An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 12- Facing the past is a good thing

The owner, Vicky Arora, nodded vigorously and agreed to help the team with everything, simultaneously flooding the crime journo with compliments she might or might not should receive, and sending questions afterwards to ACP Mukherjee as she took samples on drinks on the bar counter of the drink Liza found in the victim's body.

"It's been what, 6 years?" He waved his hands around, "seems like ages."

"Which I would rather forget." She muttered under breath, which he heard and wisely ignored.

"Remember Amit? He still comes around, even if he is married." he grinned, "still the same, salivating after nice asses."

Somewhere in the background Chotu coughed at the comment.

"You can catch up, he comes almost every evening." Vicky continued.

"Nah, I would pass." she replied.

"How you ended up as cop anyway? Not complaining!" he raised his hands in surrender as she looked at him, arching eyebrow, "You look nice! Though you always did, even when you were . . . "

"That's enough." she cut him off, sending a stern gaze, which had no effect on him whatsoever, which was quite surprising for the team, and the phrase could be perfectly described for her collecting samples as she met the team's glances, "I am finished here."

The team left Apocalypse 4 hours later with lots of samples for Liza to work on, and more questions on Vicky Arora and his alleged relation with ACP Mukherjee.

"Ex-boyfriend?" Sameer is the only one who will poke the bear and walk out unscratched. She gave him a look, lips turned upward for a smile without any humor.

"Would not you like to know?"

Rawte rolled his eyes at the comment as he drove. His best friend shrugged from the back seat.

"Well I am sure Vicky," he stressed the name, "will be very eager to share a few dirty little secrets. You already have his number, eh Sakshi?" he gave a teasing look to the crime journo to which she flushed.

"What's with girls and some compliments?" Shree mumbled, "fall at others feet."

"Because you never knew the power in that." Chotu shot back, "seriously, try some of that to Liza, and she won't look pissed at you all the time as she does."

"Are you guys done?" Rawte spoke irritated, dismissing the moment, "Let's focus on the case, shall we?"

"You are just jealous Vicky getting more footage than you." Sameer said, always the helpful. everyone burst out laughing at it, even ACP Mukherjee smirked as the former tried to look smug, and for some unknown reason, she was the only one who got death glares from the Boss. She titled her head at that, to which he looked away, clearly realizing it's of no use.

As expected, there was nothing on those samples from the bar, no added chemicals or drugs. Liza even went as far as saying the wine was rather good from Apocalypse.

"You would surely know something about that?" Rawte could not help the sarcasm as he and ACP Mukherjee returned from lab. It's been 7 days on this case and he had heard more about Vicky and the alleged relation between him and her than the case itself. She stared at him as they stood in front of lift.

"Are you trying to suggest something, Boss?" Her tone had that undercurrent of threat he missed so dearly, which he won't ever admit. Nope.

"As if I care." He muttered as they stepped into lift, but still could not help as he passed another comment, "He called you by your nickname. You guys must have been close." he was curious. She was such an enigma and all they had was a tight lipped Director from her past. This new addition, even if irritating, intrigued them all about their mysterious ACP Mukherjee and her past.