After reaching the Palala side of the resort and seeing the scene Rusha becomes nervous. Her heart started to pump rapidly, she feel uneasy and ultimately she vomits out the anxiety.
She saw Ganesh lying in a pool of blood. His other co-habitants are in a similar position but in different places scattered around the lawn area of the cottage. The lodgers staying in the neighborhood are all running here and there along with shouting curse words towards their luck, time, and also for the hotel staff. They are panicked, they do not know what to do. They had come for a weekend trip and now they are running for their lives but the irony is they do not know where to go ???
Rusha along with other hotel staff tried to control the situation as much as they could. One of them also telephoned the nearest police station. At that time another roar of the tiger followed by the scream of a hunted deer silenced the noise emitting from the conundrum of the resort.
"There are two points which I can not comprehend sir," said Mr.Supratim Bakshi, a tall well-built gentlemen of 23 years. He had recently joined the Detective Dept of Odissa Police.
"What are those two points, Bakshi ?" questioned his senior, Mr.Raju Patnaik. Patnaik is an Officer on Special Duty. He was deputed for solving the mysterious death of Ganesh and his group in the Lulung Resort. As per the information received from the staff of the hotel, everything was fine until 8pm on the eventful day.
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Professor D Bhattacharjee was working on Rare plant species and their impact on the local climate for the last five years. He was highly interested in the role of Rafflesia in controlling the local climate. His laboratory is in Bhubaneswar and he is assisted by a smart young man named Jayanta Mohanty. He is also a botanist and works with rare plants. As the research interest of both is similar they can be regularly found in Mohanty's laboratory discussing their research and sharing their future goal and path to accomplish their targets. But this Friday their regularity was disturbed by a phone call. The call was from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
The government wants us to look into the imaginary concept of Blue Rafflesia. They are saying that that species was spotted in the A&N Islands. But as per my knowledge, this species does not exist in reality. How can that fellow has found it and has also captured an image of it from our jungles of A&N ? About five years ago a forest dweller from Simlipal had informed me that he has found one of that Blue Rafflesia in the forest. But after investigating the case I found at that time that the species he was talking about is indeed a Rafflesia but it is not that imaginary species. Since then also I have read many news about "Blue Rafflesia spotting" in various international and national news articles and unsurprisingly all of that news was found to be fake.
In my research paper on the rarest species of India, I have clearly concluded that concepts like Blue Rafflesia have no real base and can be treated as a hoax only. But this time this fellow has taken a picture of the flower. And our forensics have confirmed that the photograph is not forged or distorted. So the very concept that I had rejected is now validated to be real.
I must look into this Jayanta and you must help me in this aspect. I will also take the help of a few more people as this news has spread like a wildfire within our fraternity and as a result, some not-so-good people have certainly received the news also.
Prof.Bhattacharjee paused for a moment to take a breath.
"Take your time professor. Don't panic. We are with you." replied Jayant with a consolidatory voice to give the old Professor some mental support. For a Professor, when a concept established by him, is found to be incorrect it hurts a lot. It creates questions about the credibility of his research, his knowledge, and above all, it tarnishes the image which he has created by tremendous hard work for the 30 long years of his working life.
So the Professor was visibly disturbed and he want to clear his name as early as possible. And the government also desires the same. So being an avid follower, admirer, and co-researcher of Prof.Bhattacharjee, Jayanta feels that he has a duty to make his Professor proud again.
That is why, as an obedient student of the Professor, he initiated his work on blue Rafflesia by starting to brush up his knowledge about the species.
After completing his maiden search on Blue Rafflesia Jayanta switched off his computer and start preparing for returning back to his home. Prof.Bhattacharjee was extremely tired and so on request from Jayanta he has retired early today. Jayanta locked the chamber and while he was moving toward his vehicle a shadowy creature started to follow him. When he was about to grab the handle of the car someone grabbed him from behind with a tickling laugh. Jayanta was totally unprepared for this. He can smell the scent of ladies' perfume. He is a brown belt in Karate and has trained himself for self-defense by attending various workshops.
He gives a hard blow to the chest of the prowler with his elbows and tries to disentangle himself from the arms of the intruder. He was successful in releasing himself. But the perpetrator releases him with a moan. The lady angrily retreats and throws some slang word toward Jayanta and remove her cover from her face.
"Are you an Idiot? Cant, you recognize me ?"
Meanwhile, the shadow of the creature which was following Jayanta change its direction and jumped off towards the boundary wall. After some time the shadow vanishes in the darkness of the night.
This concludes Part 4 of my first attempt to write a story. It is unedited and untitled till now.
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