"Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them." — Leo Rosten
Jaipur, India
Akanksha took in a sharp breath and sank deeper into her seat. Picking up the stress ball that was lying on her desk, she squeezed it hard, in the urge of releasing the stress and tension looming over her. She kept on doing it for a long time until she lost control and didn't realise that her nails had pierced into the ball, damaging it beyond repair.
Throwing the ball in the dustbin, she pinched the bridge of her nose and took a long sigh. The sigh that escaped her dry lips was slow as if her brain needed that time to register what had happened. Her eyes remained fixed on the hallway, where she had been, minutes ago.
She could feel the goosebumps on her skin because in that shiver was a moment of truth, a story of the fear and excitement that no mask could ever hide. She had finally gotten a proper clue. Something that could lead them further on the case.
It was a big detail. Something that wasn't disclosed in public yet. Maybe if things would have been different, she wouldn't have paid attention to this detail. After all, she was the long lost daughter of the Agarwals, someone who hadn't stepped into the media light for almost eight years.
Not to mention the fact that she had been using a different surname all the time.
Where could he possibly find that information?
Social media? It was so unused.
Via CV? Doesn't mention her family background.
Akanksha didn't realise that someone was approaching her until the person tapped on the desk, twice.
She jerked on her seat and sat up and noticed that person was none other than Vineet. She immediately composed herself and gave him a warm smile.
"Vineet," she breathed, "what are you doing here? Do you need any help?"
"No Ma'am," he answered. "I just came to hand over these files that Amar Sir asked me to give to you."
Akanksha was sitting comfortably in front of him so that the man would not doubt her. But, her insides were churning. She noticed that he had an eerie look, probably noticing her expressions as if trying to see if she had noticed his slip up. His black eyes didn't show any kind of emotion but his facial expressions said otherwise. Her heart was throbbing in anxiousness and the seconds were ticking slowly.
She took the files from him and muttered a thank you. When she noticed that he didn't move, she looked up to him and asked, "Do you need something else?"
Vineet looked slightly thrown off at the sudden question. He shook his head and then asked, "Ma'am, are you okay? You look distressed."
Akanksha was alarmed at his question. Probably masking up her expression didn't help. She couldn't let him know that she was doubting him. She had to do something.
"Oh, that! Yeah, I was worried about the case. You know we don't have any leads and it is stressing me a lot lately. I will be okay." She gave him a small smile to which he returned, his lingering gaze still wasn't leaving her.
A few seconds later, Vineet spun on his heels and retreated to his work, away from her sight. Seeing him out of her sight, she crashed back into her chair and took a breath of relief.
That was so close. She had almost felt that he had seen through her, but maybe she did a good job.
Now her suspicion had strengthened. There was something more to his goody-two-shoes appearance. She had to tell Vihaan but before that, she had to gather proofs against Vineet to prove that he was the dirty fish in the pond.
And she knew what she had to do.
She looked around to catch the glimpse of him. Having found that he was nowhere near her, she got up and sprinted towards the Digital department without getting noticed by Vineet.
Without waiting for any second, she got inside the tech room without knocking and closed the door behind her.
Ahad, who had propped his legs on the armrest of his chair and was eating chips while working on some program, immediately stood up and rubbed his hands on his shirt.
"Ma'am y-you here? Is there any problem?" He asked her, looking at her blank expression.
Akanksha immediately took her seat on the chair beside him and gestured to him to follow the same.
"Ahad," she called him, "I need you to do something very fast. We don't have much time."
Ahad was confused looking at his hyper senior. "O-Okay Ma'am. What is it?"
"First of all, I want the in and out timings of all the team members working along with us on the Minister case on the 14th of March." She ordered.
"Isn't it the day when our office caught fire?" He asked her.
"Yes, now do this fast." She told him. "I have one more job for you."
Ahad did not wait any longer and started typing the details mentioned by her on the record page. It didn't take him long to find out the results.
"Ma'am, here they are." He turned his laptop towards her to see. Akanksha leaned forward and read the in and out timings of everyone before stopping on one name.
Vineet Nair:- In Time - 8:27 A.M
Out Time- 9:11 P.M
"It was around half-past nine when the fire broke out, almost fifteen to twenty minutes after he left." She whispered under her breath.
Akanksha buried her face in her palms and started thinking of the incidents that took place that day. But she remembered only bits of it, which did not help her.
"Ahad?"
"Yes ma'am?"
