I am a master in India

Chapter 214 Return without success
"Freida, don't rush, tell me slowly."

"Ron! Ron! You have to save him!"

Anand's wife wept uncontrollably; her hair was disheveled and her face was haggard. She had spent the last few days in constant fear.

She knew very well what it meant for people of their low caste to disappear in Mumbai, but she refused to believe it.

“He is a good person and has never hurt anyone. Shiva should bless him.”

“Yes, he’s a good man, he’ll be fine,” Ron reassured her.

He rushed to Suer Electric Appliances without delay after getting off the plane.

Anand's home was in the legal slum behind the building, and a group of familiar neighbors had gathered at the door, all trying to comfort the heartbroken and desperate Freida.

The children watched longingly; the oldest, Jamal, held onto his mother's arm, while the younger ones giggled and crawled around the house.

When Freida saw Ron coming, it was as if she had seen a savior.

She knew that Ron was the only one who could save Anand, so she went to report it to the police, but the Mumbai police didn't care about Dalit's life or death.

"When did he disappear, and where was he last seen?" Ron asked.

“One week ago, he said he was going to visit a patient who was not doing well. But he never came back. Rajiv searched all the patients’ homes, but he couldn’t find him.”

Rajiv was the boy who came from the leprosy slum. He worked for Anand and was usually responsible for running errands for Mercady.

“Surbai, I wanted to go with him that day, but Anand Baba told me to go back.” Rajiv lowered his head, feeling very guilty.

He also had a small hut in the slum, where several children from the leprosy slum lived with him.

Anand wouldn't let him come home late because Rajiv needed to take care of the children.

Ron sighed softly; his intuition told him that things weren't so simple.

Anand is not usually alone, but that day was an exception, and then the accident happened.

This looks like a premeditated act; perhaps someone has been watching him for days.

But who would target Anand? He has no power or influence, and he's not rich; at best, he's just a Dalit who's doing alright.

If it's not aimed at him personally, then who is it aimed at?
The answer is self-evident.

Ron frowned in thought. Anand was now only in charge of the drug testing business, and they had even stopped smuggling drugs for a long time.

There shouldn't be any competitors in this business, so why are they targeting Anand?
"Has anything unusual happened lately? I mean, has Anand said anything? Or acted in any unusual way?"

“He has a very good temper and is happy every day,” Freida replied.

Okay, Ron thought, and that round, smiling face popped into his mind.

He looked around and finally turned to Rajiv, "What did Luca say?"

“I’ve searched all of South Mumbai, but it’s not there!” Just then, Luca squeezed in from outside.

Upon hearing the news that Ron had returned to Mumbai, he rushed here immediately.

“Not even in the palace!” he added.

Ron glared at him. What time is it for someone to still be bringing up those things?

“Brother, Anand is also my brother. I’ve been scouring the black market for the past few days.”

"Is there any result?"

“No, it’s like it vanished into thin air.” Luca shrugged.

The fact that they disappeared so cleanly made Ron even more certain that someone was plotting all of this behind the scenes.

"Keep an eye on the places he frequents; I'll go find out some information."

Ron immediately got up; he was going to the police station to find Aije.

The slums and Luca's group can't provide any valuable information; this is not something they can handle.

He was just wondering who was behind it all and why they had approached Anand.

Ron's business shouldn't have any cutthroat competitors.

First of all, we can rule out travel companies; their monthly profits of hundreds of thousands of rupees are simply not enough to make a profit.

Needless to say, travel agencies, with Had Khan's endorsement, are avoided by the gangs in Mumbai.

Suer Electric Appliances? Unlikely.

The only country with which they had a conflict, Bania, has long since disappeared, and even its factories have been incorporated into Bania's operations.

Other appliance brands also couldn't explain it, saying that the Indian market currently has demand exceeding supply, and it will be a growth market for a long time to come.

The pie is getting bigger and bigger, but we're still a long way from the stage of fierce competition.

The only business Ron had that conflicted with others was mining, but that was far away in the Northern State.

He thought about it all the way but still couldn't figure out who the mastermind was.

The most urgent task is to find Anand. Among the people Ron knows, the shorty is one who can truly be called a friend.

His intuition told him that Anand was merely imprisoned and not in any danger.

Otherwise, why would they go to such great lengths and bother with a Dalit?

Aijee's office has moved back to the Bandera district, but it's nowhere near as grand as the one in South Mumbai.

When Ron entered, he witnessed a police superintendent and his informant reporting the recent gunfight to Ajay.

"Are the people on the field from the Daoud gang?" Aijie asked.

"It's not clear yet, boss, but sporadic gunfights in the field have been going on for four days now." The superintendent shook his head.

