The Dangerous Trail

Darkness

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Shravan had almost eaten up all his nails trying to reach Subbu and Sash for the last hour. Although he wanted to be in place of Suman or with Suman but he knew that he was the only hope for Suman and he thanked his stars for not being caught as then they would be in a very bad situation. Suman sat twiddling her thumbs in the interrogation room as the local police sat questioning her. She was aghast when Fernandez walked inside the room and along with him the police started questioning her. Fernandez was coaxing her with money initially and asking her to drop all this and shred all evidences they had got. Then he resorted to threatening her saying that his men was hunting for her beau and they would locate him soon and then she would be in a much worse situation as she would be on the loosing side of the bargain. If Fernandez was seasoned, then Suman was experienced too. She maintained her calm and chose to keep quite even though the lady constable did not spare her a few slaps. Suman was sure that Shravan would be trying to contact Sash and Subbu and it was a matter of time before they would try to secure her release and she would have to somehow hold till then. She had been in several occasions on the other side of the table, so she was aware of the nuances of the activity. It was almost 3hrs since Suman was inside the interrogation room and although her situation was not bad or at least she had not been tortured but she was apprehensive about what the guys had up their sleeve.

After some time she was led out of the interrogation room and she could hear that the police was now talking to their senior who was asking them to release Suman for now and then contact NCB officially to file a report for trespassing someone's property. The senior inspector was continuously trying to disagree saying that they were insulting a respected politician, and this was some sinister political plot and if they let Suman go they would not be able to get any information. After lot of bickering and discussions finally the inspector agreed to his senior and said he would let Suman go after providing an undertaking. The senior inspector warned Suman that they would not let go off the matter easily and he will take it to the higher authorities. Although they agreed to let her go they kept delaying the release in the name of paper work making Suman wait. Shravan on the other hand was anxious as Sash had informed him that Suman would be released shortly but it was afternoon and there was no news of Suman. He had to rely on his informer to get news of Suman as he knew Suman must have had her phone confiscated by the police and Sash had instructed him strictly not be in the vicinity of the police station till Suman gets back safe and sound. He had also instructed them to move out of the area immediately after Suman is back and not stay back to collect something. With whatever Sash had heard from Shravan and he had himself investigated he had this nagging feeling that this trail was getting extremely dangerous and he wanted his officers back safe and sound. The only silver lining for him seemed to be that they were on the right track and were probably ruffling the wrong feathers and that is the reason behind the harassment that Suman is currently going through although he saw no reason for the local police for holding up Suman for so long.

The sun was about to set as Shravan waited on the outskirts of the village in a distant corner in order to avoid being detected. He had managed to sneak out everything they had carried, he had even packed Suman's luggage and dumped everything in the car and set out quickly and reached the secluded spot. He watched the orange and red colours splash the crystal blue sky as the sun was now sliding down the hills and would disappear in a few seconds. He called their informer Raju now the 10th time and he heard a frustrated groan the other side as Raju almost barked into the phone "I am not a magician neither am I God , please wait I am trying to get things done and calling me repeatedly is delaying things". Shravan was now feeling guilty for his won behavior, he should have understood how things work sometimes but he was worried that despite the order to release Suman, she had not reached yet. Finally, after an hour he finally saw a bike approaching and he clearly could make out Suman riding pillion. The guy who gave Suman a ride was a different one from their informer. Suman looking at his expressions clarified that this had to look like a hitched ride so Raju had asked his friend to help. Once they checked that they were not being tailed or followed they bade goodbye to Raju's friend and set off on their journey back to Bangalore.