I climbed the creaky staircase of the restaurant and reached the topmost floor of the restaurant which was a rooftop eatery. With chairs arranged around the round tables under quirky canopies, the restaurant gave a vibrant view of the chaotic streets of Paharganj.

The cool, humid breeze was somehow calming the turbulent state of my mind. The crepuscule was paving its way after a hot day and I could see swarms of pigeons cooing in the air. The visitors were not present on the rooftop restaurant perhaps, because the Gupta brothers had arranged privacy for the meeting. My chaotic mind appreciated the peaceful ambience, though.

Towards the extreme right corner sat four muscular people sipping beer and smoking cigarettes. The young boy escorted me to them and the tallest of them stood up, “Sir, Nice to meet you. I am Raman Gupta.” He introduced himself and shook hands with me.

“Chhotu, arrange the chair for sir and get chilled beer”, the man ordered the young boy who dragged a chair from the nearby table and asked me to sit.

“I don’t drink", I muttered disinterested to drink the illegal alcohol. Apart from this, I was there for an unbiased investigation and hence, eating and drinking with the suspects were against my ethics.

“It is legal", Raman chortled but I denied politely. “Chhotu, a glass of water would do", I responded out of courtesy to which Raman chirped, “Chhotu, get the fresh orange juice for sir and also bring some cheese snacks.”

“Sir, it is really sad you don’t drink. Would you like to have some whiskey? I will arrange legal one for you.” Raman showed me his hospitality trying to coax me to drink but I just laughed off muttering, “I don’t take alcohol. Thank you.”

Raman introduced me to his brothers. Varun was muscular yet shorter in height than all of them while Prem sported the mustache. Shekhar, on the other hand, had red paan stained teeth. I sat there with them while Raman, the eldest of them, taunted, “So, sir, I am glad that the theft of my car attracted your sudden attention. I am happy to see my country getting worked up for a common man like me.”

Inwardly sneering at the comment, I asked, “How did the theft happen?”
“Sir, we had brought our first car and we had gone to enjoy at a club in South Delhi but when we came out, we couldn’t find our brand new car”, told Raman while others nodded.

I did not buy their lie because the club would have CCTV in the parking lot and the thief could be easily traced so no thief would think of stealing a car from a club.

With a suspicious glare, I demanded, “Is it not strange that your car was stolen from the club?”

“Sir, we checked the CCTV along with the police officer-in-charge of South Delhi Police Circle but unfortunately the CCTV of the parking lot was not working since last six months. We lodged the complaint against the owner of the club for not keeping up to the standards of security. We filed a missing complaint of our car while the police officer assured us that they will find our car but nothing happened.” Varun explained while I realized that the Gupta brothers were surely, the most cunning suspects.

“No action has been taken till date. We had brought the car with our hard-earned money but our car was stolen. The law and order did nothing to help us and find our car back.” Shekhar, the youngest brother lamented while, with hopeful eyes, Prem requested, “Sir, please find our car. It had costed us a huge chunk of our fortune.”

I was truly overwhelmed by their drama. I was suspecting the car was never lost and when they had told that the CCTV at the club's parking was not working, my suspicion was confirmed.

I nodded in assurance and the young boy, Chhotu served me a glass of chilled fruit juice and cheese fritters. As soon as Chhotu gave us privacy, I asked, “Have you met Ansh Awasthy?”

“Not me”, exclaimed Varun while rest of the brothers bobbed their heads in affirmation.

Pressurizing his mind, Raman answered, “I have read about his disappearance in the newspapers but before that we never knew anything about him”, while I nodded.

“Poor guy”, Shekhar lamented and I deduced, he was indeed, feigning to be an overly emotional fool.

“So you have no relationship with the Awasthy family", I probed.

“How could we be connected, Mr. Mishra?” Raman bellowed while I glared at him. With anger in his eyes, he hollered, “We belong to two different worlds. Awasthy family is one of the influential families staying in Lutyen's Delhi while we are common people who buy a car in our mid thirties. Goddamit, for those Awasthys, you are roaming in every nook and cranny of Delhi while our complaint was not even taken seriously.”

I could realize the fact that laws of our nation were indeed, biased for the influential people but I could also see underlying jealousy and disgust for Ansh Awasthy beyond Raman's anger.
Before I could leave, I got a call from Radhika, my subordinate. Sensing the urgency of the call, I excused myself towards the other end and received the call.

“Sir, where are you?” she asked excitedly. The excitement in her tone was telling me that she had found a lead in this case much to my relief.

“I am at the restaurant”, I replied to which she murmured, “Good", and I could not help but chuckle a bit.

“Sir, the call records of Shekhar and Raman show that both of the brothers had been in touch with Priya Vashisht”, Radhika told discreetly while ground swept off my feet.

“What?” I demanded still trying to digest the information.

“Sir, this means the disappearance of Ansh Awasthy is linked with the Gupta brothers and the innocent looking Priya is perhaps, benefited from this sudden disappearance”, Radhika explained her theory.

“Radhika, the poor girl was brutally harassed by Ansh Awasthy”, I reasoned.

“Sir, I know Ansh is a jerk but we need to find him", Radhika asserted and I glanced helplessly at the melancholic red hues in the sky. I wished to tell her that Ansh Awasthy was beheaded and killed but due to lack of evidence, I decided to keep quiet.

Humming in affirmation, I disconnected the call and walked towards the Gupta brothers to probe about Priya Vashisht.

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Word count: 1089

Hi everyone

So, what is the link between Priya and Guptas?

I will be back soon. 😉

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