"How much of the CCTV footage do we have from that day?"
Ahad thought for a while before he answered, "The CCTV did not cover the fire incident. The whole system was shut down and we switched it on the next morning. Also, the intruder had made sure to delete all his traces so that we can't track him. So the approx timing we have the footage is till 9:17 P.M, which is before anything happened."
"How many gates do we have here?"
"We have only one main gate in the front and one fire exit at the back for emergencies which is not allowed to be used if there's no emergency," he informed her.
"So that means the person has to go out from the main gate in the front." She deduced.
"Show me the footage of the front gate from nine o'clock." She asked him.
Ahad played the recorded footage from that night and Akanksha kept looking at it, her eyes not drifting for even a second. Almost six minutes had passed when she noticed Mayank coming out of the office, the timing matched his out time. She mentally crossed his name from the possible suspect list.
A few more minutes passed and a few other employees who had stayed back came out, matching their out time. Soon it was the out time of Vineet, but there was no sign of him. It was a few minutes from his out time when she noticed the delivery guy handing over the parcel to the guard. The guard went inside the office with the parcel.
Akanksha clearly remembered that parcel. It was the food they had ordered and she was the one who had received it from that very guard. It was that short span of time when the gate was left unguarded, in which the guard wouldn't have noticed him going out and he wouldn't fall into suspicion.
"There were two guards that day. What happened to the other one?" She asked him, pausing the video.
Ahad scratched his head, trying to remember. "His wife was on the verge of delivery. He had taken a half-day leave so that he could be with her."
"Did no one replace him?" He shook his head.
Akanksha played the video again. The guard came back to his original place and soon, at the exact mentioned time, the camera went off.
"Ahad, when did everyone come after the fire happened?"
"I think everyone started arriving almost fifteen to twenty minutes after the fire happened. The security guard had alerted everyone. In fact, your family had also arrived twenty minutes later. Almost everyone had arrived and were waiting for you to come out since you both were stuck for almost half an hour. But-" he creased his eyebrows for a second, thinking something deeply.
That pause in his voice caught her attention. "But, what?" She urged him, looking at him anxiously.
"Vineet Sir had reached here before anyone else but his house is like a forty-five-minute drive from here." He said, scratching his head.
"Was he in the same clothes?"
"No Ma'am, he was in a t-shirt and track pants."
This confirmed her suspicion. He was there when the fire happened. Of course, he was there when she heard the crash from the room. It all made sense to her. She knew she had to hear the confession from the man itself and listen to what he had done.
"Who investigated this matter?" She interrogated him.
"It was me and Vineet Sir."
"What did you guys check?"
"Just the CCTV footage Ma'am," he replied, making her facepalm in distress. She really wanted to smack him hard for his stupidity.
"Did you verify with other officials?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Viraaj Sir and Vikram Sir had taken a look at the footage and one copy was sent to Vihaan Sir as well. Vineet Sir had personally gone to their cabin to brief them on the report." That was new information. Vihaan had seen the footage and did not bother to tell her. Another reason to be mad at him.
"Why didn't I get the copy? Also, were you there when Vineet briefed them on the reports?" She questioned, the frustration clearly visible on her face.
"No, Ma'am. It was only Vineet Sir as I was keeping an eye on the camera." He looked at her apologetically. "About the clip thing, Vihaan Sir asked us not to. He said you were very stressed as you had been in an accident at that time." Akanksha thought she might explode any moment if she heard any more of it. She took a deep breath. She wanted to scream and shout but controlled herself as she didn't want to unleash her anger on the poor guy.
Akanksha got up from the seat, ready to march towards Vihaan's cabin. "Ahad, give me this footage and a copy of the in and out time, right now."
The fury in her tone didn't go unnoticed as Ahad immediately did as she had told. A few minutes later, the required things were in her hands and she was ready to head out of the tech room.
She stopped at the door and turned around. "Ahad?"
"Yes Ma'am?"
"Use your brains for the good instead of eating chips and wasting your time." Saying this she stepped out of the room and headed towards Vihaan's cabin without looking back.
As she reached his cabin, she knocked on the door twice and turned the knob and entered in, without waiting for his permission.
"What the-" Vihaan stopped as he saw his wife in a different form, which was far from the soft character she possessed.
"What do you want now?" He asked, which only made her angrier.
She smacked the Pendrive and the paper on his desk, which got him startled for a second.
"Watch this." She hissed.
