In the end, Lekha did end up dead just as Sashi had wished for at the start of the evening, but not at his hands. His father, who had always boasted to him while hitting him at home that he could commit murders too, had proven it in live what his capabilities were.
He was facing three monsters who were completely unfazed by what they had just done.
After they cleaned up the place and Lekha's body, the three men went separate ways, with Sashi's father literally dragging Sashi back home by his collar. Sashi had been giving his father a look of such seething hatred that he worried Sashi might run out and report him to the police.
"You!" his father had snarled at him in the tree cover. "Why are looking at me like that?"
"You really committed a murder." Sashi's words sounded so ambiguous, as if he was contemplating something drastic.
"Yes, and I would commit another one if you think of doing something against me," his father warned.
Sashi still didn't avert his eyes.
"You son of a..." His father pulled him along and stormed out of that place. "Don't. Speak. Another. Word. Till we reach home," he kept repeating as they raced home.
###
Mitra was shaking convulsively, inconsolably in tears hearing the firsthand account of what had transpired that awful night, her hands covering her mouth as if she were stifling her own moan of agony.
"You saw it all," she muttered.
"I did," Sashi answered.
"And you didn't do anything about it?" Mitra asked in disbelief.
"Not a good question from someone who herself didn't do anything when she walked in on a crime," Sashi mocked.
Mitra flung her hands to her sides, fists balled up in anger, hitting the arm rest of her chair and shouted, "You should have reported it!"
Sashi was taken aback.
Her fury overriding the fear she had had a few seconds before, Mitra continued her outburst, "I at least reported seeing you with Lekha that night to the police. What about you? You knew how people were trying to find her killers. If you were indeed stalking me, you should have seen how tormented I was about not being able to save her. If you hadn't had the guts to help her, then at least you should have reported to the police what you saw. If you really were even a little bit concerned about me like you claim to be, you should have spoken up. You should have told me at the very least."
"Spoke up what, Mitra?" Sashi raised his tone too. "You mean to say I should have reported my own father?"
"You should have reported a criminal! A monster!" Mitra cried.
"Well, guess what, I didn't. I didn't feel the necessity for it. He and his friends made a clean escape by having alibi at the wine store, and he made sure I didn't speak about it. Besides, why should I go out of my way for someone of no consequence to me?"
Mitra's answer was glaringly obvious in her expression.
Sashi brushed it off scoffing, "Oh please, enough of your "right thing to do" nonsense. I had to save myself first."
"So, you actively hid three abominable criminals? Why? So they could commit more crimes and kill innocent people?"
"Hide them?" Sashi bellowed. "I was locked up by father for days, without being allowed to go out for anything. I sneaked out only twice: once the day they found her body, when I saw you bawling your eyes out on an empty street and then..." He stopped.
But Mitra didn't. "Yes, you escaped home from your abusive father. Bravo! But what did you do other than crawling back to the same hole like a parasite? You had chances very well on multiple occasions to let others know how foul he was, and yet, you stayed silent."
"I was a teenager too at that time, Mitra. How could I have brought myself to report my father? What do you think I could have achieved by reporting him? Besides, you are hardly a saint to blame me when you yourself are a failure when it comes to saving people," Sashi spat, standing up furiously.
Mitra followed suit hurling her words at him, "I at least had the conscience to never repeat the same mistake again. I had the guts to go after you twice after that one time, to catch you. You had the original criminal living under the same roof as you and did nothing. So, don't you dare compare yourself to me."
The emotions were so heightened on both their parts that neither Mitra nor Sashi realized they had they had taken an angry step towards each other and were standing in an offensive pose, as if they might knock each other out.
"Where is that bastard now?" Mitra demanded.
"Someplace no one can bring him out from," Sashi answered more out of spite.
Mitra was exasperated. "You are still trying to hide him?" She shook her head and declared, "I swear I am going to kill you. You don't deserve to live."
Sashi's lips twitched to a psychotic half-smile as he countered, "Really? Are you capable enough of committing a murder, Mitra? Seeing for yourself someone's breath leaving their body,m blood splattering everywhere?"
It was gothic and horrific the way he described the deed to her and Mitra visibly wavered, flinching slightly. Yet, Sashi's expression of ridicule was so infuriating that Mitra clenched her teeth and snarled her answer, "I can!"
"Very well," Sashi accepted and pulled out his handgun, a nine mm pistol affixed with a suppressor readily, from the folds of his hoodie.
He pointed the gun at a horrified Mitra for a moment saying, "Let's see if you can actually do it."
For that brief moment Mitra actually thought he would shoot her for taunting him. But then, he held the gun on his palm, offered it to her more demandingly and indicated her to take it.
"You feel I wronged you and the dead girl so much, don't you. Well, pick this gun up and shoot me if you can."
Mitra was too taken aback by Sashi's challenge. She stood rooted to the ground, seething and indecisive.
"Why? You can scream all you want about the justice you crave, blame me for hiding criminals and being one of them, but you can't resolve those grudges of yours with a single shot?" he ridiculed her.
"Don't you dare provoke me, Sashi. I might really shoot you." Mitra's voice was low yet sharp.
"Hah! You can't. You are a worse coward than I am."
That was the last straw. Mitra grabbed the gun from his hand and aimed it at Sashi, to his forehead, point blank.
Her hand was trembling, and so were her eyes and lips. She was low key convulsing, yet she never averted her gaze from Sashi who was looking at her in expectation and contentment.
Yes, she just had to shoot him and it would be game over. She would be free.
Adding fuel to it, his gaze just provoked her more; the arrogance and derision he had thrown at her till then, and the facts of his criminal history, all came crashing down at her.
And she shot the gun. Five times.