Anikaa & The Mystery of the Painting

20. The Poisonous Dart

"Damn!" he muttered. Is that what it takes to be with her? Loving her harder because she is so different from any other regular girl.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the tyres squealed and Anikaa swivelled the car on the hairpin roads.

"Anikaa, just to remind you- we're not in pursuit of death," said Raymond clutching the assist grip of his side.

"Either I'm driving the car or sleeping in it. And, my family prefers the latter so on my own I like to keep up my practice," chuckled Anikaa.

"Yeah, tell me about that."

As Anikaa bidded, they reached Rishikesh in next three and a half hours with Anikaa sniggering and Raymond gasping. Anikaa was in very good spirits as she drove the car with blaring songs of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Beyonce', JLo and evergreen Kishore Kumar. After reaching Rishikesh, she drove through the old roads and thin lanes of the city and took the diversion to go downhill. Within half an hour of drive, they reached a secluded villa at the far end of the city which was overlooking river Ganges. She pressed the horns of the car and a young boy rushed to open the iron gates for them. Anikaa wheeled the car into the gate and halted.

"Challenge won," she cheered and grinned at Raymond who had clenched his fists and was looking around as if not sure they had reached.

Anikaa's Rishikesh villa was way different from Munnars', however the name encrypted on the front was the same- Shireen Villa. The villa was sprawled on a vast land and was one floor only.

"Harish, how are you?" asked Anikaa to the young boy who closed the gates and came round her.

"Namaste mam," said Harish grinning.

"Harish, this is Mr. Sturrock, he's going to stay here. Please arrange a room for him."

Harish swiftly greeted Raymond and dashed to the car to get their luggage.

"Nice place," said Raymond looking around.

Similar to her Munnar's house, this house also boasted of modern architecture and was painted white in colour. There was a vast living room and two large passages on either sides of it. A floor to ceiling glass door stretched across all the rooms of the house separated the living room with the verandah. Beyond the verandah there was a huge backyard that overlooked river Ganges. It was almost 8pm and they could only hear silent splashes of water emanating from the heavy current of the river.

Harish strolled in dragging two suitcases of Raymond and Anikaa.

"Harish will show you the room. Shall we meet for dinner by nine?" asked Anikaa looking at her watch.

"Nine will do," replied Raymond and followed Harish to a passage that lead to the other side of the living room and entered the first room. It was a large bedroom which could easily fit in two normal-sized bedrooms. It had a large built- in TV on one side of the wall, facing the bed and a floor to ceiling glass door veranda that lead to the backyard. Though, it was all dark outside Raymond could hear temple bells at a distance. For the first time, Raymond felt immensely peaceful.

***********

Raymond was feeling entirely worn out after a warm shower. He just wanted to sleep and he wearily dragged himself out of the room wearing his jogging bottoms only. He could hear faint noises from the other side of the passage of the living room where there was a kitchen. He slowly ambled to the source of the sound, his lips curving into a thin smile as he watched Anikaa in an emerald green chiffon maxi dress that had a cascading ruffle from her waistband to the hem. It had a V-shaped neck that swooped down at the back. She was humming a tune and was serving two plates in front of her, frequently tucking her loose hair behind her ear. In one swoop, she lifted all her hair in a bun and clipped it upwards. Raymond stifled his moan as she turned around towards the stove exposing her slender back of the neck.