Vihaan did not question her anymore as he was aware that the matter was serious. He quietly inserted the Pendrive into his laptop and looked at the clip. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Why are you showing me this?" He pointed out the clip that had stopped a few seconds ago.
"See the paper."
Vihaan read the paper once, twice and thrice but the confusion on his face didn't waver. He was testing Akanksha's patience by now as she couldn't control herself and snatched the paper from him and pointed her finger at the detail.
"I wasn't showing you a movie, Vihaan. Look at the clip. Vineet never got out of the office but his out time is there in the record. Does that make any sense?" She yelled at him. "Do you know what this means?"
Vihaan's silence said it all. He was at the loss of words at the revelation that had been made. Now he wondered why Vineet was so keen on investigating this case. He raked his hand through his hair in frustration and let out a growl unleashing his anger.
Akanksha remained unaffected throughout his entire action and gave him a dry look.
"Why did you tell Amar to not send me the clip?" She asked him after he calmed down from the little outburst he had.
Vihaan guiltily looked at her and smiled apologetically.
"I thought the clip from that day would trigger you and you also had gotten into an accident at that time." A ghost smile played on his lips when he noticed her softening a bit but immediately straightened when she composed herself.
She cleared her throat and said, "You told me that we are officers. If something comes up, we have to take a look at it, irrespective of the situation. You should have told me." She toned down a bit, her frustration slowly cooling off.
"I am sorry." Akanksha looked up, completely surprised. Vihaan still had the guilt on his face which almost melted her heart but she wasn't ready to shed off the cold look yet. So, she chose to keep quiet, not paying attention to his apology.
Vihaan sighed and shook his head. Women and their antics! They surely wouldn't want to give in so easily especially when that person happens to be your wife.
He walked over to her, stepping in front of her. Akanksha looked up and saw him up close. Their breaths were slowly mingling when Vihaan slowly raised his hands to grab hers, making her gasp rather inaudibly.
Her hands were in his, his bony thumb rubbing in small circles on the back of her hand. Her hands felt so small in his, yet it was so safe and comfortable. He slowly raised their hands and rested up to his chest.
She could feel the lub dub of the heartbeat which only proved his nervousness.
"I am sorry." He said after a while. "For what I told you before and also for not sending you the clip."
The rosy tint on her cheeks didn't fade, instead, it grew darker with passing second. She wasn't ready to meet his intimidating earthy brown orbs.
"I am sorry too," she muttered. "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that." Vihaan smiled fondly when he noticed the blush coating her cheeks. Her blush showed the soul, where there was a compliment in the eyes and genuine sweetness within. It was beautiful, just like her.
Akanksha finally managed to look up at him and saw him smiling. She smiled back with equal warmth.
But suddenly a knock on the door made them get back to their senses. Vihaan immediately left her hand and took a step back and Akanksha followed the same, awkwardly smoothening her hair. She went ahead to sit on one of the chairs and Vihaan too, retreated back to his seat.
When everything was settled, he cleared his throat and asked the person to come in. Amar peeked his head inside and stepped inside the room.
He nodded at Akanksha before turning towards Vihaan. "Sir, this is the list of statements we had collected for the case." He kept the file on the table and was about to go back when Vihaan called him.
"Amar!"
"Yes Sir?"
"There is something that we need to show you." Vihaan glanced at Akanksha who gave him a slight nod, giving him the green signal. "Please have a seat."
Amar sat down beside Akanksha and looked at them in doubt. Akanksha slipped the paper towards him and Vihaan turned his laptop towards him and played the clip.
The clip kept on playing and like Vihaan, Amar didn't get the clue what was happening in there. Seventeen minutes and the clip ended but his expressions didn't waver. He went through the paper numerous times but looked as clueless as ever.
"I am sorry," he paused, taking a look at the paper again, "but I am not getting it."
"It was Vineet," Akanksha revealed, "He was the one who set the fire that night. Although he had punched his card and his out time was registered, he never got out of the office. That's what the clip shows."
It took a while for him to register before muttering 'shit' under his breath. His reaction was no less than Vihaan.
"I could never imagine that he was the dirty insider." He dejectedly pulled his face down, still going through the shock. "He is such an efficient officer."
"It's often the good ones who turn out to be the backstabbers," Vihaan muttered.
"How did you find out?" He asked her when he finally got settled with the fact.
