It was the first time that I went to Raziya's house. Though she had been aiding me for the previous six months we were never close enough to visit each other's houses so when she asked me to come over, I knew that it was official.

She sat back on her bed as soon as she opened the door for me. She was comfortable with hanging the plastered leg than sitting regularly with it. She smiled awkwardly as she pointed at a chair beside her single bed. I took the seat gladly.

"I did not think that it was this that you meant by saying that you were not well," I looked at her fractured leg, a broken arm and a black eye. Her complexion was paler than usual and she had bruises on her face.

"I fell off the stairs but I felt it clumsy to admit," She said and chuckled lightly.

She lived in a small house with just one bedroom. Her room looked a little too girly for her personality. It looked like a pink world due to everything from the pink bed sheets and pink curtains to pink walls and pink teddy bears. I did not realize that I was lost in the pink world until I heard another light chuckle.

"It was Shafeena's work. She loves pink"

"Shafeena?"

"My daughter, she stays with her grandmother in Palakkad and spends her vacations with me," She looked at the photo of a young girl on the wall. The girl looked like a younger version of Raziya with the large eyes and celestial nose. "not this Onam vacation though, she knew I would be busy when I said about your case," She chuckled.

"Oh," I wanted to ask her more but I did not want to pry. "So why did you want to meet me?"

"Oh yeah" She opened a drawer beside her bed and took a file from it. She opened it and showed it to me. It was pictures of two different footprints and something written below it.

"You see, we got a plastic shoeprint from the playground near Chandni's first flat but I did not mention anything to you since I felt it irrelevant. It was a shoe of size eight," She then pointed at the second photo and said, "My friend whom I assigned to study Chandni's second apartment soon after the attack identified the same shoeprint in a patent form on a white paper "

She closed the file and looked at me. She had excitement in her voice but gulped as she looked at me for a response. I could understand her, excitement and fear running side by side in our bloodstreams, each time we found something about the culprit.

I understood what she implied. Lilly's hair was found in the first crime scene and this assured her presence there, this presence was connected to the shoeprint and thus Raziya was saying to me that it must have been Lilly who vandalized Chandni's house. The thought of Lilly trying to get her revenge on Chandni made my throat dry.

I took my phone immediately and dialled Fathima's number.

The number you have dialled is currently switched off, please call again later.

I dialled again.

The number you have dialled is currently switched off, please call again later.

I cursed under my breath as I kept my phone back.

All that I wanted was to know that they were safe but I couldn't. I couldn't when I knew that there was a lady who wanted something from Chandni. I couldn't when this lady could possibly be after her for revenge or some other files.

Riddick wanted me to be safe from Lilly and he separated me from Chandni for the same but how could I feel peaceful when I knew that someone I could call as a friend was in danger.There was only one way I could contact Chandni-Riddick.

"Keerthy, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I need to leave,"

"Oh, Okay" She leant from her position to take the crutches which were on the other side of the bed. She could not reach it properly and I could see the pain she was suffering from. I moved to the other side of the bed and took the crutches but suddenly a jolt of pain in my toe and I gasped. I lost my grip on the crutches and it fell from my hand. A glass bottle on the table fell on a small heap of teddy bears as the crutches collapsed on it.

It wasn't the first time I experienced a bee stung but I never got used to it.

"I am so sorry," I hopped to the heap of clothes and took the bottle. It was chloroform. I frowned but I quickly masked my expression and kept it back on the table. Raziya almost snatched the crutches from me when I extended it to her.

She took some time to adjust herself into standing position and I removed the stinger, running my eyes over the place again. There were a lot of boxes in the showcase, big and small. I moved towards the showcase and looked at it, I was actually searching for something.

"Shafeena loves boxes. She stuffs them with tamarind seeds, shells, beads, chocolate wrappers or anything she can start a collection on" Raziya said and sighed deeply. I looked at her, she was looking lovingly at the boxes.

I opened a box of size 8 shoes to find it empty. My suspicions would have reduced if it was filled and confirmed to have been bought before the Onam vacation.

"I collect the boxes for her. I got it from the street," She frowned but changed her expression quickly and smiled at me.

Addition of irrelevant information0

"I got that box when I went for jogging yesterday," She was answering questions without me even asking them. I knew that something was wrong because whenever we tell a lie, we end up having a tendency to polish it but at times, this tendency backfires.

"You went for jogging in this condition?" I looked at her from head to toe. Something was fishy.

"Oh, I meant last week," the nervousness in her laugh wasn't unnoticed.

"Keerthy, I think it is going to rain. You must leave immediately."

"Yeah, you are right," I smiled at her. She was shifting uncomfortably in her position.

I could not get the image of the chloroform bottle and the box out of my mind as I walked away from Raziya's house. The sky was filled with grey clouds, warning about heavy rain. It was only four in the evening but the skies screamed six. A burning smell made me scrunch my face and I looked around to see several heaps of wastes burning. Everyone was expecting the rain and were getting ready for the unexpected.

I had to too.

I got inside the car and took Riddick's contact.

"Hello, Keerthy, are you calling to say a 'No'"

"No,"

"So it's a yes, babe?" I could feel him smirking.

"Keep it aside Riddick, this is important, did you hit that lady that day?"

"Which lady? I don't hit ladies?"

"At Chandni's house,"

"Yeah, she was an exception, had to do it for self-defence," He said and sighed.

"Where did you hit her?"

"Umm, everywhere I could, I think I did hit her hard on her leg"

A fractured leg

"Which leg?"

"That I don't remember, I also got a chance to twist her hand but by then she used her knife,"

A broken arm

Raindrops started to patter against my car's window as I got outside. I shielded my head with my palm as the fresh smell of wet soil filled my nostrils. I sprinted to Raziya's house, cool breeze delicately swooshing across my face.

She opened the door with tight lips and knitted eyebrows. She tilted her head.

The sudden emergence of a shoe print from Chandni'd first flat, the chloroform bottle, the shoe box... everything was against her. She had something to do with everything.

"I know it was you, Raziya"

"You do not know anything, Keerthy" Her voice was rough. Her head was hung low but her glare was visible through her eyelashes. Her grip on the crutch was strong and she was breathing heavily. I had never seen Raziya like that, she was always calm, not too cheery, not too sad. This version of hers frightened me and for a moment I thought that I made the wrong decision of wanting to confront her immediately.

"You are the one who vandalized Chandni's house and attacked Riddick"

"I was the one who wanted to kill that Chandni,"