chapter two"Sir, sorry to interrupt but a boy from the hostel has arrived. He says he has some information that could help with the case." The constable informed his superior.
"Send him in right away." Inspector Arjun Srivastav replied.
He was reading through the autopsy report and making some notes. He noticed an escalation in the killer's behavior. His previous victims' deaths had seemed almost accidental or self-inflicted. A slit to the wrist, a jump into a deep river, being run over, etc. There had been virtually no reason to connect all the murders to one person until this one. With this one he had slipped up. There was too much aggression involved. It was almost as if the killer couldn't determine if he wanted to torture the victim or kill her then and there.
"Sir,"
Without looking up Arjun motioned the boy to sit down in the seat in front of him. After a few beats of silence, and finishing up his last thought, Arjun looked up. He scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to recollect the boy's face.
"You're... that friend right?" Arjun flipped through the pages of his notebook to find the images of people that he had interrogated so far. "Nisaar?"
The young boy nodded his head in affirmative.
"What kind of information do you have?"
Arjun noticed the hesitation in the boy's face and decided to nudge him further. He folded his hands in front of him and spoke in a clear manner.
"Look Nisaar. If you didn't think you had something useful for me, then you would have never come here in the first place. So whatever you have, do say it with a clear and open heart. You never know, something that you find to be so insignificant could end up being the vital clue that we need to solve the case."
Nisaar nodded his head. Gulping, he ran his hand over his mouth.
Putting his arms over the table, Nisaar spoke. "I wasn't in the right state of mind. I mean after everything that had happened, things were getting a bit difficult for me. So, I decided to go to my friend Abeer for help. And well, I knocked and he didn't answer. I... he was more affected by what happened than me. I mean I don't know why but things just got really bad for him. It was like he was so undecided on how he should feel. Sometimes he would be so silent that we wouldn't even know that he's in the room and sometimes he would lash out so aggressively that we would start to feel threatened. He... he was just really confused and messed up. He just wasn't talking clearly to anyone. He would just mumble things to himself and cry and pull at his hair and just beat himself over things. So I got really scared for him and I wasn't well that day and I was starting to feel scared for myself as well. So I went to him and he wouldn't open the door. So I broke into it and I found a photo..."
Arjun shook his head indicating Nisaar to continue speaking. When he didn't answer, Arjun encouraged him.
"Whose photo did you find?"
For a response, Nisaar took out the photo from his inner pocket and slid it across the table. Arjun picked it up and analyzed it. Abeer was in an intimate position with Meher. He put the photograph down and observed Nisaar's reaction. He had his head bowed down and had his hands clenched tightly.
"I take it you didn't know anything about this?" Arjun asked.
Nisaar shook his head.
"Do you know who took the photo?"
Another shake.
Arjun sighed.
"Do you know who might have known about this? Other friends? Maybe family? Cousins?" Arjun asked.
"No. I didn't ask anyone. I came here first thing."
"Hmm.." Arjun hummed as a new set of questions started springing into his head.
"Do you at least know where this photo might have been taken?" Arjun inquired hoping to get some sort of lead.
Nisaar picked up the photo and analyzed it for himself. He scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to remember the location.
"I feel like I do but... I can't remember..." Nisaar became even more confused as a new line of thought started sprouting in his mind. "Something was happening that day..."
"What makes you think that?"
"His clothes," Nisaar bit his lip and pointed at Abeer. "I remember he had taken so long to get ready that day. In fact, the whole day. He had made an appointment early morning to get his hair done, facials, manicures, you name it. And his clothes? Don't even get me started on that. He had spent hours perfecting his look. It had taken me to go to his home and ask his mother to help him out before he had calmed down. It was so clear that he was going on a date and when I even asked him about it, he just brushed it off. Didn't want to jinx it or something like that."
"Hmm, do you think his mom might know?" Arjun asked.
"Maybe, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. At the time she didn't know who it was or at least that's what it seemed like to me."
"What about the location? Do you know anything about the location itself?"
"I think it's Rocco's. It's a new restaurant that had opened up. There was a big hype and getting tickets to the place was so hard. I know I tried getting some for my girlfriend at the time. I shouldn't be surprised that Abeer got them. See," Nisaar turned the picture around so that he could show Arjun what he was referring to. "The buildings at the back? Arjun squinted his eyes so that he could make out a couple names of various other restaurants from the locale. Juniper and Spoon & Fork were two that he could make out really well.
"I do," Arjun said holding onto the photograph. He flipped to an empty page and started making more notes. "Nisaar, I really appreciate this. This is truly a huge help."
"Do you think Abeer is okay?"
Arjun pondered for a bit before answering.
"Nisaar, you told me that Abeer had started to get really angry. Have you ever felt like he could cause you harm?"
Nisaar shifted in his seat.
"Has he ever gotten violent before?"
"Hey that's not fair. Given the right circumstances anyone can lose their mind. Anyone can get mad and start lashing out." Nisaar defended.
"I'm not asking about anyone Nisaar. I'm asking about Abeer." Arjun clipped. "Has he ever made you scared? Or doubt him? Like, you might not even know him?"
"Sir, by asking me so many questions you're intentionally trying to create doubt against him. And frankly, I don't appreciate that."
Arjun raised his hands in surrender.
"Fair enough. You can go now, but before you leave, here." Arjun offered Nisaar a card. "Get some help kid." Nisaar held it but Arjun tugged on it before seriously saying, "Get out while you can."
Arjun let go and Nisaar left the station, understanding the hidden meaning behind his warning.
Arjun opened up the page where he had recorded all of Abeer's information and scanned it. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary in his statements. But Arjun knew he had to look at it again in a new context. The information he has right now is without any connection to the victim. However, underlie it with Abeer and Meher being in a relationship, most of his statements don't make sense. To sort it out, Arjun knew he had to first understand Abeer and Meher's relationship.
He picked up their photograph and observed it.
"So, just where are you two lovebirds hiding?"
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