She let out a sigh. "I met him in the hallway, like an hour ago. He congratulated me for taking over the Jaipur branch of Marigold Hotels." Both the men looked at her in astonishment before they exchanged a look among themselves. "Apart from you guys and Vikram Sir and Viraaj Sir, no one is aware of this detail. It's not even released in the media. And that's what caught my attention."
Taking their silence as a cue, she continued, "I, later on, went over to the tech department. Ahad gave me these details which only confirmed my suspicions. He also mentioned that Vineet was the first one to reach here when the fire happened, his clothes were all changed to show that he came from his home. But the strange fact to note was that his house is almost a forty-five-minute drive from here. Which only means that he should not be one of the first ones to arrive." A prolonged silence followed after she finished which gave them room to think individually and process the situation on their own.
This sort of betrayal was higher than what a person gets betrayed in love. They violate the trust of the entire team, disturbs the unity of the team. Then suddenly, no one in the team remains trustworthy, rigid rules are set up to keep an eye on each member.
"So what do we do now?" Akanksha broke the silence, gaining their attention.
"Interrogate. Akanksha, do you think he would have noticed that you had caught his slip up?"
She declined. "I don't think so. I was very normal when I spoke to him."
"Amar, do you know where Vineet is?" Vihaan asked him.
"Last I saw him going upstairs to the Archives. He must be there."
Without wasting any other second, they hurried towards the archives. When they reached the elevator, they noticed that it was occupied. So without wasting any other time, they climbed the stairs, sometimes skipping two or three to reach faster to the last floor.
Finally, after a hassle, they reached their destination. Akanksha heard the clicks of the guns behind her as Vihaan and Amar were ready in action.
She slowly twisted the knob of the door and it opened with a soft click, making a creaky noise as she opened the door wide.
When she stepped in, she noticed the most horrible visual ever.
There laid Vineet, uncomfortably on the floor, his head tilted towards the side and a powdery white foamy liquid, spilling from his mouth, going down his cheek. An empty bottle lay alongside him.
Akanksha slowly inched forward towards him, kneeling down to check the pulse on his neck. She pressed her fingers on the base of his neck and felt nothing.
He was dead.
She looked back at the two men who stood close behind her and shook her head. In another click, they shut their guns and kept it back in their holsters. They started checking his body.
She was at a loss for words as she kept on looking at the lifeless body lying in front of her. She picked up that empty bottle and read what was written on it.
HCN - Hydrogen Cyanide
It was one of the powerful forms of Cyanide that could cause death in a matter of seconds. The very same form that was used for Kamal Prakash.
She looked down at his hands when she noticed one of his hands clutching a paper.
She carefully took out the paper and opened it, only to find out that it was addressed to her. Not just to her, but her maiden self. She quietly got up and went to the corner and started reading it.
Akanksha Agarwal,
I was told that you could be the most naive person ever but never believed it considering that you were one of the most intelligent people when I heard from Vikram Sir that you tracked Prabhakar Raut's location in minutes. Of course, he didn't mention your name but it wasn't difficult for me to find out who did the job.
But then, you proved me wrong. The calls and notes didn't make any sense, right? It could be only cracked by you, yet you chose not to use that witty brain of yours. If you would have done it, you would have probably saved a life (or not).
I knew that my cover was blown from the moment I had seen your panic-stricken face. You didn't manage to mask it. Tch sad. You thought that you would catch me and interrogate me and I, like a puppet, would answer your questions. Nuh-uh, not happening. It's fun to die in secret without letting you know the secrets that I had been holding on to for so long. They are going to die with me.
When you will be seeing this letter, I would be dead but this doesn't mean that the notes would stop coming. Someone else will take over my place and do my job.
You are going to pay a heavy price for this naivety like you did years back because things are not the way you think they are. You have to pay the price for meddling in affairs that were not of your concern.
Be ready as you will be challenged in every step.
Never Meeting Again The Next Time,
Vineet Nair.
PS: Nitin Jha did meddle with Kamal Prakash's autopsy reports. ;)
And, that's the end of today's chapter. It really took me a lot of time to figure this chapter out. I had to replace a lot of scenes and rewrite them multiple times, and I hope that it turns out to be okay.
By the way, did you guys notice the new cover? Thanks to the very amazing Shreya_VA who made this super awesome cover.
Were you guys expecting this? The mystery is getting deeper and so are Akanksha and Vihaan's feelings.
Please vote and show your support for this book.
Also, comment down your thoughts on this chapter. Even a single heart means a lot.
Until then, see ya!
With Love,
Akii.