The Selfie

8:00 a.m - 5/8/11

Diana took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She took the recorder in her hand and then opened the door and walked into the interrogation room.

Anand was sitting down, and as soon as she entered, he jumped up from his seat, shaking with what looked like, surprisingly, anger and not fear.

"What the hell is going on? I didn't do anything wrong!" He said, looking at Diana and clenching his fists. "That's what they all say. Sit down, Anand, before you get into more trouble than you already are in." Diana said coolly, before sitting down herself. Anand slowly sat back down.

"What are your relations with Atisha?" Diana asked him, pressing the record button on her device. Anand looked suspiciously at the recorder and then turned back to Diana. "We work together." He replied, not sure where this was going.

"Worked, you mean." Diana corrected him. "What do you mean, worked? Is she fired or am I?" He said, having the audacity to chuckle. Diana was trembling with anger. But she had to keep her cool.

"She's dead."
Anand's eyes widened in disbelief and then it dawned on him. "And you hold me responsible?" He demanded. "Why would you do that? What proof do you have against me?"
"I have a suicide note, Anand. And I would like you to read it. Aloud, if you may." And she handed him the small piece of paper. Anand took it and started reading it out. His voice started out strong, but lowered in volume and confidence the more he read, and his hands started trembling. Once he reached the end, he looked up at Diana pointedly. "This never happened." He declared.

"I have it here on paper. Can you say anything to that?"
"Look, its true, I have, no sorry, had a thing for her. And yes, I have asked her out a million times. And yeah, we got into a disagreement on Tuesday, before she left. But I never, ever made a move on her like that. I'm not that cheap. I am not!" He ranted. Then he took a deep breath and let it out. "Look, you have to believe me." He said, looking at Diana in the eye.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, and I want the truth. Did you rape her or not?"

"No, I did not."

Diana rose from her seat. "Ok, now I've had it. Mr. Anand, I'm going to tell what's going to happen here..."

* * *
Twenty minutes later, Diana walked out of the interrogation room, recorder in hand. Her friends would be waiting for her at home, but she wanted to eat something first. Missing her breakfast was worth the scene anyway.
Diana had Anand held in police custody until the case was solved. In other words, until he was proven guilty.
She went into McDonald's and ordered a burger. While she was waiting, she saw Mr. Rao walk inside. He spotted her at the same time and smiled at her. She returned his smile with a a small one. Mr. Rao came over and sat on the chair opposite hers. "How are you doing? You know, after whatever happened yesterday?" He asked her.
Diana started swirling her coke. "I can't say I'm doing good, because it would be a lie. All I can say is that I want to prove Anand guilty as fast as possible and get this over with. I want to forget this, Papa, but somewhere I feel like I never will."
"That's how you feel when you lose a loved one, Diana. When my wife died, I thought the exact same thing. But guess what? I did get over it. You know something? You can miss someone forever, but you can always get over it. At the same time, if you get over something, it doesn't mean that you've forgotten the whole thing. You've all but forgotten. It is things like this, situations like this that teach you about life. You just have to go with it, whether you like it or not." Mr. Rao said. Diana gave him a small smile.
Mr. Rao patted her cheek. "I'm not going to tell you to get over it already. But start letting go now so that it won't be harder later on." With that, he got up and walked out the doors.
Diana smiled to herself as she finished the last few bites of her burger. He was right of course. But she would start letting go once she finished her job, not before. She had to feed on that hatred that she had for that murderer. She had to finish up with him first.
* * *
Diana opened the door and walked into her home. Her friends immediately jumped at her with questions. She held a hand up for silence and then took out the recorder from her pocket. "He will answer all your questions." She said. She pressed the play button and let the tape run.
When they finished listening to the tape, they all looked up with confused expressions. Finally, Ankit broke the silence. "But this guy has an alibi! Or so he says. Did you cross check with his roomies?"
"That's the next thing on my agenda. He says that that night, he was at a party with his roommates. But that doesn't mean that he is not lying. Which is why I asked my team to figure out where he lives and who he lives with."
Rudy frowned. "Why not just ask him? I'm pretty sure he'll tell you. They're his alibi, for heavens sake!"
"I don't know, I guess I just didn't want to talk to him anymore. I've had enough of him for a day." Diana replied, sighing.
"Or a lifetime." Ankit muttered.
"That too." Diana said.

"So now we just wait? Till we prove him guilty?" Ankit asked after some time.
"Or innocent." Prithvi said quietly, so quietly that it was a miracle that the others heard her.
"What?" Rudy asked her.
"I said, or he could be innocent. Maybe what he is saying is true. Maybe his alibi is not a made up one. Don't you think that's a possibility?" Prithvi asked them.
No one said anything. Finally Diana looked at Prithvi in the eye and replied, "Prithvi, I don't know if you understand, but I do. Every criminal that I have come across claims to have an alibi. Does it mean that they are all innocent?"
"Think of it this way. Maybe you are so blinded by sorrow, and your hatred for him that you just can't see the truth." Prithvi retorted.
"Oh, I'll tell you what the truth is! The truth is that this man killed our friend!" Diana shouted. Then she added quietly, "My best friend. He killed my best friend."
There was an uncomfortable silence.

Diana sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-" She was tackled by hug from Prithvi. "Its ok, I get it. I really do. You're stressed, you're angry, and that's why you snapped at me. But seriously, just sit down and think for a minute. This guy could be saying the truth-" She saw Diana roll her eyes and say something like 'Always the optimist', "- but give this guy a chance. One chance? Please?" She pleaded with Diana.
Finally Diana gave in. "Ok, I'll think about it." Prithvi gave her a smile. Thank you, she mouthed.
* * *
That night, Prithvi couldn't sleep. She missed Atisha a lot. Finally, she took out her phone and looked through all the pictures, all those trips, all those memories that she had shared with her. She looked at one picture and remembering the trip, she smiled. Rajasthan, she thought to herself. It was where Atisha, Diana and herself bought similar rings and vowed never to remove them as long as they were friends. The boys had teased them and asked them to stop acting like teenagers but the girls didn't care. She took a glance at her ring. It felt very heavy now. She turned back to the camera. She saw another picture and remembered that one too. Mumbai, she recalled. The vada pav competition was hilarious. The number of vada pavs that they had devoured was unhealthy.
She looked through the more recent pics, Manali, Coorg, even Wonderla! And then she came across the pictures that they took at Rastogi. Immediately, she put the phone down. She didn't want to see those pics. But then she thought to herself that if she ever wanted to get over this, she'd have to start small, start now. So she picked up the camera and looked through those pics. Ankit standing on rock, Rudy and herself swinging on tree,-

She gasped when she saw the next picture.
It was selfie taken by Ankit, they were standing in the order- Ankit, Prithvi, Diana, Rudy, and then.... Atisha.
Prithvi resisted a scream and deleted the picture. Then she calmed herself down. You imagined that, she told herself. She continued looking through the pictures. And then all of a sudden, she came across the same picture. The one that she had just deleted. She held back a scream for the second time and deleted it again.
And then two pictures later, it repeated. Prithvi couldn't help it now. She gave out a small scream and immediately called Diana. "Diana, can I please come over tonight?"
"Why, what happened?" She asked. Her voice was croaky; it was quite late, she was probably sleeping.
Then Prithvi told her and Diana immediately replied. "Come over. Now."