THE KIDNAP

Inspector Kaira had spent three decades in the police force—-thirty years to the day and still, he couldn’t get used to these man hunts. In this case however, it was a woman hunt and this one was especially disturbing. He ran a hand through his thick crop of greying hair and leaned out of the police jeep, frowning until his head ached, his strong heavy-set frame betraying his impatience.

In the gathering darkness and through the pounding rain, he thought he could detect the figure of a young woman, silhouetted against the trees. Or was it his imagination again? He had been mistaken twice already. “She couldn’t have gotten far Kaira. Not in this weather.” Ravi had always been the optimist. “Then where the hell is she? We’ve been at this for an hour.” “Oh, we’ll find her soon enough."

The only problem was, would the baby still be alive when they did? The unspoken question hung in the air between them, stifling, choking in its intensity. Neither of them wanted to think about it. They caught hardened criminals all the time. They had seen their fair share of murders and broken bones, but there was something about the thought of a tiny, vulnerable baby being hurt that truly sickened you.

Ravi cracked the stick shift into third gear and pressed down on the accelerator. “Isn’t it incredible, how the mind just snaps? I mean, one minute, you’re a good nurse, just doing your job. And the next, you’ve gone stir crazy, kidnapped someone’s baby and you’re fleeing from the law.” Kaira frowned. Yes, that was what bothered him. Working with a criminal mind was rather like putting together a complicated jigsaw. With this woman, the pieces just didn’t fit. If it wasn’t for several eye-witnesses at the hospital, claiming they saw her leave with a baby wrapped in her arms ten minutes after the newborn was reported missing, he would be certain they were dead wrong.

And it's a mistake they couldn't afford to make. The spate of kidnapping of newborns at the GH in the past couple of months had created wide-spread panic and had unleashed an avalanche of protests. Despite their best efforts, they hand't come any closer to the truth. Were the babies being trafficked to another state? Or sold to childless couples for huge sums of money? It was unsettling. Meanwhile, newspaper columnists screamed at the inadequacies of the police force and women's organizations were baying for his blood.

This was the first breakthrough they'd had in this case in a while and yet, all his years of police training told him told him this couldn't possibly be the work of a single woman. Kaira sighed. He needed water. His throat burned and yet he couldn't even bring himself to take a sip from the bottle the lay beside him. Anxiety consumed him in waves as he stared into the darkness. Thirty babies in two months. It had to be an inside job. Who else has access to thirty babies, all within three days of birth? And the only lead they had was a half-crazed woman, taking them on wild goose chase through the wilderness on a stormy, monsoon night.

***********

Nurse Urmilla, still dressed in her uniform, complete with white starched apron, was crying though she couldn’t understand why. Everything was alright now, wasn’t it? Her darling would be with her forever. How she had dreamed of this moment and now that it had come, she was wasting precious time on tears!

She had wrapped the baby in several layers to keep her warm. She held her bundle tight, drinking in her sweet fragrance. She ran her lips over the smooth rounded cheeks and she was sure she could feel her smile. For years, she had longed for this moment. Just holding a baby in her arms again was sheer bliss. And for the first time, the days that stretched ahead seemed less empty and more bearable. She was almost feverish with excitement, making plans that would last a lifetime. She would teach the little one to talk and walk. She would hold her hand on the first day of school. She would kiss her everyday on her silken head. She would fight demons for her, battle the whole world if she needed to. It was amazing how one little person could make such a difference to a dull life, filling it with purpose and a sense of duty. The baby was sleeping peacefully for now. Not a sound from those rosebud lips. Nurse Urmilla frowned. Should she wake her up to feed her or wait till she was safe at home?

She would have to get the little one home quickly though. Being out on a night like this wasn't good for a newborn and she couldn't bear it if she caught cold. A monsoon cold could be deadly. She had seen babies in the hospital struggling to breathe even with the slightest infection.

The wind howled and raged around her, a thousand knives piercing into her very soul, but with every step she took, Urmilla's heart sang. She felt truly happy. She would name her beauty Suriya meaning sun, for this little one had brought the sunshine back into her life. The wind played havoc with Urmilla's hair. Every strand felt like a whiplash against her face. Then, without warning, a ray of light pierced through the darkness behind her. She squinted and instinctively turned. Terror churned her stomach as she heard the eerie moan of the whistle. Like a metallic monster, the train chugged toward her. It was too late to get out of the way. She flung the precious bundle as high as she could through the air, praying that the baby at least would survive. In those last moments, fear was a life-like beast and it bellowed in her breast.

***************

"She's not herself. It’s the tragedy, it made her go mad,” the toothless sweeper had hissed, pulling Kaira aside three hours earlier, as they’d first prepared to leave the hospital in search of the runaway nurse. “I know you're looking for Sister Urmilla, but I'm sure there's some mistake. She’s really a sweet lady.” “Sweet? She kidnapped a newborn," said Kaira angrily. "And this probably wasn't even the first time.” “She’d never hurt a fly,” the man insisted, shaking his head. “Urmilla sister, she's good at heart. She helped get medicines when my grandson was sick. She's so gentle with the patients. Her injections slide into your skin like butter. You never feel a bit of pain. She cares. She really cares. It's just that recently, she's not been well.” “Oh, in what way?” “The tragedy,” he said again, this time rolling his eyes for emphasis. "It affected her mind." “Tell me about it.” “No. No. I've said too much. I'm a poor man. Can't afford to lose my job. You ask the dean and don’t mention me.” He shrank into the shadows, bucket and mop swinging indignantly.

The dean, a tight lipped woman in her early fifties, looked disapprovingly at Kaira, as though it was his fault that she was forced to dispense gossip. “I will admit that she has been under great emotional stress these past few years sir. However, we never saw a decline in her work. How was the hospital to know that she was slowly going mad? We have enough on our hands as it is.” “What went wrong?” The dean removed her glasses and polished them slowly. Kaira was growing impatient, willing her to speak. “Nurse Urmilla had three babies over the course of five years—all girls. None of them survived.” “Were they ill?” “No. Nothing was particularly wrong with the infants. They just died under mysterious circumstances, all within a week. Tongues were bound to wag afterward. After all, female infanticide isn’t all that uncommon in this part of the world.” “The babies were murdered then?” asked Kaira. “The autopsy turned up nothing. It was just a rumour. There was talk of the husband and mother-in-law being livid that the infants were girls. The husband had an abusive argument with her soon after the birth of her second child, which was at this hospital. She tried to run away with the baby, even checked out without letting him know, but they tracked her down. Then that baby too died, when she was forced to return home. She was back at work within a week of the deaths, all three times and she seemed just fine. Ours wasn’t to reason why.” The dean shrugged and the interview was clearly over.

***********

Detective Kaira snapped out of his reverie. A whistle moaned in the distance, much like the keening of a wild animal. “Is there a railway crossing here?” he asked, shocked. “Yes, just ahead of us it seems,” said Ravi. He killed the engine and they waited. Seconds later, a woman's savage scream tore through the night. Alarmed, they leapt out of the jeep and sprinted though the darkness. Illumined by the dim headlights of the car, Kaira watched with his heart in his throat as a small bundle sailed through the air, seconds before the train rammed into her body. The bundle landed with a sharp sickening thud, just a few feet away from him. He swallowed. Barely breathing, he moved closer, steeling himself for blood. The pathway was surprisingly clear. He then spied the torn limbs of a life-sized plastic doll. The broken fragments of its blue eyes glittered mockingly at him in the night.