An Insane Mind (David Joseph Mysteries Book 4)

Book summary

Psychologist David Joseph is pulled into a chilling case when the water supply in several neighborhoods is poisoned, leaving many dead. Suspecting something far darker than terrorism, David must unravel the mind of a disturbed individual before he strikes again. AN INSANE MIND is a gripping crime thriller from the David Joseph Mysteries series.

Excerpt from An Insane Mind (David Joseph Mysteries Book 4)

A Day of Insanity

May 14, Friday - 10:55 a.m.

“Daddy,” shouted out little Suganya. “The water is coming!” She was a cute nine-year-old girl who loved her parents but was also a little bit mischievous. Her parents had forbidden her to drink water from the taps at school and on the roadsides. They had drilled it into her that for health reasons she should only drink filtered water. But most of her friends drank from the taps and they insisted that the water was tastier than filtered water. Little Suganya, however, obeyed her parents and did not drink water from the taps. But now as she looked at the cool water gushing from the pipe into the sump tank, she was tempted; and so cupping a little water in her palms she drank it and then drank again. But she would turn out to be one of the lucky ones! In hundreds of houses, that day at 11 a.m., people thanked God and the water department for the water, since it had been fifteen days since the last supply.

Sarala, a housewife in Ram Nagar, waited for five minutes for the water to fill a little in the sump and then switched on the motor to pump the water to the overhead Sintex tank that was placed on the terrace of their building. From there the water would come down to the house taps through a network of pipes. She waited for another five minutes and then opened the tap to fill the stainless steel tub in the kitchen. She waited impatiently for enough water to gather in the tub as she had to start her cooking for the day. She had been thinking of buying some tanker water as there was absolutely no potable water in the house since the day before. They were drinking and cooking with bottled water that they had to buy from the local grocer. She thanked all the Gods that at last the water had come because buying tanker water would have eaten into her budget, and at present they just could not afford it. She started the cooking, but before that, she made coffee for herself and her husband. She had two children, both boys, and because of the coffee, their lives were spared.

Aleem was about to leave for the mosque when the water came. He had been waiting for it and hoping that it would not be too delayed. He shouted out to his wife, “They have released the water! Wait for half an hour and then put on the motor. I am going to the mosque in a little while.” He lived with his wife, two children, and his elderly mother in a small house in Anbu Nagar. He did not know it at the time, but he would come back from the mosque to an empty house.

In Anbu Nagar, most of the lower-income group, like daily wage labourers and household maids, lived in what was called line houses or row houses. This was basically a long rectangular building partitioned along its length to make small homes that consisted of just two rooms each, one behind the other, and a tiny toilet. One row house would typically be divided into around five or six small homes which would be given on rent cheaply to people of the lower-income group, and Anbu Nagar had about ten such row houses. Each row house had one common potable water connection and the residents would line up and take their turn to fill the drums and buckets in their small homes with potable water.

In one such row house, there was a fight going on between two residents, Kamala and Shobha. Kamala told Shobha, “You have come here just two months ago and already you are causing problems for everyone! You know that we have a rotation system in place to draw the water from the tap when it comes. That way everyone has an equal chance of getting a little extra water whenever the corporation extends the time before shutting off the supply. But last time you bullied poor Jayanthi and put your pots and buckets before hers even though it was her turn to be first in the queue!” Shobha was a big-made arrogant woman and her husband was a small-made mild-mannered man, so she was used to getting her way in everything.

Now she shouted at Kamala, “You need to mind your own business! That is something between Jayanthi and myself, so what has it to do with you? Just shut your mouth and go about your business! Today it is my turn to be first in the queue and I’d like to see if you can stop me!” Kamala was a decent honest woman of around 55 years of age who always acted as a mediator in disputes between the families who occupied the row house. Now she told Shobha, “Are you daring to threaten me? If you continue in this way then I promise you that I will see to it that you are evicted from this place. Go and cause trouble somewhere else!” Jayanthi was a quiet, withdrawn person who hated fights and now she intervened and told Kamala, “Let it be mother, let her take the water first. This is not worth fighting over and you know that you have to think of your blood pressure.”So when the water came, Shobha triumphantly started to fill her containers first; and just to rub it into the others, she took a big mug full of water and drank it right there in front of everyone. She was unaware of it at the time, but her arrogance would help to save the others!

