He had wanted to get home early tonight. His wife and daughters were leaving for their hometown in Rajasthan tomorrow early morning, and he wanted to spend some time with them and see them off to the airport himself. They would not be back for at least a couple of months till the school reopened for the next year.
He signaled a waiter to usher the waiting people into the lobby and put a ‘CLOSED’ sign on the main entrance. He had just taken out his mobile to make a call to his wife and ask her if she was done with the packing when he felt a cold metal touch his neck.
“Stay put, Manek, don’t turn around. Just walk out of the restaurant with me. If you dare to raise your voice I’ll shoot you.”
Manek felt the gun being lowered and did as he was told. He didn’t want any gunshots in his restaurant. He didn’t want to be killed. He had a perfect life and he didn’t want some maniac to end it all. Once outside, the man led Manek to his Fortuner and asked him to get in. He was taken aback to see four masked men already seated inside his vehicle.
‘How did they get in?’ he wondered but didn’t ask.
One of the men blindfolded him and the vehicle sped away to an unknown destination. The noise of the vehicles whizzing past had slowly died down and it started to get quieter.
Manek tried to recollect who among the last few customers had looked suspicious. Most of them had looked like families. There was one large family of about six adults and an equal number of children, and a couple of nuclear families consisting of two adults and one or two kids. There had been a few single men, he remembered seeing about five or six of them, but he had not thought any of them could be the man who accosted him outside the restaurant. There was a bearded guy, tall and wearing a blazer, another one, fat with a paunch who was with a stubby guy. Three of them looked like they had just landed high profile jobs and were out celebrating. He imagined the guy who had put a gun to him could be the bearded guy because he was alone and had been tall enough to put his gun on his neck.
“Arre mamu, look a gold watch. I’ll take this one, I saw it first.”
Manek felt a sweaty hand remove his watch and another one searching his pockets.
“Kalu, see what I found, his wallet is heavier than him”, a second guy was screaming with delight.
“Hey leave something for us too”, the other two chorused and they all burst out laughing.
“Don’t worry boys, you all will get your share. Manek babu will ensure that you do, won’t you Manek?”, said the one who had brought him out and then snatched his mobile,“ That’s a pretty expensive mobile.”
Manek chose to remain silent. ‘So there are five of them, who could it be? No, six, he corrected himself. Someone is driving the car. ’ he thought. He wondered where his driver was and whether he was also involved in all this. The abductors had been in possession of his vehicle so maybe his own driver had set up the trap. He tried to recall if he had any enemies, anyone who would have wanted to kidnap him. He drew a blank. He had been on very good terms with his family, friends, and competitors.
Manek wondered whether anyone at the restaurant had noticed his absence and alerted his wife or the police.
Read part 2 here
Ekdum Bollywood..! Let me read part two now :D
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