“Sir, I've requested backup from nearby police stations since we have to check 9 locations. Should I send them the locations?”

“No, we wait for some time. Let Senior Inspector Akbar arrive; I've briefed him about our situation.”

A tense atmosphere enveloped the police station; Birbal had never faced such a situation and was unsure how to proceed. So, the best option was to wait for his boss.

Akbar, a highly decorated police officer who had previously worked in a big city, was transferred to the town due to his failure to manage a high-stakes hostage situation.

As soon as Akbar heard Birbal's report, he donned his uniform and rushed to the police station. He had encountered murder cases but never a serial killer; those were incidents he'd only seen on TV series.

Akbar arrived 20 minutes later, and Birbal and Dubey saluted as he entered the police station.

“Where is he?”

“In the holding cell, sir.”

“Okay, Birbal, come with me.”

“So, Mr. Shorya, as you can see, your presence and confession have caused a ruckus here. Why are you here?” asked Akbar, his tone a mix of authority and curiosity..

“I wanted to confess my crimes.”

“I rarely see criminals confessing.”

“I was bored, and it was getting easy; nobody was even trying to stop me,” Shorya smirked.

“Boring, I see.”

Akbar exited the cell and said, “Get all the backup we can and search these 9 locations. Get forensics and scan every inch of the locations.”

Birbal nodded, a sense of urgency creeping into his demeanor, and everything was set into motion.

Akbar and Birbal, accompanied by Dubey, went to the nearest location mentioned in the confession.

Birbal hesitated, asking, “Sir, this is big. Are we capable of handling something like this?”

“We will worry about that later, Birbal. Let's first see if his confessions are authentic.”

“Sir, he was very calm and composed. If he has done all this, what kind of monster are we dealing with?”

“I don’t know, Birbal. I have no answers for you now.”

They reached the first location; Akbar ordered Dubey and other workers on-site to dig up the place, and soon they found the first body. The index finger was missing.

Many on-site vomited after smelling the horrid stench.

Akbar didn’t flinch; he knew a hurricane had hit the town. Things were soon going to spiral downward. Soon, the same news started coming from all locations. A body, a total of 9 bodies, had been found. Shorya was confessing the truth.

After everything was wrapped up at the location and bodies were sent to the morgue for autopsy, Birbal and Akbar huddled in Akbar’s office.

“So how do we deal with this, sir?” Akbar asked.

“Like we do with other crimes, we question the suspect.”

“Sir, he is not a suspect; he is a convict. He confessed.”

“Yes, I know, but we have to get some evidence linking him to all this.”

“But he confessed, sir.”

“I don’t think so, Birbal. He is playing with us. We have to be very careful and plan beforehand.”

“So what do we do next?”

“Get police custody and obtain warrants to search his home. Talk to his relatives, figure out what he does.”

“Okay, sir. I am on it.” Birbal affirmed, a determination in his tone.