The most difficult part lay ahead. Actually handling the dead body. They got Rajat's bag pulled out from under his bed. They emptied it. Then they went to the bedroom where the Simran alias Gauri lay dead. Akash's spine sent chills ot mere look at the body. She was the same person who felt so warm when she held his arm. For few moments, she was alive and lovely. He had felt good in her presence. Now, that girl, someone's daugther, someone's sister was lifeless.
Akash felt that this girl too some day was a cute little baby. Her parents must have bought a balloon for her someday and she must have looked around this world with hope and excitement .Perhaps she had dreams, other than warming bed of sex hungry people. Now that dream was over.
This was no time for philosophy. Happy who was crying just couple of hours ago had now got his shit together. He got some nylone rope he had. They took unfurled the dead body. Her nose and eyes were now bleeding. Punit had plenty of floor cleaner in which he dipped some cottom and plugged her. Her body was stone cold, which Akash was scared to touch. But Punit and happy bend her. They bent her knees and bought them to her chest. They then put her hand around her knees and tied her like a ball.
Akash got a large garbage bag and put all her belonging into it. They had to burn those things. Interesitngly she did fit into Rajat's bag pretty easily. They had to put some random clothes on top just in case they had to open the bag for any reason. They then cleaned the entire house with cleaner. They also cleaned the elevator buttons and any place that could have had her fingerprints.
It was 5 am and Rajat had returned. He told them that he got on a ST bus going to Mahabaleshwar. He had actually done a smart thing. He had got down on the outskirts of Pune and had visited a dhaba. There he put the phone on a random interstate truck which was going to Karnataka. He had then got a taxi back home. They had little sleep.
Next morning all three of them left in different directions to buy various items from distant shopping centers. They had decided they will not switch their phones on and they will only use cash for transactions. They returned home with all the stuff in their backpacks. Gloves, alcohol, Perfumes, small metal rods, brown packaging tape, plastic wrap etc.
In the afternoon Punit picked up the bag and slowly dragged it to the elevator. Akash and Happy went with him too. Rajat too the stairs to get the car near the elevatot for quick transfer. As these folks entered the elevator, the 4th floor Sharada aunty also entered the elevator. "Beta, where are you going with this large bag? " she asked.
"Aunty we are going to Goa for new years eve. All out stuff is in this bag." Happy answered quickly.
They put the bag in Rajat's SUV on the front seat. It was of course visible to anyone but then hiding it in the plain site was the best thing they could do. They had to drive carefully to ensure they wont meet with any accident. Any accident was costly.
Happy and Akash went on the bikes to two different corners of the city as Punit and Rajat drove to Pune-Goa highway. They stopped only at a petrol pump they had already agreed upon. Akash purchased 2 bags of cement and put it on his activa. They were heavy and slowing him down but he reached the petrol pump. He put them near the front seat right under the bag with the dead body. Happy had arrived too with two bags full of sand. They were even heavier.
"This wont fill up the barrel" They realized it only then. " We will need more fillter stuff." said Punit.
"They then started driving towards Satara in search of a barrel. There were many construction sites throughout the highway and they were sure they would find one on the way. That was the biggest unknown part.
Luckily they did find a large scrapyard on their way. They stopped and enquired about any barrels. The owner of the scraphard had few. One of them was badly torn. but they purchased it with cash for Rs 200. The scrap owner was so happy he also loaded it behind their card. They had to really push it hard and it probably damaged some of the car's interior. But they were lucky that Rajat had such a big car.
It was evening by the time this had happened. The bag was now clearly giving out a foul smell despite over 100 napthalene balls they had put in. They continued to drive towards Satara. They did stop at few places under the pretext of smoking. But in reality they were scouting secluded places.
To their bad luck there was no place which they could call fairly secluded. They did manage to however pour alcohol on some of the items of Simran's purse and set them on fire. From her clothes to purse. They had set it on fire at various stops and left it near the road.
It was late in the night when they had cross Satara. They found an interesting place. Not exactly a bridge but it was a place where the road curved around a hill. To ensure water drainage the raod engineers had to put large cement pipes under the bridge. Given all 4 of these guys were civil engineers they had guessed it was they crossed the curve. They stopped a little ahead. The only lights they could see was of passing vehicles which were many. Rajat put the flashers of the vehicle on and they all get out.
"Let me go and check the pipes. You guys pretend to smoke" said Punit.
Punit went back to see if they could get down under road some place. He wanted to check if the pipe were unobstructed. Someone local villagers, cow herders etc. use these pipes durin non rainy days. If that is the case leaving a large plastic drum there was dangerous as someone would have found it. He slowly climbed down the hill and approached the pipes. They were empty. There was some coal graffity on the pipes indicating that it must have been used as a makeout spot. With a torch in hand he looked aorund and found some broken beer bottles. But all that indicated this spot was using only occasionally.
