The Dangerous Trail

Heartbeats

Chap-9 Heartbeats

The trip to the morgue threw up some details like the teens whose bodies they had found dumped in the pit died due to drug overdose and two of those bodies had been ripped open probably to pack drugs but none of the organs were missing so organ trade could be ruled out. A detailed post-mortem was still pending but for now these were initial findings. Sash mentioned that this must be some new entrant in the trade trying to find innovative ways to send a larger consignment. The next stop was again at the raid location where the demolition drive was in progress.Once Suvan was sure that it was working as planned they left for the archives and started searching for the newspapers, the advertisements that were put in to trace a pattern. Shravan mentioned that they should start with the raids that were conducted in these and surrounding areas possibly for a year or so .Around those dates they should be checking if the papers carried a similar ad so they could trace a pattern and find the frequency in which this message came.Lot of search showed that the ads were generally published in very local newspapers with very less publications and there was a pattern. These ads would appear in about 1 or 1.5 months gap with a post box number(usually of a company) in different cities. On searching more they had found many of these companies were defunct so these post boxes were no longer in use so anything sent here was definitely not reaching the concerned person so this was a message denoting a code which they needed to find. There was only one company XYZ imports which was functional so Suvan decided to check on them if they received any mailers. They took some photographs of the advertisements and noted down the points they gathered.

It was almost evening by the time they finished their work and both were exhausted and hungry,so they decided to eat something before they headed to their next destination. They settled for a small place with an outdoor seating which gave a panoramic view of the setting sun with the backdrop of the bustling city. Suman was soaking up the view when Shravan hurriedly came and asked what she would like to have, and Suman looked around and settled on paratha and kurma. Shravan had a astonished look as he looked at Suman's injured palm but looking at Suman's what's wrong look he said "Your hand is wrapped in the bandage and how are you going to tear the paratha and eat , just a day back you were saying that you have to eat things with spoon". Suman realized her foolishness and said "Oh!! Sorry but look at that man, my mouth is watering looking at the crispy parathas and delicious smelling kurma..no Shravan I will manage, I want to eat paratha and kurma only". Shravan shook his head surprised that the super cop and intelligent Suman could be so painfully stubborn like a child. Nevertheless, he decided to order whatever she wanted while he settled for upma and vade. Once the order was serviced, he watched Suman struggling with her food as she tried to balance the piece of paratha and the curry without messing up the dressing on her palm. She then tried to eat with her left hand and soiled her shirt a little while Shravan laughed at her efforts. Tired she decided to give up and sip her coffee. Looking at that Shravan stopped her and forwarded her the plate of upma that he had ordered for himself. Suman grudgingly accepted but kept looking at Shravan as he pulled up the plate, rolled up his sleeves and was about to dig into the paratha, her paratha. Shravan was about to take a bite when he looked at Suman and saw her intently observing him and he smiled and nodded his head looking at her and then held the piece of paratha dipped in the orange liquid in front of her mouth and urged Suman to open her mouth . Suman surprised at this scrunched her eyebrows and looked at Shravan with question mark to which Shravan replied " The way you were looking at me eating YOUR paratha it will not get digested if I eat it and I don't want to call in sick tomorrow ". Suman laughed at this and Shravan got an opportunity to push in the food inside her mouth. Shravan continued this way for few more mouthfuls and each time he fed her his fingers touched Suman's lips and she felt they lingered on them a little more than required but wherever the tips of Shravan's fingers touched she felt them scorched and hungry for more. He stopped feeding her only when Suman backed off seeing people around observing them curiously and smiling away. Shravan was not oblivious to Suman's reactions neither to his. He had no intentions rather than feeding the hungry soul but one little touch between his finger tips and her soft lips had this nerves tingling. He hated to admit that he had touched her lips a little more than required as he loved that soft touch on his hard fingertips. He had noticed how Suman had the glazed look in her eyes when he had fed her.