Sanjana also lived in Anbu Nagar and she and her husband owned the house they lived in. It was a small house that they had built together with the help of some of her husband’s friends, but she was very proud to live in her own house. Her husband Babu was a house painter and she brought in some extra money by doing tailoring at home. They had three small children, a boy and two girls; Raju, at seven years of age, was the eldest and was an active little boy, Divya was five and Deepa was just three years old. When the water came that morning, Sanjana was at her sewing machine completing some urgent work for a neighbour. Her son Raju shouted from the door, “Mother, the good water has come!” Sanjana immediately jumped up and ran outside. The tailoring would have to wait because the water was more important.

They did not have an underground sump and their connection was just outside the back door. The pipe had a tube connected to it that went into a large drum so that no water would be wasted if the water came earlier than expected. She had all the buckets and pots also lined up before the pipe and they had another large drum inside the small kitchen. She took the tube and filled the buckets and pots and then placed the tube back into the drum. Then she began carrying the buckets and pots one by one into the house and covering each one as she lined them up against the wall.

All three children were at the back and Divya started scooping water from a bucket with her small hands and drinking it. Raju was keeping a watchful eye on little Deepa and he told Divya, “Mother has told us not to drink the water until she boils it. I am going to tell her what you did!” She thumbed her nose at him and ran into the house. When his mother came out again he told her, “Divya drank the water from the bucket!” Sanjana shook her head in frustration and said, “Let me finish this work and I will deal with her. You be a good boy and don’t drink the water until I boil it.” By the time she had finished filling the water she had forgotten about the incident because she had to immediately go back to her sewing.

Sandra Smith lived in Vivek Nagar with her husband and two teenage daughters. Her husband was at work that day, and being the summer holidays, the children were at home and driving her crazy as usual. She had just agreed that they could go and visit their friend in the nearby area of Cheran Nagar when the water came. Her daughter Susan asked her, “Shall we wait and help you Mama?” Sandra said with a wry smile, “You’re going to help me to put on the motor switch? I’m going to watch the TV for an hour and then I’ll start on the lunch. You two go and visit your friend and I’ll have lunch ready by the time you get back.” They were one of the lucky families that day.

11:30 a.m.

Suganya was a good child who always obeyed her parents, and this little act of disobedience in drinking the water from the pipe troubled her conscience. After about twenty minutes, she began to feel some discomfort in her stomach, and she thought that God must be punishing her for disobeying her parents. It was her father’s day off from work, so both her parents were at home. Her father was watching television while her mother had started preparing lunch. Suganya went to her father and told him, “Daddy, I have been a bad girl!” Her father, Mukesh, smiled at his only child, whom he doted on, and said, “You can never be a bad girl, my sweet one!” But Suganya did not smile in return and said, “When the water came, I drank some water from the pipe and now my stomach is paining!”

She broke down and began crying, and her father shouted out to his wife, “Rohini, come here!” His wife came running from the kitchen, and Mukesh told her what Suganya had said. She went and hugged her daughter and told her, “Don’t worry, little one, we all do bad things at times. But now that you have told us, all is forgiven and you can be sure that God forgives you too.” But Mukesh said, “Rohini, I am not worried about that! She says that her stomach is paining.” Suganya looked at her mother and said, “I think that God is punishing me for being disobedient!”

Rohini gave her husband a worried look and said, “Do you think the water is contaminated?” Mukesh shook his head and said, “I don’t know, but let’s not take any chances. Give her a concentrated salt water solution to drink to make her vomit, and then I will take her to the doctor.” His wife ran to make the solution, and he shouted out to her, “And don’t use that water until we find out if it is okay!” By 11.30 a.m. they rushed little Suganya to the nearby clinic, where they again gave her a stomach lavage and started a rehydration drip. Little Suganya’s disobedience saved the lives of her family that day, and she also survived since they had treated her immediately.