ParthaSarathy and Akash felt as if thunder had fallen on their heads. There was silence for a few seconds. They both automatically and looked at each other miserably. It took Selvarangan and Gnanam a few seconds to believe that it was true.
Eyes wet Selvarangan raised both hands above his head and closed his eyes and worshiped God. Gnanam said with tears streaming down her face, "Akash has a golden heart. Moments before he told me ‘Don’t worry Aunty. You will get a good news about Karthi’ and here comes the good news."
The rage was such that Akash thought to wash his mouth with acid. ParthaSarathy did not believe the news. He silently advised the son not to panic. And turned towards Selvarangan and said with a fake smile, "Thank God. We came here with heavy heart and now returning with good news. Our prayers are not in vain.”
Uday called Karthi. Again Karthi’s phone was switched off. Uday said, "He might be busy with his research work, unable to talk or travel. That's why he has sent the message. "
The inability to contact Karthi’s mobile again did not disappoint the family members. It was clear to ParthaSarathy and Akash that Karthi’s family was not in the mood to count on anything other than hope. After that both of them talked for formality, but both of them felt like walking through the fire.
"We will come back again to celebrate Karthi’s return" and with difficulty, the two left with a smile on their faces.
ParthaSarathy asked his son as he got in the car, "Did you actually expected Karthi to return?"
Akash looked at his father as if he had asked a childish question.
ParthaSarathy said, "Your grandfather get a call from the hired killer. Hired killer really made that call? We know he's not calling from that mobile because we saw the hired killer's corpse. Otherwise each and every time when we receive the call from that number, we will be still believing that hired killer is calling us from unknown location.”
Akash asked with a new birth of hope.
"Then are you telling that the message was not sent by Karthi?"
“Yes. He would not have sent the message if he was alive and had come live. Someone who has got his mobile with him. He might be in a dire situation if the investigation proceeded further. Hence, to divert the investigation and stop it all together he has sent the message.”
Akash got some relief. But another suspicion came and shattered that peace.
"Do you think the hired killer's mobile and Karthi's mobile are with the same person?"
"That's how it seems," ParthaSarathy told him in a dry voice.
Questions began to arise in their minds as to who the man was, why he was behaving like this, and what he intended.
Uday happily informed Senthilnathan over the phone that he had received message from Karthi. Senthilnathan, who was not convinced with the news, asked him to send the short message to him as it was. Uday sent it to him and told Gnanam, "Tell your little daughter-in-law that you got the message from Karthi. Poor girl, she will be very happy."
When Gnanam started wondering who is her little daughter-in-law Uday said, “Don’t you get it. I said call Harini and tell her the good news.”
Gnanam changed from shock to happiness.
"When did this happen?"
"It’s going on for a while"
"Look he told you, but he didn’t think of telling his mother" Gnanam said with a regret.
“Your son is very stubborn. Since when did he talked with us freely? I came to know about his love affair by chance ".
"I don’t have her number. Dial her number, I will talk with her”
While searching for Harini’s number Uday counseled his mother, "You should talk with them majestically”
“Yes, yes look who is advising me to talk properly”
"Do not forget that I spoke in Parliament. Did you know that my first speech was praised even by the Northern press? ”
"Hey, your brother prepared your speech and you have recited it, That’s all”
When Gnanam pointed out this fact, Uday did not understand how to respond. Then Uday wondered why did he brought this topic to shame himself then asked the father who was there.
"Daddy why did you marry our mother? Can’t you find someone else? ”
Kamalakkannan said with a sad face.
"Then I was deceived”
Gnanam looked angrily at both of them,."
"Sinners?"
"Daddy, even you have only this much respect for yourself here?" When Gnanam threw the book at Uday, he hurriedly left.
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The New Delhi official went and stood in front of the church at 12.50 pm. Everyone who came to worship at the church was coming out after the prayer. He suspected that the man he was to meet might be one of these. He thought that someone would come and introduce himself. Assuming that the sender of the money must be very rich, he stood looking at the rich-looking men. But everyone passed him by. At one o'clock no one was at the door. Suspecting that the person to be met might be sitting alone inside the church, slowly went inside the church. There was no one inside.
He heard a text message on his cell phone with expectation that his person might say 'It's too late. Please wait five minutes.' But the information was not what he expected. The message was 'Go and sit in the forgiveness chamber'.
He got angry. ‘What is this guy thinking of me. He wants to humiliate me by making me sit in the chamber of forgiveness ' But the money just swallowed that anger. He approached the chamber of forgiveness for sins. The man came before him and sat in the chamber next to where the priest was sitting. When the door of the amnesty chamber was opened it was visible through the small holes in the barrier in between.
Something could not stop him from being surrounded by an incomprehensible fear of unknown.
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Senthil Nathan contacted the Chief Minister and asked what to do next. The Chief Minister asked, “What do you think? Could that message have been sent by Karthi? ”
"May be. But we cannot say for sure. The person who is able to send the message could have talked on the phone. No. Or he could have come home directly. I do not understand why one of these things did not happen. If Karthi had been kidnapped, then the kidnappers have been able to send him a text message from his mobile phone. That too phone has been switched off as soon as the message is sent.”
“Then it is better to continue your work until Karthi comes home. The culprit may have blushed like this even though we think we shouldn’t dig into this too much for now. What are you going to do next? ”
"I have to find the location details from where Karthi’s phone has been switched on and switched off. Then accordingly I will decide my next step, Sir”
"Then go ahead "
Like he told the CM, Senthilnathan arranged to find out outgoing messages to the numbers from that mobile phone and which numbers were all talking to and left and waited anxiously for the information to come from there.
In a little while the information came and went. The information he heard made him dizzy.