Chapter 1
Her abdominal muscles flexed with the beat and every eye in the
field was fixed on her swaying hips. A fat man sitting on a charpai put a roll
of paan in his mouth and the more rowdy members of the audience whistled as she
began singing again.
"Haye...jisko sanam maan kar shab bhar mare
Woh kameena subah hote phurr ho gaya
Jisko mohabbat ka teacher kehte rahe
Woh phateecher ik lesson mein fail ho gaya..."
They hid behind the bushes, squabbling quietly and observing the
crowd.
"Move further, Riya." He bit out.
"I have! Do you want me to go right into the audience, Sir?" He glared at her before Shree cut
in with a 'shush'.
She watched as the woman danced to the cheers of the repulsive
audience. Biting back her own revulsion, she turned away to see Arjun rolling
his eyes at the paunchy old men.
They remained quiet for a few moments, scouring the crowd
for anything suspicious, before moving away into the night.
* * *
"Raute!" Sameer barked. "Will you be standing out there all
night or do you plan on gracing us with your presence too?"
Arjun gave him a disdainful look but didn't bother replying.
He stepped into the small shack they had secured for themselves and sat down on
a bale of hay.
"Alright team, I suppose we're all up to date now. The
investigation will start early tomorrow morning. We'll meet the owner of the
Chandni Bar first and then go from there. Any questions?" Sameer watched as
everyone shook their heads and he nodded. "Good. Now get some sleep. We will
head out at the first sign of daylight."
Riya moved to a corner of the shack and began arranging the
hay into a makeshift bed. Shree and Chotu collapsed where they had been
standing and fell asleep almost instantaneously while Sameer went to the other
corner and lay down. Arjun remained where he was and watched the others.
Almost an hour went by before they fell asleep and Arjun stood up
soundlessly. He opened the door slightly before slipping out into the cold night.
Checking that nobody had awoken, he shut the door.
He didn't plan on waiting for daylight.
Edited by kaamchorni - 11 years ago
comment:
p_commentcount