My Dead Friend - Chapter 12

[FONT=&quot]"[/FONT][FONT=&quot]That's it; the girl has to be at some place where he can meet her everyday", I said to myself.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]'That place can be home or office', I thought.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]'At least I know some girls who might match', I thought as a smile flashed on my face.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I lay down on the bed watching the Recovery going on, and thinking all the possibilities.
I had kept the bundle of papers near me, 'Pankaj was grilled too, although it's a standard procedure, yet he should have known, something'.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I got up and started looking into the files again, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]First document which I looked into was the copy of FIR, which was given after 2 days, by Pankaj. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]'Strange, parents were not there', I thought, 'maybe he also had a troubled relationship like me', I further thought[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This document was of no use, other than the date of the incident.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Second was the statement of Pankaj, which state -[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"He had left for office at 8:20AM (approx) and at that time Varun was there and he only locked the door, he has returned to home at about 6:00PM (approx), Varun normally use to return at around 9:00PM, but when he didn't return until 10:30PM, he made a call, but his phone was switched off, at about 12:00AM, he called some of his friends and they confirmed Varun was on leave that day, he panicked but choose to wait until next morning, when he went to police station, he was told to wait until 6:00AM, So that 24 hrs should complete, At 6:00AM his complain was launched.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Meanwhile he discovered Varun's phone in home itself"[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Other papers which were actually a carbon copy of Investigation, it suggested that Police has done a thorough investigation about Pankaj's whereabouts and it was confirmed that his statements were all correct, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The statement of Thomas D'souza, next door neighbor of Pankaj confirmed that he had seen the Varun around that time when Pankaj has left. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Also Investigating Officer has confirmed with Pankaj's office that he was in the office throughout the time.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]But there was one more thing which caught my eyes, Pankaj has accepted that he & Varun were not best of friends; they were more of friends because of needs.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]'Maybe that's why Police has shown so much interest in Pankaj', I thought, 'Can it be? Pankaj has something to do with Varun's death?'[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]'Pankaj may have killed him in the evening; he might have disposed the body at night', I thought, 'Or maybe he has taken someone's help'.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I checked the bank statements, 'Pankaj has fair amount of Balance', but 'Varun has none worth talking about', I checked for some big transactions. There was none in recent past. The record was having last 2 months transactions. His salary as it looks like was some 38K, after every week he used to withdraw around 8K, his final balance was a meager 6K.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"What a spendthrift", I said to myself[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I checked the System it was still recovering files, although I have slept in the afternoon, yet I was still feeling sleepy.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I decided to close my eyes for few seconds, to get some rest. I never knew when I fell asleep.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I woke up, with a parched throat, (I have this strange problem, that even though I don’t need much water while awake, but certainly I always need water in between my sleeps)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I have forgotten to switch off the lights, so they were still on. Still half asleep, I searched for the bottle; it was on my other side. I opened the cap to have a sip, before my first sip could even touch my throat; I was again spooked by the crying of dogs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Not again’, I said, now I was on the first floor, the sound was more clear & louder. I was now fully awake. I checked the time it was ‘2:50 AM’.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Now nothing can happen here, I am not in that flat’, I said to myself, but to be honest I was myself not certain, in what I said. And even in that cool weather I was sweating profusely.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I tried to sleep, but couldn’t, I put the earplugs on and played Bollywood songs, but even with full volume, I could hear the cry. (Or maybe it was just my fear which was making me hear these cries). [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Temperature and all are not changing, so I should not be worried so much’, I tried to calm myself. ‘These dogs cry regularly, it’s stupid to be afraid of these cries’, I was convincing myself.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I sat again, I checked the Laptop. It was closed because of Low battery, as I forgot to connect it with power supply. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I just hope, it should not have closed before the recovery was over”, I said as I put the power chord in the socket. ‘Although it was a very weak chance as my Laptop wouldn’t have last for more than 1hr, while it was showing 3hr to complete the recovery” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I opened the laptop and kept my finger cross, it was on hibernate as soon as it got on, the first pop-up was ‘Recovery Complete’, As soon as I pressed Ok, it showed some 1.6GB of data being recovered. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I opened the SD card the name was ‘~Varun~’[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I got confused, ‘Varun’s phone is seized but then how come this Card is not seized?’, I asked myself, ‘Or this card was taken before the phone was given to Police’, but the question was why.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘If it had something related to Varun’s death, then this should have been destroyed by now, but there had to be something in it’, I opened the card there were some 8 folders, of which Pictures only contained ‘Wallpapers’, Songs, Videos, Docs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I started checking folder by folder, started off with Pictures in hope of any Photographs, but there was none. ‘Atleast he could have taken his GF’s, or Pankaj’s pictures’, but yes some wallpaper of Katrina & Anushka was awesome, I copied them to my PC.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Songs were mostly English, so were not of much use for me.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Then I opened Videos, Some were video songs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Last was the Doc’s folder, I knew it would have nothing, but still I opened it.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Bingo’, I screamed in surprise.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There was only one Icon, ‘Folder Lock 7.1’, I said, ‘It is supposedly the toughest nut to crack’, I continued, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I tried some random passwords, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Damn, how am I supposed to open it, I don’t even know his full name, DOB or anything’, I hit a punch on my bed, ‘But one thing is clear, there is something inside worth hiding, I guess I should ask Sanjay to help on this one’, I thought as I got up from my bed to close the lights.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Tick’, the sound came as I switched off the lights, but as the light went off, I felt a strange fear gripping me again.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“They have still not stopped crying”, I said to myself. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I didn’t wanted to, but somehow compulsively I started moving towards the balcony, I opened the gate, and I was welcomed by a cool gust of air. I looked out; the dogs were not visible, as a tree was hindering my sight. I turned back.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Woooooooo’, I heard a sound very close enough as I got just glued to where I was standing. I turned back and to my disbelief now they were standing just in front of my eyes under that tree. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Crying and looking up, I knew that they were not looking at me. I followed their sight; I saw lights were on in one flat. I tried to make an angle to see which flat, but I was not able to. I checked my cell again.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘It’s 3:30AM who must be awake at this time’, I thought, ‘Or is it 308, haunted flat?’ I said as a shiver passed thru me[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I never wanted to check, but sometimes your thoughts & your body are not in control of your mind & same was happening with me. I slowly climb the stairs to avoid any unnecessary sound. I first checked second floor all the lights were off even the lights in the gallery was off, for a change it was looking more spooky than the third floor, I started climbing again to the third floor, & I can fully assure you my heartbeats were above 100, but something in me was still taking me to the third floor.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The lights in the gallery were off here too, I walked near my dreaded flat, to my relief, lights were off in 308, but it was the Amit’s flat 309, where lights were on.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I smiled, ‘See, it was nothing’, I turn back towards the stairs.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]‘Chrrrrrrrrr’, I literally jumped as the door of 308 started opening slowly.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I turned back and went near to confirm, if it was not my imagination, it was not.
Without even trying to go inside I tried to scan the room, which was pitch black, it was again the same cold air & dampness. I stretched my hand to hold the latch to close the door. But the moment I was about to pull the door, I saw the glow.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A slight scream came from my mouth as I saw the spirit was standing at the door of second room, He was looking at me, but this time he was not crying, instead his eyes was burning with anger.[/FONT]