On the field, outfield – these are terms used in cricket.

They seemed to be discussing not a gang fight, but a cricket match.

In fact, for many hoodlums, the thrill of belonging to a gang is no different from the pride of playing for a cricket team.

Gang leaders, much like team captains, must be the smartest. They must assign roles to outfielders, carefully plan the batting order, and frequently rotate players, using this opportunity to test the abilities of newcomers. Mumbai gangs have their own operating system and are not all as violent and chaotic as outsiders imagine.

"Find out who's on the field as soon as possible." Ai Jie waved his hand.

"Don't worry, boss, we'll have a good grasp of the main lineup within a week," the superintendent assured him.

"Yes, yes, officer." The thin informant beside him nodded and bowed.

“Girish, you’d better hurry. If you do this, I can drop the case against you,” Ajay promised him.

“No problem, officer!” the informant exclaimed happily.

He immediately went to Aijie's desk, bent down, and whispered something to him. Aijie nodded frequently and scribbled in his notebook.

Ron's arrival seemed to go unnoticed by him. He issued various orders, roared from time to time, kept questioning, and threatened the prisoners that he would maim or even kill them, or harm the people they cared about most.

For a full half hour, Aijie dealt with various emergencies in this restless city, even though his jurisdiction had been greatly reduced.

"When did you arrive?" It wasn't until the informant left that Aijie noticed there was another person in the office.

“It’s been a while,” Ron shrugged. “I thought police informants were all undercover cops. You guys recruit gangsters too?”

“I have something on them,” Ai Jie chuckled.

In order to escape punishment, these informants will go to great lengths to gather information for the police.

Of course, recruiting informants at the beginning wasn't easy.

It's a psychological battle: you have some information, but you have to convince the other side that you actually know more.

The suspect would also weigh the veracity of Aijie's words, revealing only a little at a time until he was certain he could escape safely or had no choice but to surrender.

Every time, Aijie was like a street vendor selling sugarcane and lemonade, having to squeeze the information he wanted out of the suspect.

The first juice that comes out is sugarcane juice, and then the concentrated lemon juice.

This is not just a simple threat of force; beating the suspect until he is covered in bruises does not mean that we have everything under control.

Understanding their psychology is key. At the beginning of the interrogation, Aijie would imply that he already knew everything and was just waiting for the other party to confess.

Sometimes that's enough, but sometimes suspects will test you: How much do you really know?
Therefore, an interrogation is a competition, and both sides must be fully alert and constantly try to guess what the other is thinking.

If the interrogators are only armed with batons or wires, it will not be of much help.

"Alright, tell me, what brings you here all of a sudden?" he asked.

“One of my friends has gone missing,” Ron told him about Anand.

After hearing the story, Aijie frowned slightly. "This is a bit troublesome."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked with concern.

“It’s been too long; that’s enough time for them to do anything.”

The "they" that Aiger refers to are of course the people who will be taken away from Anand. Whether it is a relocation or something more brutal, a week is more than enough time.

"My gut feeling tells me that he's still in Mumbai, and those people have no reason to cause him trouble."

"You mean they came for you?" Aijie asked.

“I just suspect that my friend doesn’t usually have any conflicts with anyone, and he’s from a low caste.”

“I’ll make a few calls for you to ask.” Aijie picked up the landline on the table.

He made several calls, but all to no avail.

“No similar reports have been received in South Mumbai recently, and no bodies matching the description have been found.”

Ron was speechless, even though Freida and the others had already reported it to the police.

Forget it, India's police system is rotten to the core.

"Keep an eye out for news from the police station; he's a very important friend of mine."

"Let his family come to me."

"What?" Ron, who was about to get up, was stunned.

“Other police stations won’t take on missing persons cases, but I will,” Ai Jie said calmly.

Ron smiled. See, he had more than one friend, a true friend.

"Contact me if you need anything." He prepared to leave.

"You'd better be careful yourself?" Aijie reminded him.

"Hmm?" Ron turned around.

"If they really came for you, then they've already achieved their goal."

"You mean"

"You've already gone back to Mumbai, haven't you?"

Ron paused slightly, then nodded and left.

He returned empty-handed, and Aijie found no useful information either.

Anand really seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.

Ron and Ajay were unaware that the people who actually took the Anands away were not gangsters or enemies, but the police themselves.

Only the police can make a person disappear completely without revealing a single word.

Indian police can arrest people at will, without even having to report it.

Sometimes even they themselves don't know who is in the cell or what crime they have committed.

Anand was thrown into a dark and gloomy detention cell, as if he were on an isolated island in the world, where no wind could blow in or out.

Ron didn't give up; he was still trying to find a solution.

(End of this chapter)