The Blue Bar (Blue Mumbai #1)(33)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX


ARNAV

Early in the morning, when Arnav reached the Worli Local Arms Division, it looked desolate. Before he stepped out of his car, he checked through the file—Naik had given him photocopies of documents necessary for Inspector Gawde, the lead investigator of the decapitated body found at Azad Nagar Police Station. His phone beeped. Nandini. He hadn’t been in touch in the past few days. She’d messaged to ask him to go with her to the opening of a bar.

He was early for his appointment with Gawde, so he dialed her.

“You want me to come with you?”

“Hello, Avi. I’m fine, thank you.” Nandini laughed.

“I know, I’m sorry. But you’re good, right? What’s this about a bar?”

The name sounded familiar. The Blue Bar.

“I’m doing a feature on Mumbai’s dance bars and the decision to reopen them. I can go alone, but it might be more useful to take you along. You were part of the operation that enforced the closure of dance bars.”

Yes, he was a constable in those days, right in the thick of the action. He remembered the Blue Bar now. Tara. That was the dance bar where he’d seen her first, while on assignment. She was young under layers of makeup, her expression the same as his mother’s when stirring a chutney, only Tara danced on a small stage in front of a large cave of a room full of whistling, catcalling men.

Flashing strobe lights alternately obscured and emphasized her breasts, doing some of the work for her. She held herself back, unlike the girls around her, swaying where others gyrated. He’d gone there to watch his target, Rasool Mohsin, who was watching yet another—Tara’s tall, rather pudgy friend Zoya. The second, and the last, time he went to the Blue Bar was when Tara disappeared. Zoya had vanished as well, and their friends said they might have left together.

An evening at the Blue Bar would bring back painful memories. Arnav was tempted to refuse Nandini, but he’d ignored her, and owed her one.

“How long do you wish to be there?”

“I want to go in late. See if I can speak with any of the girls.”

He didn’t long for Nandini, though he wished he did. She was a journalist, not a bar dancer, and she cared for him. She was also present in his life. Hadn’t disappeared without a trace, like a whisper in the night.

He shook his head—if you can’t give your girlfriend the attention she craves, the next best thing is your time. Arnav said yes, and entered the police station.

He came upon Gawde trying to troubleshoot with his team. The door was open and Arnav could hear the discussion as he paced the main office area, waiting. The team was deputed on a train journey across state borders to escort an accused awaiting trial, and alleged that earlier travel expenses had not been paid. Gawde assured them he’d look into it, asked them to come up with an estimate on how much the trip under discussion would cost, told them he was fighting in their corner. A competent police officer. Yet he’d been shunted out on what Mhatre had called a punishment posting.

Once the team had dispersed, Gawde invited Arnav into his office.

“How can I help you, sir?” Gawde gestured Arnav to a seat and lowered his stocky frame into a chair. “We have a small team, as you can see. I don’t think we have any undertrial from your station.”

Arnav wondered if this was sarcasm, but Gawde’s smile was friendly, open.

“It’s about a case,” Arnav began.

“For you to come all the way here, it must be quite important.”

“I wanted to hear from you. You were the first officer on the scene.” Arnav reminded Gawde of the Azad Nagar case, giving him a quick summary.

“That was quite a while ago. I left that station soon after. Why are you interested?”

“The case is still unsolved. We might reopen it.”

Gawde said, “You’ve been transferred back to the Crime Branch?”

Arnav laughed. “You know I was at the Crime Branch?”

“You won a President’s Gallantry Award a few years ago for that shoot-out case, right? I’ve kept track.”

“I’m not moving back, no. I wondered about this case”—he handed over the photocopies—“because we came across a similar one last week.” Arnav showed Gawde the details from the Versova file.

Gawde considered the papers on the table.

“All the information is already in the panchnama.” He turned away. “It was so long ago.”

“I understand. But you found the body on November 26, 2008, right?”

“The Municipal Corporation, BMC, called us early that morning. A main sewer pipe had developed a blockage. Upon investigating, they discovered the body. By afternoon, we had made the panchnama but before we could investigate further, the control room sent out an emergency call.”

“You engaged in action against the terrorists?” Arnav asked the question, though he already knew the answer. He had read up on Gawde.

“Only as backup.”

“What happened to the case?”

“For a few days, as you know, everything was up in the air.”

“And later?”

“No one came forward with any information, and we couldn’t identify the body. All we could conjecture was that it may actually have been dumped somewhere else.”