Chapter 7

abjeya

@abjeya

Chapter 6

Arjun looks at Riya as he processes all the information and adapts to what he already knows about her. He knows that she has an OCD tendency of keeping everything in order and clean, but she still adapts herself when she goes to remote areas. Among all of them, she was always the one ready to go the extra mile to make sure to get the information they needed. She never gave up even when he never made it easy for her. Her shooting, and his reasoning, she compromised by making sure her shots were non fatal. In the months of their working together, Riya almost became his right hand handing him the information before even he asked for it, seeing the details and patterns that he sometimes also could not see yet. She had become his second eyes in a sense. Finding out this information about her alcoholism, today made Arjun increase his awe for her yet a sense of protectiveness overwhelms him. Sometimes, he feels like he knows Riya like himself and nothing fazes her so easily. She gets emotional in cases but unlike Sakshi, she never lets her emotions come in the way of her work making sure to provide justice for the victim sometimes even working nights without sleep but at the end of the case, when everything is filed and done, Arjun and Rathore made sure she took an entire day off to regroup herself. Arjun even now sometimes hears her muffled cries when cases overwhelm her and she cries silently in the corridor but he could not bring himself to go and console her. After the first time, when he held her face in his hand, he felt a softness approach him and that scared him.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he thinks about her alcoholism. Neeta refused to say the reason for Riya's alcoholism and Rathore and Ayesha didn't feel it is right to force also. If it proves more relevant later on, then they will circle back. Right now, they have gone to meet Reena, Neeta's colleague.

Hearing a knock on the door, he looks up and sees a nurse. He gets up thinking that the nurse has come to check Riya's vitals but the nurse approaches him. She hands him an envelope and said "This was left for you in the reception. Arjun takes the envelope and opens the envelope. Tilting the envelope to get the content out, he sees that it is a pendrive titled Arjun Sir.' He nods to the nurse and looks at Riya his eyes hardening not seeing the nurse scurry away.

He opens his computer and plugs the pendrive in. He opens the folder and sees a document IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH- RIYA'. He opens the document and sees that it is a letter. As he reads the letter, his hands slowly makes into a fist but as he continues reading, his fist slowly loosens and at the end of the letter closes his eyes in disbelief. Getting up from his computer, he walks to Riya and bending down whispers Riya's ear "I won't forgive you. If you want my forgiveness Mrs Rawte, then you have to wake up. Samjhe?

Rathore and Ayesha reach Reena's building and after flashing their identity batch to the security, enter the elevator and reach Reena's floor. Reaching in front of her flat, they ring the bell. Waiting for the door to open, they hear a voice from the speaker and notice the security camera installed beside the door. The voice said "Who are you?. Rathore and Ayesha introduce themselves and she asked them for identity proof. They showed their badges. Then they hear something scraping across the floor and look at each other in confusion. The door opens just enough for them to enter and both of them squeeze in. They then turn to see a girl in her twenties, her hair dishelved, her breathing as if she had an adrenaline rush and a knife poised in attack form. They raise their hand to show that they mean no harm.  She allows them to enter further into the living room, and they turn to see the sofa positioned behind the entrance door as if covering her.

They turn around and they see all the curtains closed in the room keeping the room in utter darkness even though it is sunny outside. Ayesha asked Reena "Don't worry Miss Reena we are from the ETF. Is your life in danger?. Reena just asked, "something happened to Riya? Right? That is why you are here. Isn't it?. They nod their heads. Reena lowers the knife and said "Is she dead? Rathore said "No, she is in the hospital heavily sedated.

Reena heaves a sigh of relief and lowers herself on the sofa putting her head on her hands and starts crying. Ayesha sits beside her and rubs her shoulder in comfort and Rathore sat opposite her. Reena cries for sometimes and then controlling herself wipes her tears. She said "I never imagined that looking into my sister's disappearance will harm Riya. Otherwise I would have asked her not to do it at all.

Rathore in a voice to calm her down asked her, "Why don't you tell us from the start? What happened?. Reena takes a deep breath to calm down and said "My sister Mita and I are close. We shared everything together from childhood itself. Even though we were cousins but our relationship was like real siblings. Mita was the only one who knew that I wasn't ready for marriage and wanted to work. My family is a joint family and also orthodox. They would never agree for me to come to Mumbai and work. When a marriage proposal came for me, I rejected it. This resulted in an argument and me and my family became estranged from each other. But Mita and I continued to keep in touch with each other even after I shifted. About almost 2 years ago, a marriage proposal came for Mita. The guy, Vinay was working in an international company as a manager, had a good salary and had no family. But seeing his prospect of making a life abroad as very high, my family decide to go ahead with the relationship between Mita and Vinay. When Mita told me about this proposal, I was confused about this guy so I hired a private detective but he also could not find anything incriminating about this guy. The marriage happened and after that Mita and I were able to talk more freely with each other. I met Vinay after their marriage and he seemed okay to me but he also seemed to keep Mita happy and encouraged her to pursue further studies so I didn't probe too much also.

Then around 8 months ago, Mita called me and she sounded worried. When I asked her, she said she been having symptoms of absent mindedness, having memory blanks, not able to remember where she kept her stuff. She was worried if something was wrong with her in a medical sense. I encouraged her to go to a doctor, but during that time Mita informed me that they were moving abroad.  At our last conversation, she told me she will do a check up with the doctor just in case and we talked about her packing for moving abroad. That was the last conversation, I had with her. This was around 7 months ago.

Rathore asked "When did you suspect that something was wrong?. Reena replies "In our last conversation, Mita had told me that they were going to shift to a hotel since they had not paid the flat's next month rent. Since the move and shifting together would take place around 1 week's time so she told that she will call me next week. I waited for 2 weeks but even then I got no call from her. That's when I went to the police to report something wrong. Ayesha asked "there were no signs of foul play?. Reena shook her head "Their rent was paid duly in time, the neighbours saw them get into the car and leave and there had been no marital disruption also. My family also reported to the police about our estrangement and the police's theory was that to appease my family, my sister stopped contacting me. Rathore said "But you don't believe that?

Reena looks at Rathore and said "I know my sister. She is shy and timid and won't go against the family but she does not break relationship also. If she wanted to stop talking to me, she would have stopped 2 years ago not 7 months ago. Ayesha asked "What about Vinay? You did not have his phone number. Reena said "Whenever, I tried his phone number it kept on saying that it is disconnected or not available. Later, I just gave up.

Rathore said "And then you got in touch with Riya through Neeta?. Reena nods her head and said "Neeta saw me worried and gave me Riya's contact number. When we met, Riya cautioned me that she might not be able to get the answer for me but she told she would try her best. I was just happy with the fact that someone was willing to make the extra effort to find my sister. But if I had known that the extra effort would land Riya in the hospital then I would have stopped her then and there.

Ayesha asked "And today?. Reena said "I got a call from the security that a delivery had come for me. Riya had called me yesterday and cautioned me not to open the door for anyone till she comes. I thought maybe the delivery was an early or late delivery, so I had switched on the security camera. But then I saw that the delivery person was with another guy and both of them had guns. I got scared and refused to answer the  door even when they rang the doorbell. Later they seemed to have left but I took measures just in case. Rathore asked "Why you didn't call the police when you saw both of them had guns?. Reena said "The other guy with the delivery person was dressed in a police uniform. That's why I didn't call the police. Suddenly Rathore saw a reflection in the photo frame and yelled "Duck. 3 gunshots fired simultaneously leading to total silence in the room.