of them.

“Let’s leave, this looks too easy, it might be a trap.” Ravi said pulling Kumar back by his arm. Kumar put a finger on his lips and waved his hand asking Ravi to follow him. They walked carefully on the stairs, it groaned with their combined weight. The stairs led them to a landing and a battered wooden door. Ravi and Kumar exchanged glances and switched the torch off. Ravi felt a drop of sweat trickle down his spine. Kumar breathed heavily and wiped the sweat off his brows.

Ravi put his left ear on the door and tried to listen. The only sound he could hear was the dull noise of the waves breaking on the shore. Ravi looked at Kumar. Kumar gave the door a slight nudge. It was jammed. He pushed it a bit more. The door dragged on the floor and opened a bit. They pulled themselves back and hid in the darkness. They breathed slowly and waited for someone to move, nothing happened.

Ravi peeped inside. There was no one. No movement. Kumar pushed the door a bit more. There was enough space for him to slide in. Ravi followed. Kumar switched the torch back on. The room was of the same size as the room below, but it had a few pieces of broken furniture scattered around. It had a few wooden cabinets standing against the wall at the far end. The cabinets seemed to be full of long forgotten files and papers.

Kumar moved the light of the torch around the room. The rays crossed something, which caught their attention. On a wooden desk lay a telephone. They went up to the desk. The telephone was a very old model of the instrument, black in color with a round white dial. There was a thick cover of dust on everything including the desk and the phone.

“I don’t think, anyone has been to this place for ages leave aside this evening.” Ravi said looking around suspiciously.

Kumar took out his mobile and dialed the number. A shrill ring jolted them out of their skin. Kumar immediately disconnected the call. They trembled as if an electric shock had run through their spine.

“What the fff…” Kumar examined the dust on the phone closely, no finger prints, the layer was smooth.

His eyes caught something. Under the phone lay a slip of paper. Kumar carefully pulled the paper out. It was crumpled with moisture and covered with dust. There was something scrawled on it. He shook the dust off and pointed the torch on to it. Ravi poked his head in to take a better look.

“9, 7, 0, 2…..”

“What the fuck dude? That’s your cell number!” 

Click here to read the 2nd part of this story The Phone Call - Part - 2