So I started to keep a watch on some things. One thing that I decided to watch for was her cell phone. So every day I would look at her cell phone calls and tried to find any messages and calls that looked strange. Within a week, I noticed that she received a call from a landline number almost every day at least twice or thrice. As per my knowledge, I was the only one who called her every day from landline. And my number was different than this one. I kept a watch and confirmed my finding for almost 15-20 days and made sure that I was right.
Next weekend, Shilpa wanted to go home to meet her parents. She went away on Friday night. I came home after dropping her to rail way station. Now I had 2 days to think and plan my further action. Till now all I had found was 1 landline number.
After I came back home, I took up the telephone directory and looked up the number that I had written down in my cell phone. It was registered under the name of Mehboob Trading Company and also had an address. The address was in Thane. I noted down the address in my pocket diary and decided to check it next day.
The next day, I went down to the address. And I wasn’t surprised to find that this address was just near to where Shilpa’s office was. In fact it was just 5 minutes walk from her office building. I went to a paan shop that was just next to the building. I asked the guy at the counter for a cigarette. He handed me the cigarette and I used the lighter to light it. I started some small talk about weather with the guy at the counter. I chatted with him some time and asked for one more cigarettes.
Finally as I finished the second cigarette, I broached the subject that was closest to my mind.
“Hey do you know who is owner of this trading company? I am trying to do some business with them, but don’t know who should I approach. Every time I come, there is just that receptionist there and no one else.” I flicked the cigarette ash casually as I said this and pointed to the trading company shop. He looked in the direction I was pointing to and replied.
“That belongs to the corporator from Kalwa area. His name is Javed Khan. Very rich and powerful guy I have heard.” He started making one paan as he said this.
My heart skipped a beat as I took it in. So there it was.
“Do you know who is in charge of the office? I mean if I wanted to meet someone there, like a manager or something” I tried to sound as genuine as possible.
“There is no manager or something. Javed himself uses it as his base. And it’s just show piece, this office.
His real business is something else. He is in real estate, but is more of a goon. He has lots of contacts in underworld as well as politics. Police are in his pocket as well as judges.” I looked at the small looking office as I listened to him going on about Javed.
‘So you mean Javed comes here every day” I just wanted to confirm it.
“Yes, every day. You see that red car, that’s his. He comes in that every day.” He pointed to a beautiful red Passat car parked in the compound. But it was different that the one that he had seen.
“Is there anybody other in that office? I mean a receptionist or manager?” I continued in the same vein just to confirm if somebody else may be calling her from that number, but I was sure nobody else could call her from that number except Javed.
“Yes, there is one receptionist. She opens the office and closes it every day. But there is nobody except her.” But now he looked bored with all my questioning and as another customer came along, he started talking to him. So I also said good bye one he stopped talking to the other guy and paid him for cigarettes. After that I got an auto and went home. I had much to think and do now. Now that I was sure that Javed was calling my wife every day, I had to find out more.
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