DEATH SENTENCE

CHAPTER 24

"Oh crap" Ayesha scoffed as she leaned out of the window.

"We are going to struck in here for hours," Harish complained stretching himself in the cramped cab.

"I will find a way," the cab driver reassured them.

Ayesha just let out a sarcastic laugh and closed her eyes. All around them cars are honking. It was driving him crazy. He just rolled up the window and told the driver to turn on the air conditioner. It must not have been used for a very long time since it was used because a gust of hot air shot out of it. The driver looked at them apologetic.

There was absolute silence except for the muffled sound of the traffic outside.

Suddenly Ayesha talked startling Harish a bit who closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He couldn't sleep yesterday as the image of the body was stuck to his head. He didn't want to tell anyone because they will tease him of being a crybaby. It wasn't his fault. He was new to this job and haven't seen anything like this. That doesn't mean he wasn't tough enough.

"So you really think the boyfriend is..." she hesitated not wanting to talk about the case in the presence of the cab driver who now started fiddling with the radio trying to make it work.
"You know..."

Harish took a deep breath. "I don't know. Seems like it. And there is something interesting about the victims too. All their business seemed to have flourished only 3 years ago. The same time the girl went missing. Now there's something obviously fishy in that don't you think"

"Yeah," she said but she sounded disturbed.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked. "And before you start your sarcastic speech. I know that something is disturbing you a little personally. I appreciate that you are involved in this case so much but.... there is a feeling that you are hiding something from me. Is it true or am I just hallucinating it." He asked really concerned.

Ayesha turned towards him and their eyes locked. She wanted to tell him everything. Tell how much she loved him. What happened everything. She wanted to cry. Finally admit that she is broken from the very start. That she is not the strong woman that she made everyone to believe she was. More than anything she wanted to apologize. Explain to him her situation about why she had no other choice. But she couldn't do any of this. She just shook her head and said nothing is wrong.

He looked at her his eyes unchanged his expression telling that he still had doubts. And she couldn't look away even if she wanted to. If only she can tell him about her love to him. But she didn't want him to get overly attached to her. She didn't want him to get hurt.

He finally looked away. Outside the traffic seems to clear.

"Good god," he said smiling.

She smiled too. For him to believe her. But her smile was all fake. Even he could see that.

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They soon reached their destination, the place where John used to live.He was still missing of course. But they wanted to talk to his only living relation. His sister.

They told the cab driver to wait. They rang the bell. After a moment a middle aged woman opened the door. She was pretty despite the wrinkles.

"Hello Mrs...?"

"ms.Victor." she said shaking Ayesha's hands and smiled warmly at him. "And you must be the detectives. We talked on the phone. Come on in," she said waving us inside.

The house was small with just one room but was cozy. She told them to sit on the worn out couch and went inside to make them coffee despite their deniel. They weren't used to any kind of hospitality from the place where they went to interrogate.

Soon they were sitting with their steaming coffee. ms.Victor, who asked to call herself Dana sat on the plastic stool facing them.

Ayesha took a sip of the coffee and placed it on the table in front of them.

"Dana. We are here to ask a few questions about your brother John if that is not a problem."

"Sure. No problem," Dana said though her tone was indifferent.

"Well. Your brother went missing 3 years earlier that is exactly 2 days after his girlfriend went missing?" she asked calmly.

"That's right," Dana confirmed.

"Do you know Anita. I mean before she went missing," Ayesha questioned leaning forward.

"Yeah of course I knew her. She was like a friend to me, " Dana said with a sigh. "Poor girl came to the city with lots of hope. And she loved John so much," she shook her head side to side. " I still can't believe what happened to them."

"Hmmm. Dana it would be really, really helpful if you could tell anything regarding this. We want to know about the sudden shutdown of his business"

"It came as a surprise to me too. John would never sell his contracts to anyone. Sure it angered the share holders. They met with a huge loss. They have to shut down the business. And I spent years paying the various debts and..."

"John sold the contracts," Harish asked his excitement obvious. "To whom."

Ten minutes later they were in the cab, driving back to the agency.

"As we suspected. Vinay Arora, Meera Jha, Arjun Grover and another name we have to check on him soon," He said turning towards Ayesha smiling from ear to ear.

"Yeah sure," she said blankly staring outside the window.

"Ayesha are you not excited," he asked pulling her to make her turn around. "I mean we have got a big breakthrough here."

"Yes of course I'm excited," she said giving him a false smile. "I'm just tired that's all," she said closing her eyes.

Harish stared at her for a moment. And then shrugged. And turned to look out the window. The sun was setting and the sky looked beautiful with an orange shade to it.

I'm sorry Ayesha thought as she tried hard to control the tears.

Thank you readers.

I hope you like how the story moves and the recent breakthrough.

This is a fiction so it may not been so realistic or I must have made a mistake in any fact. For that forgive me.

And if you have anything to say about the story, good or bad, please comment. That would mean a lot to me.