Thriller Farmhouse

[Boobsucker1994]

Chandra went back to his room and mom went back to hers after putting on her nightie again. And I went back to my room and fell asleep.

I woke up wondering why I was feeling so miserable and angry. Looking at my surroundings, I remembered why. It was 10 a.m. and I could hear some voices outside so I got up and after freshening up went outside the room.

Dad was awake and talking with Chandra, "We'll leave immediately."

Chandra said, "I will go to Bangalore, you can handle Kanpur. This is a cluster-fuck but we'll straighten it out. We'll show everyone that my confidence in you has not been misplaced."

I didn't understand all that was being discussed but it seemed that some of the factories that Chandra had helped my dad get contracts for were experiencing some sort of crisis and they had to go onsite for some firefighting.

Chandra said to dad, "No need to spoil your family's holiday. They can stay here and enjoy the place. The surroundings are quite scenic. You will be back by tomorrow any way. This way we can both leave together and you can reach Kanpur without delay."

"Sounds good." dad replied.

So a few minutes later, we said our goodbyes and I and mom were left alone in the strange big house. Chandra was gone but I had a feeling that he was up to something.

In the meantime, as long as we were alone I decided to have a talk with mom. But before that I needed to look for some papers.

This was early 1970s, when India still practiced socialism. Private enterprises were heavily regulated and taxed and the government controlled and tried to provide all services. Naturally there was widespread corruption and it took ages and a small fortune in bribes to get anything done.

Telephones were a luxury only afforded by the rich. You needed to register with a government agency to get a telephone and it could take up to ten years to actually get a connection. And then you had to pay the lineman a bribe to do his job and actually install the phone for you.

So, as phones were so rare, Chandra mostly communicated with his henchmen and bosses using paper. I needed some samples of his communications. I had practiced forging handwriting and signatures, etc during the past two years.

After mom went to take a nap, I scoured the whole house and after a couple of hours was on the verge of giving up when I hit the jackpot.

In a small dusty room filled with junk, I found carefully filed communications and three chests full of gold biscuits, jewels and currency.

Studying the papers confirmed all I had learnt about Chandra's political, business and criminal relationships. I also learnt two new things.

Chandra was doing business with two rival mafia dons, double-crossing and swindling them regularly.

The second thing I found was a file containing pictures of some women and some information about them. Evidently, mom wasn't his first victim. None of them had a good ending: some were dead, others seemed to have ended up in brothels all across the country and also in some Gulf countries.

I heard mom calling my name so I quickly put everything back in its place and hobbled out.

"I've fixed us something to eat, would you like to have lunch now" asked mom.

We ate mostly in silence. After we had finished eating, I decided to be direct with mom, "What's going on between you and Chandra, mom?"

She seemed shocked and was silent for a few moments, then tears welled up in her eyes and she started sobbing, "I'm sorry ... I'm so sorry..."

My heart sank, fearing that I had misread the situation. I asked, "Do you ... love him?"

She looked up, her eyes filled with rage, her beautiful face contorted with hatred, "I want to kill kill him! I want him DEAD!"

Then she started sobbing even more loudly.

Relieved, I moved towards her and putting my good arm around her shoulders said, "I can take him down but I need your help,"

Surprised, she looked up at me, "How? That bastard is well-connected."

"Come with me." I took mom to the room with the documents