During rainy season water that accumalated at the top of the hill, rushed down hitting the road. The v shaped valley forced the water down in the catchment area from where it hurled through these pipes. But it is not just the water that came through it. The water also brought with it fine soild and tiny stones. All of which over time gathered near the entrance ofthe pipes. EVen though they had only two sand bags they have plenty of fine soil here. This seemed like an excellent spot.
Punit walked back with optimism. He told them that they had finally found a stop where they could leave this worst nightmare. They pulled out the drum from their cargo space. Rajat took out the car jack and pretended to fix a puncture. Happy and Akash quickly pulled out the bag and hurled it away from the car into the bushes. Vehicles passed by with great speed. Buses and motorcycles and trucks. A car on flasher wit hfew people changing tires was not really a weird site. The weirdest part however was the large plastic drum. They had to take it out and hide very quickly and possibly before any vehicles saw them hence they had time it properly. The bag was thrown into the bushes and the drum was rolled too. Once both these items were away from the sight, Happy Punit and Akash slowly moved through the bushes dragging the bag and rolling the drum. The bag was heavy and the drum was large but they could do it. Rajat continued to pretend to change the tire.
The drum and bag eventually reached to the cement pipes. Happy rushed back to get the cement bags and sand bags.
"Are you ready ?' Asked Punit.
Akash was nervous. No one is ever ready to dispose of a dead body He quickly unzipped the bag where in lay the coiled up dead body. It was now as hard a dead wooden branch. Like all dead bodies she had excreated all sort of things, probably urine and fecal material. The position in which they had tied her up did not help either. Akash and Punit wore gloves. They had deliberately worn masks and gloves. With great mental diffuculty and feeling of disgust they lifted the dead body as they might lift a trunk and tried to put her into the barrel. They could not as her thighs were slightly spread out.
"We need to put her heads down" Said Akash. It was unbelievable what he was doing. Is this how ordinary people end up becoming hardened criminals ? he thought.
They then put her head first into the barrel. It was still a problem but the applied pressure. They literally forced her down the barrel. Now only portion of her feet were visible they could put a lead on that. Happy had come with one bag of cement and Akash rushed to get the second. They were heavy and they had to drag it from the bushes which left marks. Dew was everywhere. Mixing cement and sand was not enough because they needed water, lots of water. They had few gallons in their car. This time they went back with Rajat's bag which was now empty. They put the sand, cement and water gallons in the bag and dragged the bag through the bushes.
The barrel was being filled. Some sand some, water and some stones, soil. It took them hours to fill it up and it was 4 am by the time they were done. It was eventually filled. They put the lead on barrel and used stoned to hammer it properly. They took out the large reels of brown packaging tape and put it on the barrel sealing it from all sides. They used at least 5 large rims of the packaging tape.
The barrel seemed well sealed. It was now so heavy that three of them could not move it. But they had to. They used their gloved hands to dig a small ditch where the fine soil had accumulated. They then rolled the barrel into the ditch and then covered it with soil. Kept few large stones on top and then some dried branches. The barrel was now less visible. Though if it gave out smell people would have found it easily. they crushed the naphalene balls and spread the powder around. Whatever alcohol they had left they poured it around. They then slowly walked back along the path where they had dragged the bag. It was possible that they could have dropped something on their way which could later haunt them.
They deliberately damaged a lot of trees and bushes nearby to ensure that it all looks random. They spared their antiseptic sprays everywhere so that no dogs will be able to track their smell. By now it was morning and the sunrays could be seen on the horizon. They had to hurry up and leave.
The bag had to be destroyed, they car had to be sanitized and they had to now plan for a possible story if anything got traced back to them. They drove back to Pune. They sat in silence thinking about what they had done. They had not slept in last 24 hours. They had not called anyone in last 24 hours.
Happy sat in the car's cargo instead of back seat. He had a cutter with which he tore Rajat's bag into tiny pieces. On their way back they stopped at a dhaba. A lot of truck drivers sat there eating and for warmth they had setup bonfires. People stood near the bonfire eating and drinking and chatting in the wee hours. Buses from Goa and Banglore were now entering Pune's outskirts and the world was coming to life. Happy threw their plastic gloves and shreds of cloth into the bonfire while drinking coke. Rajat was tired from all the driving and waiting but at the same time had sparred himself from actually touching or even seeing the body.
They threw the temp sim card as well into the bonfire. The smell of the burnt plastic seemed like smell of burned flesh. Akash went to the side and threw up. He had no food for last several hours, yet his stomach was churning.
"beta .. theek ho ? " a Sardar truck driver asked him.
"Yes, Sir. aaj ka din utana achha nahi hai " he said.
They drove back as Punit described them next steps.
