request to provide the SCS with someone from the public prosecutor’s office, who would work with them on all their cases in his capacity as a legal expert, making sure that in their quest to hunt down criminals, they did not transgress the perimeter of legality, which would help eliminate all loopholes for criminals to slip through, and guarantee a very high rate of conviction. She further informed him that once her request was cleared on paper, a young lawyer by the name of Percy Printer, who was fresh out of law school, would be assigned to them, and she gave Hoshiyar the task of breaking him into the squad. She then remarked, sounding exasperated, that Zagde was once again being lazy with the paperwork, as he hadn’t as yet submitted a number of reports, which he was meant to prepare while Hoshiyar was away. Then as a final task before Hoshiyar left her office, she instructed him to send someone over to Pindi Das, loitering around near the paan shop, and tell him to get rid of his ridiculous disguise and be at his desk in five minutes.
‘And one more thing,’ she added as an afterthought, ‘while you were on holiday, some man had called for you. Didn’t give his name, but said it was a matter of great importance, which he would tell only you. He left behind his number and wanted you to call him the moment you got in. The fellow sounded genuine, so I suggest you give him a call,’ ACP Kashyap said, handing Hoshiyar a piece of paper containing the telephone number.
A little while later, Hoshiyar went for a stroll near the headquarters’ main gate and from his cellphone called the number, but no one answered. Just as he put away his phone and turned around to go back inside, he received a text message from the number he had just dialled, which read, ‘Who’s this?’ Hoshiyar immediately replied that it was him and within a few seconds, he received a call from that mystery number.
‘Hello, is this Inspector Hoshiyar Khan?’ the caller whispered tentatively.
‘Yes, speaking. Who’s this?’
‘My name is not important, Inspector saheb. All that matters is the information I have to give you. It’s regarding a great crime that everyone saw, but no one realized. But I cannot reveal any more over the phone. Do you know where JK Film Studio is?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but that place has long been abandoned,’ Hoshiyar replied.
‘Yes. I know. Meet me there tonight at midnight and come alone,’ the man instructed.
‘Wait! How do I know this is not a hoax?’ Khan responded, unsure and intrigued.
‘JK Studio, tonight at midnight. Wait for me in the confession booth and come alone,’ was all that the man said before cutting the phone.
4
The once-iconic JK Studio. The abandoned JK Studio. The desolate JK Studio. That long-crumbled edifice from a bygone age had many unflattering adjectives to it. But the one that was heard the most was the ‘haunted’ JK Studio. Rumours of it being haunted began in the 1980s, when a young film extra, by the name of Maya, was killed during filming, when a giant wind machine, used for creating a storm-like effect, suddenly came apart and one of its massive metal blades hurtled through the air and, in the blink of an eye, struck Maya on the neck before she could react and get out of the way, severing her head from her body completely and sending it flying to the other end of the set. The incident led to a heated altercation between the cine workers’ union and the producer of that film, in which the union accused the producer of deliberately hiring defective, badly maintained equipment just because it was cheap, while the producer put all the blame on the supplier for faulty equipment. At the end of it all, the stars associated with that project lost interest in it one by one and moved on to bigger films, while the poor producer kept chasing them around to get them to complete his film, until one day, he dropped dead of a heart attack, triggered, no doubt, by the
‘And one more thing,’ she added as an afterthought, ‘while you were on holiday, some man had called for you. Didn’t give his name, but said it was a matter of great importance, which he would tell only you. He left behind his number and wanted you to call him the moment you got in. The fellow sounded genuine, so I suggest you give him a call,’ ACP Kashyap said, handing Hoshiyar a piece of paper containing the telephone number.
A little while later, Hoshiyar went for a stroll near the headquarters’ main gate and from his cellphone called the number, but no one answered. Just as he put away his phone and turned around to go back inside, he received a text message from the number he had just dialled, which read, ‘Who’s this?’ Hoshiyar immediately replied that it was him and within a few seconds, he received a call from that mystery number.
‘Hello, is this Inspector Hoshiyar Khan?’ the caller whispered tentatively.
‘Yes, speaking. Who’s this?’
‘My name is not important, Inspector saheb. All that matters is the information I have to give you. It’s regarding a great crime that everyone saw, but no one realized. But I cannot reveal any more over the phone. Do you know where JK Film Studio is?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but that place has long been abandoned,’ Hoshiyar replied.
‘Yes. I know. Meet me there tonight at midnight and come alone,’ the man instructed.
‘Wait! How do I know this is not a hoax?’ Khan responded, unsure and intrigued.
‘JK Studio, tonight at midnight. Wait for me in the confession booth and come alone,’ was all that the man said before cutting the phone.
4
The once-iconic JK Studio. The abandoned JK Studio. The desolate JK Studio. That long-crumbled edifice from a bygone age had many unflattering adjectives to it. But the one that was heard the most was the ‘haunted’ JK Studio. Rumours of it being haunted began in the 1980s, when a young film extra, by the name of Maya, was killed during filming, when a giant wind machine, used for creating a storm-like effect, suddenly came apart and one of its massive metal blades hurtled through the air and, in the blink of an eye, struck Maya on the neck before she could react and get out of the way, severing her head from her body completely and sending it flying to the other end of the set. The incident led to a heated altercation between the cine workers’ union and the producer of that film, in which the union accused the producer of deliberately hiring defective, badly maintained equipment just because it was cheap, while the producer put all the blame on the supplier for faulty equipment. At the end of it all, the stars associated with that project lost interest in it one by one and moved on to bigger films, while the poor producer kept chasing them around to get them to complete his film, until one day, he dropped dead of a heart attack, triggered, no doubt, by the
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